Lets do this!
The only rule is that you have beaten both games before you can judge.
Personally I like P3, I have to elaborate why later though.
Lets do this!
The only rule is that you have beaten both games before you can judge.
Personally I like P3, I have to elaborate why later though.
Last edited by swordiris; 04-15-2012 at 08:51 PM.
In terms of game play, character development and the sound track I would have to say that Persona 4 beats Persona 3 in those departments. I never really got super attached to the cast of Persona 3 as I did to the cast of Persona 4 perhaps it had something to do with only being able to S.link with the female party members and none of the male ones. As for the soundtrack it is just a personal preference I prefer engrish J pop over engrish J-rap.
However in terms of story Persona 3 defiantly has the advantage, I found it had a much better story in my personal opinion. The Persona 4 story went from a mystery adventure to let’s save the world a little too fast for my taste (not that I’m saying I don’t like the Persona 4 story far from it I loved the Persona 4 story just I loved the P3 story more)
I love both games but I’d say I like Persona 4 a little more than 3.
Being this fabulous can be tough at times but for you mongrels I’ll continue to be fabulous.
I like Persona 3 more.
Their animal mascot was Koromaru. #shallowfangirl
I never got into Teddy, sowwy.
On the other hand I like Persona 3 a lot more because of the Sound Track, the art, and the story. The characters felt more fleshed out and their conflicts with what they had to face and deal with was amazing. Not to mention even side characters got some value in the plot. Social links also felt better to me in P3...
That's just me though. I like that grungier doomed world feel that was in P3.
"There's nothing I hate more in this world......than those who take their life for granted."
I pledge my allegiance to Persona 4.
It has better characters pretty much all around. Especially the Social Link characters. I found it so hard to care about the non-party S. Links in P3.
There is a more consistently engaging story other than P3's 'Let's go climb that fuck-off big tower for a few months till a real story appears'.
P4 plays so much better too. And I don't even mean being able to control party members (frankly, that means little to me), it just looks better and is more streamlined. It doesn't take forever to enter and exit menus, it's easier to kit out party members and battle flows much faster. Going through a P4 dungeon for the first time isn't a chore unlike tackling yet another block of Tartarus.
I'm all in for Persona 4. I like it better in almost every way. I was way more attached to the Persona 4 characters, they felt more relatable and "real" to me. They're actually one of my favorite video game casts in a long time. The Persona 3 folks didn't feel like they had much depth to me, and I never really got attached to them.
The general atmosphere, the music, the gameplay all work better for me. I don't hate only controlling the MC in Persona 3, but I do prefer full party control in 4 because it allows me to use more specific strategies that rely on the entire party, rather than just doing my own thing and hoping the other party members don't mess it up too much. I think there are a lot more boring S-Links in P3, too, like the Gourmet King. Seriously, what was up with that guy? I was so annoyed that I was wasting my time hanging out with that weirdo.
I will say that Persona 3 ended better. I felt like the actual resolution to the mystery in 4 kinda came out of nowhere, and I take issue with the main piece of evidence the game trots out, I feel like it's not actually proof of anything.
Spoiler!
In Persona 3, the main story was kinda boring for most of the game (and Strega were bad villains), but I liked the twist around the last month or two, and the end boss was epic and had a great atmosphere.
Potential Characters:
Everyone, make sure this discussion doesn't evolve into a heaping pile of trollfest. Keep it civil and respect others opinions. If it gets out of hand in anyway, you will receive the appropriate infractions and this thread will be closed.
People might as well comment on P3 Portable, about how the new S.Links are, improved combat and replayability.
Imo, theres no such thing as P1 fans, P2 fans, P3 fans and so on... Just Persona fans.
On topic, it's hard to choose one since each is good on their own unique way. I preffer P3's quest system over P4's, but P4's S.Links and Stat boosting over P3's.
I gotta agree that P3 story is hard to catch-up early....
P1 is still the worst in the series though.
P4
I felt like the group in P4 have a tighter bond of friendship then in P3. I prefer P4 characters over P3.P4 also had better social links. Tartarus was was boring compared to the Midnight Channel. Yu also seems more involved into the story and his friends more than Minato is.Yu helps everyone overcome their problems. But I still love both games and that's all I can say right now.
meh
Ok reasons I like P3 Fes more than P4
1. The difficulty. I thought this game was much harder than P4 ( I like hard games) the fact that you couldn't control party members made it more difficult and I liked managing my tactics.
2. Story. I thought the story was much more epic. I really like Dark stories as well and P4 was too lighthearted. P3's ending also gave me goosebumps. I didn't get this with P4's ending.
3. Soundtrack. Mass Destruction, Burn My Dread and the other themes are so legendary they have reached meme status. There is no beating them.
Soundtrack.
...did P4 even try?
Characters, S.Links.
The characters in either game weren't very spectacular compared to DDS or DeSu but they were all pretty likable. As far as handling interaction with social links Persona 3 did a way better job than P4. The social link dates in P4 were bland and repetitive and took forever to get to the point with no suspense at all. There were a few bland S.Links in P3 as well, Star for example. A few good examples of S.Links in P3 would be one, Yukari. Yukari's S.Link alone had more emotion and development between characters than P4's entirety, not even that idiotic "Nanako dies, wahh we cry, oh w8 she alive again" scene had more development between characters in it other than showing that they were still dumb kids. With Yukari's s.link you progress from "new guy at the dorm", to "guy she considers a friend", to "guy she considers a close friend", to "kinda boyfriend", to "bestfriend"... or something like that. With Chie's S.Link it's like "guy she trains with, "guy she trains with", "guy she trains with", "guy she trains with", "guy she helps beat up some guys with", "suddenly boyfran" and it's redundant like that in a lot of P4 S.Links. I used Yukari's s.link as an example because her and Chie's are the most similar imo. However there is way more growth between the MC and Yuka-tan before they actually start going out.
