What is the best Atlus game?

[weasels]

oh god theres many. growlanser generations was actually the last game(s) i picked up by them just two days ago. as for american releses i am curently enjoying super robot taisen: Original generation and yggrda union (sorry if i couldnt spell it right) both for the gba. although for japanese releases my favorites have to be shin megami tensei 1 and 2. you can get the translation patch for them if you emulate (i endorse owning them though) although i like more atlas games than these, these the games im playing curently.

[Flak Beard]

I'm really tempted to pick up Persona 3 just by all the good things I've heard from other gamers. I love RPGs, but I'm not the buff I once was.

Would you say it is as niche as something like Disgaea or Odin Sphere? Both those games only held my interested for a small number of hours.

[thejamessea]

I really like Devil Summoner.

[brokenpavement]

I must agree that Devil Summoner is very cool, but Persona 3 stole my heart and reinvigorated my interest in JRPGs. Maken X for the Dreamcast was also an interesting game that gets overlooked.

[MrPopo]

I'm really tempted to pick up Persona 3 just by all the good things I've heard from other gamers. I love RPGs, but I'm not the buff I once was.

Would you say it is as niche as something like Disgaea or Odin Sphere? Both those games only held my interested for a small number of hours.

So Persona 3 has two fairly distinct components.

The first is the day-time dating sim sections. Your character has three attributes that he uses in these interactions. You go to class, then afterwards you can spend time with the people around you. These are classmates, members of your sports team, or potential girlfriends (of which you can date all of them, because you're just that awesome). This is also the time you can go shopping for equipment that you'll need at night. Doing these events builds up your social links with everyone. Each person corresponds with one of the major arcana of tarot.

The second is the night-time dungeon crawling. The main dungeon is 250+ floors of randomly generated floors, with two way teleports right before bosses, as well as one way teleports on most floors. You battle with a team of up to four members, though you can only determine general tactics for the other three.

The main battle mechanics are the one more system and the Personas themselves. One more is fairly simple to grasp. You hit an enemy's weakness (fire attack on a fire weak) and they get knocked down, and you get one more turn. You can do this multiple times. You only get the extra turn if you knock the enemy down. If you attack an enemy that is already down, they'll stand back up, no matter what. Also, if you've knocked down all enemies you can do a group attack. If an enemy who is knocked down has his turn come up, it wastes the turn standing up. The enemy can do all the same things to you (aside from the group attack).

The other portion of the battle system is the Personas. These represent various mythological creatures, and they define all your battle attributes. They determine your standard stats (Str, Mag, Luc, etc), your weaknesses/resistances, and your spell selection. Your party members are limited to a single Persona each, while the main character can have a group of them. During battle, you can change Personas, once per turn. Proper management of spells and your weaknesses/resistances is key.

Personas grow in one of two ways. The first is through experience. Both you and your Persona gain experience and level up. When you level up your HP and SP increase, and every set number of levels you can carry additional Personas. When your Persona levels up it gains three points distributed among the basic stats and may learn a spell. Additionally, upon leveling up a Persona may change a spell into a higher level one. You can decide whether you want it to occur or not, but you don't know what it will turn into (first rank fire doesn't necessarily become second rank fire).

The other way Personas grow is through the demonic fusion system. This is the only way to get some Personas. What happens is you take two or more of your Personas and fuse them into a new one. The new one's level and spells are based upon the level and spells of the ingredients. This is also where you have the overlap with the dating sim portion of the game. Each Persona is aligned with one of the major arcana, and when you fuse a Persona it gains bonus experience based on the level of the social link, which can be a really nice boost. You cannot fuse a Persona that is a higher level than your main character, but the bonus experience can level it beyond your level.

The story is pretty interesting, with some really nice twists throughout. The characters were also portrayed well, and you won't like all of them, but for the correct reasons. The voice acting is also pretty good, though I personally feel that voice acting in games should stay in the native language.

Aside from the dating sim stuff, it is pretty standard RPG fare. And all of the dating sim stuff is completely optional; it just makes the game harder, but still beatable, if you don't participate.

[black flag nc]

Disgaea on the PS2.

I'm also a big fan of Kartia and Trap Gunner on the PSX.

[pompeyparsons]

Asking what the best Atlus game is; is like asking what's the best kind of donut. They're all good!

Disgaea
Crusader of Centy for Sega Genesis
Growlanser Generations
Snowboard Kids

The list goes on and on, I'd check out the list here at wikipedia and just read about some of the games and see what peaks your interest. The only game I've ever heard being crapped on that was made by Atlus is Virtual Hydlide for the Saturn. I haven't played it myself so I can't give an opinion on it.

