phibby
2019
Persona 5 Royal is a very fun game.
Pros: This is the first Persona game where I found the combat fun and interesting the entire way through, even through a 120 hour game. That's due in part to just how streamlined and responsive the menus are. This game is just fun to play. This is despite the fact that the game is also one of the easiest in the entire series. It's just really fun to play. The introduction of Baton Passes makes combat feel more fluid and snappy, and each persona having its own unique passive trait adds a lot of fun customization. Every Confidant having its own unique unlockable abilities is also incredibly cool, and gives you even more gameplay incentive to try and max them all. The story is hit and miss. I'd say this game's story is both a pro and a con. Some parts are incredibly irritating or boring, meanwhile other parts are literally some of the best parts of any Persona game ever.
Con: This game is TOO LONG. I've never played a game where I loved it the whole way through and yet still felt exhausted by the end. The ending is literally the best part of the game and I was having a total blast and I was still like "Man is this thing gonna be over soon?" Persona 5 Royal is proof that there is such thing as too much of a good thing. Also yeah, some parts of the story are not good. The game also has an incredibly long drawn out tutorial section that lasts like 10 hours before you can get into the fun part of the game. It's really poor pacing for the beginning of a game, and I know it's turned a lot of people away. The story in general is very wordy. They spend way too long explaining and reviewing and flashbacking to things you already knew. It's like they wanted to make sure you could stop playing the game at any point and pick it up 7 months later and still be able to follow what was going on. The characters are constantly recapping things that just happened. The cast is likeable enough but some of them dont feel very well developed in the main story, and their social links feel kind of disconnected as a result.
Overall: An incredibly long, very fun game from start to finish, but with a story that varies in quality from insanely good to insanely bad.
Pros: This is the first Persona game where I found the combat fun and interesting the entire way through, even through a 120 hour game. That's due in part to just how streamlined and responsive the menus are. This game is just fun to play. This is despite the fact that the game is also one of the easiest in the entire series. It's just really fun to play. The introduction of Baton Passes makes combat feel more fluid and snappy, and each persona having its own unique passive trait adds a lot of fun customization. Every Confidant having its own unique unlockable abilities is also incredibly cool, and gives you even more gameplay incentive to try and max them all. The story is hit and miss. I'd say this game's story is both a pro and a con. Some parts are incredibly irritating or boring, meanwhile other parts are literally some of the best parts of any Persona game ever.
Con: This game is TOO LONG. I've never played a game where I loved it the whole way through and yet still felt exhausted by the end. The ending is literally the best part of the game and I was having a total blast and I was still like "Man is this thing gonna be over soon?" Persona 5 Royal is proof that there is such thing as too much of a good thing. Also yeah, some parts of the story are not good. The game also has an incredibly long drawn out tutorial section that lasts like 10 hours before you can get into the fun part of the game. It's really poor pacing for the beginning of a game, and I know it's turned a lot of people away. The story in general is very wordy. They spend way too long explaining and reviewing and flashbacking to things you already knew. It's like they wanted to make sure you could stop playing the game at any point and pick it up 7 months later and still be able to follow what was going on. The characters are constantly recapping things that just happened. The cast is likeable enough but some of them dont feel very well developed in the main story, and their social links feel kind of disconnected as a result.
Overall: An incredibly long, very fun game from start to finish, but with a story that varies in quality from insanely good to insanely bad.
2012
This is my favorite game of all time. It's far from perfect but it just means more to me than any other game I've ever played. It might not click with everyone but by god does it click with me.
