• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Persona 3 vs Persona 4

Ganzlinger said:
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
Click to expand...

Try equipping one of those sexy costumes for FeMC and talk with Ken in the dungeon.

He's not really innocent at all, lol.
 
They're both too good. The story and characters of 3 appeal to me a bit more but the gameplay and content of 4 is much better.
 
Saintguine said:
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.
Click to expand...

Like another poster alluded to, it's more about balance. Look, you wouldn't want to start the game with a Persona that has Hassou Tobi, Victory Cry, Morning Star, and Heat Riser right? I mean where's the fun in that. A lot of the fun in fusing personas is in the unpredictability factor - which Persona you'll get, which skills, etc. What fun is it to give every Persona Magidyne/Mabufudyne/Magarudyne/Maziodyne? Snooze.

Pressing X and O repeatedly IS fun because that's the fusion game. It's like wanting a "press X to win" button for every boss battle. There's no fun in that. You need to attack and use magic repeatedly and struggle and finally you beat the boss. Same thing with fusing.

Fusion is like grinding - the more time you put into it, the better skills you get. Most people probably put in a couple of minutes at the most and get a couple of good skills, which is a good balance. You're not supposed to get all eight broken skills on one Persona, that's not interesting gameplay. A few people will spend hours retrying to get the best skills - that's like someone spending hours grinding for hours to get to level 100 before the final boss. It's overkill for most people, but you have the option if you really want to exercise it. Letting people pick whatever skill they want is like giving someone a button to go to level 100 automatically.
 
vicissitudes said:
Like another poster alluded to, it's more about balance. Look, you wouldn't want to start the game with a Persona that has Hassou Tobi, Victory Cry, Morning Star, and Heat Riser right? I mean where's the fun in that. A lot of the fun in fusing personas is in the unpredictability factor - which Persona you'll get, which skills, etc. What fun is it to give every Persona Magidyne/Mabufudyne/Magarudyne/Maziodyne? Snooze.

Pressing X and O repeatedly IS fun because that's the fusion game. It's like wanting a "press X to win" button for every boss battle. There's no fun in that. You need to attack and use magic repeatedly and struggle and finally you beat the boss. Same thing with fusing.

Fusion is like grinding - the more time you put into it, the better skills you get. Most people probably put in a couple of minutes at the most and get a couple of good skills, which is a good balance. You're not supposed to get all eight broken skills on one Persona, that's not interesting gameplay. A few people will spend hours retrying to get the best skills - that's like someone spending hours grinding for hours to get to level 100 before the final boss. It's overkill for most people, but you have the option if you really want to exercise it. Letting people pick whatever skill they want is like giving someone a button to go to level 100 automatically.
Click to expand...

The first paragraph is moot because you cannot have those skills in the beginning unless you're NG+, it's a very poorly done strawman.

There's no game to the so called fusion game, it doesn't demand skill or timing it's like saying there's nuance and skill to being a dippy bird. Metal Gear Rising and other QTE bosses require timing and the right buttons to be pressed in order to win, there is skill in that you have to have a quick reaction to press the button(s) and be able to read the visual information quickly in order to succeed. Where is the nuance? What is the skill that the player needs? What is the mechanics of the game (i.e combat is rock paper scissors, social links are thinking of how a character would react to each response)?

The difference between grinding and this so called "fusion game" is one has to use their skill and knowledge of the game (creep up behind gold hands to get a sneak attack, know which skills is suited for the situation, having the right party, how much SP restoring items do I have etc.) and another is just hitting X and O with no nuance involved. As for the fun factor, I can't argue with that but to me it sounds like the mundane existence of being a dippy bird. Hell even in other games there's skill in grinding (i.e in WoW what skills should I use in a dungeon so I can clear it out in the fastest time so I can save time) where the player is rewarded for doing well and understanding their toolset, it may be a low skill ceiling but skill is required verses pressing X and O at your leisure.

As for balance, yes Persona is imbalanced as it is an easy series of games. Even with the so called "hard mode Personas" with not as good skills. Persona 3 is an extremely easy game that I had no trouble with compared to the mainline games.
 
vicissitudes said:
Like another poster alluded to, it's more about balance. Look, you wouldn't want to start the game with a Persona that has Hassou Tobi, Victory Cry, Morning Star, and Heat Riser right? I mean where's the fun in that. A lot of the fun in fusing personas is in the unpredictability factor - which Persona you'll get, which skills, etc. What fun is it to give every Persona Magidyne/Mabufudyne/Magarudyne/Maziodyne? Snooze.

