Customer Reviews

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Over a decade ago, at the tender age of 13, I purchased "Revelations: Persona" for the Playstation. The game received very good review scores, and the Playstation console was somewhat starved for Japanese RPGs in America at the time, so as a fan of the genre, I figured I couldn't go wrong.

What I didn't expect was just HOW different Persona would be from the standard JRPG, such as the Final Fantasy games. With a good localization and a user-friendly interface, the game could have helped me to overcome the initial culture shock that I experienced and enjoy a deep and unique role-playing experience.

Unfortunately, the translation/localization was beyond shoddy, and at times even offensive (one of the characters' ethnicity was changed to African-American for the US release - a change that was not handled with much tact), and the already intimidating interface was hampered by convoluted menus. Needless to say, the game didn't click with me at the time, and it wasn't long before I banished it to the back of my closet.

Fast forward over a decade, when after playing through Persona 2 and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES (both EXCELLENT games), I decided to give the original Persona another shot. Although I was much more open-minded going in this time - and dedicated to finishing the game no matter what - the game's faults still stood out and made for a very frustrating experience. I got much further than I did when I first purchased the game, but I was still turned off by the horrible interfaces and clumsy translation. I put the game away, and turned my attention to the soon-to-be released Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4.

It's late 2009 now, and Atlus has released the definitive version of Persona for the PSP, promising a vastly improved localization and more user-friendly gameplay, along with a handful of other improvements. Is this version good enough to allow me to finally enjoy this game? In a word: YES!

First of all, the presentation is phenomenal. The game opens with a beautiful and imaginative intro that perfectly sets the tone for game. The actual in-game graphics haven't changed much, if even at all, and they are easily the weakest aspect of the game. The music (created by the composer of the music in Persona 3 and 4), on the other hand, is entirely new, and much more fitting, helping the game to establish its unique identity early on. The translation, as promised, is brand new, and exceptional overall.

The menu interface has been streamlined, making inventory management much less frustrating than it was in the original version of the game. Character customization now requires very little effort, and battles can be completed much more quickly. The process of creating Personas (a vital part of the game) has also been streamlined, allowing you to instantly view all the possible Personas that you can create.

As a huge fan of the Persona series, I'm thrilled to finally see a respectable version of the original game in English. To have the gameplay improved on top of the localization only adds to the already immense value of the game, making Persona one of the absolute "must buy" games for the PSP. I can proudly place this version of the game alongside its sequels on my shelves, while the original release will remain in the back of my closet, gathering dust.

Persona / B001V7UX1W

Persona was the first game I ever played on the Playstation 1, and I had never seen anything quite like it - before or since. I had played, and loved, many "save the princess" medieval-flavored RPGs, but I had never seen an RPG like Persona - so dark and yet so steeped in the "real" world. The high school in Persona felt more real and immediate to me than any dozen or so fantasy worlds; little touches like the variant personalities of your friends (loner, snob, air-head) which superficially hid deeper, more human traits simply blew me away.

Really, there's nothing about Persona that I didn't love. The plot is masterfully dark and human, and I emphasized strongly with Mary, an ill girl who struggles with feelings of anger and hopelessness as the world passes her by. The soundtrack is absolutely gorgeous, and again takes a more modern, dark twist over the light-hearted tracks of this RPG's fantasy counterpart. Even little touches like the varied battle-shouts, actual guns (!) used in battle against the demons, and the hilarious contact system which allowed you to bully, bribe, and barter with your enemies blew me away.

When they announced the re-release of Persona on the PSP, I couldn't pre-order fast enough. Partly for the joy of taking my favorite game of all time on the plane with me, but *mostly* for the newly restored "Snow Queen Quest" which, as a child, I was always distraught that Atlas hadn't released with the original game. And, in many - perhaps, MOST - ways, this is a textbook example of exactly how to re-release a game... for the most part.

First, I was pleased to note that the story has not been altered or changed. The original translation has been replaced, which is usually a pet peeve of mine, but the new translation matches up pretty well to the story I'm familiar with. New hints are dropped at the beginning regarding the Snow Queen Quest, which I do appreciate as it makes the new quest more immersive and less of an "add-on". The world map has been upgraded to more closely resemble the world map in Persona 2, and as the world map in Persona 1 was the *only* thing I didn't like about the game, this change is for the best. Everything else is largely unchanged - the graphics are largely the same, and seem subtly 'brighter' and more vibrant. The game cut-scenes are absolutely gorgeous, although it does seem a bit surprising that captions aren't offered as a choice in this day and age - I guess deaf people don't play video games or they get to have a friend translate the spoken-words in the cut scenes.

