Person 3: FES, Persona 4: Golden or Persona 5: Royal - Which Expanded Re-Release Is Your Favorite and Why ?

[chandoog]

Just something that I've been thinking about for a little while and wanted to get everyone's opinions on.

The last couple of mainline Persona games have all had re-releases with expanded content. Which one did you guys like the most and why ?

For me, it's a toss up between FES and Royal with Royal taking the edge. Even though Persona 4 is my favorite game of the three, the expanded content was the least interesting of the three and Marie is a character who can very easily be scrubbed from the game without any impact. I can't say the same for Kasumi in P5 Royal and FES is basically a sequel to Persona 3.

Persona 5 Royal also had a surprising amount of content peppered in the main calendar year (along with a lengthy epilogue), I'm aware FES and Golden also peppered in new content in the main game calendar days as well but I don't recall any of it being as meaningful as Royal. It may very well be because Royal is the freshest game in my memory but that's what I believe at least.

 

[Deleted member 1102]

I haven't played the OG versions of P3 and P4 so I can't pick those but my answer would probably be Royal anyway solely due to them making it far easier to grind social stats which was the reason I dropped the original P5 about three times in my first playthrough. The extra time in the evening and the third semester also helped get me to max all the social links I wanted to do which I wasn't able to do in the original either, so yeah it honestly made P5 a much better game for me.

That isn't even going into stuff like Kasumi who was a great addition or the new palace and final boss which was a FAR better finale to the game than the original ending.

 

[Deleted member 16876]

Portable.

FEMC alone makes it worth it. She has the best written story.

 

[dancingphlower]

Royal. The added story content judged against the ones in the other game is better, especially the antagonist.

 

[asmith906]

Haven't gotten a chance to start Persona 5 Royal but Persona 3 Portable needs to be on that list. It streamlined the game plus let you control your party members which made it way easier to play than the PS2 versions.

 

[chandoog]

Crap, forgot to add poll.

 

[Chie Satonaka]

It's Royal and it's not even close.

Kasumi and Maruki, the third form Personas, showtimes, and the entire third semester, in addition to P5 being the best of the bunch on it's own just made Royal a blast to play through. I want to play it again.

 

[chandoog]

Portable.

FEMC alone makes it worth it. She has the best written story.

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Good reminder, added Portable to the poll as well. Forgot about it while making the thread.

 

[Master Chuuster]

P5R is basically one of the best RPGs of all time, so it's kinda hard to pick anything else

 

[StrappingYoungLance]

Royal. Love the new characters, the big QoL changes, the amazing new music and the third semester.

 

[Deleted member 16876]

Good reminder, added Portable to the poll as well. Forgot about it while making the thread.

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Cool voted for it!

 

[Yata]

I haven't played Royal, but I think easily the best expansion was Portable. I have my issues with the female path, but it just made the original game way better in every way. Lack of anime cutscenes and Answer are really not that big of a deal.

 

[Ultimadrago]

P5R is basically one of the best RPGs of all time, so it's kinda hard to pick anything else

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Yeah. It honestly has me really excited to see what Atlus has next for the mainline Persona series. I gave Persona 5 its space to think of whether it's really one of the all-time greatest JRPGs and it really is despite some warts.

 

[Deleted member 1102]

I really want to do a playthrough as Portable for FeMC but I honestly can't in all good conscious rank Portable highly due to the visual novel style killing the presentation of the story. My first playthrough of P3 was via Portable and the ending (as well as several other key scenes) was ruined for me because I basically had to imagine what was going on while text and a render was on the screen.

If Portable had FES's visuals then I'd probably give it to Portable, but as is I just can't.

 

[Metroidvania]

Portable is definitely a big change, both in allowing for part member control and having FemC....but the changes necessary to get it onto the PSP didn't necessarily work out the best, imo - FES being separate also hurts it a little, though not a lot.

I enjoyed Golden's additions, personally, but Marie and the other new scenes seem to be....a mixed bag, in terms of fan response.