Pressing X and O repeatedly IS fun because that's the fusion game. It's like wanting a "press X to win" button for every boss battle. There's no fun in that. You need to attack and use magic repeatedly and struggle and finally you beat the boss. Same thing with fusing.

Fusion is like grinding - the more time you put into it, the better skills you get. Most people probably put in a couple of minutes at the most and get a couple of good skills, which is a good balance. You're not supposed to get all eight broken skills on one Persona, that's not interesting gameplay. A few people will spend hours retrying to get the best skills - that's like someone spending hours grinding for hours to get to level 100 before the final boss. It's overkill for most people, but you have the option if you really want to exercise it. Letting people pick whatever skill they want is like giving someone a button to go to level 100 automatically.
Click to expand...
You're not really going to be able to fuse a Persona that's completely broken unless you're in the late game, where things are usually very easy anyway, or unless you know the game pretty well, which again makes the entire thing very easy. I mean, your first paragraph is kind of a moot point, because even with chosen skill inheritance, you'll never have all those skills at your disposal anywhere near early game.

Bottom line is that randomized inheritance does nothing more than waste the player's time compared to chosen inheritance. If you know what skills you want, you just back out until you get them. There's no additional input on the player's behalf. No resource being used. It's just killing time. To use your own words, that's not interesting gameplay.

And really, the ability to make a powerful Persona has nothing to do with picking the skills to pass down. If you dig deeper into things, it's more abut how early the game allows you to have those abilities. Personas don't need 8 crazy abilities to break the game. Usually just 1 or 2 will do it. As soon as you get a Persona with say, Megidolaon, or Hassou Tobi, it's pretty much easy mode regardless of what else they have.
 
Laughing Banana said:
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.
Click to expand...

cjdTCkn.png


Never forget
 
Bitch Pudding said:
Weeeeell, a quick google desk research didn`t reveal that P3P was also released on Vita.

The PSN store has 3 options:

P3 FES for PS3 for €9,99
a P2 / P3 Portable Bundle for Vita / PSP for €49.99 and
P3 Portable for Vita / PSP for €29,99.

I spent almost 15 hours a week in trains so I preferr a portable edition. Which one of those editions is the best deal?
Click to expand...

The best deal there is definitely FES as I don't think P3P is 3x as good as FES, but that's weird that P3P is so expensive. It's also on sale a lot if you felt like waiting a bit.
 
I love both games, but I think Persona 4 is a stronger overall experience, which is why it gets my vote. People often complain about P4's slow opening, which is perfectly valid. Still, once it gets going, there's a clear and strong goal that pushes the plot forward. P3's plot took a lot longer to become what I'd call good. Once it does get good, it's really good, but I can't ignore the lack of motivation I felt until I reached that point.

Character development for both games is really strong. My boys Kanji and Junpei were the best, with Kanji being super relatable and Junpei being super awesome. I honestly can't think of a single party member from either game who I didn't like, so it's really hard to compare the two casts. I will say that I preferred the group dynamic of P4, not that I didn't appreciate what they were going for with P3. Also, social links are more consistently high quality in P4. P3 has a few standouts though, like Aigis, Akinari and Junpei (FeMC).

I actually think P3 has a slightly better soundtrack. Emphasis on slightly, because they're so close it's barely worth picking a winner. Oh, but The Almighty is my favorite track from the Persona series, so maybe P4's soundtrack is better? I don't know!

I used to think that P4's dungeons were better than Tartarus, but after multiple playthroughs of both games, I've realized that Tartarus is so much faster and easier to navigate. It feels a lot smoother to me, so this is actually another point in P3's favor.

Ultimately, the reason why I like Persona 4 better is that it's greater than the sum of its parts. Just about every element comes together to create this one of a kind experience. With Persona 4, I felt liked I was living in Inaba, and it was amazing. The rural setting was really unique, the way the characters got along made them feel like real friends. I hurt when they hurt, and I laughed when they laughed. Persona 3 made me feel similarly, but because I feel that the first half of the game is so much weaker than the latter half, I can't think of it as a better experience. P4 is just that much more consistent.
 
I think it is odd when people say Persona games are easy. SMTIV was waaaaay easier than P4G has been. Especially since the -karn spells covered your whole party.
 
They are really really really similar games so it's hard to say which is better.
P3 has a better soundtrack.
 
I don't like how Persona games seem to have gotten more and more simple on the combat side of things. If the pace keeps up, Persona 5 will just be "Choose physical attack or appropriate magic".
 
Two Words said:
I don't like how Persona games seem to have gotten more and more simple on the combat side of things. If the pace keeps up, Persona 5 will just be "Choose physical attack or appropriate magic".
Click to expand...

