Megami Tensei & Persona Discussion Thread

Heh. I suggest giving Persona 3 a go too. I think it's more or less my favorite game in the series, as the story spoke to me more than Persona 4 did and loved playing the female protagonist in the Portable version. She's a lot more engaging lead and had some great social links. Overall that game also had one of the best social links, it was also quite hard (at least in the vanilla version of the game).

Other than that, I suggest giving the Digital Devil Saga games a playthrough. Excellent post-apocalyptic JRPGs that sits just right with a western audience in regards to its story and how the characters develop.

Thread is not as active as I had hoped. Feel free to add it to the Other Games section though.

Looks like there are some issues with pre-orders for the Take Your Heart Edition on Amazon so be sure to check your orders for those who've done business there for Persona 5.

The Western Collector's Edition of P5 isn't as pretty as the Japanese one but it's definitely bigger.

Devil Saga is probably the most western friendly SMT game, as in it keeps the core values of the mainline games, the tone, Kaneko’s artstyle, atmosphere, but it also tells a very character driven story as opposed to the show but don’t tell approach of Nocturne.

I thought the characters and story was vastly better than the anime clichés of Persona 4. But it is just as well as there is a marginal difference on opinion of which of the older games is the best among fans.

Definitely disagree about the character part, maybe it's just my own bias towards the Investigation Team, but I definitely think they're stronger characters than the Thieves. (With some exceptions.. *cough* Yukio *cough*) Though in all fairness P4 has a bit of an advantage given the main plot surrounds the main characters and not the villains (like P5). I think the main reason I prefer the characters of P4 though more so has to do with the way that P5 handled character arcs. Once the palace where you are introduced to said companion ends, that companion just kinda... stops having any kind of character arc (with perhaps the exception of Morgana), and they're just forced to sit in the background and spew whatever lines fit in best with their archetype. P4's social links at least tried to embellish on the characters, whereas P5's were just a bunch of the same old. (Not to mention the obligatory 'we need to go into Momentos to change the heart of whomever is bothering this social link's owner'!)

Perhaps if we're talking about potential and the basics of the characters, the Thieves are more nuanced, but for me the execution of the character arcs are more important than the initial character concept.

Also I never understood the, 'old games are better' mindset. I enjoyed P1 and P2, but I'm not going to sit here and pretend that they aged well. (P1 in particular.)

Yosuke was an asshole towards Kanji throughout the entire game of Persona 4, and you can never reprimande him for it. Anne and Ryuji knowa each other better to make fun of each other. I bought his teasing more than I bought Yosuke’s. I don’t dispute there aren’t any issues with the game I just didn’t find them as aggravating as Persona 4(which I find to be the weakest among Hashino’s directed titles).
On the subject of the themes. I think the themes were pretty clear, a lot of it is grounded in breaking free from the expectations set by society at large. Persona 4 was introspective on the “Self” where Persona 3 was on “Death and Mortality/Life”. Persona 5 centers its focus on society at large, but I still think there is a lot of introspective Jungian angle to it too like prior games.
It each villain represents one of the 7 Deadly Sins, the ones that summarizes us as people.
Among those villains are the Public itself, in form of Mementos, their refusal to hold public figures accountable for their abuse of power. In a lot of ways they are the main villain, as a body that gives rise to the other villains and the “true” antagonist of the game. Similar to Nyx and Izanami
An underlying theme with all of the people the Phantom Thieves stole the hearts of was that their actions were in some way influenced by society at large.
Each of these representatives are used in the context of the story to mirror behavior in reality.

There is nothing inherently wrong with not getting involved in politics or refraining from reading more closely into news stories. However, after enough of these sentiments have built up from so many people over time, it is no longer the shortcoming of each individual person; it is now a foundation for all other societal issues.The way on how the average faceless NPC in the game walks with their head down, like they are in chains, ns goes about their business with no complaints. And how that is reflected in their own Palace “Mementos, with them willingly riding a train into the core of the Earth, with their destination being a prison makes it pretty clear. Hordes of people are locked in cells by their own volition, enjoying the comfort of a cell — it’s secure and consistent; there is no variation or change to be afraid of. The Thieves even find their past adversaries in these cells, admitting that their ambitions, albeit distorted and misguided ones, were too much effort, and that simply submitting is an easier way to live.


Persona 4 does do some interesting things in regards to gender politics through characters like Naoto and Kanji, undermined by a Scooby Doo murder mystery plot and lame School events.

I just want modern remakes of the P2 duology.

Ah yes, Kanji. He identified as a Naoto-sexual, and really who doesn't??!!!!

So...yeah. Pretty huge Persona fan. (Fuuka, Naoto, Ann romancer)