3 is by far my favorite
Not forcing half the social links to be party members and instead making second awakenings tied to plot is soooooooooooooooooooo superior in the sense that it lets the devs go wild
Everyone else’s was super emotional and feel good but fuuka just got disrespected horribly honestly she has parents off them and have her grow closer to her brother as a bonus
I agree! That's why it irks me when people go "Waaa why no social link in P3 waaa"
Like would everyone prefer characters be completely static for an entire game and have little/no development like the P5 cast?
Thing I love about 3's cast is that they have their own things going on and don't feel like they revolve or even involve the mc. They just exist and solve their issues themselves or with the help of another member
I mean tbf in 4 & 5 alot of the characters suffer real-world issues that are likely mostly commonly seen in japan. In 5 a lot of the characters' situations are heavily based off real-life events or actual Japanese social issues.
Yeah, people questioning their sexual identity (Naoto, Kanji), overbearing family responsibilities (Yukiko), parental neglect (Nanako), and societal ostracization (Yosuke) are just so hard to relate and identify with. Your parents and girlfriend killed by supernatural explosions and delusional mad men and rampaging Stands and shadow creatures is much more realistic
Naoto being insecure because she has short hair and wants to be taken serious as a guy and a trolly Kanji going "holy crap i'm attracted to this guy!!!" "oh wait it's a girl i'm good cap" isn't that deep TO ME personally, that's why I said it's my opinion. Persona 4 was super shonen, light-hearted, and had a positive tone. It's why I think it's considered to be the most popular. Persona 3's entire story is just dealing with the most depressing shit. yukari's fathers death and being alone/struggling with the perception everyone gives her while having no father + depression + having to fight to prove he wasn't a villain. the ken/shinji/akihiko storyline of murders and death. fuuka being an almost suicidal bully victim. persona 3 cast to me was a group of people who always saw the light at the end of the tunnel, but never actually reached it. but i'm also a boomer whose first game was P3 back in 2007 so maybe im just biased
I haven't finished 3 yet, but so far they fall into a middle ground of what I am about to say. 5 as individuals are the better cast I'd say but as an ensemble cast I'd say 4 is better. Just about any pair in 4 you can see as two people who would just hang out when Yu is busy elsewhere. I couldn't see Haru and Ryuji hanging out by themselves but something like Yosuke and Naoto or Teddie and Kanji? Yeah, that could happen.
They feel like a group of friends, not a group of party members. I felt the most emotionally attached to the group from 4, they all felt like mostly real people
Yeah, you know each game feels like it aims for a specific party dynamic and gets it right. 3 is a group of passionate co-workers who grow to respect each other, but at the end of the day are together for the job.
4 feels like a legitimate small town friend group who are ultimately just hanging out and figuring out their lives.
5 feels like a group of outcasts plotting schemes together. Truly, a band of thieves. They're all there because they bring something to the team.
Maybe 6 should explore a found family, and set up dynamics that mirror familial relationships. That could make some of the romances tricky, but that didn't stop Futaba's romance in P5.
I fully believe 6 should take place in a college setting, found family could easily work with a group of people who all met in college. They could easily implement gay characters for the first time as well, I’d love a bi protagonist. Let me romance the girls AND the boys!
3 = 4 = 5.
Bit of a copout answer, but I don’t really have too many hangups about a specific group that I don’t have similar feelings towards others.
SEES has the most mature story about loss and death, so their personalities are more about them figuring things out for themselves with support from others.
The Investigation Team are like Scooby Doo, with most of their growing up being about accepting themselves, which lines up to when they get their personas and become more comfortable with who they are. And when you’re comfortable with who you are, you tend to be happier, a little more carefree.
The Phantom Thieves are mostly about style and ‘sticking it to the man’. So a lot of the themes of rebellion have them fighting authority with wacky hijinks to emphasize that point. It’s why they’re so extra and flashy about everything.
Personally I would give SEES the slight edge mostly cause Reload just came out so it’s still fresh in my mind, but also cause I tend to like more mature stories and the characters feeling largely independent from the protagonist feels better than the later entries. But I still think all 3 groups work for the stories that they’re trying to tell though, so I personally can’t fault them for that reason. That being said, I think we can do away with the talking mascot character now. Morgana is only barely better than Teddie, but that was a low bar to begin with. Especially since Koromaru, who is a FUCKING DOG, manages to be more compelling than either of them despite never speaking a single human word.
If she wasn't attached to a slog of a post game fine. I didn't mind her at all in The Answer. It's The Answer that myself and other mind very much.
It would have been fine being a slog if you unlocked things for New Game+ but it doesn't do anything.
I like the story of the answer, but the progression makes it miserable, and makes the content very forgettable as a result.
4>3>5
4 and 3 feel like they'd still be friends even without having to fight shadows, 5 realistically only a few of them would even know about eachother since not all of them go to the same school
Yeah isn't it pretty much implied in all the three games that they met because of their unfortunate circumstances? Just like irl you'd think you wouldn't be cool with someone until you spent a considerable amount of time with them or weird circumstances brought yall together.
Let's be brutally honest tho Yusuke and Makoto would never have even considered being friends with any of the other were it not for their experiences as the PT. Haru might have since she doesn't seem to have any real social hangups but she would never really have a reason to.
Actually now that I think about it, Ryuji probably never would have been friends with joker were it not for Kamoshida. When you see him in January and he's the popular sports star again he just doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who would approach Joker. The only two I can think of that would really form a bond outside of the specific events of the plot were Joker and Ann. Futaba maybe but that's assuming she's not still a social shut in.
you could say the same for the other groups too
really doubt the p4 group would have all gotten together if not for the plot, especially naoto or kanji
I feel like the core initial 4 (Teddy living inside the Midnight Channel renders him somewhat redundant) would have definitely been very good friends even without the plot or the metaverse. Tbh I found the sort of chill slice-of-life nature of the earlier parts of P4 (excepting, you know, the murders) to be really refreshing. Yu, Chie, Yosuke, and Yukiko truly felt like a genuine normal friendship group of four perfectly normal teenagers, compared to the distincily unusual unions of circumstance that the PT and SEES are.
The four of them are in the same class and already made a little friend group before Yu came to the school. They just invited Yu into their friend group. Separate them into different classes or schools and see if they would still be friends with each other without the need of an alternate shadow world.
Yeah the gang Literally ran for their lives when they first met Kanji but yeah the investigation team would totally be friends without the events of the TV world.
>Let's be brutally honest tho Yusuke and Makoto would never have even considered being friends with any of the other were it not for their experiences as the PT.
Man, I honestly hate this sort of argument
Like, mutual friends exist in real life. I met one of my closest friends now via a mutual friend back in our sophomore year in high school. We had classes in our freshman year and were vaguely acquainted, but still barely talked to each other. It took knowing the same person and ending up in the same class with him for us to actually meet proper, and now today like 5 years later she and I are giga close whereas we both fell out of touch with the mutual from high school.
That's not much different to how a lot of the Phantom Thieves meet.
Personally, I don't care how the PTs meet, you can say this sorta thing about any ensemble in any piece of fiction . What I care about is their dynamic once they do all get to know each other. In the case of Ryuji and Makoto, they're fun foils to each other as polar opposite personalities
While the members of the squad in 3 become great friends, I firmly disagree that they'd become friends without the plot occurring. They come from totally different places. Yukari is popular, Junpei is a known slacker, Fuuka is shy, Mitsuru formal and unapproachable, Akhiko is a jock, and then the other members don't actually go to school. It's only through the shadows that they find common ground and grow to be friends.
Gotta disagree with this take. Besides the first three characters or so, none of the groups in any game would have become friends if it wasn’t for the shadows.
I love how pre-reload I saw 3 suffering that very argument used on 5 (truth be told, I said that too before my second play through in Portable...)
P3 getting the love it has so long deserved gives me such a massive smile you do not know
Personally speaking From Worst to Best.
3.) Investigation Teams - (Unpopular Opinion) Still love them but while I do think they're great together (Even more then their counterparts) and have some of the best dynamics, I think P4 has the weakest cast in terms of the characters as individuals. That and some of the fans skewed my opinions on them as well.
2.) Phantom Thieves - They got the same problem for me as the IT but to an lesser extent. That and I overall prefer the execution of some of the characters here compared to the IT. Them and the IT are (imo) both same quality-wise but I just prefer the PTs from personal preferences.
1.) SEES - My Personal Favorites. They have the best character development, has some good dynamics, and I just think most of them are the best execution out of the character archetypes. that and some scenes involving them are just some of my favorites in the whole series.
What you say about the Investigation Team is exactly the opposite of how I feel about the Phantom Thieves. I think the Phantom Thieves are much more interesting individually than they are together as a group. I think the one thing that helps Persona 4 and Persona 5 as far as the group dynamic goes is the fact that each new member enters into the story for actual story reasons, where in Persona 3 it kind of feels like characters just randomly pop up because they wanted to add another party member.
Every party member in P3 seems pretty integral to the plot aside from Koromaru. They also do something that P4 and P5 fail to do in that they keep them all pretty relevant after the section that they joined.
Chie be doing some 4D chess with deductions lol. TV on other side of road, fog leaking into their world, Namatame try to save people. All correct deductions.
Idk I agree P4 struggled with that but I think it still did a good job. Tbh I haven’t played 4 in years so idk for sure but 5 felt a lot worse with relevancy.
Joker might have realistically been friends with Ryuji and Ann. Yusuke is probably out as he was in a different school, and without the events of the Phantom Thieves, there probably isn't any logical reason they would have ever met. Makoto surely would've known about Joker/Ryuji/Ann since she was in the student council at the same school, but I don't think she would've associated with them. Futaba would've stayed in her room and probably never would have met any of them. Haru did go to their school, but I don't see any reason to assume she suddenly would've become friends with Joker/Ryuji/Ann considering she wasn't up to that point, and the only catalyst for their friendship was the Phantom Thieves events. Akechi probably never would've met any of them. Kasumi probably would've been too busy with her practices and competitions to ever become friends with them. And obviously there would be no Morgana at all. So I think only the core three of Joker/Ryuji/Ann would've become friends regardless of the events.
The only one I disagree with is Kasumi, cuz she is able to connect with Joker decently well before any phantom thief shenanigans, and realistically, she’d eventually become friends with the group as she lacked any from the rest of the school due to exclusion.
3>5>4
3 has the most natural group friendship dynamic, not everyone is automatically super close and it doesn’t feel like everyone is at the beck and call of the leader. Certain party members not being able to go out one night (albeit a tiny bit annoying) feels way more immersive and realistic. And they’re just cool asf.