Really, though, in most ways that matter, this is the game I knew and loved. The Snow Queen Quest is a welcome addition (although the difficultly level is nothing to sneer at, and you pretty much *have* to power level your way through the game, which can take some of the fun out of it). Annoyingly, you do have to perform a Guide Dang It series of conversations before the SQQ will open up - it's not something that anyone will stumble into, I'm afraid, much like the original Guide Dang It actions for getting Chris (which were largely *possible* to stumble into... as long as you spoke to everyone _once_, but didn't speak to certain people _twice_, and of course, you had to deliberately seek out party members in order to turn them down when they asked to join!).

And the mention of Chris segues me neatly into my translation complaints. I know I'm going to get dinged for this, but I preferred the American names of the characters to the Japanese names and I'm sorry to have those names lost. I can remember which character is 'Mark' and which character is 'Mary', but trying to assign gender in my brain between two equally unfamiliar names like 'Maki' and 'Masao' is difficult to perform on the fly. And expecting me to remember the differences between 'Yuki', 'Yuka', and 'Yuko' is just unreasonable, and I say this as someone who watches more anime than most, I would wager. Also, am I the only one who doesn't understand why game companies will translate, say, the description of spells, but not the actual NAME of said spells? It's all well and good to tell me that a spell is cure spell, but why change the name from "Cure" (the English name in the original) to "Dia"? Having to learn all these arbitrary changes makes battle slow and cumbersome ("Dia" - was that the spell that cures people or the spell that raises 'diamond' defense walls?) and for what purpose? Don't even get me *started* on the new Persona names. I was equally disappointed to see that the Americanization of the characters has been discarded - the African-American character has reverted back to Japanese, and all the blondes, brunettes, and redheads have black hair again, making it tricky to tell them apart in battle, given that everyone has an identical school uniform on.

I also have to register a complaint with the soundtrack changes - the original Persona 1 had the most intensely awesome soundtrack ever, but what's with this new stuff? Most of it is good and fine, but the battle music is bloody TERRIBLE and it never seems to change up. It sounds like a pop-song from the Britney Spears era and if you think that hearing "Hit Me Baby One More Time" or the Japanese equivalent Every. Single. Battle. won't get old after the first dozen battles, then bully on you, but I wasn't born with that kind of patience. Especially considering that the Persona games are kind of notorious for frequent battles.

Having now whined myself inside-out, this is still an awesome game. If you're new to the series, buy it and check it out - you won't be disappointed. If you're a long-time fan, buy it for the Snow Queen Quest...just remember to grind yourself silly before you enter the school. Oh, and I'll post the trigger events in the comments section here.

~ Ana Mardoll

This game isn't a bad game, it's actually a really good port to a newer platform. The issue is that original game is pretty old and hasn't stood the test of time very well. This game originally came out in the early days of the PS1 and it shows. Don't be fooled by the cover artwork that puts new life into the game, this is an old game with old graphics. If you are a fan of the Persona series and want to see how it all started, give it a go if you can find it on the cheap. If you are not a fan of the series and you're looking for a good RPG on the PSP, look elsewhere. There's newer games for the same price that will give you a lot more value. So, in a nutshell, fans only.

BRIEFLY

The Shin Megami Tensei: Persona is a fair game. To account for the rather steep price and make the deal a little sweeter, my Persona came with a 2 disk sound track with some pretty Okay songs that really set you in the mood for play. I would recommend Persona to anyone into playing RPGs on the PSP.


THE GAME AND THE STORY

I understand that this is re-make of an older PSOne game but I've never played that one. In fact, I never heard of Persona until it materialized as a Christmas present and I couldn't put it down since. To give you some context, the story takes place in the town of Millage where you are a student at St. Hermelin High School. I'm not totally sure what the story is about yet but I know that a company called SEBEC opened a portal to some kind of alternate dimension, and you and your friends need to get to the bottom of it to stop the demons in your world. Your party is made of 9 characters, including yourself and you fight as a team, giving you the ability to use their skills and talents. You and your friends can summon demons called 'persona' and make them follow your commands.

The game play is very similar to old Final Fantasy games, but the most interesting thing about the game is the ability to convince the demons you fight to give you their card. When I say card, I mean a part of their sprit. You can fuse different cards to make Personas. Personas are equipped to players and are the source of the spells players can use.

When a player levels up, their stats go up. You also level up your own persona level and your persona's level. Your persona level decides what Personas you can use and your persona's level is what spells your persona can use. If it sounds too complicated it's not so if you actually play it - remember, it's a Japanese game. There are also casinos where you can play games for money. You can play games like blackjack, poker, dice, and a game called code breaker where you have a number of tries to guess the code to a safe.

The one thing I hated about the game is when you get lost in a dungeon; you have to fight an endless gauntlet of demons and traps to find the way out. Even though I didn't finish the game, I think it's enjoyable and I keep playing it because I really want to see where this leads in the end..


