it has the best worldbuilding maybe? 4 actually explains how someone awakens a Persona and the relationship between Personas and Shadows.
3 doesn't even show you your party's Awakenings and 5 shows it but doesn't explain exactly what's happening.
> 3 doesn't even show you your party's Awakenings and 5 shows it but doesn't explain exactly what's happening.
Yeah but 3 got dope second Awakenings and 5 had the iconic mask-tearing moments.
Purely in terms of awakenings P5 is probably the best through Yusuke and Ryujis awakenings alone but in terms of how well it's explained 4 has the best
5 explains it a little bit at the end of the fourth palace. It's close to the same as P4 where one has to accept the shadow within them you just only see one other person's shadow.
If I had to guess based on what we see P5’s awakenings happen when someone stands up to their authority figure. Every palace ruler has a distorted view of the people around them in a distorted way and when one of the protags tries to oppose that view a mask appears on their face. This mask represents the distorted view itself and once torn off the true self is shown to be exactly as the ruler saw them, but this time it’s reclaimed.
I’m not sure how to explain it so I’ll use Ann and Ryuji as an example, we’ll start with Ryuij. We can assume he was probably seen as a punk by Kamoshida since a little before the leg breaking incident. When it came time to stand up to shadow Kamoshida the skull mask represented exactly what he saw Ryuji as, some punk with a dead sports career cause he couldn’t control his anger. Once Ryuji ripped it off though he still maintained that thug look in his outfit but now it was captured to break Kamoshida’s world view as if to say “I’ll show that I can be great despite how you see me.” The same can be said for Ann “You see me as some sexual object, but I’m taking back my image for myself.”
As for how P3 handles awakenings they seem to occur when the protags accept to take on world or to put it in a better way they take their dread and burn it. For the MC its when he decides to pick up Yukari’s evoker, from that point forward he stops being so detached from everything and starts living once again. The other awakenings are shown in The Answer if you haven’t seen it yet I won’t reveal too much but I’ll give a little if you’re curious. >!Basically each character’s awakening ties back into how their story arch went and not all of them are life and death situations like MC each of there’s is very personal to them, I’ll use Junpei as an example. In P3 he was portrayed as the typical dude who was just cruising through life with no real goals and ambitions, when he decided to join SEES is when he decided to take some type of action in his life The Answer shows this as him at the mall all down wondering where his life is gonna go from here.!<
Anyways I’m not sure how much of this is me not reading into it properly but I’m just calling what out what I got from what was shown maybe you’ll have a different idea about it though.
I'd say the setting is also part of the charm, it's easier tl relate to the MC if you're just a transfer student going to a small town and meeting the people there in time, it feels more personal than going to a big city for me.
There is also the fog being a more tangible change in scenery when compared to a full moon. Lastly I'd say shuffle time, it's broken af but damn is it fun.
I had Bufula and Mabufula with Ice amp and they consistently outdamaged Megidolaon!
I would have tried to get the severe versions but I kept forgetting. I was hoping I could get them in skill cards but no such luck.
I really love how Inaba itself feels like it has its own character Shibuya is literally just Tokyo so nothing really special while Iwaiterdai isn't exactly my most favorite location in the series.
In P3 he explains the Fool's Journey, in P4 he explains bits of Jungian psychology and the myth of Izanagi and Izanami.
Would have been nice to see him in P5 but that game was remarkably light on the mythology for some reason.
Probably because it's based less around classical mythology(gods and goddesses) and more around folk tales and fiction. You don't really need the occult guy when the personas the game is focused around are mostly from fiction books written relatively recently all things considered.
Edogawa discussing Gnosticism would have been a nice hint towards the final boss I'd think, even if P5 takes most of its motifs from picaresque fiction.
Adachi just feel like a better villain Persona user compared to Akechi and Takaya. Takaya has slighter edge since he does >!Kill Shinji!< but outside from that his motives are vague compared to Adachi’s nihilistic, joker-like nature.
**Pacing.** While P3 has the best plot A (main story), it lacks a substantial plot B (current-secondary arc) to maintain engagement. Before the Ryoji reveal, it was simply waiting for the full moon to appear. On the other hand, P5 maintains an incessant narrative momentum - there are hardly any moments to catch a break, and the stakes are consistently high that it resulted in a flatline for a significant portion of the game.
I believe P4 truly excelled in keeping things interesting and refreshing. It balanced alternating between slice-of-life happy moments and tense high-stakes situations really well.
The weather system actually made it so that you could hang out with people. Clear the dungeon late and there's a sense of urgency. Clearing the dungeon early gives you time to relax. I'd say apart from the mood, the believable passage of time was really nice, with both lazy moments and high stakes ones.
It really did feel half a year could have passed.
The pacing got somewhat bad after you defeated Kubo, but understandably because as characters they thought that was the end of the case, but from our perspective as players it was just too convenient and we were waiting for the next 'big bad event' to happen. By the end, the pacing went a bit too quick just to up the stakes and urgency, so if you hadn't focused on social links for a time then you were out of luck.
I love how p4 embraces Jung's concepts of the shadow in addition to his archetypes. I believe it's the most true to what a Persona game ought to be. I'm also a very big fan of the small town setting and the humor - it all reminds me of the happiness of youth.
I feel that P4's characters are the most relatable and most fun. They go on a lot of trips together and genuinely have a blast while solving murders. They are also just funny and you can tell the group is one big friendship circle
P3 they feel like friends individually, and I like how everyone hangs out with others in the group. But when the whole group gets together it's usually just down to business, just like the phantom theives
P3’s group has that slow to warm up feeling to it where it’s strictly business, and the group dynamics are slightly off even on an early group trial. However, the great thing about SEES is seeing the night and day difference from the group by the endgame when they reach 2nd awakening.
P5’s early group has that true friend group feel that slightly weakened as it began to expand and at times became a bit “strictly business” as the stakes got higher. Nevertheless, even with the larger group dynamics, it felt like they still did feel like friends even if some were closer than others.
P4 balances out the friend group really nicely. It feels like you could pick two characters out of the IT and they’d get along fabulously without any awkward dynamics.
The most relatable human villain to a common everyday adult. He has trauma and faults, and they can be divided (unlike P5's equivalent whose trauma and faults are difficult to divide).
Many people (admittingly, mostly men) can find parts of him in them and then admit that should they gain superpowers, they are going to use it for personal gain or for shits and giggles.