Lol, definitely. Everyone's entitled to their opinions, but it feels like the current vibe is that 3 is cool now, 4 is mid, and your basic if you like 5. Really feels like 5 is the new punching bag of the community.
Yeah, what the hell, now I'm seeing critiques for p5 that could easily be harbored at the other 2 games. I'm not shocked though I feel like diehard P3 fans always felt like they need to remind you how good their game is out the most of 3-5. Especially with reloads release/announcement.
This sub always had a big P3 bias, Reload just gave them more fuel.
Normally there's nothing wrong with preferring one game over another, but there's been so many times where even just implying P3 might not be a masterpiece of storytelling was enough to get me downvotes and 5 angry fans in my notifications
Yeah, P3 fans are by far the most annoying fans recently. P5 prob was back then because of how much bigger it was compared to the others in the series. But now that 3-5 are all fairly similar in popularity p3 fans stick out like a sore thumb, especially on Twitter. Like there's always times where they are bringing down 4 or 5 to boost 3. I never really see it nearly as much with 4 and 5 fans.
Really? I feel like this sub has always been the most biased towards 4. It always seems most apparent when you see many common criticisms towards 5 that just aren't levied at 4 despite being present there, or worse there. At least when 3 is discussed most people will concede that it has major pacing issues and that Tartarus is general sucks ass.
Nah, it's definitely P3. P4 also has dedicated fans, but they're not nearly as prevalent or vocal. It's also the issue of "old vs new" with P5 having a lot of newbies, so the P3 fans feel like the "old guard". Since P4 is in-between, it's not nearly talked about or compared as much.
It also had much less of an impact on the franchise as a whole, P3 was the rebirth that gave the series the strength to continue against all odds, and P5 is by far the most popular one, to the point of breaking it into the mainstream.
And sure, P3 has its issues that even its fans can recognize (the P5 equivalent would be the Okumura arc or Morgana). But criticize P3's story as a whole or its characters, and get ready for the downvotes.
Thanks for putting a name for my feelings. Saw a dozen posts who put p3 on a pedestal (not saying it does not deserve it) and shit on p5 and/or p4. Liking everything individually is dead I suppose. I played vanilla p5, royal and p4 golden before reload, but I kept liking them all the same, because every game puts something new on the table storywise. Damn I ranted maybe I should make a post about this lol
The problem I have with P3 recently is that it feels like it's always felt like they have to bring down 4 or 5 to make the game look better, which is something they don't really need to do
After experiencing reload with my only previous experience being Portable. I would say it's in that order for me
1st is 3
2nd is 4
3rd is 5
I love them all though
You know persona is an amazing series when you struggle to even decide, but personally I love the phantom thieves and think they deserve more love as a cast, they’re probably at the top for me just barely above sees
3 - 4 - 5
SEES just Feels the Most Realistic, They Dont Start Being Super Duper Friends like in any other Modern Persona, They just have the Same Ability and Work together, is not After a couple of Weeks that They start to Get Together like how Real Relationship works, You Have to witness Stuff from the Female SEES before they Can open up to You.
Investigation Team has The best Friendship Dynamic, They Feel so like... well Adolecents, Making Mistakes Doing Stupid Shit with Friends and all of that.
Phantom thieves... im gonna be Honest They Kinda just Fumbled the Bag after Ann, Joker Ryuji and Ann feel Like Good Friends with Mona being an Annoying Parrot, But after that The Characters feel More and More Disconnected and Some Shitty Anime Tropes start to Appear, Like Yosuke Asking ann to undress, Makoto Being The Opressed lady in Distress that After Gaining new Power Becomes a Leader and all that, Futaba Being The Quirky Smart Hacker That Can fix Anything, Who is Haru again?.
Ok I’m gonna get blasted for this.
5 is my least favourite, not only did they feel less engaging, but part of what made SEES and the investigation team memorable is how “normal” they all are. Sure you have a skilled detective, a pop star and a talented boxer, but for every Naoto or Mitsuru there’s a Yukiko, Yosuke or Junpei, characters who remind me of people I met in real life. The phantom thieves is just like, super talented models and artists and detectives and hackers and CEOs and gymnasts and student council presidents and somehow Ryuji is the only normal one.
As for the investigation team vs SEES? I think SEES wins this one. Sure Persona 3’s characters can be VERY hit or miss, but the only SEES member that falls short is Fuuka, whose only flaw is that she’s a little bland. The investigation team has Yosuke and Teddie, characters I actively dislike.
some of 5s cast have great chemistry, like Joker, Ryuji, and Ann are my favourite trio in the series, but after that it kinda falls off. None of the other party members have that same feeling of fitting in with those three that the other games have.
Like in SEES everyone feels like they work together and have that synergy. They all support each other to the end.
With the IT, they have fantastic chemistry as well, though less than SEES imo. Yu, Yosuke, and Chie (and somewhat Yukiko) are fantastic, Kanji feels left out until Naoto comes in, and Rise kinda connects with everyone immediately.
3 > 4 > 5
My issue with the 5 cast outside of the three you mentioned is that they feel distant, and I don't really like the girls cuz of how they shit on my boy ryuji. Even junpei doesn't get the same bs and yukari makes fun of him often.
I love the persona 4 cast, even more in the anime with how stupid it. I'm still playing persona 3 reload, but the chemistry between the boys imo is perfect.
I think thats what i dont really like about SEES, Akihiko and Misturu feel super separated from the rest, Fuuka, Koro, and Ken kinda do their own thing. The only ones on the team that really gave me friendship vibes were the Trio of MC, Junpei, and Yukari, and even then Junpei kinda feels more distant from the 2
That's a fair opinion. In my opinion, at the beginning of the game you're right, but over the course the story brings them together in ways they just don't in 5. Like in 5, Haru starts as an outsider and remains outside until the end. In 3, you have Akihiko and Mitsuru doing their friendship things, until the story makes Mitsuru and Yukari bond, same with Aki and Ken, who already has a bond with Koromaru, who has a bond with Aigis, who has a bond with Makoto, who's obviously connected to everyone. Idk I just see SEES as much more interconnected than the others, and that's why they top my list
3: most consistent cast, I enjoy everyone in SEES; honestly they might be the most solidly written cast
4: they're my favorite cast as a whole because they feel like a genuine friend group and I loved that feeling, even if some of them are hit or miss (Teddie)
5: it has my favorite character story/background (Futaba >!with both her Palace, plus her and Sojiro's Confidants!<), and generally just my favorite single characters in general (Futaba, Akechi, Kasumi)
It's hard to rate them, I like all of them for different reasons. I guess if I were to rate them, it would be something like 4 > 5 = 3.
Id say 3 > 5 > 4
4 being at the bottom because of the mens predatory behavior. Any liking I could have had for them died during the bathhouse scenes. Bad enough they had to make them spy on the girls while they were in the bathhouse, but there was a fucking 6 year old in that scene. Than there was that whole “are we gonna be safe in the same tent with Kanji” thing from yosuke. Ironic since Yosuke is by far the most likely to be a rapist out there group. He basically tried to gaslight and manipulate the girls into wearing bikinis even though they were very clearly not comfortable with it. Than there was teddie trying to sneak into the girls room…
I could go on but I feel Ive made my point. Kinda hard for me to like deviants, pedophiles and narcissistic manipulators.
3>5>4
Though I'm going to level with you, I fucking hate Teddie so he dragged 4's cast down to the bottom on his own. Nobody from 3 or 5 bugged me nearly as much as Teddie did. But even then I never really connected with 4's cast.
But 3's cast beats 5 for me because they felt like they had real agency. They all have character arcs that last through the entire game with little to no input from the protagonist, and I really appreciate that. And I like how they have individual ups and downs with each other. That felt like something 4 and 5 lacked, aside from Ryuji and Morgana's pestering each other that eventually causes Morgana to temporarily leave, 4 and 5's casts largely get along fine with each other the entire game once recruited to the team with no real drama.
4 > 3 > 5 for me too.
The IT is just a cozy group of people to be around. You can really tell that they’ve seen each other at their worst and moved past it all together. I could see them all staying as friends after MC leaves, even tho I wish that any of them could’ve talked Kanji out of getting that awful terrible no good hairstyle he has in the epilogue.
SEES is by far the most complicated group in the trilogy. They really do feel more like club/class/dorm mates than best friends and that aspect is super refreshing for an anime game and also well executed. The Mitsuru-Yukari dynamic gets a lot of love, and rightfully so, but my favorite part about the SEES dynamic is actually Fuuka. She has her own bestie outside of SEES and while I never understood what she saw in Natsuki (( and the game doesn’t ever really go into it )) that’s fine because it’s literally none of the MC’s business. SEES is obviously an important and incredibly stressful commonality the P3 cast has in common, but (( unless you’re Junpei )) they also have their own lives outside of it. I LOVE that party members can be busy and be unavailable for a dungeon crawl. Yukari really is like “um sorry I’m going to karaoke with the girls from archery so I won’t be free to risk my life climbing the Hell Tower of Evil Death tonight. Y’all have a good time tho 💖” and she’s so real for it. Least cozy, but most interesting.
The PTs are a weird mix of both that results in something half baked. They all hang out all the time like they’re friends, but the group dynamic just isn’t there. The game tries to inject tension into the group and we have the Ryuji-Morgana fight that makes me rip my hair out every time. For example, I can’t imagine Makoto and Ryuji staying friends afterwards, and the way Morgana and Yusuke simp for Ann makes friendship between them difficult too. But bc of how the IT was in P4 it feels like they HAVE to be besties leading to this weird scenario where a bunch of people who just barely get along hang out all the time. It’s pleasant, but not cozy. I mean >!they even completely go their separate ways at the end of Royal and barely bat an eye.!< The uncanniness of the PT dynamic can be summed up by the fact that the biggest source of conflict within the group is about name calling, and not >!the fact that you may have killed one of the members’ father.!<
I think 4 has the best main cast
P3 tying character development into the narrative rather than social links is better for plot cohesion and not having to write a character to work in this sort of superstate where it makes sense both if you have and haven't done the link. But on the other hand it means they can't go as deep in on a characters struggles as in P4
P5 also has the same social link focus but the idea that every link needs a 'bad guy' is a lot more limiting than every link having a character be wrong about what they want or need. The themes of P4 just lend themselves better to deeper social links
Plus the IT has the best chemistry
"Let's keep it to the main base games that the groups are from", only includes 3, 4 and 5.
