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LTTP: Persona 3 Portable is much more compelling after playing Persona 4 Golden

Z

Z3M0G

Member
I've owned P3P for more years than P4G (which I recently finally finished). At the time of release on PSP, I found the experience a bit odd... the fact that they reduced the 3D environments down to 2D portrait locations where you simply move a cursor around, instead of walking your character around was a bit of a turn off...

Well, after playing P4G on Vita, which had the full 3D graphics and environments intact, let's just say I have a better understanding of what I am missing and it isn't much. After a short time, I used the SQUARE button menu to quick-select locations to travel to them instead of taking the time to walk. And moving a cursor around the room to talk to people now feels quite a bit convenient, actually.

I found P4G a bit grindy, with the whole daily school-life thing... and I know this game will be more of that, but I find the interface to do so is a bit refreshing! It feels like it will take less time to get things done!

I hear this game is a bit more of a mature tale than P4G, and while I started this game many years ago and only got an hour or two into it, right now I'm only a few minutes in and can already feel that this will have a darker tone. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to learning more about the Midnight Hour (vs Midnight Channel).

Back in the day, the "shoot yourself with a gun" thing was a bit of a turn off too... I hope that doesn't bug me this time around. I guess I know it is there and to expect it. The first time around, I found that so off-putting it was one of the main reasons I quit. But the biggest reason was the interface, which I now find a bonus! So let's see how this goes...
 
Z

Z3M0G

Member
I appreciate the cursor navigation as well, again because going by P4G I'm not missing much in terms of presentation by being able to actually walk around in 3D environments.

The one thing I do suspect I am missing out on is full Anime cutscenes... I believe those were chopped down to key frames as backdrops. Correct?
 
W

WrenchNinja

Member
you're not missing much there either since the anime cutscenes are pretty ugly

it's the in game scenes that you'd really be missing out on
 
L

Logash

Member
Yeah I agree with this. I think it's harder to go to P3 FES after P4G than it is to go to P3P after it. Lack of party control is a much bigger deal in my opinion than the visual aspect of P3.
 
E

Eccocid

Member
Does P3P have easy mode? I have started it twice in ps2 but never played it more than 10 hours. I wanna try once more in Vita but i just wanna experience the story, got burnt with those dungeons and battle system after p4g too. Might buy it and play in easy mode for the story.
 
K

Kthulhu

Member
WrenchNinja said:
you're not missing much there either since the anime cutscenes are pretty ugly

it's the in game scenes that you'd really be missing out on
Click to expand...

I bought FES because of this. Hanging out with Elizabeth is a million times less entertaining in visual form.
 
cireza

cireza

Member
OP, thanks for reminding me that I have a PSP Go full of great games waiting for me at home. Including P3P (that I haven't played yet).

Often, I buy games, sometimes a system, thinking I will want to play it later, maybe in a few months.

I got this brand new PSP Go one year ago I think, and now I definitely want to play it :)
 
Z

Z3M0G

Member
Fisico said:
Still 1000x better than the travesty we've got for some scenes
Shinjiro for example
Click to expand...

Ignorance will be bliss I'm sure. I probably wouldn't be happy if I previously played the PS2 original or whatever FES is.

Right now this feels like a much faster playing P4G, and I'm quite happy with that.

I hope for more character development though... feels pretty thin so far in the first couple hours. And I hope Tartarus turns out to be interesting... the murder mystery and characters of P4G was an incredible hook to keep me going (the gameplay certainly wasn't). So I hope P3P delivers in the story department.
 
M

Mephala

Member
Z3M0G said:
Ignorance will be bliss I'm sure. I probably wouldn't be happy if I previously played the PS2 original or whatever FES is.

Right now this feels like a much faster playing P4G, and I'm quite happy with that.

I hope for more character development though... feels pretty thin so far in the first couple hours. And I hope Tartarus turns out to be interesting... the murder mystery and characters of P4G was an incredible hook to keep me going (the gameplay certainly wasn't). So I hope P3P delivers in the story department.
Click to expand...

I felt Persona 3 is a slower burn. It takes a lot longer for it to actually hook me. It kepted me somewhat interested due to the darker themes and minor mystery element of the story but overall P4G had more varied and interesting dungeon gameplay.
 
M

Meia

Member
The problem in general is the presentation is pretty garbage.


Outside of the world itself feeling very small(the dorm in P3 feels like a street in Inaba), a lot of the later scenes lose a LOT of emotional punch by not having characters visually "act" things out. The beginning is mostly fine since the initial summoning cutscene is done via in-game fight models. This is the only time in the game they bother with this method, which is terrible.


