The Persona Comparison 

who thought that "Shin megami tensei" translated to "persona" ? i need names

They don't just strive to be very different rpgs they also succeed in it. Honestly everyone who is pissed that smt is not like persona and vice versa didn't looked into what they are buying. Another thing that pisses me off is the constant war among persona and smt fans, i love both games very much and encourage people to try everything out these franchises have to offer, what you will find are almost exclusively brilliant and unique games across the board since day 1.

"Don't be a dick" is a lesson some people have a hard time understanding...

We all know SMT stands for: S Persona 3 M Persona 4 T Persona 5 Also, the secret name for every numbered SMT game is Persona # Without Heart

I used to be a "Typical Persona 5 fan" Then I played the games Then I played Mainline And I loved it How I got there was putting myself in the headspace of "I'm going to judge this for what it is rather than what I want or prefer it to be" SMT isnt and hopefully never will be Persona, and that's a good thing. Try both, but enjoy what you enjoy

I could feel the frustration throughout this vid, I wholeheartedly agree with what you said.

“Gatekeeping sucks and there’s no reason to do it!” Tell that to any elitist of any franchise and you’ll probably be laughed at, wedgee’d, and kicked down a flight of stairs.

another claim I hate is "classic Persona is SMT-lite" it never made sense to me and always seemed like modern fans who haven't actually played them saying that because they don't have life sim stuff

I instantly tuned out conversations about SMT V when the person I was talking to made a Persona comparison. I grew up with both so I knew what to expect going in, and as far as that goes, SMT V was a great mainline entry. Persona isn't a mainline entry, and that fact seems to elude a lot of fans...don't get me wrong, Persona is still great.

The thing I like about persona and SMT is that although they are very different on the surface, you can tell they were made by the same people and share a very similar feeling at their core. While SMT can be more “dark,” you can still see that sense of humor and casualty with some of the interactions between demons and other people. While persona can definitely be more light and casual, it can still carry that heavy atmosphere of SMT with the music and settings. I love both series equally I never can understand why people can’t just respect others who like and dislike either of the series.

I keep saying this: Don't fuck with us MegaMan Fans. We gatekeep you for liking Mighty Number 9.

I first played persona 5 and then played simultaneously Persona 4 and nocturne and both games I loved, but nocturne made me really think about how I wanted my world to be, I got so amazed by the themes and storytelling that I got in love with mainline smt

My friend showed me Nocturne a long time ago and I wanted to try it out. He recommended me to try Persona 3 FES since at the time it was coming out and was the updated version of P3 so I tried it. Fell in love with Persona 3 and then I moved on to Nocturne once I got my own copy. The small differences were there, but I still loved and enjoyed it for what it was and it took me to one of my favorite games, Digital Devil Saga in which in my opinion, had both great game play and story. I agree that they are different kinds of RPGs with one focusing on story and the other with game play which is something for anyone to enjoy! (also please play digital devil saga if someone in the comments haven't yet!)

This is a really nice video that expresses my feelings on the subject pretty well. A lot of the time, persona fans and smt fans feel like enemies that love to battle over stupid stuff. As someone who's played both SMT and Persona and still slightly prefers persona, it's nice to hear someone go for a neutral take that both series have positives and negatives in gameplay and fanbases instead of bashing one side.

as someone that did start from persona 4 to smt 4. it took me like a year to fully appreciate the game. weirdly enough I was trippin on acid and I just had the urge to beat the game since I got the white ending. I was blown away and wanted more philosophical stories.

I enjoyed watching Persona 5 being played, and heard SMT was good so I gave it a shot. I bounced off of it because I couldn't get a hook to keep playing. I'm not the biggest rpg fan but I wanted to at least try it. I think it's the flair in Persona that people like, and I think the new Soul Hackers might have that. Just another opinion.