The older Persona games were no different. Battles in Persona 1 literally amounted to spamming the same skills over and over again. This was because SP costs were dependent on the Persona you equipped, and not the skill itself. Notably, this meant that you could use Megidola and Mediarama (which are early game skills) and mash your way through every random encounter. The game even remembers which skills you used last, so it sometimes felt like it was playing itself. Hell, Persona 2 is even worse. With Fusion Spells that outright trivialize random encounters. You can set them before the battle starts, or pick them from a menu. Very easy.

Persona has always been pretty simple—If anything, Persona 3/4 mixed things up by making it so that your protagonist's death = game over, and allowing enemies to abuse the One More System.
 
Persona 4 does more interesting things and the social links are straight up better (like being able to talk to a girl without automatically dating her). The P3's problem is that everything is too obvious in how it will play out. Nothing was suprising with the story and the characters are pretty typical anime stereotypes. P4 being scooby dooesque group of kids trying to solve a mystery was a nice change to the typical secret organization of kids that has to stop ultimate evil.
 
Phocks said:
The P3's problem is that everything is too obvious in how it will play out. Nothing was suprising with the story and the characters are pretty typical anime stereotypes.
Click to expand...

I felt P4 was far worse than P3 in this regard. P4 was far more predictable and tropey, especially with how the S.Links progressed and the various comedy scenes strewn throughout the plot.
 
Phocks said:
Persona 4 does more interesting things and the social links are straight up better (like being able to talk to a girl without automatically dating her).
Click to expand...

Naaaaah.

Heirophant, hanged, devil, hermit and tower are better than anything in P4 that isn't dojima and nanako.

Also as established earlier you get to laugh at a dumbass.

Also akinari.
 
Phocks said:
Persona 4 does more interesting things and the social links are straight up better (like being able to talk to a girl without automatically dating her). The P3's problem is that everything is too obvious in how it will play out. Nothing was suprising with the story and the characters are pretty typical anime stereotypes. P4 being scooby dooesque group of kids trying to solve a mystery was a nice change to the typical secret organization of kids that has to stop ultimate evil.
Click to expand...

Huh? P4 is way more obvious and and typical anime trope than P3 is. All of the playable character S.Links, in fact. The NPC characters are a bit of a wash but the P4 playable cast has their S.Links just retread what we know about them know.
 
Saintguine said:
The first paragraph is moot because you cannot have those skills in the beginning unless you're NG+, it's a very poorly done strawman.

There's no game to the so called fusion game, it doesn't demand skill or timing it's like saying there's nuance and skill to being a dippy bird. Metal Gear Rising and other QTE bosses require timing and the right buttons to be pressed in order to win, there is skill in that you have to have a quick reaction to press the button(s) and be able to read the visual information quickly in order to succeed. Where is the nuance? What is the skill that the player needs? What is the mechanics of the game (i.e combat is rock paper scissors, social links are thinking of how a character would react to each response)?

The difference between grinding and this so called "fusion game" is one has to use their skill and knowledge of the game (creep up behind gold hands to get a sneak attack, know which skills is suited for the situation, having the right party, how much SP restoring items do I have etc.) and another is just hitting X and O with no nuance involved. As for the fun factor, I can't argue with that but to me it sounds like the mundane existence of being a dippy bird. Hell even in other games there's skill in grinding (i.e in WoW what skills should I use in a dungeon so I can clear it out in the fastest time so I can save time) where the player is rewarded for doing well and understanding their toolset, it may be a low skill ceiling but skill is required verses pressing X and O at your leisure.

As for balance, yes Persona is imbalanced as it is an easy series of games. Even with the so called "hard mode Personas" with not as good skills. Persona 3 is an extremely easy game that I had no trouble with compared to the mainline games.
Click to expand...

True although I would argue most grinding in games requires no skills either. How much strategy does it take to grind random enemies in 90% of all JRPGs?

Persona 4 is easy enough, let's not make it any easier.

Perfect Cha0s said:
You're not really going to be able to fuse a Persona that's completely broken unless you're in the late game, where things are usually very easy anyway, or unless you know the game pretty well, which again makes the entire thing very easy. I mean, your first paragraph is kind of a moot point, because even with chosen skill inheritance, you'll never have all those skills at your disposal anywhere near early game.

Bottom line is that randomized inheritance does nothing more than waste the player's time compared to chosen inheritance. If you know what skills you want, you just back out until you get them. There's no additional input on the player's behalf. No resource being used. It's just killing time. To use your own words, that's not interesting gameplay.