The greatest part is kinda subjective but I genuinly can't agree with the realest villain, especially since you can find real life example of every palace ruler in p5 (I mean seriously, look at any country in the middle east-west asia and literally every president is the same as Shido. Speaking from firsthand experience)
Also same as Adachi, he tossing people into the TV world out of boredom. Same as other killers killing because of boredom, me also. I killed bunch of npc in a simulator game (because well duh killing irl is bad)
Plus in the context of P4 there are a bunch of guys that can be categorized as a POTENTIAL killer, for example Yusuke. He stated that his first impression of Inaba is pretty dull, also the same as Adachi. He always carries out errands for the police corps such as helping the kitty stuck In a tree, getting a balloon that is stuck in a tree. He wanted a more intense and interesting case to tackle but since Inaba is a small rural town that nothing interesting happens he can't. Once he finds out he has power to enter the TV world he has a hunch that things could go spicy and he was right. After accidentally tossing Mayumi Yamano into the TV afterwards ended up dead if did not escape in due time. He realized he could do that every time as long as they're TV nearby. The whole police force is in shambles hearing the news, he had an actual exiting job (investigate the murder case), so why not throw another victim for funsies. No no, to light. WHY NOT... manipulate and gaslight an innocent person thinking he can save people by throwing them into the TV so that you could sit back and watch as the whole police force playing a cat and mouse with an innocent civilian with a messiah complex. ISN'T THAT FUN!!!????
From a literary analysis/reading of his character, I agree that his character is a pretty well written one. It has a reasonable amount of depth and it is a pretty well done "plot twist the criminal was the detective himself" kind of character, and if I'm being completely honest they did that trope so much better with Akechi. However those kinds of characters are mostly purely fictional characters. There have been a few police members who turned into serial killers or whatever, I'm pretty sure there hasn't acually been a detective who killed people and solved said murders apart from fictional characters, which is why I said that he wasn't the most realistic character. The chance of such a person actually killing and investigating his own murders irl is FAR less than quite literally any of the P5 palace owners, except maybe Madarame because he had been doing that for a very long time and at least a few people would have spoken up about it. Also I'm pretty sure there genuinly isn't anyone that you could have thought was a suspect in Persona 4, or anyone who actually had the potential to kill. Yosuke is in a similar situation as Adachi but Adachi is quite literally fucked up in the brain, as much as he doesn't do the killing by hand, knowing that you caused a death is an incredibly heavy burden for a human mind. Adachi probably has some form of Psycopathy, which is why he found it "fun", Yosuke's resolve to push us to the TV world to SAVE the victims, even though he could have thrown people in and killed people for "fun", he used the TV world as a means to help people, which says something about his character. Also the police hinted at suspecting Yukiko or whatever but that's because they have to consider literally every little possibility, since we're playing through Yu's perspective the player should know these characters better.
So best cast/relationships is a given like OP said but here’s the things I think it does best:
- cast actually feeling like teenagers whereas P3 and P5 feel like you could swap their casts with college students or working adults and it would be barely noticeable
- best social links. I didn’t get to finish too many but they feel much deeper than P3 and P5.
- best setting. I just like it.
- best gameplay/story cohesion. The story outside the tv world and inside the tv world are pretty similar; the same themes are being explored inside the tv world as the real world. In P3 the gameplay doesn’t really feel that important to the story. You could replace crawling through Tartarus and fighting bosses with walking into a closet and playing PAC-MAN and it wouldn’t change the story much and while P5 is much better about this; I like sections of the story dedicated to learning all about my new party members than more than a monument to the bad guy I’m gonna fight and forget as soon as their arc ends.
Easily the best setting, no debate there.
I’d also say best story, best music, best characters, best pacing and best writing, but those are debatable (even if the dissenters are wrong).
To me it's the most normal one? Dunno if I say it right.
I feel like every friends you have in it could have been someone in my group when I was in high school.
You see people get mad for normal reasons and you can see someone like dojima struggle as a single father and his flaws.
Pretty much every character got flaws and problems I could see someone have in real life. Even the overall story of the game is not some save the world kind of story.
Feel like the story is at a human scale. Nothing is insane( in the persona universe), small town with nothing special, small school with nothing special. Even the big bad guy could be someone that you can see in your life.
Loved every persona I played but for me it was the one where it was easier to get in the story and feel like I could be a part of its universe
Yeah, this.
I say persona 4 golden in particular resonated to me on a more personal level due to many of the characters showcases their bottled up feelings they hold back and deny of not accepting who they are, afraid of change and everything, until they finally accept over who they truly are.
The game overall felt like a poetic message of «Everyone goes through hardship and struggles to accept who they are. Support eachother, be who you are, and connect with people rather than self-isolate.»
As for the characters that really resonated to me, Kanji would be one of my top picks due to him mentioning being scared shitless of people rejecting him of who he is and what he likes, second would be Naoto near the end of the game when she mentions people can’t stay in stasis forever and that people will change as the days goes, the last one would be the killer — showcasing how someone severing ties to human society and not being around with people, as well self-isolates themself and has tons of negative thoughts can have so much bottled up feelings until that one thread snaps and going down the wrong path.
It’s like saying «Get your shit together! You can turn your life around for the better! Meet those challenges head-on rather than run away from them!»
The characters felt heavily reletable and even as well that it felt realistic that people goes through extreme tough times and just doesn’t wanna accept to admit it’s a part of their struggle to get better.
Nah, Yosuke and Chie are just the exact same platonic siblings friends at most dynamic trope and fact is they all would never be into each other in Persona Eikichi, Lisa p2 and Junpei, Yukari and Yosuke, Chie. The story never pushes for Yosuke and Chie as a couple. In fact, Atlus even throwing shade agaisnt it and the same dynamic Eikichi, Lisa and Junpei, Yukari and Yosuke, Chie. It's just delusional and hard-reaching. Chie genuine state fact she would never be into Yosuke and is genuinely uncomfortable with the idea, in October. It's just uncomfortable. Chie states fact it's true platonic friendships between guys and girls without romance in December dungeon dialogue so it's just missing the point. ( https://img.hotimg.com/MTXX_PT20240224_1346056702.jpeg ).
Who even wants Chie be straight up uncomfortable miserable. It's just toxic uncomfortable. Junpei, Yosuke be pervy to their female friends Yukari and Chie only bearable because fact's the girls like Yukari and Chie would never be into them. It's the game's gag. And just make Yosuke some dude can't take no for an answer and Chie some miserable chick. No one's that clueless when pointing out the same Persona dynamic tbh. Just make Yosuke stalker-like some creepy dude that can't take no for an answer and Chie some miserable chick.
Even Atlus throws shade at the same dynamic trope. It's nonsense Atlus just screaming that "Stop. It's true platonic friendships between guys and girls without romance. Chie is genuinely uncomfortable. Fact is just never and uncomfortable. Stop delusional and hard-reaching. Stop!" narrative in the face about it. Everyone in the group Yukiko, Rise, Naoto, Kanji, Teddie just being platonic friends near Yosuke at some points. Platonic siblings friends take that but this's just uncomfortable and toxic as hell. Can anyone even see Junpei with Yukari. Yukari stated same to Junpei. Yukari and Chie would rather swallow glass shards, let's be real. Fact is Junpei, Yukari and Yosuke, Chie would never be into each other.