If you've played the game you know how the S.Link goes, it's definitely not as repetitive as Chie's and way more believable if you consider everything that happens between them during the main story, Yakushima, notably. Now let's compare Yosuke and Junpei's S.Link. Pretty much the same story here but Yosuke's is just flat out cartoon. Hated because you own a big store in a small town, older friend who didn't even like you killed and you're upset about it, new guy in town has more swag than you and you're jealous. Junpei was jealous too that he didn't have as much swag as the MC though, that was the whole premise of their S.Link.
Yosuke's wasn't all bad, like the scene with the girls at Junes.. the problem was they stayed on that for way too long. P4 used plot devices at the ass in an already not so great story. Anyway, they tried to force character growth between the two by using the Junes girls as plot devices while giving Yosuke no real emotion or reason for me to feel sorry for him. So with Junpei, basically he's your bro when you first meet. When I first played the game and met him I was like "yup, this guy is going to be the bro of the game". He just had that instant likability not most characters have and frankly he paved the way for Yosuke. When he became jealous of the MC early on it was pretty unexpected and I was like "damn... you were going to be my bro Junpei". I was legit sad that he was being an ass to the MC.. I felt emotions.
Something P4 could only bring forth during HNGHH-boners it gave when female S.Links and the only remotely part I felt sad was when Nanako "died", despite the many "sad" scenes in the game. Anyway back to Junpei. So you're doing your thing, getting wimmenz, leveling up and one night Junpei gives the most convincing apology ever. The voice acting was perfect, the facial expression was perfect.. it was just raw emotion. So anyway I was happy to have him back on the team and as we progressed the two grew closer, revealing Junpei's tragic past which made him more likable unlike Yosuke who was basically bitching about being rich, doing it entirely wrong. By the end of the story ALL of the main cast had a great connection with the MC, in both games. P3 just lead up to it way better, overall better development between characters which made the 200+ days in the game way more enjoyable than P4. The cast was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy more likable in P3 than P4. Akihiko, the suavest motherfucker to hit the scene, P4 lacked that class, Shinji, the badass loner who returns to pick up the slack for his bro's new team, what P4 calls a "Kanji", Mitsuru, the ice cold bitch who's surprisingly passionate and not so much of a mary sue with daddy problems, Uhh Yukik-who? Junpei, your bro through and through to the end, unfortunately Yosuke did a good job playing the bro role so no complaints here, Yukari and Chie both had their ups and downs but I think they're pretty even, Kuromaru? Shat on Teddie before he even existed, Ken,... as much as I hate him he brought way more development to the cast in that one scene than P4's whole game, Fuuka and Rise are both terrible voice wise so I don't even care about them, however Rise was a total retard at times and I wanted to strangle her "this thing has no right to exist" oh straight up bitch? We playing god now. Not even Fuuka made me rage that much. Naoto was cool but Aigis alone makes for a better cast than P4's.
Gameplay.
Some people say P3 is "luck based" but the fact that you can't control your party members means you need skill to beat it. Honestly in this game particularly, the other party characters are not needed as you can body anything in the game solo. On the hardest difficulty. The ONLY thing P4 has over P3 is the ability to control party members. You have wayyyy more customization options in P3 and more interesting moves. One thing annoying about P3 is Tartarus but, if you know the lore you will know it is a neccesity in the game. Gameplay was hype in the beginning of P4, mainly cause it was new to me but at some point it got oddly boring which is weird to me since it was basically the same thing as P3 except with different characters. The boss battles in both games though were the hypest part of gameplay, great music, intense battling, goosebumps. The three final bosses combined couldn't top that single Nyx battle though. Given the fact that the battle is also longer than the three combined and the best music to ever grace any gamers ears is playing I didn't mind at all. The last battle in P4 was just... it didn't feel proper, like "did I really just play a game where I basically did nothing but save random kids, get them to join my team, battle like three important bad guys and now I'm fighting a fucking god!?". I didn't think much of it my first play but then I thought the whole game was redundant was hell on my second play. Both games tried to leave the players in the dark as to what they would be facing in the end, P3 did a way better job pulling it off. Progressing through the game, almost at the final full moon boss, beat that boss, suddenly Ikutsuki betrays you. I for one didn't expect that at all the first time I played and that whole scene with him and Kirijo was a high point in the drama department. Then you straight up knew you were going to die and you had the choice to do something about it which brings you into January, the most boring month in the game which is topped off with one of the most fitting, epic battles in the history of any game. So overall they both had interesting gameplay as far as JRPGs go and I don't think you can down one just because you could not control the other characters since P4 sacrificed a lot itself.
Story?
Each game had a very different plot. P3 was about Tragedy and P4 was about facing yourself. They both handled it well but I don't have much to say since the story of either game wasn't that great.
If you add FES then P4 really stands no chance of being the better game.
Overall.
P3 is one of my favorite games ever, I've clocked over 999 hours in both it and P4. Persona 3 was just much more enjoyable than Persona 4, I tried to get bored of it but I just couldn't. More interesting characters, better development, more emotion. I will say though, the game can be tedious at times because not every enemy is easy to beat and if you slack on tartarus you will find yourself under leveled a lot of the time. I LOVE both games or else I wouldn't have been able to play P4 more than twice but yeah, imo they sacrificed a lot in order to make P4 "better". When it first came out characters like Kanji was praised because of his ambiguous sexuality and Naoto for being a reverse trap... yeah, but what the hell else did they have going for them?
The end.
/opinions
Last edited by diorJETS; 04-15-2012 at 09:26 PM.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
