Poll: Which series has the best writing: Persona vs. Mass Effect

[Hectix777]

We all knew at some point in time we had to ask this question. If you are any kind of gamer you have played or at least seen one instance of either of these series. Both Atlus and Bioware are seen as the heavy-hitters of writing for their respective side of the industry, Atlus dominates the East and Bioware leads the West. Each studio thrives on its character writing, developing rich and flawed characters with complex amounts of depth. Persona 3 is regarded as one of the best RPGs of all time and the Mass Effect series (or one of it's games if someone is going to complain) has come to be on the same level in recent years.

It's kind of hard for me to try and decide between them. Mass Effect does have that feel of making you feel like a true hero and does a great job of exploring the principle of politics. Persona's strength lies in its character writing and the way each Social Link's story offers both an incentive to improve them gameplay-wise (increasing the power of your Persona) and an interest in each Link's story.

If I was held at gunpoint I'd say that Persona might have the better writing, but only by like 1/100th of a point. I'm sorry but when it comes to AI characters, Aigis is pretty hard to beat. The way she just grabs your heart and throws it all around... I'm sorry I need a minute.

So who do you guys think has the better writing and why?

 

[IllumInaTIma]

They are just too different in my eyes...
Mass Effect is an epic galactic futuristic sci-fi story, while Persona is an epic Japanese Urban-fantasy high-school mystery story. It's like comparing Star-Trek and Lost. Sure, they share some elements, as they both are heavily focused on cast of incredibly compelling characters... but yeah, if I was at gun-point I'd say Persona. I think the reason I've fallen in love with Persona so much is because it was such a freaking surprise. I've discovered Persona 3ortable only last year and it blew me away because it was so freaking different! It was completely new genre, completely new setting, completely new everything!
But really, I love both game series and they are both amazing and worth playing.

 

[Tom_green_day]

I don't like to take sides, but about 50% of the most memorable moments from games to me are from Mass Effect 3. THat says it all.

 

[Miss G.]

I agree with IllumInaTIma for when I first discovered the joy that was Persona (read: Minato & Aigis) and ATLUS in general. Even hearing about a video game like Mass Effect didn't pique my interest enough to glance at it beyond that one particularly awful Fox News report about it when it was coming out and (J)RPGs and space fantasy is something that I do enjoy, so Persona wins by default for me.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Well I have only finished Persona 3, 4 and Arena while in Mass Effect I have only finished 1 and 2. For me Persona is streaks ahead of Mass Effect in writing hell most of the games are spent just talking to people for gods sake sure theres a lot of conversation in Mass Effect as well but no where near as much as Persona.

With Mass Effect I just couldnt care anymore what happened to everyone after ME2 and didnt bother to see the story through because of this thats not to say I disliked all the characters because some were actually interesting. However Persona has just woven a much better story throughout with better characters imo the way they presented Persona 4 arena in particular was stunning in my eyes a fighting game with a strong story that makes sense and ties into the greater universe or rather continues the story.

Yeah anyway Persona wins hands down here although I dont think Mass Effect was especially well written anyway it wasnt bad but Bioware have done better but still Persona is still better written than any Bioware game imo and I have played most of them. For me the gameplay carried Mass Effect more than the story while the story carried Persona 3 and 4 and greatly enriched Arena.

 

[LetalisK]

I'm going to go with Mass Effect because I haven't played Persona. It just never caught my interest.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I've never personally played any of the Persona games, but one of my roommates at university loved them, so I watched him play them from time to time.

I find that I can't vote for this one. They both have great writing, just very different styles. I think it'd be kinda unfair to compare them.

 

[Legion]

I have never played Persona, but Mass Effect has pretty terrible writing outside of team-mate interactions. The dialogue is normally very good (except for ME3), but the story is all over the place in the sequels and Mass Effect 2 in terms of plot could have actually been completely committed and Mass Effect 3 could/would have been almost the same.

Mass Effect 1 2 and 3 do not fit together seamlessly as one story, and I think that's pretty bad writing for something designed as a trilogy. Ideally you should be able to simply have them back to back and have it feel like one large story. Obviously this isn't the case with sequels all of the time, but it should be the case when it's designed as a trilogy from the start.

Bioware are fantastic at writing characters, but they are godawful at writing stories.

 

[Mikejames]

They're pretty disparate genres, but I have to go with Mass Effect as far as world and character building go.

I enjoyed Persona 3 and 4 well enough, but they have plenty of the anime writing tropes that I find annoying when it comes to characters acting abrasively angsty or over the top. For one comparison, I'd say Legion had the more interesting introspective over Aigis when it came to developing artificial life. Also I didn't have to mess with Legion's equivalent of a computerized erogenous zone...

 

[Hectix777]

They're pretty disparate genres, but I have to go with Mass Effect as far as world and character building go.

I enjoyed Persona 3 and 4 well enough, but they have plenty of the anime writing tropes that I find annoying when it comes to characters acting abrasively angsty or over the top. For one comparison, I'd say Legion had the more interesting introspective over Aigis when it came to developing artificial life. Also I didn't have to mess with Legion's equivalent of a computerized erogenous zone...

