So there is a nice Atlus sale going on as a weekly PSN deal for PSP games. I've only played P3P and P4/P4G, so I am wondering how the series vets feel the early games hold up? I understand that the PSP versions of P1 and P2 Innocent Sin are slightly remade. I also know that a lot of the mechanics are different when it comes to the battle system and dungeons...

I guess I'm mainly wondering about the story, characters, presentation, etc. I'm not doing a good job of putting it into words, but basically, does it feel like the latter Persona games? Are you developing SLinks, etc.

Having just gone through Persona 1 I can say kinda, the combat is really really fun which is good for a JRPG, but the story just isn't there for me as it only focuses on a single character and while I think it's very good what I like about Persona is getting to know and care about your entire party. Quincendtly revers that for (were I'm at) Persona 2 IS. Also S-links weren't a thing at all until Persona 3.

Persona 1 and 2 are a lot more like traditional Shin Megami Tensei games (so demon negotiation, no S. Links, pretty linear, not 80 hours long), but instead of being about Satan they're about high school students. So if the idea of playing what are essentially slightly updated versions of PS1 RPGs with unique settings and some more old school mechanics appeals to you, go for it. Just don't expect a lot of anime dating sim action. If you have to only choose one, go for Innocent Sin over Persona 1. It has Hitler in it.

Persona 2? Yes. Persona 1? No.

To answer whether the P1 and the P2 Duo feel like the modern Persona's, I would say that they do not. They share some common themes, but the feel is super different.

The way the older persona games handle characters is different compared to the more modern persona's. There are no S. Links in the older games, and they have less of a spotlight individually. While the characters were pretty well developed for their time, the P1/2 characters feel basic compared to the character in P3/4.

While I have no experience with the P2 remake, I did play P1 to completion. The audio/visual presentation has been updated dramatically. I say Atlus did a pretty good job with updating the game on that department. Just don't expect P3/4 levels of presentation. However, there are some issues with music repetition since the enemy encounter rate is high.

While the P3/4 stories kinda isolated the conflict into somewhere other than Japan (Inside televisions/Tartarus), the older don't do that. From a tone level, you have mass amounts of people freaking out making the older games a bit darker. Instead of shadows you also fight demons in the older games, kinda amplifying why people are freaking out. While there is levity in the older games, you are not gonna have the campy lightheartedness form P4. The older persona's have light shades of SMT: Nocturne if I had to make a comparison.

If you are looking for the light hearted character driven story of the later personas, I wouldn't recommend the older games. Strictly looking at the story, the older personas make for a nice bridge between the later personas and the proper SMT series. The stories are also pretty good in their own right, if you go in with the mindset that those games are very much a product of their time.

If you don't like old-school RPGs, absolutely not. Flat combat, little exploration, no Social Link stuff. They are interesting at times, especially for a die-hard fan of the series, but I don't think they hold up to modern standards very well.