Something I've said to explain the difference is that Persona is to SMT like Kingdom Hearts is to Final Fantasy. It's not the most accurate statement, but it gets the surface level idea across. You got semi linked series with some basic shared elements, Persona has Jack Frost and KH has Cloud, but past that they are very different games with very different intentions in design and philosophy

You’re incredibly right. I started with Persona 3 and Persona 5, and while I loved the slice-of-life story and ar style (moreso P5, I thought P3 was just okay), I loved the gameplay and combat just as much. So when I went into mainline with SMT IV, Nocturne, V, and now Strange Journey, I found myself loving it just as much. I think at this point I like more mainline games, but I still enjoy Persona 5 just as much as I did when I first played Megami Tensei games. Great video man! I don’t get why people take video games and whatnot as a personal offense either, hopefully people become more welcoming

I personally really like Smt games been focused more on exploration and these more esoteric, symbolic storyline, really helped them differentiate from the persona series. If anything, I feel like smt v maybe didn't distant itself enough from Persona in the beginning, because of the high school setting at first and teen protagonists leading many newcomers to think it would be comparable with Persona. Smt 4's samurais and the Sci fi setting of Strange journey did a better job distancing themselves from the other series, and take advantage of smt's greater freedom for storytelling

Oh boy that IGN article drama was really annoying all the way around. The article was really bad with the call out towards the smt community and the constant comparisons to persona 5. However all that harassment she got that wasn't on the article was really uncalled for.

the fact you had to make this video is wild

Yes, thank you. As someone who likes both but prefers Persona, I've been preaching this for so long. Persona and SMT are very different and that's a good thing. Although, I haven't seen much gatekeeping. I've actually seen it the exact opposite, where SMT fans berate Persona fans for daring to be interested in the "inferior" series and to "go play a real shen megoomi tensay game".

Loved this vid! I feel that the distinction between gatekeeping and fair criticism was something that really needed to be brought to the community’s attention. As for topics to cover next, I’d like to hear you talk about which megaten games (including persona) you think most deserve a remake/remaster and why. I mean, the correct answer is DDS 1 & 2 but still

I ended up buying SMT V because I really liked P4G and P5R when I played both in 2020. I ended up really liking SMT V as well, although, I will say, I don't really want to go back and try the older titles. My favorite thing about SMT V were the sprawling environments and locations, the ruined city was truly amazing to see. I've heard the other games focus a lot more on dungeon crawling, which were my least favorite moments in all of SMT V.

I’ve beat persona 3-5 and I’m really interested in trying smt so this video was super useful 👍

For me, the themes present in smt and persona are interesting enough for me to want to play them regardless of how difficult they are for me. I have interests in folklore, psychology, and philosophy and both series tackle either psychology or philosophy with folklore tying them together with the demons. I haven’t finished any of the games yet (despite being interested in them for 4 years oops) but I’ve consumed enough content about them that I definitely call myself a fan? (Idc about spoilers bc if they’re going to ruin a game for me, the game wasn’t for me anyways) Ig I don’t really have a point in writing this dhdhdhf But I definitely don’t understand why people would gatekeep them I’d rather have more people to talk to about niche video games?? Why scare them away like that sjdjdh

I have a friend who tries to defend gatekeeping as defending your hobbies from being destroyed. It just sounds like making an excuse to exclude people they don't like. No one has the authority to destroy a franchise or hobby other than the people actually producing it. Like 343 butchering Halo by making every new game a dumpster fire.

I liked this a lot, helped me appreciate both series more. You should Talk about the alignment system and what your favorite one to do is.

Honestly, once you're a fair bit into the game, I don't really see much of a difference in difficulty, at least with the recent games. It's just that mechanics like the Turn Press system and Smirk punish you a LOT more than anything in the Persona games. Once you got your elemental damage covered and know the weaknesses of what you're fighting, it's really not any harder than Persona combat.