But you want to didn't you...? I know I did... Do I have a problem with robots?

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

The way Atlus handled topics like gender identity and sexuality in P4 is light years ahead of what is in the Mass Effect series. Persona 2: Innocent Sin by itself trumps the entire Mass Effect series in terms of writing.

 

[MHR]

Mass effect 3 had that ending.

I've only ever seen my brother play a persona game, but since it didn't have the Mass effect 3 ending it wins by default.

 

[Mikejames]

But you want to didn't you...? I know I did... Do I have a problem with robots?

Honestly, I thought the stalker vibes were already unsettling with Aigis. They probably could have stuck with trying to ask what makes us human without the euphemisms for robo-sex.

The way Atlus handled topics like gender identity and sexuality in P4 is light years ahead of what is in the Mass Effect series.

How so? Cause Mass Effect didn't make a big deal about it?

 

[krazykidd]

So this is secretly a Jrpg vs Wrpg thread . Nice mask .

With that said , those two series are worlds appart . Also . Are you talking about the entire persona series or just 3 and 4 . From the OP , i'm guessing the latter . And since most peoe only played those two ( for some reason ) i'm guessing that's the reference point .

That being said , while i personally enjoyed Persona more than Mass effect ( honestly i hated ME, but i don't really like Wrpgs to begin with ), i'm going to have to say that ME was better written . This is even more obvious if you include the Persona 1 and 2 .

 

[Bobic]

Well, I can't say anything useful as I've only played the first Mass Effect game (and didn't reach the end) and only zero Persona games.

That said, can I just put a message here for the mods. Don't lock this for being a vs. thread, there's no reason to. Apparently the party line on the subject is that vs. threads lead to arguments, which is a bit iffy for two reasons. The first, is that feminism/nazi/the entire politics/religion board threads all lead to arguments, and you just ban the people who can't play nice, a sensible option. The second, is that I've never seen these turn to arguments, and if they do, just ban the 'tards that can't talk about Persona/mass effect without turning into raging loons. Don't punish everyone. So, seriously can we stop the notion that vs. threads are taboo?

That is all.

 

[Savo]

Both are too different to easily compare, but I'd probably go with Persona. I found the overarching stories and dialogue to be more compelling. P4: Arena was a pretty big step down from 3 and 4 in terms of story, but it's not nearly as much of a black eye to the series as the ME3 ending was.

 

[Fractral]

While ME had good enough writing to make me notice it, nothing about the Persona series' writing made me think 'That's a good part of the game.' I prefer Persona and MegaTen in general to Mass Effect but the writing isn't one of the points in Persona's favour. It's serviceable; functional; even appluadable but not as good as Mass Effect. Plus, being translated from Japanese means that a few awkward bits come through- not mistranslations or anything like that, but sometimes awkward wording and so on. The worst one I saw was in Persona 4 where

Spoiler

You have to convince Yosuke not to kill Namatame. The dialogue option you have to choose is 'We don't know Namatame's real feelings.' What? I mean, seriously? The Japanese version specifically mentioned motive- something Namatame noticeably lacked- but the translated version made it clear as muck. That alone caused me to fail the normal ending requirements.

 

[FPLOON]

Well, now I know that, for me, this is going to be one-sided... considering I've only played the Persona series and the closest I've gotten into the Mass Effect series was that one Mass Effect animated movie from Funimation...

From how I see it, Mass Effect's greatest strengths is its world-building while Persona's greatest strengths is its characters... I could not fully get into Mass Effect because I wasn't interested in the characters, but the universe it all took place in... yet I was fully able to get into the Persona series because of how interesting the characters are and how they interacted throughout the storyline, especially between themselves... and the world of Persona basically became its own character in of itself...

Both series are amazing, overall, but even with knowing more about one series than another... as far as their writing goes, Mass Effect has its universe while Persona has its characters... I still cannot choose one's writing over another, since they both excel at different aspects of their writing... However, from a personal perspective, I do choose to focus on the initial character-building than the initial world-building...

 

[mad825]

However, from a personal perspective, I do choose to focus on the initial character-building than the initial world-building...

When a guy hangs out with his friends then admits he's wet his bed for the first time in years...Is not good character-building. In fact, when this happened in P4, I laughed my head off at the clichéd Japanese writing.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

But you want to didn't you...? I know I did... Do I have a problem with robots?

Honestly, I thought the stalker vibes were already unsettling with Aigis. They probably could have stuck with trying to ask what makes us human without the euphemisms for robo-sex.

The way Atlus handled topics like gender identity and sexuality in P4 is light years ahead of what is in the Mass Effect series.

How so? Cause Mass Effect didn't make a big deal about it?

They had a story about a group of teenagers defeating a big bad. Standard stuff. They then explored the struggles that teens go through during puberty and throughout high school in regards to their evolving sexuality and gender identity. Not so standard stuff. In fact, it was a really ballsy move. Your entire group was just a bunch of kids going through the struggles that teens go through. You weren't Dr. Phil, you were a friend who was just a pillar of support for them. Atlus made those characters feel human to me. I didn't get that from Mass Effect. Atlus actively explored sexuality, Bioware threw in some homosexual romance options as an afterthought in the third game.