MY RATING

I liked being able to play a pretty serious RPG on my PSP. It's sheer size is fantastic - I've been playing for dozens of hours and I'm not near the end, it seems. I liked the music that comes with the game and I liked the fact that the game is always 'saved' - don't have to struggle to find save points or else lose your progress. I also liked the many ways you can do battle and the fact that you can actually TALK with the demons and sometimes make some your friends or allies.

On the 'not so good' section, I believe that the graphics could be a little better. They are good but not as good as Dissidia, for example.

Overall, I like the game but, since there is some room for improvement, I will grant Presona 4 stars, meaning that 'I like it'.

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Note: A good part of this review should be credited to my son, BD. I did the editing but he's the one totally immersed at this time and most of the words are his.

I haven't finished this game yet but I am having a lot of fun with it. I played Persona 3 and 4 and loved them both so I decided to get this one. It is a lot different than the other ones. You don't get to make social links, it's all dungeon crawling. But if like persona it's nice to see how the series started and if you like RPGs this game is fun and is very different from the rest. It takes place in one town and students are the ones investigating. No end of the world, evil empire, or anything like that. Out of all the main characters in the game, you get four permanent ones, and there are other four possible characters to take your fifth slot in your party. Once you accept the last party member then the others can't be part of your party. Whoever is in your party won't change the way the story unfolds but it adds replay value because it slightly changes the dialogue. The gameplay is turned based and you get a choice of either picking to attack with a weapon (sword, spear, etc.), gun, or skills you get from your persona. You have the choice of talking to the shadows and have a choice of how to communicate. If they get scared they might run and leave money, they are eager they can give you their spell card to create personas in the velvet room, if they are angry they might attack. It adds more strategy to the game. My main complaint is that there are a higher number of random encounters. It's not really a big deal because you can skip battle animations and there is an auto attack option. But it does get a little annoying. You get a number of different ending and Snow Queen quest that is an alternate version of the game. It's a good game and if you can get the soundtrack it's a good deal. You get 2 discs included of great music. There is barely any voice acting and the game isn't really a remake, the graphics are not much different. So if you don't like older games this might not be the game for you. But if you enjoy going back to play classics you should check this game out.

This game apparently came out on ps1 years ago. never heard of it. P3P is re- released for psp and i fell for it hard. dropping more than 40hrs of game-play into persona 3 had me wondering if this title would be another worthy investment or a lackluster predecessor that didn't really stand the test of time very well. I was pleasantly surprised. The soundtrack has been reworked apparently, with the only song i can complain about being the battle music(since you must listen to it over and over again; a standard problem with RPGs in general). Its always hard to go back to a title from this era and not notice all the little things that aren't present or up to date (especially after playing the 3rd installment first)However, this does not rule these titles out. If you give this game a fair chance and put it up against other RPGs from the same time-frame, i think you will be pleased with this purchase. look at the final fantasy series for example. some of their most popular titles are almost 20 years old now. As a fan of the Shin Megami Tensei series, overall very pleased with this game. give it a try if you like persona or just jrpgs in general

I'm a huge megaten fan, so of course I bought this game. I remember how much fun the original was and was very excited about this "remastering" of the title. The soundtrack and story are great, but besides the cut scenes the graphics and gameplay are still a bit dated. If you are a fan of the Shin Megami Tensei series you should buy this, if not, this may not be the game for you.

This is a very good game under certain conditions. You have to like JRPGs first of all because if you already don't, this game wont convert you. Secondly, you have to appreciate old-school games in general, this is a first-person dungeon crawler with parts being in an isometric view, ISOMETRIC(does it get any more oldschool?). The last point was you have to appreciate old video game music, but they update the soundtrack, and it rocks. If you can get past the first two points, this is a gem of a game. The game play is simple, but not overly so. There are aspects of the game that are very addictive you may forget what you were doing in the first place and find yourself power leveling just to get better abilities. I wont really go into the technical aspects of the game since there are dozens of gameplay videos out there they you can view instead. The story is a little weak, even for the year it was created, but the tone and ambiance do compensate, and you wont get bored with it, it's just that they could have vastly improved the story and didn't. That is laterally the only complaint I have though, and this game is a must have in my book.

This is a classic If-You-Like-The-Genre game. If you like Japanese-style Role-Playing Games (JRPG), then you will absolutely love this game. The Persona series is without a doubt the strongest JRPG series out right now. Sadly, Persona and Persona 2 (in it's complete form) never made it to America. So it is fantastic to see this product being released, even if I would rather play it on a console instead of the portable PSP.
If you do not like the JRPG genre...you will find this game to be very difficult, and likely extremely confusing. More a source of frustration, then enjoyment. Still, it's a fantastic game.

Bought this game as a gift for a family member. They absolutely love it!!! I will use this vendor again.