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Persona 3 vs Persona 4

Fucking Waifu shit. Ugh.


Anyway I prefer Persona 4. Yeah the characters can have their dumb moments but I'd much rather have Teddie over Aigis and Ken.

Then again Golden added Marie...

I'd really love a definitive port of 3 someday with Portable's and 4 Golden's improvements to the systems.
 
I preferred the characters (Junpei), setting, and soundtrack of Persona 3. The voice acting was also stronger; I didn't like Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, or Teddy's voices in P4.

Junpei >>> Yosuke in particular was a deal breaker. I didn't want to be Yosuke's friend but they shove him in your face over and over.

I also preferred the variety in the Full Moon Boss scenarios to P4's TV show new-party-member-reveals.
 
Fuck the fatigue mechanic. Fuck it so hard.

The fatigue mechanic was really not that big of a deal. You could also cheat since the night before a full moon your party doesn't get tired so you could go to Tartarus that night and finish up to the floor that is locked. It wasn't essential to go to Tartarus every night hell you could last weeks without going and its also not essential to stay the whole night there. These games do not require extensive grinding so there was no reason to stay too long in Tartarus, unless you are looking for a specific item especially Elizabeth's requests and even then they are very easy to find.
 
I read the whole thread. Seems that we have a draw, practically. Both are masterpieces.

The good thing about the Persona community is that they're really aren't a separated community when compared to say the Smash community. Both games are fantastic, they do things in their own way which makes both unique experiences instead of trying to outrun or outmatch the other. Sure, P4 has improvements but its not trying to overshadow its predecessor.
 
Nah, you're not alone. In fact, many of those same people would likely also see want to see those things again.

I think the main thing people refer to by that statement are the option to control your party members instead of the AI, a better balance of plot/dungeon/S.Links, having separate dungeons instead of the one massive tower (the tower "blocks" never really feel like different from each other even though, like in P4, the enemies may change in a similar way - at least in P4 they look a lot different and have different music), not having to worry about S.Link reversals (though I think a few out there do miss that as well), and (in the case of P4G) being able to actually choose what Persona skills get passed along during fusion.

Wait, I didn't know about this. That takes all the fun out of fusing, it's too easy to get all good skills.

Hope this isn't in Persona 5 although unfortunately that seems to be the direction Atlus is going.
 
Wait, I didn't know about this. That takes all the fun out of fusing, it's too easy to get all good skills.

Hope this isn't in Persona 5 although unfortunately that seems to be the direction Atlus is going.

I don't see why it's a bad thing. It doesn't take skill to get your preferred set of inherited skills. Only tedious retries that don't take any skill and doesn't add anything to the game other than wasting the player's time.

If there was say a minigame that you have to do successfully in order to get the skills, then sure it'd be a case of "dumbing down" but as it stands it's removing a time waster that doesn't depend on the player's skill level.
 
Wait, I didn't know about this. That takes all the fun out of fusing, it's too easy to get all good skills.

Hope this isn't in Persona 5 although unfortunately that seems to be the direction Atlus is going.

Re-rolling and cancelling in and out to get THAT skill that you want is obnoxious though.

I think the better way to do it is like, each and every skill has a slot cost associated with it with stronger skills like Heat Riser or Debilitate cost higher and a character has a limited skill slot available.
 
Do you prefer Hamburgers or French Fries?

Some pretty good comparisons have been made in this thread, but I figure I might as well drop my 2 cents anyway.

Persona 3 definitely has the edge when it comes to characters and story. The characters run the gamut from being absolutely to terrific (Junpei and Yukari) to being complete trash (Fuuka. Ken actually has character development and a story arc. Fuuka is nothing.) Meanwhile, Persona 4 is much more consistent, with nobody being outright terrible, but nobody's standout either. The social links in both games are good, but P4 definitely has the stronger writing. (Though P3P's social links have even better writing)

Persona 4 outright schools Persona 3 in terms of raw gameplay. Both games are a wash in terms of balance (P3's One More System is less broken though the ultimate Personas in P3 trivialize the game), but P3 gets repetitive very quickly, and there are months where absolutely nothing happens. P4 is similarly repetitive, but it's interspersed with these little events that keep the game fresh. Inaba >>> Iwatodai. Despite it's appearance, there really isn't much to do in Iwatodai. On the other hand, there's a surprising amount of things you can in Inaba, despite it's small size. Who knew taking care of a cat could be so much fun?

Ultimately, Persona 4 wins out for me because it's simply more fun. It's a game that lets you flirt with middle-aged police men. A game that let's you cross dress. And ultimately, a game that you can immediately pick up and get right back into it at any point. Did Teddie just come on to me? Wow.