I got into megaten in early 2018 after watching Etika play Persona 5, I thought it looked cool so I bought it, I now physically own and have played all of the persona games and the majority of SMT games, if I'm not a real smt fan because I started with persona 5 then I don't know if i wanna be one... Devil Survivor 1, SMT 3 and 4 best games btw, no im not taking questions at this time.

My Favorite SMT related games are Majin Tensei 1&2 It's hard to talk about those cause people barely even know they exist. I love both SMT main line, persona, digital devil saga... But my god the OSTs for Majin Tensei 1&2 definitely sold me, on top of the fact I adore TTRPG combat. The only ones I've had trouble getting into at all is the Last Bible series 🤷

Love these videos!

i started with persoma 3 a couple years and i told myself i probably wouldnt like smt cause its too serious. i finally tried out smt 5 when it came out and loved it and now im 65 hours into smt4. i really love the themes and the unique atmosphere in each, cant wait to play the other games in this series. both persona and smt are amazing in their own ways

I love both smt and persona. I think both series bring something unique to the table and are both valuable in their own right

I got into the Megaten games because of RU-vid. Years ago I watched a let’s play of P4G, when I had no means to play games, and at the start of the pandemic I hacked my 3DS and got into the series. These games revolutionized how I thought about my favorite genre in RPGs. I started with SMT IV and since then I have beaten SMT III HD, SMT IV, SMT IVA, SMT V, P3FES, P4G, P5, and I’m currently playing Soul Hackers. When I’m in the mood for a tough as nails RPG I’ll pop in an SMT. When I want to sit back, relax, and talk about the characters and story beats with my wife I’ll play Persona. I feel that loads of people are too toxic about these series in general. The overall SMT play a real Megaten, or the Persona port begging and waifu conflicts. I just want to play good games and everyone can feel free to play what they like. Just don’t spoil other people’s fun because you prefer one over the other.

Agree with everything you said, point blank. Awesome vid, Mac!

Have you ever done a challenge run video? Not a stream, but like a nicely edited hour or so long video like nyarly. Your presentation style is much better in my opinion, you should have numbers like his.

Banger vid

The one thing I would add is that while the Persona games are easy compared to the mainline Shin Megami Tensei series, they're fairly difficult compared to, say, most Final Fantasy or dragon quest games.

That feeling I get when ignorant people think Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth is like Persona. The artist is the same guy that did Devil Survivor’s art, for Christ sake.

Great video agree with all your points. I also think that these unfair criticisms coming from persona fans trying out mainline for the first time puts off people from mainline for the wrong reasons. I've seen critiques saying the story is straight up bad (not just different), or that the combat is bad because its harder and these critiques must be putting off persona fans or even fans of neither from trying out the series. I think a really bad critique ive heard of smt is yahtzee's zero punctuation on smt v, and his videos get millions of views (more than mainline even sells)

When it isn't slathered in poison marsh, I love the Tokyo map. Well okay maybe "love" is too strong a word. I grew up with Dragon Quest.

Good video, I liked the message.

I agree that the last three Persona games are much easier then mainline SMT. Though the first 2(technically 3) are not as easy....especially the Snow Queen route in the first one.

One thing I'd like to hear Is what you think of the tone the persona series has. I feel 2 was dark then things got lighter as the series went on.

I played both series and I love both of them!

Just what I signed up to this channel for: good opinions.

As soon as you said gatekeeping sucks I got a Magic the Gathering ad. Is youtube trying to tell me something?

Persona focuses on characters and storytelling. Mainline SMT focuses on mechanics and ideologies. In persona, the idea that you HAVE the power to change the world thought your actions and values is always present. In SMT, your personal struggles and actions are irrelevant in the majour context of the world events unfolding before your eyes up until the end, where most is already lost or decided. I absolutely ADORE both approaches and I hope there will be many many entries from both series in the future. :)

I've played many persona games and now I want to play some smt games, I already beat the true ending of smt 5 so what should I go to next? Many say Nocturne but I'm still not sold, although demi-fiend is intriguing me thanks to hik whooping my a** is 5

Not related to the vid but whatever happened to project re:fantasy? It's been years since the game was announced.

