Hey gals and guys!

I recently finished Persona 4 Golden on Vita and it was an amazing experience (<3 Chie <3). Now I want to give Persona 3 a try, preferably on the Vita again. In my PSN Store I find Persona 3 Portable and Persona 3 FES. I don't know what the difference is between those versions. There is a bundle with Persona 2 which costs a few euros more. Is it worth it or is P2 "too old"?

Thanks in advance and have an awesome day!

Persona 3 FES is a PS2 PSN game. As such, it will not work on the Vita.

Persona 3 Portable is a portable version of Persona 3 made for the PSP. It will work on the Vita, and depending on who you ask, it is the best version or the worst version of the game.

Pros:
-Direct control of party members in battle
-Girl protag is selectable
-New tracks

Cons:

-A lot of the cutscenes are now literally just VN affairs. Still images of the characters talking to each other where before there were 3D models moving around.
-No manual exploration of the world during the day, everything is menu-based.

Edit: Shit, I should have asked. Do you have a PS3? If so, get Persona 3 FES on that. That's my advice. FES is basically an expansion of Persona 3, much like how Golden was an expansion of Persona 4.

Persona 2 is a far different game than what Persona became starting with Persona 3. It does not have the Social Link stuff, and if I'm not mistaken, you "recruit" your demons in the traditional SMT way as well, talking to them and convincing them to join you. (I never liked that system personally.)
Both Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable are excellent versions of the game, but as Persona 3 Portable was a PSP game, there are changes to how you navigate around the game world and talk to people that make it a different experience than you may be familiar with coming off of Persona 4.
There is a Quick Look of it HERE.

I would personally recommend FES, as it is closer to Persona 4, but Persona 3 Portable allows you to play as a female protagonist, which changes the characters you can Social Link with which is neat.
Both versions are great. Flip a coin or something. You won't be disappointed.

Persona 3 Portable was the PSP port that removed stuff in some places, but added stuff in others. If you liked walking around the town in P4, all of that is gone in P3P, with all of the non-dungeon exploring replaced by a navigable map screen. The PSP version does include a second playable character, though, that was not in the PS2 version.

For my money, I'd go with FES. Neither version could really be called definitive, but I would miss being able to walk through the school hallways.

EDIT: I didn't realize that the Vita couldn't play PS2 Classics, so I guess your decision is made for you. P3P is a perfectly fine version of an excellent game, and you should play it however you can get it.

Persona 3 FES is an updated re-release of the game for the PS2. Like Persona 4, you've got the "real world" in which you can see your character and other characters move and react, you can see your character running around the world, etc. Persona 3 FES also includes more scenes and social links than the original game and "The Answer", basically an expansion to the original game that is one long dungeon.

I note that because in Persona 3 Portable, you can't do all that. Instead, you basically have an isometric view of a still layout of each area around which you move a cursor and click on things to interact. It's a lot more like a visual novel. You also don't get any anime cutscenes. This isn't a bad way to play the game - hell, it will probably cut your playtime by at least a dozen hours - but sometimes it can feel a little stripped down. It's also the only one you can play on Vita. The Answer wasn't included in Portable. There's a Quick Look of Portable here.

So why would anyone prefer Portable? Because the dungeons and combat are way better balanced in Portable. In Persona 3 and FES, you cannot directly control other characters. You can only set them to certain predefined commands. You know how in Persona 4, you had to set every character to direct control after getting them? You can't do that in Persona 3 and FES. Persona 3 Portable allows you to directly control all of the characters and re-balanced the game's dungeons and bosses to match, making it the one that actually plays way better.

EDIT: I'd really like to see Atlus release another version of the game, one with FES's content and P3P's dungeon rebalances (and maybe the female protagonist!) but I don't think that will happen. You're basically just left choosing which one is more important.

But again, P3P is the only one you can play on Vita.

@believer258: Did P3P also rework the battle system to match that of Persona 4, especially with regards to getting knocked over and how standing up works? If so, then gun for P3P OP, it will be way less frustrating.

Pretty much. It's been a while since I messed with either game, so I don't remember the specific differences... but yes, they changed Persona 3 Portable's battle system to act as much like Persona 4's as possible. If you never, ever want to see Mitsuru cast Marin Karin again, you never will.

