The Shin Megami Tensei/Persona Thread

[Tism the Return]

I realize it's pretty late at this point but I finally played Persona 5. It's a good game and from the spoilers I got I'm near the end of it but I don't really get why it became so massive. It's a fun game, but having played previous MegaTen games and Persona 2 to 4 it doesn't seem like a big deal. Was it just because it was Baby's First JRPG with better marketing than past games?

 

[HexFag]

I realize it's pretty late at this point but I finally played Persona 5. It's a good game and from the spoilers I got I'm near the end of it but I don't really get why it became so massive. It's a fun game, but having played previous MegaTen games and Persona 2 to 4 it doesn't seem like a big deal. Was it just because it was Baby's First JRPG with better marketing than past games?

Yeah basically. Most people online who don't like JRPGs sing the praises of Persona 5 because it looks pretty and has a unique aesthetic. I also think it made a very good first impression for the first couple hours which hooked the crowd that can't stand JRPGs because of their length and slow pace at first. Smash also probably helped with P5's popularity to some degree.

 

[Tenko Star]

I realize it's pretty late at this point but I finally played Persona 5. It's a good game and from the spoilers I got I'm near the end of it but I don't really get why it became so massive. It's a fun game, but having played previous MegaTen games and Persona 2 to 4 it doesn't seem like a big deal. Was it just because it was Baby's First JRPG with better marketing than past games?

I think it's a combination of the multi-year gap between P4/P4G and P5, plus the marketing campaign, plus the chance of a new batch of people wanting to play the whole slice-of-school-life/fighting-evil-by-moonlight style that started with P3. Hell, I remember being excited when it was revealed you were actually fighting and recruiting the old school demons instead of the ink blob Shadows of P3 and P4.

Then again, I feel like something of a heretic for thinking the old P2EP is the best Persona game, and believing it would better to drop the end of the world plots in the post P3 games. I would have been perfectly happy if P4 was a story of a group of superpowered Famous Five style high school students busting a superpowered serial killer, or P5 being the story of superpowered high school students fixing the corruption of society instead of the end of the world stuff.

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

I think it's a combination of the multi-year gap between P4/P4G and P5, plus the marketing campaign, plus the chance of a new batch of people wanting to play the whole slice-of-school-life/fighting-evil-by-moonlight style that started with P3. Hell, I remember being excited when it was revealed you were actually fighting and recruiting the old school demons instead of the ink blob Shadows of P3 and P4.

Then again, I feel like something of a heretic for thinking the old P2EP is the best Persona game, and believing it would better to drop the end of the world plots in the post P3 games. I would have been perfectly happy if P4 was a story of a group of superpowered Famous Five style high school students busting a superpowered serial killer, or P5 being the story of superpowered high school students fixing the corruption of society instead of the end of the world stuff.

I mean, Royal effectively rewrote the final boss to some guy and it actually made more thematic sense.

Gotta disagree with you on Persona 2. That game feels really algorithmic and fumbling with spell order in search of fusion spells is super annoying. The demon pact system also sucked due to limited amounts of pacts that can exist at a time. Which saddens me because rumors becoming real is a solid mystery premise. I really could believe a game like Persona 2 would fit into SMT proper.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

Then again, I feel like something of a heretic for thinking the old P2EP is the best Persona game, and believing it would better to drop the end of the world plots in the post P3 games.

The P2 games have an incredibly coherent theme going on. It's really hard to top the atmosphere of EP. Such a great game.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

In all honesty, I think I might get the remastered version of SMT Nocturne if the PS2 version is sold out.

 

[Lammy]

I realize it's pretty late at this point but I finally played Persona 5. It's a good game and from the spoilers I got I'm near the end of it but I don't really get why it became so massive. It's a fun game, but having played previous MegaTen games and Persona 2 to 4 it doesn't seem like a big deal. Was it just because it was Baby's First JRPG with better marketing than past games?

I think in addition to "babby's first jrpg" and more marketing, younger audiences might be especially enamored by it's social commentary, with ideas like "speaking generally, society wants to be blindly directed on how to live their lives by those that rule over them" or "good people with good intentions can do bad things in being overzealous in their actions" being especially profound to them if those are things they've never thought about before (likely as a result of mass consumption of media lacking in substance).

 

[Nobunaga]

I mean, Royal effectively rewrote the final boss to some guy and it actually made more thematic sense.

Gotta disagree with you on Persona 2. That game feels really algorithmic and fumbling with spell order in search of fusion spells is super annoying. The demon pact system also sucked due to limited amounts of pacts that can exist at a time. Which saddens me because rumors becoming real is a solid mystery premise. I really could believe a game like Persona 2 would fit into SMT proper.

I still can't believe it took persona 15 fucking games (not counting the abominations known as trinity souls/detective naoto) to make a interesting final boss that isnt a complete joke with complex motives

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

SMT is mainly just dungeons right? No towns or npcs or anything?

 

[Peru oso donas]

SMT is mainly just dungeons right? No towns or npcs or anything?

