Hello. Justin here and welcome to the Otaku Mind. Many of you may know that in the first Persona-mas I did a vs blog between Persona 3 and Persona 4 with Persona 3 winning in the end. It’s now years later and Persona 5 has come out, so where does Persona 5 fall in at? is it better than 3 & 4, is it worst, or is somewhere in between? That’s what we’re here to find out. It’s time for another vs blog and this time it’s a three-way showdown between Persona 3,4, and 5. To make this blog fair, I’ll be using the same 5 categories from the last blog and since I’ve already ran through Persona 3 and 4 this will mostly be focused on Persona 5 with a little revisit to Persona 3 & 4. Once again, this is just my opinion, so feel free to agree or disagree with me and just know that there will be spoilers. With that said, let’s get started. This is Persona 3 vs Persona 4 vs Persona 5.
The Main Character
Let’s start by taking a look at the main characters themselves, Minato, Yu, and Akira. Akira aka Joker is a guy who just follows a string of bad luck. He tries to do the right thing and save someone in trouble only to get false claims charged against him and put on probation because of it. During his probation he becomes the leader of the Phantom Thieves and his fun school life begins. If there’s one word to describe Joker is that he is incredibly cool. I have to admit, out of all the protagonists in the Persona series, Joker was definitely the coolest of the bunch. Everything he does he does it in style and with a confident smirk on his face that you can’t help but find him cool. He’s cocky but not to the point where he’s arrogant, he simply just has control of the situation that he’s in. No matter how dire the situation may seem, Joker just smiles confidently knowing that he can handle this and he’s gonna look good while doing it. On top that he does have a good heart, he’s not afraid to stand up for others or come to their help. If he sees injustice or someone in trouble he’s going to get involved and help them out no matter what. The only real downside with this character is that he doesn’t change. Yeah, much like Yu, his personality remains the same throughout the game. He’s started off as a cool protagonist and he ends as a cool protagonist. While not a bad thing, I still wanted to see him change a little as the game progressed. Maybe start off as a quiet guy with little confidence to this incredible leader that stood up for what he believed was right all while having a confident grin on his face. In games like these you want to see the character grow a little or change just like Minato in Persona 3 who goes from not caring about bonds to a guy who understands the importance of bonds. Thus, making his sacrifice at the end of the game all the more meaningful and tear jerking. Joker, I like you more than Yu but Minato’s badassery and development still beats you. The winner of this round is Minato from Persona 3.
Persona 3: 3 Persona 4: 1 Persona 5: 2
Next category is team
The Team
Looking back, this wasn’t as tough a category as I originally thought. While the main cast of Persona 3 aren’t bad, the fact that each one has a dark past makes it hard to connect with them. Persona 4’s cast is a lot more colorful, distinct, and seem more closer as a group so deciding which one was better was obvious. But what about Persona 5’s group? Are they a tight knit group as well? The answer, yes. The one thing that brings this group together is that they were all in some way harmed by society. Whether it was falsely accused of something, being taken advantage of, or abused by others for their own gain, the Persona 5 team definitely win your support in this category because chances are you’ve been in their position or know someone who’s in their position. As far as personality goes, the cast of Persona 5 do have great personalities that you grow to love. I love Ryuji’s gun-ho personality and how he never once harbors any ill-will towards you. If anything he has a great amount of respect for Akira and I like how he recognizes his own weaknesses. At the start of the game he acknowledges that he wouldn’t be a good leader and nominates Akira instead of himself. Showing how selfless he is and how he knows what he can and can’t do. Ann is more than the just the pretty girl. She has every reason to be a TOTH character but chooses not to be. She’s friendly with everyone she meets and relies on her personality to win people over rather than her looks. Yusuke is eccentric but fun to be around. You can’t help but find yourself getting swept away in his passion for art that you too come to love art and want to see what he draws next. Makoto is a cool senpai to look up to. Just like us she’s looking for her path in life. Futaba is like the little quirky sister you’ve always wanted to have and protect. Haru is a sweet cinnamon roll and Akechi is everyone’s favorite bad boy who you know is bad but you can’t help but like him. The only weak link of the group is Morgana whose story is similar to that of Teddie’s from Persona 4. He’s a shadow who wants to be human and represents society. Trying to be mature but at the same time struggling to be taken seriously (and forcing you to go to bed when you don’t want to). Some people say he’s annoying and yes he can be but I would honestly take him over Teddie and his bear puns any day.