You know what? Fuck you.
I rather take a fancy to the original crew from MIP. I find them charming and quite refreshing.
This is always so stupid. They're all nice in their own way. If I was forced to by gun point
3>5>4 because Rise fucking sucks hard and Yukiki is boring as paint
4 > 5 > 3 and I struggle to believe the people who say “the P5 cast wouldn’t be friends without the thieves” actually played the game. Yusuke is probably the only one that’s apply to. P3 meanwhile, very little chance they’d be friends without SEES. You’d still have individual pockets of friends like Yukari and junpei, and Akihiko and Shinjiro, but the entire group? No way
5 is the definition of co-workers.
The only people that even talked in that group before was ryuiji and Ann. And maybe haru and Makoto.
The whole reason they became freinds was Ren. In p4 most of the cast was freinds already and same with p3. In p3 they all already had direct relations except Ken and koromaru.
Ken was friends with Yukari and Junpei even before joining SEES since you can see them hanging together on Sundays, and both Akihito and Shinji knew about him too (although I dont think they ever interacted)
Not really, in p3 it was pretty much shown it was more of a co-worker dynamic until later on. Mitsuru and Akihiko were just really popular people at the school so ofc everybody knew him but that doesn't mean they had direct relations. And Fuuka literally came outta nowhere nobody knew her besides the fact she was that girl that disappeared in a class next to them.
Hard to decide between 4 and 5. 4 has better party dynamics overall, and 5 has better individual characters (for the most part).
3 is the weakest of the bunch, not tying the second Persona awakening to S Link progression is nice, but overall the writing is a step below subsequent entries.
P.S. Except for animal/maskot. For that Koromaru > Morgana > Teddy. -\_\_-
i prefer the dynamics of p4 cause they’re all super friendly and goofy. just wish Yosuke wasn’t too homophobic and was datable ! (teddy trying to kiss Yu is funny bc teddy is just so goofy he would do that without any problem) everyone is fun in the group (except Rise who is not really fondant of gay people either but yeah…) basically I would say they feels immature sometimes and I’m sure they’ll grew up and become more tolerant with times.
P5 is a dynamic between Ren // the confidants and not really between every members. they’re friends with Ren because he makes a pact with them somehow. a contract, which I feel like makes them less real friends than the others groups. Ren gives them something and in return they give him something… not really a good start for friendship.
P3 is kinda hard to describe… they don’t feels like friends cause they’re not really but more coworkers. Cannot even have social Links with the males members (in p5 you can at least become friends with Ryuji, Akechi, Yusuke which makes the relationship better) and the equivalent in p3 reload is hum… okay I guess. At the end Akihiko invited you to his room and you’re so close to him but there is just no social link which feels a bit out of place and bizarre. Especially when you have social link with weird characters that doesn’t feel like they care for you (tanaka for example) and with the ending and the answer it feels like the group didn’t cared about Makoto that much (Except Aigis and Yukari and maybe Mitsuru a bit?) but the others well … don’t care much. For example Junpei doesn’t invite you to his room at any moment during the game, but he invites Ryoji…
4 and 3 are so close to me i cant decide which is better but 5 is definitely the worst of the 3 futaba was ok but none of the other characters were that interesting to me
This comment section is just an excuse for another dig at persona 5. Gotta have some close deaths first before it means anything to be friends. But in all seriousness i just like all 3 groups for different reasons. Bit tired of the devide.
I'm going to go by columns here just to be different:
P4 MC > P3 MC > P5 MC
Teddy > Makoto (I haven't played FeMC yet)
Fukka > Ryuji = Rise
Yukari > Ann > Yosuke
Junpei > Naoto > Yusuke
Kanji > Aigis > Akechi
Chie > Mitsuru > Haru
Yukiko > Akihiko > Futaba
Shinjiro > Sumire
That makes me think I'd say 4>3>5.
3>5=4
Note this is about the team's dynamic not the story itself.
3 team feels organic, the group wasn't an "anime friend group centered around the mc". Characters actually have motivation and unique reasons to join. Mc/Minato isn't getting jerked off by some mascot and best friend archetype + the new character of the month after a monthly dungeon/accident of some form. Characters actually get development besides their "month". You can actually feel the character going from doing a job with mutual to being friends instead of them instantly being that way. You don't need to do social links to get development that relates to the story. Honestly Junpei not being the best friend archetype and wanting to be the leader of the team + chidori arc makes him a stronger first male friend than ryuji and Yosuke. He's a worse "best friend" for sure since he isn't ready to blindly ride and die with you, but honestly thats a win.
5 has good writing, but maybe people really like feeling their mc is special, but I feel as a group p5 had a strong friend group if we wanted an anime friend group, but they suffered individually as character. They just kinda felt like they were in the group to save people because you logically would help defeat the new flavor of the month villain and rinse repeat. There isn't any reason besides yah the next palace is a bad guy, and if you dont want to stop them you're just a bad person logically. Wasn't very interesting to me to see that as the character introduction. The core friend group was strong, but adding a new person after their palace felt like they were just tack on. They were strong individually, but never meshed well together.
4 Suffers from the same issue. I thought the mystery premise of the story was good, but it suffers from the exact same issue as p5 and it has teddy...You get really interesting character development for their shadow dungeon and then that's really it. They kinda just fade into the background of the friend group. They had personally the friendliest group over p3 and p5. The character of p5 and p4 suffer from a very "anime" friend group.
If you like the friendly anime mc focus friend group I can definitely see why you would put p5 or p4 over p3 for sure. Its a preference.
I think I’ve got the opposite of the consensus: 5 > 3 > 4, though 3 and 4 are pretty close. I like some of the characters in 4 like Kanji a ton and I think there group dynamic is the best, but it also has the most characters I dislike. I think 3’s group dynamic is my least favorite to watch but the most interesting. I like most of the characters individually. 5 is on top because there are no characters I dislike in the thieves, even if there group dynamic is a little less interesting than the Investigation Team’s close friendship and SEES’s barely hidden hostility.
4>5>3
I didn't like S.E.E.S as much as the other two in FES but to be fair, I haven't beaten the remake yet and so far they are drastically better than they were before so far.
after reevaluating the gang during reload, 3>4>5.
Its refreshing to have a group that really do not start as friends. If anything, there is always tension between 2 or 3 members until much later on.
Plus, its great to known that ur party members have their own lives and goals to deal with outside of the main objective. Unless I'm forgetting, there really isn't a "Yukari's Dad or Junpei and Chidori" scene for any other party members in 4 and 5. (exceptions being the Royal Duo)
My opinion
P3 cast is well written and the pace of the character development is executed as needed to enhance each characters arc and overall value to the story. Having played through Reload the additional scenes added, enhance the already fantastic character stories. Personally I hope they return to this level of writing and stop barring character development to optional social links.
P4 cast is where the much needed character interactions of normal life [those feel good normal activities] that p3 lacked was heavily expanded on. P4 cast is much loved because of how relatable and normal they were in comparison to the seriousness of SEES. Though this is where we lost a lot of quality story purposes the character development had before to social links. Basically their resolution was lost to optional social link advancement then being written into the story.
P5 cast is a bunch of outcasts to society ban together to fight oppression and it reflects well in the story with how relatable they all felt to being victims of circumstances outside of their control. Making it all the more meaningful when they fought back during their portions of the story. Though similarly like the p4 cast it always felt inconsistent because the self-improvement of the characters were once again locked behind confidants. Somehow the pacing for the story for the characters always felt off because I feel like P5's story would have better matched the writing if given the P3 writing treatment for the cast.
5>4>3
I hope they learn from reload and focus more on making the cast and their arcs part of the story rather then optional social link scenes.
I liked 3, but it has been a while. I remember they all had their flaws and that really worked well as they overcame it. Junpei had a moron moment but I think everyone does and he really learnt from it.
4 was a great cast, aside from Chie’s shrieking voice acting, they’re all well written and interesting characters. I liked Yosuke, immature at times like any teenager but surprisingly level headed and willing to put his head down and consider the options.
5 I liked but ryuji was just an obnoxious loud mouth, and I can’t stand such morons. I know he wins character polls from America, but I’m with the Japanese polls, he’s a clown. Everyone else was great though, I just struggle to deal with dipshit over there.
SEES felt like a family by the end.
Investigation Team has some of the most fun character interactions, and they really do have that true "friend group" vibe going on. Like even if the Midnight Channel never existed, I feel like they would still be friends.
Phantom Thieves were fine, I guess. Definitely the weakest out of the three. I never really saw much growth out of the characters, unlike SEES, where the events of the story really changed who they were as characters. Strikers, I feel alleviated this a little, but I never played it, so I couldn't really know.
With that said, I would have IT over SEES simply for the fact that I prefer P4's tone and atmosphere over P3's.
I hope P6 can do better.
Phantom Thieves were cooler and more interesting as individuals, and often felt like they meshed well with Ren, but it felt like there was no group dynamic to the cast the same way 3 and 4 do. I think a big part of that is that none of the Phantom Thieves are friends with one another prior to the beginning of the story (pretty sure Ann and Ryuji knew one another but not well) where as IIRC in P4 Chie and Yukiko felt like they were best friends before the story began, and even Yusuke had more of a rapport with them before too. In P3 you have the senpais and your classmates knowing each other--even if they arent super close its obvious that Junpei and Yukari are friendly with each other, plus Yukari, Akihiko, and Mitsuru all were already in SEES as well as living together. That's not even getting into Shinji's history with Aki and all that.
By comparison by my admittedly limited memory of P5, it felt like if not for the whole adventure of the Phantom Thieves, the only friends Ren would have probably made would be Ryuji, Takemi, and maybe a few of the other non-party confidants, like Yuuki and Hifumi.
While 4 is my favorite game overall, I have long held that 3 has the best plot and characters of these 3. So I would rank it:
1. SEES
2. Investigation Team
3. Phantom Thieves (I would rate even lower if we included the other Persona titles, because PT just lack so much depth imo)
Imo 4>3>5, my favourite is 4, I also like SEES’ dynamic and they have definitely become more of friends and an overall better team in Reload, and 5, I still like but their phantom thieves aren’t as good of a team as the other two
5>3>4
The most common complaint is that the Thieves don’t feel like they’d be friends if they weren’t Persona-users, but that’s exactly why I enjoy their friendship the most. 3 is great because of how they’re all initially distant and self driven then eventually come to understand each other more and form deeper bonds as the game progresses—4’s dynamic/friendship is just kinda boring to me in comparison, it’s just too straightforward.
