Persona 1&2 are optional

To my understanding, the best way to play the first two Persona games of the Playstation era is on the PSP. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona is fine to play as is; Persona 2 with speedup and fan patches. Like with the Metal Gear Solid franchise, you're better off going by order of realease, and then visiting the first two. Both games are more clunky and products of their time and should really be visited for appreciation/respect for beginning the series.

I've played P3P and Persona 4 Golden, 3 up to getting Koromaru and 4 up to getting Kanji. Here soon (not too soon all these games are 60h+): 3FES, 3Portable, 4Golden, Q+Q2, 5Royal, and 3Reloaded will be moved to completed from my backlog. Persona 1+2 I might visit sometime inbetween, but I don't plan on completing them. I don't have any nostalgia or familiarity with they're gameplay. I've at least tried most megaten games but the combat and artstyle look really different to me in the original personas. I might be wrong though. Again, this is all my take based off just vibes I've picked up from the way people talk about the series.

The only game that's a sequel in Persona 2 Eternal Punishment, making p2 Innocent sin "compulsory" in order to play em.
Since none of the games are direct sequels (not talking about spin-offs), all of them are optional lmao.

But yes, the first 2 (or rather 3) games in the series are completely different from the modern persona trilogy. And hey, i hope you enjoy your time with the games, i love all the one's i've played and 4 is my favorite (ive talked about it ad nauseam in the hltb discord haha)

Persona 1-5 are all "optional". It doesn't matter if your first Persona game is 5, or if you go all the way back to the beginning (Persona 1) to play the main games "in order". All five main games stand by themselves with their own separate stories and cast, and can be played in any order. The only exception is the two Persona 2 games. Still, you don't need to play Persona 1 before playing them. For this reason, Persona 1 and 2 are as much "optional" as 3, 4 and 5 are.

That being said, I actually like Persona 2 so far, and I hope Atlus will give it more attention in the future. I still hope for a Persona 2 remake, although the odds are very low.
I've played Persona 1 for a bit as well, but just walking around is giving me a headache. I intend to finish both of them eventually, but Persona 1 is definitely the last one I'll finish. I need to prepare myself before going back to it.

Out of the main games, I've finished Persona 4 and 5. Persona 3 (Portable) will most likely be the next one I'll finish. Then Persona 2, and lastly Persona 1.

Persona 1-5 are all "optional". It doesn't matter if your first Persona game is 5, or if you go all the way back to the beginning (Persona 1) to play the main games "in order". All five main games stand by themselves with their own separate stories and cast, and can be played in any order. The only exception is the two Persona 2 games. Still, you don't need to play Persona 1 before playing them. For this reason, Persona 1 and 2 are as much "optional" as 3, 4 and 5 are.

That being said, I actually like Persona 2 so far, and I hope Atlus will give it more attention in the future. I still hope for a Persona 2 remake, although the odds are very low.
I've played Persona 1 for a bit as well, but just walking around is giving me a headache. I intend to finish both of them eventually, but Persona 1 is definitely the last one I'll finish. I need to prepare myself before going back to it.

Out of the main games, I've finished Persona 4 and 5. Persona 3 (Portable) will most likely be the next one I'll finish. Then Persona 2, and lastly Persona 1.

Same here on Persona 1 haha, the game is kind of disorienting, it's one of the only games i've played with that kinda dungeon crawling.