I used to not really like JRPGs or RPGs in general, but as time went on and I got more into RTSes and that type of stuff I found myself more open to some of the complex systems going on in many RPG games and more and more into the genre. Like lots of people I've played Skyrim and Fallout 4 and mostly liked those, and recently I played through Prey. Here's the thing though, I've never really been fond of JRPGs with one exception: Persona. Normally, there are a few things that put me off of JRPGs: the combat can be monotonous and grindy, and the game can stretch on for dozens of hours longer than I have patience to bear, but most of all I'm finding the thing that puts me off of most JRPGs is the story. I'm not a fan of pseudo-philosophical dialogue about gods interacting with man or angels raising a banner against evil flowing over a fantasy land, etc, etc. In addition, I've become more choosey with video games that have weak characters. The difference with Persona, as Jeff put it best once, is that it's a lot more grounded and like-able as a result. There's always the world-ending threat where a malevolent god threatens to wipe out human independence or whatever but it tends to be shoved into and compressed to the last dozen or so hours of the game. (Note: I've only played P4G and Persona 5, so if Persona 3 is different I wouldn't know).

I needed a game to play on my 3DS, so I checked out SMT IV. I got about 30 minutes deep (to where you finish the third training quest and the other two male team members want to meet you on the roof) and I'm mixed. Part of the stuff I like about Persona is here, but it seems to have doubled down on the stuff I've never really liked about Persona: the combat and grind. On top of that, I'm really not a fan of the medieval fantasy setting, since I've always found that type of setting boring, but reading Wikipedia explain that they're actually in the far future got me hoping that maybe at some point it starts to modernize in some way.

So I guess my question is, will SMTIV focus more on combat and dungeon crawling, or will it be more like Persona and have a lot of social interactions and character development?

@jcracken: SMT is absolutely much more focused on combat and dungeon crawling. There is little to no social stuff like Persona has.

Very occasionally they cross the streams, like SMT: Devil Survivor, which is a tactics game that has SMT combat and sorta has social interactions like Persona. It's sorta technically an SMT spinoff, but it feels more like a Persona spinoff.

This isn't a game with much social interaction. Your fellow samurai will leave and return to your company as storyline dictates, and they're pretty shallow throughout the whole game. The sequel/continuation SMT IV Apocalypse is actually a bit more character focused.

The medieval fantasy setting goes away pretty quickly, but "gods and demons and philosophy" is basically "Shin Megami Tensei" in a nutshell, so if that's not your thing then you should probably steer clear of the franchise as a whole. Also yes, the game is definitely more combat and dungeon heavy than Persona. The recent Persona games are an exception on the story vs combat scale, not the norm.

If you want something closer to Persona try the "Trails" franchise. Trails of Cold Steel in particular is very Persona-ish.

@redyoshi: @bisonhero: The stuff I was reading online mentioned that for a beginner one should go SMTIV->Devil Summoner->Apocalypse. Reading your replies it seems like the latter two might be more up my alley, would I be fine going in blind to Devil Summoner or should I just Wikipedia the plot for SMTIV first so that I sort of understand what's going on?

I assume you mean Devil Survivor? The last Devil Summoner was on PS2, so it would be weird to throw that in there randomly. Either way, there's no plot connections between SMT4, Devil Survivor, or Devil Summoner.

@jcracken: The Devil Survivor games have self-contained storylines so you would be fine jumping right in there. Apocalypse on the other hand actually starts at the late-midgame point of SMT IV. It does start with a small segment that quickly sums up the events that took place in the first game, but you still might be a little lost skipping right to it.

@zeik: Yes, Devil Survivor, my bad. Based on your other comment, I'm looking at a list of the Trails games and it doesn't seem like they released any on 3DS (the main reason I tried out SMT IV in the first place). Do you know of any series like that that does exist on 3DS?

Have you looked at Persona Q? It is more of an Etrian Odyssey game, but does have the Persona 3 and 4 characters. Plenty of character interaction, though not in the S. Link fashion.

@jcracken: Well there's Persona Q. It's technically a Persona/Etrian Odyssey hybrid, so there is quite a bit of dungeon crawling, but it's more story heavy than the norm that kind of game. That being said, the game is basically pure fanservice, so even though there's familiar characters you may like it might not give you what you're looking for.

I'd say Devil Survivor is probably your best bet. It's not exactly Persona, but it's closer than anything else that comes to mind.

@jcracken: SMT: Devil Survivor does exist on the 3DS. There honestly aren't a lot of Persona-like games out there in the JRPG world; fans of the genre seem to like games that focus more on the combat system, and storylines tend to range from "increasingly weird and self-indulgent" (Final Fantasy) to "the goddamn same every time" (Tales of). Perhaps I'm not the most positive person to comment on JRPGs.