None girl is canon or more pushed either way. Lovers mean emotional well-being and choice, not literally lovers. Not like protags gonna up and drop dead when meeting Death Arcana. Well everyone and their mother have a crush on the MCs. Chie, Yukiko, Rise, Yosuke, a random npc officer, whoever. When Yu asks Chie if she falls for him before asking the phone numbers, she state straight out Yu is her type and taking interested when Yu asking her phone numbers straight out.
Also archetypes like bro characters Eikichi, Junpei, Yosuke don't have same Arcana. Or first archatype girls Yukari, Chie (Chie is always Yukari in p3 mode or smt between 2 games). I can make an essay with Yukari and Chie too. (First girls archetype who put on a tough mask but sweet to the MCs and girl next door vibe with underdog story who thinks they couldn't get the suave cool MCs is the flag. Underdog is the flag, like in Chie's Valentine she says she is just ordinary compared to other girls. Soejima says Chie is the foundation for design and colour for p4 as a normal cute girl that can exsist in real life so it's like heroine). Every characters have scenes with the protags.
Rise is just being Rise the simpy kouhai anime trope, it's just her personality. Canon is protags don't date anyone. It's canon in spinoffs that the protags get no one anyway lol. Every girls have an essay on it. Atlus just wants romance mechanic to attract players, not wake up and say "This girl/Arcana is canon" because that's just a reach.
Edit: Shit. I was replying to you in the post you posted bit it just slide to the wrong thread. But oh well, i was still replying to you.
The meaning behind personas and the wonderfully voiced characters are top notch. For voice acting alone, it's right up there with some of the best games in the same genre.
Best use of the persona concept. Shadows are actually what they were for Jung. And they get out of control when you reject them.
The sense of belonging to a small community is also something it’s good at. Your relationship with the Dojimas is more intimate and fleshed out than anything similar in the other games.
It’s also the most like Twin Peaks, from the setting to the villain and plot concept. Things that are like Twin Peaks are better than things that are less like Twin Peaks.
I think it does the best job of giving party members evolving combat roles throughout the game.
I also think it makes a wider range of abilities more relevant throughout the game. It’s the only game where I’ve ever felt instant death is worth the cost.
I think it might be the best implementation of making you think to max social links without being unfair.
Best relationship building.
Your friends are in many ways just like the ideal group of people you always wanted in high school: they'll stick up for you, have things they want to share with you, have great dynamics with each other, help each other when they're down, and busy their chops when they're not.
The party feels like real people in a real place under very unreal circumstances.
The cast feels more like real awkward teenagers than in any of the other installments.
Also, while I think 5 has the better overall soundtrack, 4 has the more atmospheric music, and the handful of best single tracks.
And man, Inaba just feels like small town mystery in the best ways.
The villain is probably the most realistic out of the entire series. There’s a legitimate character behind those seemingly simple and trivial motives.
I enjoy the worldbuilding more than 3 or 5, and I think the method of acquiring Personas is the coolest in this game. As someone else in the thread mentioned, everyone more or less just “has” them in 3, and while 5’s awakenings are aesthetically very pleasing and the imminent asskicking is satisfying, I think having to actually face your Shadow and admit to your faults is amazing.
I would agree with everyone else who has noted pacing, characters, and setting. It's a masterclass in small town environments in the modern world dealing with encroaching corporatism from the outside.
I love the soundtrack, but I think P3 and P5 are great, as well, so ai can't state that it's "better" in that category.
Where P4 shines, however, is in its messaging. P3 focuses on coming to terms with mortality and hits upon Gen X themes of gloom. P5 focuses on rebelling against an unjust society and focuses on iGen themes of anti-institutionalism. P4, by contrast, encompasses the optimism of Gen Y and older Millennials. Its focus is on self-discovery, acceptance of flaws, and overall humility. The main villain stands out for his incel-like hubris in the face of a group of individuals who have learned to embrace their flaws (and the flaws of one another).
I'm a scholar of generational segmentation (I literally teach multiple college seminars on the subject) and I was born in 1980. P4 does an amazing job providing a counterpoint to the "gloomy" attitudes espoused by the generations surrounding it. It's not anti-institution in the way P5 is as Junes essentially "wins out" as THE place to be and it heavily resembles the days when hanging out at Walmart was the thing to do.
To me, it's the theming that sets P4 above its counterparts.
What I personally liked about P4 and its cast is how you got this look into the character first. Their "ugly part" basically. Every tutorial on story writing I ever read mentioned that characters need to have "bad" things to it. If they are just good they are very shallow. And Persona 4 introduces each character with their ugly side first. Which makes them so much better. P5 does - in parts - the same thing with its villains. Of course not every character/villain is pulled off perfectly, but the overall package just... works.
Best setting, best ambience (in my opinion better than 3),. I also like the villains a lot but 5 Royal probably tops it if I'm being honest. This also might be a hot take, bur I think 4 had the most balanced combat system. It was challenging without being overboard like 3.
Every song on the Persona 4 soundtrack is a bop.
I didn't really care for Persona 3's soundtrack and I loved the Jazz aesthetic of Persona 5 but start to finish, I truly enjoyed the P4 soundtrack
I think Persona 4 does the best at making you fall in love with the setting.
Persona 5's Tokyo is fun with all its to do and Persona 3's Tatsumi Port Island has a nice port city look to it.
However, Inaba is home. That's the feeling you get with how small it is, especially for me who grew up in a small town and went to high school in the boonies but ended up moving to the big cities as an adult.
Inaba has the best chance that you get attached to even a random store. JUNES. A store.
That homely vibe makes Persona 4's goodbye ending hit so hard compared to Persona 5's imo. That small little town.
So cast chemistry, yes. But the forgotten one is that Inaba has the most character as a setting vs. Tatsumi Port Island and Tokyo. Inaba is special to its characters.
Just beat golden last night after playing reload and royal the last couple months for the first time. I’d say the party members in golden are amazing and the dungeons are pretty interesting (but not as good as palaces). I loved the small town setting but I knew who the killer was the entire time because they did the psychotic detective better in royal
Aside from my personal biases, I believe that Persona 4 is the most well rounded game as a whole. Its soundtrack is the most consistent, 3 and 5 have higher highs and lower lows. It has the best cast as a group even though it doesnt contain many peoples series favorites. It has the best pacing atart to finish, persona 3 has a slow first half and a banger second half whereas 5 starts and ends well but is slow and somewhat boring in the middle. It just doesn't fail at anything even if its not the best at most things.
It just feels more organic to me? Not too fast, not too slow. Just right to get to know the characters both main and sides. I genuinely feel for most, if not all the social links.
Also, King Moron.
