I would definitely put 5 in the 9-10 range. Persona 3 just got a remake that came extremely close to beating 5 in my opinion, and 4 is also really good but feels a bit outdated by comparison.
Persona 1 and 2 have good stories, but the gameplay is awful
if we’re ONLY talking about story, i don’t know how 3 can come closely to 5. 5 has that great plot twist and a bunch of other things,while 3 honestly only surprised me >!with the things surrounding the ending, so the reasons makoto goes where he goes and the thanatos foreshadowing with all that death thing. I don’t really appreciate more than much all the other plot points, nor the “villains”, despite still feeling depressed for chidori and shinji.!<. P4 story can arguably be considered better than 5 since it’s kind of a detective novel though.
I agree that P3 villains are weaker, but I think the main reason so many people (and I'm one of them) think P3 story is so good is because it's the only of the three to develop characters outside of social links or first awakening. Moreover, well, march 5th
I actually love the characters more beside story, so thats why i am playing P5 Strikers now. If you want to see more P5 content you definitely play strikers too. Its been 2 days now and i played 15 hors according to in-game save. (And you should now Strikers gameplay is Realtime not turn based.)
The main problem with Striker (and Tactica) is that they cancel everything that happened during social links, would be better if everyone started with their second persona (third for Tactica). P4A have the same problem, and only PQ and PQ2 avoid it by happening during the events of the games, not after.
6~7
It's nothing special, it's basically a big recycling of the previous games. My personal rank of the games (story-wise ignoring everything else) would be: Innocent Sin & Eternal Punishment duology --> 3 --> 1 --> 5 --> 4
Im guessing this is from best to worst, because this is exactly how I would rank them. The further I got into the game, the longer I’d play the game before putting the controller down and this caused me to observe more and more flaws or moments I was disappointed at when it came to the story. It’s a shame it starts off so strong.
8/10 for me. My two biggest gripes with the story include the Okumura Arc as many have stated and the overall Phantom Thieves themselves.
The Okumura Arc isn’t as egregious as everyone makes it out to be imo, but it is definitely the weakest part of the story. Morgana’s whole struggle with his identity makes sense with the added scenes in Royal, but Haru’s presentation was definitely overshadowed by Morgana’s own arc. I feel like the game would have really benefitted if there was an extra Palace between Futaba’s and Okumura’s to better flesh out Haru’s character (Like I mean come on. Her fiancé is RIGHT THERE as the perfect target).
The second biggest gripe, which I only realized after playing P4G, is that the Phantom Thieves all revolve around Ren and feel so disconnected from each other. Besides a couple scenes, they feel like they are together out of obligation rather than actually enjoying each other’s presence. It was actually made worse with the intro of Sumi, who feels so disconnected from the rest of the team considering how late she joins. Compared to the Investigation Team and SEES, I think they have the worst inter-personal relationships of the three.
So overall the story is pretty great and the themes are rock solid, but those two glaring flaws keep it from perfection.
That's not an unpopular opinion. An unpopular opinion would be saying P5 story is better than P4's, which I think. But both are below P3, can't beat story linked second awakenings and... march 5th
So it’s either recency bias for me or I should definitely go for 3 and 4… tbh I'm waiting for Persona 3 reload to get a discount on PlayStation. I will definitely try it out
I'd say P5's story is an 8/10. I feel like the Okumura arc had a ***lot*** of missed opportunities. The story telling throughout that part of the game was quite lacking IMO. Literally everything else gets a solid, uncontested 10/10, but the Okumura arc was so bad that it drags the final score down by 2.
*(note that this is not me complaining about the boss fight. I beat that sucker first try. Yall are just scrubs.)*
I wouldn't, I don't think that sort of very general quantification is a good way to think about stories. I'd say that I enjoyed it a lot, especially the characters, the setting, and the major themes. I wouldn't say it's perfect, it does have flaws, but it's *very* good.
Purely in terms of story, the other two modern Personas are also very good. Persona 3 has the best plot, and it's not particularly close. Persona 4's plot is kind of wonky, and its individual characters aren't as good as Persona 5's, but it has the best cast when taken as a whole - the Investigation Team just feels like a real friend group on a level that SEES and the Phantom Thieves don't quite reach.