The same can't be said for Persona 3. It's 6/2, and the only person I can hang out with is the Gourmet King? Jesus christ. I need to wait a month until the next event? Damn.
 
P3 I enjoyed immensely over P4.
Even with the way Tartarus was set up. When I finally got to P4 while it was good, I was pretty let down by it. I just didn't connect with it like I did P3. Still a good game don't get me wrong. But not what I wanted to see next I suppose after P3.

I would say the setting and personality of the game was a big factor. I know there's arguments all the time but P3 was a much darker game more so through out than P4 ever was. Which was one of the reasons why I loved P3 so much. Borh good games but P3 still wins out.
 
I have to admit even though P3's characters were better in a lot of respects (Junpei especially) the impact was lost because I didn't get to know a lot of the characters and in particular to male cast of the game.

And this is why P3P's FeMC is the best. Social links with every party member.
 
And this is why P3P's FeMC is the best. Social links with every party member.

Despite P3P being in a lot of ways worst than FES, I definitely enjoyed it a lot more because I got to know the male part of the party more which made certain scenes more emotional and having more of an impact.
 
My vote goes to Persona 4, I didn't enjoy how the npc's attack for you in the PS2 games. Though I do acknowledged that they fixed that in P3P. That being considered Persona 4 just had:
-Better Pacing, there's a part in P3 where nothing happens for many many hours.
-Better Music, I love the whole soundtrack for Persona 4, although P3 had good battle music that awful dorm music still haunts me.
-Persona 4 had more great characters, Chie is my waifu forever, and Yosuke was pretty cool too. Granted P4 also had Teddy and Naoto who I didn't care much for.
-Tone, I thought Persona 3 tried too hard to be brooding and it affected it negatively in my eyes, P4 had sad moments but it overall was a game that made me happy playing it.
 
I enjoyed both P3 and P4 equally in the end after finishing them, each had their own strong points and weak points in regards to the characters, setting, social links, dungeon etc.

I think if P3 was less repetitive and actually revealed more plot earlier on than finally beginning to dump the major interesting stuff on us 2/3rds into the game I'd give it the edge, since P4 at least keeps you mildly interested with the murder mystery plot by having you learn a little more each time you have to rescue someone from the TV.

That being said, P3 has the much stronger endgame and final encounters whereas P4's endgame is, as somebody earlier in the thread aptly put it, kind of a wet fart overall.
 
I've started playing P3P few days ago, comments here get me excited as so far (5 hours in) nothing much happens in terms of story, character development with very limited S-links.
 
Don't hate on Gourmet King, that was a surprisingly touching and heartfelt story.

To be honest, that was admittedly me just taking the piss. Nozomi's slink is pretty fun when it's a culinary adventure™, but i'm not fond of the direction of the 2nd half. It's not bad, and like you said, it's more touching than one might expect.

I really should have mentioned Kenji's social link. Kenji's social link is fucking garbage.
 
I don't see why it's a bad thing. It doesn't take skill to get your preferred set of inherited skills. Only tedious retries that don't take any skill and doesn't add anything to the game other than wasting the player's time.

If there was say a minigame that you have to do successfully in order to get the skills, then sure it'd be a case of "dumbing down" but as it stands it's removing a time waster that doesn't depend on the player's skill level.

If a Persona has say, 5 slots, it can take me about 1-2 hours to get 3 good skills that I need, but sometimes I'll settle for 2. It's basically impossible to get 4 or 5. If you get to pick and choose, you can inherit 5 best skills with no effort. Not only is this no fun at all, but all your personas end up with all broken skills, which is boring and repetitive. Takes the fun out of fusing and retrying and trying to get the 2-3 skills you want.
 
To be honest, that was admittedly me just taking the piss. Nozomi's slink is pretty fun when it's a culinary adventure™, but i'm not fond of the direction of the 2nd half. It's not bad, and like you said, it's more touching than one might expect.

I really should have mentioned Kenji's social link. Kenji's social link is fucking garbage.

Kenji's S.Link is hella funny when you realize it's a little meta.
 
I've started playing P3P few days ago, comments here get me excited as so far (5 hours in) nothing much happens in terms of story, character development with very limited S-links.

Persona 3 builds up slow, the last 20% of the game or so is where things really start happening and the reason why people think it's better than P4(if they do).
 
Kenji's S.Link is hella funny when you realize it's a little meta.

If his slink dealt with him asking out a student instead of a teacher (and getting rejected), then it would have been a godlike. Seriously. Because then it would have been immensely relateable. Because I've been there (and I bet a lot of guys have too), but it's so fucking hard to be supportive of some guy who's thirsting after his teacher. It's basically a huge missed opportunity for me, because none of the social links really cover that ground.
 
Easy, P3 is a very good RPG. P4 is one of the best games of all time. Perhaps a better question would be P4 v. Chrono Trigger?
 
