This is a PSA:
Do NOT play the PSP rerelease of this game.
Play the fan-translated PS1 version of the game instead.
The original version has:
-A fun and experimental semi-automatic battle system that only requires player input to set-up commands, and pause to edit them. This allows for fast action, natural discovery of teamwork fusion attacks, and player experimentation with the card/negotiation system.
-actual challenge that ramps up as you play and makes the player think about their compositions and actions.
-loading screens only during loading saves and loading up the game
-a far superior UI aesthetic and generally more unified vision with regard to visuals, music, and battle voice lines
-is amazing
The PSP version has:
-a butchered version of the combat system that forces the player to repeatedly input the same commands at the start of every turn for no reason whatsoever
-absolutely no challenge, even on hard mode.
-loading before every fight
-slowed down battle animations
-script censorship
-if you see reviews calling this game a slog to play, it's cause they played this one
-----------------------------
I personally played the psp version twice, not knowing at all about these differences. I played the ps1 version once and it was like a whole new game. I don't know how they fucked up the psp version so bad with the combat and balancing, but I've heard the psp version of the sequel is much better (although the fan translation is yet to come out).
The one downside of playing the ps1 version of this game is that the fan translation has a little bit of that old 2000's era language in it in places and can feel like a bit of a relic (uses the word "gay" as a kind of insult for the sake of a translated pun(?) in a few places, among other stuff, but overall wasn't the worst and otherwise felt well-done and accurately localized, the translator is a bit of a legend in the realm of fan-made localizations).
Do NOT play the PSP rerelease of this game.
Play the fan-translated PS1 version of the game instead.
The original version has:
-A fun and experimental semi-automatic battle system that only requires player input to set-up commands, and pause to edit them. This allows for fast action, natural discovery of teamwork fusion attacks, and player experimentation with the card/negotiation system.
-actual challenge that ramps up as you play and makes the player think about their compositions and actions.
-loading screens only during loading saves and loading up the game
-a far superior UI aesthetic and generally more unified vision with regard to visuals, music, and battle voice lines
-is amazing
The PSP version has:
-a butchered version of the combat system that forces the player to repeatedly input the same commands at the start of every turn for no reason whatsoever
-absolutely no challenge, even on hard mode.
-loading before every fight
-slowed down battle animations
-script censorship
-if you see reviews calling this game a slog to play, it's cause they played this one
-----------------------------
I personally played the psp version twice, not knowing at all about these differences. I played the ps1 version once and it was like a whole new game. I don't know how they fucked up the psp version so bad with the combat and balancing, but I've heard the psp version of the sequel is much better (although the fan translation is yet to come out).
The one downside of playing the ps1 version of this game is that the fan translation has a little bit of that old 2000's era language in it in places and can feel like a bit of a relic (uses the word "gay" as a kind of insult for the sake of a translated pun(?) in a few places, among other stuff, but overall wasn't the worst and otherwise felt well-done and accurately localized, the translator is a bit of a legend in the realm of fan-made localizations).
Loved this. Not sure how I feel about the ending (not to say its bad) and the gameplay is pretty terrible at times but basically everything else about it is perfection. Great chars and music
the only ethical persona game (you can be gay)
Persona 2 is one those works you consume and desperately want someone else to try it because you just need to talk about it, but unfortunately, you can't recommend this to everyone, the gameplay manages to be worse than P1 or even SNES era SMT, the beggining is slow, the combat is slow, the encounter rate is absurd, and to top it off, the game is unbalanced, but after some hours of eating up the shit you think the game is, you are suddenly envolved in the deepest most interesting story you've ever seen in your life, in that moment, Persona 2 brainwashes you to stop caring about the shit he's putting you through gameplay wise, you just wanna see how the story develops, what will be the next crazy shit Atlus wrote for this game, and that's when you realize that you're at the end of this borderline unplayable game, and even worse, you're fucking loving it, i feel bad for people who feel like the story, characters or atmosphere don't make up for the gameplay, because when you're vibing with the game, it's the best thing you ever played.
Another of my bucket list games, though I decided to treat the Persona 2 duology as one game.
It is definitely a less complex and dynamic game compared to those that follow it, but Persona 2 has some interesting stuff going on under the hood. The fusion system and Persona team-negotiations are a lot of fun to mess around with, but Persona 2's most interesting mechanic is probably its "rumors." As part of the story, rumors that gain enough traction start to manifest in reality, which culminates in some pretty crazy, world-ending stuff. However, you can also manipulate rumors to your advantage. Hear about a shop offering powerful items at a discount? Head over to Kuzunoha Detective Agency (yes, those Kuzunohas) and they'll begin spreading it for you until it becomes real. This is sometimes required to advance the story but is mostly used to influence more minor elements of the world to become beneficial to you, such as opening new shops or causing certain demons to appear. For as interesting as this is on paper, it's not as fleshed out as it could be, and after a while you'll mostly find yourself using rumors to refresh inventory in shops. I can't help but feel a more open-ended game could use a system like this to better effect.
Persona 2 also predates the Press-Turn battle system that would come to define the larger Shin Megami Tensei series, so it's a lot more straightforward, not as punchy, and less effective at communicating whether or not you're really nailing an enemy's weakness. You can execute combo attacks between party members, and after a certain point in the game this becomes almost a prerequisite for dealing damage to bosses. It at least gives you something to actually engage with, because outside of combos, the combat is pretty barebones.
So yeah, I have a few criticisms. But this game also has Maya. Maya is the best! Do not under any circumstances get into a vehicle Maya is driving, I am deadly serious about this, you will get passed away
It is definitely a less complex and dynamic game compared to those that follow it, but Persona 2 has some interesting stuff going on under the hood. The fusion system and Persona team-negotiations are a lot of fun to mess around with, but Persona 2's most interesting mechanic is probably its "rumors." As part of the story, rumors that gain enough traction start to manifest in reality, which culminates in some pretty crazy, world-ending stuff. However, you can also manipulate rumors to your advantage. Hear about a shop offering powerful items at a discount? Head over to Kuzunoha Detective Agency (yes, those Kuzunohas) and they'll begin spreading it for you until it becomes real. This is sometimes required to advance the story but is mostly used to influence more minor elements of the world to become beneficial to you, such as opening new shops or causing certain demons to appear. For as interesting as this is on paper, it's not as fleshed out as it could be, and after a while you'll mostly find yourself using rumors to refresh inventory in shops. I can't help but feel a more open-ended game could use a system like this to better effect.
Persona 2 also predates the Press-Turn battle system that would come to define the larger Shin Megami Tensei series, so it's a lot more straightforward, not as punchy, and less effective at communicating whether or not you're really nailing an enemy's weakness. You can execute combo attacks between party members, and after a certain point in the game this becomes almost a prerequisite for dealing damage to bosses. It at least gives you something to actually engage with, because outside of combos, the combat is pretty barebones.
So yeah, I have a few criticisms. But this game also has Maya. Maya is the best! Do not under any circumstances get into a vehicle Maya is driving, I am deadly serious about this, you will get passed away
I want to preface this by saying that I play my games without using Google or any emulator cheats (fast forward / save states / actual cheats) because I feel that by using them, I’m disregarding the game’s design. From my understanding, people use them either because they have limited time to play games or they’re simply impatient and don’t want to deal with archaic design. To both ends, if you truly care about a game and are enjoying your time with it, why rush through it and ignore the pacing of the game? That’s not to say you can’t enjoy a game while fast forwarding and the like, for some it might help them enjoy it more… for me however, it ruins my enjoyment of the product.
