Persona

Persona is a spin-off series from Megami Tensei which focuses on summoning their "shadows," facet of their personalities. As it sounds, concepts in Persona draw inspiration from Jungian psychology. First game in the series, Revelations: Persona, came out in 1996, and the latest in the series is Persona 4 Arena which came out in 2012. (Unless you count enhanced port Persona 4 Golden)

What do you think of this series as a whole?

They are pretty good... for those who like anime.
To be honest, I really dislike games that are based like that, I mean that have anime based graphics. I really don't like "otakus" at all and I love other side of the japanese culture.

Coming back to your question, they have pretty good gameplay and can be fun but I've played P3, P3FES, and P4 and I must say that the battle system sucks. They really need to fix that.

I've played Persona 3 and 4 before. Both of them were good, but I liked 3 better. What I like about this series is that you don't need any prior knowledge on the franchise to be able to enjoy the games. You could jump right in at any time. From Persona 3, my favorite characters are Mitsuru, Akihiko, and Fuuka. Naoto, Teddie, and Kanji are my favorites from Persona 4~

Chaval said:

They are pretty good... for those who like anime.

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I'd disagree. The Persona games pride themselves on having realistic and relatable characters, without using anime exaggerations and the like to give them an identity. This is especially the case with Persona 4. It doesn't really feel like anime save for the fact that it's animated, and the only way they could prevent that is by making it cartoonish, which would make it less realistic. After all, they're not trying to attract just otas, that's why the game has managed to garnered all-around appeal. It's just animation with a standard Japanese contemporary art style, not necessarily trying to pull in the ota crowd.

As for the battle system, that's Shin Mega Ten standard. Critics like it, the masses like it, and the more obscure crowds like it. Why fix what isn't broken?

Yeah, I really like the Persona series because they have realistic conflicts; who are you? What's your dreams? How do you change and combat your inner self? Stuff like that.

Persona 3 & 4 are golden examples of this, and I really loved playing them. <3

I like the Persona games because the characters don't feel like cardboard cutouts more often than not if you ask me and the combat along with the fusion system has had me hooked for days on end at times in all honesty. Between Persona 3 and 4 though I would say I like P4 more nowadays but I might change my mind about that if I can find my old copy of Persona 2 for the PSP and manage to finish that sometime soon.

Sadly I have never played any of the Persona games but I highly recommend the anime it actually made me cry, just like Angel Beats final episode 12.