This is the western localized version of the original Persona game with character sprites and names altered to appease western audiences. The changes are rather unnecessary but I think dont really impact the game. If anything, it makes the dialogue funnier.

Persona 1 is like Cock and Ball torture in a videogame. It's somewhat enjoyable but really hurts and gets tiring after a while. The formations in combat was a massive drawbnack and added frustrating depth to a turn-based style game. Demon negotiations are very hit or miss and are like spinning a roulette wheel, especially with the insane amount of dialogue options to take with them.

The story is rather simple, but very enjoyable and charming. The characters are often hilarious with some slight nonsensical reactions or tendency to be 1 note.

I actually very much enjoyed this game and I hold it to a higher standing compared to Persona 5 (the only other and first persona game I've played). The combat got mad annoying and is a major drawback, but the charm of the game kept me glued to it throughout its entirety.

If you care for the atmosphere game is amazing. Battle system on the other hand is not amazing. I think its a great game but the major flaw is something so important. Other then the battling and constant encounters the game is something that no other game has achieved. I played the game for the atmosphere and i got what i wanted. Its so amazing and i recommended playing it just for that. Just speed up the battles cause that shit is not worth playing for.

Basically my synopsis

atmosphere = 5/5
Story 4/5
Characters 3/5
Dungeons 4/5
Battling 2/5

Played the old localized ps1 version on my ps2 console, had to put it down near the end after an absent-minded loss to a boss after about a 4 hour run of playing where I couldn't make it to a save tree. Realized I had to move on if I ever want to get to the more intriguing Persona 2 games(Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, both having either fan or official translations for ps1). Saw how the story finished out, and I'm curious now about the alternate storyline, which to complete I would have to pick up the PSP version of the game, so if I ever return to this that's probably how I'd do it.

The rest of this is very aesthetically pleasing. It's interesting how this was the evolution of the series after SMT If... the characterization was more ensemble and casual, something that would continue on with future Persona games and SMT as a whole. The town map was the only thing hard to navigate at the beginning for me, and the dungeons too strain you to go on a bit to long with that slow, flashy sprite combat(another reason I couldn't trudge through after losing so much progress). Despite the slow pace and combat which is so true-to-form for this series, the strengths of the world still came through here in the personality of the world, the characters, the monsters(including a basketball ghost and a demon toilet), the gambling minigames in the shady mall, the twin-peaks inspired velvet room(with one of the more interesting methods for fusion), the charm of the ps1 textured marble floors in the corporate building, the memorable soundtrack, and the hokey parallel-world story that's just campy and kindhearted enough for me to still look up the finish. Though I'm moving on in this series out of necessity I can say definitively that I did enjoy my time with this one, and I'd recommend it to all curious SMT fans, especially if you have the patience to get on board with the more dated elements.

Revelations Persona: Nanjo finally gets the N-word pass

Despite the localization basically being 4kids tier on crack, I have a soft spot for it just due to how unintentionally hilarious and insane it is. Nanjo gets turned into a cracker, Mark's favorite food is fried chicken, the "I'm white so you know I'm true" line by Elly (which to be fair back then white was supposed to be a metaphor for honest but taken with all the other racial stuff makes it way worse than it was intended), and of course, everyone's favorite superhero

SUPER GUIDO

(he's also Italian and runs a mob racket)

All jokes aside, the PSP version is an improvement over this one but not by much, the PSP version adds a few QoL changes but imo not enough to really make an improvement, at least in terms of gameplay. If you're used to other Megaten games the spell names are drastically different but you can usually pick up which ones are which, and same goes for the item and Persona names as well. In the PSP version you also have to install a patch to listen to the original soundtrack, which fits far, far better for the very particular tone this game is going for, and still holds up to this day as one of the best Megaten OSTs.

All in all, it's still worth playing if you have a twisted sense of humor and want to see what amounts to basically a time capsule but I would definitely recommend playing the PSP version first since it's a far more faithful translation, and the plot is actually pretty solid.

possibly my favorite game of all time, the localization here is a meme so it's not exactly this version that i'm talking about, but everything about this game just comes together for me. it's got the most impeccable atmosphere i've ever seen in any game, and i think it expresses its themes better than any other game in the series, it just sticks in my mind and has done so for the past 2 years straight. and yes i even find the gameplay pretty fun.

it's the one and the only, Record of Another Goddess: Persona.... wish i lived in a world where it was called that and the PS1 version had a decent localization lol