I emphasize the above because the contacting system is abhorrent and easily the worst part of this game. I think it worked fine enough in the first game even if it was easily abusable and barebones, but this is just needlessly grindy for absolutely no reason. How it works is each character has 4 unique contact options that you can use to talk to a demon, given that you have 5 characters throughout the game, it easily becomes overwhelming. Depending on the personality of the demon and contact you chose, you will elicit an angry, happy, eager, or scared reaction. The goal is to make them eager so that you can get their arcana’s spell cards, though if you make them happy before doing so, you will get free cards that can be converted into any arcana card type in the velvet room. You can only have 3 happy demons at any given time as the would-be “buff” stays constant throughout the game, unless you make them angry, which is very easy to do. On random occasions, including at the very start of a battle, a demon will start talking to you, except during these sequences you pretty much have to guess what the correct answer is because they ask you questions like “if you were an animal what would you be human dog demon” and on my life I picked every single possible option for multiple demons, and they were all fucking wrong so i think it’s bugged or something. While that’s annoying, I found the fusing system to be fun, assuming I had enough cards to make what I wanted to make. I like the emphasis on spell cards, but I would be lying if I said I preferred this over the modern fusion systems, even though the game is hardly balanced around them.
On the topic of balancing, it’s all over the place. I played the PS1 version which is harder than the PSP remaster according to everyone, and for a good portion of the game all I was doing was getting into random encounters, even boss fights, and just auto battling. To extend on that, the combat system is centered around auto battling. You set your characters moves and press start battle. You can stop the auto battle whenever you want and check the turn order of your party members so you can plan your attacks accordingly, but outside of the final boss I pretty much turned my brain off the entire time, save for a select few instances. I don’t like this system because more than any RPG I’ve ever played, I get little to no reward or satisfaction mainly because I’m not pressing buttons as often. While some might see that fact as a good thing, I see it as mundane and boring. I make it sound bad, but in reality it barely affected me and it’s not like the difficulty is completely nonexistent, it’s there I just found it incredibly easy and manipulable is all. That final boss is some bullshit though. Game goes from being easy for about 15 hours to being extremely tedious and hard for no reason? Boring as hell
THE RUMORS SUCK. The system is there to remind you that the story involves rumors, and it fucking sucks. I don’t like talking to rumor mongerors with the clunky ass text boxes that plague the entire game and just don’t skip properly just to hear that Bimble Fuck Joe is selling his Sweaty Ass Shirt for 3 yen cheaper. Same people who defend this shit are the people who say Drakengard is a masterpiece because the gameplay sucks on purpose or whatever. I’m heavily overblowing it and this was hardly an issue because i did it twice throughout the entire game but it just made me realize how much i hated the textboxes in this game. Going back to that demon happiness shit for a second, if you have 3 contracts (3 happy demons) then the demon you’re currently trying to contact will ask you to replace one of the contracts so that they can be added, and for some god awful reason the developers thought it would be funny to have the dialogue option to appear at the least opportune time so that almost every single time I press the A button to progress the dialogue, the options appear and I annul the wrong contract. Every. Fucking. Time. Even when i'm careful I still somehow fuck it up. Yes, I know, skill issues and many such cases. Shit was made to make me fall asleep im not even going to lie spread a rumor to make my bed more comfortable. Booking the luxury suite at the Innocent Inn™ if it doesn't become a reality (joke donated by @Zotol)
Now that I aired my grievances, I liked the characters! I think they’re easily some of the best and most realistic ones in the series. I loathe how the modern persona games have these uninteresting and almost repetitive characters that for the life of me I just can’t give a single fuck about half the time, and for the first time I actually found myself caring about the issues and problems these characters are facing. They may not be as realized or fleshed out in this game as I would have liked them to be, but they were nonetheless impactful, more so than half of the slop the modern games shoved down my throat and I’m sure they will be even more amazing in the sequel. There's more I could go into and I made the game sound a lot worse than it actually is but the reality is that I'm mincing my words in fear of spoiling people, so it might sound like I'm not complimenting the game enough. The reality is that it does have good qualities but I also don't feel like I'm at a position where I can collect my thoughts and judge the game's story based without having played the sequel, so I won't. It's pretty good though, if not paced strangely at times. It's also incredibly hard to take this game seriously when iykyk is the villain. I'm serious if you don't know shit about this game go play it right now and prepare to have the craziest whiplash ever
I'm not going to lie though that PSP version is probably better because the god awful fan translation for this game gave characters different during different points in the story and I could never tell who was who.. Aside from that, the music was alright. Just alright. Few stand out tracks but I’m not foaming out of the mouth for anything. The PSP soundtrack sounded better from what I heard, and I’m probably going to play the PSP version of Eternal Punishment after my exams.
If you played the PSP versions of Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, WITHOUT SPOILING, what does the save transfer do? Is it important or can I just play EP on PSP without it
I emphasize the above because the contacting system is abhorrent and easily the worst part of this game. I think it worked fine enough in the first game even if it was easily abusable and barebones, but this is just needlessly grindy for absolutely no reason. How it works is each character has 4 unique contact options that you can use to talk to a demon, given that you have 5 characters throughout the game, it easily becomes overwhelming. Depending on the personality of the demon and contact you chose, you will elicit an angry, happy, eager, or scared reaction. The goal is to make them eager so that you can get their arcana’s spell cards, though if you make them happy before doing so, you will get free cards that can be converted into any arcana card type in the velvet room. You can only have 3 happy demons at any given time as the would-be “buff” stays constant throughout the game, unless you make them angry, which is very easy to do. On random occasions, including at the very start of a battle, a demon will start talking to you, except during these sequences you pretty much have to guess what the correct answer is because they ask you questions like “if you were an animal what would you be human dog demon” and on my life I picked every single possible option for multiple demons, and they were all fucking wrong so i think it’s bugged or something. While that’s annoying, I found the fusing system to be fun, assuming I had enough cards to make what I wanted to make. I like the emphasis on spell cards, but I would be lying if I said I preferred this over the modern fusion systems, even though the game is hardly balanced around them.