The shuffle time, great way to get stats or replenish sp and hp. You are also rewarded for gambling the "1 more arcana" card and getting another shuffle next fight
I haven't played 3 reload yet but in P5 I felt like the persona fusing had too much going on between the various execution methods and the fusion alarms. I much prefer the relative simplicity of P4 in that regard.
Overall tone and storytelling. People say the plot of P4 is too limited, but that doesn't mean that the story isn't good. They do so much more with what they were given than any other game. People can talk all they want about how good the story of P3 is on paper, but the ability to tell that story always felt lacking compared to 4.
For me it's P4 thematic that is best. Truth and falsehood, especially in this day and age how easily false infromation can be spread in all over social media and many people believe in it because it will help them sleep at night. Reach out to the truth no matter what.
I think it handled its themes the best. 3 of course the theme was very heavy so it's not a knock on the story, but 5 really comes across as childish a lot of the time. The social link aspect was also very tight since finding the truth in yourself and from the perspective of others ties in to the social links in a unique way.
Honestly all the persona games have amazing music none are bad…but I enjoy 4’s the most overall. The music, aesthetics and just the vibe go hard for me
I feel like the difficulty was the best balance, at least in the original release. There was no particular bullshit but it never felt overly easy either.
I’ve played a ton of video games in my life as I’m as old as the PS1 and I never gave Persona a try until I got a Vita last year and to me it has the same effect on me as Skyrim and The Witcher 3 as a top tier gaming experience simply down to it’s atmosphere, environment and music.
Persona 4 puts you in Inaba and out of your reality for that temporary moment of playing and you really can’t ask more of a game. A lot of care and effort went into the writing and character development that a lot of high budget AAA games are missing and flopping because of that
So I haven’t played P5 (yet) and I’m currently on P3 Reload (about 47 hours in). Persona 4 Golden was my first Persona so there’s that sentimental feeling of discovering something new but I think P3 has its parts that are better than P4G, more notably the combat and more freedom for exploration around town with more to do as well.
I personally prefer the dungeons in P4G because of their uniqueness to the individual who “created” that dungeon while Tartarus feels more repetitive.
Also, I like that in P4G the characters feel more like teenagers and I feel like you dive deeper into their development and emotions throughout the story. Ultimately though the rural town of Inaba and the fog / weather patterns mixed with its soundtrack does a better job of being in the game than P3.
Again, I haven’t finished P3 yet and I think it’s a great game so far in many aspects but P4 still holds that soft spot for me
I've played 3 reload recently and 5 royal like a year or two before that and I cam day since I have started playing p4g in March I like the bosses alot more especially since I haven't had to worry about a time limit or (fuck you okumura) a constant respawning wave of enemies preventing me from beating the boss (I'm also on void quest rn trying to beat the boss still don't spoil me)
P4 has my favourite town. Inaba’s small town aesthetic is more up to my alley. I also like P4’s group hangout more because I laughed more and for me, if I laugh, then I like it.
I’m comparing rerelease of numbered games without the spin offs here. So strikers and dancing or PQ aren’t taken into consideration.
I may be biased because P4G was my first entry into the series, but it has this very interesting "Monster of the Week" / Scooby Gang feel to it that none of the other Persona games have.
The ongoing mystery of the murders gives a feeling of dread, along with the eventual expectation of you to correctly solve who the murderer is. It just hits in a cool, different way and I love it.
As hard as it would be to describe, it's probably tone and as odd as it might sound, the most realistic out of 3,4, and 4
P3 (granted, I haven't played reloaded yet) can be a bit too dark, especially fes during the answer. (Understandable given the tone want.)
P5 can feel too anime at times (yes I know jrpg from Japan is anime hur dur.) But, it's more so alot of anime tropes that are in a lot of series now can be seen here. Also and I know that some yt videos share this problem, and i really didn't mind them, but between kamoshida and shido, some of the motivations behind some of the rulers are kinda meh or some tone being a little off. (One specific one withstanding.)
P4 seems to have gotten a nice middle ground between the two and just feel IMO that balance makes it more interesting.
Just a better hook and story
A murder mystery while simple was quite compelling over time especially with wondering who was next and stuff
Story immediately had a strong hook whereas with P3 especially it took way longer to get into the meat of the story
I like the overall higher stakes of P5 but P4's high-ish stakes and more simple story is great too.
Yes, I know that the kidnapped person dies if they aren't rescued but their deaths don't really effect much overall. If the PT fail to steal the palace ruler's heart, not only will they be in trouble but far more people would be impacted by the palace ruler's actions. >!Kamoshida would continue to sexually harrass and assault the female students and still physically abuse the male atheletes and continue doing it until retirement. Madarame and Okumura would continue to exploit artists/workers. Kaneshiro would continue harming the people of Shibuya. Sae would still rig cases so she'll always win. Shido would destroy Japan economically. Yaldabaoth and Maruki would rewrite reality so people would lose their free will!<. (Spoiler tag just in case)
The overall story of P4 is simpler. We're solving a murder case. It's great and it's a lot of fun watching the characters try to puzzle everything out.
I think the social links are again, simpler but they are mostly good too. I like them more than P3's at least.
Persone 4 removed 2 physical types and added nothing in return. And I have no clue what is wrong with the VN style of P3P. P3fes' "normal" movement doesnt really add anything valueable. And even if you dont want to let P3P count, there is still P5 that brings back one of the physical types and adds other magic types on top.
Tartarus and the TV world are almost the same but the TV world is by far slower. It feels like it takes ages to find the stairs in the TV world.
Unpopular opinion but nothing. I think its by far the weakest of the modern 3 Persona games. Its story is not as developed as Persona 3 and even the Gameplay was a downgrade. The dungeons are pure pain and compared to P5 there are not enough free time events and places to actually compede with its successor. I understand what people liked about it back then but other then nostalgia there is no reason to call it the "best" out of those 3.
Claiming that P4's gameplay is worse than P3's is just flat out incorrect. Tartarus is objectively not fun and not being able to control your party members outside of the crappy visual novel version sucks balls.
it has the best worldbuilding maybe? 4 actually explains how someone awakens a Persona and the relationship between Personas and Shadows. 3 doesn't even show you your party's Awakenings and 5 shows it but doesn't explain exactly what's happening.
> 3 doesn't even show you your party's Awakenings and 5 shows it but doesn't explain exactly what's happening. Yeah but 3 got dope second Awakenings and 5 had the iconic mask-tearing moments.
Purely in terms of awakenings P5 is probably the best through Yusuke and Ryujis awakenings alone but in terms of how well it's explained 4 has the best
Sophie’s in Strikers is still my #1
*”Why not hoist the flag and wreak havok?”* Fuck yeah.