There are npcs and towns, but in most games demons tend to spawn inside them.

 

[Revo]

I realize it's pretty late at this point but I finally played Persona 5. It's a good game and from the spoilers I got I'm near the end of it but I don't really get why it became so massive. It's a fun game, but having played previous MegaTen games and Persona 2 to 4 it doesn't seem like a big deal. Was it just because it was Baby's First JRPG with better marketing than past games?

The Persona 5 has become popular and overhyped also bc of the smash.

 

[Shining Wit]

I think in addition to "babby's first jrpg" and more marketing, younger audiences might be especially enamored by it's social commentary, with ideas like "speaking generally, society wants to be blindly directed on how to live their lives by those that rule over them" or "good people with good intentions can do bad things in being overzealous in their actions" being especially profound to them if those are things they've never thought about before (likely as a result of mass consumption of media lacking in substance).

On top of that, i think the way the dungeon crawling is broken up by the time management in the real world helps make the gameplay a bit more palatable to the kind of people who dont really enjoy pure jrpg's, giving it the wide appeal that feeds into it getting large popularity

 

[Str8Bustah]

SMT is mainly just dungeons right? No towns or npcs or anything?

If you haven't played SMT III then now's the perfect time to emulate it.

 

[gaystoner]

SMT is mainly just dungeons right? No towns or npcs or anything?

plenty of towns/NPCs with motives to meet and usually the story is far more interesting than Persona. I could never get into Persona...also felt 'weeby' to me. SMT typically takes a darker tone compared to Persona with some sort of 'world ending' event in Tokyo. The earlier games were pure dungeon crawlers but they morphed into a growing RPG-esque world. 3 is a good place to jump in but if you have a 3DS..I really enjoy 4.

 

[Tanner Glass]

I realize it's pretty late at this point but I finally played Persona 5. It's a good game and from the spoilers I got I'm near the end of it but I don't really get why it became so massive. It's a fun game, but having played previous MegaTen games and Persona 2 to 4 it doesn't seem like a big deal. Was it just because it was Baby's First JRPG with better marketing than past games?

Persona 4 was probably the one that made the "biggest splash" in terms of the series, Persona 5 was the first one that got all of that sweet-ass marketing money.

Persona 5 also had some update gameplay, different story, and a much improved UI/UX as well.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

I could never get into Persona...also felt 'weeby' to me. SMT typically takes a darker tone compared to Persona with some sort of 'world ending' event in Tokyo.

The Persona 2 games are pretty damn dark.

Without trying to spoil anything since I think a lot of people here have only played P3 and beyond, the overarching theme in Eternal Punishment is regret. All of the characters are adults who are unhappy with where they've ended up in life. Maya is the only one who seems happy due to her carefree nature and not giving a shit about anything, but towards the end of the game it's heavily implied that she's suicidal (or they may have even come right out and said it, it's been a while since I've played it.) This is really realistic characterization, since some suicidal people do act carefree shortly after they've come up with a plan and are committed to killing themselves.

It's a stark departure from the usual JRPG fare of a bunch of teenagers trying to figure out their place in the world.

 

[Buttigieg2020]

so this didn’t get removed, it was just a different moment in the initial English trailer.

 

[HeyYou]

I don't mind the main character's design, in fact it's grown on me, but I am worried that the plot is going to be Nocturne 2: Electric Boogaloo. They kind of imply that law and chaos are coming back, so that's different from Nocturne and definitely welcome, but otherwise the plot beats seem mostly identical. Obviously the footage they've shown is only the beginning of the game, but even the sanded over Tokyo is reminiscent of Nocturne.

 

[Tenko Star]

It's a stark departure from the usual JRPG fare of a bunch of teenagers trying to figure out their place in the world.

This. I played EP first, and then when I played P3 for the first time I was taken aback by the whole daily slice of school life, attend class, sit exams, etc. bit (and especially the time management stuff) considering how in EP you arrived at Seven Sisters specifically to do a report on it and everything just went to hell whilst you were there. Plus there's the whole adult people with adult problems you mentioned: Maya's positive thinking feels like she's covering up for something, Ulala has her dating life problems, Katsuya doesn't know how to switch off, lives for his job and has a giant stick up his arse, and so on. I could relate to the characters in EP a lot more than the student crews.

 

[Shining Wit]

I don't mind the main character's design, in fact it's grown on me, but I am worried that the plot is going to be Nocturne 2: Electric Boogaloo. They kind of imply that law and chaos are coming back, so that's different from Nocturne and definitely welcome, but otherwise the plot beats seem mostly identical. Obviously the footage they've shown is only the beginning of the game, but even the sanded over Tokyo is reminiscent of Nocturne.

Law was in Nocturne every Reason ending was a Law end, even Chiaki's.

As far as the protagonist goes, it feels more like Nanashi and Dagda than Demifiend. Its too early to see where it goes but SMT always kind of treads the same beats. Hopefully it finds a way to give a big flag to distinguish itself