If you’ve never played a Persona game and want to play one but don’t know where to start, here’s what to know about each game and the franchise as a whole before you make your decision.
Gameplay
The Persona series is a turn-based RPG where players can summon Persona, manifestations of oneself, to defeat enemies in various dungeons. In three of the games, players can recruit enemies to aid them in combat.
Starting from Persona 3, a social simulation mechanic was added. Players can develop relationships with other characters to unlock stronger Personas and skills for their party members to use in combat.
Players can fuse Personas to create stronger ones using the mysterious Velvet Room. In earlier games, there were multiple attendants. Beyond Persona 3, each protagonist receives a personalized attendant, and the room takes different forms. However, the core function of the Velvet Room remains the same.
Revelations: Persona
Revelations: Persona or Persona, as it’s more commonly known, starts similarly to an episode of the Twilight Zone. The game begins with the protagonist and a few friends playing a game called Persona, which plays similarly to Bloody Mary. After messing around and finding out, the protagonist and his friends awaken a strange power that allows them to summon reflections of their personalities known as Persona.
Soon after gaining this power, demons overrun their town, and it’s up to the protagonist and his friends to stop the madness. Well, that’s one possible route. The protagonist can also choose to investigate the Snow Queen, an urban legend within his school that causes it to freeze over. This event spawns three ice towers. To reverse it, it’s up to the protagonist’s party to find the source and put a stop to the winter wonderland.
When playing through Persona, I recommend using a guide to make sure you don’t miss anything as there are special requirements to unlock the Snow Queen route and earn the good ending.
Persona is the only game that has grid-based combat. It affects how your party can behave, so it’s important to keep that in mind when positioning your party. For example, if you have a sword user standing behind everyone, that member cannot attack with their weapon.
It is essential to remember that this is the first game in the franchise. As a product of 1996, it is outdated in its liberal use of slurs and racist implications.
Persona is available on the PS1, PSP, and PS Vita.
Persona 2: Innocent Sin + Eternal Punishment
The second game in the franchise is a two-part game.
Innocent Sin follows the protagonist and his group of friends as they fight against Joker, a figure that spreads reality-warping rumors. Fighting fire with fire, we can also spread rumors that benefit us by lowering shop prices and making rare items drop in dungeons. However, sinister rumors come true, and we find ourselves fighting against a revived Hitler and his army.
Eternal Punishment picks up as an epilogue based on the ending of Innocent Sin. This is where we see the fallout of the protagonist’s choice in Innocent Sin. We follow party member Maya in an alternate universe. Here, Maya reunites with allies from Innocent Sin and meets new ones as she has to rediscover Joker and his plot for this alternate universe.
This game is straightforward compared to the rest of the games in the franchise, as there is only one ending. While choices can influence certain outcomes, they do not affect the game’s ending or the story in any significant way.
Persona 2 Innocent Sin is available on the PSP and PS Vita. Persona 2 Eternal Punishment is available digitally on PS3 and PS Vita.
Persona 3 (+FES, Portable, and Reload)
Persona 3 follows the protagonist as they move to a new town to start a new school year. However, on their first night, they discover the existence of an additional hour where the sky turns green, the moon turns yellow, and people turn into coffins. Shadows creep from the darkness, leading to an endless tower where the protagonist’s new school is supposed to be. The protagonist soon awakens the power of their Persona to fight against these shadows and promptly joins SEES, an organization determined to eradicate the additional hour.
Persona 3 is a poignant story that deals with death and grief throughout the game. Each character goes through a sort of grapple with death, be it of a loved one, a dream, or oneself.
Persona 3 uses figures from Greco-Roman mythology as the main personas and heavily leans into the theme. The main dungeon we explore is called Tartarus, a dungeon of torment and suffering, and our party members reflect their persona. For example, the main protagonist’s primary persona is Orpheus, a musician, and our protagonist is always seen with headphones.
Which Version to Play?
Persona 3 is the only game in the franchise with 4 versions. There is the base game, Persona 3 FES, Persona 3 Portable, and Persona 3 Reload.
Persona 3 is the base PS2 game with no epilogue and updated battle mechanics.
Persona 3 FES is the base PS2 game with the epilogue, The Answer. This epilogue follows the aftermath of the game’s true ending, where we take control of party member Aigis as she and your party struggle with grief.