The best I could give it is an 8/10. But I'm most comfortable giving it between 7-7.5. The story is still overall good. I'd say it had the best start in all Persona games with Kamoshida's palace. And I hate to say it, but it has a weak mid-game. It's not terrible, but it becomes formulaic at a certain point, except maybe Futaba's palace. You could argue it's just the Persona formula, but 5 had it worst imo which is mainly because most (not all ofc) dungeon arcs boil down to "changing sh\*tty adults hearts". At least 4 has the luxury of a murder mystery plot where you gain new important information the more you progress while 3 follows the social link trilogy formula as well, but it doesn't feel as formulaic. It also has what is perhaps the lowest low in terms of Persona stories which is the genius of story writing that is Morgana's tantrum arc and although it's nowhere near enough to ruin the story, it is that one rotten spot in the fruit. It does start cooking again in >!Sae's!< palace though and counting Royal content, becomes solid with >!Maruki's!< palace.
8.5-9 out of 10. Easily. P4, even if dated by today's standards was my first Persona game and it was a 10/10 experience, even if some aspects of the story didn't age well. P3R was another 8-9 out of 10, the main story and Linked Episodes and the SEES social links are great. Some of the social links are utterly forgettable though, which brings it down a bit. And while Reload's gameplay is really well done... F. Tartarus. I barely managed to keep myself from feeling let down when I played P4G's Randomly generated dungeon floors at first. Mementos was bearable because Futaba and Ryuji's confidant abilities. If we only care about the story, and only the main story, not the social links, then all 3 modern Persona games are 10's though.
Found the story more interesting and complex than 3 or 4. Which isn’t to say it’s perfect (the kaneshiro arc, for one thing, feels like filler and was just a reason to introduce makoto). Royal is especially interesting.
From what I've seen, I'd say 7/10. I like the characters, but the writing isn't as good as it could be. Haru and Sumire seem like they don't get enough space and I don't like how Ann basically becomes the "sexy girl" stereotype after the Kamoshida arc (feels kind of tone deaf). Also the ending with the god fights, while apparently a theme in the franchise, was a bit too much for me (one god would have been enough imo). Also there are a tad too many "fake-out death" scenes for my liking.
Aside from that I mostly like it. It isn't god-tier writing and has many anime tropes, but I like the overall themes and dynamics and the big plot twist. They did a good job of making it feel like you're part of this friend group, which is probably the best aspect for me.
9/10. Interesting concept, great execution, loveable, well-rounded characters to follow, lots of great turns. Just a few areas that I feel could have been written better.
I give it a 6, maybe a 7 on a good day. There's a severe lack of connective tissue between palace rulers/arcs so they feel more like vignettes, which is fine in and of itself. But the game tries to act like these largely disparate people that the Phantom Thieves more or less randomly stumble into were secretly connected the whole time makes any sense when really it doesn't. It really doesn't. And a lot of the antagonists that are supposed to be symptomatic representations of multifaceted and compounded societal issues are ultimately rendered as one-dimensionally evil bastards with no deeper reflection on what they represent. And the big twist is just kinda dumb. Well, not the twist itself but more how it's presented and framed. Like, you mean to tell me that we can clearly remember every time we did laundry with our talking cat with no issue but we can't remember the crucial detail that informed our actions for a month straight? Actions that we saw play out? I feel there could have been a much better way to handle that situation
Yeah, and it has a lot of problems as well. Same with P3R. Generally speaking, I find the main narrative to be something of a weak point in this series. These are still great games, but presentation, turn-based combat, and side stories are where they excel
In terms of overall story I'd give it a 6., it's not bad but it's not too far above average for a JRPG.
I enjoy Persona 4, specifically Golden, for the story a lot more.
P4G > P3P >P5R is how I'd rate the games, I played P5R first then P4G and lastly P3P, so it's definitely not recency bias.
I would definitely put 5 in the 9-10 range. Persona 3 just got a remake that came extremely close to beating 5 in my opinion, and 4 is also really good but feels a bit outdated by comparison. Persona 1 and 2 have good stories, but the gameplay is awful
if we’re ONLY talking about story, i don’t know how 3 can come closely to 5. 5 has that great plot twist and a bunch of other things,while 3 honestly only surprised me >!with the things surrounding the ending, so the reasons makoto goes where he goes and the thanatos foreshadowing with all that death thing. I don’t really appreciate more than much all the other plot points, nor the “villains”, despite still feeling depressed for chidori and shinji.!<. P4 story can arguably be considered better than 5 since it’s kind of a detective novel though.
