Before I dove deeper into Megami Tensei and had only played Persona 3-5, this was my favorite game in the series. Now, after finishing 20 games in the franchise, this is still my favorite game in the series. And the Royal version just cemented that.

The overall story isn't quite as strong as Persona 4's, but is still phenomenal, despite its occasional cringe anime moments. Each dungeon has its own little story tied to it and each comes to a satisfying, emotional conclusion, with several emotional moments spread throughout as well. The party members are my favorite in the series, I love each and every one of them dearly for different reasons.

Do I really even need to say this? The visual style is amazing, one of the best in any games ever in everything including the pause menu. Also, the soundtrack is phenomenal, my favorite in the franchise (although Persona 4's comes close).

Social links (now called confidants) are, in my opinion, the best in the series. Basically every character is interesting, and each social link also gives you more benefits now than just the bonus fusion XP. One might give you more negotiation skills, or unlock more healing items to buy, or more gun customization. This encourages you to try to complete them all even more, and adds some strategy to wanting to complete certain ones earlier on to get their rewards. There is a structure in social links that's a bit repetitive, though:
1) Social Link 9: Character is in trouble, needs someone's heart changed
2) Joker goes into Mementos and changes that person's heart
3) Social Link 10: Character is happy their problem is resolved, reveals they know Joker is in the Phantom Thieves but promises not to tell.
Obviously, this is a pretty minor complaint though.

Combat and fusion is mostly the same as the previous 2 games, with a few key differences. First, guns are back! Each character has a unique gun type which can target multiple enemies per turn, and adds a fun twist to combat. Second, there's no more shuffle time, instead demon negotiation is back (although it's somewhat simplified compared to other Megaten games).

The best thing about this game, and why it's still my favorite, is the dungeons. They're hands down the best dungeons in the series. No longer randomly generated, each one is carefully crafted to give a satisfying progression through, almost a bit like a Zelda dungeon, and very highly themed.

Now I want to talk a bit about Royal. It adds three new social links, all of which are very good. It adds another dungeon, which is decent although I would say for this game it's fairly average. But what it really adds is a new ending, and this new ending is amazing. Obviously I won't say too much about it, but it's my favorite ending in the series. The next paragraph doesn't really contain spoilers, but if you want to go in absolutely blind it does sorta describe the conflict in vague terms so be wary.

The new ending, imo, is the best version of a Law vs Chaos ending where you can really see the argument the Law side is making. The Law side doesn't even want to fight you as they truly just want what's best, but is willing to do so to see their goals come to fruition. Everything about the final scenes from the acting, music, the action, and even the gameplay was absolutely heart-wrenching and created an unforgettable experience that I'll always remember as one of the best game endings ever.

This was the first Megami Tensei game I played, and is still one of my favorites.

In my Megaten reviews I always mention what I thought of the story, and this is quite possibly the best in the whole series. Every dungeon culminates in an emotional moment that'll leave you a bit misty-eyed and happy to welcome the new member into your party if relevant. And the amazing soundtrack serves to make you feel those emotional moments so much more. You'll want to continue investigating the TV world and solve the mystery of the midnight channel.

This game continues the life sim gameplay set up in Persona 3: Spending time in your daily life between dungeons, doing social links, etc. Honestly between 3 and 4, I'm not sure whose social links I prefer, they're both pretty solid overall.

The combat is similar to Persona 3, which I described in that review, so I won't go into it too much. A major difference is shuffle time, which now only serves for recruiting new Personas.

The dungeons are a pretty weak point. I think I prefer them over Tartarus, but not by much. At least each dungeon feels different in theming and tone, but unfortunately the dungeons are all just a series of randomly generated hallways that aren't very interesting to explore.

The game that changed the Persona series completely, and despite liking the earlier games, I love the ones since this change even more.

Persona is no longer just an RPG, but also a life simulator. You have a pre-determined amount of days to play through, during which you must go to school, hang out with your friends, and once or twice a month go risk your life in a dungeon killing a bunch of things.

There are a couple dozen social links, wherein you hang out with a character and usually end up helping them come to terms with some trauma or tragedy in their lives. I did all of them and they're all pretty nice stories but some definitely stand out more than others, like Kamiki and Maya.

Aside from the optional side stories, the main story is also very strong. I don't think it's quite as good as 4 or 5's, but your SEES compatriots are well-written and constantly encourage you forward. The theme of Death is also very strong, and it leads to a beautiful ending.

The combat is pretty good, using the same pseudo-Press Turn system that Persona 4 and 5 do. Only the protagonist can change Personas, which simplifies the party building much more compared to Persona 1 and 2. The other party members have a single Persona with a pre-set progression of moves and stats as they level up, but you can still choose which equipment they use and which skills to keep, making them still somewhat customizable. You'll end up building your protagonist's Personas around filling in the gaps left by your other party members, at least until the endgame, where you'll probably just be making Personas who are very very strong at one particular thing. After winning a battle, you'll go into "shuffle time" which will give you a choice of cards, and you can get either a Persona or some other advantage like extra money or xp.

Both in the original and in the remake, Tartarus tower does start to get repetitive. That being said, I felt like Reload did a lot more to make the separate areas feel unique which did help that fatigue. Still, going through a few hundred randomly generated floors of the same dungeon starts to get old.

This game absolutely perfected the classic Megami Tensei formula.

The setup is familiar. You have a male protagonist who can't use magic, a female companion who can, 4 slots for demons, and 2 rows of 3 slots each to arrange everyone however you want. This row system isn't as beloved as Press Turn, but I find it really good for party building/setups, and this is the best version of it. Unlike most games with the row system, this game has skill inheritance when fusing, allowing much more freedom in how you build your party. Along with that, it has a unique Zoma system where you can basically fuse a puppet into your party that's strong and always listens to you but has some drawbacks.

If you asked "wait, what do you mean always listens to you"? Well, this is Devil Summoner, which means making a contract with your demons isn't enough. You have to get them to like you, otherwise they'll just do whatever they want during combat. This can be frustrating sometimes, but you end up forming much more personal connections with your demons because of it. To make them like you, you can either give them gives, or give them commands they agree with. For example, an aggressive demon will like if you tell them to attack but dislike if you tell them to guard. But after they like you enough, they'll guard if you tell them to anyway.

The dungeons are phenomenal, some of the best 2D dungeons in the series. Each one has a pretty unique vibe, and some have various gimmicks that makes them more interesting and memorable. Speaking of vibes, Paradigm X gives off a pretty spooky, almost liminal one. The sparse people sprinkled throughout it change their dialogue throughout the game, so it's worth going back often to talk to them.

The story and characters are up there with some of the best in the series. Nemissa, your companion, definitely has the most personality of all the classic games' female companions. Along with the progression of the main story, you'll go through occasional "vision quests" where you relive the final moments of summoners who came before you, playing through a brief segment using the demons and equipment they had on them at the time of their death. These are super cool and do a good job breaking up the pacing. Several characters from the first Devil Summoner also return, although I'm still waiting on a translation to play that game myself.