I mean, simple things like a character hugging another after an emotional beat, maybe characters leaning on each other for support, those kinds of things are completely lost in P3P. You feel like an alien invader controlling a moving sphere of influence, not a character in the game world with this style, and it kills things a tad.
 
F

FrontalMonk

Banned
I think the thing that got me about P3 that kept me from really digging into it, more than anything else, was both Tartarus, and the sense that I was "not doing it right" when it came to doing things during the school life sections. I haven't had as much of a problem with that in P4G, largely because the one piece of advice my buddy gave me about it was to take out the dungeon in one night, regardless of how long it ends up taking. It leaves more days for me to do school stuff, which means I don't necessarily feel like the S-Links are falling behind.
 
L

LiK

Member
I have all versions of P3 but tried to play the PS2 version (FES) TWICE and cannot get into it. My first time I got pretty far in. Tried to restart and couldn't even get back to the part I stopped at even with a guide. I just don't like the overall style and characters of this game compared to P4G. I might play P3P instead so I can make some real progress or maybe just watch a LP instead. I just don't find the dark moody atmosphere that compelling.
 
C

Curufinwe

Member
Z3M0G said:
Ignorance will be bliss I'm sure. I probably wouldn't be happy if I previously played the PS2 original or whatever FES is.

Right now this feels like a much faster playing P4G, and I'm quite happy with that.

I hope for more character development though... feels pretty thin so far in the first couple hours. And I hope Tartarus turns out to be interesting... the murder mystery and characters of P4G was an incredible hook to keep me going (the gameplay certainly wasn't). So I hope P3P delivers in the story department.
Click to expand...

You should watch the cut scene on youtube as you go. They add a lot of atmosphere.
 
N

Neoweee

Member
I think P3P is the best Persona game Atlus has released so far. All of the QOL improvements streamline what would otherwise be a clunky, terribly-paced game. Fast Travel, instant text speed, Fast Forward that actually works, near-instant load speeds, faster map movement. It's just so much better,
 
H

Hierophant

Banned
which themes resonated with you more gaf?
P3 or P4?
P4 stuck with me more probably because I graduated from high school not too long ago
end of P3 is still better tho
 
M

Magicpaint

Member
Neoweee said:
I think P3P is the best Persona game Atlus has released so far. All of the QOL improvements streamline what would otherwise be a clunky, terribly-paced game. Fast Travel, instant text speed, Fast Forward that actually works, near-instant load speeds, faster map movement. It's just so much better,
Click to expand...
Those are all great but I don't like what they did to the One More system by making it more like P4's more exploitable version. Also the lack of weapon variety for the MC, fusion spells etc. Basically even with lack of party control I still prefer the battle gameplay in P3/FES to both P3P and P4/G.

And honestly the locations in P3 are really small that I don't find fast travel that big a deal, I don't even use it in Golden.
 
F

Fou-Lu

Member
A lot of people talk about how P3 has a more mature story and better characters, but I personally felt that it was just darker, not better written or more mature. It is actually quite awakard at points. The only thing I found a bit questionable in P4's writing was the true ending, but I still enjoyed it immensely and found the game resonated with me a lot more than P3. Also I just liked how the protagonist in 4 talked to people more than the protagonist in 3. The P4 protag was a good guy with good intentions, the P3 protag may have been a sociopath.
 
A

Aesnath

Member
Not entirely on topic, but I've been working on P3 FES for a while after finishing P4 and I wouldn't say the plot is more mature. If anything, it feels a bit forced and somewhat cheesier.

I'm not sure what quality of life improvements made it into P3P over FES, but I will say that combat is much more of a chore in FES as compared to 4. No control over party members sucks--I hope they changed that.
 
M

Magicpaint

Member
The theme of P4 is really good, but good lord is the execution incredibly cheesy and formulaic. The characters are also all two dimensional at best, and the ones with potential for something interesting fall flat due to bad writing -- the best parts are a couple of random social links. Most of the main character development comes via missable social links that don't always sync with what is going on in the story at a given point. It feels wooden and disjointed.

P3's characters are also fairly two dimensional at best but their development and progression (for the most part anyway) happens in a far more believable and organic way. The atmosphere, especially in the last third of the game blows away P4's. P4 was cringey to me almost all the way, but P3 had some good moments.
 
T

Tame Deity

Member
Are you doing a male or female run?
I thought the FeMC was alot more fun than the male one, maybe that's just me. Still love them both though.
 