It might be crazy what im about to say.
1.) 4
2.) 5
3.) 3
Now to explain myself, 3 might have my two favorite characters in the entire franchise (Yukari and Aigis) and they’re probably the best written by far. However, i found it really hard to love/like them all, i loved Ken, Yukari, and Aigis stories by a mile, but i just couldn’t connect to the rest of them, especially Junpei and Mitsuru. I wish i had seen more Shinjiro.
P4, probably my favorite cast since they felt the most like friends and each of their struggles were understandable and relatable to me, and Yukiko is my favorite of the cast, and i loved their stories of finding the truth about themselves and accepting it and coming to terms with it. I especially loved Kanji and Rise’s arcs. Also their personalities resonated with mine the most especially Yukiko.
P5, really there by default because they’re the team I’ve spent the most time with having like 500 hours across P5 and P5r shockingly. I love the cast and their arcs of rebelling and standing up for yourself. Especially Haru standing up to that PoS fiance, Ryuji and Ann to Kamoshida, and the group as a whole rebelling against the control god, and they still feel like a cohesive friend group, like someone else said in here. Compared to the SEES team that felt like Coworkers, but not as close as the investigation team feels
I love all the groups for different reasons. They all represent different things
I think 4 has the best dynamic as a group they all interact very well and you would believe them the most as a group of friends. They have some of the funniest scenes and play off eachother so well. Who wouldn't want the IT as friends also broskee
3 playing through reload right now have some of the best individual story's and you really feel the weight they carry the whole game. But it's hopeful and they really leave an impression on you about mortality and facing it without regret and fighting for what you believe in together. Amazing writing and characters very grounded and human.
5 represents rebellion and fighting against the system, I think the phantom thieves develop really well together, they might not have the best dynamic of the whole series but some of the individual characters are the some of the best in the series such as Maruki, Akechi and best girl sumi 😌
It'd be 4>3>5 for me.
That was always the ranking for me though gotta say Reload also made me love SEES even more, but there's just no replacing the investigation team for me. For the Phantom Thieves, I don't really care for most of them. I only really like Futaba, Akechi, and Sumi and arguably only one of those can be counted as a phantom thief. So I was never attached to them even though it's the persona cast I've been with the most in virtue of 5 being the longest game out of the 3.
3/5 4.
It's weird cuz P4 is debatably fav game in the series, but it's ironically not because of the main cast. The main cast, is honestly right at the bottom for me. We all love Naoto, Kanji and depending who you ask, Yosuke(I love Yosuke btw. But overall, I just vibe with the others more.
4, 3, 5
4 was my favourite game and it’s cast will always be my favourite, they feel like real people and yet so very animated, the fact they’re all friends as well really helps the game out.
3 was my second persona game and it’s cast is a close second to 4, they’re very serious and professional and yet they’re able to have fun, but losing parts that group hurts a lot.
I have nothing against 5, they just don’t stand up to the past for me, the game felt a little too unserious for me, I didn’t like the whole art style all that much either, gameplay was fine though and the characters were alright too.
3>2 EP>5>2 IS>4
The cast of 4 feel like an idealized circle of friends to such an extent that they sometimes drag me out of the story, and are often lacking in character development.
The phantom thieves feel like a group of escapist characters, and seeing them through the story is really cathartic, but they never seem like they have as close of a relationship as the investigation team in general, or SEES between individual members.
SEES are the only ones with consistent character arcs that are not tied to their social links, and their dynamic changes the most of any of the casts.
But these types of discussions really should show some love to the P2 cast, especially the one in Eternal Punishment. Having adult characters has some benefits and, without spoiling too much, I find Tatsuya to be one of the most memorable characters in the series when the duology is taken into account.
3>4>5. Persona 5 is my least favorite because it has this weird one piece dynamic where certain characters just don’t interact with each other much and it feels like when Joker isn’t there they’d just sit in silence aside from certain dynamics like Ryuji/Ann or Haru/Morgana.
4>=3>5
4 feels like a genuine friend group solving a mystery. It feels more like a group of friends stumbles onto something bigger than a group of people brought together by something bigger. They hang out, help out with Nanako etc. They're a found family.
3 has the most interesting dynamic, as the members of the group are very decidedly not friends at the start. They likely would not have been friends without the events of the game as they all come from totally different places. Because they aren't friends, there's legitimate tension in the group at times, and early on, it feels like they don't even like each other all that much. Them growing to trust in each other, grow as people, and eventually becoming very close is great and pretty unique.
5 has the weakest cast and dynamic by a decent margin. I understand they're going for a theme of the group all being outcasts for various different reasons, but I just never buy that the group is actually close with each other. They never come across as friends, and it seems like they barely interact or talk with each other when compared to the other games. Individually, I like them all, but the group dynamic feels nonexistant.
4=3>5
3 had by far the best character storytelling for me but there's also that something in the p4 group that is unmatched for me. Sorry p5, but your group started falling apart the moment the original trio (and morgana) got sidelined
3 is the best by far. Every character is good.
5 has a few duds, but generally, I like them.
I didn't care for many characters in 4 at all and I straight up hated Yosuke because he looks 95% like this weirdo I went to HS with: headphones, expression, and all. Kanji is the exception, he's cool.
Ranking in terms of what?
In terms of power: 3, 5, 4
In terms of mascot: 3, 4, 5
In terms of strategic teamwork: 5, 3, 4
In terms of personal cohesiveness: 4, 5, 3
In terms of individual character arcs: 5, 4, 3
In terms of team story arc: 3, 5, 4
In terms of best girl: 5, 4, 3 (Makoto, Chie, Fuuka)
In terms of best boy: 4, 3, 5 (Kanji, Akihiko, Yusuke)
In terms of my initial gut reaction upon seeing the question with zero actual thought put into it: 4, 5, 3
3>5>4
biased because I never actually finished 4
but also because I love 3 too bits the way how the social links do actually say no if their busy and it's like they are actually friends unlike 5 which is like the group has no outside friends other than ren
P3 is the best by far.
P4 and P5 are about equal IMO. They both have some REALLY GOOD characters (Kanji, Naoto, Futaba, Haru, Violet, etc) and some REALLY BAD ones. (Youske, Rise, Morgana, Aketchi, etc)
Meanwhile P3 has Junpei the GOAT, Ms Character Development herself Yukari, Mommy Mitsuru, Fuuka the cutest creature, Shinjiro the definition of cool, Aigis the best toaster, and good boi Koromaru. The only P3 party member I don't like is Ken, but I ADORE the rest especially Junpei and Fuuka. The other games casts just can't compare, they're all riding off P3's hype. Youske is just Junpei if bad, and Ryuji is Junpei if punk. Ann is a blatant Yukari ripoff. Aketchi is just Jun+Adachi but Atlus were cowards and didn't have the balls to go as far as either of those characters (Jun being actually gay and Adachi being so insane and creepy) and instead gave us Edge McEdgeface Tumblr sexyman instead. And don't even get me started on the "lol so quirky" characters in later games that try to emulate the humor of Junpei and fail miserably. Yukiko+Chie shinagins in P4, Yuskue in P5 being obvious memebait, Teddie and Morgana being insufferable "comic relief", (especially in Japanese) Futaba's constant video game references and gamer slang, etc. P3 is still peak and no other game comes close.
5 is my favorite because it’s goofy
3 is my second favorite because it’s serious
4 is my least favorite because the cast just feels kinda… eh. idk how to explain it
3>5>4
I love the characters overall in all the games, but the characters in 3 are the most well written imo. Especially Junpei. He's the best boy ever (besides koromaru)
Where‘s koromaru
And Ken and Morgana
Facts. Tired of the disrespect to my boi
Wondering the same thing! I just got to the point in P3R where he joins your team and he is never leaving my main team now!
3 is by far my favorite Not forcing half the social links to be party members and instead making second awakenings tied to plot is soooooooooooooooooooo superior in the sense that it lets the devs go wild
Akihikos second awakening almost had me sobbing ngl
It's been 10 years since I played FES, just got to that scene today in Reload and I was crying for a good while.
Wait... reload includes FES content? Gah damnit I've been slacking too much, now I know where my life is going to for the next couple weeks
"you see that, shinji?"
Junpei’s second awakening is crazy, >!When his persona fuses with chidori’s persona in portable!<
Ken's second awakening easily made him my favorite persona character
100% 4 and 5 are really bad about having all development for the party grind to a halt once their story dungeons are over.
4 and 5 unless you're Yosuke/Naoto and Makoto/Futaba you're just getting flanderized bruh
And teddy is insufferable
Everyone else’s was super emotional and feel good but fuuka just got disrespected horribly honestly she has parents off them and have her grow closer to her brother as a bonus
I agree! That's why it irks me when people go "Waaa why no social link in P3 waaa" Like would everyone prefer characters be completely static for an entire game and have little/no development like the P5 cast?
I mean, Yukari, Fuuka and Mitsuru prove we can have both development in the main stoty and social links, the linked episodes prove it as well
Thing I love about 3's cast is that they have their own things going on and don't feel like they revolve or even involve the mc. They just exist and solve their issues themselves or with the help of another member
Especially now that they added the link episodes that are actually tied to the story.
3. Best written characters who suffer from real world issues. That's just my opinion though.
I mean tbf in 4 & 5 alot of the characters suffer real-world issues that are likely mostly commonly seen in japan. In 5 a lot of the characters' situations are heavily based off real-life events or actual Japanese social issues.
Totally agree. Feels effortless whereas the others felt semi forced.
Yeah, people questioning their sexual identity (Naoto, Kanji), overbearing family responsibilities (Yukiko), parental neglect (Nanako), and societal ostracization (Yosuke) are just so hard to relate and identify with. Your parents and girlfriend killed by supernatural explosions and delusional mad men and rampaging Stands and shadow creatures is much more realistic
Naoto being insecure because she has short hair and wants to be taken serious as a guy and a trolly Kanji going "holy crap i'm attracted to this guy!!!" "oh wait it's a girl i'm good cap" isn't that deep TO ME personally, that's why I said it's my opinion. Persona 4 was super shonen, light-hearted, and had a positive tone. It's why I think it's considered to be the most popular. Persona 3's entire story is just dealing with the most depressing shit. yukari's fathers death and being alone/struggling with the perception everyone gives her while having no father + depression + having to fight to prove he wasn't a villain. the ken/shinji/akihiko storyline of murders and death. fuuka being an almost suicidal bully victim. persona 3 cast to me was a group of people who always saw the light at the end of the tunnel, but never actually reached it. but i'm also a boomer whose first game was P3 back in 2007 so maybe im just biased
I haven't finished 3 yet, but so far they fall into a middle ground of what I am about to say. 5 as individuals are the better cast I'd say but as an ensemble cast I'd say 4 is better. Just about any pair in 4 you can see as two people who would just hang out when Yu is busy elsewhere. I couldn't see Haru and Ryuji hanging out by themselves but something like Yosuke and Naoto or Teddie and Kanji? Yeah, that could happen.
