Current Events > Will I like Persona 3 and 4 if I loved persona 5

(+) Yeah! (+)

I admit I am one of the people who discovered the series because joker was added in Smash. However I enjoyed P5 and SMT V.

Are the past persona games similar to 5? Is it the same concept of "change of heart" and how much does social interactions take place in it?

You will love 3, 4 is the worst in the series

They're missing some of the qol stuff from 5 but are still good. The social stuff is still a big part of them.

BignutzisBack posted...

You will love 3, 4 is the worst in the series

That's not even close to accurate lol. 4 is amazing

Persona 4 is very similar to persona 5. The dungeons arent as fancy in p4 as the palaces are in p5 but other than that its pretty similar.

Persona 3 is a little bit more dated but at its core its still persona. The story is darker. Its still good

dunno about the earlier games than that, I heard persona 3 was a very different directions than the earlier persona games.

Kloe_Rinz posted...

I heard persona 3 was a very different directions than the earlier persona games.

The only persona I have played is 1 on ps1. The modern games do look very different and are more stylized for an anime look . I dont think persona 1 even had social links. But I never finished it

epik_fail1 posted...

I admit I am one of the people who discovered the series because joker was added in Smash. However I enjoyed P5 and SMT V.

Are the past persona games similar to 5? Is it the same concept of "change of heart" and how much does social interactions take place in it?

3 is barebones, most of the s links are basically just 1 convo or very shallow, and also very unforgiving with how much time you're given to do them, accordingly theres not much to do at night because you visit tartarus at night, but theres like... 3 night time social links and you can't form bonds with all your party members or control them all(unless you're on portable). Knowing all that though it is still a good game, just not as polished as 4 or 5 and there's no definitive edition of it.

4 is pretty much the same as 5, but more lighthearted because of all the bright colors, just without the flashiness and dungeon crawling of 5.

probably, but the gameplay in 3 is fairly dated. 4G is the best game in series

I found P4 to be a garbled mess. There was, potentially, half a good idea in there, but by the time the game attempted to get serious, it did so in what I found to be an overbearing, ham-handed, and clumsy fashion. P4's "theme," such as it exists, was buried so deep in the "narrative" (and I use that word loosely, as I was much more frustrated by P4's pacing than P3's, as P4 had a lot of "nothing/are all of you IDIOTS" happen for far too long) that it felt tacked on. The first third of the game doesn't support the ending and vice versa. Which is why I put quotes on theme: P4's biggest weakness is its internal inconsistency.

P3 had the advantage of coming after a long break in the Persona series, console upgrades, and a clear vision. Before social links were a divisive element in SMT fandom at large, they were an attempt at refining demon negotiation in a way that served the narrative of P3 and enhanced its themes. Everything about P3 -- the "reversed" position your social links start in to their growth to the "upright," the mythology used in establishing the cast, the first scenes (the very start, the first Dark Hour with the man turning into a Shadow, and the first summoning sequence) all the way to the end -- were lean, on-point, and engaging. There's nothing out of place in P3. The narrative is simple, but the game's themes are explored beautifully -- and consistently. Everything builds toward the ending, which is ... devastating, cathartic, and perfect. The foreshadowing wasn't dropped. The themes that had held the game together were fully brought to the surface and developed in the final moments, leaving the player to find their own answers. There was no "yes or no," "x good, y bad" -- the ending to P3 gives the player some credit as a thinking creature and allows said player to answer the questions in their own way.

P4's narrative is much messier, its cast divisive, and its themes... I can deal with the more "hitting the player on the head with the idea" moments in P3 because they're fewer and more organic -- they fold into the story. The ending is well-earned. P4's decision to get serious comes too late, feels oppressive and unnatural, and isn't handled nearly as well or with any subtlety. There's catharsis in having players contemplate mortality. There's much less catharsis in an ending of literal deus ex machina that follows the exact same script as P3's -- that trick only works once if you want emotional payoff vs. "uh, I've seen this before."

P4 had some interesting ideas, but they never cohered and were buried until the abysmal final act. P2 and P3 have flaws and, depending on your views, less fulfilling gameplay, but they were never condescending or haphazard. P4 treated me like an idiot, which is not something I expect from a MegaTen game -- or didn't, when I first played P4. (I do now, alas, with post-P4 titles. Not all the fault is P4's, but I'd say the MegaTen series really went off the rails there and hasn't quite recovered.)

An idea, a theme -- the existence of such doesn't redeem a work. P4 is the Philosophy 101 student or bad art house movie that pontificates about the existence of God and relative morality. If P4 had dropped its aspirations of seriousness, it might have been a better game. Shoving "meaning" into a game that breaks the realistic suspension of disbelief meter doesn't make it thought-provoking. That's what happens in any creative writing seminar in an attempt to pass off a piece as "literary" -- and it's one of the first tricks beaten out of any writer.