Even though the series are mostly different and have somewhat similarities with demons. I like to think about the Shin Megami Tensei If and it’s connection to persona and how persona has bloomed.

I fell in love with SMT V head first recently. Now, I don't know if I'll like Persona, since it looks kind of "the power of frienship" compared to SMT

Plesse keep doing them :)

as someone who just found SMTV due to the recent release of vengeance i have to say, it is pretty damn nice how different yet how similar they feel. combat too. one is for the story focused people and one is for the combat focused people but *both* games provide those experiences, just at a different ratio it's genius honestly and i really hope that this means SMT6 will happen after P6. and then we have metaphor coming. i found this company at a good time 😆

As a person who started by playing p3p and just loved the dungeon crawling ,the moment they Let me Advance in that tower i Made It as far as i could and the go down all the way back to floor 1 and go up again in a single night ,then i played smt 1 and i loved it

they are sibling series similar to Fire Emblem and Advance wars or Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts they share similar concepts but use them in very different ways. In SMT and Persona case SMT is gameplay focused, Persona is Character focused

I think for fans that started out with Persona.. maybe a more transitional approach to the rest of the SMT franchise may help with the experience and in understanding what both game franchide try to convey... I'll take myself as an example for instance my first tittle was Persona 3 and then Persona 3 FES, and it obviously left me hooked, craving another gane that game similar experiences I came upon DDS, while keeping the more apocalyptic setting while maintaining focus still on the characters (which now I see as a perfect combo of main SMT and Persona) and then moving onto Nocturne, and subsequently falling more in love and with main SMT

referring to them w/o the localized titles doesn’t really convey a big reason for confusion and possible barrier to entry early on. smt3:nocturne and smt:persona3 - tell a 12 y/o in 2005, pre-youtube deep dives, that those are completely different games in a way they actually understand 😂

So in terms of gameplay, it’s similar but instead of using demons as a Persona to increase your stats, they’re party members and it’s kinda like Pokémon?

SMTV is basically just grinding mementos no stop with a couple cutscenes at the end lol

The less popular sequel to Too Much Water; Not Enough Persona.

I remember I hated Strange Journey the first time I played it because I was expecting a Turn Management Focused Gameplay similar to Nocturne, Persona or Devil Survivor. I had to give it a second chance and ended up liking it as a Dungeon Crawling game with more focus on Demons and Items management (still a bit too grindy for my liking)

What are your thoughts on certain people saying that SMT V is bad because it tries too hard to be SMT III?

I love both series lol

Everytime i hear the comparison i just think about the SMT V IGN review.

I remember getting into arguments with some people over the IGN article. They basically didn't see the difference between the ones calling out the bad review and those being assholes like calling her names. I showed them examples of people just saying why she is wrong and they were like she is getting gaslighted when she agreed that one of her takes were bad...

I like both series but for different reason. The character elements of SMT aren’t usually the highlight as much as the turn based combat isn’t the highlight of persona. Persona makes it so you want the current dungeon to be over so you can get to the next story beat while I’m often irritated by story in SMT and just want to be back fusing demons and fighting.

3:54 you said it better than anyone my dude !

you can make this video basically every year and it will still be relevant unfortunately not being a dick is really difficult when thats what alot of people characterize themselves as.

I may have not gotten around to trying smt (blame pokemon for that one 🤣) but even I know that comparing smt to persona is like comparing persona to Pokémon… completely different franchises that although have some small similarities with mechanics (typing in Pokémon is the same as the whole weekness thing without the knock downs, just gotta remember which is which) but other than the very basics that link a lot of jrpg’s there approach’s and even topics covered a drastically different. For example the last main line Pokémon was essentially the fossil fuels issue translated into a Pokémon story, where as 5 tackles an hell of alot of societal issues with a focus on Japans cultural impact on how those issues come to be (it’s actually fascinating if you wanna research into that stuff) about as polar opposite as you can get and that’s just themes alone. I assume the same goes for smt v persona.