On the topic of balancing, it’s all over the place. I played the PS1 version which is harder than the PSP remaster according to everyone, and for a good portion of the game all I was doing was getting into random encounters, even boss fights, and just auto battling. To extend on that, the combat system is centered around auto battling. You set your characters moves and press start battle. You can stop the auto battle whenever you want and check the turn order of your party members so you can plan your attacks accordingly, but outside of the final boss I pretty much turned my brain off the entire time, save for a select few instances. I don’t like this system because more than any RPG I’ve ever played, I get little to no reward or satisfaction mainly because I’m not pressing buttons as often. While some might see that fact as a good thing, I see it as mundane and boring. I make it sound bad, but in reality it barely affected me and it’s not like the difficulty is completely nonexistent, it’s there I just found it incredibly easy and manipulable is all. That final boss is some bullshit though. Game goes from being easy for about 15 hours to being extremely tedious and hard for no reason? Boring as hell
THE RUMORS SUCK. The system is there to remind you that the story involves rumors, and it fucking sucks. I don’t like talking to rumor mongerors with the clunky ass text boxes that plague the entire game and just don’t skip properly just to hear that Bimble Fuck Joe is selling his Sweaty Ass Shirt for 3 yen cheaper. Same people who defend this shit are the people who say Drakengard is a masterpiece because the gameplay sucks on purpose or whatever. I’m heavily overblowing it and this was hardly an issue because i did it twice throughout the entire game but it just made me realize how much i hated the textboxes in this game. Going back to that demon happiness shit for a second, if you have 3 contracts (3 happy demons) then the demon you’re currently trying to contact will ask you to replace one of the contracts so that they can be added, and for some god awful reason the developers thought it would be funny to have the dialogue option to appear at the least opportune time so that almost every single time I press the A button to progress the dialogue, the options appear and I annul the wrong contract. Every. Fucking. Time. Even when i'm careful I still somehow fuck it up. Yes, I know, skill issues and many such cases. Shit was made to make me fall asleep im not even going to lie spread a rumor to make my bed more comfortable. Booking the luxury suite at the Innocent Inn™ if it doesn't become a reality (joke donated by @Zotol)
Now that I aired my grievances, I liked the characters! I think they’re easily some of the best and most realistic ones in the series. I loathe how the modern persona games have these uninteresting and almost repetitive characters that for the life of me I just can’t give a single fuck about half the time, and for the first time I actually found myself caring about the issues and problems these characters are facing. They may not be as realized or fleshed out in this game as I would have liked them to be, but they were nonetheless impactful, more so than half of the slop the modern games shoved down my throat and I’m sure they will be even more amazing in the sequel. There's more I could go into and I made the game sound a lot worse than it actually is but the reality is that I'm mincing my words in fear of spoiling people, so it might sound like I'm not complimenting the game enough. The reality is that it does have good qualities but I also don't feel like I'm at a position where I can collect my thoughts and judge the game's story based without having played the sequel, so I won't. It's pretty good though, if not paced strangely at times. It's also incredibly hard to take this game seriously when iykyk is the villain. I'm serious if you don't know shit about this game go play it right now and prepare to have the craziest whiplash ever
I'm not going to lie though that PSP version is probably better because the god awful fan translation for this game gave characters different during different points in the story and I could never tell who was who.. Aside from that, the music was alright. Just alright. Few stand out tracks but I’m not foaming out of the mouth for anything. The PSP soundtrack sounded better from what I heard, and I’m probably going to play the PSP version of Eternal Punishment after my exams.
If you played the PSP versions of Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, WITHOUT SPOILING, what does the save transfer do? Is it important or can I just play EP on PSP without it
Always by your side...
this is a fucking dogshit game (at least the psp version) but an amazing story. genuinely fucking amazed the persona is not the slop they force down peoples throats with the newest games and that this spinoff series is capable of having heartfelt stories and a cast of characters that is not only likable, but also feels like friends.
im kind of at a loss for words for this game, it has one of my favorite stories ive ever experienced and its fucking insane how well it tells that story. the group of characters (excluding maya) that you control in this one is probably one of my favorite rpg parties ever. not only do they actually feel like teenagers but they feel like actual friends with a group dynamic and who actually care about each other. the gameplay though is actually horrendous to the point where i just turned on cheats to make it a visual novel because i could not get myself to invest time into it otherwise. i hear the ps1 version is better in that regard but oh well, ive never been a fan of persona's gameplay compared to mainline smt anyway.
i guess to close off this nothing-review with some mild spoilers, that ending is one of the most devastating conclusions to a video game i've ever seen, it was all for nothing but its an experience that im going to treasure and i'll never feel like that time was wasted. i don't even feel the tragedy in a way thats tangible, i just feel empty and at a loss for words and i just want things to be different but they wont be. phenomenal
also hitler is there. he doesn't really add anything to the story by being there? it makes sense why he's there in universe but they didn't really have to have him? it doesn't even particularly bother me that much it's just weird.
this is a fucking dogshit game (at least the psp version) but an amazing story. genuinely fucking amazed the persona is not the slop they force down peoples throats with the newest games and that this spinoff series is capable of having heartfelt stories and a cast of characters that is not only likable, but also feels like friends.
im kind of at a loss for words for this game, it has one of my favorite stories ive ever experienced and its fucking insane how well it tells that story. the group of characters (excluding maya) that you control in this one is probably one of my favorite rpg parties ever. not only do they actually feel like teenagers but they feel like actual friends with a group dynamic and who actually care about each other. the gameplay though is actually horrendous to the point where i just turned on cheats to make it a visual novel because i could not get myself to invest time into it otherwise. i hear the ps1 version is better in that regard but oh well, ive never been a fan of persona's gameplay compared to mainline smt anyway.
i guess to close off this nothing-review with some mild spoilers, that ending is one of the most devastating conclusions to a video game i've ever seen, it was all for nothing but its an experience that im going to treasure and i'll never feel like that time was wasted. i don't even feel the tragedy in a way thats tangible, i just feel empty and at a loss for words and i just want things to be different but they wont be. phenomenal
also hitler is there. he doesn't really add anything to the story by being there? it makes sense why he's there in universe but they didn't really have to have him? it doesn't even particularly bother me that much it's just weird.
Have you ever had that feeling when you're down? You know the one, where you feel a clawing void in your stomach and it just doesnt go away and you just want to stay inside and drown your sorrow in whatever comfort you have to hand? That is how P2:IS's gameplay makes me feel. This is the only game I have ever played whose gameplay made me feel physically bad.
This is particularly strange given that Persona 1's gameplay was fine? Nothing amazing but you could automate most of it to make the obnoxious encounter rate more amenable. No such luck in Innocent Sin, everything has to be done through excruciating, asinine slow menus designed by some sort of trickster god to punish gamers for their sins. Even just using the fusion spells which is what I ended up just spamming the pace is absolutely horrendous and still takes too many clicks, especially if you need to change spells which require having different personas equipped. Even worse the bosses and general difficulty is absolutely braindead so you have the dull + unchallenging combination to put me to sleep
Maybe this game wouldnt occupy such negative space in my mind if it didnt constantly get overhyped by the community as being "the best persona game!" "the best story in a persona game" and you know maybe its the gameplay that has soured me but quite honestly THE STORY AINT EVEN THAT GOOD. Now admittedly I have not finished this game because of the aforementioned reasons but I really dont see what the hype is about. The whole rumour theme is intriguing and the characters have good chemistry and all that but its really not all that special? We just sort of stumble across the villains constantly and foil their plans like they are team rocket and we get some tragic backstory stuff through typical cutscenes but thats about it. Maybe people really like it if they're into conspiracy stuff and hitler shows up but honestly even the greatest story ever told wouldnt be worth the punishment that is the gameplay. Still though, best Persona story? Frankly I disagree, Ive seen shonen animes who've done this shit better.
I tried pushing through on 3 separate occasions before dropping it again and I think its a mark against any game where I go "Im just too fucking bored to keep going" at the point where Hitler shows up with his robot army from Hell.