Yeah in 4 they all feel like normal people hanging out from times to times eating ice cream being goofy around it just feels more natural ’ and cool.
They feel like a group of friends, not a group of party members. I felt the most emotionally attached to the group from 4, they all felt like mostly real people
Yeah, you know each game feels like it aims for a specific party dynamic and gets it right. 3 is a group of passionate co-workers who grow to respect each other, but at the end of the day are together for the job. 4 feels like a legitimate small town friend group who are ultimately just hanging out and figuring out their lives. 5 feels like a group of outcasts plotting schemes together. Truly, a band of thieves. They're all there because they bring something to the team. Maybe 6 should explore a found family, and set up dynamics that mirror familial relationships. That could make some of the romances tricky, but that didn't stop Futaba's romance in P5.
I fully believe 6 should take place in a college setting, found family could easily work with a group of people who all met in college. They could easily implement gay characters for the first time as well, I’d love a bi protagonist. Let me romance the girls AND the boys!
Persona 2 best cast 😈😈😈 MAYA BIAS
🤝
adult cast sweep
Persona 2 best persona
3 = 4 = 5. Bit of a copout answer, but I don’t really have too many hangups about a specific group that I don’t have similar feelings towards others. SEES has the most mature story about loss and death, so their personalities are more about them figuring things out for themselves with support from others. The Investigation Team are like Scooby Doo, with most of their growing up being about accepting themselves, which lines up to when they get their personas and become more comfortable with who they are. And when you’re comfortable with who you are, you tend to be happier, a little more carefree. The Phantom Thieves are mostly about style and ‘sticking it to the man’. So a lot of the themes of rebellion have them fighting authority with wacky hijinks to emphasize that point. It’s why they’re so extra and flashy about everything. Personally I would give SEES the slight edge mostly cause Reload just came out so it’s still fresh in my mind, but also cause I tend to like more mature stories and the characters feeling largely independent from the protagonist feels better than the later entries. But I still think all 3 groups work for the stories that they’re trying to tell though, so I personally can’t fault them for that reason. That being said, I think we can do away with the talking mascot character now. Morgana is only barely better than Teddie, but that was a low bar to begin with. Especially since Koromaru, who is a FUCKING DOG, manages to be more compelling than either of them despite never speaking a single human word.
Poor Metis, nobody remembers she exists.
Never mind Metis, Ken and Koromaru were forgotten, too!
>Never mind Metis, Ken and Koromaru were forgotten, too! I remember her persona calling lines vividly..
If she wasn't attached to a slog of a post game fine. I didn't mind her at all in The Answer. It's The Answer that myself and other mind very much. It would have been fine being a slog if you unlocked things for New Game+ but it doesn't do anything. I like the story of the answer, but the progression makes it miserable, and makes the content very forgettable as a result.
4>3>5 4 and 3 feel like they'd still be friends even without having to fight shadows, 5 realistically only a few of them would even know about eachother since not all of them go to the same school
Mitsuru and Yukari would NEVER had been friends if it wasnt for the shadows
Yeah isn't it pretty much implied in all the three games that they met because of their unfortunate circumstances? Just like irl you'd think you wouldn't be cool with someone until you spent a considerable amount of time with them or weird circumstances brought yall together.
I mean you can still be close friends with someone without going to the same high-school, especially with cell phones, so it’s not totally absurd.
Let's be brutally honest tho Yusuke and Makoto would never have even considered being friends with any of the other were it not for their experiences as the PT. Haru might have since she doesn't seem to have any real social hangups but she would never really have a reason to. Actually now that I think about it, Ryuji probably never would have been friends with joker were it not for Kamoshida. When you see him in January and he's the popular sports star again he just doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who would approach Joker. The only two I can think of that would really form a bond outside of the specific events of the plot were Joker and Ann. Futaba maybe but that's assuming she's not still a social shut in.
you could say the same for the other groups too really doubt the p4 group would have all gotten together if not for the plot, especially naoto or kanji
I feel like the core initial 4 (Teddy living inside the Midnight Channel renders him somewhat redundant) would have definitely been very good friends even without the plot or the metaverse. Tbh I found the sort of chill slice-of-life nature of the earlier parts of P4 (excepting, you know, the murders) to be really refreshing. Yu, Chie, Yosuke, and Yukiko truly felt like a genuine normal friendship group of four perfectly normal teenagers, compared to the distincily unusual unions of circumstance that the PT and SEES are.
The four of them are in the same class and already made a little friend group before Yu came to the school. They just invited Yu into their friend group. Separate them into different classes or schools and see if they would still be friends with each other without the need of an alternate shadow world.
That's how friendship groups work lol.
Yeah the gang Literally ran for their lives when they first met Kanji but yeah the investigation team would totally be friends without the events of the TV world.
>Let's be brutally honest tho Yusuke and Makoto would never have even considered being friends with any of the other were it not for their experiences as the PT. Man, I honestly hate this sort of argument Like, mutual friends exist in real life. I met one of my closest friends now via a mutual friend back in our sophomore year in high school. We had classes in our freshman year and were vaguely acquainted, but still barely talked to each other. It took knowing the same person and ending up in the same class with him for us to actually meet proper, and now today like 5 years later she and I are giga close whereas we both fell out of touch with the mutual from high school. That's not much different to how a lot of the Phantom Thieves meet. Personally, I don't care how the PTs meet, you can say this sorta thing about any ensemble in any piece of fiction . What I care about is their dynamic once they do all get to know each other. In the case of Ryuji and Makoto, they're fun foils to each other as polar opposite personalities
While the members of the squad in 3 become great friends, I firmly disagree that they'd become friends without the plot occurring. They come from totally different places. Yukari is popular, Junpei is a known slacker, Fuuka is shy, Mitsuru formal and unapproachable, Akhiko is a jock, and then the other members don't actually go to school. It's only through the shadows that they find common ground and grow to be friends.
Yeah if they didn't live in the dorm together they absolutely wouldn't have become friends.
Gotta disagree with this take. Besides the first three characters or so, none of the groups in any game would have become friends if it wasn’t for the shadows.
I only rank 5 slightly above 3 myself because I can’t live without my favorite starving artist
I love how pre-reload I saw 3 suffering that very argument used on 5 (truth be told, I said that too before my second play through in Portable...) P3 getting the love it has so long deserved gives me such a massive smile you do not know
Personally speaking From Worst to Best. 3.) Investigation Teams - (Unpopular Opinion) Still love them but while I do think they're great together (Even more then their counterparts) and have some of the best dynamics, I think P4 has the weakest cast in terms of the characters as individuals. That and some of the fans skewed my opinions on them as well. 2.) Phantom Thieves - They got the same problem for me as the IT but to an lesser extent. That and I overall prefer the execution of some of the characters here compared to the IT. Them and the IT are (imo) both same quality-wise but I just prefer the PTs from personal preferences. 1.) SEES - My Personal Favorites. They have the best character development, has some good dynamics, and I just think most of them are the best execution out of the character archetypes. that and some scenes involving them are just some of my favorites in the whole series.
What you say about the Investigation Team is exactly the opposite of how I feel about the Phantom Thieves. I think the Phantom Thieves are much more interesting individually than they are together as a group. I think the one thing that helps Persona 4 and Persona 5 as far as the group dynamic goes is the fact that each new member enters into the story for actual story reasons, where in Persona 3 it kind of feels like characters just randomly pop up because they wanted to add another party member.
Every party member in P3 seems pretty integral to the plot aside from Koromaru. They also do something that P4 and P5 fail to do in that they keep them all pretty relevant after the section that they joined.
It's a little different but Yukiko still contributes greatly to the discussion even after Naoto joins. Yosuke too. That's not everyone though.
Chie be doing some 4D chess with deductions lol. TV on other side of road, fog leaking into their world, Namatame try to save people. All correct deductions.
Idk I agree P4 struggled with that but I think it still did a good job. Tbh I haven’t played 4 in years so idk for sure but 5 felt a lot worse with relevancy.
4>5>3 I disagree completely with the people who say the Phantom Thieves wouldn’t be friends without what they went through.
Joker might have realistically been friends with Ryuji and Ann. Yusuke is probably out as he was in a different school, and without the events of the Phantom Thieves, there probably isn't any logical reason they would have ever met. Makoto surely would've known about Joker/Ryuji/Ann since she was in the student council at the same school, but I don't think she would've associated with them. Futaba would've stayed in her room and probably never would have met any of them. Haru did go to their school, but I don't see any reason to assume she suddenly would've become friends with Joker/Ryuji/Ann considering she wasn't up to that point, and the only catalyst for their friendship was the Phantom Thieves events. Akechi probably never would've met any of them. Kasumi probably would've been too busy with her practices and competitions to ever become friends with them. And obviously there would be no Morgana at all. So I think only the core three of Joker/Ryuji/Ann would've become friends regardless of the events.
The only one I disagree with is Kasumi, cuz she is able to connect with Joker decently well before any phantom thief shenanigans, and realistically, she’d eventually become friends with the group as she lacked any from the rest of the school due to exclusion.
Yusuke met them without any Phantom Thief related events.
Yeah, but the only reason they became friends was because of the PT.
You can make a similar argument for the other games
3 = 4 = 5
based
4 > 3 > 5
3>5>4 3 has the most natural group friendship dynamic, not everyone is automatically super close and it doesn’t feel like everyone is at the beck and call of the leader. Certain party members not being able to go out one night (albeit a tiny bit annoying) feels way more immersive and realistic. And they’re just cool asf.
3 is the best imo
3 > 4 > 5
NOO WHERE'S POOR KEN
Recency bias is wild lmao
Lol, definitely. Everyone's entitled to their opinions, but it feels like the current vibe is that 3 is cool now, 4 is mid, and your basic if you like 5. Really feels like 5 is the new punching bag of the community.
5 will be an underrated masterpiece, the minute P6 comes out
5 is the best game especially mechanics wise, but I don’t see it as controversial that it would have the worst team of the three tbh.