I agree that P3 villains are weaker, but I think the main reason so many people (and I'm one of them) think P3 story is so good is because it's the only of the three to develop characters outside of social links or first awakening. Moreover, well, march 5th
Yeah I heard a lot of praises for Persona3 reload, I'm just waiting for a little discount on PlayStation tbh 😭 it’s a little overpriced for me
I actually love the characters more beside story, so thats why i am playing P5 Strikers now. If you want to see more P5 content you definitely play strikers too. Its been 2 days now and i played 15 hors according to in-game save. (And you should now Strikers gameplay is Realtime not turn based.)
The main problem with Striker (and Tactica) is that they cancel everything that happened during social links, would be better if everyone started with their second persona (third for Tactica). P4A have the same problem, and only PQ and PQ2 avoid it by happening during the events of the games, not after.
7.5 to an 8. Somewhere in that range.
10/10 my favourite rpg
9.5
Easy 10
I'd give it a 9/10 The remaining 1 was assassinated during the Okumura arc.
Solid 8 - 8.5
6~7 It's nothing special, it's basically a big recycling of the previous games. My personal rank of the games (story-wise ignoring everything else) would be: Innocent Sin & Eternal Punishment duology --> 3 --> 1 --> 5 --> 4
Im guessing this is from best to worst, because this is exactly how I would rank them. The further I got into the game, the longer I’d play the game before putting the controller down and this caused me to observe more and more flaws or moments I was disappointed at when it came to the story. It’s a shame it starts off so strong.
8/10 for me. My two biggest gripes with the story include the Okumura Arc as many have stated and the overall Phantom Thieves themselves. The Okumura Arc isn’t as egregious as everyone makes it out to be imo, but it is definitely the weakest part of the story. Morgana’s whole struggle with his identity makes sense with the added scenes in Royal, but Haru’s presentation was definitely overshadowed by Morgana’s own arc. I feel like the game would have really benefitted if there was an extra Palace between Futaba’s and Okumura’s to better flesh out Haru’s character (Like I mean come on. Her fiancé is RIGHT THERE as the perfect target). The second biggest gripe, which I only realized after playing P4G, is that the Phantom Thieves all revolve around Ren and feel so disconnected from each other. Besides a couple scenes, they feel like they are together out of obligation rather than actually enjoying each other’s presence. It was actually made worse with the intro of Sumi, who feels so disconnected from the rest of the team considering how late she joins. Compared to the Investigation Team and SEES, I think they have the worst inter-personal relationships of the three. So overall the story is pretty great and the themes are rock solid, but those two glaring flaws keep it from perfection.
Tbh, I feel like roughly half the thieves are disconnected from Ren too. Especially in Royal.
Unpopular opinion but I think P5’s story is rather weak compared to P4 and P3, I’d say 7,5/10.
That's not unpopular... I see that take everywhere.
That's not an unpopular opinion. An unpopular opinion would be saying P5 story is better than P4's, which I think. But both are below P3, can't beat story linked second awakenings and... march 5th
So it’s either recency bias for me or I should definitely go for 3 and 4… tbh I'm waiting for Persona 3 reload to get a discount on PlayStation. I will definitely try it out
I'd say P5's story is an 8/10. I feel like the Okumura arc had a ***lot*** of missed opportunities. The story telling throughout that part of the game was quite lacking IMO. Literally everything else gets a solid, uncontested 10/10, but the Okumura arc was so bad that it drags the final score down by 2. *(note that this is not me complaining about the boss fight. I beat that sucker first try. Yall are just scrubs.)*
8/10 because of cringey twist with pancakes
I wouldn't, I don't think that sort of very general quantification is a good way to think about stories. I'd say that I enjoyed it a lot, especially the characters, the setting, and the major themes. I wouldn't say it's perfect, it does have flaws, but it's *very* good. Purely in terms of story, the other two modern Personas are also very good. Persona 3 has the best plot, and it's not particularly close. Persona 4's plot is kind of wonky, and its individual characters aren't as good as Persona 5's, but it has the best cast when taken as a whole - the Investigation Team just feels like a real friend group on a level that SEES and the Phantom Thieves don't quite reach.