Persona 3 Portable is the odd one of the series because it is the only version to feature a female protagonist. The game plays the same, but there are a few differences in the lack of an epilogue, reworked social links, and new characters. When playing as the female protagonist, two social links from the base game are replaced with new characters: Saori and Rio.
In the base game, we meet our Velvet Room attendant, Elizabeth. However, in this version, our attendant becomes Theodore. We also get to romance most of the male characters in the base game. This includes Ken, the 10-year-old in our main party. Yes, it’s very weird. I don’t know what ATLUS was thinking with that decision.
Persona 3 Reload is the latest revisit to the series. This edition added new battle mechanics that make combat a lot easier than its predecessor. Each party member obtains special attacks once they fill up a bar by meeting goals in combat. It also added time to develop friendships with party members. Seeing the party’s friendships with the protagonist blossom makes the events of the game hit harder.
When it comes to cost, I recommend playing FES if you have access to a PS2 or PS3. You will miss out on the updates Reload made to the story and battle system, but you will be saving a lot of money. Reload is 70 dollars, and the Episode Aigis DLC is 35 dollars. If not, I recommend playing Reload and watching the cutscenes of the Aigis DLC.
Persona 3 Reload is available on PSN, PS4, PS5, Steam, and PC.
Persona 4 (+Golden)
Persona 4 is the more light-hearted game out of the franchise as it plays as a murder mystery. The main cast uses Personas from Japanese Mythology, and the game takes elements from those tales to influence the direction of the game.
The protagonist moves to Inaba, an unnaturally foggy rural town. He spends the school year with a distant relative. After a rainy day, an upside-down corpse is found hanging from an antenna. Soon, rumors of the Midnight Channel, a special channel that only appears on switched-off televisions at midnight on rainy nights, spread all around Inaba.
The protagonist discovers the ability to enter the television and is transported to the TV World, where shadows and the eerie fog that plagues the town originate from. Soon, the protagonist makes friends with the people featured on the Midnight Channel. They embark on a journey to solve the mystery of the Midnight Channel as they face and accept the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of themselves.
The main difference between Persona 4 and Golden is the addition of two new social links: Adachi and Marie. Completing the Adachi social link allows players to unlock a special bad ending. Completing the Marie social link allows players to unlock a special dungeon where we learn about her origins and her true identity. This special dungeon adds an in-game month of new gameplay and events.
Persona 4 Golden is available on PS Vita, PSN, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.
Persona 5 (+Royal)
Persona 5 proves that vigilante justice sometimes is the answer.
After a corrupt politician hands our protagonist a one-way ticket to a serious criminal record, he is shipped off to the attic of Leblanc, a little diner just outside of Tokyo. Confused, angry, and resigned to his fate, the protagonist plans to get through his probation with his head down. Once he enters school, he quickly learns that a lecherous coach is abusing the student body.
Our protagonist takes matters into his own hands after multiple encounters, one of which he awakens his Persona and the ability to change this evil man’s heart. The dominoes start falling, and soon enough, our protagonist finds himself toppling the social order, government, and god.
The difference between Persona 5 and Royal is the addition of two characters, further gameplay with one character, and an additional semester where players can explore an additional dungeon to reach the true ending of the game.
Royal also offers plenty of battle updates that include party members getting Persona evolutions and duo skills. There are also new dungeon mechanics that include exploring new areas in existing dungeons to get exclusive items, skills, and buffs that help in combat and dungeon crawling.
Persona 5 Royal is available on PSN, PS5, PS4, XBOX, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.
Final Tip
If you’re new to the franchise and are unnerved by the seemingly complicated battle system, playing Persona 3 Reload or Persona 5 Royal is your best bet for fun and easy combat in normal mode.
The real issue is going to come when you have to learn the enemy’s attacks and weaknesses. If you start playing more games, you’ll see that each game recycles its enemies. Once you familiarize yourself with the enemies, you’ll breeze through the older games with little issue. You’ll be making jokes about Arahabaki, the dude who reflects physical, with the rest of us in no time.
If you’re someone who doesn’t care for combat and wants a rich story, each game offers a rich story each with moments of joy, tragedy, and rage. However, for the overall stories themselves, here’s a quick vibe check.
If you enjoy eerie ghost stories: Persona.
If you’re looking for an existential crisis: Persona 2 and Persona 3.
If you like murder mysteries and the lighthearted nature of Scooby-Doo: Persona 4.
If you’re a fan of Batman and other morally ambiguous heroes: Persona 5.