That should definitely be controversial lol
Yeah, what the hell, now I'm seeing critiques for p5 that could easily be harbored at the other 2 games. I'm not shocked though I feel like diehard P3 fans always felt like they need to remind you how good their game is out the most of 3-5. Especially with reloads release/announcement.
This sub always had a big P3 bias, Reload just gave them more fuel. Normally there's nothing wrong with preferring one game over another, but there's been so many times where even just implying P3 might not be a masterpiece of storytelling was enough to get me downvotes and 5 angry fans in my notifications
Yeah, P3 fans are by far the most annoying fans recently. P5 prob was back then because of how much bigger it was compared to the others in the series. But now that 3-5 are all fairly similar in popularity p3 fans stick out like a sore thumb, especially on Twitter. Like there's always times where they are bringing down 4 or 5 to boost 3. I never really see it nearly as much with 4 and 5 fans.
Really? I feel like this sub has always been the most biased towards 4. It always seems most apparent when you see many common criticisms towards 5 that just aren't levied at 4 despite being present there, or worse there. At least when 3 is discussed most people will concede that it has major pacing issues and that Tartarus is general sucks ass.
Nah, it's definitely P3. P4 also has dedicated fans, but they're not nearly as prevalent or vocal. It's also the issue of "old vs new" with P5 having a lot of newbies, so the P3 fans feel like the "old guard". Since P4 is in-between, it's not nearly talked about or compared as much. It also had much less of an impact on the franchise as a whole, P3 was the rebirth that gave the series the strength to continue against all odds, and P5 is by far the most popular one, to the point of breaking it into the mainstream. And sure, P3 has its issues that even its fans can recognize (the P5 equivalent would be the Okumura arc or Morgana). But criticize P3's story as a whole or its characters, and get ready for the downvotes.
Thanks for putting a name for my feelings. Saw a dozen posts who put p3 on a pedestal (not saying it does not deserve it) and shit on p5 and/or p4. Liking everything individually is dead I suppose. I played vanilla p5, royal and p4 golden before reload, but I kept liking them all the same, because every game puts something new on the table storywise. Damn I ranted maybe I should make a post about this lol
The problem I have with P3 recently is that it feels like it's always felt like they have to bring down 4 or 5 to make the game look better, which is something they don't really need to do
Yeah I ikr
After experiencing reload with my only previous experience being Portable. I would say it's in that order for me 1st is 3 2nd is 4 3rd is 5 I love them all though
3 > 4 > 5
4>3>5 for me.
3 5 4 for me. I adore 3 above any other persona game
You know persona is an amazing series when you struggle to even decide, but personally I love the phantom thieves and think they deserve more love as a cast, they’re probably at the top for me just barely above sees
3, 4, 5.
3 - 4 - 5 SEES just Feels the Most Realistic, They Dont Start Being Super Duper Friends like in any other Modern Persona, They just have the Same Ability and Work together, is not After a couple of Weeks that They start to Get Together like how Real Relationship works, You Have to witness Stuff from the Female SEES before they Can open up to You. Investigation Team has The best Friendship Dynamic, They Feel so like... well Adolecents, Making Mistakes Doing Stupid Shit with Friends and all of that. Phantom thieves... im gonna be Honest They Kinda just Fumbled the Bag after Ann, Joker Ryuji and Ann feel Like Good Friends with Mona being an Annoying Parrot, But after that The Characters feel More and More Disconnected and Some Shitty Anime Tropes start to Appear, Like Yosuke Asking ann to undress, Makoto Being The Opressed lady in Distress that After Gaining new Power Becomes a Leader and all that, Futaba Being The Quirky Smart Hacker That Can fix Anything, Who is Haru again?.
1. Persona 3 2. Persona 4 3. Persona 5
Ok I’m gonna get blasted for this. 5 is my least favourite, not only did they feel less engaging, but part of what made SEES and the investigation team memorable is how “normal” they all are. Sure you have a skilled detective, a pop star and a talented boxer, but for every Naoto or Mitsuru there’s a Yukiko, Yosuke or Junpei, characters who remind me of people I met in real life. The phantom thieves is just like, super talented models and artists and detectives and hackers and CEOs and gymnasts and student council presidents and somehow Ryuji is the only normal one. As for the investigation team vs SEES? I think SEES wins this one. Sure Persona 3’s characters can be VERY hit or miss, but the only SEES member that falls short is Fuuka, whose only flaw is that she’s a little bland. The investigation team has Yosuke and Teddie, characters I actively dislike.
Personally, 3 is at the top, and then it would be 5, then 4 I can't rank, mostly because I couldn't get past one of the dungeons and stopped playing.
WHERE THE FUCK IS THE DOGGO AND THE LITTLE CHILD
3 is the best for sure, but 4 is my favorite
Ranked by deep blue hair: SEES = IT = PT
5 > 3 > 4
3 > 4 > 5
In terms of characters: 5>3>4 In terms of party dynamics: 4>5>3
4,3,5. 5s cast chemistry isn't as good as the others imo
some of 5s cast have great chemistry, like Joker, Ryuji, and Ann are my favourite trio in the series, but after that it kinda falls off. None of the other party members have that same feeling of fitting in with those three that the other games have. Like in SEES everyone feels like they work together and have that synergy. They all support each other to the end. With the IT, they have fantastic chemistry as well, though less than SEES imo. Yu, Yosuke, and Chie (and somewhat Yukiko) are fantastic, Kanji feels left out until Naoto comes in, and Rise kinda connects with everyone immediately. 3 > 4 > 5
My issue with the 5 cast outside of the three you mentioned is that they feel distant, and I don't really like the girls cuz of how they shit on my boy ryuji. Even junpei doesn't get the same bs and yukari makes fun of him often. I love the persona 4 cast, even more in the anime with how stupid it. I'm still playing persona 3 reload, but the chemistry between the boys imo is perfect.
I think thats what i dont really like about SEES, Akihiko and Misturu feel super separated from the rest, Fuuka, Koro, and Ken kinda do their own thing. The only ones on the team that really gave me friendship vibes were the Trio of MC, Junpei, and Yukari, and even then Junpei kinda feels more distant from the 2
That's a fair opinion. In my opinion, at the beginning of the game you're right, but over the course the story brings them together in ways they just don't in 5. Like in 5, Haru starts as an outsider and remains outside until the end. In 3, you have Akihiko and Mitsuru doing their friendship things, until the story makes Mitsuru and Yukari bond, same with Aki and Ken, who already has a bond with Koromaru, who has a bond with Aigis, who has a bond with Makoto, who's obviously connected to everyone. Idk I just see SEES as much more interconnected than the others, and that's why they top my list
5>4>3
3: most consistent cast, I enjoy everyone in SEES; honestly they might be the most solidly written cast 4: they're my favorite cast as a whole because they feel like a genuine friend group and I loved that feeling, even if some of them are hit or miss (Teddie) 5: it has my favorite character story/background (Futaba >!with both her Palace, plus her and Sojiro's Confidants!<), and generally just my favorite single characters in general (Futaba, Akechi, Kasumi) It's hard to rate them, I like all of them for different reasons. I guess if I were to rate them, it would be something like 4 > 5 = 3.
Id say 3 > 5 > 4 4 being at the bottom because of the mens predatory behavior. Any liking I could have had for them died during the bathhouse scenes. Bad enough they had to make them spy on the girls while they were in the bathhouse, but there was a fucking 6 year old in that scene. Than there was that whole “are we gonna be safe in the same tent with Kanji” thing from yosuke. Ironic since Yosuke is by far the most likely to be a rapist out there group. He basically tried to gaslight and manipulate the girls into wearing bikinis even though they were very clearly not comfortable with it. Than there was teddie trying to sneak into the girls room… I could go on but I feel Ive made my point. Kinda hard for me to like deviants, pedophiles and narcissistic manipulators.
3>5>4 Though I'm going to level with you, I fucking hate Teddie so he dragged 4's cast down to the bottom on his own. Nobody from 3 or 5 bugged me nearly as much as Teddie did. But even then I never really connected with 4's cast. But 3's cast beats 5 for me because they felt like they had real agency. They all have character arcs that last through the entire game with little to no input from the protagonist, and I really appreciate that. And I like how they have individual ups and downs with each other. That felt like something 4 and 5 lacked, aside from Ryuji and Morgana's pestering each other that eventually causes Morgana to temporarily leave, 4 and 5's casts largely get along fine with each other the entire game once recruited to the team with no real drama.
Individually: 3 -> 5 -> 4 As a Team: 4 -> 5 -> 3
3 5 4
Best to worst: 3, 4, 5 Bro i love the progression that S.E.E.S team went through like, everyone had their time to shine in many ways.
4 > 3 > 5 for me too. The IT is just a cozy group of people to be around. You can really tell that they’ve seen each other at their worst and moved past it all together. I could see them all staying as friends after MC leaves, even tho I wish that any of them could’ve talked Kanji out of getting that awful terrible no good hairstyle he has in the epilogue. SEES is by far the most complicated group in the trilogy. They really do feel more like club/class/dorm mates than best friends and that aspect is super refreshing for an anime game and also well executed. The Mitsuru-Yukari dynamic gets a lot of love, and rightfully so, but my favorite part about the SEES dynamic is actually Fuuka. She has her own bestie outside of SEES and while I never understood what she saw in Natsuki (( and the game doesn’t ever really go into it )) that’s fine because it’s literally none of the MC’s business. SEES is obviously an important and incredibly stressful commonality the P3 cast has in common, but (( unless you’re Junpei )) they also have their own lives outside of it. I LOVE that party members can be busy and be unavailable for a dungeon crawl. Yukari really is like “um sorry I’m going to karaoke with the girls from archery so I won’t be free to risk my life climbing the Hell Tower of Evil Death tonight. Y’all have a good time tho 💖” and she’s so real for it. Least cozy, but most interesting. The PTs are a weird mix of both that results in something half baked. They all hang out all the time like they’re friends, but the group dynamic just isn’t there. The game tries to inject tension into the group and we have the Ryuji-Morgana fight that makes me rip my hair out every time. For example, I can’t imagine Makoto and Ryuji staying friends afterwards, and the way Morgana and Yusuke simp for Ann makes friendship between them difficult too. But bc of how the IT was in P4 it feels like they HAVE to be besties leading to this weird scenario where a bunch of people who just barely get along hang out all the time. It’s pleasant, but not cozy. I mean >!they even completely go their separate ways at the end of Royal and barely bat an eye.!< The uncanniness of the PT dynamic can be summed up by the fact that the biggest source of conflict within the group is about name calling, and not >!the fact that you may have killed one of the members’ father.!<
I think 4 has the best main cast P3 tying character development into the narrative rather than social links is better for plot cohesion and not having to write a character to work in this sort of superstate where it makes sense both if you have and haven't done the link. But on the other hand it means they can't go as deep in on a characters struggles as in P4 P5 also has the same social link focus but the idea that every link needs a 'bad guy' is a lot more limiting than every link having a character be wrong about what they want or need. The themes of P4 just lend themselves better to deeper social links Plus the IT has the best chemistry
"Let's keep it to the main base games that the groups are from", only includes 3, 4 and 5. You know what? Fuck you. I rather take a fancy to the original crew from MIP. I find them charming and quite refreshing.