Akagami_Shanks posted...

4 is pretty much the same as 5, but more lighthearted because of all the bright colors, just without the flashiness and dungeon crawling of 5.

Gotta balance out the murders.

I got burned on 4, spoilers
A certain boss requires a certain ability to be farmed up through Persona fusings, which I didn't have, so I was screwed

You probably will but remember that they're older games >_> Persona 3 doesn't have party control and you can't choose your skills during fusion.

bluezero posted...

I got burned on 4, spoilers
A certain boss requires a certain ability to be farmed up through Persona fusings, which I didn't have, so I was screwed

? which

NeonTentacles posted...

You probably will but remember that they're older games >_> Persona 3 doesn't have party control and you can't choose your skills during fusion.

The version of 3 that's re-releasing in a few weeks is p3p which does have party control

But if you want to play the better version of Persona 3 (aka the FES version), it doesn't. Unless you're using an emulator and hack in party control, which is super easy to do >_>

NeonTentacles posted...

But if you want to play the better version of Persona 3 (aka the FES version), it doesn't. Unless you're using an emulator and hack in party control, which is super easy to do >_>

Fes is trash

I believe yes, if you're willing to overlook some of the gameplay shortcomings. Both games employ a randomly generated dungeon structure, so that could detract from your experience. I like the story of Persona 3 more than P4 or P5, but the characters and setting are better in P4.

The gameplay is similar, but the goal of the party is very different in each game. So you won't be "changing hearts" in the other games. And the way social links are handled is a bit more simplistic than in Persona 5. I still think they're worth checking out.

In Persona 3, the story is tied to "the dark hour". The concept is that, every night at midnight, there's actually an extra hour that passes, but normal people aren't aware of that hour, only persona users and shadows. So there's a whole lot of tragedy that revolves around what causes the dark hour and how to stop the shadows. Fans love it because while it does have upbeat moments, it's darker storyline feels closer to SMT games. The dungeons are pretty much how Momentos were in P5. Randomly generated floors that look pretty similar to the one before it. And eventually you reach a floor where you can't progress until later in the story.

In Persona 4, the story is tied to your group discovering a world within the TV. It sounds ridiculous, but the story is pretty interesting. Persona 4 has a mix of lighthearted comedy and tragedy. Some fans of Persona 3 absolutely hated 4, because it's nowhere near as dark as Persona 3 was. Persona 4 is my personal favorite though, even after Persona 5. The dungeons are a definite improvement over 3. The floors are still randomly generated, but each dungeon has a theme to it, which makes it feel a bit better.

bluezero posted...

Shadow Mitsuo. If you don't have Agidyne, you're at a huge disadvantage

Why? I dont remember Mitsuo being weak to fire. Dont particularly remember the fight really. Which means I didnt have to prepare much for it.

LightHawKnight posted...

Why? I dont remember Mitsuo being weak to fire. Dont particularly remember the fight really. Which means I didnt have to prepare much for it.

One of his phases, he is weakest to it. I couldn't keep up a decent amount of damage that he didn't outheal, and trying to heal my own party ran me out of magic/mana/whatever.

bluezero posted...

One of his phases, he is weakest to it. I couldn't keep up a decent amount of damage that he didn't outheal, and trying to heal my own party ran me out of magic/mana/whatever.

He has two phases and none of them have a weakness from what I googled to remember the fight.

JoanOfArcade posted...

Fes is trash

I'd rather watch actual cutscenes and move a person around a rendered map than watch 2 pictures talk to each other or move a mouse cursor over a jpg to simulate walking around

LightHawKnight posted...

He has two phases and none of them have a weakness from what I googled to remember the fight.

Maybe it was more "I need to have a level 5 skill" than specifically Agi, it's been awhile since I quit.

yeah ur damage output sucks lol

NeonTentacles posted...

I'd rather watch actual cutscenes and move a person around a rendered map than watch 2 pictures talk to each other or move a mouse cursor over a jpg to simulate walking around

This. FES is the best version of P3.

I'm playing P5R right now and it's actively making me hate P5 when I really liked Vanilla. Game is too easy, only 3 characters from the party matter, all the dialogue is stupid and the party just makes the dumbest decisions at every turn. Kasumi is forced into the story and I still don't like Akechi.

I'll be OK with a P3 remake. I don't like P3P because of the changes made to the presentation.

JoanOfArcade posted...

That's not even close to accurate lol. 4 is amazing

3, 4, and 5 are all fun to me. 5 is the most polished, but the gist is the same. You have to be careful buying 3 because I think theres a version where you cant control your party members.