I never played a SMT game

I never played a SMT game.
How do they compare with persona?

Play an smt game and find out. you can emulate just about all of them, so it shouldn't be hard.

I hope it's not strategy based like fire emblem

try 3

Devil Survivor and Majin Tensei are SRPG spin offs. Mainline is just your usual JRPG/LRPG
3 Nocturne, 4 and SJ are considered the best entry points but you should just try anything that looks fun, Megami Tensei is a fairly diverse franchise

Any romance?

What's wrong with strategy games?

They're garbage.

Is Soul Hackers any good?

Persona is all about building up the set party you're given and fusing personas for yourself.
SMT is purely demon fusing. Your party is 100% customizable to your tastes, There's only one SMT game where you have a set party iirc. Digital Devil Saga has the set party. Persona has a mix between regular SMT and regular JRPG parties,
Another major difference is that SMT is hard as nails compared to Persona, so be prepared.

Only Persona 3-5 (also 2 Innocent Sin has a small tidbit towards that) and Devil Survivor 2

Battles have similar philosophy of being greatly rewarded for hitting weak points and punished for getting yours exposed. There's a larger emphasis on team building since you don't have permanent party members like Persona.

You also have the obvious differences like no VN/School Life to break up the pace.

no romance, or social features in general

It's fine, but if you're used to more of the mechanics of the later smt games, you'll have a hump to get over. It's fun, tho.

literally pokemon but better everything

nu-pokemon can suck a dick

The games aren't high school teen simulators.

they're ok for what they are but not even close to as good as persona

depends on who you ask

My personal favorite. It's very charming, but it's definitely not for everyone.

Well, they're good, for one. Or they were until 4 I guess.

It's more customizable and is pure fusing and dungeon crawling. I got tired of the Persona formula. I just barely got past Kamoshida's palace and I've had P5 since release. I put 10 hours into SMTIV on my first sitting because it was more addicting. No social stuff to get in the way of the fun.

well I assume OP is asking someone with good taste

there's pros and cons to each one, no need to be a dick

Someone give me a run down on this game.

>not a high school simulator
fucking
dropped

at least try it user, it's worth a shot even if you don't end up enjoying it

Very divisive gameplay mechanics. Many love and many don't
Good writing on the routes compared to other SMT. Best alignment reps

madcuzbad