I actually found persona 4 golden really difficult since I was really underlevelled and when I got to shadow yukiko I had to play on very easy for the next few dungeons since I was about level 7 at shadow yukiko.

i tried both smt V and p V, and tbh the social aspect of persona wasnt my cup of tea :c but the ominous- dark and existentialism of SMT V grabed me by the balls and took me to a journey ill never forget, im used to jrpgs being about charecters, this one was about religion, philosophies, culture and politics, and it was so cool B) maybe ill try PV and like it at some point? maybe~ at the moment, i prefer the tough creepy atmospheric dungeon crawler

good video. too much asides about topics like gatekeeping and community references that were truly besides the point.

I recently got into persona and am working my way back to the original trilogy to try and get into mainline smt. Consider the fact that I like the dungeon crawling and demon fusing the most I'd say I'm on the right track.

I played both SMTV and persona 5. Although ppl compare the games they're not wrong about SMTV being inferior to Persona 5. SMTV was challenging, but it did not have a good story or characters on its own merit. It was a mess tbh. It's true, it really didn't have heart.

I started with p4 and played nocturne second. Nocturne is now one of my favorite games of all time.

Macca y u no talk about Tama sitting in Boss booba This is important lore we are missing Also a nice video

What is this outro. Does anyone know.

I wouldn't say the series are totally different as many people do. I'd say it's *significantly* different. There are lots of similarities, but the differences? They're quite significant and worth exploring. But that doesn't mean they're apples and oranges.

Persona 3 Portable was my first Persona/SMT related game. I only found out about it from XPlay review, and lesser RU-vid channel reviews back in the day. Went on to try it, beat it and it was my new favorite game for a while. I didn’t know what “Shin Megami Tensei” even meant, but I did figure it was the Japanese name for the Persona series. Eventually I realized what it meant, went on to beat P4G, P5R, SMT3 HD, SMT4, SMT4 A, SMTV, SMT DDS, SMT DDS 2, went on to play Soul Hackers 1, Devil Survivor 3DS 1&2. Am going to buy Soul Hackers 2. Even finally bought/played TMS FE Enchore Switch version. The Persona vs SMT arguments are stupid. Why limit yourself to one or the other? They both have their ups and downs. Yeah, it sucks that SMT can be lacking storywise, but often times Persona can have too much story and too much life sim. crap.

What about Soul hackers 2 review ?

My favorite SMT spinoff is Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth Hacker’s Memory

Imma just say this, anybody who says "play a real SMT game" have likely never played a real SMT game.

Since I come from Persona, Persona 2 (and 2 again) I was kinda let down with the new series. Looking for a DS so I can play Strange Journey as I type.

I've been a persona fan since p5 came out, since then I've played and completed p5r, p5s, p4g, and p3 fes. Recently I played nocturne for the first time and it was quite good imo, but part of me lacked some sense of satisfaction in completing it. Like, none of the endings I could've gotten didn't really resonate with me at all, and due to the fact that I named all the characters dumb things as a meme, I feel like I just softened any impactful moments for the sake of the funny. I do prefer the persona series over smt at the moment, maybe I'll play another smt game for another comparison at some point, maybe my opinion will become more evenly split if I do?

Honestly the only truly difficult persona game is 3. Only fes version

"People thought that Shin Megami Tensei was the Japanese title for The Persona Series" Me who has never played a persona (but interested) game but a bit of Soul Hackers: Uum...no they are part of the same franchise. Shin Megami Tensei translates to Shin=New Megami = Goddess (?) Tensei = Reincarnation (?) Persona was what the spin off series was also called in Japan. The only assumption I made was that because the SMT subtitle was dropped on Persona 5 title cover, they (Atlus and Sega) realized that the Persona series has just evolved into it's own thing separate from SMT despite any similarities. Veteran fans of either series can and are encouraged to correct me on this presumption.

