Persona 3? Or Persona 4?

There are certainly benefits to both. I wouldn't say there are flaws too, cause both are amazing games, but certain things are done better in the one than the other. But overall which would you say is better?

Both games have lovable and memorable characters. And of course there are characters you don't like at first either. Almost all the Slinks and the storyline deal with deep emotional and philisophical issues. The last two months of P3 are particularly moving.

As far as those issues go, I kinda think that P3 did better with the philisophical stuff. I haven't done all the Slinks in P4 yet, but let's take a look at the sun slinks to prove my point.

In P4, the Sun slink is either helping a girl come to terms with her dying father as she complains the whole time, or deal with a girl with self esteem issues.
Meanwhile, in P3, the Sun slink is a dying young man coming to terms with his death, and you and him discussing the meaning of life.
The thing with P3, is that not only does it discuss death. It discusses life too. The whole character of Aigis is about coming to terms with what makes a person human.

This isn't to knock P4's storyline at all, it deals with some deep thoughts too. The whole ending is a take on the 'Allegory of the Cave' by Plato. Is it better to live in ignorance? Or go out and live in reality? However P3 deals with that too, but not in as much detail.

Getting away from the storyline, let's talk about more simplistic things: The combat.

There are good things and bad things about both. In P3, you have no control over you allies, but can offer them suggestions. This kinda works, but on occasion, it'll have you screaming at the screen. P4 doesn't have that problem, cause you can directly control them.
The dungeon setup is different. But I can't tell which style I like better. In P3 it seems easier to come back to the entrance. Of course, once you get Teddie in P4, then you don't have to worry to much about that.
Fuuka gives you far more information on the enemy then Rise does. Lotsa help Rise when I find out all the data on my own and you just keep a record of it.

I wanted to go further into this, but I got lazy. So this is what I got so far. It's open for discussion.

In all honesty I really liked both, P3 was a bit more grim and serious than P4. Whereas P4 was a bit more light hearted and focused on the living in ignorance or seeking the truth. Though if you look at the past installments of the series, the others were also very similar to them. Overall if I had to choose the best persona I would say 2 both versions, but out of 3 and 4 I liked 4 the most.

Well I like both games, P4 has a better combat system and better dungeons (And Naoto's Hat) but the story line of P3 is much darker and rather more intresting at times.

As for philosophy both seem to be heavily based on Friedrich Nietzsche (which is awesome) so if your looking to talk about the plot to stoners you're good either way.

Alright. This is gonna be alot. I wanted to do this 2 days ago, but i felt sick, and i absolutely wouldnt be able to focus long enough to do this.

I WILL BE LOADING THIS SHIT WITH SPOILERS FOR BOTH GAMES
[tager] HERE GOES.[/tager]

Story

Persona 3: Death. Its the main theme of persona 3. If you play through 1 hour of the game you already know so. If not, you're slow. Its the theme to the point where its basically how you summon your persona. You shoot yourself in the head with a special gun called an "evoker". Though when first given the choice, who would do it? You see in the opening Yukari Takeba freaking out when she tries using it for the first time (and faiiiiiiiiiiiiils at it cuz shes no minato!). Though, according to the story aparently you have to be "cut out" to be able to use a persona properly, otherwise you get Shinji/Chidori syndrome. Where the persona loses control and tries killing its host/10 year old persona users mothers.(lol couldnt resist, sorry ken) Aparently its only possible to get your true persona in this through a tragic death, because thats how EVERYONE gets theirs.
Yukari-Her Father
Mitsuru-Her Father
Junpei-Chidori
Ken-His mother and Shinjiro
Akihiko-His sister and Shinjiro
Aigis-Crap about Minato dying or the world or something.
The only exceptions are Fuuka and Koromaru because, well Koromaru GOT his persona protecting the shrine of his old owner who was killed by shadows, and if Fuuka's one friend died, she'd probably fucking kill herself or something. That or just be a vegetable.
Oh yeah, they slap "MEMENTO MORI" and "REMEMBER YOU ARE MORTAL YOU WILL DIE" and such all over the screen in the opening. I THINK it means the Main Character might die after the final battle! Lets see! *plays persona 3 and beats it*. Hm. Still alive 2 months later. Oh hey an Aigis lap pillow AW SHIT I DIED AND NOW ITS PLAYING HAPPY SONG CREDITS. WTF! Oh hey now im a butterfly. Okay.

Persona 3:The Answer:
I dont know much about it, because im only 4 hours into it. But this is what it seems so far.
-SEES is emoing about dead minato (this takes place 2 weeks after the Journey's ending)
-The dorm is closing down
-Akihiko is off taking steroids(working out lol) and Yukari is off infecting some other reigon of the land with her attitude.
-Fuuka calls and asks if they're gonna be there for the farewell party, Yukari says she'd rather eat dog shit and hangs up.
-Aigis has Minato's evoker, oh and everyone gives up their evokers. Smart idea at the beginning of a new game guys.
-THEEEEEN that night some robot supposedly of the same model of Aigis (and she runs around whining always yelling "SISTER") busts out of the floor and kicks the shit out of evokerless Mitsuru Junpei and Ken (they're the only ones who stayed along with Fuuka Aigis and Koromaru)
-BOSS BATTLE AIGIS SOLO GO! WIN BATTLE? CONTINUE STORY.
-Robot kicks Aigis' ass and starts strangling ken. Then alot of weird ass static, and aigis yells really really REALLY hard and her persona turns into Orpheus.
IGOR SEGMENT GO. "VELVET ROOM PERSONAS AND SHIT. HERE'S MY BITCH LIZ. NO SHES NOT A LESBIAN SO NO SEX IN THE ANSWER!"
-2nd robot chicks like "Durr Im metis. Im replacing minato guys k? Lol i know its k. Now, i will whine about Aigis for the rest of the game! Oh yeah the basement is some crazy time distortion abyss. lets call it THE ABYSS OF TIME! All it really is is tartarus in your basement with even MORE depressing music!

