Current Events > Persona 4 is better than 5

(+) Yeah! (+)

Anyone else like 4 more than 5? 5 relies heavily on its style and art design, but style cant fully support a 120 hour game, and damn it starts to drag. 4 on the other hand, feels a lot tighter even if its story is more of a slow burn when it comes to big events happening.

I think my biggest problem with 5 is how much start and stop is involved in like everything you do. The dungeons are very elaborate, but you cant go a few rooms without being stopped to talk about something, or eventually hitting a road block that requires you to leave and come back. 4s dungeons are literally hallways, but they never waste extra days or your time, so im actually starting to prefer them.

What do yall think?

6 hours into Persona 5 and it still doesn't feel like a game. I'm just going through scripted turn based battles. how long until I actually have the freedom to play however? All persona games have bad gameplay

Deny. P5 is not without issues, but I feel that as a whole P5 is better. If there is ONE thing that P4 has over P5, it's that some of the main cast in P4 is more likeable. But that's about it.

the gameplay in 5 is the best in the series, but everything else is a matter of preference and personally i much prefer the small town scooby doo murder mystery setting, the characters and the music of 4 to every other iteration in the series

I think the characters are all worse in P5. The party just does so much stupid stuff the whole game.

Agreed. Persona 4 Golden is an overall better package than Persona 5 Royal. 5 really dropped the ball on the hijinks/shenanigans between the cast.

Not sure

as i got older i grew to dislike games that took my time in unnecessary ways. Unfortunately it has made games like P3 unreplayable for me.

Persona 4 is still my favorite in the series. Persona 5 has better dungeon designs, but I loved the cast of 4 and the comedy bits were great

I agree

The style and flourish of Persona 5 helps an incredibly long game to not start to drag at the extent P3 and P4 can.

It's not my opinion that Persona 4 is any "tighter" than P5. For one thing, basically all of the Shadow character arcs reinforce timid and conservative ideas of how human beings work, and several use LGBT identity as an absurd and extreme appearance that the protagonists are thankful to realize they don't actually feel like. The killer is interesting in how much they resemble today's online misogyny, but they get the spotlight stolen from them by uninteresting gods. The story may be a "slow burn", but as a murder mystery, that burn is underdeveloped and formulaic.

Meanwhile Persona 5 Royal has by far the most interesting character writing of its antagonists in the series. It wisely finally allows a human final boss to breathe and stand on their own without a "I think humans want me to kill them" god breathing down their neck. I think the one thing P4/G has over Royal is that the former is better at spending time to show the main friend group as actually being friends first before investigators.

I disagree. Persona 4 was great but it didn't hit the peaks that 5 did.

Doe posted...

Meanwhile Persona 5 Royal has by far the most interesting character writing of its antagonists in the series. It wisely finally allows a human final boss to breathe and stand on their own without a "I think humans want me to kill them" god breathing down their neck.

Sure, but the base game still goes down that route

I couldnt put 4 down for most of the playthrough.

I got thoroughly bored of 5 because it was so bloated, had too many mechanics going on with Mementos and cat cars and phones and whatever, and Morgana telling you how to be a good boy.

NoxObscuras posted...

Sure, but the base game still goes down that route

Royal is the definitive edition of the game and that's how people generally talk about Persona games. But yes, base P5 is weaker for lack of the Royal content.

P4 is the only one that I felt didn't drag on for too long

Persona 5 becomes lame after the first palace

i think he's talking about how you have to pass through the entire base game first.

4 has the better characters but 5's gameplay is goat

I can't say if it's better, but 4 definitely more fun to play than 5 and 3.

Weird, since 5's gameplay is a lot of improvement from 4.

I think i just got really tired of 5 spoon feeding everything to you at all times. Like there were times where id be reminded of events happening in the game literally right after they happened. I feel like 4 just lets itself breath a lot more when it comes to stuff happening, rather than persona 5 constantly slapping you in the face with it

4's characters were definitely better. 5 has better gameplay but that's about it. A remake of 4 with 5's gameplay improvements would be amazing.

Ricemills posted...

I can't say if it's better, but 4 definitely more fun to play than 5 and 3.

Weird, since 5's gameplay is a lot of improvement from 4.

This is how i feel. 5s battles are almost objectively an improvement over 4, but everything leading up to those battles I find myself liking less and less with time.

I was thinking of replaying 5 again before i decided on 4, but just thinking of replaying it felt like a slog

ssb_yunglink2 posted...

I think i just got really tired of 5 spoon feeding everything to you at all times. Like there were times where id be reminded of events happening in the game literally right after they happened. I feel like 4 just lets itself breath a lot more when it comes to stuff happening, rather than persona 5 constantly slapping you in the face with it

Literally every day in 5, you get either text messages saying "We need to get in there and change his heart!" or "I wonder if his heart will change before the deadline"

EVERY
FUCKING
DAY!

Bruh, we did this like 4 times already! It's gonna play out the same way

I thought that P5 was lame, tbh.

I got to the boss of the fifth palace, and just decided to quit, since I hadn't enjoyed much about the game up to that point.

the whole "evil adults messing up society" theme also wasn't that interesting.

P4, on the other hand, I really enjoyed all the way through, but tbf, it was a bunch of years ago when I played it, and maybe I'd feel differently if I gave it a chance now.

4 is the worst in the series

boxoto posted...

the whole "evil adults messing up society" theme also wasn't that interesting.

Funny sincce it's the theme of all persona games except P2:EP, which was "when the kids messed up, it's the adults' job to straight it up"

The major flaw of Persona 5 happens after Makoto becomes a permanent party member.
The game hypes her as the complete brains of the group. Regulating characters like Ryuji and Ann to side characters written to be stupid so Makoto can look smarter. Even Morgana is given acts of stupidity as a plot device to introduce Haru into the game.