Okay, so the Persona 5 cast is obviously better and more interesting than the Persona 3 casts but how do they stack up against Persona 4’s cast? It’s a close battle but I would choose the Persona 5 cast over Persona 4’s cast. The Persona 5 cast manages to combine the best traits of Persona 3 and 4’s cast. Give them all tragic stories that we can relate to while also making them a diverse and enjoyable cast to be around. They don’t get to hung up on their pasts and keep moving forward to become better people while helping out others. This is a close battle but this round goes to Persona 5.
Persona 3: 4 Persona 4: 3 Persona 5: 5
Main characters and cast are great but it takes great villains to make this group stand out. Next category is the villains.
The Villains
Just like Persona 3 and 4 the common enemies in 5 are the shadows but where they differ at is in the fact that the shadows are actually Personas themselves which is a good call back to the Devil Survivor games where you face off against the personas and try to convince them to join your team. This mechanic was great and a welcomed addition to the series that I hope appears in the next game. This made the battles and completing the compendium all the more fun and enjoyable as each persona is different. Some are more passive than others so they’re easier to negotiate with. Others are more aggressive and thus become harder to talk to as you’re not sure if you need to win them over with kindness or strength. We get some who are looking for a good laugh or looking for wisdom. You also get some who are pushovers and can keep getting money from them.
For each palace we go to in Persona 5 we keep seeing a corrupted individual and see how they view the world, themselves, and everyone in it. Each palace just makes you mad and makes you all the more determined to bring these guys to justice. The main villain of Persona 5 is Shido who is pretty much the Japanese version of Trump. A guy who says he has the best interests for Japan but really doesn’t. The Holy Grail is the true villain of Persona 5 who became a god thanks to the wishes of man and decided to create a fake world for them to live in blissful ignorance. I’m probably going to get a lot of hate for this but, these are some pretty weak villains when compared to Persona 3 and 4. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not awful I just feel they’re not as strong as they could be. For a majority of the game, Shido is missing until the second to last palace where he starts to play a pivotal part in the story and even then the guy really doesn’t garner that much hate or anger from you. I actually feel like Kamoshida would have been a better main villain then Shido. We also don’t learn that much Shido’s past and what his grand dreams are. Give Ryoji and Adachi credit, we at least saw these guys present throughout the game so we got to know them a little more. Personality wise, Ryoji and Adachi were better. Ryoji was a tortured soul who made friends but sadly remembered his true purpose. It pained him to hurt his friends who showed him that this world is worth saving. Adachi, was great. He’s one of the best video game villains I’ve seen. He is scum but you can’t help but like him. He was smart guy who worked hard but kept getting overlooked because he chose not to get close to others. As for the Holy Grail, I hate to say it but his story was similar to that of Izanami. He thinks he knows what the world wants and tries to let them live in blissful ignorance from the truth just like Izanami. The only difference is Izanami just wanted to put the world in eternal fog while the Holy Grail tried to turn the world into Hell on Earth. In the end while the common villains are better, the main villain and true villain aren’t as strong as the villains in the previous games. I like them but I can’t but see the past villains and an obvious shot at political figures. This round goes to Persona 4.