Its come to my attention when sharing this opinion that the slow frustrating combat is more of a feature of the psp remake rather than the original. The problem though is that the original was never released in the west and as such has no official translation. More importantly however, if this unhinged essay hasnt clued you in, Im quite soured on this game, and Im not very inclined on trying it again any time soon
This is particularly strange given that Persona 1's gameplay was fine? Nothing amazing but you could automate most of it to make the obnoxious encounter rate more amenable. No such luck in Innocent Sin, everything has to be done through excruciating, asinine slow menus designed by some sort of trickster god to punish gamers for their sins. Even just using the fusion spells which is what I ended up just spamming the pace is absolutely horrendous and still takes too many clicks, especially if you need to change spells which require having different personas equipped. Even worse the bosses and general difficulty is absolutely braindead so you have the dull + unchallenging combination to put me to sleep
Maybe this game wouldnt occupy such negative space in my mind if it didnt constantly get overhyped by the community as being "the best persona game!" "the best story in a persona game" and you know maybe its the gameplay that has soured me but quite honestly THE STORY AINT EVEN THAT GOOD. Now admittedly I have not finished this game because of the aforementioned reasons but I really dont see what the hype is about. The whole rumour theme is intriguing and the characters have good chemistry and all that but its really not all that special? We just sort of stumble across the villains constantly and foil their plans like they are team rocket and we get some tragic backstory stuff through typical cutscenes but thats about it. Maybe people really like it if they're into conspiracy stuff and hitler shows up but honestly even the greatest story ever told wouldnt be worth the punishment that is the gameplay. Still though, best Persona story? Frankly I disagree, Ive seen shonen animes who've done this shit better.
I tried pushing through on 3 separate occasions before dropping it again and I think its a mark against any game where I go "Im just too fucking bored to keep going" at the point where Hitler shows up with his robot army from Hell.
Its come to my attention when sharing this opinion that the slow frustrating combat is more of a feature of the psp remake rather than the original. The problem though is that the original was never released in the west and as such has no official translation. More importantly however, if this unhinged essay hasnt clued you in, Im quite soured on this game, and Im not very inclined on trying it again any time soon
A game where I definitely feel compelled to gloss over some of the flaws because I really appreciate what it's trying to do.
The combat isn't necessarily bad, but it is definitely mediocre at best. Even playing the harder PSX version of the game it just felt more like going through the motions than anything requiring a ton of thought or strategy. Spam fusion spells, maybe keep a healer going and hope to burn things down as fast as you can. It's a shame that when there is difficulty it comes off as more frustrating than anything, with an overreliance on status inflictions from a lot of the later bosses.
The contact system is something I do enjoy quite a bit though, it works particularly well with how charming all of the cast is even if it gets a bit repetitive as the game goes on. It's a fun way to incentivize not having to fight some battles but still getting something out of them. I do think it could have been more clear early on though that this is how you should be using it, mainly to recover SP if you need to.
All that being said, the story is definitely where this game gets the most praise and for good reason. I really enjoy how much emphasis there is on the dangers of rumors and misinformation, while the plot starts out slow I think it was worth it so we can see how these elements really start to snowball over the course of the game. I particularly like how it not only showed the lies told to others but also the lies that people tell to themselves, either to deny a trait they have or to forget the past. The way the central characters exemplify this and tie it all back to the central mystery is really satisfying as well.
The ending does feel a bit rushed though, they don't really do a great job of making the actual supernatural mechanics super clear or interesting. I definitely think this is something they did a lot better in the later games, at least in terms of making this stuff more accessible/palatable. I haven't played Eternal Punishment yet though either.
In general, Innocent Sin still feels a bit like a series figuring out what it wants to be in many ways, crossing a lot of older SMT type stuff with more new and unique elements. Yet it still stands on its own as well with such a strong cast and story, and it's easy to see how it really sticks with people who play it.
The combat isn't necessarily bad, but it is definitely mediocre at best. Even playing the harder PSX version of the game it just felt more like going through the motions than anything requiring a ton of thought or strategy. Spam fusion spells, maybe keep a healer going and hope to burn things down as fast as you can. It's a shame that when there is difficulty it comes off as more frustrating than anything, with an overreliance on status inflictions from a lot of the later bosses.
The contact system is something I do enjoy quite a bit though, it works particularly well with how charming all of the cast is even if it gets a bit repetitive as the game goes on. It's a fun way to incentivize not having to fight some battles but still getting something out of them. I do think it could have been more clear early on though that this is how you should be using it, mainly to recover SP if you need to.
All that being said, the story is definitely where this game gets the most praise and for good reason. I really enjoy how much emphasis there is on the dangers of rumors and misinformation, while the plot starts out slow I think it was worth it so we can see how these elements really start to snowball over the course of the game. I particularly like how it not only showed the lies told to others but also the lies that people tell to themselves, either to deny a trait they have or to forget the past. The way the central characters exemplify this and tie it all back to the central mystery is really satisfying as well.
The ending does feel a bit rushed though, they don't really do a great job of making the actual supernatural mechanics super clear or interesting. I definitely think this is something they did a lot better in the later games, at least in terms of making this stuff more accessible/palatable. I haven't played Eternal Punishment yet though either.
In general, Innocent Sin still feels a bit like a series figuring out what it wants to be in many ways, crossing a lot of older SMT type stuff with more new and unique elements. Yet it still stands on its own as well with such a strong cast and story, and it's easy to see how it really sticks with people who play it.
si Persona 3-5 fueran buenos juegos y tuvieran una historia realmente madura en vez de un drama pretencioso. el videojuego:
si no hubiera sido por todo lo referente al gameplay que se siente arcaico y una estúpida dificultad la cual puedes terminar matando a Hittler en hard con la opción de autocombate, le hubiera puesto un 4.5. la historia, los personajes el OST fueron cosas sobresalientas y que ha sido la razon por la cual se ha convertido en mi Persona favorito. ojala Atlus se deje de estupideces y reconozca que Persona no empezó con el 3 y a largo plazo hagan un remake del Inocent Sin usando como base al futuro P6.
por cierto Sabías que en alemania hacen cosas buenas?
si no hubiera sido por todo lo referente al gameplay que se siente arcaico y una estúpida dificultad la cual puedes terminar matando a Hittler en hard con la opción de autocombate, le hubiera puesto un 4.5. la historia, los personajes el OST fueron cosas sobresalientas y que ha sido la razon por la cual se ha convertido en mi Persona favorito. ojala Atlus se deje de estupideces y reconozca que Persona no empezó con el 3 y a largo plazo hagan un remake del Inocent Sin usando como base al futuro P6.
por cierto Sabías que en alemania hacen cosas buenas?
Guys it's not that good calm down
I think anybody who says they enjoy the gameplay of this game is lying for attention
This review contains spoilers
The game before it starts: Any similarities between characters or events to people living or dead in your world are coincidental
The actual game: Hitler is the main villain.
I will have to take off a full star when I play this because of that hypocritical part alone, no matter how good the game is.
The actual game: Hitler is the main villain.
I will have to take off a full star when I play this because of that hypocritical part alone, no matter how good the game is.