Pros: This is definitely the most unique Persona game in terms of its setting, and overall scope. Every other Persona game has you in a bustling city, trying to save the world from some otherworldly threat. Persona 4 places you in a tiny town with not much to do, and it's your job to solve a single serial murder case. The stakes are lower, and the scope is smaller, and you're left with a Persona game that feels much more personal than any other game in the series. The town of Inaba feels like my second home, like I've lived there all my life. The characters are also incredibly fleshed out and endearing in a way no other Persona game quite manages, although Persona 2 comes close. My absolute favorite thing in Persona games is when we get to dig deep into the psychology of a character, and Persona 4 has that in spades. It took the concept of a Shadow version of someone that Persona 2 introduced, and absolutely runs wild with the concept. Each dungeon is an in depth look into the mind of a specific character. Their hopes, their fears, the things they hate about themselves, and I absolutely love it. It's a huge improvement over Persona 3's Tartarus, spending hours upon hours grinding through the same identical hallways. Every party member feels incredibly fleshed out and realized as a result, and it leads to a cast of characters that just feel like my actual friends. Some people find this game's lighter tone annoying, and they prefer Persona games that are more serious and are focused more on the direct story, not having any cutscenes that don't contribute to the main plot. That's a perfectly fine opinion to have, but I personally really enjoy the abundance of silly, less important scenes in this game. I agree that they mess with the pacing at times, but they just make the characters even more endearing to me, and make them feel even more like just a group of normal kids. These aren't some elite team of ultra-serious super soldiers training to save the world, they're just some normal high schoolers still trying to live their everyday lives while dealing with normal high school problems. They deserve some moments of levity, and Persona 4 does a great job of realizing that. The combat is also improved from Persona 3, mostly just by letting you directly control your party members. It's such a simple change but it really goes a long way at making combat feel more freeing and flexible and less frustrating. The main thing that keeps me coming back to this game, though, is its theme of self acceptance. The message of "you should accept yourself for who you are instead of denying it and not being your true self" seems so simple, but it came to me at a time when I really needed it, and the game explores that concept in a variety of ways. It not only asks "why wouldnt someone be aware of their true self", but also "what if you don't know what your true self is?", "what if other people dont like your true self?", "what if you find out who you are and don't like it?" and more. It really digs deep into the concept and seeing these kids who I felt like I was friends with be so honest and vulnerable about who they were and what they wanted in life really got me thinking the same way, and it ultimately changed my life for the better. Also the main antagonist is a really good character and I like them
Cons: The biggest thing I dislike about this game is definitely how much of it has aged poorly. It's an older game so I can excuse it as being a product of its time, but its frustrating how many parts in this game skew homophobic, or transphobic, or fatphobic, or weird and perverted. It's not a huge part of the game by any means, there's only a handful of scenes that really make me cringe, but it's enough to noticeably affect my enjoyment of the game, and is worth bringing up as a con. Another con I would say is the combat. Yes, this game is an improvement over Persona 3, and yes it's nowhere near as monotonous thanks to the variety of dungeons in the game. This is easily the best and most fun Persona combat had ever been up to this point. It still gets a ltitle old and repetitive by the end. I personally dislike that they simplified the combat from Persona 3. Only one type of Physical attack, and the Protagonist can only equip a single weapon type, no more fusion spells. It's also not a huge flaw or anything but it does make this the Persona game with the simplest combat system and it's a bit of a shame. The game also tends to skew a bit on the easier side. Luckily with modern rereleases you can fully customize the difficulty. You can fully control damage dealt, damage recieved, xp dropped, money dropped, and you can tweak the difficulty of things to your liking. So if you want a harder experience you can go in and craft one. Another flaw the combat has is that there's not nearly as much incentive to switch out your party members. In Persona 3, you had a massive cast of party members, and the game placed teleporters before every miniboss so you could go to the first floor of Tartarus and switch your team composition, so you wanted to keep everyone at around the same level so you could bring the right team of people for the current fight. Persona 4 doesn't really have that, and it's pretty likely that there are certain party members you'll just never wind up using. I know for me personally once I got the final new party member, I never had a reason to switch off the team I was using, and the remaining party members just sat unused at a much lower level. Persona 5 would go on to fix this with the ability to switch your party anywhere at will, and with an XP share that gives backup teammates XP as well. It's really not a huge flaw, but definitely something I noticed.