Persona 2 is interesting to see for fans of P3 and P4/P4G. However, that game is old. Just from playing it, I would say it's not really worth going back to it. From a historical perspective, those games are interesting, but that's about it.

For Persona 3, the best way I would say to play it is Persona 3 Portable. Graphically it isn't as good as the PS2 version. However, the graphics are such you honestly aren't missing out that much anyways. Visually that game is dated. So on the plus side, they replaced a lot of things through an overhead view sort of menu, so you can get around some places faster. The other big improvement is it took some of the battle improvements from P4, such as Direct Commands over party members. In P3/PE:FES, you have direct controls, but your party members only attack based on stuff like "Attack" "Act Freely" "Support" type commands. It ties in with the narrative of what P3 and P4 are, but let's face it, it's just more fun to make your party do what you want them to do. Plus there are some new Social Links, including a few from party members who didn't have one originally. (This may only apply to the female protagonist. I can't remember)

The bonus aspect of the Vita in particular is you can suspend the game if you have other things to do. It makes it easier to pick up and play or play over a long period of time, instead of playing the game on a PS2 (if anybody still has one hooked up) or through emulation on an old PS3 or through a copy from PSN.

Thank you so much everybody for your very helpful answers!

I do have a PS3 so FES would be an option. I didn't think the differences between the versions would be that significant :/ But from what I am reading I'll give Portable a try. Having a female protagonist will make my sister happy when she gets to play it.

@enuff: The female protagonist is also a big plus in my opinion. In addition to new and exclusive Social Links, some story beats are different. Like it's not like they just swapped the character and kept everything the same. There are bits of dialogue and a few scenes here and there that reflect the protagonist is a woman.

To me, the female protag is the definitive thing that made me come back around on P3 as a whole. Imagine that you were playing P4, but you couldn't have a social link with Yosuke, Kanji, or Teddie. Instead they just hung around reacting to story beats, but you never learned about how Yosuke felt ostracized by the people in the shopping district or genuinely forgave Saki for what her shadow said about him. Or that Kanji stopped obsessing over what he thought masculinity was and trying to shove himself into a definition that never fit him. Or that Teddie was just a side character and him wondering about his identity was only ever mentioned once or twice because eh who cares.

That's what P3 did with Junpei, Akihiko, and Shinjiro. Junpei, specifically, has one of the best S.Links in the series so they did a good thing by making the changes that they did. They should have made it so the male protag could do something other than serially date all of the female party members and ignore the guys in the first place, but it humanized characters that were cardboard cut-outs in the original game.

The female protag is the best protag in the series, fact.

Definitely want to throw in my lot with Persona 3 Portable, also. If it was just the Persona 4 style combat with the visual novel style storytelling, FES would probably win out. However, I started both of them at once this year, and the female protagonist was just so much more interesting to play than the male protagonist, even with more going on visually with FES. It's not exactly fair, since I went from Persona 4 to Persona 3, but the male protagonist seemed to hit a lot of similar beats, and the social links were not as interesting starting out, while playing as a girl was such a fresh change of pace, having the DESIGNATED LOVE INTEREST for the guy being your best friend as the girl, and being able to hang out with every one of your party members.

I ended up getting more attached to the Persona 3 cast thanks to P3P, which I don't think would have happened in FES, since you s. links with the girls are forced romantic dates that you have to game around, and ones for the guys don't exist. With that, the game's story beats hit harder, and with the gameplay basically being Persona 4, I had to see what happened next, even though I had spoiled the ending of Persona 3 for myself after watching the endurance run. I don't think I'll ever be able to play Persona Q since the female protagonist is just so integral to my version of that game now, but man, I don't even care.

Yeah, it's one hell of a choice. I was incredibly torn at first since both had really strong points, but then I doubled down on P3P and didn't regret it at all. Makes me really wish that there was a Persona 4 Golden-style Vita port that had the best of both worlds, but ah well.

Very informative thread, and a sale on the Vita store currently as well so I was considering which one to play. Sounds likes Portable as Female protagonist is the way to go!

Also Wild Arms and Suikoden 2 are £2 each so lots to play!

I don't recommend anyone sacrifice the game's presentation.

Play P3FES on your PS3

YEAH I just saw that, awesome!!