The Persona series started as a Shin Megami Tensei spin-off that focuses on character writing and using demons as spiritual allies. These unique aspects have led to a massive boost in popularity over time, with newer Persona games being some of the best selling games Atlas has ever made.
This list will rank every mainline Persona game starting with last place and ending with the very best. Some qualities that are important for each game’s placement are how well written the story and characters are, and the overall quality of both dungeons and combat.
Persona Dancing
Ranking in last place are the three Persona Dancing spin-offs that aren’t quite different enough to deserve being ranking separately. All three are fairly simple rhythm games, but the fantastic music selection makes them briefly entertaining experiences.
Persona is a series well known for its music, so this was a perfect spin-off in concept, but they don’t have quite enough content to be ranked higher. Players are unlikely to play these titles for more than a few hours.
Persona 5 Tactica
This is the most recent release in the franchise. It takes Persona 5′s fantastic cast, and transforms them into chibi tactical RPG units. It’s a decent spin-off, but the story isn’t as engaging or important as Strikers was. It also doesn’t have the benefit of including characters from across the entire series, as it chose to focus entirely on P5 representation.
Persona Q and Q2
Etrian Odyssey is another series developed by Atlas. These games focused on dungeon crawling. Persona Q duologue are two games that put popular Persona characters into an Etrian Odyssey-like experience.
Persona Q cover art.
They’re nice fan service games for those that want to see characters from different mainline games interact with each other, but not as good as either of the series they’re based on. Etrian Odyssey games are a lot more customization heavy, and players only care for the characters in PQ due to the mainline Persona games.
Persona 1
It’s only natural that the oldest title shows its age the most when it comes to gameplay and visuals. Older games can make up for these factors in many ways such as having memorable storylines, characters, settings, or. Unfortunately for Persona 1, its narrative gets surpassed instantly by its direct successor. The same goes for its character writing and most other factors.
Persona 1 cover art.
There’s not nearly as much incentive to play this entry compared to newer titles. The biggest thing it has going for it is the fact that some of its characters appear in Persona 2. That means people who want to experience every game in the series may wish to play this installment before P2.
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
P4A was the very first spin-off game created for the series. It’s a fighting game that takes place after the ending of Persona 4. It also features characters from Persona 3. The one story mode is more like a visual novel than a fighting game, but the other story mode does offer a well designed fighting game experience. The roster contains quite a few clones, but there are enough fighters with diverse combat to be a worthy of being called a good spin-off.
Persona 5 Strikers
Strikers is a Dynasty Warriors inspired sequel to Persona 5. It introduced two new Phantom Thieves to the cast whom are both fantastic additions. Despite these additions, the roster is a bit small for a Warriors game. Even other series that tried Warriors spin-offs like Hyrule Warriors, Dragon Quest Heroes, and Fire Emblem Warriors offer rosters that are twice or even three times larger. P5S makes up for this by combining qualities from its home series better. Mechanics like All Out Attacks work so well in a Warriors game.
Unlike other series that try this kind of spin-off, Strikers actually attempts to tell an entirely new storyline. It’s a genuinely nice sequel narrative to the game it’s based on, and for that reason it is the best spin-off in the Persona series so far.
Persona 3
Persona 3 is the first 3D title in the series. Along with this visual jump came a lot of new story changes. P3 offers a school setting, plenty of social interactions with party members, and a great soundtrack. The story has quite a few fun twists, and the edgy atmosphere makes this many people’s favorite installment.
P3 is far from flawless though. Tartarus is one of the most heavily disliked main dungeons in the franchise. The cast’s overall quality also isn’t quite as interesting as P4 or P5‘s. Persona 3 also suffers from its content being split up into multiple versions. Persona 3 FES, Portable, and even Reload all offer unique story moments and content that the other versions do not offer.
Persona 4 Golden
P4‘s story may take a while to pick up, but its cast and dungeon variety are both more interesting than the previous title. That said, the dungeons are still randomly generated, so they’re not as good as P5‘s. Characters like Naoto and Kanji are some of the best in the series. Even NPCs like Nanako are delightfully charming. There’s quite a few funny lines of dialogue throughout the game too.
Without spoiling; Persona 4 nearly has one of the emotional highs of the series, but undoes the event a bit too quickly to leave a permanent impact. That’s one of the main problems with Persona 4. The story is often directionless, and it usually backtracks whenever something of value does happen. Despite this flaw, it’s still a title more than worth playing for any fan of the series.
Persona 5 Royal
P5 offers the best character development and story messages in the series. It’s filled with emotional highs that the other games only occasionally reach. Nearly every party member is likable, even if one can be annoying at times. Most of the dungeons not being randomly generated is a huge plus as well. There’s very little that Persona 5 does wrong compared to older installments.
The definitive edition offers an extra storyline that introduces a fantastic villain and a new party member while also fleshing out some returning characters even further. This solidifies it as one of the greatest games that Atlas has ever made, although there are some factors that have resulted in it only getting second place on this list.
Persona 2 Innocent Sin & Eternal Punishment
Before covering this title’s strength, let’s go over some of its flaws. P2‘s biggest flaw is being split into two games that reuse areas, and thus may feel slightly repetitive at times. Like P1, it also obviously shows its age a lot more than newer 3D titles. Despite these drawbacks, P2 has plenty of strengths that make it the definitive Persona experience.
This two part game offers the most plot twist heavy narrative in the franchise with thrills around every corner. This comes in the form of great antagonists, world building, and plot twists. The series hasn’t started focusing on social aspects too much at this point, so the pacing is actually quite fast compared to most other titles.
Persona 2 cover art.
Persona 2 Eternal Punishment also feels like the perfect send off to everything the series had built up to at that point. It takes characters and narrative concepts from Shin Megami Tensei If, Persona 1, and Persona 2 Innocent Sin. This does mean you need to play multiple games to understand references and the full extent of the lore, but for those that have it pays off massively.