Persona 3: 6 Persona 4: 6 Persona 5: 6
Soundtrack
Well it’s time for the wild card round and hands down the toughest round, the soundtrack. Just like Persona 3 and 4, 5 had an amazing soundtrack to go along with the game. Done once again by Shoji Meguro, he goes all out to deliver us a fantastic soundtrack with memorable songs such as Last Surprise, Tokyo Delight, Rivers in the Dessert, Price, A Woman, Whims of Fate, The Days When My Mother Was There, Beneath the Mask, and so many more. Persona 3 had a more hip-hop/based style while Persona 4 had a more rural and rock style to their music. Persona 5, kind of blends the two styles together. Since we’re back in the city, it incorporates that hip-hop and rock-style vibe representing how Tokyo is a hub for all kinds of music and genres. The music also matches up perfectly with the time of day as well as the weather. When it’s bright and sunny we’ll get something upbeat and happy like Tokyo Delight and when it’s night time we’ll get something sober and peaceful like Beneath the Mask. Or how about when it’s raining, we’ll get another version of Beneath the Mask which is a lot slower and matches up with the mood of a rainy day that you’ll stop playing and just stop to take in the music and the atmosphere it creates. Music like this is great and really pulls you into the game. I have to admit I like Persona 5’s soundtrack more than 4 right away so, it all comes down to 3 and 5. One of the great things about Persona 3’s music was how every piece felt connected, like a beautiful tapestry being woven or a spider creating a web to trap other insects, it’s a masterpiece. Persona 5’s music is more like a fun jam session you have with friends. Each you have different styles that play off each other perfectly and depending on how you’re feeling is how the music will sound. It could be something upbeat and fun like Tokyo Delight or Life Goes On, something slow and thought-provoking like Beneath the Mask, or something big and powerful like Rivers in the Dessert. From an imaginative perspective Persona 3 is better but there’s one factor that 5 has that really puts their music on a new level, Lyn. Lyn is the main singer for Persona 5 and she just kills it here. 5 added in more lyrics to their songs and thus we got to see Lyn show off her singing skills and she doesn’t disappoint. Looking back, I wanted to hear more of Yumi in Persona 3, I felt like they could have given their songs more lyrics to show off Yumi’s singing skills or the rapping skills of Lotus Juice. They did realize this mistake and fixed it in Persona 3 portable, but in my honest opinion Lyn was the better singer. While Yumi, Lotus Juice and Shihoko were great, they didn’t really get a chance to show off their variant styles. Lyn on the other hand did. Lyn knew when a song needed to be exciting, upbeat, sad, thoughtful, and powerful and managed to convey the emotions you were supposed to feel whenever a sung played. It’s a close race but Lyn just gave her team the extra push they needed to win. This round goes to Persona 5.
Persona 3: 8 Persona 4: 7 Persona 5: 9
Story and Theme
Alright, it’s time for the final round and it’s close between Persona 3 and 5. Persona 4 may not get first place but it can possibly tie for second. So the story of Persona 5 is Akira is falsely getting blamed for a crime he didn’t commit and being put on probation where he has to behave for 1 full year. However, he becomes a phantom thief and begins changing the hearts of corrupted people, finds others who share his cause, and eventually winds up stumbling across a conspiracy that threatens the whole country and world. Just like all the other SMT games, this game has it’s dark moments and doesn’t shy away from them. If anything, they’re more realistic here than any of the other games in the Persona series. Before the first palace, we see a character try to commit suicide in order to escape the clutches of her teacher who physically assaults her and other students. In another palace we see a girl who was made to believe that she caused her own mom to commit suicide and messed up her mind so much that she herself wanted to die. There’s a politician’s palace where we see he’s so determined to achieve his own goals that he’s willing to sacrifice a country and its people just to achieve them. Oh, and this isn’t even counting the body count. Yeah, there’s surprisingly a lot of death in this game as we see people have mental shutdowns which is downright disturbing, Akira gets shot in the head, and to make new personas and special items you literally execute other personas via guillotine or electric chair.
Persona 5 can be dark but it also knows how to get you invested into the story of these characters who are being tied down by society and seeking freedom. Speaking of freedom, that’s kind of the main theme of Persona 5, one’s freedom. The game dives into one’s personal freedom with regards to society and how it can be both beneficial and harmful. We see our main character and his friends operate outside the law to both benefit themselves and the society that they’re in. By living in the laws of society they became oppressed by those around them but once they left, they attained their own freedom and were able to discover who they truly were and what they wanted to be. At the end of the game they return to society with their new personal freedom and as better people. Whether or not they will use this new personal freedom to benefit society or just themselves remains to be seen and is up to them to decide, but no matter what they will be fine as they will continue to hold on to their personal freedom. Another major theme in the game is justice. Throughout the game the question that keeps popping is, our the Phantom Thieves right? Is it right for us to take the law into our own hands and deliver justice to people we believe deserve it? It’s a question that really has no right or wrong answer. While the characters take justice into their own hands, it’s not like they’re abusing it. They don’t just randomly go around and change the hearts of everyone they meet. They put it to a democratic vote on who they should target and all have to be an agreement on the target or they won’t take action. They have an understanding of their powers, the responsibilities that come with them and know how they should use them. Even in the game whenever they change the hearts of others and have them confess their crimes, they leave it in the hands of those who carry out justice to make the proper arrest. Having faith that the law will do the right thing and give these people a fitting punishment.
