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Persona 3 vs Persona 4
- Thread starter CurseoftheGods
- Start date
At least nobody shouted to me how I was the greatest and coolest person ever, hell they even forgot what happened, then you have the nice little scene at the end with Aigis. The sacrifice was not subtle, it was subtle the way they handled what happened after, it wasn't about Jesus sacrificing himself for the sake of the world, it was about some kids remembering their lost friend. On the other hand in P4 you have the celebration of a living Jesus going somewhere else to make more miracles happen.
flaxknuckles
Member
I didn't like the changes to Persona 4's dungeon system. It felt almost impossible to dodge shadows and seemed like you had to finish a dungeon all in one sitting unlike Persona 3. The characters seemed less dependent on you in Persona 3 and the story was darker and had more of an urgency to it. And I don't get why they turned Persona 4 into Waifu Simulator: Fresh out of Middle School Edition. There was no Mitsuru to drool over, everyone was a little kiddy.
EDIT: Forgot to clarify that I only played around 20 hours of Persona 4: Golden but finished Persona 3 FES (minus the expansion part of it).
EDIT: Forgot to clarify that I only played around 20 hours of Persona 4: Golden but finished Persona 3 FES (minus the expansion part of it).
WrenchNinja
Member
Okay, cool, I do agree with you that the focus is on bonds. On that level, they are both equivalent. But the Jesus parallel is still less subtle to me than the blatant and constant admittal that you should not avoid the truth. His persona is literally Messiah and has Null Pierce and he is crucified on a door. I have a very hard time calling this subtle or equivalent to the celestial husband and wife dispute in P4 with Izanagi finally accepting Izanami.
But that does happen in Persona 3.
Look at everyone cheering you on cause you're the best and only chance. All your social links, all your party memembers, even the guy who's dead.
They don't forget about you though. Hence your goodbyes to everyone. They forget about shadow related things and how close you really are which is dropped in a month. The aftermath isn't very subtle either. You see kids remembering a friend, I see oh look jesus is dying to save everyone. You see kids celebrating the living Jesus, I see them wishing a good friend good bye on his trip home.
They don't forget about you though. Hence your goodbyes to everyone. They forget about shadow related things and how close you really are which is dropped in a month. The aftermath isn't very subtle either. You see kids remembering a friend, I see oh look jesus is dying to save everyone. You see kids celebrating the living Jesus, I see them wishing a good friend good bye on his trip home.
I don't think he is
referring to the climax where everybody cheers you on, but rather the fact that Yu gets way to much credit for a lot of stuff. Like how Rise is always drooling over him, the fact that everybody says stuff like: "Then he/senpai and the others came and made me see reason". I won't really defend P3 since it's really not that subtle about a lot of stuff. But Makoto/Minato did not really go around solving everyone's problems.
Let's take Ken as an example even though I don't really like his character. He is prepared to kill the person he blames for his mother's murder, even to the point where he plans to end his own life when all is said and done. Yet when Shinjiro dies, Ken finds his own way of dealing with it and starts seeing that killing him off would not have made any difference. He develops on his own and not because the main character saved him or anyone else.
The P3 protagonist also has a lot of flaws, many of which are shown even more in the recent movies. He doesn't really care about anything, mostly probably because of depression resulting from the fact that his parents died. He doesn't seem to care about much in his life. He has his own arc to go through, where he slowly but surely starts seeing that being social and meeting new people isn't such a bad thing. I also would not call it celebration after his death. The characters don't even know what happened to him until the end of The Answer and even then the P3 party decides that they should live life to the fullest and better people around them to make his BURDEN easier. They are not letting him do all the work because they never refer to him as almighty. They really want to help him.
I can't recall a single time where Yu showed actual flaws outside of that True Ending episode of Persona 4 The Animation where he had to be snapped out of that timeloop/daydream by Margaret.
Let's take Ken as an example even though I don't really like his character. He is prepared to kill the person he blames for his mother's murder, even to the point where he plans to end his own life when all is said and done. Yet when Shinjiro dies, Ken finds his own way of dealing with it and starts seeing that killing him off would not have made any difference. He develops on his own and not because the main character saved him or anyone else.