Persona 2: Innocent Sin is overall a really great game, most of the story is amazing and I love the main cast. Sadly the gameplay is just, barely gameplay. Dungeons were fine mostly, some annoying some good, and from my experience of watching my buddy David play other SMT games that's a miracle. Overworld and utility stuff was good, I found the way of contacting and summoning Personas via cards interesting. Unfortunately you don't really need to do any of that due to the combat never feeling like you need anything other than the plot Personas, so there's no rewarding feeling of experimenting with different Personas. Boss fights aren't anything of note, they're mostly just long more than difficult. Barring the penultimate boss. Their presentation is pretty good for the limited environments and visuals they had.
Rumor system was pretty cool, I liked the idea and the gameplay and story integrate well with it.
But enough about gameplay, the story was amazing. Mostly. I know why the Nazis and Alien stuff was in the story, it fits and is used pretty well. I just didn't find any of it engaging. I liked the boss fight with the aliens though, that was pretty cool. But the actual good story content, that being developing the stories of each main cast member was excellent. I loved learning more about them as they learned about themselves. I always feel putting both the player and character on the same side of the mystery, both discovering at the same time is a great way to go about it. I also absolutely love how this game ends.
The cast's interactions with each other are also fantastic. Ranging from great funny bits to great emotional beats. Maya is definitely my favorite character, her story is a big focus and her role feels unique among the cast, she's a fun character that attributes a lot of the funny scenes to her. But the rest of the characters I love as well, very closely below her. An almost imperceptible difference.
I am excited to see where the story goes in Eternal Punishment. Thanks to all my Persona Pals for helping me on my journey.
Rumor system was pretty cool, I liked the idea and the gameplay and story integrate well with it.
But enough about gameplay, the story was amazing. Mostly. I know why the Nazis and Alien stuff was in the story, it fits and is used pretty well. I just didn't find any of it engaging. I liked the boss fight with the aliens though, that was pretty cool. But the actual good story content, that being developing the stories of each main cast member was excellent. I loved learning more about them as they learned about themselves. I always feel putting both the player and character on the same side of the mystery, both discovering at the same time is a great way to go about it. I also absolutely love how this game ends.
The cast's interactions with each other are also fantastic. Ranging from great funny bits to great emotional beats. Maya is definitely my favorite character, her story is a big focus and her role feels unique among the cast, she's a fun character that attributes a lot of the funny scenes to her. But the rest of the characters I love as well, very closely below her. An almost imperceptible difference.
I am excited to see where the story goes in Eternal Punishment. Thanks to all my Persona Pals for helping me on my journey.
I made the tough decision of shelving this game. I will say I genuinely enjoyed what I played, but I havent picked this up in months and I dont feel a drive to continue playing this right now.
the guy that said persona games sucked before the social aspects is just malding because he couldn't have sex with more 16 year olds nobody listen to them this game is great
Rumor or reality?
I'm extremely conflicted about how I feel about this game. Some obvious excellent elements are here with the extremely likable and relatable characters and incredibly ridiculous story I didn't expect barring some of the most tedious gameplay I have ever played in a japanese role playing game. I've managed to try both versions and with some outside advice went with the PSX version to complete despite being more tedious than I expected although playing the PSP version and completely brushing off the combat somehow didn't sit right with me.
The story and the characters are truly what redeems this game in my eyes are for a lot of people the important part of Persona 2 in general. The story goes in directions I really didn't expect and provide some meaning about the consequences of our actions being in our youth affecting who we are. The characters easily deserve spots as some of the developer's most well written with how they are portrayed and presented in the story and how everything ties together with one of the most bittersweet endings I've seen in a JRPG.
So in full honesty here, I've kinda been dreading playing this game. I can mostly say I am not a fan of old megaten gameplay barring the original Soul Hackers for being enough fast paced and not completely brainless in itself which seems to be a problem with how old megaten JRPGs seem to be. If you played the PlayStation Portable version, the general notion would be to play on easy and completely ignore this facet of the game which I was almost tempted to do but I didn't personally like the notion of skipping a facet of the game entirely and just rating the narrative elements which is good since it feels kinda disingenuous personally. Now the PSX version removes the easy factor and makes you have to actually learn the system itself but sad to see the system is extremely slow and not satisfying to me either. All of this encompassed with an extremely high encounter rate which made it hard to ignore this element of the game really bogs it down to me since while I can ignore bad gameplay with a great narrative/characters, there's a limit and this game reached it fairly early.
I still think people should really give this game a shot on either version they truly want since you'll be paying for it with your time if anything. Not gonna lie and say I'm glad I played the PSX version instead but I can say I'm personally proud for getting through it. Major gameplay grievances aside, Persona 2: Innocent Sin definitely deserves the praise it gets but I feel it should be put with an asterisk next to it since it feels like having to ignore the elephant in the room.
I'm extremely conflicted about how I feel about this game. Some obvious excellent elements are here with the extremely likable and relatable characters and incredibly ridiculous story I didn't expect barring some of the most tedious gameplay I have ever played in a japanese role playing game. I've managed to try both versions and with some outside advice went with the PSX version to complete despite being more tedious than I expected although playing the PSP version and completely brushing off the combat somehow didn't sit right with me.
The story and the characters are truly what redeems this game in my eyes are for a lot of people the important part of Persona 2 in general. The story goes in directions I really didn't expect and provide some meaning about the consequences of our actions being in our youth affecting who we are. The characters easily deserve spots as some of the developer's most well written with how they are portrayed and presented in the story and how everything ties together with one of the most bittersweet endings I've seen in a JRPG.
So in full honesty here, I've kinda been dreading playing this game. I can mostly say I am not a fan of old megaten gameplay barring the original Soul Hackers for being enough fast paced and not completely brainless in itself which seems to be a problem with how old megaten JRPGs seem to be. If you played the PlayStation Portable version, the general notion would be to play on easy and completely ignore this facet of the game which I was almost tempted to do but I didn't personally like the notion of skipping a facet of the game entirely and just rating the narrative elements which is good since it feels kinda disingenuous personally. Now the PSX version removes the easy factor and makes you have to actually learn the system itself but sad to see the system is extremely slow and not satisfying to me either. All of this encompassed with an extremely high encounter rate which made it hard to ignore this element of the game really bogs it down to me since while I can ignore bad gameplay with a great narrative/characters, there's a limit and this game reached it fairly early.
I still think people should really give this game a shot on either version they truly want since you'll be paying for it with your time if anything. Not gonna lie and say I'm glad I played the PSX version instead but I can say I'm personally proud for getting through it. Major gameplay grievances aside, Persona 2: Innocent Sin definitely deserves the praise it gets but I feel it should be put with an asterisk next to it since it feels like having to ignore the elephant in the room.
Another game that's PEAK PSX aesthetic, with a mixture of the comfortable, soothing music.
The low-poly environments and super expressive sprite work.
The very silly interactions between the characters and the wonderful dynamics they have.
And the wonderfully written story!
The only issue I have with the game is how incredibly slow the battles are, and how way too easy the game is. Though both of those things do admittedly add to it's comfy atmosphere, it's a real joy!
The low-poly environments and super expressive sprite work.
The very silly interactions between the characters and the wonderful dynamics they have.
And the wonderfully written story!
The only issue I have with the game is how incredibly slow the battles are, and how way too easy the game is. Though both of those things do admittedly add to it's comfy atmosphere, it's a real joy!
Persona 2 fans want you to believe this is the best one as if the gameplay is any good or the story doesn't completely fail to deliver once the actual third reich shows up
Worse than alone / Exiled.