Royal is a bit odd in that the new addition(s) aren't really given enough screen time during the base game, but are also a combination of golden and FES, so it kinda balances out?

Maybe it's recency bias, but I'd probably go P5 Royal, but only by a hair.

 

[Order]

My first time playing P4 was Golden and even I could tell Marie and everything about her was unnecessarily out of place.

P5 feels incomplete to me now without Kasumi and Maruki

 

[fundogmo]

I haven't actually played Royal, but the quality of life improvements on Golden were ridiculous. Marie content is whutever, but I can't imagine playing through the vanilla game without all the little tweaks.

Wasn't a fan of FES because the added stuff was just a grind-a-thon IMHO. The original ended perfectly, so it was a pretty unnecessary coda.

FeMC addition was profound though.

 

[Dolce]

What I've played of Royal is a lot better than the main game and definitely worth making it through the game for. If the original Persona 5 is a 6 or 7 out of 10 for me, the Royal stuff is closer to a 9.

Persona 3 Portable is the most ambitious and of course lets you choose an entirely different protagonist, so I think I'd have to go with that, though.

 

[Apollo]

Exactly one of them let's me be a girl lol. Royal is probably the better game, and certainly is a dramatic improvement over P5 vanilla, but P3P is definitely the favorite.

 

[Vault]

FeMc adds way more to 3's story than Marie and Kasumi ever could.

You pretty much get to experience the game again from a completly different perspective

 

[Roxas]

Yeah, I love all persona games, but Persona 3 Portable is the clear winner here. It doesn't just add a few scenes and one more social link, it just gives you another perspective on the campaign period (not to mention amazing music that they neglected to add to the spotify uploads, sigh), I loved the Junpei S-link as FeMC, I need to replay that game stat

 

[Nickgia]

I only played P3P for Persona 3.
Golden's addition of Marie is forced.
Royal vastly improved P5

 

[Keikaku]

P3P. No more Marin Karin.

 

[Vault]

The downside to all the rereleases is they make them to easy

You can sleep walk through Royal and Golden

 

[Darkwing-Buck]

I really liked Kasumi and they made a character who I hated pretty damn likable (in a way lol) with Akechi.

So I'm going with Royal.

 

[chandoog]

The downside to all the rereleases is they make them to easy

You can sleep walk through Royal and Golden

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I take it as a positive. If someone's played through a 100 hr game once, it's great to have options to make it easier for the second run through with extra content.

 

[Jawmuncher]

I really like Persona 3 Portable. Even with missing content, I feel the VN style approach to the open world is actually better than running around like in P4 and P5.

 

[Deleted member 76797]

persona 3 is the best persona game and the changes are good so i voted for that

i think i just like these games better on handhelds because ive bought persona 5 twice and it has never held my interest

 

[AWizardDidIt]

Portable and it's not even close. The FemMC route for that game actually stands out as a reason to actually replay it and is (imo) a superior experience to the traditional game (minus the Ken romance....)

All of the other persona re-releases feel extraneous as hell and some of them even add in story elements that I think make the story worse as a whole.

 

[Dolce]

I really like Persona 3 Portable. Even with missing content, I feel the VN style approach to the open world is actually better than running around like in P4 and P5.

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Persona 5 is just too big for its own good. It makes it a slog to constantly go and check in on NPCs. They really need to re-think things for the future.

 

[Deleted member 3208]

Portable. FeMC route improves so many aspects of the game like adding social links with your male party members. Also FeMC is the best.

 

[Starlatine]

The Answer is a fucking drag. P3P add FeMC and all the needed QoL. Easily the winner.
I don't like many of the additions in golden, but some are okay. Havent played royal.

 

[NightShift]

I haven't played the original versions of P3 and P4 but hearing that the whole ski section of P4G used to not be there, I got to go with that. That was the part of the game that made the Investigation Team feel like a truly close group of friends and had a lot of cute moments between them. I can't imagine looking at P4 as a whole that fondly without it.

