[PS2] Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga (2004)

How:
Just exploring the megaten series.
Pros:
- Cool idea of having fixed monsters as playing characters, removes much of the mess from having to invite and fuse enemy monsters
- Cool karma-branching evolution and downloading system
- Lots of different demons with unique animations
- Fights are never trivial and very dynamic, have to apply the right strategy depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the party and the enemy
- Lots of magic attacks, status ailments, items
- Nice story and cool, diversified environments
Cons:
- Very linear gameplay
- Horrible song
- Ugly English translation (especially Cielo, who speaks Jamaican slang)
- Some very tedious enemy-heavy maze parts especially towards the end
- Bad metal rock music
- Still quite grinding-heavy

The coolest demon in the game: ライジュウ, a wolf made of electricity.

Coolest boss: Vasuki.

The game ends with a blatant Matrix reference. I found it a bit annoying.

[PSP] Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (2009)

How:
Heard about it in Japan.
Ending:
I did not play the epilogue part (a few more hours worth of gameplay).
Note:
Press Start during battles to make them considerably quicker. Without this feature, the game is an absolute pain to play.
Pros:
- Cool blend of isometric goodness and first-person dungeon crawling
- A LOT of cool monsters with funny moves and animations
- Handy auto-fight
- Very nice character graphics and animations for the different skills of all personas
- Every monster and every persona has a rationale/story behind it. For example, the くちさけおんな monster actually comes from an urban legend and behaves as the legend tells.
Cons:
- Background music is an annoying collection of distracting and out of place songs. Totally spoiled the cool mood from the original game.
- Most of the personas you create cannot be "equipped" because of level requirements, which is too high for at least the first half of the game.
- Fights can be trivially easy or frustratingly difficult even with the same exact monsters. Charmers can charm you forever, and infinite looping situations can and will take place unexpectedly.
- Too many demon combinations and too many persona skills make the game content overwhelmingly complex.
- Clichéd, unlikable playing characters (the hip-hop type, the bully, etc.).
- Very high encounter rate and repetitive gameplay.
- The game overstays its welcome by a large margin.

[FC] デジタル・デビル物語 女神転生 (1987)

Pro:
- La meccanica di gioco principale prevede di prendere alcuni mostri come alleati, ognuno con i suoi punti di forza e le sue magie
- I mostri si possono fondere tra di loro per crearne di nuovi
- Una volta capito il meccanismo e superate le prime difficoltà diventa divertente e strategico
- I mostri sono tanti e disegnati bene
- La possibilità di combattere in AUTO permette di sbrigare rapidamente la maggior parte degli scontri
- La morte non è permanente
- Le musiche non sono male, soprattutto quelle a fine gioco
Contro:
- Troppo difficile, senza soluzione (mappe, magie, oggetti, etc.) ci vorrebbe una vita per fare progressi
- Troppo lungo e ripetitivo
- I dungeon sono praticamente tutti uguali e poco interessanti
- La storia è raccontata per modo di dire, e a mozzichi