The second game in the Persona series sets out to build and improve upon everything found in the first game. Admittedly the game was very hyped up as being the best the franchise offers, and I can certainly see why. The game is dripping with symbolism trenched deep into a plot involving some of the craziest scenarios in the series, but one that ultimately has a heart at the center of it all.
For starters, I think the gameplay is an improvement of Persona 1's in every aspect....but that still doesn't mean it's the best either. Dungeons are the worst example; they're largely monotonous and too long for their own good at later points in the game. Combat is certainly unique and challenging, but I can't help but feel like it's not all that engaging. A new mechanic that I actually really like is the Rumor System; it has more depth than I was expecting, and I love how it's an extension of the main narrative itself. While you're going around town, spreading rumors, or buying items, the game's excellent soundtrack is also there to keep you company, and I love the instrumental variety featured in the OST.
Worse than exiled / Dead.
Ultimately, I think the strongest part of Innocent Sin lies in its narrative. The storytelling method is quite different from the first game, and I think it works for the story they're going for here. An ever-longing pain emanates from each of the main cast from your first encounter with them, and their struggles were very explored very well. I do think there are some hiccups though, as I can't help but feel the last party member that joins is never given enough interaction with the rest of the cast for me to get a proper handle on what kind of person he is. His struggles were laid out well, but I think the game could've benefited from having a few more scenes with him.
Besides that, I think almost everyone is well-written, and I love the moments where we get to know each character. Whether it be Maya's messy room, Eikichi's dreams of becoming a rock star, or Lisa's habit of blurting out Cantonese phrases, I loved getting to know these characters and exploring the town of Sumaru City. This game reminded me why I fell in love with Persona and Megami Tensei years ago.
Worse than dead / Forgotten.
The second game in the Persona series sets out to build and improve upon everything found in the first game. Admittedly the game was very hyped up as being the best the franchise offers, and I can certainly see why. The game is dripping with symbolism trenched deep into a plot involving some of the craziest scenarios in the series, but one that ultimately has a heart at the center of it all.
For starters, I think the gameplay is an improvement of Persona 1's in every aspect....but that still doesn't mean it's the best either. Dungeons are the worst example; they're largely monotonous and too long for their own good at later points in the game. Combat is certainly unique and challenging, but I can't help but feel like it's not all that engaging. A new mechanic that I actually really like is the Rumor System; it has more depth than I was expecting, and I love how it's an extension of the main narrative itself. While you're going around town, spreading rumors, or buying items, the game's excellent soundtrack is also there to keep you company, and I love the instrumental variety featured in the OST.
Worse than exiled / Dead.
Ultimately, I think the strongest part of Innocent Sin lies in its narrative. The storytelling method is quite different from the first game, and I think it works for the story they're going for here. An ever-longing pain emanates from each of the main cast from your first encounter with them, and their struggles were very explored very well. I do think there are some hiccups though, as I can't help but feel the last party member that joins is never given enough interaction with the rest of the cast for me to get a proper handle on what kind of person he is. His struggles were laid out well, but I think the game could've benefited from having a few more scenes with him.
Besides that, I think almost everyone is well-written, and I love the moments where we get to know each character. Whether it be Maya's messy room, Eikichi's dreams of becoming a rock star, or Lisa's habit of blurting out Cantonese phrases, I loved getting to know these characters and exploring the town of Sumaru City. This game reminded me why I fell in love with Persona and Megami Tensei years ago.
Worse than dead / Forgotten.
Very strong contender for my favorite persona game. The gameplay is easy but with how everyone complains about it really isn't as bad as expected. The story is very good and the cast works together super well.
URGENT: For the love of god, play the PS1 original, not the PSP version. I have deleted the log that I originally posted here and am re-posting this now in hopes of getting eyes on this and counterbalancing any misunderstanding that it may have propagated. As it turns out, the entire crux of my disappointment with Innocent Sin is the PSP version's doing.
On PSP, REGARDLESS of difficulty selection, Innocent Sin's gameplay is a desert one must cross to reach the oases of its wonderful story. On PS1, Innocent Sin's battles are NOT exclusively a waste of your time! It's NOT a small difference! It turns out that the auto-battle system used to NOT SUCK, and there used to be some modicum of ACTUAL TENSION in some of the fights!!! I honestly feel cheated by having the PSP version taint my first experience! The PS1 version is as good as the PSP version of Eternal Punishment, maybe even better!
It's not a simple matter of being "too easy." The PSP version of Innocent Sin traps you in a position where the encounter rate is disruptively high and then presents you with two options for achieving the forgone conclusion of your victory in any of these encounters:
Option 1: Navigate the menus for each character every turn and tell them each to do the obviously optimal thing every turn with no interesting variations because the only thing enemies can do in their own defense is annoy you but they have too much health to courteously die in a timely fashion,
or Option 2: Press Triangle and sit patiently while the game resolves the encounter on its own in the slowest, most painful way possible, including all of the bosses, with pretty much complete, unquestionable safety.
On the PS1, the game is DESIGNED around a WAY better auto-battle system, and things can actually hurt you, so you have to pay attention! Even if the fights aren't much more interesting on PS1, they fly by so much faster that it's hard to complain about them. It's still by no means difficult, but it at least provides Final Fantasy levels of combat engagement now! In fact, the game clicks into place in almost the exact same ways that a PS1 Final Fantasy game does, as a breezy trip through a meticulously told and thematically resonant story, with gameplay that doesn't turn any heads, but doesn't get in the way of a good time either.
It feels at least slightly insane to bump Innocent Sin from the lowly score it had all the way up to this, but everything wrong with it is in its gameplay mechanics, and on PS1 almost everything I held against the PSP version is a non-issue. It still doesn't sit right with me that the easiest path through the game means never even setting foot in the Velvet Room, and having to grind out demon negotiations if you choose to use it sucks, but compared to my previous problems of constant, meaningless, tedious encounters, that's practically nothing.
Am I willing to give it the full-on five star treatment? Not quite. The design is still too shaky for that. Aside from the Velvet Room thing, money and SP still grow on trees in a way that makes dungeoneering and shopping even less interesting than it is in, say, Final Fantasy VII, and something like materia is enough to blow this implementation of the Velvet Room out of the water.
The question is, will Eternal Punishment bring enough tension back into the battles to overpower those other flaws and win my full marks?
EDIT... again:
The balance is fine. I'm nearing the end of my replay on PS1 now, and I've totally come around on the battle system and its balance. The gap between PS1 Innocent Sin and PSP Eternal Punishment is small, and there's no need for Eternal Punishment to "fix" it. I have however decided that yeah, I do have to dock a bit for pacing reasons. The beginning of the game absolutely knocks it out of the park, but the middle drags. It really does start wearing you down when Lisa's spotlight arc plays out across three of the blander dungeons with only brief glimpses of story in between them. The mundane setting plays a hand in this, because while it may be interesting to see a game turn an exercise gym into a dungeon, it ends up being the fifth or sixth "normal building" dungeon the player has navigated in a row. On top of this... like, the air raid shelter just sorta sucks, dude. Not letting you save before you fight King Leo after you just did a whole dungeon and a bunch of cutscenes? Also sucks. I think there are enough low points here to hold this back from really trading blows with something like Final Fantasy VII or even IX. I guess this really IS an alternate universe Final Fantasy VIII...
