Favourite Shin Megami Tensei / Persona games?

[Louis_Cypher]

Rank your favourite Shin Megami Tensei games. I'm glad to see that 'Strange Journey' seems to be getting more and more recognition as the number one on many internet lists. Out of those I played:

---

1). Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

A black void has appeared over Antarctica, known as the "Schwarzwelt". The UN assembles a special team to investigate, travelling on huge rovers. Americans Commander Gore, Private Jiminez, and Russian scientist Zelenin accompany you as you explore this anomoly. Crossing the threshold, the team enters an area of the planet now under the control of demons. The game gives off isolated vibes like 'The Thing'.

My favourite JRPG of all time. That's out of the 30 or so that I have played to completion. It has Wizardry-style grid dungeon crawling. The plot is the best I've seen in a Megaten game, or any game for that matter. It is also arguably the best presented game in the entire series, with good everything. The atmosphere is top of the series. The gameplay is great. Warning: Absolutely do not play the Redux remaster for 3DS, it is unfaithful to the original, changes the art, and introduces completely out-of-place elements. Until it gets a proper remake or something, without the crap from the Redux, the DS version is the only way.

GOOD GAMEPLAY, BEST STORY, BEST ATMOSPHERE, BEST CAST

---

2). Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne

As a student, you are to meet your teacher Ms Takao, accompanied by friends Isamu Nitta and Chiaki Tachibana. Riots have engulfed part of Tokyo, and there are rumours of apocalyptic cults. People wonder if modern society has run out of energy. The Ring of Gaea cult is rumoured to worship demons. At the Hospital where your teacher is to meet you, the cult reveals it's plans, and the fate of the world will be decided.

This is a close-second to 'Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey', and is the classic entry point into the main series (that I personally like a lot more than spinoffs like 'Persona'). It took ten years, skipping an entire console generation, after 'Shin Megami Tensei II' on SNES to release this on PS2, and it was the first Western release of a main entry. This makes Nocturne a special turning point, in more ways than one, as it also introduced the signature Megaten "press turn" battle system. Some of the environments are a little bare thanks to the PS2 nature of the game. You have to accept this and see it as a dungeon crawler.

GOOD GAMEPLAY, GOOD STORY, SECOND BEST ATMOSPHERE, SECOND BEST CAST

---

3). Persona 3

Persona 3 follows a group of high school students trying to cope with, understand and accept death in a world surrounded by it, as well as find their own reasons for living. They form a group called SEES in order to investigate the Dark Hour, a mysterious time period between one day and the next that few people are aware of.

My favourite of the Persona games, although I hear Persona 2 had a very good story (complete with Adolf Hitler returning from the dead). I'm not such a big fan of the Persona sub-series. Or rather, I prefer interesting plot to detailed characterisation. The events of Persona 4 and Persona 5 are fairly limited to the circle of friends that they centre around. Persona 3 however is of world-altering consequence.

GOOD STORY, BEST CHARACTERISATION, GOOD ATMOSPHERE, GOOD CAST

---

What are your rankings, or just your general favourites?

 

[flyingjohn]

1-Nocturne. Simply the goat because of the dungeon design.
2-Strange journey. Mini Nocturne.
3-Devil survivor series. Really like srpg's.
4-Soul Hackers. Kinda lame dungeons but i like it better then iv/apocalypse.

Never liked the persona series. 1/2 are too grindy and 3-5 have too much yapping.

 

[Tse Tse Fly]

Devil Survivor 1 (DS) is the least repetitive from those that I've played, and it's the only one that I finished. Too bad mission design is not as good as Growlanser (another TRPG/SRPG game series from the same devs) and story is abrupt. But at least SMT bestiary compensates for that.

 

[MakenBro]

1. DDS 2
2. Vengeance
3. Nocturne

 

[Louis_Cypher]

1-Nocturne. Simply the goat because of the dungeon design.
2-Strange journey. Mini Nocturne.
3-Devil survivor series. Really like srpg's.
4-Soul Hackers. Kinda lame dungeons but i like it better then iv/apocalypse.

