Spoony the Pussy One: Life is in the Render Queue

[rabidtictac]

I remember playing P3 and P4 and thinking "that's pretty alright for a stripped-down, more mainstream version of SMT. Can't hold a candle to Nocturne though." That was a long time ago, back when I was mainly gaming on PS2. Shortly after the P4 release in fact.

Persona 4 is one of those games that seems really amazing when you compare it to mainstream bullshit RPG games from current year, but compared to other niche japanese RPGs, it's not that great. Digital Devil Saga is better. Chrono Trigger is better. Illusion of Gaia is better. Valkyrie Profile is better.

[Kugelfisch]

So like seeing Wolfenstein: The New Order being praised for being better than CoD: Whatever Warfare 39, but knowing how Doom was better over a decade ago?

[rabidtictac]

Exactly like that, yeah. That's a perfect example really.

[aboveup]

Worse, really.

Persona 4's story is a copy and paste job of JoJo Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable in a visual novel format. The dungeons are a watered down version of a Shin Megami Tensei game, but instead of a full game's length worth of dungeons, you get less than Wind Waker.

Also in terms of being an SMT game, it's nowhere near as involved or well put together as anything in the mainline. Nocturne and Strange Journey especially.

[rabidtictac]

I never thought about it, but yeah. It really is just Jojo Part 4, isn't it? Daaaaamn. Now I like it even less.

The dungeons were impressively copypasta'd and shit compared to the amazing dungeon design mainline SMT games are known for.

[Kugelfisch]

Is there actually a differenciation between Shin Megami Tensai and Persona or is it just about snobbery and calling the snob approved by it's nip name and the non-approved by the gaijin name?

[rabidtictac]

There is. Persona is an entirely different series from Shin Megami Tensei. When people compare SMT vs Persona games, they're comparing different games.

Persona is high school kids doing high school kid shit with demon powers. Shin Megami Tensei mainline is more about being a demon and recruiting other demons to help you. At least that's what Nocturne, DDS and arguably Strange Journey were.

[aboveup]

It gets kinda muddled after a while though. Devil Survivor is an SMT mainline game, but started development as a Persona title. I think Persona 5 brings back contracts and demon negotiations into the mix.

The big thing is usually Persona being about teen angst and figuring out Who Did The Bad Thing. While SMT is about humanity from an outside perspective in a doomsday scenario with a choice between Law (absolute justice and equality, and no, they're not "good" they just perceive themselves as such), Neutral, and Chaos. All three are generally selfish and destructive.

[Boo]

It gets kinda muddled after a while though. Devil Survivor is an SMT mainline game, but started development as a Persona title. I think Persona 5 brings back contracts and demon negotiations into the mix.

I'd say it's even more muddled than that. I think it's fair to say that Persona series stopped really being like other SMT titles only around Persona 3.

The first three games (Persona 2 is a duology) still felt very much like SMT titles.

[AdorableOtter]

I played SMT 1,2 and devil summnor (will play Strange Journey) and I liked their unique atmosphere, but I don't even wanna try Persona series, they look too much hish school anime shit.