Two Games by Atlus, slightly similar and in many respects different.

From playing the two, Persona is kind of crazy high school anime, while SMT is essentially crazy as shit apocalypse with demons running rampant all over Tokyo. Persona is more definitely lighter, SMT runs a choice aspect through it's game which makes things a fuckton more interesting and leads to multiple replays, unless it makes you break your 3DS first because the difficulty is absolutely relentless. It gets slightly better after the few challenges, but even then you have to grind continuously or you go to a boss battle and die within seconds.

Because of this Playtime can go anywhere. Some people have 40 hours, others have up to 60, both are just one playthrough alone and there's 3 different storylines.

I bought the 3DS games in December, SMT IV and Persona: Shadows of the Labryinth you haven't seen them.

I didn't make it far into Persona, it's good but for me SMT is actually the best game on the 3DS by far. (Dual Destinies and Fire Emblem are 2nd and 3rd for me) The philosophy is great and the characters are all really well done, except one guy who pretty much almost makes everyone look bad but I digress.

Spoiler

Walter - Best Bro

So yeah, anyone played these games, if so how did you find it?

 

If your only experience with Persona is Persona Q, you haven't played it at all.

The Persona series is a spinoff of SMT, making Persona Q a spinoff of a spinoff. Persona Q's gameplay is based off of Etrian Odyssey, which is far different (and far less fun, in my opinion) than the mainline Personas, and its art style is trash in comparison. Persona Q is also lacking in the one thing that the Persona series has that the SMT series does not: Social links. Think dating sims, but actually good, and you don't necessarily have to bang whoever it is you're social linking. Social links can be romantic, platonic, familial, etc. Also, they make your personas (the SMT demons of the Persona series) stronger. They're what made P3 and P4 such breakaway successes.

If you have a PS2, PS3, a PSP, or a Vita, I'd suggest picking up some of the mainline games. Persona 3 and Persona 4 are available on the Playstation store, and you can get the updated versions of P3 and P4 on the PSP and Vita respectively (some people prefer Persona 3 FES on the Playstation store to Persona 3 Portable on the PSP, but Persona 4: Golden on the Vita is generally considered to be the definitive version of P4).

I haven't played the games before Persona 3, so I can't vouch for those, and I haven't played any of the SMT games either. I'm planning on picking up IV soon, though, so I'm glad you liked it. Reviews seem pretty promising, although the difficulty is probably going to kick my ass. Persona 3 nearly killed me, and even though Persona 4 is considered to be the easiest mainline Persona game, it still gave me trouble here and there.

Anyway, yeah, do not let Persona Q be the game that defines the Persona series for you. It's not even close to the full experience.

 

I'll definitely take a look around for both, my PS3 is still alive and kicking and I'm almost out of stuff to play at the moment.

SMT has the potential for a romance, but you don't actively pursue or anything, it comes through one of the storylines. But even without the romance it's still really fascinating. Other thing to consider is recruiting demons, SMT pretty much made every learning curve steep, and then once you get through it, it slightly eases off. Recruiting is exactly like everything else, once you've figured out how to recruit some demons it largely helps with recruiting the rest.

But if you can make it through the first two (Maybe three) Boss Battles you generally know how to play the game. I think in that respect that if you've played Nocturne or the previous games, which I hadn't, you know exactly what you need to do and so the first levels aren't too bad but for beginners they decided to immerse you in the game rather than let you think you know everything then just raise the difficulty by 9000.

Also, always save before a boss fight/whenever you get low health. Or every 10 minutes or so. Because death is pretty much always around the corner.

 

I haven't played SMT IV or Shadows or the Labryinth but I have played Persona 3 portable and I'm currently playing Persona 4 Golden.

To get some context on my opinion I don't really play a ton of jrpgs. My experience playing them is basically summed up to the original pokemon games and occasionally watching my friends play Final Fantasy.

These games are freakin great. Honestly I shouldn't even give these games the time of day. I dislike turn based combat but in these games it just clicks. For me I think its the similarity to pokemon and how the different personas interact that hooks me. I like the intricacy of building my team and personas to be able to take on any challenge.

But as good as the combat is, what makes these games unique is the Social Link system. On the surface it seems like a stupid visual novel dating sim but it is so much more than that. The bonds that the character makes in that game directly affect the personas you can create. Fusing personas of a particular arcana/social link will give them a massive boost in XP and power. I honestly can't think of a game that does anything similar.