Overall: Other people will say different but to me, this is the best Persona game. It does the best job at appealing to me personally. And that's all that matters. It's story is simple but effective and it's cast is incredibly endearing and fleshed out. The world this game creates feels real and lived in and it's story of self acceptance changed my life for the better
Pros: This is definitely the most unique Persona game in terms of its setting, and overall scope. Every other Persona game has you in a bustling city, trying to save the world from some otherworldly threat. Persona 4 places you in a tiny town with not much to do, and it's your job to solve a single serial murder case. The stakes are lower, and the scope is smaller, and you're left with a Persona game that feels much more personal than any other game in the series. The town of Inaba feels like my second home, like I've lived there all my life. The characters are also incredibly fleshed out and endearing in a way no other Persona game quite manages, although Persona 2 comes close. My absolute favorite thing in Persona games is when we get to dig deep into the psychology of a character, and Persona 4 has that in spades. It took the concept of a Shadow version of someone that Persona 2 introduced, and absolutely runs wild with the concept. Each dungeon is an in depth look into the mind of a specific character. Their hopes, their fears, the things they hate about themselves, and I absolutely love it. It's a huge improvement over Persona 3's Tartarus, spending hours upon hours grinding through the same identical hallways. Every party member feels incredibly fleshed out and realized as a result, and it leads to a cast of characters that just feel like my actual friends. Some people find this game's lighter tone annoying, and they prefer Persona games that are more serious and are focused more on the direct story, not having any cutscenes that don't contribute to the main plot. That's a perfectly fine opinion to have, but I personally really enjoy the abundance of silly, less important scenes in this game. I agree that they mess with the pacing at times, but they just make the characters even more endearing to me, and make them feel even more like just a group of normal kids. These aren't some elite team of ultra-serious super soldiers training to save the world, they're just some normal high schoolers still trying to live their everyday lives while dealing with normal high school problems. They deserve some moments of levity, and Persona 4 does a great job of realizing that. The combat is also improved from Persona 3, mostly just by letting you directly control your party members. It's such a simple change but it really goes a long way at making combat feel more freeing and flexible and less frustrating. The main thing that keeps me coming back to this game, though, is its theme of self acceptance. The message of "you should accept yourself for who you are instead of denying it and not being your true self" seems so simple, but it came to me at a time when I really needed it, and the game explores that concept in a variety of ways. It not only asks "why wouldnt someone be aware of their true self", but also "what if you don't know what your true self is?", "what if other people dont like your true self?", "what if you find out who you are and don't like it?" and more. It really digs deep into the concept and seeing these kids who I felt like I was friends with be so honest and vulnerable about who they were and what they wanted in life really got me thinking the same way, and it ultimately changed my life for the better. Also the main antagonist is a really good character and I like them
Cons: The biggest thing I dislike about this game is definitely how much of it has aged poorly. It's an older game so I can excuse it as being a product of its time, but its frustrating how many parts in this game skew homophobic, or transphobic, or fatphobic, or weird and perverted. It's not a huge part of the game by any means, there's only a handful of scenes that really make me cringe, but it's enough to noticeably affect my enjoyment of the game, and is worth bringing up as a con. Another con I would say is the combat. Yes, this game is an improvement over Persona 3, and yes it's nowhere near as monotonous thanks to the variety of dungeons in the game. This is easily the best and most fun Persona combat had ever been up to this point. It still gets a ltitle old and repetitive by the end. I personally dislike that they simplified the combat from Persona 3. Only one type of Physical attack, and the Protagonist can only equip a single weapon type, no more fusion spells. It's also not a huge flaw or anything but it does make this the Persona game with the simplest combat system and it's a bit of a shame. The game also tends to skew a bit on the easier side. Luckily with modern rereleases you can fully customize the difficulty. You can fully control damage dealt, damage recieved, xp dropped, money dropped, and you can tweak the difficulty of things to your liking. So if you want a harder experience you can go in and craft one. Another flaw the combat has is that there's not nearly as much incentive to switch out your party members. In Persona 3, you had a massive cast of party members, and the game placed teleporters before every miniboss so you could go to the first floor of Tartarus and switch your team composition, so you wanted to keep everyone at around the same level so you could bring the right team of people for the current fight. Persona 4 doesn't really have that, and it's pretty likely that there are certain party members you'll just never wind up using. I know for me personally once I got the final new party member, I never had a reason to switch off the team I was using, and the remaining party members just sat unused at a much lower level. Persona 5 would go on to fix this with the ability to switch your party anywhere at will, and with an XP share that gives backup teammates XP as well. It's really not a huge flaw, but definitely something I noticed.
Overall: Other people will say different but to me, this is the best Persona game. It does the best job at appealing to me personally. And that's all that matters. It's story is simple but effective and it's cast is incredibly endearing and fleshed out. The world this game creates feels real and lived in and it's story of self acceptance changed my life for the better
2007
Persona 3 FES is an amazing game, although it's brought down by some glaring problems due to it being the first Persona game of it's kind.
