Experiencing all the Personas Port-ably?

[DaivRules]

Okay, next month Persona 4 Arena Ultimax will be part of Plus. Since I was curious, I looked into it and realized Persona Arena is a fighting game, which I'm not into. However, it seems like Persona (main series) is an RPG series.

 

So I ask this, looking for confirmation. If I wanted to play Persona portably, are these the titles that would best cover the series?

1. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (PSP)
2. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 Innocent Sin (PSP)
3. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable (PSP)
4. Persona 4 Golden (Vita)

Seems like if I pick up those 4 titles I should be able to cover the Persona core series, correct?

 

Please let me know if there is something else that will cover the core series.

[FlareXV]

I believe that's all of them. P5 will be making an appearance in the near future.

[ExHaseo]

Each game is separate, with a new story and new characters, but in a shared universe. So you can play them in whatever order you want to. However, the first two are drastically different from 3 and 4. And if you can, play the console version of Persona 3. It's the only game that got significantly downgraded in the portable port, and loses a lot because of it.

[ab4h4r4k1]

I really dont think you need to play every game. I played 3 and 4 Golden and could understand (and more important, enjoy) both games.

[locutus442]

There's also Persona 2 Eternal Punishment that can be played on a Vita as well.  It's a Ps1 classic outside of Japan, while in Japan it was released on the PSP as well.

[Arkthur]

There's also Persona 2 Eternal Punishment that can be played on a Vita as well.  It's a Ps1 classic outside of Japan, while in Japan it was released on the PSP as well.

This. Also, you can play P3 FES on your PS3 (classic), imo is better than the portable version because it has an extra piece of story.

[LittleLamb121]

And if you can, play the console version of Persona 3. It's the only game that got significantly downgraded in the portable port, and loses a lot because of it.

See, I'm gonna have to disagree personally. The only thing I missed on the portable version was walking around the overworld - other than that the game was improved. Plus playing as the Female MC is awesome. And the combat is improved upon as well. FES is only better for the world and Epilogue.

[FinalMiracle13]

I want all of those with Trophy support, besides Golden which did that for the 4th game

[Tekyumeeee]

I've played Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden and thought they were both amazing games. I probably won't bother with any previous titles. I like how they play on the Vita, personally. It's just a bummer that P3P doesn't have trophies. That's probably the most time I've spent on a game without trophies in a long time lol.

[DaivRules]

Each game is separate, with a new story and new characters, but in a shared universe. So you can play them in whatever order you want to. However, the first two are drastically different from 3 and 4. And if you can, play the console version of Persona 3. It's the only game that got significantly downgraded in the portable port, and loses a lot because of it.

 

You mean like Disgaea, kinda? I like and suggest people play the Disgaea's in order to see how the games evolved. Gameplay really changed as it went on and if someone played D4 first then went back and played previous, they seem much more difficult because of the changes in game play.

 

I really dont think you need to play every game. I played 3 and 4 Golden and could understand (and more important, enjoy) both games.

 

"Need"? I don't need to play *any* games. I want to check them all out, and short of a compelling reason *not* to, I will.

 

There's also Persona 2 Eternal Punishment that can be played on a Vita as well.  It's a Ps1 classic outside of Japan, while in Japan it was released on the PSP as well.

 

Is this a separate story and if so, where does it fall with the other ones? If it wasn't released in english on the PSP, I probably won't be picking this up.

 

I've played Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden and thought they were both amazing games. I probably won't bother with any previous titles. I like how they play on the Vita, personally. It's just a bummer that P3P doesn't have trophies. That's probably the most time I've spent on a game without trophies in a long time lol.

 

I'll be picking all these up in physically and short of a compelling reason *not* to, I want to play them all. Considering my 400 hours in Disgaea 1 on PSP and 350 hours in Disgaea 2 on PSP, I'm not concerned about hours if it's a good game.

 

Thanks all for the replies, I should have mentioned it in the first post, but I'll be getting the english UMDs for the PSP games and the physical release for the Vita. Booting the PS3 for these types of games means I'm not playing them, like ever, these days.

 

Thanks for confiming these will cover the core Persona universe, I'll work on picking these up soon!

[Jon-Patrick-S]

 

Is this a separate story and if so, where does it fall with the other ones? If it wasn't released in english on the PSP, I probably won't be picking this up.

Eternal Punishment is set after Innocent Sin, it's not released as a PSP title outside of Japan but you can buy and download the original PS1 version from the American playstation store (Which based on your trophy card shouldn't be a problem for you, other regions may have to make a US account as it's missing from at least the European store) and it can be downloaded and played on the PSP just fine. There might be some differences in characters names because of the localization changes that were a big thing back in the day I know it was particularly bad for the original Persona on PS1 but not so sure for Eternal Punishment, either way it should be fully playable.

[Satoshi Ookami]

You missed one.

Persona 3 FES.

You can replace P3P with it, if you are not interested in giving Minako (female protagonist) a shot since P3 FES covers both Journey (Minato's story, i.e. main P3 plotline) and Answer (Aegis' story, P3 story sequel) but be warned. There is one thing that clearly separates P3P and P3FES and why P3P is more recommended to beginning players.

It's the battle system.

P3FES uses old system where you can only give general advice to your party members (e.g. use physical attacks/use magic) and you cannot give them direct orders (e.g. use Ziodyne on Shadow 2).

In P3P, it's Golden-style so you can directly control your characters.

 

 

 

As others said, P3 and P4 are the only ones you need to give preference to play the fighting game/s

EDIT: I forgot to mention, if you want to experience full Arena story, you don't need to buy both Arenas. Ultimax has original Arena story as available DLC so you can buy it and enjoy it without purchasing the vanilla Arena.

Edited January 28, 2016 by Satoshi Ookami