I second Menace's suggestion to play 3 and 4. I'm honestly a bit turned off from Q now that I know its so different from the other games. But I feel like I should warn you that 60 hours is on the low side of how long these games are. I didn't even finish 3 and I'm pretty sure my playtime was over 80 hours long and 4 looks like its going to be similarly long.

If I ever get a New 3DS XL I'll probably give SMT IV a shot though. I've heard nothing but good things about it.

Also here's the Persona 5 trailer cause it hasn't been posted yet.

TL;DR: Persona is an amazing mix between Pokemon and a complex visual novel dating sim. People even vaguely interested in it should give it a shot.

 

If you're a tactical/strategy rpg fan, you should definitely pick up SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked as well and Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker when it comes out in May.

If you want to get a feel for those two games, you can try out their DS counterparts. Those two are technically remakes for 3DS, though they added full voiceovers as well as adding in new demons, new skills, and new endings/battles. Supposedly Record Breaker will add about as much new content as the original game had.

Edit: For those of you with a 3DS, Atlus frequently has sales on its games in the eshop. They just had a sale very recently, like a week or so ago but I wouldn't be surprised to see another sale sometime in mid-late March. $15 each for SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked and SMT: IV.

 

Playing SMT 4 as well for the first time. Not my first rodeo, though.
I've played (but couldn't finish thanks to a computer crash deleting my save files) Nocturne, DDS 1, and P2:EP, and finished SJ, DeSu 1 and 2, P3, P4.
I even started on DemiKids, but couldn't get through it.
Will probably start on Raidou if I get bored and have shittons of free time again.

Chaos best route, Law can fuck off.

 

SMT Nocturne is a fantastic, fantastic game that will literally take you a minimum of 40 hours to play, and thats only if you dont get sucked into making an awesome party.

I think my first play through was like 110 hours.

PS2 game, a really great story line, great gameplay, and tons of fun. When 99.999% of tyhe enemies you see including bosses can join your team (I think the reason-end bosses+samael are the only ones you CAN'T get), you can make fun diverse teams.


If you can find it as well, there's an old gameboy Megami Tensei game that was a blast as well, for the GBC- Revelations: The Demon Slayer.

 

Actually Etrian Odyssey is based off the original SMT games. First person moving in directions isn't limited to that. Just look at Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey for another first person maze style game in the series that's recent.

 

The bit you quoted wasn't wrong. Persona Q is "A spinoff of the Persona series, which itself is a subset of the Megami Tensei series, combining characters and elements from both Persona 3 and Persona 4, with gameplay elements from the Etrian Odyssey series." (Link)

It's got Etrian Odyssey on the box, basically, regardless of where EQ's gameplay style came from.

I can't stop the hype train, man. Persona 5 looks so good. It looks SO GOOD.

 

Just because it doesn't talk about the older games doesn't mean I'm wrong either. Which sounds better? "This game plays like another successful series we have." or "Like the original games from the early 90s."?

Also your link here leads to DLP's 404 page.

 

So making this partially inspired me to finish the last leg of the game (SMT IV) and I fucked up.

Spoiler

I ended up in the spot that's too neutral, as in whichever choice you make, you can't get the neutral ending because you're either lawful or chaotic. So I'm stuck having to choose one unless this Shinjuku demon quest has an alignment option.

Monsters I'm using

Anat: Lvl68
Abaddon: 65
Asmodeus: 59
Nidhoggr: 62

 

Shin Megami Tensei IV is currently on sale on the eshop for $14.99, if anyone is interested.

 

Store down for anyone else?

 

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked is on sale on the e-shop for $14.99, in case anyone is interested.

 

Y'know, now that I think about it, if you disregard the combat system DeSu 1 sometimes felt more like a 'real' SMT game than IV did.
Shame DeSu2's story isn't as good. Let's not mention the anime.

 

I just picked up Persona 3 for the first time (yes, I know...) last week. Going to be going on a binge of this series now, I do believe.

 

Fair warning, the persona games only get easier and more light hearted the more recent you get - and that the very hard mode on P4Golden is absolute bullshit, only thing it does is turn EXP gain and money down as low as they go.

Also since I was on /v/ speaking on this subject when I should have been doing something else Virtual Bros before virtual hoes.

 

We'll see. P5 looks like it could get dark.

 

Yeah, my only experience with the series before Persona 3 Portable was the original SMT game on the SNES. Difficulty of the former isn't even within the same star system as the latter. But I'm enjoying it nonetheless. The Social Link system is as much fun as the dungeon crawling.