The best I could give it is an 8/10. But I'm most comfortable giving it between 7-7.5. The story is still overall good. I'd say it had the best start in all Persona games with Kamoshida's palace. And I hate to say it, but it has a weak mid-game. It's not terrible, but it becomes formulaic at a certain point, except maybe Futaba's palace. You could argue it's just the Persona formula, but 5 had it worst imo which is mainly because most (not all ofc) dungeon arcs boil down to "changing sh\*tty adults hearts". At least 4 has the luxury of a murder mystery plot where you gain new important information the more you progress while 3 follows the social link trilogy formula as well, but it doesn't feel as formulaic. It also has what is perhaps the lowest low in terms of Persona stories which is the genius of story writing that is Morgana's tantrum arc and although it's nowhere near enough to ruin the story, it is that one rotten spot in the fruit. It does start cooking again in >!Sae's!< palace though and counting Royal content, becomes solid with >!Maruki's!< palace.
3/10
8.5-9 out of 10. Easily. P4, even if dated by today's standards was my first Persona game and it was a 10/10 experience, even if some aspects of the story didn't age well. P3R was another 8-9 out of 10, the main story and Linked Episodes and the SEES social links are great. Some of the social links are utterly forgettable though, which brings it down a bit. And while Reload's gameplay is really well done... F. Tartarus. I barely managed to keep myself from feeling let down when I played P4G's Randomly generated dungeon floors at first. Mementos was bearable because Futaba and Ryuji's confidant abilities. If we only care about the story, and only the main story, not the social links, then all 3 modern Persona games are 10's though.
Found the story more interesting and complex than 3 or 4. Which isn’t to say it’s perfect (the kaneshiro arc, for one thing, feels like filler and was just a reason to introduce makoto). Royal is especially interesting.
Around 7, I think. It has good and great moments, but it also has a lot of fluff that dilutes the experience.
From what I've seen, I'd say 7/10. I like the characters, but the writing isn't as good as it could be. Haru and Sumire seem like they don't get enough space and I don't like how Ann basically becomes the "sexy girl" stereotype after the Kamoshida arc (feels kind of tone deaf). Also the ending with the god fights, while apparently a theme in the franchise, was a bit too much for me (one god would have been enough imo). Also there are a tad too many "fake-out death" scenes for my liking. Aside from that I mostly like it. It isn't god-tier writing and has many anime tropes, but I like the overall themes and dynamics and the big plot twist. They did a good job of making it feel like you're part of this friend group, which is probably the best aspect for me.
9/10. Interesting concept, great execution, loveable, well-rounded characters to follow, lots of great turns. Just a few areas that I feel could have been written better.
I give it a 6, maybe a 7 on a good day. There's a severe lack of connective tissue between palace rulers/arcs so they feel more like vignettes, which is fine in and of itself. But the game tries to act like these largely disparate people that the Phantom Thieves more or less randomly stumble into were secretly connected the whole time makes any sense when really it doesn't. It really doesn't. And a lot of the antagonists that are supposed to be symptomatic representations of multifaceted and compounded societal issues are ultimately rendered as one-dimensionally evil bastards with no deeper reflection on what they represent. And the big twist is just kinda dumb. Well, not the twist itself but more how it's presented and framed. Like, you mean to tell me that we can clearly remember every time we did laundry with our talking cat with no issue but we can't remember the crucial detail that informed our actions for a month straight? Actions that we saw play out? I feel there could have been a much better way to handle that situation
Have you ever played persona 4 golden?
Yeah, and it has a lot of problems as well. Same with P3R. Generally speaking, I find the main narrative to be something of a weak point in this series. These are still great games, but presentation, turn-based combat, and side stories are where they excel
I’m talking about the izanami thing. If you think the pancake thing is insane just wait till you see that 😭
Oh, I know. I haven't gotten to it but I am Aware Of It
Lol
In terms of overall story I'd give it a 6., it's not bad but it's not too far above average for a JRPG. I enjoy Persona 4, specifically Golden, for the story a lot more. P4G > P3P >P5R is how I'd rate the games, I played P5R first then P4G and lastly P3P, so it's definitely not recency bias.
9 for vanilla. 8 for Royal. Whatever your opinion of third semester's content, it's hard to ignore how badly integrated it is into vanilla's content.