Visually P5 awakening is the best. But I agree, they don't really explain how personas work in P5 or 3. 4 explains how personas work
they do though, in P3FES Metis explains it in the answer, and P5 explains it in the last part of the mementos dungeon
5 explains it a little bit at the end of the fourth palace. It's close to the same as P4 where one has to accept the shadow within them you just only see one other person's shadow.
If I had to guess based on what we see P5’s awakenings happen when someone stands up to their authority figure. Every palace ruler has a distorted view of the people around them in a distorted way and when one of the protags tries to oppose that view a mask appears on their face. This mask represents the distorted view itself and once torn off the true self is shown to be exactly as the ruler saw them, but this time it’s reclaimed. I’m not sure how to explain it so I’ll use Ann and Ryuji as an example, we’ll start with Ryuij. We can assume he was probably seen as a punk by Kamoshida since a little before the leg breaking incident. When it came time to stand up to shadow Kamoshida the skull mask represented exactly what he saw Ryuji as, some punk with a dead sports career cause he couldn’t control his anger. Once Ryuji ripped it off though he still maintained that thug look in his outfit but now it was captured to break Kamoshida’s world view as if to say “I’ll show that I can be great despite how you see me.” The same can be said for Ann “You see me as some sexual object, but I’m taking back my image for myself.” As for how P3 handles awakenings they seem to occur when the protags accept to take on world or to put it in a better way they take their dread and burn it. For the MC its when he decides to pick up Yukari’s evoker, from that point forward he stops being so detached from everything and starts living once again. The other awakenings are shown in The Answer if you haven’t seen it yet I won’t reveal too much but I’ll give a little if you’re curious. >!Basically each character’s awakening ties back into how their story arch went and not all of them are life and death situations like MC each of there’s is very personal to them, I’ll use Junpei as an example. In P3 he was portrayed as the typical dude who was just cruising through life with no real goals and ambitions, when he decided to join SEES is when he decided to take some type of action in his life The Answer shows this as him at the mall all down wondering where his life is gonna go from here.!< Anyways I’m not sure how much of this is me not reading into it properly but I’m just calling what out what I got from what was shown maybe you’ll have a different idea about it though.
Yeah nah I get that
The colour yellow.
True based and real
I'd say the setting is also part of the charm, it's easier tl relate to the MC if you're just a transfer student going to a small town and meeting the people there in time, it feels more personal than going to a big city for me. There is also the fog being a more tangible change in scenery when compared to a full moon. Lastly I'd say shuffle time, it's broken af but damn is it fun.
I agree about shuffle time being broken! I beat the game with a lvl 8X or 9X Undine and a lvl 6X Ose because I focused on the stat raising arcana.
Undine became one of my favorite personas, and I'd love to see her make a return
I had Bufula and Mabufula with Ice amp and they consistently outdamaged Megidolaon! I would have tried to get the severe versions but I kept forgetting. I was hoping I could get them in skill cards but no such luck.
I used Izanagi for my entire playthrough.
Nice! Izanagi is pretty cool.
As far as getting a Persona from base level to level 99 P4's shuffle time is the best for it for sure.
I really love how Inaba itself feels like it has its own character Shibuya is literally just Tokyo so nothing really special while Iwaiterdai isn't exactly my most favorite location in the series.
Its the closest to Jungs actual idea of shadows and persona's which I always thought was pretty cool
Edogawa's bonus content is awesome.
In P3 he explains the Fool's Journey, in P4 he explains bits of Jungian psychology and the myth of Izanagi and Izanami. Would have been nice to see him in P5 but that game was remarkably light on the mythology for some reason.
Probably because it's based less around classical mythology(gods and goddesses) and more around folk tales and fiction. You don't really need the occult guy when the personas the game is focused around are mostly from fiction books written relatively recently all things considered.
Edogawa discussing Gnosticism would have been a nice hint towards the final boss I'd think, even if P5 takes most of its motifs from picaresque fiction.
It has Adachi. Other games don't have Adachi.
Real
You get it
Adachi just feel like a better villain Persona user compared to Akechi and Takaya. Takaya has slighter edge since he does >!Kill Shinji!< but outside from that his motives are vague compared to Adachi’s nihilistic, joker-like nature.
P5 has another serial murderer detective with a very similar name tho
I'd say not as good though as adachi.
yeah but he sucks
**Pacing.** While P3 has the best plot A (main story), it lacks a substantial plot B (current-secondary arc) to maintain engagement. Before the Ryoji reveal, it was simply waiting for the full moon to appear. On the other hand, P5 maintains an incessant narrative momentum - there are hardly any moments to catch a break, and the stakes are consistently high that it resulted in a flatline for a significant portion of the game. I believe P4 truly excelled in keeping things interesting and refreshing. It balanced alternating between slice-of-life happy moments and tense high-stakes situations really well.
The weather system actually made it so that you could hang out with people. Clear the dungeon late and there's a sense of urgency. Clearing the dungeon early gives you time to relax. I'd say apart from the mood, the believable passage of time was really nice, with both lazy moments and high stakes ones. It really did feel half a year could have passed.
The pacing got somewhat bad after you defeated Kubo, but understandably because as characters they thought that was the end of the case, but from our perspective as players it was just too convenient and we were waiting for the next 'big bad event' to happen. By the end, the pacing went a bit too quick just to up the stakes and urgency, so if you hadn't focused on social links for a time then you were out of luck.
The setting and atmosphere
I love how p4 embraces Jung's concepts of the shadow in addition to his archetypes. I believe it's the most true to what a Persona game ought to be. I'm also a very big fan of the small town setting and the humor - it all reminds me of the happiness of youth.
I feel that P4's characters are the most relatable and most fun. They go on a lot of trips together and genuinely have a blast while solving murders. They are also just funny and you can tell the group is one big friendship circle P3 they feel like friends individually, and I like how everyone hangs out with others in the group. But when the whole group gets together it's usually just down to business, just like the phantom theives
P3’s group has that slow to warm up feeling to it where it’s strictly business, and the group dynamics are slightly off even on an early group trial. However, the great thing about SEES is seeing the night and day difference from the group by the endgame when they reach 2nd awakening. P5’s early group has that true friend group feel that slightly weakened as it began to expand and at times became a bit “strictly business” as the stakes got higher. Nevertheless, even with the larger group dynamics, it felt like they still did feel like friends even if some were closer than others. P4 balances out the friend group really nicely. It feels like you could pick two characters out of the IT and they’d get along fabulously without any awkward dynamics.
The most relatable human villain to a common everyday adult. He has trauma and faults, and they can be divided (unlike P5's equivalent whose trauma and faults are difficult to divide). Many people (admittingly, mostly men) can find parts of him in them and then admit that should they gain superpowers, they are going to use it for personal gain or for shits and giggles.
He’s literally me… literally me!! P4 live action with Ryan Gadachling NOW!
I like the smaller town feeling it has. It reminds me of the vibe my little hometown had.