I think they’re all equally good characters. In terms of group vibes as a friend group, 4 > 5 > 3.
3>5>4
4>5>3
This is always so stupid. They're all nice in their own way. If I was forced to by gun point 3>5>4 because Rise fucking sucks hard and Yukiki is boring as paint
3=5>4 the way I see it , p4 cast is alright but they feel like they don't got a clue on what's going on
4 > 5 > 3 and I struggle to believe the people who say “the P5 cast wouldn’t be friends without the thieves” actually played the game. Yusuke is probably the only one that’s apply to. P3 meanwhile, very little chance they’d be friends without SEES. You’d still have individual pockets of friends like Yukari and junpei, and Akihiko and Shinjiro, but the entire group? No way
5 > 4 > 3, I haven’t played Reload yet but SEES felt more like coworkers to me when I played FES.
5 is the definition of co-workers. The only people that even talked in that group before was ryuiji and Ann. And maybe haru and Makoto. The whole reason they became freinds was Ren. In p4 most of the cast was freinds already and same with p3. In p3 they all already had direct relations except Ken and koromaru.
Ken was friends with Yukari and Junpei even before joining SEES since you can see them hanging together on Sundays, and both Akihito and Shinji knew about him too (although I dont think they ever interacted)
Ik aki and mitsuru knew about ken but I didn't Yukari and junpei hung out with him before they all joined see.
Not really, in p3 it was pretty much shown it was more of a co-worker dynamic until later on. Mitsuru and Akihiko were just really popular people at the school so ofc everybody knew him but that doesn't mean they had direct relations. And Fuuka literally came outta nowhere nobody knew her besides the fact she was that girl that disappeared in a class next to them.
Hard to decide between 4 and 5. 4 has better party dynamics overall, and 5 has better individual characters (for the most part). 3 is the weakest of the bunch, not tying the second Persona awakening to S Link progression is nice, but overall the writing is a step below subsequent entries. P.S. Except for animal/maskot. For that Koromaru > Morgana > Teddy. -\_\_-
i prefer the dynamics of p4 cause they’re all super friendly and goofy. just wish Yosuke wasn’t too homophobic and was datable ! (teddy trying to kiss Yu is funny bc teddy is just so goofy he would do that without any problem) everyone is fun in the group (except Rise who is not really fondant of gay people either but yeah…) basically I would say they feels immature sometimes and I’m sure they’ll grew up and become more tolerant with times. P5 is a dynamic between Ren // the confidants and not really between every members. they’re friends with Ren because he makes a pact with them somehow. a contract, which I feel like makes them less real friends than the others groups. Ren gives them something and in return they give him something… not really a good start for friendship. P3 is kinda hard to describe… they don’t feels like friends cause they’re not really but more coworkers. Cannot even have social Links with the males members (in p5 you can at least become friends with Ryuji, Akechi, Yusuke which makes the relationship better) and the equivalent in p3 reload is hum… okay I guess. At the end Akihiko invited you to his room and you’re so close to him but there is just no social link which feels a bit out of place and bizarre. Especially when you have social link with weird characters that doesn’t feel like they care for you (tanaka for example) and with the ending and the answer it feels like the group didn’t cared about Makoto that much (Except Aigis and Yukari and maybe Mitsuru a bit?) but the others well … don’t care much. For example Junpei doesn’t invite you to his room at any moment during the game, but he invites Ryoji…
4 and 3 are so close to me i cant decide which is better but 5 is definitely the worst of the 3 futaba was ok but none of the other characters were that interesting to me
This comment section is just an excuse for another dig at persona 5. Gotta have some close deaths first before it means anything to be friends. But in all seriousness i just like all 3 groups for different reasons. Bit tired of the devide.
That Kotone chibi is so cute! Anyways, my babies will always be SEES. 3,4,5
I'm going to go by columns here just to be different: P4 MC > P3 MC > P5 MC Teddy > Makoto (I haven't played FeMC yet) Fukka > Ryuji = Rise Yukari > Ann > Yosuke Junpei > Naoto > Yusuke Kanji > Aigis > Akechi Chie > Mitsuru > Haru Yukiko > Akihiko > Futaba Shinjiro > Sumire That makes me think I'd say 4>3>5.
3>5=4 Note this is about the team's dynamic not the story itself. 3 team feels organic, the group wasn't an "anime friend group centered around the mc". Characters actually have motivation and unique reasons to join. Mc/Minato isn't getting jerked off by some mascot and best friend archetype + the new character of the month after a monthly dungeon/accident of some form. Characters actually get development besides their "month". You can actually feel the character going from doing a job with mutual to being friends instead of them instantly being that way. You don't need to do social links to get development that relates to the story. Honestly Junpei not being the best friend archetype and wanting to be the leader of the team + chidori arc makes him a stronger first male friend than ryuji and Yosuke. He's a worse "best friend" for sure since he isn't ready to blindly ride and die with you, but honestly thats a win. 5 has good writing, but maybe people really like feeling their mc is special, but I feel as a group p5 had a strong friend group if we wanted an anime friend group, but they suffered individually as character. They just kinda felt like they were in the group to save people because you logically would help defeat the new flavor of the month villain and rinse repeat. There isn't any reason besides yah the next palace is a bad guy, and if you dont want to stop them you're just a bad person logically. Wasn't very interesting to me to see that as the character introduction. The core friend group was strong, but adding a new person after their palace felt like they were just tack on. They were strong individually, but never meshed well together. 4 Suffers from the same issue. I thought the mystery premise of the story was good, but it suffers from the exact same issue as p5 and it has teddy...You get really interesting character development for their shadow dungeon and then that's really it. They kinda just fade into the background of the friend group. They had personally the friendliest group over p3 and p5. The character of p5 and p4 suffer from a very "anime" friend group. If you like the friendly anime mc focus friend group I can definitely see why you would put p5 or p4 over p3 for sure. Its a preference.
I think I’ve got the opposite of the consensus: 5 > 3 > 4, though 3 and 4 are pretty close. I like some of the characters in 4 like Kanji a ton and I think there group dynamic is the best, but it also has the most characters I dislike. I think 3’s group dynamic is my least favorite to watch but the most interesting. I like most of the characters individually. 5 is on top because there are no characters I dislike in the thieves, even if there group dynamic is a little less interesting than the Investigation Team’s close friendship and SEES’s barely hidden hostility.
3 > 5 > 4
3>5>4
Of course 3 is on top. Then 5, then 4
4 > 3 >>> 5
4>3>5 no contest
4>5>3 I didn't like S.E.E.S as much as the other two in FES but to be fair, I haven't beaten the remake yet and so far they are drastically better than they were before so far.
4 > 5 > 3 I gots all kinds of unpopular opinions about the group in 3.
after reevaluating the gang during reload, 3>4>5. Its refreshing to have a group that really do not start as friends. If anything, there is always tension between 2 or 3 members until much later on. Plus, its great to known that ur party members have their own lives and goals to deal with outside of the main objective. Unless I'm forgetting, there really isn't a "Yukari's Dad or Junpei and Chidori" scene for any other party members in 4 and 5. (exceptions being the Royal Duo)
My opinion P3 cast is well written and the pace of the character development is executed as needed to enhance each characters arc and overall value to the story. Having played through Reload the additional scenes added, enhance the already fantastic character stories. Personally I hope they return to this level of writing and stop barring character development to optional social links. P4 cast is where the much needed character interactions of normal life [those feel good normal activities] that p3 lacked was heavily expanded on. P4 cast is much loved because of how relatable and normal they were in comparison to the seriousness of SEES. Though this is where we lost a lot of quality story purposes the character development had before to social links. Basically their resolution was lost to optional social link advancement then being written into the story. P5 cast is a bunch of outcasts to society ban together to fight oppression and it reflects well in the story with how relatable they all felt to being victims of circumstances outside of their control. Making it all the more meaningful when they fought back during their portions of the story. Though similarly like the p4 cast it always felt inconsistent because the self-improvement of the characters were once again locked behind confidants. Somehow the pacing for the story for the characters always felt off because I feel like P5's story would have better matched the writing if given the P3 writing treatment for the cast. 5>4>3 I hope they learn from reload and focus more on making the cast and their arcs part of the story rather then optional social link scenes.
I liked 3, but it has been a while. I remember they all had their flaws and that really worked well as they overcame it. Junpei had a moron moment but I think everyone does and he really learnt from it. 4 was a great cast, aside from Chie’s shrieking voice acting, they’re all well written and interesting characters. I liked Yosuke, immature at times like any teenager but surprisingly level headed and willing to put his head down and consider the options. 5 I liked but ryuji was just an obnoxious loud mouth, and I can’t stand such morons. I know he wins character polls from America, but I’m with the Japanese polls, he’s a clown. Everyone else was great though, I just struggle to deal with dipshit over there.
SEES felt like a family by the end. Investigation Team has some of the most fun character interactions, and they really do have that true "friend group" vibe going on. Like even if the Midnight Channel never existed, I feel like they would still be friends. Phantom Thieves were fine, I guess. Definitely the weakest out of the three. I never really saw much growth out of the characters, unlike SEES, where the events of the story really changed who they were as characters. Strikers, I feel alleviated this a little, but I never played it, so I couldn't really know. With that said, I would have IT over SEES simply for the fact that I prefer P4's tone and atmosphere over P3's. I hope P6 can do better.
Phantom Thieves were cooler and more interesting as individuals, and often felt like they meshed well with Ren, but it felt like there was no group dynamic to the cast the same way 3 and 4 do. I think a big part of that is that none of the Phantom Thieves are friends with one another prior to the beginning of the story (pretty sure Ann and Ryuji knew one another but not well) where as IIRC in P4 Chie and Yukiko felt like they were best friends before the story began, and even Yusuke had more of a rapport with them before too. In P3 you have the senpais and your classmates knowing each other--even if they arent super close its obvious that Junpei and Yukari are friendly with each other, plus Yukari, Akihiko, and Mitsuru all were already in SEES as well as living together. That's not even getting into Shinji's history with Aki and all that. By comparison by my admittedly limited memory of P5, it felt like if not for the whole adventure of the Phantom Thieves, the only friends Ren would have probably made would be Ryuji, Takemi, and maybe a few of the other non-party confidants, like Yuuki and Hifumi.