Pros: This game has a great story, with great characters. The social links with the various characters who live in the city are a wonderful addition and managing social stats is incredibly fun. It seems very simple when compared with future games in the series, but it's important to remember just how big of a leap forwards this was. The Persona 2 duology doesn't really have anything like this. They were reinventing the entire series with this game and it paid off. The story is has some amazing themes and ideas and explores the concept of death in wonderful ways. Each of the party members has a different relationship with it, still dealing with the grief. Even the dog is grieving someone. The characters are all great, even if some of them feel a little one note, and the emotions really run high. The gameplay is also much improved from Persona 2. Gone is the autobattle system, Persona 3 introduces the 1 More system, a very smart, fun and snappy battle system with a lot of depth. Elements of Persona 2's systems can still be felt, with the main character's fusion spells being similar in concept to 2's fusion spells, and the AI controlled party members feeling similar to 2's autobattle. The core combat system is great. It strikes a good balance between simplicity and depth.
Cons: Speaking of combat, while the combat system is a vast improvement over Persona 2, it's still a huge glaring weak point of the game. Tartarus, the game's main dungeon, is incredibly repetitive and goes on for way too long without any real variation. And while the AI controlled party members gives the game a unique identity by making all your party members feel like individual people with their own preferred battle tactics, it still just kinda sucks to use. It's very frustrating to lose a battle and know you could have won if your teammates weren't so stupid. That's not a good feeling to have in a singleplayer game. The AI party members combined with the incredible repetitive structure of Tartarus and some incredibly unbalanced difficulty spikes makes this one of the most frustrating Persona games to date. The story, while having some amazing themes, also is far from perfect. The game takes way too long to really start getting anywhere interesting, and there are significant periods of time in the game where it just feels like nothing really interesting is happening. In addition, basically every antagonist in this game is incredibly one note and not interesting or fleshed out at all. It's a wonderful framework for a story, but its not told or executed with the most grace. All these flaws really drag the game down in my eyes.
Overall: Despite it's flaws, Persona 3 FES is a game I can't help but love. It's a wildly experimental game, and the experimentation paid off, spawning the entire modern Persona series. At the same time, not every new idea worked, and it leaves the game feeling like it falls short in a lot of ways. Even with all it's flaws, it's still an emotional ride from start to finish.
Pros: This game has a great story, with great characters. The social links with the various characters who live in the city are a wonderful addition and managing social stats is incredibly fun. It seems very simple when compared with future games in the series, but it's important to remember just how big of a leap forwards this was. The Persona 2 duology doesn't really have anything like this. They were reinventing the entire series with this game and it paid off. The story is has some amazing themes and ideas and explores the concept of death in wonderful ways. Each of the party members has a different relationship with it, still dealing with the grief. Even the dog is grieving someone. The characters are all great, even if some of them feel a little one note, and the emotions really run high. The gameplay is also much improved from Persona 2. Gone is the autobattle system, Persona 3 introduces the 1 More system, a very smart, fun and snappy battle system with a lot of depth. Elements of Persona 2's systems can still be felt, with the main character's fusion spells being similar in concept to 2's fusion spells, and the AI controlled party members feeling similar to 2's autobattle. The core combat system is great. It strikes a good balance between simplicity and depth.
Cons: Speaking of combat, while the combat system is a vast improvement over Persona 2, it's still a huge glaring weak point of the game. Tartarus, the game's main dungeon, is incredibly repetitive and goes on for way too long without any real variation. And while the AI controlled party members gives the game a unique identity by making all your party members feel like individual people with their own preferred battle tactics, it still just kinda sucks to use. It's very frustrating to lose a battle and know you could have won if your teammates weren't so stupid. That's not a good feeling to have in a singleplayer game. The AI party members combined with the incredible repetitive structure of Tartarus and some incredibly unbalanced difficulty spikes makes this one of the most frustrating Persona games to date. The story, while having some amazing themes, also is far from perfect. The game takes way too long to really start getting anywhere interesting, and there are significant periods of time in the game where it just feels like nothing really interesting is happening. In addition, basically every antagonist in this game is incredibly one note and not interesting or fleshed out at all. It's a wonderful framework for a story, but its not told or executed with the most grace. All these flaws really drag the game down in my eyes.
Overall: Despite it's flaws, Persona 3 FES is a game I can't help but love. It's a wildly experimental game, and the experimentation paid off, spawning the entire modern Persona series. At the same time, not every new idea worked, and it leaves the game feeling like it falls short in a lot of ways. Even with all it's flaws, it's still an emotional ride from start to finish.