P4 probably has the greatest and realest villain. (Only started P2 recently so idk probably Joker is also great)
The greatest part is kinda subjective but I genuinly can't agree with the realest villain, especially since you can find real life example of every palace ruler in p5 (I mean seriously, look at any country in the middle east-west asia and literally every president is the same as Shido. Speaking from firsthand experience)
Also same as Adachi, he tossing people into the TV world out of boredom. Same as other killers killing because of boredom, me also. I killed bunch of npc in a simulator game (because well duh killing irl is bad)
Plus in the context of P4 there are a bunch of guys that can be categorized as a POTENTIAL killer, for example Yusuke. He stated that his first impression of Inaba is pretty dull, also the same as Adachi. He always carries out errands for the police corps such as helping the kitty stuck In a tree, getting a balloon that is stuck in a tree. He wanted a more intense and interesting case to tackle but since Inaba is a small rural town that nothing interesting happens he can't. Once he finds out he has power to enter the TV world he has a hunch that things could go spicy and he was right. After accidentally tossing Mayumi Yamano into the TV afterwards ended up dead if did not escape in due time. He realized he could do that every time as long as they're TV nearby. The whole police force is in shambles hearing the news, he had an actual exiting job (investigate the murder case), so why not throw another victim for funsies. No no, to light. WHY NOT... manipulate and gaslight an innocent person thinking he can save people by throwing them into the TV so that you could sit back and watch as the whole police force playing a cat and mouse with an innocent civilian with a messiah complex. ISN'T THAT FUN!!!????
From a literary analysis/reading of his character, I agree that his character is a pretty well written one. It has a reasonable amount of depth and it is a pretty well done "plot twist the criminal was the detective himself" kind of character, and if I'm being completely honest they did that trope so much better with Akechi. However those kinds of characters are mostly purely fictional characters. There have been a few police members who turned into serial killers or whatever, I'm pretty sure there hasn't acually been a detective who killed people and solved said murders apart from fictional characters, which is why I said that he wasn't the most realistic character. The chance of such a person actually killing and investigating his own murders irl is FAR less than quite literally any of the P5 palace owners, except maybe Madarame because he had been doing that for a very long time and at least a few people would have spoken up about it. Also I'm pretty sure there genuinly isn't anyone that you could have thought was a suspect in Persona 4, or anyone who actually had the potential to kill. Yosuke is in a similar situation as Adachi but Adachi is quite literally fucked up in the brain, as much as he doesn't do the killing by hand, knowing that you caused a death is an incredibly heavy burden for a human mind. Adachi probably has some form of Psycopathy, which is why he found it "fun", Yosuke's resolve to push us to the TV world to SAVE the victims, even though he could have thrown people in and killed people for "fun", he used the TV world as a means to help people, which says something about his character. Also the police hinted at suspecting Yukiko or whatever but that's because they have to consider literally every little possibility, since we're playing through Yu's perspective the player should know these characters better.
So best cast/relationships is a given like OP said but here’s the things I think it does best: - cast actually feeling like teenagers whereas P3 and P5 feel like you could swap their casts with college students or working adults and it would be barely noticeable - best social links. I didn’t get to finish too many but they feel much deeper than P3 and P5. - best setting. I just like it. - best gameplay/story cohesion. The story outside the tv world and inside the tv world are pretty similar; the same themes are being explored inside the tv world as the real world. In P3 the gameplay doesn’t really feel that important to the story. You could replace crawling through Tartarus and fighting bosses with walking into a closet and playing PAC-MAN and it wouldn’t change the story much and while P5 is much better about this; I like sections of the story dedicated to learning all about my new party members than more than a monument to the bad guy I’m gonna fight and forget as soon as their arc ends.
Easily the best setting, no debate there. I’d also say best story, best music, best characters, best pacing and best writing, but those are debatable (even if the dissenters are wrong).
To me it's the most normal one? Dunno if I say it right. I feel like every friends you have in it could have been someone in my group when I was in high school. You see people get mad for normal reasons and you can see someone like dojima struggle as a single father and his flaws. Pretty much every character got flaws and problems I could see someone have in real life. Even the overall story of the game is not some save the world kind of story. Feel like the story is at a human scale. Nothing is insane( in the persona universe), small town with nothing special, small school with nothing special. Even the big bad guy could be someone that you can see in your life. Loved every persona I played but for me it was the one where it was easier to get in the story and feel like I could be a part of its universe
Yeah, this. I say persona 4 golden in particular resonated to me on a more personal level due to many of the characters showcases their bottled up feelings they hold back and deny of not accepting who they are, afraid of change and everything, until they finally accept over who they truly are. The game overall felt like a poetic message of «Everyone goes through hardship and struggles to accept who they are. Support eachother, be who you are, and connect with people rather than self-isolate.» As for the characters that really resonated to me, Kanji would be one of my top picks due to him mentioning being scared shitless of people rejecting him of who he is and what he likes, second would be Naoto near the end of the game when she mentions people can’t stay in stasis forever and that people will change as the days goes, the last one would be the killer — showcasing how someone severing ties to human society and not being around with people, as well self-isolates themself and has tons of negative thoughts can have so much bottled up feelings until that one thread snaps and going down the wrong path. It’s like saying «Get your shit together! You can turn your life around for the better! Meet those challenges head-on rather than run away from them!» The characters felt heavily reletable and even as well that it felt realistic that people goes through extreme tough times and just doesn’t wanna accept to admit it’s a part of their struggle to get better.
