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sc94597 on 24 March 2015
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Clyde32 said:
sc94597 said:

If you want more ambigious characters and something which will bridge you to the Persona series definitely play Devil Survivor and Devil Survivor 2. You should find a sale for the 3DS version at something like $15 as well. The endings in that game are much more complex to achieve, and don't strictly follow the chaos/order paradigm. 

I'd also recommend playing Strange Journey. It is pretty standard SMT, but in a retro science-fiction settings.

Nocturne is great, and I'd say it does the Chaos vs. Order thing the best, so of course that is a no-brainer.

Persona 1 & 2 have interesting stories and plots (Persona 2 has the best story in the entire meta-series) but their gameplay is crap.

Persona 3 & 4 definitely take getting used to, but they are addicting. You mentioned before that you might not like their tone though.


Could you rank the Persona games? I'm wondering whether or not I should play 1 and 2, and if those two aren't better than 3, then I probably won't play them.

They are quite different games to compare. Persona 1 & 2 are traditional RPG's. Persona 2 has the best story out of any SMT game in my opinion. The gameplay is similar to the first two SMT game's gameplay. Turn-based with position mattering (within a random encounter.) The dungeons are relatively bland. However, they have better stories than Persona 3 and Person 4 in my opinon. Persona 3/Persona 4 have the life sim elements. Their combat is much better, and while the dungeons are also still pretty boring, they are not really a major part of the gameplay. 

Basically, Persona 1&2 -> Traditional JRPG's, relatively linear, good story, interesting characters, archaic and boring battle system, poor level/dungeon design, high random encounter rates, and ugly visuals. Music is great, and has a more classical feel. Enemies have a lot of personality and are interesting. Make sure you play the PSP version of Persona 1 if you can. The original PS1 version had a poor translation. Of course Persona 2 is split into two games and only one of them was localized in U.S/E.U for PS1 and the other remastered much later for PSP, so you only have one platform choice for them. 

Persona 3 & 4 -> Less serious, still good story but not as interesting, characters are more interesting for their daily personalities moreso than how they interact with the main story, combat is quicker and more fluid, no random encounters (moving enemies on screen), much better visuals and art style. Music is more modern. 

If I were to say which style did I have more fun with? Persona 3 and 4's. Still Persona 1 and 2 are decent games, especially 2.