The P3 protagonist also has a lot of flaws, many of which are shown even more in the recent movies. He doesn't really care about anything, mostly probably because of depression resulting from the fact that his parents died. He doesn't seem to care about much in his life. He has his own arc to go through, where he slowly but surely starts seeing that being social and meeting new people isn't such a bad thing. I also would not call it celebration after his death. The characters don't even know what happened to him until the end of The Answer and even then the P3 party decides that they should live life to the fullest and better people around them to make his BURDEN easier. They are not letting him do all the work because they never refer to him as almighty. They really want to help him.
I can't recall a single time where Yu showed actual flaws outside of that True Ending episode of Persona 4 The Animation where he had to be snapped out of that timeloop/daydream by Margaret.
Antiwhippy
the holder of the trombone
I've never actually denied that P3MC is jesus, y'know? 
I just said that P4 themes and ending is also about as subtle as thrown brick. Sure you can argue on the meta level that the inzanagi/inzanami parallels were more subtle than your persona literally being jesus, but we both know that the story isn't about that.
Hell, if you knew about the myth of inzanami and inzanagi you can argue that using that myth as parallel for averting your eyes from the truth vs seeing the truth is also about as subtle as being jesus.
Persona 3 and 4 were never subtle about its themes. I wouldn't even call it a weakness.
I just said that P4 themes and ending is also about as subtle as thrown brick. Sure you can argue on the meta level that the inzanagi/inzanami parallels were more subtle than your persona literally being jesus, but we both know that the story isn't about that.
Both MC are warrior therapists who take on the supernatural manifestation of humanity' darkness by creating bonds and showing that through human relationship people can overcome said humanity's darkness. The whole fog being a representation of humanity averting his eyes from the truth is about as subtle as deathwishes calling the death down.
Persona 3 and 4 were never subtle about its themes. I wouldn't even call it a weakness.
So I just finished P3 for the first time and said earlier that I'd weigh in when I did..I had P4G ahead by a decent margin..overall I feel the story of 3 puts it on equal footing.
Haven't touched The Answer yet though and I'll need a few days or a week to digest the ending of 3 and recover from my P3 binge-gaming over the last week and a half.
The ending was a complete kick in the balls..but still felt like it was appropriate to me.
Rats Off To Ya
Banned
Persona 3, without question. P4 is an excellent game. P3 is nothing short of transcendent. IMO, of course.
Don't touch The Answer, don't even waste your time watching it on youtube, just ignore it.
I've seen a few opinions going both ways, though slightly more saying not to play it.
I wouldn't say it's complete trash, but it's definitely a gigantic grind and it retreads some issues in more detail(which can be nice). I'd say you can try it for yourself. Also the added music is awesome.
I will continue defending The Answer and say that you should play it if you really liked the story and want an epilogue to the P3 cast.
PayOffWizard
Member
P4 over P3 but man i fricking loved smt devil survivor more than both.
WrenchNinja
Member
Rise has a crush on you in the story and it's played for laughs. What is the issue there?
Does the main character get undeserved credit? Persona 3 has all of your social links thanking you for helping with their problems as well. You're right the Persona 3 main character does not solve everyone's problems, the non social link ones (aside from Junpei and his girlfriend) but that is a case of a difference with how the story was written. Party members development was written to progress with the story and is tied with it whereas their social link problems were separate issues. In Persona 4 their problems are introduced in the story and their development is optional and on you the player. Either way, everyone still thinks you're awesomesauce By the end.
I'm not sure what bringing up the anime adaptations serve. Those are seperate icarnations for avatars that are barely characters to begin with. I would hope the movie writers could come up with some kind of personality after the anime failed to do so.
Even wih Persona Q, both protagonists are barely characters, which is kind of sad
Does the main character get undeserved credit? Persona 3 has all of your social links thanking you for helping with their problems as well. You're right the Persona 3 main character does not solve everyone's problems, the non social link ones (aside from Junpei and his girlfriend) but that is a case of a difference with how the story was written. Party members development was written to progress with the story and is tied with it whereas their social link problems were separate issues. In Persona 4 their problems are introduced in the story and their development is optional and on you the player. Either way, everyone still thinks you're awesomesauce By the end.
