Shin Megami Tensei vs Persona

[SparkzMentalz]

So from what I understand Persona is a spin off of Shin Megami Tensei. I started off with P5 and may check out P4 after watching some gameplay since P4 looks like it has a better story than P5.

What are the key differences between SMT and Persona as in terms of gameplay, story and mechanics? From what I'm seeing it looks like SMT has a darker vibe than Persona.

[E.]

Biggest difference is SMT doesnt have the whole dating aspect and day to day thing. Most of the games put you in a scenario where it would be near impossible anyway. SMT is the start of the series as a whole with the basics being meet then contract demons while trying to save the world.

[Joker]

SMT has a darker vibe, and dialog choices matter more in SMT. Aside from that, there's also no time management stuff like Persona has.

[Piss Queen Antichrist]

persona 5 is closer to an smt game tbh, but if you like piss filters, horrible art and what not yea persona 4 is a great neo persona game

[SparkzMentalz]

Oh wow the 'no time management' thing sounds great. That was one of my main critiques with P5 even though P5R somewhat improved it. I couldn't stand Morgana always telling me to go bed when I wanted to do something. It made P5 way longer than it needed to be. After reading through some of these reviews I think I'll wait for a sale and check out SMT3 as well.

[Daikatan]

There are two Personas...

First is more melancholic and dreamy, with plenty of occultism references and nods to Jung philosophy. You can also talk with demons, sometimes even better than in Nocturne.

That's Persona: Be You True Mind, Persona 2 Innocent Sin and Persona 2 Eternal Punishment.

Second is more cheerful, have social links, dedicated more to urban city life problems and have more mainstream appeal.

That's Persona 3, Persona 4 and Persona 5.

[PartyPoker]

In battle, smt games nowadays inherit the Press turn battle system. Unlike the persona games, this Press Turn system requires you to plan and form a strategy to defeat enemies while gaining the advantage. You can find more tips and info in:

https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Turn_Press

[SparkzMentalz]

Originally posted by Daikatan:

There are two Personas...

First is more melancholic and dreamy, with plenty of occultism references and nods to Jung philosophy. You can also talk with demons, sometimes even better than in Nocturne.

That's Persona: Be You True Mind, Persona 2 Innocent Sin and Persona 2 Eternal Punishment.

Second is more cheerful, have social links, dedicated more to urban city life problems and have more mainstream appeal.

That's Persona 3, Persona 4 and Persona 5.

Nice info. Much appreciated.

Which Persona game is the one where you have to shoot yourself in the head to summon Personas? Just seeing that mechanic alone turned me off to wanting to play it but perhaps I was missing out on a good story.

[PartyPoker]

Originally posted by SparkzMentalz:

Originally posted by Daikatan:

There are two Personas...

First is more melancholic and dreamy, with plenty of occultism references and nods to Jung philosophy. You can also talk with demons, sometimes even better than in Nocturne.

That's Persona: Be You True Mind, Persona 2 Innocent Sin and Persona 2 Eternal Punishment.

Second is more cheerful, have social links, dedicated more to urban city life problems and have more mainstream appeal.

That's Persona 3, Persona 4 and Persona 5.

Nice info. Much appreciated.

Which Persona game is the one where you have to shoot yourself in the head to summon Personas? Just seeing that mechanic alone turned me off to wanting to play it but perhaps I was missing out on a good story.

That would be Persona 3

[Nito]

Originally posted by SparkzMentalz:

What are the key differences between SMT and Persona as in terms of gameplay, story and mechanics? From what I'm seeing it looks like SMT has a darker vibe than Persona.

On SMT your "personas" are actual party members instead of just changing them once at turn freely you lose your turn by changing one demon for another the combat is more complex i mean buffs are "eternal" so you need to take them off enemies as enemies will do the same some times but if you played p5 you basically got 90% of the mechanics understood

Story is way darker i mean on the literal first hour of smt nocturne 99.9999999999% of humanity dies

gameplay SMT is more like a classical JRPG and Dungeon crawler as you go from dungeons+mazes(the difference from a JRPG is that a dungeon crawler kinda makes you want to explore and punishes you for that as you activate traps and etc... and gets more and more ♥♥♥♥♥♥)

[Myrkul]

Originally posted by SparkzMentalz:

Originally posted by Daikatan:

There are two Personas...