Outside of that major gripe, Persona 5 shines more than 4 with much much better production values, real dungeons, and better monster encounters given that most regular enemies are actual SMT demons and not palette swaps of hands, tables, and uuuuugh dice.

Ricemills posted...

Funny sincce it's the theme of all persona games except P2:EP, which was "when the kids messed up, it's the adults' job to straight it up"

I've only played a little of the P2 that was released in the US on the PSX years ago, so I can't comment much on its story, but I remember liking its atmosphere.

P2's story is utter nonsense

all 3 persona games are great

Irony posted...

P2's story is utter nonsense

I heard you fight Hitler

boxoto posted...

I heard you fight Hitler

Zombie Hitler, yeah.

Also, the main character is (probably) gay. For those two reasons it wasn't released stateside for a very long time. P1 and P2 are pretty much unplayable slogs of old school JRPGs, though. Only those who truly enjoy old school SMT will enjoy those games.

boxoto posted...

I heard you fight Hitler

Well the big bad is an evil god that has incarnated into major figures in history, and Hitler was one of them.

Xenogears15 posted...

Zombie Hitler, yeah.

Also, the main character is (probably) gay. For those two reasons it wasn't released stateside for a very long time. P1 and P2 are pretty much unplayable slogs of old school JRPGs, though. Only those who truly enjoy old school SMT will enjoy those games.

Bi, not gay.

Doe posted...

Royal is the definitive edition of the game and that's how people generally talk about Persona games. But yes, base P5 is weaker for lack of the Royal content.

Eh, I'm just being nitpicky about the wording of "final boss". Maruki is technically the last boss in the game, but he's completely disconnected from the main narrative. Like if his dungeon took place before the whole Yaldabaoth reveal, it wouldn't have really changed anything about him

boxoto posted...

I heard you fight Hitler

What? Its just a dude with sunglasses, what are you talking about?

I'm not even sure P5 is a good game, but it's the first 100 hour title I've been interested enough to finish since Witcher 3. Hard carried by characters, story, and style. Any combat where the enemies have weaknesses is trivial and the dungeons are patronizingly simple where a party member will immediately just tell you the solution to any puzzle before you even have a chance to look at it.

But damn if I didn't have a lot of fun fusing those personas to make cool builds, advancing the stories of the homies, and even the gameplay around leveling up social stats which fed back into building up the bonds.

The final arc where "teenagers fight god" bull**** somehow got wedged in there was a boring slog, though.

Oh yeah, P5 fusion is much more bearable because you can directly select the inherited skills.

Ricemills posted...

Oh yeah, P5 fusion is much more bearable because you can directly select the inherited skills.

Golden lets you directly select skills too. I never played og 4, so i cant imagine how annoying that wouldve been lol

Seaman_Prime posted...

What? Its just a dude with sunglasses, what are you talking about?

In the OG version, it was literally just hitler >_>

NoxObscuras posted...

Maruki is technically the last boss in the game, but he's completely disconnected from the main narrative

Maybe in the sense that he's not an expected piece of Yaldabaoth's plan, but a lot of work was done to integrate him into the lives of the Phantom Thieves, and he fits well as a reexamination and conclusion to the themes of the game. The fact he's not a part of a larger grand design is in fact what's so great and refreshing about him. It changes the scope of the conflict from being a runaway political conspiracy happening to be led by people who have hurt the Phantoms, to something much more intimate and personal that places the characterization and agency of the cast back in the spotlight.

Ricemills posted...

Bi, not gay.

I was told wrong then. Thank you for clarifying.

Lord_Ephraim posted...

The major flaw of Persona 5 happens after Makoto becomes a permanent party member.
The game hypes her as the complete brains of the group. Regulating characters like Ryuji and Ann to side characters written to be stupid so Makoto can look smarter. Even Morgana is given acts of stupidity as a plot device to introduce Haru into the game.

Outside of that major gripe, Persona 5 shines more than 4 with much much better production values, real dungeons, and better monster encounters given that most regular enemies are actual SMT demons and not palette swaps of hands, tables, and uuuuugh dice.

5s first 2 dungeons are pretty much the peak of the game for me until Maruki. Those first 2 dungeons really nail the atmosphere of a ragtag group of outsiders fighting back anyway they can. By the time makoto and futaba hops in the group becomes ultra competent at the expense of Ann and Ryuji, who seemingly exist to be idiots after the first few dungeons.

4s characters are just some random kids who start solving crimes because theyre bored and they can enter tvs. The low stakes make it feel more centered for me, and theyre not ever really absurdly competent

Xenogears15 posted...

I was told wrong then. Thank you for clarifying.

Well, it's not like it was directly stated in the game either.

It's just he have deep affection both to Jun and Maya.

Wait, nvm. Just remembered that Tatsuya can confess to Jun, Maya, and Lisa in the game.

Xenogears15 posted...

I was told wrong then. Thank you for clarifying.

Thats right hell fuck women and twinks. Truly the manliest persona protagonist.

Lord_Ephraim posted...

The major flaw of Persona 5 happens after Makoto becomes a permanent party member.
The game hypes her as the complete brains of the group. Regulating characters like Ryuji and Ann to side characters written to be stupid so Makoto can look smarter. Even Morgana is given acts of stupidity as a plot device to introduce Haru into the game.

This applies to P4 and Naoto much more than it applies to P5 and Makoto. Pre-Naoto the gang collaboratively stumbles their way into understanding mysteries and plot developments. Post-Naoto, Naoto handles the plot exposition on her own while the rest of the party reacts to it.