I'm not sure what bringing up the anime adaptations serve. Those are seperate icarnations for avatars that are barely characters to begin with. I would hope the movie writers could come up with some kind of personality after the anime failed to do so.
Even wih Persona Q, both protagonists are barely characters, which is kind of sad
I agree with most of this.I'lly denied that P3MC is jesus, y'know?Hell, if you knew about the myth of inzanami and inzanagi you can argue that using that myth as parallel for averting your eyes from the truth vs seeing the truth is also about as subtle as being jesus.Both MC are warrior therapists who take on the supernatural manifestation of humanity' darkness by creating bonds and showing that through human relationship people can overcome said humanity's darkness. The whole fog being a representation of humanity averting his eyes from the truth is about as subtle as deathwishes calling the death down.
Persona 3 and 4 were never subtle about its themes. I wouldn't even call it a weakness.
Preferred the atmosphere, story, music, and challenge level in P3. I didn't like that P4 you could leave after every floor and resume right where you left off - it trivialized the resource management that was so attractive about 3. But I did prefer having direct control over my party members in 4 (I played FES and not the PSP P3).
bishopcruz
Member
Really tough choice, so I am going to go with Persona
I actually like P3 and P4 about the same though there are parts of each I prefer. P3 has atmosphere in spades and what is happening really feels like a threat. In P4, yeah the murder at the beginning was a good start, but there was no sense of danger for MONTHS afterwards. You knew the party was gonna be OK, so why worry?
S. Link wise, I loved the S. Links for the party members in P4, but I do think the narrative ended up suffering for them, because there was no a whole lot of character development outside of them, which is kinda of a shame. IN P3, even when there were social links with party members, they didn't interfere with the main narrative, and that was great.
Also, P3P, with FeMC has the best bromance in the entire series, with the Magician S. Link. It was pretty awesome that the best friendship in the series was between those two. Puts the Yosuke one to shame.
I also found myself preferring Tartarus to the dungeons in P4 (8-bit dungeon aside), yeah it was only one dungeon, but the design in the P4 ones wasn't that great, and I found myself actually liking the feeling of progression in Tartarus. It was a bit like a rogue-alike that way, it felt epic as fuck when you made it to the top finally.
2:ISEP
I actually like P3 and P4 about the same though there are parts of each I prefer. P3 has atmosphere in spades and what is happening really feels like a threat. In P4, yeah the murder at the beginning was a good start, but there was no sense of danger for MONTHS afterwards. You knew the party was gonna be OK, so why worry?
S. Link wise, I loved the S. Links for the party members in P4, but I do think the narrative ended up suffering for them, because there was no a whole lot of character development outside of them, which is kinda of a shame. IN P3, even when there were social links with party members, they didn't interfere with the main narrative, and that was great.
Also, P3P, with FeMC has the best bromance in the entire series, with the Magician S. Link. It was pretty awesome that the best friendship in the series was between those two. Puts the Yosuke one to shame.
I also found myself preferring Tartarus to the dungeons in P4 (8-bit dungeon aside), yeah it was only one dungeon, but the design in the P4 ones wasn't that great, and I found myself actually liking the feeling of progression in Tartarus. It was a bit like a rogue-alike that way, it felt epic as fuck when you made it to the top finally.
Rats Off To Ya
Banned
It's a somewhat neat story to watch. It's an absolute chore to play.
I beat both last year, gonna definitely go with Persona 4.
P3 was good, but I thought the characters and S-Links were kinda bland and not memorable. I can't really remember in detail what happens in most of them, when I felt like I really bonded with P4's cast.
Both are great games, but P4 is one of my all time favorites now.
P3 was good, but I thought the characters and S-Links were kinda bland and not memorable. I can't really remember in detail what happens in most of them, when I felt like I really bonded with P4's cast.
Both are great games, but P4 is one of my all time favorites now.
CoolBatteryCharge
Member
Replaying the first few hours of P3FES again and damn, splitting up your party members in a dungeon so you didn't have to search every path yourself was a great feature.