The Video Game Critic

I wish I had played this before Persona 3. It took me five years to finally buckle down and beat 3. Why? Because the story takes 40 hours to become interesting, the single dungeon you get to explore is boring as hell, and almost all the relationships you're supposed to build throughout the game are with THE WORST PEOPLE ON EARTH. Do you want to be best friends with the creepy teenager who wants to bang his teacher, or the fat kid who hides his insecurities by scamming children into joining his cult?

Persona 4 drew me in immediately. The story is fun and creative, the characters are actually likeable, and (while the gameplay is largely unchanged) the dungeons that are personalized to each victim's hidden shame are all more engaging than the entirety of Tartarus in the last game.

I'm usually an advocate of playing a series in order so that you can appreciate the improvements without letting them spoil the previous games, but here I'd actually recommend starting with 4. If you like it enough, then go back and play 3 after you finish it.

Never played a Persona game, but as a fan of JRPGs I've ended up buying Persona 4 and 5 over the years. If I'm being honest with myself, I might never find time to play either one. But if I do, I'd have to skip to whichever one is considered best. I'll be interested to see what you think of Persona 4. With all the praise it got, it seemed like it might be impossible to top, but then Persona 5 came along and got the same level of reviews.

I just binged all 60 hours of the game in a couple of weeks...but I didn't finish it. I wanted to get the "true" ending, so I cheated and looked up the steps. That took me all the way through the main plot, to what I felt was a satisfying ending, and then THE GAME KEPT GOING. I have one more super hard dungeon that ends with a super hard boss if I want to get to the real ending, and frankly I'm burned out. Don't get me wrong, the game is amazing and I love it, but I just don't feel like slogging through another dungeon filled with enemies that can smash me into the ground. I'll just watch the ending on YouTube...