I have had been a fan of RPGs for a long time, but my big love for them came when I played a little game called Persona 3 for the PS2. I just loved it. The story, the music, the combat system; it is close to perfection. It sequel, Persona 4, is even better, addressing some issues of its predecessor and having an even better story and music.

Those two games are of the Shin Megami Tensei series, which translates to True Goddess Rebirth from japanese. The series was popular in Japan in the NES and SNES days, but never made its way out seas. It was with Revelations: Persona that the worldwide audience gave attention to the series, and well deserved. Most other games in the series followed it, and normaly with critical acclaim. Other games in the series to be released worldwide include Devil Survivor for the DS and the Devil Summoner games for the PS2.

Now, this blog will be dedicated to this franchise, and comparing it to the most popular RPG franchise worldwide (besides Pokemon), Final Fantasy, and why I think the former is better than the second.

Now, what is the most important thing about an RPG? Some would say story, and others would say the battle system. Those two things are very important, but what you do in between is also very important. So I will compare them mostly in these categories.

In terms of story, it is quite easy to say which has the best. And that is Shin Megami Tensei. By a lot. Now don't get me wrong, Final Fantasy games often have good stories, but don't play dumb and say they don't usually fall in the "good guy beats bad guy and saves the world". Take for example Final Fantasy IV. The game begings with Cecil trying to find his identity, but soon becomes a task to save the world and with some sci-fy stuff, and a dumb plot twist at the end. Still is a good story, but the games seem to trick you into what the main purpose of the story is. The first Fantasy was straight up save the world, so it has an excuse, but the other games feel a bit generic at the end. It also doesn't help that they all have only one ending, providing no new experiences.

On the other had, the games of SMT not only go into more phylosofical details about the characters, but develop them so much that you care about them. Take the story of Persona 3. From the begining of the game you are basicaly told that you have to save the world, but the game explores the motivations for the character, as well as making you care about them. When finishing P3 or P4, I honestly missed the character, since you become involved with the story. After finishing FFIV, I was happy about the characters, but really didn't care about them, and what happen to them next.

One explanation for than could be that the SMT games are mostly M rated, enabling them to explore more mature (dãã) and complex stuff, specially emotional. They tackled suicide, world rebirth, drugs, ADOLF FU***** HITTLER!, and much more. Being T rater, Final Fantasy limits it, and do go into such taboo stuff, and in the end make the plot not as entertaining. As one of my more favourite Youtubers said about the story of Final Fantasy XIII "it is a basic FF plot", so I'm not the only one who shares this perspective.

Well that went on way to long, so next time I will talk about the battle system. I may upload it today, or tomorrow evening, since I will hang out with some friends, so bye.