Persona series

... utterly the exact opposite of me.

Everyone in P4 ended up being awesome and Golden only made them even better. P3 only Aigis was really great and P 3 P Junpei was good... everyone else was forgettable to absolutely terrible.

I haven't really heard Marie so much, but she seems like a pretty cool bridge between Margaret (if I remember her name right) and the twins.

Persona 4's cast act more like regular high schoolers, which is pretty different from Persona 3's cast being less friendly and easy going with each other. There is an appeal to both, but it's obvious why 4's is seen as more popular.

I'm assuming that I'm about 40 to 50% through P5 at this point and so far my overall opinion on the last three Persona games is:

3 has the best story and characters, but the worst gameplay.

4 has the best music (I'll Face Myself is probably my favorite battle music in the whole series) but probably the weakest story and thematic backbone.

5 has the best gameplay, presentation, polish and the most ambitious in terms of its themes even if it's far from perfect in actually depicting and kinda undermines them at various points. The music is still pretty good but if given the choice I might pick 3 or 4's soundtrack over it. As a game overall it's probably the best.

edited 23rd Mar '18 4:38:34 PM by Draghinazzo

5 has some kickass beats in the other half, though. I think you'll know when you get to it.

Will Power is my favorite song in P5 so far. I kinda wish it was the main boss theme instead of Blooming Villain (which is still good, mind you).

5 has a few stellar tracks but 4’s is a lot better overall with every single track being awesome.

I liked individual characters in P3 but "the group" was never better than in P 4 G. Even characters I don't care about like (dunno if I should spoiler this but whatever)Rise and Naoto I find some affection for because they're part of the Investigation Team.

This argument has been had before though, probably a lot of times before I even played the games. There's a very different kind of appeal to the P3 and P4 cast. I value the constant focus on our heroes being friends in P4, establishing feelings of camaraderie. For P3 people seem to prefer the tension in the group, everyone kinda just struggling with their own personal issues until the game is over and they come together.

Persona 2 Innocent Sin and Persona 4 Golden are unrivaled in depicting group dynamics as well as establishing the world the story takes place in. Nothing beats Sumaru or Inaba.

@weirdguy149

Marie is...very special to me and a lot of others. I hope you continue to like her.

edited 23rd Mar '18 4:45:33 PM by Nikkolas

3 have the most interesting dynamics to me, even if their individual characters suffer a bit.

4's characters are more fun and entertaining, but the lack of group tension makes them feel very dry to me.

5 is somewhere in between, but doesn't quite hit the high points of 3 or 4's teams, but they're not as noticeably flawed (cept Morgana)

I really should finish 3, but ugh....game is so bad compared to 5.

edited 23rd Mar '18 4:49:37 PM by BlackYakuzu94

You don't have to spoiler party members' names.

Marie's funny.

She was never actually in the original game & only appears in Golden & gets a bit shoehorned into the plot.

The devs also love her enough to give her a fucking anime.

I like 5 better, I enjoy the epic shit more. Gotta play 3 though, I like the depressing atomosphere it has.

edited 23rd Mar '18 4:50:49 PM by slimcoder

The opening movies spoil that on its on.

5 is the only good modern Persona game.

I think the thing for a lot of people is that in JRPG's in general it's a lot more common for party members to be friends or at least close allies and for any arguments to mostly be for comedy, barring stuff like traitors, singular anti-heroes like Magus, or whatever else.

In comparison to that the P3 cast having its own subcliques and the members not all being friends with each other and having a cordially professional relationship at best is a lot more unique and brings something new to the table.

edited 23rd Mar '18 4:55:58 PM by Draghinazzo

And yet they shoehorn that all in in Arena.

Just got an update on my PSTV shipping.

It arrived here in Australia last night, however expected delivery date is still April 3rd.

I think that's because of Easter Holidays next week, so here's hoping it comes in the next 4 business days before Easter. I'd like to be able to play it over the break.

I do still need to go out and purchase a US > AU power adapter though.

As time has gone by I've come to appreciate P3's writing and characters more and more personally to the point where in that department I prefer it over 4.

So far I think P5's cast is alright with a few exceptions that show that even with Atlus having pretenses of social critique and actually being fairly spot on in some regards (the Kamoshida situation especially), they still have some of the bad habits from Persona 4 where they play some things for comedy that really shouldn't be. Do we really need the entirety of the male party members ogling Ann's cleavage and playing it off as a joke? It would be bad on its own but when the game makes a really big deal about sexual harassment it just comes off as really clueless.

5 probably has the worst cast of the three modern games for me. The best of them start out mostly interesting but save for Futaba they all quickly become bland as hell, if they didn't start out that way. The game has better luck in its Confidants.

3 and 4 I like for different reasons.

edited 23rd Mar '18 4:58:15 PM by LordVatek

Well, I just saw "Be an ass and leave." as an option. That's honestly hilarious.

I don't really view 4's cast as being significantly better than 5's so far. Most of them were fun enough but not especially interesting, I'd put them at about the same level so far.

Your party member's S Links in 4 don't really help much either, I was really frustrated with the end of Yukiko's even back when I played the game the first time and loved it, and now I just find it even worse.

edited 23rd Mar '18 5:01:29 PM by Draghinazzo

4's social links at least deal with the characters' various issues as brought up in the main story, even if they aren't dealt with well (though I disagree with many of the issues people have with them). 5's has some of that but some of them *cough*Makoto*cough* are just shameful in how pointless they are.

Also I felt like the character dynamics in 4 were far stronger than in 5.

edited 23rd Mar '18 5:04:18 PM by LordVatek

So exactly the same for the P4's Party Social Links. Pointless. From start to finish Chie and Teddie were unlikeable in my eyes and Yukiko + Rise were meh. Doesn't help Yukiko doesn't have a personality, just a wacky hyena laugh and bad cooking.

But this is how I felt about P3 and P5 as well so saying one was better than the other was always equally pointless in my eyes.

edited 23rd Mar '18 5:12:46 PM by OmegaRadiance

I think I can agree that comedic scenes are Persona's biggest weak point. In addition to the games awkwardly trying to have it both ways with good messages and lowbrow comedy at times, there are a number of jokes that are... just plain mean, not funny, to the point you wonder why these people are even still friends.

edited 23rd Mar '18 5:08:42 PM by HamburgerTime

Let's see, from Persona 3 the only ones I disliked where Yukari and Ken. I thought everyone else was pretty good.

In Persona 4 I happen to tolerate Yosuke for a few years before I soured on him. Chie, Yukiko, and Rise don't get a reaction out of me that's stronger than "Meh". Teddie is at his best when it concerns his Social Link but outside of that he's not as funny as he thinks. Naoto and Knaji are the only ones I really like.

I liked everyone in Persona 5's party. Sure some of them taper off in terms of the plot, relvance but none of them made me dislike them for the entire game.

I love Persona 5's party the best, including their social links, IMO.

Except Makoto, she's overrated, but not too bad, though. I prefer the other girls over her myself.