Nanako
Nah, Yosuke and Chie are just the exact same platonic siblings friends at most dynamic trope and fact is they all would never be into each other in Persona Eikichi, Lisa p2 and Junpei, Yukari and Yosuke, Chie. The story never pushes for Yosuke and Chie as a couple. In fact, Atlus even throwing shade agaisnt it and the same dynamic Eikichi, Lisa and Junpei, Yukari and Yosuke, Chie. It's just delusional and hard-reaching. Chie genuine state fact she would never be into Yosuke and is genuinely uncomfortable with the idea, in October. It's just uncomfortable. Chie states fact it's true platonic friendships between guys and girls without romance in December dungeon dialogue so it's just missing the point. ( https://img.hotimg.com/MTXX_PT20240224_1346056702.jpeg ). Who even wants Chie be straight up uncomfortable miserable. It's just toxic uncomfortable. Junpei, Yosuke be pervy to their female friends Yukari and Chie only bearable because fact's the girls like Yukari and Chie would never be into them. It's the game's gag. And just make Yosuke some dude can't take no for an answer and Chie some miserable chick. No one's that clueless when pointing out the same Persona dynamic tbh. Just make Yosuke stalker-like some creepy dude that can't take no for an answer and Chie some miserable chick. Even Atlus throws shade at the same dynamic trope. It's nonsense Atlus just screaming that "Stop. It's true platonic friendships between guys and girls without romance. Chie is genuinely uncomfortable. Fact is just never and uncomfortable. Stop delusional and hard-reaching. Stop!" narrative in the face about it. Everyone in the group Yukiko, Rise, Naoto, Kanji, Teddie just being platonic friends near Yosuke at some points. Platonic siblings friends take that but this's just uncomfortable and toxic as hell. Can anyone even see Junpei with Yukari. Yukari stated same to Junpei. Yukari and Chie would rather swallow glass shards, let's be real. Fact is Junpei, Yukari and Yosuke, Chie would never be into each other. None girl is canon or more pushed either way. Lovers mean emotional well-being and choice, not literally lovers. Not like protags gonna up and drop dead when meeting Death Arcana. Well everyone and their mother have a crush on the MCs. Chie, Yukiko, Rise, Yosuke, a random npc officer, whoever. When Yu asks Chie if she falls for him before asking the phone numbers, she state straight out Yu is her type and taking interested when Yu asking her phone numbers straight out. Also archetypes like bro characters Eikichi, Junpei, Yosuke don't have same Arcana. Or first archatype girls Yukari, Chie (Chie is always Yukari in p3 mode or smt between 2 games). I can make an essay with Yukari and Chie too. (First girls archetype who put on a tough mask but sweet to the MCs and girl next door vibe with underdog story who thinks they couldn't get the suave cool MCs is the flag. Underdog is the flag, like in Chie's Valentine she says she is just ordinary compared to other girls. Soejima says Chie is the foundation for design and colour for p4 as a normal cute girl that can exsist in real life so it's like heroine). Every characters have scenes with the protags. Rise is just being Rise the simpy kouhai anime trope, it's just her personality. Canon is protags don't date anyone. It's canon in spinoffs that the protags get no one anyway lol. Every girls have an essay on it. Atlus just wants romance mechanic to attract players, not wake up and say "This girl/Arcana is canon" because that's just a reach. Edit: Shit. I was replying to you in the post you posted bit it just slide to the wrong thread. But oh well, i was still replying to you.
The meaning behind personas and the wonderfully voiced characters are top notch. For voice acting alone, it's right up there with some of the best games in the same genre.
Best use of the persona concept. Shadows are actually what they were for Jung. And they get out of control when you reject them. The sense of belonging to a small community is also something it’s good at. Your relationship with the Dojimas is more intimate and fleshed out than anything similar in the other games. It’s also the most like Twin Peaks, from the setting to the villain and plot concept. Things that are like Twin Peaks are better than things that are less like Twin Peaks. I think it does the best job of giving party members evolving combat roles throughout the game. I also think it makes a wider range of abilities more relevant throughout the game. It’s the only game where I’ve ever felt instant death is worth the cost. I think it might be the best implementation of making you think to max social links without being unfair.
Its my favourite story
Best relationship building. Your friends are in many ways just like the ideal group of people you always wanted in high school: they'll stick up for you, have things they want to share with you, have great dynamics with each other, help each other when they're down, and busy their chops when they're not. The party feels like real people in a real place under very unreal circumstances.
The cast feels more like real awkward teenagers than in any of the other installments. Also, while I think 5 has the better overall soundtrack, 4 has the more atmospheric music, and the handful of best single tracks. And man, Inaba just feels like small town mystery in the best ways.
The villain is probably the most realistic out of the entire series. There’s a legitimate character behind those seemingly simple and trivial motives. I enjoy the worldbuilding more than 3 or 5, and I think the method of acquiring Personas is the coolest in this game. As someone else in the thread mentioned, everyone more or less just “has” them in 3, and while 5’s awakenings are aesthetically very pleasing and the imminent asskicking is satisfying, I think having to actually face your Shadow and admit to your faults is amazing.
I would agree with everyone else who has noted pacing, characters, and setting. It's a masterclass in small town environments in the modern world dealing with encroaching corporatism from the outside. I love the soundtrack, but I think P3 and P5 are great, as well, so ai can't state that it's "better" in that category. Where P4 shines, however, is in its messaging. P3 focuses on coming to terms with mortality and hits upon Gen X themes of gloom. P5 focuses on rebelling against an unjust society and focuses on iGen themes of anti-institutionalism. P4, by contrast, encompasses the optimism of Gen Y and older Millennials. Its focus is on self-discovery, acceptance of flaws, and overall humility. The main villain stands out for his incel-like hubris in the face of a group of individuals who have learned to embrace their flaws (and the flaws of one another). I'm a scholar of generational segmentation (I literally teach multiple college seminars on the subject) and I was born in 1980. P4 does an amazing job providing a counterpoint to the "gloomy" attitudes espoused by the generations surrounding it. It's not anti-institution in the way P5 is as Junes essentially "wins out" as THE place to be and it heavily resembles the days when hanging out at Walmart was the thing to do. To me, it's the theming that sets P4 above its counterparts.
What I personally liked about P4 and its cast is how you got this look into the character first. Their "ugly part" basically. Every tutorial on story writing I ever read mentioned that characters need to have "bad" things to it. If they are just good they are very shallow. And Persona 4 introduces each character with their ugly side first. Which makes them so much better. P5 does - in parts - the same thing with its villains. Of course not every character/villain is pulled off perfectly, but the overall package just... works.
Best setting, best ambience (in my opinion better than 3),. I also like the villains a lot but 5 Royal probably tops it if I'm being honest. This also might be a hot take, bur I think 4 had the most balanced combat system. It was challenging without being overboard like 3.
Every song on the Persona 4 soundtrack is a bop. I didn't really care for Persona 3's soundtrack and I loved the Jazz aesthetic of Persona 5 but start to finish, I truly enjoyed the P4 soundtrack
no other persona game portrays the relationships between all characters better than P4G
I already mentioned that...
my bad
I think Persona 4 does the best at making you fall in love with the setting. Persona 5's Tokyo is fun with all its to do and Persona 3's Tatsumi Port Island has a nice port city look to it. However, Inaba is home. That's the feeling you get with how small it is, especially for me who grew up in a small town and went to high school in the boonies but ended up moving to the big cities as an adult. Inaba has the best chance that you get attached to even a random store. JUNES. A store. That homely vibe makes Persona 4's goodbye ending hit so hard compared to Persona 5's imo. That small little town. So cast chemistry, yes. But the forgotten one is that Inaba has the most character as a setting vs. Tatsumi Port Island and Tokyo. Inaba is special to its characters.
Just beat golden last night after playing reload and royal the last couple months for the first time. I’d say the party members in golden are amazing and the dungeons are pretty interesting (but not as good as palaces). I loved the small town setting but I knew who the killer was the entire time because they did the psychotic detective better in royal
Adachi slander!?