Never liked the persona series. 1/2 are too grindy and 3-5 have too much yapping.

I really need to play Devil Survivor, I've had them for a long time physically, for DS. I hear the 3DS remasters are not neccecarily definitive? Totally agree about Persona. Persona 5 has good things about it, but the school schedule can get in the way if you just want action, and I found the game dragged out with a lot of dialogue running on longer than was necessary.

Amusing art I found, credit might go to oddech_wymarlych_swiatow

 

[d1r]

Vengeance is missing in the polls.

1) Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey Redux
2) Shin Megami Tensei IV
3) Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance

 

[Louis_Cypher]

Vengeance is missing in the polls.

1) Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey Redux
2) Shin Megami Tensei IV
3) Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance

Just count SMT5 as Vegeance's entry too, the way FES is folded into Persona 3. After all, it's kinda an expansion rather than another game like Apocalypse.

 

[flyingjohn]

I hear the 3DS remasters are not neccecarily definitive?

They are the same games with extras.

 

[MaxPaint]

For me, top 3 in no particular order

— Strange Journey OG
— SMT 4
— DDS 2

Persona 2 has the best story (and the ending reminds me of Steins Gate's ending somewhat) but the gameplay is bad, even Persona 1 was better.
SMT 4 has the best OST but that's debatable.
Then again I like them all. I even grinded the hell out of Tokyo Mirage Sessions which I thought I will not like.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

This is what some Megaten folks elsewhere on the internet think:

---

1. SMT IV: Great gameplay, amazing story, amazing cast, great music
2. Strange Journey: Good Gameplay, amazing story, good cast, also great music
3. SMT V: Best gameplay, "Ok" story, about 5 good character rest are either ok or underdevelope, and has Battle -Seraph-
4. Devil Survivors: Great gameplay tho 2 boss are bs, amazing story, good cast especially one of the boy, and the guitarist is so good
5. King Abaddon: Good gameplay (Better than Souless army at least), amazing story, and has some of the best characters in the series

---

I'm fairly vanilla:​

​

Strange Journey: i don't really love every aspect that much when viewed separately, but together it creates one of the most atmospheric games that i have ever played. Music, visuals, UI, pacing, story - all comes together. The only downside is DS jail - i'm sure the game wanted to show more than fallen soldiers in plenty of scenes.​

​

SMT IV: every aspect of this game is really polished. It's also literally "SMT - the game" - with how much of references and core themes from all of the series is there. The combat is really solid. I don't feel like it has as much of atmosphere and vibes as many other games in the series, but you can't deny it's polish and what a love letter (and probably final classic-feeling in narrative SMT) to the series it is.​

​

Persona 2 Eternal Punishment: (if we view it with the context of IS - both of Persona 2 games are a must play) - the game has insane story. I'm not a fan of velvet room and the combat is just there, but the game excels at everything else - music, art direction, story, characters - all peak SMT spin-off​

​

Nocturne - the combat is just as good as in IV. Vibes are much better here. Visual and audio is more appealing. Random encounters there are too much though. And i am not a fan of this game's dungeons - because it's painful to traverse them with how much of random encounters there are.​

​

Digital Devil Saga 1 - really good setup for a future game. The game strongest point is once again atmosphere - vibes, music and visuals (although i think that Nocturne got a bit stronger vibe). Story - is a very intriguing setup for the future. Shame that we never got that future story - in place we got another great game (DDS2), but it forgot half of the first game's story and lost most of it's vibes. The gameplay is a more puzzle-like nocturne - instead of recruiting demons you set up skills to answer more elemental-puzzle-like bosses. Which works really well in my opinion.​

​

Honorable mentions: SMT1/2 - i love how these games look and sound. Story is quite good too. I would place them above SMT IV if that was the only thing to experience in the gameplay. Gameplay is the most background thing in the series though - i didn't really enjoy my time with the games due to how core combat was structured. I guess i just don't like classical jrpg combat. If you like average JRPG combat - i'm sure you will like those games more than i did. Also not a fan of combat presentation - i like it when i can see all enemy sprites at the same time or when they go in with 1-2 groups. Same true about Soul Hackers 1 - it is the best looking game in the series, but i REALLY don't want to chug through combat - that is especially clunky due to 1 more menu click for demon control. Peak game otherwise.​