I don't see why it's a bad thing. It doesn't take skill to get your preferred set of inherited skills. Only tedious retries that don't take any skill and doesn't add anything to the game other than wasting the player's time.

If there was say a minigame that you have to do successfully in order to get the skills, then sure it'd be a case of "dumbing down" but as it stands it's removing a time waster that doesn't depend on the player's skill level.

I think it's more needing the game to be better balanced to reflect that you can get pretty broken persona loadouts once you hit midgame if you know what you're doing. I remember Red Scarlet posting some really impressive persona fusions from P3 after taking a lot of time fusing the parent persona to get the right skills that would be handed down to the intended result. Getting easier access to that would make a relatively easy game that much easier.

I like being able to choose skills during fusing, but if you're going to go that route the rest of the game needs to be designed around it.

Easy, P3 is a very good RPG. P4 is one of the best games of all time. Perhaps a better question would be P4 v. Chrono Trigger?

Both P3 and P4 are really good, but the flaws in each are enough to keep them short of GOAT tier IMO.
 
It's actually a sweet social link. The creepy romance undertones are absolutely optional.

Yea but it's there. I'd much preferred it if it's treated more like FeMC and Junpei's relationship. Just give someone from the school as an additional romantic pursuit for the FeMC.
 
If his slink dealt with him asking out a student instead of a teacher (and getting rejected), then it would have been a godlike. Seriously. Because then it would have been immensely relateable. Because I've been there (and I bet a lot of guys have too), but it's so fucking hard to be supportive of some guy who's thirsting after his teacher. It's basically a huge missed opportunity for me, because none of the social links really cover that ground.

I was referring more to the fact it's all about that imaginary relationship and thirsting about it. =P
 
I really should have mentioned Kenji's social link. Kenji's social link is fucking garbage.
Nooo Kenji is a bro from Gekkoukan's brohood.

It's actually a sweet social link. The creepy romance undertones are absolutely optional.

I agree. I don't see any malice in that SLink. I always assumed that Ken's and eventually FeMC's feelings were pure. Innocent love, platonic love or something like that.
 
Kenji is the only S.Link where the MC can literally *laugh* at another person's suffering so it gets a point for that alone.

I agree. I don't see any malice in that SLink. I always assumed that Ken's and eventually FeMC's feelings were pure. Innocent love, platonic love or something like that.

Let's see how well the innocent, platonic love reasoning can work out in real life situation, hahaha.

It's just making me uncomfortable. Although that jealous banter between him and Akihiko if you're two timing both of them is funny.
 
I really liked Persona 3... or at the very least thought it had really promising frame-work to be expanded upon. P4 completely squandered all of it.
 
Wait, I didn't know about this. That takes all the fun out of fusing, it's too easy to get all good skills.

Hope this isn't in Persona 5 although unfortunately that seems to be the direction Atlus is going.

There was absolutely nothing fun about pressing X-O-X-O in succession for half an hour to get to the skill combination you needed/wanted. This was arguably one of the most important changes made to Golden in the PS2-sonas. Absolutely no reason for Atlus to backpedal on this poor design choice.
 
If a Persona has say, 5 slots, it can take me about 1-2 hours to get 3 good skills that I need, but sometimes I'll settle for 2. It's basically impossible to get 4 or 5. If you get to pick and choose, you can inherit 5 best skills with no effort. Not only is this no fun at all, but all your personas end up with all broken skills, which is boring and repetitive. Takes the fun out of fusing and retrying and trying to get the 2-3 skills you want.

It's also not fun pressing X and O repetitively to get the skills you want. In my opinion, that's what takes the fun out of fusion and making really strong Personas is what is fun. As for effort, it doesn't take any skill to get what you want, only tedious garbage that takes zero skill at all and adds nothing to the game.
 
Having played FES and vanilla P4, P4. Vastly preferred P4s cast, the "Scooby Doo" vibe, I hated Tartarus and the random AI of FES. The gunshots to the head felt a little too try hard, too.

I do like both games, but it's a no brainer for me.
 
Let's see how well the innocent, platonic love reasoning can work out in real life situation, hahaha.

It's just making me uncomfortable. Although that jealous banter between him and Akihiko if you're two timing both of them is funny.

I don't know man, he is like 10 years.. I don't remember back then if me and my friends were already having dirty thoughts to be honest. If he was like 12 or 13 it would be a sure thing. lol
 
I cared and was more attached to the characters of P4.

P3's cast was OK (I only played vanilla)...
 
Persona 4 was better in almost every way for me, especially the characters. P4 didn't have characters that I hated like Junpei, Amada, Fuuka..

The only thing I liked from Persona 3 was the ending theme.
 
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