And really, the ability to make a powerful Persona has nothing to do with picking the skills to pass down. If you dig deeper into things, it's more abut how early the game allows you to have those abilities. Personas don't need 8 crazy abilities to break the game. Usually just 1 or 2 will do it. As soon as you get a Persona with say, Megidolaon, or Hassou Tobi, it's pretty much easy mode regardless of what else they have.
Click to expand...

Only late game really matters. No one spends more than 1-2 minutes fusing personas early game when there are only one or two inheritance slots.

Randomized inheritance doesn't waste the player's time because you're not supposed to spend hours fusing every persona trying to get the best abilities. That's not how it's designed. Randomized inheritance provides more choice and a difficulty scale. Instead of "no effort = best skills" it's "no effort = poor skills" or "some effort = decent skills" or "lots of effort = great skills" and you have to choose. That's more interesting than what's essentially "press X to win."

Persona with only Hassou Tobi = very good persona. Yoshitsune with Hassou Tobi / Power Charge / Heat Riser / Debilitate / Arms Master / Megidolaon / Victory Cry / Repel Dark = why bother using any other persona ever? This leads to less variety in gameplay.
 
luka said:
this garbage is why i don't post in persona threads. this one had a good run i guess.
Click to expand...

FSLink said:
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.
Click to expand...

No fun allowed!
Not that I didn't post anything else to explain my choice. #TeamRise
 
Antiwhippy said:
Naaaaah.

Heirophant, hanged, devil, hermit and tower are better than anything in P4 that isn't dojima and nanako.

Also as established earlier you get to laugh at a dumbass.

Also akinari.
Click to expand...
Nah

Yosuke > Kenji and Junpei
Yukiko > Fuuka
Mitsuru > Margaret
Kanji > Hidetoshi
Dojima > Bunkichi and Mitsuko
Rise = Yukari
Chie > Kazushi and Rio
Nanako > Chihiro and Ken
Maya > Saori and Fox
Naoto > Keisuke and Ryoji
Kou and Daisuke > Yuko and Koromaru
Naoki > Maiko
Hisano > Pharos
Eri > Bebe
Sayoko = Tanaka
Shu > Mutatsu
Teddie > Mamoru and Akihiko
Ai > Shinjiro and Nozomi
Akinari > Yumi and Ayane
Aigis > Marie
Adachi > Everybody
 
Persona 3 story was sogood.gif. I loved the scope of the story and the end was just classy in my opinion. I was hooked from the intro where MC reached the dorm to the very end in school. The atmosphere and tension was top-notch. I played P3P and despite the visual novel type navigation, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

One of the best things about P3 were the characters and their development.
The side-plot of Junpei and Chidori was one of the best I have seen in any video game. You can see Chidori's character and Junpei's affection for her develop so naturally, I actually started to root for them.

Social links too were so good. Maya, Akinari and Maiko really stood out for me. Not to mention Yukari, Fuuka and Mitsuru. All really mature and fleshed out.

Tartarus was awesome and surreal, I dont care what anybody says. Loved the intimidating look and the hundreds of floors. Since it was my first Persona, the battle system took a getting a used to but by the time I was on the 8th full moon, I was grinding and boosting through my social links like a boss. Fusing Personas to make an ultimate team was very addicting.


Im going through Persona 4 right now and also love it's more laid back approach. There is a sense of mystery in P4 more than in P3. The slow start is something I liked despite many people saying otherwise. A good story should always take its time I think. So far the characters look interesting.

Btw P4 is also dark like P3, not as lighthearted as people say it is.
There is a person murdered and hung on a TV antenna at the start. Even if it's not shown.
My favourite movie is a village murder mystery so the premise is a nice change from the urban P3.

So all in all Persona 3 was amazing for me and one of the best games I have ever played. Persona 4 looks to be just as good. Can't wait for P5.

P.S. Persona 4 takes the soundtrack because of the "electric phone in the butt" song. Makes me excited for cloudy days in Inaba.
 
Shouta said:
Huh? P4 is way more obvious and and typical anime trope than P3 is. All of the playable character S.Links, in fact. The NPC characters are a bit of a wash but the P4 playable cast has their S.Links just retread what we know about them know.
Click to expand...

Yeah, P4 is way more tropey and there are no character arcs, like Chie, I don't understand why people love her, because outside of the "steak" meme her character is absolutely boring.

I prefer P3, more conflict between your companions, which was understandable considering the main plot and they were much more interesting as characters. I do think the atmosphere and the music were better too, I really loved the melancholic wait for the end of the world. The Answer is trash tho, shitty fanfiction.

P4's ending was pretty bad too, the whole "you're the greatest person in the world", "what are we going to do without you", "oh my god I'm crying so much" felt like an otaku's wild dream. P3 was much more subtle.