D

DualEdge

Member
I just beat P3FES (Journey) earlier this week myself. This is after playing through P4G as well and I found that while P3F is a very good game, it really takes a while to fully appreciate it - much longer than P4G. Likewise, P3F is by far the more rage-worthy game in terms of difficulty and annoying elements (absolutely hated the tired/sick mechanic). Still, I did have fun with it and I'm now trying to get through The Answer (key word "trying").
I just found the word of P4G to be far more immersive and entertaining. The way that the Social Links directly integrate into the battle system is also FAR more compelling than anything in P3. Character-wise, I liked P3's roster but I loved P4G's and I think a lot of that had to do with the overall better voice work (again IMO). Really looking forward to P5 now based on how much was improved in P4 over P3.
 
N

Neoweee

Member
Tame Deity said:
Are you doing a male or female run?
I thought the FeMC was alot more fun than the male one, maybe that's just me. Still love them both though.
Click to expand...

FeMC is much better, IMO. There's the loss of a few nice S. Links, but the new ones are overall pretty good and above average for the series. I also like her music much more.

And her dialogue choices being different really do a great job of making her a distinct character from the MC.
 
L

Lime

Member
Also the last game that actually had a different gender take on the whole dating sim pillar of the series. It was somewhat refreshing to have it not be waifu shit where every girl and their dog fell for how amazing the player character was.
 
S

Sgt. Kabukiman

Banned
P3P is the definitive version of the game, the only downside is the lack of cutscenes but the animation wasn't that good anyway.
And the female MC is my favorite, I totally rediscovered the game when I played as her, she also has the superior soudtrack and the best menu color scheme.

P3P with female MC > Persona 4 > Persona 3 with male MC

I really wish there was a Vita version of P5. It's the only game in the series not playable on it aside from remote play.
 
H

Hierophant

Banned
Fou-Lu said:
A lot of people talk about how P3 has a more mature story and better characters, but I personally felt that it was just darker, not better written or more mature. It is actually quite awakard at points. The only thing I found a bit questionable in P4's writing was the true ending, but I still enjoyed it immensely and found the game resonated with me a lot more than P3. Also I just liked how the protagonist in 4 talked to people more than the protagonist in 3. The P4 protag was a good guy with good intentions, the P3 protag may have been a sociopath.
Click to expand...

oh yeah p3 protag comes off real manipulative, i've seen people say that this is intentional that he comes off as a sociopath but who knows
 
Z

Zolo

Member
The main thing I would give Persona 3 as far as story is concerned over Persona 4 Golden is that the main story events tend to be more involved. Persona 4's mostly
(Go to dungeon, find boss, beat boss)
. Persona 3 actually has
events like the runaway train, the hotel situation, the bomb shelter cave-in and more.
. I also find the end-game of Persona 3 stronger than Persona 4. That said, I find Persona 4 has better pacing and better day-to-day activities as well as the regular life events.

FeMc is also better if only because being made in P3P, it got to take the positives from Persona 4 while the MaleMc was restricted to needing to be faithful to the original Persona 3.
 
E

Eumi

Member
It's kinda unrelated but that's something I loved about Persona Q too. Whenever you're not in a dungeon, you're in a menu. You can do the whole leave dungeon->heal->sell->return loop in less than a minute thanks to that.
 
Z

Z3M0G

Member
Is there any reason I should play Male over Female? Is it better as Female in every way?

Should I start over??
 
Z

Zafir

Member
I wish there was a PS2 version of the game with all the improvements that P3P added. The downgrades which came from it being a PSP game were a bit disappointing.

Not as disappointing as the FES extra 'campaign' though. Now that was just urgh.
 
I'm new be nice

I'm new be nice

Member
I feel like people overstate the importance of the 3D enviroments, P4G is my favorite, but the visual novel presentation of p3P is in some ways more natural than what the 3D enviroments provide.
 
R

Rewind

Member
I think FES gets a bad rap. P3 was designed for no party control just adding it in makes the game real easy. Also the story presentation is much better in FES.
 
S

Sgt. Kabukiman

Banned
Z3M0G said:
Is there any reason I should play Male over Female? Is it better as Female in every way?

Should I start over??
Click to expand...

First time I played P3P, I played as a male and I ended up loving it. So if you're too far along, don't worry about it. But if you just started your playthrough, maybe give the female MC a shot for a couple of hours just to compare. She has a little bit more personality (she's still mostly silent but her behavior and dialog options are less emo and more humorous), has a better soundtrack and I prefer the pink UI to the blue one. Her social links are also pretty damn great, who wouldn't want to date Akihiko? And I say this as a straight male. You can stil have social links with the girls and they are very well written, but no romance option unfortunately.
 