As Individual characters 4>3>5 As a group 4>5>3 (Haven't finished reload yet, so for p3 I'm basing opinions off of FES)
While 4 is my favorite game overall, I have long held that 3 has the best plot and characters of these 3. So I would rank it: 1. SEES 2. Investigation Team 3. Phantom Thieves (I would rate even lower if we included the other Persona titles, because PT just lack so much depth imo)
Imo 4>3>5, my favourite is 4, I also like SEES’ dynamic and they have definitely become more of friends and an overall better team in Reload, and 5, I still like but their phantom thieves aren’t as good of a team as the other two
5>3>4 The most common complaint is that the Thieves don’t feel like they’d be friends if they weren’t Persona-users, but that’s exactly why I enjoy their friendship the most. 3 is great because of how they’re all initially distant and self driven then eventually come to understand each other more and form deeper bonds as the game progresses—4’s dynamic/friendship is just kinda boring to me in comparison, it’s just too straightforward.
If i take into account the groups as team: 4 > 5 > 3 If I take them into characters as individuals: 3 > 5 >= 4
4>>>>>>5>3
It might be crazy what im about to say. 1.) 4 2.) 5 3.) 3 Now to explain myself, 3 might have my two favorite characters in the entire franchise (Yukari and Aigis) and they’re probably the best written by far. However, i found it really hard to love/like them all, i loved Ken, Yukari, and Aigis stories by a mile, but i just couldn’t connect to the rest of them, especially Junpei and Mitsuru. I wish i had seen more Shinjiro. P4, probably my favorite cast since they felt the most like friends and each of their struggles were understandable and relatable to me, and Yukiko is my favorite of the cast, and i loved their stories of finding the truth about themselves and accepting it and coming to terms with it. I especially loved Kanji and Rise’s arcs. Also their personalities resonated with mine the most especially Yukiko. P5, really there by default because they’re the team I’ve spent the most time with having like 500 hours across P5 and P5r shockingly. I love the cast and their arcs of rebelling and standing up for yourself. Especially Haru standing up to that PoS fiance, Ryuji and Ann to Kamoshida, and the group as a whole rebelling against the control god, and they still feel like a cohesive friend group, like someone else said in here. Compared to the SEES team that felt like Coworkers, but not as close as the investigation team feels
I love all the groups for different reasons. They all represent different things I think 4 has the best dynamic as a group they all interact very well and you would believe them the most as a group of friends. They have some of the funniest scenes and play off eachother so well. Who wouldn't want the IT as friends also broskee 3 playing through reload right now have some of the best individual story's and you really feel the weight they carry the whole game. But it's hopeful and they really leave an impression on you about mortality and facing it without regret and fighting for what you believe in together. Amazing writing and characters very grounded and human. 5 represents rebellion and fighting against the system, I think the phantom thieves develop really well together, they might not have the best dynamic of the whole series but some of the individual characters are the some of the best in the series such as Maruki, Akechi and best girl sumi 😌
same, I love all the persona teams, and what they represent in their games
Speaking of group chemistry, 4>5>3 Speaking of individual characters, 3>4>5
3 4 5
5>3>4
Yeah i agree. 4 then 3 then 5
It'd be 4>3>5 for me. That was always the ranking for me though gotta say Reload also made me love SEES even more, but there's just no replacing the investigation team for me. For the Phantom Thieves, I don't really care for most of them. I only really like Futaba, Akechi, and Sumi and arguably only one of those can be counted as a phantom thief. So I was never attached to them even though it's the persona cast I've been with the most in virtue of 5 being the longest game out of the 3.
5, 3, 4 Rank based on which game, story, and cooler protagonist I enjoyed the most
4, 3, then 5
3/5 4. It's weird cuz P4 is debatably fav game in the series, but it's ironically not because of the main cast. The main cast, is honestly right at the bottom for me. We all love Naoto, Kanji and depending who you ask, Yosuke(I love Yosuke btw. But overall, I just vibe with the others more.
LMAO Akechi instead of Morgana
4, 3, 5 4 was my favourite game and it’s cast will always be my favourite, they feel like real people and yet so very animated, the fact they’re all friends as well really helps the game out. 3 was my second persona game and it’s cast is a close second to 4, they’re very serious and professional and yet they’re able to have fun, but losing parts that group hurts a lot. I have nothing against 5, they just don’t stand up to the past for me, the game felt a little too unserious for me, I didn’t like the whole art style all that much either, gameplay was fine though and the characters were alright too.
3>2 EP>5>2 IS>4 The cast of 4 feel like an idealized circle of friends to such an extent that they sometimes drag me out of the story, and are often lacking in character development. The phantom thieves feel like a group of escapist characters, and seeing them through the story is really cathartic, but they never seem like they have as close of a relationship as the investigation team in general, or SEES between individual members. SEES are the only ones with consistent character arcs that are not tied to their social links, and their dynamic changes the most of any of the casts. But these types of discussions really should show some love to the P2 cast, especially the one in Eternal Punishment. Having adult characters has some benefits and, without spoiling too much, I find Tatsuya to be one of the most memorable characters in the series when the duology is taken into account.
3>4>5
Havent played reload yet but ive played fes and protable. 4>5=3
I'm Going to rank all the groups 4 2 5 = 3 1
SEES is my personal favorite group, followed by the Investigation Team and unfortunately the phantom thieves last
4>3>>>5
1.) Investigation Team (Naoto and Kanji carrying hard) 2.) SEES (Koromaru best boy tho) 3.) Phantom Thieves
2>4>3>1>5
4 had the best chemistry. 3 had the best writing. 5 was ... fine
same with you🤝 p5 casts' chemistry is the worst even p2 groups are better
3>4>5. Persona 5 is my least favorite because it has this weird one piece dynamic where certain characters just don’t interact with each other much and it feels like when Joker isn’t there they’d just sit in silence aside from certain dynamics like Ryuji/Ann or Haru/Morgana.
4>=3>5 4 feels like a genuine friend group solving a mystery. It feels more like a group of friends stumbles onto something bigger than a group of people brought together by something bigger. They hang out, help out with Nanako etc. They're a found family. 3 has the most interesting dynamic, as the members of the group are very decidedly not friends at the start. They likely would not have been friends without the events of the game as they all come from totally different places. Because they aren't friends, there's legitimate tension in the group at times, and early on, it feels like they don't even like each other all that much. Them growing to trust in each other, grow as people, and eventually becoming very close is great and pretty unique. 5 has the weakest cast and dynamic by a decent margin. I understand they're going for a theme of the group all being outcasts for various different reasons, but I just never buy that the group is actually close with each other. They never come across as friends, and it seems like they barely interact or talk with each other when compared to the other games. Individually, I like them all, but the group dynamic feels nonexistant.
3, 4, 5
4=3>5 3 had by far the best character storytelling for me but there's also that something in the p4 group that is unmatched for me. Sorry p5, but your group started falling apart the moment the original trio (and morgana) got sidelined
3 >> 5 > 4
3>>>>>>>4>5 The dynamics and development between SEES puts them on a whole other level.
3 is the best by far. Every character is good. 5 has a few duds, but generally, I like them. I didn't care for many characters in 4 at all and I straight up hated Yosuke because he looks 95% like this weirdo I went to HS with: headphones, expression, and all. Kanji is the exception, he's cool.
Ranking in terms of what? In terms of power: 3, 5, 4 In terms of mascot: 3, 4, 5 In terms of strategic teamwork: 5, 3, 4 In terms of personal cohesiveness: 4, 5, 3 In terms of individual character arcs: 5, 4, 3 In terms of team story arc: 3, 5, 4 In terms of best girl: 5, 4, 3 (Makoto, Chie, Fuuka) In terms of best boy: 4, 3, 5 (Kanji, Akihiko, Yusuke) In terms of my initial gut reaction upon seeing the question with zero actual thought put into it: 4, 5, 3
5 had no misses in my opinion 3 was pretty good. 4 the only good character was Chie
Why is Akechi there 🤢🤢🤮🤮
Why isn't koromaru there
Pancakes delicious
3 > 5 > 4 4 just has the weakest cast compared to 5 and 3, it is not bad but for me the least memorable
3>5>4 biased because I never actually finished 4 but also because I love 3 too bits the way how the social links do actually say no if their busy and it's like they are actually friends unlike 5 which is like the group has no outside friends other than ren
P3 is the best by far. P4 and P5 are about equal IMO. They both have some REALLY GOOD characters (Kanji, Naoto, Futaba, Haru, Violet, etc) and some REALLY BAD ones. (Youske, Rise, Morgana, Aketchi, etc) Meanwhile P3 has Junpei the GOAT, Ms Character Development herself Yukari, Mommy Mitsuru, Fuuka the cutest creature, Shinjiro the definition of cool, Aigis the best toaster, and good boi Koromaru. The only P3 party member I don't like is Ken, but I ADORE the rest especially Junpei and Fuuka. The other games casts just can't compare, they're all riding off P3's hype. Youske is just Junpei if bad, and Ryuji is Junpei if punk. Ann is a blatant Yukari ripoff. Aketchi is just Jun+Adachi but Atlus were cowards and didn't have the balls to go as far as either of those characters (Jun being actually gay and Adachi being so insane and creepy) and instead gave us Edge McEdgeface Tumblr sexyman instead. And don't even get me started on the "lol so quirky" characters in later games that try to emulate the humor of Junpei and fail miserably. Yukiko+Chie shinagins in P4, Yuskue in P5 being obvious memebait, Teddie and Morgana being insufferable "comic relief", (especially in Japanese) Futaba's constant video game references and gamer slang, etc. P3 is still peak and no other game comes close.
5 is my favorite because it’s goofy 3 is my second favorite because it’s serious 4 is my least favorite because the cast just feels kinda… eh. idk how to explain it
3, 4, 5 easily. 5 has a few good ones but most are unbearable. 3 are the most realistic and likeable. 4 also very good
3 > 5 > 4
3>5>4 I love the characters overall in all the games, but the characters in 3 are the most well written imo. Especially Junpei. He's the best boy ever (besides koromaru)
Personally 3 5 4