Gameplay-wise P4 is obviously better since it's a refinement, but I'd rather replay P3.
 
Kikujiro said:
Yeah, P4 is way more tropey and there are no character arcs, like Chie, I don't understand why people love her, because outside of the "steak" meme her character is absolutely boring.

I prefer P3, more conflict between your companions, which was understandable considering the main plot and they were much more interesting as characters. I do think the atmosphere and the music were better too, I really loved the melancholic wait for the end of the world. The Answer is trash tho, shitty fanfiction.

P4's ending was pretty bad too, the whole "you're the greatest person in the world", "what are we going to do without you", "oh my god I'm crying so much" felt like an otaku's wild dream. P3 was much more subtle.

Gameplay-wise P4 is obviously better since it's a refinement, but I'd rather replay P3.
Click to expand...
Right, dying for everyone's sins. Real subtle.
 
P4 for me but I played P3 after P4 and the pacing and boring S.Links in P3 was hard to swallow. Also, I found the protagonist of P3 and the trio of cosplayers also really boring and cliche (not that P4 is not ful of cliches anyway), music was better in P4 too.
 
WrenchNinja said:
Nah

Yosuke > Kenji and Junpei
Yukiko > Fuuka
Mitsuru > Margaret
Kanji > Hidetoshi
Dojima > Bunkichi and Mitsuko
Rise = Yukari
Chie > Kazushi and Rio
Nanako > Chihiro and Ken
Maya > Saori and Fox
Naoto > Keisuke and Ryoji
Kou and Daisuke > Yuko and Koromaru
Naoki > Maiko
Hisano > Pharos
Eri > Bebe
Sayoko = Tanaka
Shu > Mutatsu
Teddie > Mamoru and Akihiko
Ai > Shinjiro and Nozomi
Akinari > Yumi and Ayane
Aigis > Marie
Adachi > Everybody
Click to expand...

We're resorting to list wars now?
 
XiaNaphryz said:
We're resorting to list wars now?
Click to expand...
We've already covered "This game is more anime and cliché", "No the other game is more anime and cliche", "The story is better", "No the story is better here", "This other thing is better", "This other thing is better here"

All things end in lists

Be glad I didn't compare actual Personas and skill sets!
 
I have yet to play Persona 3 (I will soon), but I absolutely love 4. From what I've seen of 3, I do prefer the lighthearted tone of 4 so I don't think I will like 3 as much. But then again, I'm not really qualified to answer.
 
I wasn't going to say anything until I saw how fast this thread was moving.

IMO, Persona 3 has the best story of the franchise. One of my favorites in general actually. But yes Tartarus is boring as hell and FES didn't really fix it, just reversed it basically.

Persona 4 took all the feedback from P3 and made necessary changes to fix the repetitiveness of the dungeons.

So P3 for story, then P4 for gameplay.
 
Persona
2 EP

Slightly off topic, but as someone who has played both and never beat either, can someone recommend some guides that just gives me the bare minimum in guidance? In both 3 and 4, I've run into an issue where I play for like 10-20 hours and get to a point where my personae aren't good enough and no matter how many retries, I can't progress past a boss. I want to finally beat both before Persona 5 comes out, but I don't want a guide like a typical GameFAQs guide. Just one that gives me a few goals, like a list of recommended personae and skills, etc.

Using personae makes me feel weird
 
Persona 3 have better story and more creative S.link (online friend, a ghost, shady businessman, shady monk etc) GOAT final boss fight OST.

Persona 4 is more fun to play, and the closest thing we got to Jojo Bizarre Adventure part 4 adaptation.

I guess i'll choose Persona 3. I'd like the tone of the story and your teammates progression.
 
WrenchNinja said:
That is definitely more subtle than the character being Jesus.
Click to expand...
Not really. The only thing that really separates the p4 and p3 mc in their character arc is that the p3mc
dies.
They still beat the ultimate villain through the bonds of their relationships. The games may differ in message but it's always about the strength of bonds.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Denfaminicogamer released the top 10 RPGs that made Japanese gamers cry the most: #1 FFX, #2 Crisis Core FFVII, #3 Persona 3
20
146
Unknown Soldier replied
Fitness boxing teasing collab with Persona 5
Rumor 
2
218
Mownoc replied
  • Featured
Demonschool |OT| Persona 2 Is That You?
2
56
2K
DEAD ORIGINAL replied
Atlus Launches Persona 30th Anniversary Website, 1st update on January 8th, 2026
2
57
2K
Go_Ly_Dow replied
  • Poll
What is the best Persona game?
2 3
106
4K
TintoConCasera replied
Top Bottom