Petition to separate Persona series from Shin Megami Tensei series and not keep it as a spinoff series

Should be done with Nocturne this week. Then I'm going to play the 3DS's titles and buy 5 after.

I dunno. I find higher levels of difficultly in Persona to be very difficult and yet in SMT, it's the opposite.

My thoughts on this: Persona 4 Golden is the best Persona game while SMT V is the best SMT game. And between the two, it is about what the player prefers (for the characters P4G is superior, for the gameplay clearly SMT V). For me, it is SMT V all day every day 24/7/365.

when i fist got into Megaten I played P4G on Steam and wanted more from Atlus. as I was looking into the community I found certain youtubers gatekeeping and critcizing fans for playing Persona before smt. I also always heard the term *play a real shin megami tensei game* I even showed interest into Nocturne and one Megaten had a knee jerk reaction to what I said and told me to not expect the game to be like Persona. Thankfully I found some other cool megaten youtbers who were supportive of new fans coming in and were encouraging me to play the game. I had fun with Nocturne. I'm glad it worked out but I really do hope the gatekeeping stops with Megaten fans becase if it weren't for the nice ones I probably would have just been another bitter Persona fan and not fuck with the wider megaten community or the games.

I like both but mainline SMT is everything I love about JRPGs.

Idk who is gate keeps a single player game, Most ive heard is on multiplayer games.

I absolutely do not agree with the notion that Persona is casual in terms of difficulty. If we're talking about Persona 3 and 4 then yes the re-releases made them easier, but if we look at them from a perspective of other RPGs for a moment you can see that most RPGs are easier than Persona by a long shot. I wouldn't say Persona is a hardcore series. I would place it in the middle and place SMT in it's own category. SMT is kind of isolated in the sense that it commits RPG sins on the regular and does not care. Things that are not really present during many of the NES or SNES RPGs I've played, but are negatively associated with RPGs, are things I've noticed are in basically every SMT game I've ever played. I also wouldn't say that SMT is necessarily hard most of the time. Sure, on Hard battles can be a bit more ball busting since you're subject to RNG, but I think the main thing keeping me from playing Nocturne wasn't the difficulty but the long stretches of no developments, no direction, and unrelentingly frequent random encounters that make FF3's encounter rate look good by comparison. I'll admit to dropping the game years ago. Maybe it gets harder, but I remember distinctly beating one or two of the more notorious bosses and going "Wait, that's it?"

“Persona games aren’t hard games” Me stuck on Madarame on hard in my very first play through… 😅

SMT Nocturne was my second SMT game whereas Persona 5 Royal was my first, and I wasn't disappointed by Nocturne at all. It's hard as hell, but I still love it. While I have not started hating P5R, I can understand the frustration so many mainline SMT fans are feeling, because any and all publications never give SMT recognition for anything other than Persona in the same way they never give Capcom recognition for anything other than Resident Evil and Street Fighter. But that's not to say that those who prefer mainline SMT Persona are anywhere near perfect, as they are very picky about mainline SMT games also such as calling the original Megami Tensei on the Famicom "mid" for no good reason whatsoever. And because of how Persona 5 is hogging the spotlight from other SMT games, I am fearful it will start to end up like Street Fighter II, and not in a good way.

There's a difference between one person sending you 50.000 message which is harassement and 50.000 people sending you 1 message, harassement this days don't mean anything last time i asked someone "did you really did that ? " and the person responded "stop harassing me " lol it was the only and last time i ever talked to it i just downloaded the P5R for PC i've done P3/P3P and i've always been thinking that SMT was a totally different game it feels hardcore in the customization and gameplay it seem really less forgiving than persona which is more laid back enjoy the story kind of game, good vid' !

I will say, Persona 3 on hardest difficulty was tougher for me than Nocturne on Hard. Though I’m jumping into Hardtype mode as we speak so I’m aware it could be MUCH harder.