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[Dunan]

I'd never played a Persona game before taking a flyer on P4 a few months ago, and having finished my first playthrough (and getting

Spoiler

the bad ending and a good ending, but probably not the best ending because I only maxed out three social links), I can't wait to try another Persona game. Having been an exchange student many years ago in a mid-size Japanese city much like Inaba, the setting was a fun trip down memory lane.

I picked up P3P for the PSP straightaway but the setting seems so similar to P4 -- at least for the first hour or so -- that I find myself wanting to try something different. What do you Persona/Shin Megami Tensei experts recommend? Something not, for example, a high school junior sent to an unfamiliar city, because I've just played that.

P4 had some stuff that seemed to relate to P3 and I felt like it was sailing past me at times. Just what is the relationship between Persona and SMT? Was Persona originally a spin-off? Are they set in the same universe?

What would be a good next game, and why? I prefer something that can be played on a Vita or PSP, but still have my old PS2 if there's something really compelling that's only on that. Thoughts?

 

[VARIA]

Get a 3DS and Devil Survivor. I think you'd dig it.

 

[Lunar15]

Can you please spoilertag explain the "good" ending you got? Because if you didn't get the final ending, you really need to re-play the game.

Also, endings aren't determined by the amount of social links you have, just by dialogue choices at specific moments.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Well... I dunno if you're a full-on Persona fan, because 3 and 4 are completely different games from 1 and 2... but semantics aside? Try Nocturne. You've gotten your feet wet, now it's time to dive in. Nocturne is the best the SMT series has to offer.

 

[Dunan]

Get a 3DS and Devil Survivor. I think you'd dig it.

Oh, sure, recommend the one handheld that I lack. ^_^; What's Devil Survivor about? What's the setting like?

Can you please spoilertag explain the "good" ending you got? Because if you didn't get the final ending, you really need to re-play the game.

Also, endings aren't determined by the amount of social links you have, just by dialogue choices at specific moments.

OK, this is what I got:

Spoiler

first the "bad" ending, in which I identified the killer at a certain juncture in December but then chose to get revenge, and the game jumped all the way up to when it was time to leave Inaba for Tokyo. I did that intentionally to see what the ending was like.) Then, after picking the correct actions (which, in retrospect, were somewhat hard to figure out), the story moved forward, and with the game putting Marie there on the street every afternoon and making it clear that I was supposed to mett up with her regularly and max out her link, I visited her decidedly-melancholy optional dungeon and finished it.

On the very last day in Inaba, I only got to have detailed conversations with the few people that I had max-rank links with, and while it certainly ended on a happy note, it did feel like a second playthrough was mandatory, because there was so much stuff I never did and so many links that I didn't even come close to filling. Particularly the killer's; I don't think I even met him in public ten times, much less had ten chances to raise his link. Didn't really do much with elderly Hisano or the boy I started tutoring. And the fact that there are two sports clubs and two performing clubs basically means they want you to try the opposite on in round two.

I'm looking forward to that second playthrough, of course. I know that your qualities carry over to you can focus totally on the social links.

Well... I dunno if you're a full-on Persona fan, because 3 and 4 are completely different games from 1 and 2... but semantics aside? Try Nocturne. You've gotten your feet wet, now it's time to dive in. Nocturne is the best the SMT series has to offer.

When I say "full-on" I just mean that I really loved it. It's well over a decade since I lived in that real-life Inaba-like town, but this game brought back so many memories.

Just read about Nocturne -- wow, that's different. I'll be on the lookout for that. I was really thinking of the seemingly-large PSP library, because I see those all the time at game shops here in Japan (or can get them in English on PSN, if the English versions are superior). Of those, which is recommended most highly, and doesn't feel like a clone of P3/4?

 

[SJS]

Something not, for example, a high school junior sent to an unfamiliar city, because I've just played that.

You're asking for it.

P4 had some stuff that seemed to relate to P3 and I felt like it was sailing past me at times. Just what is the relationship between Persona and SMT? Was Persona originally a spin-off? Are they set in the same universe?

You're REALLY asking for it.

OP, get into core SMT. NOW.

Persona is a spinoff, yes. This series began in the late 1980s with straight up Megami Tensei on the NES, then evolved into SMT, which was so good that it became the franchise header.

You want to not go to high school? Then go to hell. No, seriously. That's what I want you to do, RIGHT NOW.

Get into an SMT and start dungeon crawling. Any one of them works (the stories are loosely interconnected). If you don't mind playing out of order, I recommend getting a fan translation of SMT2 (it's old school, but very well polished), but they're all great in their own way despite their unique flaws.

I can go on and on about what makes core SMT great, but that doesn't let me reach you ASAP. Your need for this series is urgent. I can sense your desire for moral conflicts and hard difficulty. Get to it.

Spoiler

I love this series too much for my own good.

 

[SJS]

Get a 3DS and Devil Survivor. I think you'd dig it.

Just a warning, this series is not for everyone. You give and receive damage based on level and not (so much on) stats, so grinding is generally required. Also, turn orders / the attacks of the most powerful skills can be quite random, so you often need to savestate to get completely different results from doing the exact same thing.