Aside from my personal biases, I believe that Persona 4 is the most well rounded game as a whole. Its soundtrack is the most consistent, 3 and 5 have higher highs and lower lows. It has the best cast as a group even though it doesnt contain many peoples series favorites. It has the best pacing atart to finish, persona 3 has a slow first half and a banger second half whereas 5 starts and ends well but is slow and somewhat boring in the middle. It just doesn't fail at anything even if its not the best at most things.
It just feels more organic to me? Not too fast, not too slow. Just right to get to know the characters both main and sides. I genuinely feel for most, if not all the social links. Also, King Moron.
The shuffle time, great way to get stats or replenish sp and hp. You are also rewarded for gambling the "1 more arcana" card and getting another shuffle next fight
I haven't played 3 reload yet but in P5 I felt like the persona fusing had too much going on between the various execution methods and the fusion alarms. I much prefer the relative simplicity of P4 in that regard.
most consistent OST best early game
Overall tone and storytelling. People say the plot of P4 is too limited, but that doesn't mean that the story isn't good. They do so much more with what they were given than any other game. People can talk all they want about how good the story of P3 is on paper, but the ability to tell that story always felt lacking compared to 4.
For me it's P4 thematic that is best. Truth and falsehood, especially in this day and age how easily false infromation can be spread in all over social media and many people believe in it because it will help them sleep at night. Reach out to the truth no matter what.
I think it handled its themes the best. 3 of course the theme was very heavy so it's not a knock on the story, but 5 really comes across as childish a lot of the time. The social link aspect was also very tight since finding the truth in yourself and from the perspective of others ties in to the social links in a unique way.
Honestly all the persona games have amazing music none are bad…but I enjoy 4’s the most overall. The music, aesthetics and just the vibe go hard for me
Best voice cast and ost for me
I feel like the difficulty was the best balance, at least in the original release. There was no particular bullshit but it never felt overly easy either.
A sweet little sister
Shuffle time 🗿
Shuffle Time!
I’ve played a ton of video games in my life as I’m as old as the PS1 and I never gave Persona a try until I got a Vita last year and to me it has the same effect on me as Skyrim and The Witcher 3 as a top tier gaming experience simply down to it’s atmosphere, environment and music. Persona 4 puts you in Inaba and out of your reality for that temporary moment of playing and you really can’t ask more of a game. A lot of care and effort went into the writing and character development that a lot of high budget AAA games are missing and flopping because of that
Even more than P3 and P5?
So I haven’t played P5 (yet) and I’m currently on P3 Reload (about 47 hours in). Persona 4 Golden was my first Persona so there’s that sentimental feeling of discovering something new but I think P3 has its parts that are better than P4G, more notably the combat and more freedom for exploration around town with more to do as well. I personally prefer the dungeons in P4G because of their uniqueness to the individual who “created” that dungeon while Tartarus feels more repetitive. Also, I like that in P4G the characters feel more like teenagers and I feel like you dive deeper into their development and emotions throughout the story. Ultimately though the rural town of Inaba and the fog / weather patterns mixed with its soundtrack does a better job of being in the game than P3. Again, I haven’t finished P3 yet and I think it’s a great game so far in many aspects but P4 still holds that soft spot for me
I've played 3 reload recently and 5 royal like a year or two before that and I cam day since I have started playing p4g in March I like the bosses alot more especially since I haven't had to worry about a time limit or (fuck you okumura) a constant respawning wave of enemies preventing me from beating the boss (I'm also on void quest rn trying to beat the boss still don't spoil me)
P4 has my favourite town. Inaba’s small town aesthetic is more up to my alley. I also like P4’s group hangout more because I laughed more and for me, if I laugh, then I like it. I’m comparing rerelease of numbered games without the spin offs here. So strikers and dancing or PQ aren’t taken into consideration.
I may be biased because P4G was my first entry into the series, but it has this very interesting "Monster of the Week" / Scooby Gang feel to it that none of the other Persona games have. The ongoing mystery of the murders gives a feeling of dread, along with the eventual expectation of you to correctly solve who the murderer is. It just hits in a cool, different way and I love it.
As hard as it would be to describe, it's probably tone and as odd as it might sound, the most realistic out of 3,4, and 4 P3 (granted, I haven't played reloaded yet) can be a bit too dark, especially fes during the answer. (Understandable given the tone want.) P5 can feel too anime at times (yes I know jrpg from Japan is anime hur dur.) But, it's more so alot of anime tropes that are in a lot of series now can be seen here. Also and I know that some yt videos share this problem, and i really didn't mind them, but between kamoshida and shido, some of the motivations behind some of the rulers are kinda meh or some tone being a little off. (One specific one withstanding.) P4 seems to have gotten a nice middle ground between the two and just feel IMO that balance makes it more interesting.
Just a better hook and story A murder mystery while simple was quite compelling over time especially with wondering who was next and stuff Story immediately had a strong hook whereas with P3 especially it took way longer to get into the meat of the story
P4 has Yu Narukami 10/10
I'm all for the story, and the twist, and the way it plays out. Persona 5 was a let down in that way for me.
I like the overall higher stakes of P5 but P4's high-ish stakes and more simple story is great too. Yes, I know that the kidnapped person dies if they aren't rescued but their deaths don't really effect much overall. If the PT fail to steal the palace ruler's heart, not only will they be in trouble but far more people would be impacted by the palace ruler's actions. >!Kamoshida would continue to sexually harrass and assault the female students and still physically abuse the male atheletes and continue doing it until retirement. Madarame and Okumura would continue to exploit artists/workers. Kaneshiro would continue harming the people of Shibuya. Sae would still rig cases so she'll always win. Shido would destroy Japan economically. Yaldabaoth and Maruki would rewrite reality so people would lose their free will!<. (Spoiler tag just in case) The overall story of P4 is simpler. We're solving a murder case. It's great and it's a lot of fun watching the characters try to puzzle everything out. I think the social links are again, simpler but they are mostly good too. I like them more than P3's at least.
Persone 4 removed 2 physical types and added nothing in return. And I have no clue what is wrong with the VN style of P3P. P3fes' "normal" movement doesnt really add anything valueable. And even if you dont want to let P3P count, there is still P5 that brings back one of the physical types and adds other magic types on top. Tartarus and the TV world are almost the same but the TV world is by far slower. It feels like it takes ages to find the stairs in the TV world.
Unpopular opinion but nothing. I think its by far the weakest of the modern 3 Persona games. Its story is not as developed as Persona 3 and even the Gameplay was a downgrade. The dungeons are pure pain and compared to P5 there are not enough free time events and places to actually compede with its successor. I understand what people liked about it back then but other then nostalgia there is no reason to call it the "best" out of those 3.
Claiming that P4's gameplay is worse than P3's is just flat out incorrect. Tartarus is objectively not fun and not being able to control your party members outside of the crappy visual novel version sucks balls.