Looking to get into Persona. Start with 2 or 3 FES?

[kupomogli]

It's not Persona, but get SMT Nocturne. Persona has more fans in the west because it's a better known series, but it's not the better series.  SMT and Persona were super niche until Persona 3 came out, now it's a better known franchise.  Not Final Fantasy levels, but like Tales of known.

Both Persona 4(haven't finished 3,) and SMT3 both have an excellent story. SMT3 though is your standard JRPG story, while Persona 3 and 4 are sort of a 50/50 mixture of a visual novel and an RPG. Exploration in Persona 3 takes place with no traditional world map. Just a few areas outside of the dungeon and a 100 floor dungeon where each floor is pretty small, randomly generated, and looks identical. In SMT3, it's got your traditional RPG world map and many explorable towns and dungeons.

Combat wise, the main character in Persona 3 and 4 is the only one who can switch Persona's giving him a different set of weaknesses, different sets of skills etc, while the rest of your party you choose, but they have the same weaknesses and skills that they'll learn throughout the game. If you knock an enemy down with a weakness, your character gets to go again, knock all enemies down and your characters will do an all out attack. On SMT3, your main character gets magatama which you can ingest to have different strengths and weaknesses and while he can only have eight skills, you'll learn skills from the magatama as you progress. You also get to talk to monsters, have them join your team, and end up fusing them, so your monsters can also have pretty much any skill in the game as well. There are a few skills that are only available to the main character, but not too many. The press turn system is also one of the best combat systems in an RPG. You start with four turns in battle. If you attack and do a critical hit or hit an enemy weakness, it only uses half of a turn. If you or the enemy dodge or damage is voided, it uses up two turns, and if you or the enemy absorb or reflect damage it wastes any remaining turns.

But yeah. SMT Nocturne might not be on sale, but the game is far better than any of the Persona games.

Although if you're interested in the differences between the earlier Persona games. These games are more similar to your traditional RPG like SMT3 than the newer Persona games are. Persona 1, Innocent Sin, and Eternal Punishment have world maps, explorable areas, multiple explorable dungeons. The combat in the original Persona games is a little bit different. It more closely resembles a standard JRPG but with front and back row. If your character is in the back row, they can only hit an enemy with Persona's, a back row weapon, or a gun attack. If your character is in the front row, they can hit the front row of enemies but not the back row unless the front row is killed and the enemies move up from the back or they have a back row weapon. Void damage, weaknesses, damage reflection, etc, still applies.