​

And Persona3 is cool too i guess.​

​

Personally i would recommend to play persona games (either 1-2-2-3-4-5 or 5-4-3-1-2-2 - both orders work fine) SMT IV, Strange Journey, Devil Survivors and all of PS2 SMT games. After that - try Soul Hackers and SMT1/2​

---

Mainline SMT:​

1. Nocturne
2. SJR
3. SMT V
4. SMT II
5. SMT 1

For all of Megaten:​

1. Devil Survivor Overclocked
2. Persona 5 Royal
3. Nocturne
4. SJR
5. Persona 4 Golden

---

SMTIV Apocalypse​

​

Strange Journey Redux​

​

Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker​

​

Persona 4 Golden​

​

Persona 2 Innocent Sin​

​

SMTIVA has my favorite battle system in the series and a cast of characters I deeply love. Oh and Best Final Boss in any Megaten game ever by miles.​

​

SJR has the best plot of any Megaten game I've played, awesome dungeons, my favorite normal boss music in the series. and my favorite alignment reps. Most know the greatness of Jimenez but Zelenin is a great character as well, showing how wonderfully seductive/destructive Law is.​

​

As great as Jimenez is ,Yamato is an equally great Chaos rep but I also love many other characters in this game like Joe and Io. In fact, there's really only one bad character in this game. Also the gameplay is a massive step up from DeSu 1.​

​

I don't think I need to explain why P4G is amazing. It's a massively beloved game for a reason.​

​

I know some people really wanna insist "but IS and EP are like one game!" But they're not. EP is a better game in terms of gameplay and dungeons but I vastly, VASTLY prefer IS's cast and story. Making Maya a silent protagonist was a disaster all its own but I also love the Masked Circle so much more than the random crew of EP.​

---

Are they right? I'm just glad to see SJ getting some love.

They are the same games with extras.

Am I right in saying some people didn't like the voices or something? I might be mis-remembering.

SMT 4 has the best OST but that's debatable.

It does have good music, from what I remember. Apocalypse seems to as well. I can't remember much about the plot of SMTIV. That might not be a good sign. I had to look it up the other day to remember who Flynn was, etc. I'm tempted to say it was a good game and I probably liked it more than any Persona, but one thing I remember were some ugly-ass "super sentai" demon designs that didn't mesh well with Kaneko's classic stuff.

I thought these were atmospheric:

 

[Nathir]

1: Strange journey OG
2: Nocturne
3: Not sure, could put different games on here, but my top 2 are definitely same as yours.

 

[Yuber]

1) Nocturne - One of the best JRPG for me. Good Dungeon Crawler and great atmosphere and world.
2) Digital Devil Saga - Good Dungeon Crawler like Nocturne but the world is not as good as from Nocturne.
3) Digital Devil Saga 2 - Same as DDS but I liked the world less and some dungeons were annoying.

I have not played Strange Journeys but I think it might be in my Top 3. Cost too much on ebay, I wait for a Switch version.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

I wait for a Switch version

That would be ideal, hope they do it.

For those who wonder why Redux isn't liked:

One of the problems with the Redux one was that they got the Kazuma Kaneko type art, which has fairly adult, stoic, cold or emotionless faces, with that kind of typical Kaneko style, and in order to enhance it for 3DS's higher resolution they essentially painted over it with far more typical anime art. In addition they added an extra character that looks out of place to me, and I think changed a few other things reducing the atmosphere. They need to get back Kaneko to upscale his own drawings, among other things. I would definatly prefer a cleaner faithful remake of the DS original (the way Persona 3 Reload leaves out the extra protagonist than Persona 3 Portable had).

