I discovered Shin Megami Tensei games back in college when a roommate picked up a game that randomly had Dante in it (Nocturne).  We decided to try it and it was really, really good.  Sadly, back in college I didn’t play games as much, so I didn’t really look into Shin Megami Tensei again.

Later, after graduating and working at GameStop, I saw Nocturne in the store one day (someone had traded it in).  I decided to buy it.  Then I realized there were MORE Shin Megami Tensei games.  This was around the time when Persona 3 was about to launch, which seemed interesting, then we learned about the whole “shooting yourself in the head” thing and kinda got turned off.

However, one of my coworkers gave the game a try and said, “GUYS OMG YOU NEED TO PLAY THIS!  IT’S AWESOME!”  So I gave it a shot, and my lord, I loved it.  Just… going through a school year, day to day, balancing friends and school and jobs and fighting in dungeons?  I had never played a game like that before, and I loved it.  I was super upset with myself with judging it so harshly before even trying it and bought it right away.

With Persona 4 I didn’t make the same mistake, by then I KNEW I loved the franchise.  I reserved it, got the artbook, and played the hell out of it  :)  I feel like I was more prepared with 4, because I knew what I was getting into.  With 3 I was like, “… social… links?  Making decisions?  Getting tired in battle?”  Like I knew about dungeon crawling, but… high school?