Persona 3 and 4

[das_boot]

So following from my thread about 5/5 Royal, these games were remastered and released for modern platforms about a month or so ago.

So far I’ve only played 3 (they are LONG games and at 80 hours in I think I’m only hitting the end game portion now). My overall opinion is that I can see why these games have such a strong fan base because this feels way ahead of it’s time in terms of themes and character beats. The characters are great and while I don’t understand the point of some of the non-party social links (and im also WAY behind on some of them despite following a guide that was terrible), the soundtrack is great and while this is a port of the PSP version of the game, and lacking the DLC from the original, it’s still pretty great and feels like something you’d expect from an Indie developer on this platform. Yeah the graphics are a bit dated and there are certainly a few of the social links that feel a bit dubious morally, but it adds to the charm of the game.

Anyone else playing this?

[WorldWideWade]

I devoured Royal half a year back and started Persona 4 a few weeks ago. I think I'm around halfway through and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. It has not grabbed me by the endorphins quite like Royal did but few games can match Royal's style. For a PS2 game though I am surprised just how much was retained between 4 and 5.

[Magnus]

P4 was my entry into the series, played it when it came out around 2009 and loved it. I've only played a small bit of P3, but one of these days I'll get around to it. I am a bit worried that it'll feel a bit regressive in terms of gameplay/features - I remember I found it quite annoying I couldn't control all the party members in P3 for example (though I think they changed that in one of the remasters?) Probably similar to how I would probably find P4's bland featureless dungeons weird if I had played P5 first. I hear P3 has the best characters/plot of the three games though.

[das_boot]

P3 you can change the settings so that you can control your characters manually I checked before I bought the game because under no circumstances would I have tolerated a long game where I couldn’t control the full party

Also, like I said, it feels like an indie game, which… hm. I guess for a PS2/PSP game that’s been ported to current/last Gen consoles? Isn’t exactly a shocking indictment or throwing shade, more of a… well, that’s the game aging better than it probably should/could have.

I kind of love most of the playable characters, but much like in P5/P5R, you’ll find that with the right combination of personas equipped to the silent protagonist, you can close any gaps in the party to cover party member weaknesses. (No spoilers but Throne and Samael become necessary additions around the third block of Tartarus for the amount of foes that are only weak to light/dark).

I feel like the social links are far less forgiving than in P5/P5R too— I’m definitely really far behind on several of mine so if you’re following a guide MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A PERSONA OF THE CORRECT ARCANA EQUIPPED