Persona 2 Eternal Punishment is by far the most derivative mainline Persona game. It's simultaneously a sequel to Innocent Sin AND Persona 1, and reuses a lot of elements from the former. Despite that, It manages to surpass it's predecessor, and refines and improves a lot of the problems that game had.
Pros: The gameplay in this game, while still not amazing, is significantly better than Innocent Sin's. It expects you to have played Innocent Sin and expects you to take advantage of all the vast myriad of obscure gameplay mechanics and shops available for use. The game stops pulling its punches and gets significantly harder, and the difficulty is much needed. The strategies I was using in Innocent Sin stopped working, and I had to adapt to new strategies, and build team compositions around being able to form proper Fusion Spells. The game still has the tedium and the slowness of Innocent Sin, but it's more entertaining because it expects a lot more of you. Some people call this the hardest Persona game, but I don't know if I would agree. I didn't struggle with it that much more than I did Innocent Sin. I basically steamrolled the entire final dungeon. The difference is, I would say, is that with Innocent Sin I was barely trying and struggled, and with Eternal Punishment I was aware of it's reputation and was trying as hard as possible and still struggled. Either way, if you can go through the game taking the most possible advantage of Fusion Spells and Mutations and Skill Cards, you shouldn't have the hardest time. The story in the game is also great. I love how different it is from every other game in the series, aided by the fact that it has a fully adult cast. I still think I like Innocent Sin's story just a bit more, but Eternal Punishment still has everything great that game had. The characters are still super entertaining, and I especially love how Tatsuya was characterized in this game. Turning a silent protagonist into an actual character isn't something that can be done easily, but it was pulled off flawlessly here and feels so natural. The game's contact system is much improved. It's streamlined from Innocent Sin to be less complicated and I think it works very well to remove some of the tedium of demon contact. The rumor system also returns and is also improved. Rumors are much more varied and control much more. There's a lot to love here.
Cons: The battle system, while better, still has a lot of the flaws of Innocent Sin. In addition, this game takes a bit too much from Innocent Sin. It's justified incredibly well within the story, but a lot of things are reused. Some dungeons in the game are completely original and those tend to be the best and most interesting. Other dungeons take place in the same place as dungeons from Innocent Sin, and as a result use the same visuals and environments, but still contain different layouts, and those are much less interesting. Other dungeons are literally ripped straight from Innocent Sin, with the exact same layout and everything. Those are the ones I really take issue with. It feels like a slog and a waste of time to have to do everything all over again. Again, it's justified well within the story, and it's not too big of an issue, but it was an annoyance I had. Another thing I don't like about this game is it's characterization of Maya. Maya was turned into this game's silent protagonist and while I like that doing so allowed Tatsuya to become his own character, I don't like how much Maya's character had to be reduced. Maya was the emotional core of the group in Innocent Sin, and her trauma and backstory was a major focus of that game. It just feels awkward that none of that is really focused on much anymore, because all Maya says in this game is "...." and "Maya smiled gently" or something.
Overall: This is another must play game, even more so than Innocent Sin, despite being it's direct sequel. It has a lot of the same strengths as Innocent Sin and improves upon its biggest flaws.
Pros: The gameplay in this game, while still not amazing, is significantly better than Innocent Sin's. It expects you to have played Innocent Sin and expects you to take advantage of all the vast myriad of obscure gameplay mechanics and shops available for use. The game stops pulling its punches and gets significantly harder, and the difficulty is much needed. The strategies I was using in Innocent Sin stopped working, and I had to adapt to new strategies, and build team compositions around being able to form proper Fusion Spells. The game still has the tedium and the slowness of Innocent Sin, but it's more entertaining because it expects a lot more of you. Some people call this the hardest Persona game, but I don't know if I would agree. I didn't struggle with it that much more than I did Innocent Sin. I basically steamrolled the entire final dungeon. The difference is, I would say, is that with Innocent Sin I was barely trying and struggled, and with Eternal Punishment I was aware of it's reputation and was trying as hard as possible and still struggled. Either way, if you can go through the game taking the most possible advantage of Fusion Spells and Mutations and Skill Cards, you shouldn't have the hardest time. The story in the game is also great. I love how different it is from every other game in the series, aided by the fact that it has a fully adult cast. I still think I like Innocent Sin's story just a bit more, but Eternal Punishment still has everything great that game had. The characters are still super entertaining, and I especially love how Tatsuya was characterized in this game. Turning a silent protagonist into an actual character isn't something that can be done easily, but it was pulled off flawlessly here and feels so natural. The game's contact system is much improved. It's streamlined from Innocent Sin to be less complicated and I think it works very well to remove some of the tedium of demon contact. The rumor system also returns and is also improved. Rumors are much more varied and control much more. There's a lot to love here.