But it wasn't the only problem, I think someone did a video on it:

 

[Reality]

Nocturne > Devil Survivor 1 > strange journey

I remember picking up 4 hoping to fix my RPG burnout and being disappointed, spent next 3 years playing oldfag games only

 

[Jermu]

persona 3 < persona 4 < persona 5

don't know what those other games are

 

[Louis_Cypher]

don't know what those other games are

Persona is a spin-off sub-series of Megami Tensei that got more famous than the main series. Think of Shin Megami Tensei as Final Fantasy I to XVI. Think of Persona as Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles 1 to 6. Or something like that.

Where are all the Persona fans anyway? Thought that bit would have more votes.

Thought Raido might have more fans too.

 

[Yuber]

I wait for a Switch version

That would be ideal, hope they do it.

For those who wonder why Redux isn't liked:

One of the problems with the Redux one was that they got the Kazuma Kaneko type art, which has fairly adult, stoic, cold or emotionless faces, with that kind of typical Kaneko style, and in order to enhance it for 3DS's higher resolution they essentially painted over it with far more typical anime art. In addition they added an extra character that looks out of place to me, and I think changed a few other things reducing the atmosphere. They need to get back Kaneko to upscale his own drawings, among other things. I would definatly prefer a cleaner faithful remake of the DS original (the way Persona 3 Reload leaves out the extra protagonist than Persona 3 Portable had).

But it wasn't the only problem, I think someone did a video on it:

The original art looks better I think.
I watched the video and at 8:22 he says that in 3DS version you can use all of the APP and in DS you had to limit yourself?
DS sounds much better to me. But I guess if they bring it out on Console they will Remaster the 3DS version

 

[Doktor Best]

I'm a sucker for Persona games. There is something soothing about clicking through the dialogue and managing your time schedule as a highschool student. Persona 4 had a great murder mystery going on too. Persona 5 had a weaker plotline but still good and it had really fun dungeons.

I have played SMT4 and Strange Journey quite a bit. From those i liked Strange Journey a lot better. Currently on the edge of buying Vengeance for my Switch but i still have some backlog to burn through.

Havent played Persona 3 yet.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

I'm a sucker for Persona games. There is something soothing about clicking through the dialogue and managing your time schedule as a highschool student. Persona 4 had a great murder mystery going on too. Persona 5 had a weaker plotline but still good and it had really fun dungeons.

Persona 3 introduced me to Carl Jung's ideas, which I think were very important to understand.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

Glad to see Persona and Raido getting some votes in the poll part of the thread.

 

[Dark Souls II]

Persona 4 because you get a loli stepsister at the very beginning of the game.

 

[spookyheart]

devil survivor overclocked and soul hackers both for the 3ds since those were the earliest ones i remember getting into after i played persona 5.

 

[Ialda]

Voted for :
Strange Journey - perfect blend of classic SMT gameplay with some more modernized mechanisms for combat and demons management, the dungeons are great, the plot and characters are better than what we have in most SMT games. OG > Redux.
SMT 3 Nocturne - Still one of the most aesthetically pleasant episode of the franchises, amd I liked what they tried to do with the Reasons versus the more classic law vs chaos and "last war of heaven and hell" stuff.
Persona 2 EP - my entrypoint in SMT gaming in its PS1 incarnation, and I have a lot of nostalgia for that blend of late 90s urban legends, new age weirdness and pulp story.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

Rumours from Japan suggest that a remaster of another PS2 title might be underway. Since Raidou is a bit different gameplay-wise, and uses some pre-rendered backgrounds, I'm hoping it's gonna be a Digital Devil Saga remaster. It's just the Nocturne engine again, that they have already remastered once, and they don't even have to hire voice actors this time (since it was already voiced). I look forward to a day when I can play a DDS1+2 remaster on Steam, and perhaps a SMT1+2 remake too.

---

In the meantime someone is making an SMT board game, the Kickstarter yet to leaunch:

Kickstarter | Shin Megami Tensei - The Board Game

"A strategic board game that create a new world with over 70 detailed demon figures."

 

[Louis_Cypher]

So, the rumour of a HD remaster turned out to be 'Devil Summoner: Raido Kuzunoha', judging by leaked achievements.