 

[Kingpin Rogers]

Haven't played 5 Royal yet so I can't judge that one but between P3 and P4, it has to be Golden. That's actually the defintive version whereas with P3 you always have to make a compromise no matter what version you play. Like P4G is probably good for the rest of time but Persona 3 needs another rerelease imo which is a mix of P3P and P3FES.

 

[Sign My Guestbook!]

Haven't played 5 Royal yet so I can't judge that one but between P3 and P4, it has to be Golden. That's actually the defintive version whereas with P3 you always have to make a compromise no matter what version you play. Like P4G is probably good for the rest of time but Persona 3 needs another rerelease imo which is a mix of P3P and P3FES.

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P3PES

 

[Deleted member 198]

P3P. No more Marin Karin.

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[Viale]

Royal is my favorite of the bunch. Props to P3P for making me enjoy P3 in general a lot more though. FeMC is the way P3 should be experienced.

Golden is good in that P4 is great, but a lot of P4's additions are... pretty divisive all things considered. I actually like Marie well enough, and the Golden-only dungeon is straight garbage and belongs in the same pile of stupid decisions as the P3 boss that drains everything but pierce.

 

[SpaceBridge]

The comments about P5R are surprising to me. I thought the game wasn't that well liked these days what if the padding, fan service and homophobic stuff in the game.

 

[Another]

Haven't played Royal yet so can't vote... but glad to see FES getting destroyed in the poll, 4 Golden shits on it from a great height.

 

[AnansiThePersona]

The third semester is Royal (about half way through it) might be better the entire rest of the game. It (at the very least) has a great story that (let's be honest) the OG didn't really have.

 

[Giga Man]

Persona 4 Golden because that's the only way I experienced the game. I'm not motivated to play Persona 5 Royal after spending two playthroughs on the original. As for Persona 3, I've tried FES, but it just didn't hook me so I didn't really get anywhere.

 

[Viale]

The comments about P5R are surprising to me. I thought the game wasn't that well liked these days what if the padding, fan service and homophobic stuff in the game.

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P5 gets deserved flak for that, but modern persona kind of has all of those issues. P4 has worse scenes of fan service and homophobia and P3 certainly has a worse case of padding imo.

Generally, the opinion towards these games is still very positive even if they do have very questionable things that bring the feeling down.

 

[logash]

Persona 4 Golden because that's the only way I experienced the game. I'm not motivated to play Persona 5 Royal after spending two playthroughs on the original.

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Are you me? Literally played the original twice and I can't seem to get the motivation to finish Royal despite me buying it and playing around 15 hours of it.

 

[KNZFive]

While P4 Golden is great and some nice QoL changes (like being able to pick which fusion skills transfer), its extra character and story are kinda annoying and meh respectively.

P5 Royal adds some QoL changes, but it also improves the original's story and its new characters are great interesting, additions.

 

[Giga Man]

Are you me? Literally played the original twice and I can't seem to get the motivation to Royal despite me buying it and playing around 15 hours of it.

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Lol, I can't even finish Kamoshida's palace. I might have to sell my copy. I'm not really missing out anyway.

 

[Brazil]

My answer would probably be Persona 3 _____ if an expanded release included both Fes and Portable content :(

 

[Necromanti]

I'm surprised by how many people here have played through the original games as well as the expanded re-releases. I would definitely not have the patience for that.

 

[Starlatine]

I'm surprised by how many people here have played through the original games as well as the expanded re-releases. I would definitely not have the patience for that.

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p3p femc route is different enough to warrant a new playthrough. i played p4 back on the ps2 and then golden when it came out on steam. maybe i'll play royal in 2030 too

 

[Anoxida]

I personally thought 4 had the best re-release. I might be biased though since it's by far my favorite game in the series.

 

[Trigger]

I voted FES. It's the one I enjoyed the most when it comes to plot. Royal's additions are pretty decent, and P3P gave us FeMC so there's something valuable in the other releases.