On Persona 3 and 4

So it was around 2007 or so when Persona 3 (the original not FES or Portable) was a new thing. But I was completely unaware of ATLUS or the MegaTen franchise as a whole until a friend of mine told me about it and I was intrigued so I got it based solely on his recommendation. I had played plenty of RPGs before that point in time but the intro was unlike anything I had seen before as was the general setting, combat, soundtrack, etc. I got hooked on it pretty quickly and later beat it with not much delay. Some enjoyable memories were learning what skills did and looking at the compendium entries with the Velvet Room music playing in the background. I remember beating the final boss as Surt as my main persona but he didn't have a too impressive skillset and I pretty much spammed Ragnarok for most of it. My team was Aigis, Yukari and Junpei I think. Good times. I even later got FES but I never played Portable and don't really plan on doing so.

And after FES was Persona 4. There was some special pre-order thing going on with half of the whole thing being split in half or something. I got the second half of the soundtrack, artbook and teddie plushie that stares with those soulless eyes. My friend got the other stuff. I obsessed over P4 as well for some time but only played through it twice; once for the normal ending and again for the true ending then I didn't really touch it much after that. I guess despite being hyped for it at the time it didn't leave as strong as impression on me probably since it was just more of the same albeit improved in certain areas.

After Persona 4 there was a point where I realized just how big the MegaTen franchise truly was. My next game was Strange Journey (although I didn't get into that one right way. Not until playing Etrian Odyssey 3 anyway.) and then Nocturne, Raidou vs the Soulless Army... Truly I felt and comprehended the hunger
Anyway Persona 4 would explode in popularity and with that the arrival of Persona 4 Arena and Persona 4 Golden. At the time I was completely disinterested in both of these titles and was fighting futile battle atop the Mt. Atlus US Forums over the PSP port of Eternal Punishment. "Surely they won't neglect to localize a Persona game in this day and age?". Oh how naive I was.

These days I have around 13 MegaTen titles. So what do I think of Persona 3 and 4 now? Well Persona 3 is good. Persona 4 though I feel has more praise than it deserves. Not that I don't like it but it's a bit much and it's overstayed it's welcome.  I'm interested in Persona Q and Arena 2. It's a shame there's no Persona 1 or 2 characters in either game since there's some cool characters in those games. Oh well. I have some interest in a Vita but not so much for Golden or Dancing all night. All I really want out of Persona 5 is basically for it to stand apart from the other games. Having a new cast unrelated to Persona 3 and 4 crew and changing up or removing the calendar and social link systems are also good.

One last thing I noticed sort of recently that's kind of...weird and unrelated is the portraits in Persona 4 in comparison to Persona 3 and also Persona 2

seriously what is up with that?

In case you're not seeing it I mean how most of the Persona 4 characters have the same pose for all their expressions. Also Yukiko and Rise have this thing where both of their arms are stuck to the sides of their body at all times. Naoto escaped this fate but only half way. Poor girl.