Edit AGAIN:
So at the end of this journey, of my many initial criticisms, the following still stand:
-The third or so of the game after the first two hours drags.
-Minor setpiece groaning about King Leo and Air Raid shelter.
-Negotiation sucks and isn't fun to grind so Velvet Room rots.
-For MOST of the game SP is a non-factor (not endgame).
That's... not a long list, and the impact of everything on it isn't really much bigger than say, the overbloated animations and trance system failures of FFIX, another game that I've recently decided I can't deny a spot in the five-star club. The honest truth is that Innocent Sin is so cosmically far ahead of its time in terms of writing that it should take a lot more than that petty list of grievances to lower its standing.
On PSP, REGARDLESS of difficulty selection, Innocent Sin's gameplay is a desert one must cross to reach the oases of its wonderful story. On PS1, Innocent Sin's battles are NOT exclusively a waste of your time! It's NOT a small difference! It turns out that the auto-battle system used to NOT SUCK, and there used to be some modicum of ACTUAL TENSION in some of the fights!!! I honestly feel cheated by having the PSP version taint my first experience! The PS1 version is as good as the PSP version of Eternal Punishment, maybe even better!
It's not a simple matter of being "too easy." The PSP version of Innocent Sin traps you in a position where the encounter rate is disruptively high and then presents you with two options for achieving the forgone conclusion of your victory in any of these encounters:
Option 1: Navigate the menus for each character every turn and tell them each to do the obviously optimal thing every turn with no interesting variations because the only thing enemies can do in their own defense is annoy you but they have too much health to courteously die in a timely fashion,
or Option 2: Press Triangle and sit patiently while the game resolves the encounter on its own in the slowest, most painful way possible, including all of the bosses, with pretty much complete, unquestionable safety.
On the PS1, the game is DESIGNED around a WAY better auto-battle system, and things can actually hurt you, so you have to pay attention! Even if the fights aren't much more interesting on PS1, they fly by so much faster that it's hard to complain about them. It's still by no means difficult, but it at least provides Final Fantasy levels of combat engagement now! In fact, the game clicks into place in almost the exact same ways that a PS1 Final Fantasy game does, as a breezy trip through a meticulously told and thematically resonant story, with gameplay that doesn't turn any heads, but doesn't get in the way of a good time either.
It feels at least slightly insane to bump Innocent Sin from the lowly score it had all the way up to this, but everything wrong with it is in its gameplay mechanics, and on PS1 almost everything I held against the PSP version is a non-issue. It still doesn't sit right with me that the easiest path through the game means never even setting foot in the Velvet Room, and having to grind out demon negotiations if you choose to use it sucks, but compared to my previous problems of constant, meaningless, tedious encounters, that's practically nothing.
Am I willing to give it the full-on five star treatment? Not quite. The design is still too shaky for that. Aside from the Velvet Room thing, money and SP still grow on trees in a way that makes dungeoneering and shopping even less interesting than it is in, say, Final Fantasy VII, and something like materia is enough to blow this implementation of the Velvet Room out of the water.
The question is, will Eternal Punishment bring enough tension back into the battles to overpower those other flaws and win my full marks?
EDIT... again:
The balance is fine. I'm nearing the end of my replay on PS1 now, and I've totally come around on the battle system and its balance. The gap between PS1 Innocent Sin and PSP Eternal Punishment is small, and there's no need for Eternal Punishment to "fix" it. I have however decided that yeah, I do have to dock a bit for pacing reasons. The beginning of the game absolutely knocks it out of the park, but the middle drags. It really does start wearing you down when Lisa's spotlight arc plays out across three of the blander dungeons with only brief glimpses of story in between them. The mundane setting plays a hand in this, because while it may be interesting to see a game turn an exercise gym into a dungeon, it ends up being the fifth or sixth "normal building" dungeon the player has navigated in a row. On top of this... like, the air raid shelter just sorta sucks, dude. Not letting you save before you fight King Leo after you just did a whole dungeon and a bunch of cutscenes? Also sucks. I think there are enough low points here to hold this back from really trading blows with something like Final Fantasy VII or even IX. I guess this really IS an alternate universe Final Fantasy VIII...
Edit AGAIN:
So at the end of this journey, of my many initial criticisms, the following still stand:
-The third or so of the game after the first two hours drags.
-Minor setpiece groaning about King Leo and Air Raid shelter.
-Negotiation sucks and isn't fun to grind so Velvet Room rots.
-For MOST of the game SP is a non-factor (not endgame).
That's... not a long list, and the impact of everything on it isn't really much bigger than say, the overbloated animations and trance system failures of FFIX, another game that I've recently decided I can't deny a spot in the five-star club. The honest truth is that Innocent Sin is so cosmically far ahead of its time in terms of writing that it should take a lot more than that petty list of grievances to lower its standing.
While I like the characters and what story it has. The amount of story content is way too little when you compare it to how much random encounters you face, there is about 4 hours worth of good story contrasted with 26 hours of terrible dungeon crawling and battling. So ultimately I cannot recommend this game, like Sonic 06, it has potential, but in it's current state, its a bad game and needs a full on remake in every aspect to live up to it's potential.
Persona 2 Innocent Sin is an extremely polarizing game for me since what I liked and disliked about P1 applies twofold here.
In terms of plot, well, P2s story is about a lot of things. It's about accepting one's flaws and past mistakes while realizing they're not what define you. It's about growing up and the importance of holding onto your dreams and ideals as you venture into the adult world, full of jaded and burned out grown ups. It's about the struggles of living up to paternal expectations. It's about all these things and more and it's frankly impossible for me to do the story justice, however, I will say that this game's narrative impacted and connected with me on a level that very few pieces of media ever have.
The cast is also fantastic. On first meeting, they may seem quite simple but everyone has their own arc and as you journey through the game and learn more about their past, they really end up standing out as some of the best written characters in the series. I also really like their quirks, like Maya's terrible driving or Michel's narcissism. These quirks lead to really enjoyable moments of levity and it made me that much more attached to the cast.
Even the NPCs here are surprisingly good. What they say is often funny and if it's not, it fleshes out the story or hints at future events. This is the only RPG I've played in which I went out of my way to read as much optional dialogue as possible.
Then there's the OST. P2 ditches the otherworldly vibe that P1s OST had in favour of a much more somber and melancholic score and it works beautifully. It's very rare for a soundtrack to get a big emotional reaction out of me but P2 managed to do that on multiple occasions, even with the map theme of all things.
As for gameplay, it does improve on a lot of issues I had with P1. The grid system is completely gone. The dungeons are shorter. You can now see how close you are to ranking up a Persona. You can also check what skills a Persona will learn before summoning it so you don't run the risk of devoting time into ranking up a Persona that ends up learning really weak abilities. EXP is now shared equally among party members so no one falls behind. All these changes are welcome, but the game is too easy and doesn't add enough to make the gameplay more interesting than it was in P1, so what you're left with is what feels like an extremely dumbed-down version of its predecessor. Because of it, I ended up auto-battling my way through basically the whole game, including most bosses and the further I went into the game, the less interested I became. The fact that the gameplay is so insanely easy and boring here completely killed my motivation for experimenting with different Personas and doing sidequests since it all feels unnecessary. In a way, I think I prefer P1s gameplay since while that game was frustrating and its areas dragged on and on, atleast I had to engage with it and think about what I was doing which I didn't need to here.