Z

Z3M0G

Member
I've completed the second "Chapter" of the game you could say, and I am absolutely LOVING this game.

There are things from P4 that I miss, but this game just plays and progresses so damn quickly due to the simplified implementation. And the story is finally really picking up and grabbing my attention.

It just feels far less "tedious" than the daily grind of P4G. This my end up being my favorite playing Persona game. I bet P5 will feel like a step backwards once I need to walk around environments again. I love this cursor navigation and stripped story presentation.

The in-game cutscenes of P4G didn't offer much more to the story telling than the graphic novel style of this game, IMO. This is working more than fine for me. This doesn't feel like something that will take me 80+ hours to finish... let's see how I feel after I hit 30 hours or so.

This is probably time to ask... without spoiling, but does this game have branching paths or false endings to worry about, ala P4G? Any additional dungeon? Etc. Simple yes/no's please.

Edit: and the soundtrack is catchy as hell! I've already forgotten P4s soundtrack completely. And this one is stuck in my head long after playing. With a good pair of headphones it is really something.
 
G

Guess Who

Banned
Z3M0G said:
I've completed the second "Chapter" of the game you could say, and I am absolutely LOVING this game.

There are things from P4 that I miss, but this game just plays and progresses so damn quickly due to the simplified implementation. And the story is finally really picking up and grabbing my attention.

It just feels far less "tedious" than the daily grind of P4G. This my end up being my favorite playing Persona game. I bet P5 will feel like a step backwards once I need to walk around environments again. I love this cursor navigation and stripped story presentation.

The in-game cutscenes of P4G didn't offer much more to the story telling than the graphic novel style of this game, IMO. This is working more than fine for me. This doesn't feel like something that will take me 80+ hours to finish... let's see how I feel after I hit 30 hours or so.

This is probably time to ask... without spoiling, but does this game have branching paths or false endings to worry about, ala P4G? Any additional dungeon? Etc. Simple yes/no's please.
Click to expand...

1. P3P will still take you a very long time to finish. It's still a long-ass game.

2. There is a bad ending in P3, but it's extremely obvious what to do. Nothing obtuse or deceptive like P4 has.
 
V

Verelios

Member
I like the aesthetics of shooting yourself in the head while yelling Persona as if you're gearing up to it, rather than...P4's eccentricity.

Have fun, a lot of social links can be hit or miss but they're more intimate (imo) than P4, probably because the avatar is pretty weird.

Edit: P3's music is ace but how can you forget heartbreak? 70 hours of that...
 
S

Shengar

Member
Sgt. Kabukiman said:
P3P is the definitive version of the game, the only downside is the lack of cutscenes but the animation wasn't that good anyway.
And the female MC is my favorite, I totally rediscovered the game when I played as her, she also has the superior soudtrack and the best menu color scheme.

P3P with female MC > Persona 4 > Persona 3 with male MC

I really wish there was a Vita version of P5. It's the only game in the series not playable on it aside from remote play.
Click to expand...
This. The overall package of P3P feels like it really intended for FeMC. She doesn't have that disadvantage for not having visual representation via animation on screen since she never had any. Despite that, due to how she written, she can replace those almost by her response alone.

In regards to Social Link quality, I think Atlus really nailed it with the FeMC. Whereas in P3 the MC feels too distant while in P4 act like Jesus, FeMC managed to be someone who close enough to push people to change themselves but still have a distance to not make them reliant on her. I'm kinda expect the P Team to improve what they have made in P3P for P5 since it is more recent than P3 and P4 (P4G being almost the same in S Link except some new additions doesn't really count).

Now if only Atlus RECOGNIZED their second best MC....
 
V

Verelios

Member
Eccocid said:
Does P3P have easy mode? I have started it twice in ps2 but never played it more than 10 hours. I wanna try once more in Vita but i just wanna experience the story, got burnt with those dungeons and battle system after p4g too. Might buy it and play in easy mode for the story.
Click to expand...
Yes. There's also a point in the game where you can kick everyone from the party, head out and Hama/Mudo entire floors for all the exp. You can reach lvl 90 in a few hours, though you'll be depriving your mates of xp.
 
C

Coffee Dog

Banned
StrangeRoboMemory said:
I've only ever played P3 on PS2. If I were only ever going to get P3P or FES, which should I get? Is the extra story stuff in FES really good?
Click to expand...

P3P has all the FES additions except the answer. The answer is largely recommended as YouTube material, as the gameplay is pretty meh but not awful.

For the main game it's a choice between better graphics and the gameplay tweaks that P3P provides.
 
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