Yukari:DID YOU SAY TARTARUS!? GNUWORRAAAAARRRRGGGHH! /wrists
Akihiko:HEY GUYS SINCE WE DIDNT TRAIN FOR TWO WEEKS, WE'RE ALL BACK TO LEVEL 25 AND LOST ALL OUR GOOD SKILLS!
Junpei:SWEET BEANS!
Mitsuru:FUCK.

Oh and you keep seeing some shadow minato in tartarus basement. Im assuming its the last boss, and it will be like
"I WAS THE BIGGEST FUCKING PIMP EVER, AND YOU WORTHLESS SONS OF BITCHES FUCKING LET ME DIE? FOR GODS SAKE I HAD A LAP PILLOW AT THE TIME! I COULDA BANGED AIGIS AND THAT WOULDA MEANT I BONED EVERY FUCKING FEMALE IN THE GAME! BUT NO! YOU WORTHLESS FAGS LET ME DIE CUZ YOU ALL SUCK, AND DIDNT HAVE THE POWER TO TURN INTO GOD AND KILL DEATH ON YOUR FUCKING OWN AND WITHSTAND 7 INSTA DEATH KILL ATTACKS. SO, IM GONNA KILL YOU FUCKERS AS MY THANKS"

Thats all i have for the answer. Oh and Yukari is 2x as bitchy cuz minato isnt there to fuck her and make her mellow out for once in her god damn life.

Persona 4:
The story in this one is much more light hearted, as are 70% of its events. To tell the truth, the even in Namatame's room kinda shook me up the first time I saw it because of its magnitude of darkness it had on top of all the other events in the game. And I was sitting there like "These kids will KILL A PERSON? OH MY GOD!" I pop in persona 3 and see ppl drop dead left and right and im just like "Lol." Persona 4's story leans towards an "Ignorance is Bliss" theme, symbolized by the fog that shrouds the truth from the characters. Will you face the truth head on and accept its grim facts? Or face away from it and live happily knowing others dont know the ugly truth? Though all the antagonists are like "WHAT GOOD DOES FINDING THE TRUTH GIVE?" and stuff, IGOR says its good. and if FUCKING IGOR says something, its obviously right, and the correct thing to do. SO REACH OUT FOR THE TRUTH PERSONA 4 HEROES! Oh yeah, and the shit all goes down inside of TVs. Interesting. A murderer is throwing ppl in the TV to kill them without a trace of evidence being left behind, BUT THATS UNTIL YOU AND YOUR TEAM COME IN. Oh but you have a time limit to save victims. Get this, you have like a month to save them before it gets foggy and shadows kill them or something. Then they get regurgitated onto an electronic in the real world or something. (Ive always wondered "So we save them before this, how about we save them before they starve or get dehydrated or something? Is the shadow preparing them fresh cooked meals and 5 star room service till we show up or something?) Oh yeah, and when characters try denying the truth by going "UR NAWT ME" at their shadows, the TRUE SELF or something like that,the shadows are like "Lolk. Then you guys are dead." and BOSS TIME! THEN the character goes "OH sorry i knew you were me, i was too busy caring about being EMBARRASSED to care about GETTING OUT ALIVE and shit. Then the shadow goes "YAYYYY" and turns into a persona.

Dungeon Set Up

The dungeon set up in Persona 4's is much more varied than persona 3's, making me like it more. They all have the same thing basically, Random generating floors with enemies, treasure and the stairs to the next floor.But here's persona 3's:

Welcome to the 1st dungeon
Welcome to training area
Welcome to extra secret dungeon
Welcome to final dungeon.
ALL ON THE FIRST DAY, IN THE SAME DAMN DUNGEON.

For some reason, the developers decided after the first three full moons, that a dungeon like full moon would be too cool, and too much of a change of scenery. So now we will have INSTA BOSS FULL MOONS TO ENSURE YOU FUCKERS ENJOY TARTARUS. (oh, and the 2nd full moon dungeon IS FUCKING TARTARUS)
So im running around in tartarus yelling about how i want a change of scenery. And then its like on the next floor "YOU ASKED FOR IT. NOW, INSTEAD OF LOCKERS AND SHIT, NOW THERE WILL BE WIERD ASS FACES GROWING FROM THE WALLS!!!!!!!!"
.......yeah. Not exactly what i meant guys.

In persona 4's each dungeon is themed on whatever victim who is in the TV's repressed thoughts are. Varying from a fairy tale land, to a gay sauna, to a strip club. I kid you not. Change of scenery, and music=happy me. (No tartarus, adding ONE little extra beat in the background of your song is not helping your cause.)

Ok im gonna flip if i go any longer (i still have a ways to go ) so i'll edit later with ALOT more shit

On the other hand. I kinda liked P3 a little better than P4.

Lol.

Thanks to Persona 3 Portable, Im starting to like it alot more than 4.

But to be fair, portable is 3, with 4's battle and Slink system

So its persona 3/4 lol

I liked 4 for the battle system and S.Links but P3P made the game more tollerable cause of P4 battle system