The Persona (and Shin Megami Tensei) Thread

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The Persona (and Shin Megami Tensei) Thread

Post by sigmatic » Tue Dec 17, 2019 7:34 am

One of my favorite JPRG series is the Persona series, a spin-off series from Shin Megami Tensei. For those who are unfamiliar with both: most SMT games are JRPG's in which you summon demons in a world (about to be) destroyed, aligning yourself with the forces of Chaos, Law, or somewhere inbetween. This is heavily generalized of course as the series is very diverse in all of its spin-offs, most evident in the Persona series where you instead attend a Japanese highschool, while defeating Shadows in your off-time with Personas (and listening the absolute bangers the OST consists of :rosecool: ). The Persona games make heavy use of Jungian philosophy and tarot motifs.



While Persona 1 and 2 were pretty popular on their own, the series really broke through with Persona 3 which heavily shook up the game flow. Where the earlier games played more like SMT with different themes, in 3 you now play through almost the entire calendar of 2009 - 2010. Your days are divided into your school days and the Dark Hour where all of the combat takes place. You have free control over whether you want to hang out with your school pals, study or investigate Tartarus, the tower your school turns into during the Dark Hour (an extra hour hidden at midnight, not sensed by most people). Originally released on the PS2, it later saw an updated re-release in the form of Persona 3: FES (feature enhanced edition, again released for the PS2) and Persona 3: Portable (notable for it's addition of a female main character, released on the PSP)



Released not long after P3, Persona 4 mostly has the same flow as it's predecessor but is distinctly different in tone. In Persona 4 you move to the sleepy town of Inaba where you soon find yourself trying to solve a serial murder case by jumping into a foggy TV world. Yet again you are given free reign on whether to pursue relationships with others or combat Shadows in the TV world to save potential victims from being killed before the deadline rolls around. It saw a re-release on the Vita known as Persona 4 Golden and an (in)famously large number of other spin-offs.



The most recent "main" installment of the series, Persona 5, has you lead a team of Phantom Thieves in pursuit of changing the distorted hearts of corrupt humans by infiltrating "Palaces" in the Metaverse (a place molded by the cognition of mankind, where those with strongly warped desires subconciously create large fortresses themed around their cognition called Palaces) and steal the Treasures which lie at the heart of these Palaces. Also found in the Metaverse is Mementos, a seemingly neverending journey down the distorted Tokyo subway effectively serving as the collective palace for everyone. This setup creates a sort of blend between the deadline-focused flow of Persona 4 and the exploration of Tartarus in Persona 3. Orignally intended to release on the PS3, it was delayed multiple times, eventually finding itself on the PS4 alongside the PS3. P5 too is currently getting more and more spin-offs, one of which yet another re-release called Persona 5 Royal, slated for a release coming march in the West.


What are y'alls thoughts on Persona (and SMT)? Which are your favourite and least favourite? Have you played other SMT games? Which game's themes resonate the most with you? Do Persona 1 and 2 even exist? Does SMT 5 even exist?
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Re: The Persona (and Shin Megami Tensei) Thread

Post by galileanTactician » Tue Dec 17, 2019 9:00 am

SMT V is gonna be a Dancing Game. Sorry kiddos, I don't make the rules!
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Re: The Persona (and Shin Megami Tensei) Thread

Post by sigmatic » Tue Dec 17, 2019 9:12 am

galileanTactician wrote:
Tue Dec 17, 2019 9:00 am
SMT V is gonna be a Dancing Game. Sorry kiddos, I don't make the rules!
Now I want this, if only for the nuclear fallout that would occur :cal:
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Re: The Persona (and Shin Megami Tensei) Thread

Post by classpectanon » Tue Dec 17, 2019 2:34 pm

SMT V WHEN
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Re: The Persona (and Shin Megami Tensei) Thread

Post by galileanTactician » Tue Dec 17, 2019 2:56 pm

classpectanon wrote:
Tue Dec 17, 2019 2:34 pm
SMT V WHEN
Soon™
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Re: The Persona (and Shin Megami Tensei) Thread

Post by sigmatic » Tue Dec 17, 2019 3:17 pm

what do you mean i've been playing it for the past few weeks

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Re: The Persona (and Shin Megami Tensei) Thread

Post by aspiringWatcher » Sun Jan 29, 2023 2:53 pm

I played the fuck out of P4G and it was a damn good game. It could be a bit more difficult but honestly, I enjoyed it and the character arcs felt genuine. (That said, Atlus should make use of the bleeding-edge technology to be able to take character development into account, seeing as it's not 3 where it's obligatory.)

I loved P4 Animation. Did I like how the game wrap up? Yes. Did I think that the anime one-up it in that department? Also yes.

I've also touched P1 but I kinda struggle with focusing on it and HAVING A RANDOM ENCOUNTER EVERY TEN SECONDS.

I would play P5R if Atlus fucking allowed me to do so.
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Re: The Persona (and Shin Megami Tensei) Thread

Post by eidolonYaldabaoth » Wed Mar 01, 2023 6:51 am

aspiringWatcher wrote:
Sun Jan 29, 2023 2:53 pm
I would play P5R if Atlus fucking allowed me to do so.
Isn't P5R on every console, now?
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Re: The Persona (and Shin Megami Tensei) Thread

Post by turochamp » Sat Sep 09, 2023 1:22 pm

I'm playing P5 right now and only on the first castle, my friend assures me the misogyny gets less bad as the game goes on lol. i think so far it seems fun to classpect so i'll keep thinking about that as I play.
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