The Cathedral of Shadows

Who the FRICK didn't tell me there was a thread for the bestest viddy game series ever up in this Pit Stop??????

Lief, try to convince me on why i should get SMT IV.

*cracks knuckles* WELL

From a gameplay perspective, SMTIV is a great entry point into the series. It's still challenging, but on Normal it's rather lenient, and after two game overs you get the option for an easier difficulty for those tough bosses. The Press Turn System (an advanced form of the 1 More! system from Persona 3 on, where not only are hitting weaknesses rewarded, having your attacks nulled, repelled, and drained is penalized) arguably hits its peak in IV, since a large amount of bosses have weaknesses, making magic attacks far more worthwhile than they were in Persona 4. Even if you want to roll with a phys build still, it's still fine and even a bit easier than in previous games - phys attacks now cost a fixed amount of MP, rather than HP.

Running out of HP isn't as much of a problem, anyways, since game overs are also now far, far more lenient - the game doesn't end when the MC dies. Rather, all the MC dying does is prevent you from summoning new demons to take the place of those who died (and even then, if the demons currently out have summoning skills, it's a non-issue), and he's resurrected at the end of battle (with 1 HP, granted).

Demon fusion is far more lenient than in Persona 4 - in addition to being able to perform fusion searches and fuse with demons directly from the compendium, you can also pick the inherited skills directly, rather than having to pray to RNGsus. In addition, you can now completely pick and choose the demon's skillset, and not be limited by its original skills.

Story-wise, it's...not the best of the Shin Megami Tensei games, but it's probably the least offensive, at least of the main games. Admittedly, it's less of a touching story than Persona 4 (though there are some moments), so if that's what you're in for, than sorry - this is not the game for you.

tl;dr awesome gameplay (though there are places where it could be fixed, SMTIV: Apocalypse fixes those), eh story

So far, I think I'm convinced now. I heard it's a post apocalyptic story (I'm assuming so anyway, given that there's a sequel(?) called apocalypse), so that sounds pretty cool, even if the overall story is a bit meh.

Yep. It takes a while to get to the post-apocalyptic part (you will probably be confused on starting up the game), but it's definitely there. SMTIVA (which is a sequel...sort of, it starts near the end of SMTIV's Neutral route but it's also a sort of AU since what happens stretches out the route waaaaaay more than it did, and it's an entirely different conclusion - so a sequel is the sanest way to describe it) places you in the setting at the start, so I would recommend that if you end up liking SMTIV, because it's like it but better.

Man, I keep seeing promo stuff for Persona 5, and it makes me want to get a PS4 again... Problem is that I'm still well behind on my Steam game list, so I don't know what to do...

I think I will try to get Persona 3 FES for my PS2 this year for my birthday. I really want to get back into the Persona series again. I just hope my PS2 works long enough for me to play it if I do get it... If not, I think I'll see if I can get a PS2 emulator to work on my computer.