Finally having the pleasure to play this game, I gotta say, going from Persona 1 to this game was a dream. The combat, story, writing, and well, everything is better. The story is by far one of the most creative in the series, definitely outlandish, but awesome if you stick with it. This cast is probably my favorite of the entire series both in their designs and how well-explored they are as characters, we get to see the good and ugly of them and both sides feel adequately fleshed out, these characters are criminally underrated. The combat, while slow for the PSP version (thank you fast forward for making grinding go for a breeze), has vastly been improved in terms of balancing and how you engage enemies and it's less tedious as a result. The dungeons are for the most part fine...minus the ones with damaging and SP-draining floors and the atmosphere of the game in general is incredible. Visually, the game's aged quite well, especially with the art, sure, it's no Persona 5 or anything, but it's got its own identity and sticks out nicely with its usage of grungier colors compared to the rest of the series. The music and voice-acting are great as well (though I played the undub for this game specifically because Eternal Punishment on PSP was never translated or dubbed and as a result, it's in Japanese so I thought it made sense, but from what I've heard of the English dub, it's pretty great and does the characters justice.) The battle and dungeon themes, in particular, are damn good in this game and the shop themes add charm to seemingly ornate places.

Overall, it's a solid experience that's only one part of an amazing Duology and if you enjoyed this game, Eternal Punishment's gonna be a trip for you. Don't sleep on these classic Persona games, everyone, you're missing out.

While being rushed out in six months...it's competent enough for what it is. The story is flawed albeit works as a companion piece to 6, 7 (Like a Dragon), and 8 (Infinite Wealth.) The characters are a mixed bag, some good like Akame and Hanawa, and some bad like Shishido and Nishitani in terms of their writing. The side content is about 50-50 in terms of quality, I liked the Colosseum and some of Akame's Requests, but things like the Pocket Circuit Racing were kinda....eh. The soundtrack was pretty great as always given the composers they brought back and some of the new ones they brought in for this game. The gameplay (for me at least with the LaD Gaiden Deluxe mod) was pretty awesome and I do like the Agent style along with the retweaked Dragon style. All in all, while it should've been more fleshed out and not rushed, it's far from the worst entry in the series and there are things I liked about it, it's definitely got its share of issues. Be sure play the other games leading up to this one if you're a new fan coming into the series otherwise you're gonna be REALLY confused.