One big part of P2s gameplay is Rumours that you can pay money to spread around and make them come true. Spreading rumours is how you acquire stronger weapons and fight optional bosses which is cool but I think this concept could've been expanded more. Rumours also don't really work in terms of story for me. That's because there's no real limit on what rumour can come true and yet the cast never seems to take advantage of them so it ends up feeling like one big plot hole.
In my P1 review I said a great narrative can't justify terrible gameplay. However, P2 does such a great job with other aspects such as the OST and the cast that I can just barely say that the positives outshine the negatives here. Even with how monotonous it often felt, I can tell this is a game that will be on my mind for weeks to come and overall, I did enjoy it.
In terms of plot, well, P2s story is about a lot of things. It's about accepting one's flaws and past mistakes while realizing they're not what define you. It's about growing up and the importance of holding onto your dreams and ideals as you venture into the adult world, full of jaded and burned out grown ups. It's about the struggles of living up to paternal expectations. It's about all these things and more and it's frankly impossible for me to do the story justice, however, I will say that this game's narrative impacted and connected with me on a level that very few pieces of media ever have.
The cast is also fantastic. On first meeting, they may seem quite simple but everyone has their own arc and as you journey through the game and learn more about their past, they really end up standing out as some of the best written characters in the series. I also really like their quirks, like Maya's terrible driving or Michel's narcissism. These quirks lead to really enjoyable moments of levity and it made me that much more attached to the cast.
Even the NPCs here are surprisingly good. What they say is often funny and if it's not, it fleshes out the story or hints at future events. This is the only RPG I've played in which I went out of my way to read as much optional dialogue as possible.
Then there's the OST. P2 ditches the otherworldly vibe that P1s OST had in favour of a much more somber and melancholic score and it works beautifully. It's very rare for a soundtrack to get a big emotional reaction out of me but P2 managed to do that on multiple occasions, even with the map theme of all things.
As for gameplay, it does improve on a lot of issues I had with P1. The grid system is completely gone. The dungeons are shorter. You can now see how close you are to ranking up a Persona. You can also check what skills a Persona will learn before summoning it so you don't run the risk of devoting time into ranking up a Persona that ends up learning really weak abilities. EXP is now shared equally among party members so no one falls behind. All these changes are welcome, but the game is too easy and doesn't add enough to make the gameplay more interesting than it was in P1, so what you're left with is what feels like an extremely dumbed-down version of its predecessor. Because of it, I ended up auto-battling my way through basically the whole game, including most bosses and the further I went into the game, the less interested I became. The fact that the gameplay is so insanely easy and boring here completely killed my motivation for experimenting with different Personas and doing sidequests since it all feels unnecessary. In a way, I think I prefer P1s gameplay since while that game was frustrating and its areas dragged on and on, atleast I had to engage with it and think about what I was doing which I didn't need to here.
One big part of P2s gameplay is Rumours that you can pay money to spread around and make them come true. Spreading rumours is how you acquire stronger weapons and fight optional bosses which is cool but I think this concept could've been expanded more. Rumours also don't really work in terms of story for me. That's because there's no real limit on what rumour can come true and yet the cast never seems to take advantage of them so it ends up feeling like one big plot hole.
In my P1 review I said a great narrative can't justify terrible gameplay. However, P2 does such a great job with other aspects such as the OST and the cast that I can just barely say that the positives outshine the negatives here. Even with how monotonous it often felt, I can tell this is a game that will be on my mind for weeks to come and overall, I did enjoy it.
i pretend the battle system doesn't exist
The gameplay isn't that bad honestly, story and characters are amazing go play this shit now!
will do a real one of this one soon too but yeah this duology changed my life
braindead, piss easy game. better if you treat it like a visual novel. fantastic story/characters
Eu queria de verdade dizer que tentei ao máximo ter a melhor experiência possível com esse jogo. Talvez tenha bastante coisa que eu não tenha entendido em relação a história, mas eu fiz o meu melhor pra explorar o maximo possível nesse quesito.
Não pretendo fazer uma review longa, então vou resumir; a história desse jogo NÃO COMPENSA sua gameplay. E eu não digo isso pra falar "putz que jogo datado, envelheceu mal", até porquê surpreendentemente eu me diverti mais no Persona 1, eu digo isso pra pontuar, que das 25 horas que eu joguei disso, eu me diverti em no máximo 5, que são as horas iniciais. Eu terminei e não me senti impressionado por nada, não teve um único momento que me abalou de verdade na história e não teve nenhum momento de gameplay que eu realmente me diverti a ponto de dizer "Nossa, que jogo bom"
Meu maior elogio ao jogo, fica ao seu visual e seus personagens, é um jogo extremamente lindo até hoje, e do elenco principal não tem nenhum personagem que eu não goste.
Enfim, não sei se jogarei o Eternal Punishment, eu não me senti decepcionado pelo Innocent Sin, apenas não senti nada e não me marcou. Não é um jogo ruim, talvez só não seja pra mim mesmo
Não pretendo fazer uma review longa, então vou resumir; a história desse jogo NÃO COMPENSA sua gameplay. E eu não digo isso pra falar "putz que jogo datado, envelheceu mal", até porquê surpreendentemente eu me diverti mais no Persona 1, eu digo isso pra pontuar, que das 25 horas que eu joguei disso, eu me diverti em no máximo 5, que são as horas iniciais. Eu terminei e não me senti impressionado por nada, não teve um único momento que me abalou de verdade na história e não teve nenhum momento de gameplay que eu realmente me diverti a ponto de dizer "Nossa, que jogo bom"
Meu maior elogio ao jogo, fica ao seu visual e seus personagens, é um jogo extremamente lindo até hoje, e do elenco principal não tem nenhum personagem que eu não goste.
Enfim, não sei se jogarei o Eternal Punishment, eu não me senti decepcionado pelo Innocent Sin, apenas não senti nada e não me marcou. Não é um jogo ruim, talvez só não seja pra mim mesmo
Loved the characters, the writing, the world and at first the gameplay. On a second playthrough, the gameplay of the PSP version falls short. This is probably because the psp version changed up the original combat system and made it worse. If the OG system was there I'd rate it as 5/5 tbh. I can't think of any problems I had with the game.
I loved the characters and their bond, I loved all the things you could discover through talking to NPCs and I loved the banger story which had no downtime, filler or bad moments. There is also more to pick up from the game as on a second playthrough, all the hints, foreshadowing and clues become much more obvious and you realise that the game had been hinting at the big plot stuff for hours before it actually happened.
Conclusion, it was my second persona game and quite frankly is in my top 5 MegaTen games rn. A must play for anyone who enjoys MegaTen and good stories
I loved the characters and their bond, I loved all the things you could discover through talking to NPCs and I loved the banger story which had no downtime, filler or bad moments. There is also more to pick up from the game as on a second playthrough, all the hints, foreshadowing and clues become much more obvious and you realise that the game had been hinting at the big plot stuff for hours before it actually happened.
Conclusion, it was my second persona game and quite frankly is in my top 5 MegaTen games rn. A must play for anyone who enjoys MegaTen and good stories