Sell me on Persona. Specifically this one. I've avoid this franchise like the plague and only once caught interest in it for Persona 2's story, but filtered but out-dated gameplay. So if I'm ever gonna play ONE persona game, tell me why I shouldn't pick Persona 5 rather than this one.

Why Persona: While most JRPGs focus on fantastical settings, Persona is much more urban and in our modern day, even experiencing daily life. Unlike EarthBound or the games it inspired which focus on charm, Persona really goes into depth with its world, characters, and themes and how they impact the world around us. Get to know people more, ranging from cool guys to cute girls to little kids and old folks, all walks of life, and form a deeper connection. Persona 5 is about not being complacent in a bad situation (although its writing makes it sometimes comes off as YA "Fuck the Adults") Persona 4 is about the Truth, and Persona 3 is about Memento Mori, the inevitability of Death. A metaphysical alternate world dazzled in Jungian Psychology and symbolism, where you engage in combat that's easy to get into the flow of while also rich with strategy, and you've got yourself a winner of a series. The music is also a banger in all three of the mainline Modern Persona games

Why 3 over 5?: While Persona 5 has the better graphics and mastered the aesthetic aspect of Persona, its story tends to drag on the longest with lots of redundant scenes and characters tend to just fall into their respective tropes when the dungeon you recruit them in is over. Meanwhile in Persona 3, your party members continue to develop as the story plays out and I ain't gonna spoil anything but it gets emotional. Persona 5 also by far the longest Persona game, clocking in at 80-100 hours while P3/4 clock in at 60-80 hours. The combat in Persona 5 is also really easy and only becomes moreso the longer the game goes on and eventually you can snowball everything. Two dungeons in particular are also bad, one much moreso than the other, while the rest are decent to solid. The dating sim elements, called Confidants in P5, all feel like they follow a template for those not in your party (and sometimes those that are), once you complete one you know how the rest of them will play out. In Persona 3 (where they are called Social Links) this isn't the case. While they only provide stat bonuses to your Personas and don't do anything else like in P5, this at least allows you to do the ones you want to do since you won't have to put up with one you don't like for their amazing ability or avoid one you like since they have a useless skill. While I love Persona 3's tactics system (in which you don't directly control them, but rather give orders "Heal/Support", "Full Assault" etc etc on your turn), it's not for everybody while you can control them fully in Persona 5. There are mods for Persona 3 that add full party control, I'd rather encourage trying the tactics system out and learning its nuances, if you must use the Party Control Mod I'd rather you do that then not play Persona 3 at all. The calander systems in 4 and 5 feel tacked on at times as you get to Shadow of the Month, but in Persona 3 it adds to the gameplay and themes due to it being designed for Persona 3 in the first place (which is why 1 and 2 don't have it) and 4+5 just used it since it worked for 3. The only thing later Persona games truly have over 3 is non-random skill inheritance when fusing new Personas. A P3 remake would remove this but for now hitting XXOO until you get the skills you want is just something we gotta deal with. But damn, for all the story, characters, music, memorable moments, and more, Persona 3 is absolutely the one to play and the rare XXOO is damn worth it. I wouldn't replace Persona 3 for the world.

Play Persona 3 FES over Persona 3 Portable for countless aesthetic and mechanical reasons. If you must have Party Control like P3P does again the Party Control Mod for FES does exist.

tl;dr: Play Persona 3 because my wife Chihiro is in it.

If it were for anyone else, Pin, I would have completely ignored that wall of text and never touched Persona. But I never felt unengaged even for a moment, and that's quite a special writing feat when I'm riddled with ADHD parasites.

Also I just realized this is the one that has the half-robot blond babe. Sold. Party mod it is.