@zeik: @redwing42: Yeah Persona Q was the earliest thing I looked at. The reason I shied away from it was that I had previously read a plot summary of it and remembered it literally ends with "it was all a dream and everybody forgot about it," which alongside hearing the story does a poor job of recreating the characters from the original games made it seem skippable. I might take a second look at it if Devil Survivor doesn't grab me.

I'm not a fan of pseudo-philosophical dialogue about gods interacting with man or angels raising a banner against evil flowing over a fantasy land,

The mainline Shin Megami Tensei games are pretty much just the first part of this, except exchange the latter out with "choosing which deity you want to follow and killing the other deity, or just go for the Neutral route".

will SMTIV focus more on combat and dungeon crawling

The mainline SMT games are way more focused on dungeon crawling than Persona. For that matter, exploring an overworld, figuring out dungeons, and fighting enemies pretty much is the entire game. There's story and towns and sidequests and gathering and fusing demons, yes, but you're mostly exploring. It's worth noting that most of Shin Megami Tensei IV actually takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of Tokyo, where most people reside underground and monsters prowl around above ground. How you go from the medieval-esque Mikado to Tokyo is something I'll leave you to find out on your own, or just Google the answer yourself, but if you're sick of fantasy-land, SMT IV doesn't spend long there.

I'm going to attempt to clear something else up real quick.

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse is a sequel of sorts to Shin Megami Tensei IV. I finished this one last year and it wound up being a pretty great game, I think I liked it more than SMT IV proper. It has a bigger focus on story and characters than SMT IV and a much smaller focus on philosophy and morals or whatever you want to call it, though it's still about killing some uber-powerful god and the characters are mostly fantasy people (one of the people you team up with is some sort of queen of a fairy forest in the middle of Tokyo). If you didn't like SMT IV, I don't think you'll like this one too much. It's as "JRPG" as you can get outside of the setting.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers is a re-release of a first person dungeon crawler originally released for the Sega Saturn. It was originally never released outside of Japan. This game takes place in modern day Tokyo and it's got a very 90's cyberpunk thing going on that's actually pretty cool. I never finished it because I got stuck in a dungeon and something else took my attention, but from the ten or so hours I did play, there was actually a lot of character interaction with actual characters and not the mythological supermen of the main games. You don't need to have played any of the other SMT game or even any other Devil Summoner games to understand this one, at least not from what I played. Also, later Devil Summoner games were released for the PS2, were released in the US, and were action-RPG's and not just turn-based games. I have no idea what the connection between Soul Hackers and the Raidou Kuzunoha games are, I never got around to them in my SMT fervor of a few years ago.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor: Overclocked is a turn-based strategy RPG. I actually never got very far in this one so I can't tell you much about it at all, except that like Devil Summoner, Devil Survivor takes place in modern day Tokyo and has lots of interaction with relatively normal, everyday people. Originally, Devil Survivor 1 and 2 were released for the DS, the ones on the 3DS are updated re-releases with the subtitles Overclocked (the first one) and Record Breaker (the second one).

Persona Q is Etrian Odyssey with a Persona skin. I never got very far in this one either. If you're looking for characters and story, I don't think this one's going to do much for you either, as it's even more focused on dungeon crawling than SMT IV. Frankly, if you're going to play an Etrian Odyssey game I'd just recommend going for IV.

As someone who basically played SMT IV through its introductory segment before getting tired of dying to the first major boss over and over again, it does not seem like it would be your jam if you were to continue playing. I'm aware that it gets better, but the start of that game is rough in a way that led to me putting it down for a while and never picking it back up.

Of the various other Shin Megami Tensei games on 3DS: I'm to understand that SMT IV Apocalypse is more SMT IV, but with better characters, a more even difficulty curve, and some truly tedious end-game dungeons. Persona Q is worth looking at as 100% raw, uncut Persona 3 and 4 fanservice as long as you're willing to accept that certain members of both games' casts are basically reduced to one-note caricatures (Teddie likes flirting with ladies! Chie likes meat! Akihiko is into working out!) and the actual dungeon crawling stuff is merely okay (some of the later dungeons have some really obnoxious environmental puzzles.) If you want a truly excellent party-based "blobber" (those first-person RPGs in the vein of Wizardry and stuff) then Etrian Odyssey IV is a much better choice. Devil Survivor, on the other hand, seemed okay from what I played of it? It's less tactical than it initially appears, but it does have a decent amount of character interaction stuff.