The Persona Series

theSovietConnection

Survivor, VDNKh Station
Jan 14, 2009
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Recently I have been getting in to the Persona series, specifically 3 and 4, after picking them up on the PSN, and have been thoroughly enjoying my time with them. That being said, I am growing close to the end of both games, and would like to know if anyone can recommend me any PC or PS3 friendly games along the same playstyles as them.

Also, for those who have played them, would it be worth my while to get 1 and 2, or would I be better off just reading what they were about to learn the stories behind them?
 

NinjaSniperAssassin

New member
Sep 19, 2012
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1 is a first-person dungeon crawler. Haven't played it but from what I understand it's VERY old-school. If it wasn't for the name you'd hardly realize that they were from the same series.

2 is an isometric dungeon crawler. I have played this one (ones, it's in 2 parts), and it's actually pretty fun. Not as amazing as 3 and 4 but if you're interested in the rest of the series it's worth a playthrough.

As for similar games, I always recommend SMT: Nocturne. It's the third game in the main Shin Megami Tensei series (of which the Persona series is a spin-off) I'm fairly certain it's on the PSN store, and while it's much harder than the Persona games it's also freaking awesome. Less character-focused and none of the social-link stuff, but the dungeon crawling is pretty much just a more stylish version of Persona's. The fusion mechanic is almost the same, but rather than gaining new personas via Shuffle Time you actually recruit the demons you fight against (see: Pokemon). It's also got a pretty awesome story. Seriously, give it a shot.
 

Jolly Co-operator

A Heavy Sword
Mar 10, 2012
1,116
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Persona 1: Just don't. It's not fun. Moving around isn't fun (you're in an oldschool first-person dungeon-crawling view), the combat isn't fun, hell, even looking at it isn't fun. Unfortunately, it doesn't even have an excellent story to make up for its flaws.

Persona 2: The gameplay is somewhat dated; the enemy encounter rate is high, combat can be a little slow (although still challenging and rewarding), and there are no social-sim elements like the Social Links in Persona 3 and 4. The story, however, is fantastic, and if you can look past the flaws in the gameplay, I'd say it's worth it. I should warn you though, only the expansion, Eternal Punishment, was brought to the PS1 outside of Japan. The first half of the story, Innocent Sin, is only available on the PSP version, which bundles the two parts together.
 

SmallHatLogan

New member
Jan 23, 2014
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My own experience with Persona 1 and 2:

Persona 1 (aka Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, aka Revelations: Persona). It's a dungeon crawler. The dungeons are incredibly boring, long labyrinths with virtually no loot/rewards to keep you interested. Combat is serviceable if unremarkable. My main issue is the experience system. Characters receive experience based on how much they contributed to the battle. As a result the slower characters will fall behind unless you skip turns with your faster characters. And characters with overpowered aoe attacks will steal all of the exp. It ends up being tedious micromanagement. Story and characters are somewhat interesting but not particularly well fleshed out. Overall I'd recommend avoiding it.

Persona 2. Great story and great characters, in fact my favourite out of all the Persona games in that regard. It's still an old school dungeon crawler, although it's an improvement over the first game. If you have access to a PSP I'd definitely recommend giving Innocent Sin a go and see how you like it, then go on to Eternal Punishment if you enjoy it.