First is more melancholic and dreamy, with plenty of occultism references and nods to Jung philosophy. You can also talk with demons, sometimes even better than in Nocturne.

That's Persona: Be You True Mind, Persona 2 Innocent Sin and Persona 2 Eternal Punishment.

Second is more cheerful, have social links, dedicated more to urban city life problems and have more mainstream appeal.

That's Persona 3, Persona 4 and Persona 5.

Nice info. Much appreciated.

Which Persona game is the one where you have to shoot yourself in the head to summon Personas? Just seeing that mechanic alone turned me off to wanting to play it but perhaps I was missing out on a good story.

That is Persona 3. Start with Persona 4 it is a superior game.

[SparkzMentalz]

Originally posted by PartyPoker:

In battle, smt games nowadays inherit the Press turn battle system. Unlike the persona games, this Press Turn system requires you to plan and form a strategy to defeat enemies while gaining the advantage. You can find more tips and info in:

Interesting.

I didn't realize there were different forms of turn based battle systems. That Press Turn system in your wiki link sounds like the old Final Fantasy games. I was never really a fan of that and prefer Persona's style of turn based battle.

[SparkzMentalz]

Originally posted by Nito:

Originally posted by SparkzMentalz:

What are the key differences between SMT and Persona as in terms of gameplay, story and mechanics? From what I'm seeing it looks like SMT has a darker vibe than Persona.

On SMT your "personas" are actual party members instead of just changing them once at turn freely you lose your turn by changing one demon for another the combat is more complex i mean buffs are "eternal" so you need to take them off enemies as enemies will do the same some times but if you played p5 you basically got 90% of the mechanics understood

Story is way darker i mean on the literal first hour of smt nocturne 99.9999999999% of humanity dies

gameplay SMT is more like a classical JRPG and Dungeon crawler as you go from dungeons+mazes(the difference from a JRPG is that a dungeon crawler kinda makes you want to explore and punishes you for that as you activate traps and etc... and gets more and more ♥♥♥♥♥♥)

Nice!

It might take me a while to revert back to that old school style of combat but everything else sounds great. I'll definitely pick this up on sale.

[Daikatan]

Originally posted by SparkzMentalz:

Interesting.

I didn't realize there were different forms of turn based battle systems. That Press Turn system in your wiki link sounds like the old Final Fantasy games. I was never really a fan of that and prefer Persona's style of turn based battle.

Which FF games you mean? I dont remember them having such system...

"Press turn" is about getting a chance to get one more action during your turn, you are getting it when paying attention to enemy weaknesses so utilizing means that do stronger impact. Especially noticeable in boss battles, when such extra turn can really save you...

Sorry if i speak vaguely, last time played smt3 about 5 years ago >_>

Also in Nocturne, buffs/debuffs really often used.

[SparkzMentalz]

Originally posted by Tom:

Originally posted by SparkzMentalz:

Nice info. Much appreciated.

Which Persona game is the one where you have to shoot yourself in the head to summon Personas? Just seeing that mechanic alone turned me off to wanting to play it but perhaps I was missing out on a good story.

That is Persona 3. Start with Persona 4 it is a superior game.

Yeah P4G looks great from the gameplay stream I saw. I'll definitely add that to the collection once I finish off a few games I'm playing now.

[SparkzMentalz]

Originally posted by Daikatan:

Originally posted by SparkzMentalz:

Interesting.

I didn't realize there were different forms of turn based battle systems. That Press Turn system in your wiki link sounds like the old Final Fantasy games. I was never really a fan of that and prefer Persona's style of turn based battle.

Which FF games you mean? I dont remember them having such system...

"Press turn" is about getting a chance to get one more action during your turn, you are getting it when paying attention to enemy weaknesses so utilizing means that do stronger impact. Especially noticeable in boss battles, when such extra turn can really save you...

Sorry if i speak vaguely, last time played smt3 about 5 years ago >_>

Oh ok I understand now. Thanks for clearing that up.

I also found this video which explains Press Turn combat. This definitely looks more complicated than P5's battle system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRJvsme2JGY