Well i'v finished up my basic collection of unplayed RPG's in the past couple days, asides from The Witcher, which I like but for some reason can't get over the controls. This has gotten me looking into some PSP RPG's.

I came across 'Persona 3' and just saw a video, and I think it looks absolutely awesome. Now, i'v never been a 'huge' fan of JRPG's, mainly due to them being rather difficult to obtain here, especially older versions. I am wondering if someone can give me a compact list of any games in the series // and a personal opinion on them. I do like JRPG's in general, starting back with the Final Fantasy games and leading into the Ys series, and then branching off from their. I keep looking for lists online, but it just turns into it telling me the Manga series' and whatnot. I just want to know the 'actual' game series, nothing more lol.

Persona is a spin-off series of the Megami Tensei (MegaTen for short, incredibly popular in Japan but widely unknown in the West) franchise, but besides having a connection through themes and dev teams, it's got nothing to do with it at all. So you only have to look at five games total, since the second is split into two, of which only one was officially translated.
As for recommendations... The Persona series only got really good with the third iteration. Since there is no direct story connection at all you can just dive right into that. Persona 4 then improved upon it again.

Oh, that's excellent. I was worried i'd be missing out on story, but if I can jump into Persona 3 without any story issues, i'm def gonna buy it . Thanks alot!

Think dating simulation mixed with Pokemon, only...far better than Pokemon. There is a huge emphasis on both story and gameplay, and each Persona game can easily svck away 100+ hours of your life. In addition to 3 and 4, I highly recommend Eternal Punishment, and even Innocent Sin if you're willing to go to the lengths to get it working with the translation patch available for it. Still, Punishment does do a good job of informing you of the events in "Part 1", Innocent Sin (This is Persona 2, btw).

If you're big into character development, lots of dialogue, and a deep, rewarding combat system, Persona is your dream come true. That is, assuming some anime cliches don't bother you too much.

I'm fine with alot of dialogue and character development. I'm always a dialogue [censored] in games. I usually try to talk to everyone, about every topic, and whatnot.

Hopefully we end up getting Innocent Sin PSP. Can't imagine why we wouldn't as Atlus seems to be really good about localizing their games.

Good. You're in for a surprisingly Freudian school-sim-dungeon-crawl-pocket-demon-(and whatever Mara is) treat of grand proportions, let me tell you that. ^_^

If you had said you were looking for PS2 games, I'd have recommended the FES version immediately. The PSP port is fine though.

...Then I feel obligated to warn you about Persona 2. Both parts to that game contain such an extreme amount of unique dialogue that it boggles the mind.

To give you an example, I had accumulated ten hours into Innocent Sin my first time through, and I had only completed the first dungeon in the game. I think I spent around seven of those hours reading dialogue. There are roughly twenty dungeons in the game. :laugh:

3 and 4 aren't that extreme, but there's a lot of it.

The PSP version is apparently a mix of both the regular and FES version with a PSP specific character o.o

Yes, it's the main campaign with the FES improvements and the choice between the old male main character and a new female one. I'd suggest (and I think the game does, too) that the male is played first, since the female one gets some background info that is probably useless if you don't know the male storyline yet.

What you'll not see is the FES campaign which continues the story after the end of the main one.

Well that's okay .
I am also looking into other JRPGs (preferably that don't need half-done translation patches) for the PSP. I feel like spending my summer playing them ^^

Valkyrie Profile, Tactics Ogre, Riviera, Yggdra Union, Disgaea 1&2. From the serious to the less serious, and all of them remakes. Yggdra, Tactics Ogre and Disgaea are of the SPRG (strategy RPG, meaning more open battlegrounds and turn-based tactical gameplay, akin to pen and paper RPGs) though, don't know if you would like that.

Half-Minute Hero might also fit, though that is more of a puzzle game, since the title is very literal - you have half a minute to save the world during each stage, and managing and expanding that time and building up your hero effectively is the core of the game. And that's only one of several characters you play. ^_^

Oh, and I find Patapon to be very action-JRPG-like... With rhythmic gameplay. And a lot of cuteness. But that's about as far as I would go to recommend for someone who just wants JRPGs.

The only issue I have with turn-based tactic-style games is they go soooo slow. I won't lie, those games make me so impatient because I end up like "ugh. I don't need to see all these 'your turn' 5 second interuptions".

As for Disgaea, I thought it was only japanese? I looked online and every screenshot // video is japanese ><

There's also Valkyria Chronicles II if you're interested in strategy. The original on PlayStation 3 was better, if you have access to that, but VCII did a good job of bringing the series to the PSP without losing much of the appeal in the process. Plays about the same except on smaller maps (though these smaller maps are usually strung together as "zones").

Got it for the PS3 ^^. I didn't finish it though, but I did enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SHeEdaEiuo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jevWogIIxI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g17jhr_eSso
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TU4dxjLuuk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTEKzOftQnA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AinkeT5Pa10

I have only personally played Persona 3:Fes, and Persona 4. Both for the ps2. I feel they are some of the best jrpg's that the ps2 has to offer. I heard good things about Persona 3 on the psp however.

Getting Ys Seven (LOVE this [censored] series to death)
Tales I will look into. I do enjoy the series, i'v played a few from it.
Star Ocean i'll look into
VP I am done with for awhile XD
Lunar looks AWESOME and I want it also xD

I can't remember what it was like in Tactics Ogre, but the other two have skippable attack animations and such. And no five seconds of "Your turn!" or anything like that. And yeah, Disgaea has been release in English. Even with the trademark NISA dual audio it seems, in case the really grating American voices get on your nerves. ^_^

Breath of Fire III. You can't buy it in a North American store, but I think the PSP is region free.

I'll look into the others then .
And i'll be fine with japanese audio as long as text is in english xD




I saw that. I was kind of disappointed. But it would cost to much to buy it from another country