Now, there are two issues I have with the story and theme of Persona 5. First off, not personal. As the game progresses the arcs and palaces feel less personal to you and the characters. In the first arc, there was a collective hatred against Kamoshida and his actions. He had to be stopped no matter what. After his arc though, the arcs felt less and less about the group and more about the individual who would be joining the group. Which, while not bad, it does lower your investment into what happens to this person. The only palaces that I really felt personal about and I think the characters felt personal about too was Futaba’s palace and Shido’s palace. Futaba’s palace because she’s just a simple girl who lost her mom and was made to believe that she caused it. For Shido’s palace, it’s because he’s the one responsible for what happened to Akira and everything else. In Persona 4 each dungeon felt personal as the character was dealing with something that weighed heavily on their mind. Whether it was wanting to run away from home, struggling with one’s masculinity, not knowing who you really are, missing a family member who you cared for deeply or even struggling with one’s sexuality. These were all personal issues that everyone could get behind and understand. The second issue, the themes really don’t pertain to everyone. In Persona 3, the theme was learning to accept the past and move forward. It’s a theme that everyone can get behind because we all have things in our past that we regret and wish we could do all over again, but we have to learn that we can’t change the past, accept what happened, and use that knowledge to better ourselves. It’s like what Rafiki said in The Lion King (the good one), the past can hurt but you can either run from it or learn from it. It’s a great lesson and a lesson that people from any age, race, or gender can learn and apply to their life. Hell, some people never get this lesson and just spend their lives either holding onto the past or running away from it. Persona 4’s theme is all about living in the present and not being ashamed of who you are but rather embracing who you are. Persona 5’s theme seems to pertain more to the people of Japan as a lot of the themes seem to be present in their animes as well and will keep popping up in anime. Persona 3 in my opinion still has the best story and theme with how they were able to present their themes through the interaction with characters, the social links, and story followed by Persona 4. While Persona 5 has a great story it gets held back a little by the themes they’re trying to present and not presenting them in a way that everyone can relate to. Some of them are done well such as Shido, Kamoshida and Futaba’s palace but the others not so much. It’s because of this that I can never grow tired of playing Persona 3 and keep finding myself coming back to this game no matter what. This round goes to Persona 3.
Persona 3: 11 Persona 4: 9 Persona 5: 10
Final Thoughts
So Persona 3 retains it’s title as the best Persona game. Personally, I think Persona 3 has the better MC as well as story and theme, but Persona 5 manages to have the better gameplay which makes it more accessible to others and a better cast of characters to hang out with. Both games have a great soundtrack as well. In terms of replay value, I feel that people will return to Persona 3 because of it’s amazing story and themes while people will return to Persona 5 because of how fun it was to play. Like I said, when I finished Persona 5 I was ready to play it again where as Persona 3 I had to take a short break because the story and theme were so good that I needed to take a second to take it all in and think about it. As far as Persona 4 goes, I still think it’s a great game with an amazing villain and colorful cast of characters that will make you laugh. Just like Persona 5 it has good gameplay, just not as stylish or creative as 5, and just like Persona 3 it has a good story and theme about living in the present and accepting yourself for who you are. Again, you can make the argument that the themes of Persona 4 are more relevant now than they are when the game first came out. While I think Persona 4 is still the weakest of the three games (and the fourth weakest in the series as a whole) I still give this game a 9/10 and encourage anyone to play it. Thanks for reading and happy holidays everyone. Happy new year to everyone out there and I’ll see you next year on Project Nitsuj.
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