>>3861729
>P1 and P2 needed something else to set themselves apart from the rest of SMT and spice up the gameplay loop. Just a different setting doesn't cut it.
They literally did, though, a completely different negotiation system entirely unique to both games, new elements, a different fusion system, and a different roster of usable Persona and enemies, Arcana system and different party members having different affinities (the party system is already completely different from SMT lol) Positioning in Persona 1(was supposed to be in 2 but got scrapped) fusion spells in P2 that require the entire team to use, the concept of getting ultimate Personas, mutually exclusive party members, rumor system in 2. I feel like I could go on, but they are completely different games from normal SMT if anything, Persona 3 onward used SMT3 as a basis and more closely followed that formula than doing its own thing.