A game greater than the sum of its parts.

As a spin of of SMT, Persona’s main strength to me personally has always been character writing. While the original does have interesting characters, it seems to have the disadvantage of being the original attempt at this character writing. Generally speaking the characters are not as fleshed out as later entries into the series. The one exception being Maki, who sports an excellent character arc that really brings to light inspirations that were implemented in the series later. Other characters do have arcs but they are less involved are somewhat read like a PowerPoint of a well executed character.

The gameplay is probably my least liked aspect. Many of the aspects are not explained very well, and even after figuring them out they are more painful then fun (mainly speaking in demon negotiation and absurdly high event encounter rate coupled with slow paced battles).

Another aspect to consider is the OST. While I generally enjoy many of this re-release’s vocal tracks, they do clash with the games more somber and horror centric tone. Many of the original tracks are much more foreboding, such as the opening MV. But again, I do love these new vocal tracks separate from the game.

Overall, this is a game I’d recommend to anyone with any interest in the series roots or people looking to play an earlier dungeon crawler like JRPG. Glimpses of genius shine through at times, mainly in regards to Maki