Cons: The battle system, while better, still has a lot of the flaws of Innocent Sin. In addition, this game takes a bit too much from Innocent Sin. It's justified incredibly well within the story, but a lot of things are reused. Some dungeons in the game are completely original and those tend to be the best and most interesting. Other dungeons take place in the same place as dungeons from Innocent Sin, and as a result use the same visuals and environments, but still contain different layouts, and those are much less interesting. Other dungeons are literally ripped straight from Innocent Sin, with the exact same layout and everything. Those are the ones I really take issue with. It feels like a slog and a waste of time to have to do everything all over again. Again, it's justified well within the story, and it's not too big of an issue, but it was an annoyance I had. Another thing I don't like about this game is it's characterization of Maya. Maya was turned into this game's silent protagonist and while I like that doing so allowed Tatsuya to become his own character, I don't like how much Maya's character had to be reduced. Maya was the emotional core of the group in Innocent Sin, and her trauma and backstory was a major focus of that game. It just feels awkward that none of that is really focused on much anymore, because all Maya says in this game is "...." and "Maya smiled gently" or something.
Overall: This is another must play game, even more so than Innocent Sin, despite being it's direct sequel. It has a lot of the same strengths as Innocent Sin and improves upon its biggest flaws.
This is the most of two minds I feel like I've ever been about a game. I absolutely adore some parts and absolutely loathe others.
Pros: Dear God this story, man. I love this game's story and characters sooo much. I love how crazy and off the wall it gets while still feeling grounded and centered around such a loveable cast of characters. Some parts of the story don't work as well, and it takes a bit to really get going, but once I got about halfway into it I was COMPLETELY hooked. It's excellent. It's pretty consistently engaging and you will fall in love with every single character by the end. The game's rumor system is also very cool, although I was a little let down by how basic the options tended to be.
Cons: Yeah, this gameplay is pretty bad. Battle animations are slow, the menus are slow, getting tarot cards to summon new personas is tedious, the game is pitifully easy so you never feel the need to engage super deeply with anything, the encounter rate is too high, yes, yes. These are all true. You always hear these things about Innocent Sin, but I can't help but wonder how much of these stem more from the PSP version and not the PSX version, since the PSP version is more popular. The game is slow and easy, yes, but it's even slower and easier in the PSP version. I played both versions, starting with this one, and I did actually find some parts a little challenging. It took a bit to get there, yeah, but I did actually die a few times in the PSX version. In comparison, I don't think I even thought anything at all in the PSP version. Maybe I only found it so hard because I had been told it was so easy and didn't think I'd need to try super hard and wasn't properly prepared, but either way the PSX version of this game isn't as easy as people will have you believe. The final boss in particular was amazing and brutally challenging. Either way, the game can be so slow at times that I just started using the emulator's fast forward on basically everything. Battle animations, menuing, cutscenes, even just walking in a straight line across dungeons began to feel slow and tedious after a while. I think I'd find this game 10x more frustrating if I played it on console and couldnt fast forward anything.
Overall: Experiencing the story and characters of this game is a must. To me the cast in this game is on par with Persona 4's cast as some of the most likeable and fleshed out characters in the whole series. The gameplay is pretty mindless and tedious and repetitive though, and I wouldn't blame you if you just watched a playthrough on youtube or something. However, if you played the PSP version and found the gameplay incredibly tedious and dull, I'd encourage you to try this version instead, because while it's still bad, it's nowhere near as bad.
Pros: Dear God this story, man. I love this game's story and characters sooo much. I love how crazy and off the wall it gets while still feeling grounded and centered around such a loveable cast of characters. Some parts of the story don't work as well, and it takes a bit to really get going, but once I got about halfway into it I was COMPLETELY hooked. It's excellent. It's pretty consistently engaging and you will fall in love with every single character by the end. The game's rumor system is also very cool, although I was a little let down by how basic the options tended to be.