Here's the wikipedia list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlus

[Flak Beard]

I'm really tempted to pick up Persona 3 just by all the good things I've heard from other gamers. I love RPGs, but I'm not the buff I once was.

Would you say it is as niche as something like Disgaea or Odin Sphere? Both those games only held my interested for a small number of hours.

So Persona 3 has two fairly distinct components.

The first is the day-time dating sim sections. Your character has three attributes that he uses in these interactions. You go to class, then afterwards you can spend time with the people around you. These are classmates, members of your sports team, or potential girlfriends (of which you can date all of them, because you're just that awesome). This is also the time you can go shopping for equipment that you'll need at night. Doing these events builds up your social links with everyone. Each person corresponds with one of the major arcana of tarot.

The second is the night-time dungeon crawling. The main dungeon is 250+ floors of randomly generated floors, with two way teleports right before bosses, as well as one way teleports on most floors. You battle with a team of up to four members, though you can only determine general tactics for the other three.

The main battle mechanics are the one more system and the Personas themselves. One more is fairly simple to grasp. You hit an enemy's weakness (fire attack on a fire weak) and they get knocked down, and you get one more turn. You can do this multiple times. You only get the extra turn if you knock the enemy down. If you attack an enemy that is already down, they'll stand back up, no matter what. Also, if you've knocked down all enemies you can do a group attack. If an enemy who is knocked down has his turn come up, it wastes the turn standing up. The enemy can do all the same things to you (aside from the group attack).

The other portion of the battle system is the Personas. These represent various mythological creatures, and they define all your battle attributes. They determine your standard stats (Str, Mag, Luc, etc), your weaknesses/resistances, and your spell selection. Your party members are limited to a single Persona each, while the main character can have a group of them. During battle, you can change Personas, once per turn. Proper management of spells and your weaknesses/resistances is key.

Personas grow in one of two ways. The first is through experience. Both you and your Persona gain experience and level up. When you level up your HP and SP increase, and every set number of levels you can carry additional Personas. When your Persona levels up it gains three points distributed among the basic stats and may learn a spell. Additionally, upon leveling up a Persona may change a spell into a higher level one. You can decide whether you want it to occur or not, but you don't know what it will turn into (first rank fire doesn't necessarily become second rank fire).

The other way Personas grow is through the demonic fusion system. This is the only way to get some Personas. What happens is you take two or more of your Personas and fuse them into a new one. The new one's level and spells are based upon the level and spells of the ingredients. This is also where you have the overlap with the dating sim portion of the game. Each Persona is aligned with one of the major arcana, and when you fuse a Persona it gains bonus experience based on the level of the social link, which can be a really nice boost. You cannot fuse a Persona that is a higher level than your main character, but the bonus experience can level it beyond your level.

The story is pretty interesting, with some really nice twists throughout. The characters were also portrayed well, and you won't like all of them, but for the correct reasons. The voice acting is also pretty good, though I personally feel that voice acting in games should stay in the native language.

Aside from the dating sim stuff, it is pretty standard RPG fare. And all of the dating sim stuff is completely optional; it just makes the game harder, but still beatable, if you don't participate.

I'm pretty much sold on the game at this point, but should I get Persona 3: FES or wait for Persona 4?

From what I've read, P4 seems to improve on some aspects, but damn I love those Evoker guns. I think they removed them in P4.

[weasels]

I'm pretty much sold on the game at this point, but should I get Persona 3: FES or wait for Persona 4?

From what I've read, P4 seems to improve on some aspects, but damn I love those Evoker guns. I think they removed them in P4.

this is a hard one to answer because person 3 is great and P4 isnt out so we cant say its worth it. what i can say is that you should try out p3 first and if you enjoy it so much that you have become a fan and have enougth money then get p4 too. but rember p4 is only about a month away from being released so really its all based on what you think. you dont need to get one with out the other due to different stories the persona series is like that for all games (exception of the two parts in persona 2) the only conection i know of between p3 an p4 is that p4 takes place years after p3 but in a different area. BTW you are right there is not evoker guns. as far as i know they are useing cards like in the older games.

[MrPopo]

Really, in terms of gameplay it looks like P4 is going to address some of the complaints people had about P3. On the other hand, even if the gameplay is a bit flawed by comparison P3 still has a great story. So if you can only afford one, I'd probably recommend you go with P4, since it is more refined. I know P4 does have a few cameos from the P3 cast, but I don't know the details.