Cons: Yeah, this gameplay is pretty bad. Battle animations are slow, the menus are slow, getting tarot cards to summon new personas is tedious, the game is pitifully easy so you never feel the need to engage super deeply with anything, the encounter rate is too high, yes, yes. These are all true. You always hear these things about Innocent Sin, but I can't help but wonder how much of these stem more from the PSP version and not the PSX version, since the PSP version is more popular. The game is slow and easy, yes, but it's even slower and easier in the PSP version. I played both versions, starting with this one, and I did actually find some parts a little challenging. It took a bit to get there, yeah, but I did actually die a few times in the PSX version. In comparison, I don't think I even thought anything at all in the PSP version. Maybe I only found it so hard because I had been told it was so easy and didn't think I'd need to try super hard and wasn't properly prepared, but either way the PSX version of this game isn't as easy as people will have you believe. The final boss in particular was amazing and brutally challenging. Either way, the game can be so slow at times that I just started using the emulator's fast forward on basically everything. Battle animations, menuing, cutscenes, even just walking in a straight line across dungeons began to feel slow and tedious after a while. I think I'd find this game 10x more frustrating if I played it on console and couldnt fast forward anything.
Overall: Experiencing the story and characters of this game is a must. To me the cast in this game is on par with Persona 4's cast as some of the most likeable and fleshed out characters in the whole series. The gameplay is pretty mindless and tedious and repetitive though, and I wouldn't blame you if you just watched a playthrough on youtube or something. However, if you played the PSP version and found the gameplay incredibly tedious and dull, I'd encourage you to try this version instead, because while it's still bad, it's nowhere near as bad.
Persona 1 is an interesting enough game. There are things about it that I really enjoy, but also a lot holding it back from being on the same level as the future games in the series.
Pros: To me, this is by far the most replayable persona game. I accidentally got the bad ending my first time through and had to replay it and was awestruck at how much more I enjoyed it the second time through. There is so much foreshadowing and world building that you'll miss if you only go through the game a single time. Combine that with the fact that you can pick a different 5th party member each time, there's a secret dungeon only available in new game plus, and there's an entire second route through the game with a completely different story, and its easy to see why I've played this game 4 seperate times now, and will probably go back for a 5th. For how short the game is, there's so much to do that you won't end up seeing everything in a single playthrough. The story is pretty good I think. Not one of my favorites, but I really adore how psychological it gets. I've always adored when these games dig deep into a character's psychology and this is no exception. The characters themselves are likeable enough but some of them don't feel very fleshed out.
Cons: Gameplay here is pretty bad. The combat itself does have a lot of interesting ideas, like the grid system, but its not very well balanced and you'll usually end up just getting one super strong persona that kills the enemies in one move and not feel the need to engage with the game more than that. I find the actual managing of your party member's personas pretty satisfying, building team compositions and contacting demons, but the gameplay itself isn't very engaging. It wasn't a total cakewalk, there's definitely times I had to play carefully and think about my options, but not a ton, and I was able to breeze through the majority of the game by just using the "Replay last action" setting in the autobattle.
Overall: Worth playing, worth replaying, but falls a bit short in terms of interesting combat
Pros: To me, this is by far the most replayable persona game. I accidentally got the bad ending my first time through and had to replay it and was awestruck at how much more I enjoyed it the second time through. There is so much foreshadowing and world building that you'll miss if you only go through the game a single time. Combine that with the fact that you can pick a different 5th party member each time, there's a secret dungeon only available in new game plus, and there's an entire second route through the game with a completely different story, and its easy to see why I've played this game 4 seperate times now, and will probably go back for a 5th. For how short the game is, there's so much to do that you won't end up seeing everything in a single playthrough. The story is pretty good I think. Not one of my favorites, but I really adore how psychological it gets. I've always adored when these games dig deep into a character's psychology and this is no exception. The characters themselves are likeable enough but some of them don't feel very fleshed out.
Cons: Gameplay here is pretty bad. The combat itself does have a lot of interesting ideas, like the grid system, but its not very well balanced and you'll usually end up just getting one super strong persona that kills the enemies in one move and not feel the need to engage with the game more than that. I find the actual managing of your party member's personas pretty satisfying, building team compositions and contacting demons, but the gameplay itself isn't very engaging. It wasn't a total cakewalk, there's definitely times I had to play carefully and think about my options, but not a ton, and I was able to breeze through the majority of the game by just using the "Replay last action" setting in the autobattle.
Overall: Worth playing, worth replaying, but falls a bit short in terms of interesting combat