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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kick It Persona!, July 4, 2005
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
Oh yes, the beginning of the Shin Megami Tensei Persona series. What an excellent game! One of the early PS1 RPGs with minor voice acting in battles, I was astounded by this game which likes to take a darker approach to RPGs. Everything from the characters to the battle system to the philosophical basis on which the game was formed, I never got tired of this game.
Before I start, I would like to mention to the people who said this game was directed toward a younger audience: What the heck are you saying!? No, it's not. The content in this game is not supposed to be for twelve year old children! Devil-summoning, demons, special powers, a man who wants to become a god, do you think this is a game children should be playing!?
Pros: They're so many of them, I don't know where to start. Well, the first thing I loved about this game was the philosophy it was based on. The story about the man who dreamt he was a butterfly, but was it a dream that he had or was it the butterfly who dreamt it was a man? This alone sparked my attention as well the game's title: Persona. Persona is a concept originally versed by C.G. Jung, a renown man in the field of human philosophy. Persona is the human personality that can take a variety of "masks" based on the emotion in question. This formed the beginning of the story as well as for use in the game's magic system.
The story is very interesting. A group of high school students play a devil-summoning game called Persona in an abandoned classroom of their school. They soon have a strange dream about a man named Philemon and the power of Persona. Afterwards, the students who had the dream (you, Mark, Nate and Yuki) are asked to go to the hospital to get a check-up and to also visit a sick friend (Mary) who is also the game's main heroine. From there, your party finds their sick friend missing and the entire town has gone into chaos as zombies and demons have taken over. It's up to these high school heroes to find out what's going on and put a stop to the madness and find Mary with the help of their newly awakened power: Persona, another self within you, like a merciful angel or a cruel devil.
Persona is the name of the magical entities your party of heroes can call in battle to perform spells to heal and attack. Each party member can hold three Persona and invoke one. Persona meld into the user's mind and grant your their magic and attributes such as Strong against Ice and Weak against Fire. In this instance, you must take care in choosing your Persona. Demons will take great advantage of your team's weaknesses if you're equipped with a Persona that makes you weaker against their favorite attack. However, if you're equipped with Persona that absorb or reflect their moves, you've got the advantage.
Each of you characters starts with an initial Persona, but these won't be tough enough to take you to the very end of the game. Making new Persona is therefore important if you want to survive later on. It isn't easy to make new ones though. You first need Spell Cards which are the info cards of enemy Demons. In order to get their card, you have to negotiate with them using skills like Threaten, Tell Story, Bribe and even Dance! If you get a demon's interest maxed out, they'll give it to you. The flip side is that if your level is lower than the demon's, they won't give it to you. So, leveling in this game is very important, as it is vital towards your overall power, negotiation and equipping new Persona. Once you have some Spell Cards from various demons (you can hold a set number at a time), you take the cards to the Velvet Room, a mysterious room famous throughout all the Persona games for creating new Persona. The process itself is engrossing so I'll leave it to you to figure out.
The characters are a group of students that attend high school in a seemingly normal town. You've got:
Hero (has no default name and is silent unless asked a question, wields a sword and Persona with considerable skill, perhaps the most mysterious character in the game)
Mark (used to be a white boy in the Japanese version, he's a tough talking bad boy who wields an axe, loves to dance and trash talks demons)
Nate Nanjo (most intelligent student at St. Hermelin and sharp-tongued young man who comes from a wealthy family, his only confidant is his butler Alfred, who follows him around in secret to keep an eye on him, wields a knight sword and an AK-47 in battle)
Yuki (a very responsible and hardworking young lady who is the envy of all the girls at school, she is very dependable as a friend as well as in battle, wielding a razor knife she throws at enemies, and is very competent with Persona)
Mary (the game's main female lead, she is troubled by mental problems that are the focal point of the story, a determined young lady who fights from a distance with a bow and has the most powerful Persona usage)
Ellen (a beautiful young lady who recently studied in Europe, she is a good friend who is willing to face danger to get the job done, she wields a rapier and is another strong Persona user)
Brad (most obnoxious guy in school, he is the self-proclamied most amazing guy on the planet who suggested playing the devil-summoning game in the first place, wields a spear and machine guns)
Alana (the traditional sweet valley bimbo, Alana runs from danger but still feels obligated to save the town, uses a whip and strong Persona skills)
Chris (secret party member who has a dark secret to reveal if you can get him on your team, fights with his fists and M16s)
Your main game party will be Hero, Mary, Nate and Mark. The fifth person can be either Ellen, Alana, Brad or Chris. Unfortunately, Yuki, who happens to be my favorite character, is not allowed to be the fifth person and Chris is difficult to acquire. The Japanese version of Persona had a side story where you could recruit anyone you wanted and get an entirely different ending. Too bad for us U.S. gamers.
The story has two endings for U.S. gamers, and if you're not careful how you answer questions directed toward the hero, you might just get the bad ending, especially since you cannot go back to change your answers unless you make multiple saves. The dungeons can get long and confusing, and the fact monsters get more dangerous when the moon is full (you'll see a meter that tells you the phases of the moon as you walk) doesn't put a gamer's mind at ease. Healing and save points are not numerous in dungeons, so make sure your team is prepared.
This is definitely a choice RPG for the Gaming Classics list. If you played Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment already, but not this one, then get your hands on it right away.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Definitely not your usual RPG., November 12, 1999
By A Customer
Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars
As I think back about this game, what came to mind is the story, it is not the typical love story like in FF series, nor is it the comical type you find in Thousand Arms or Grandia, the plot is dark, with a splash of originality to it. Graphics is acceptable, nothing spectacular but it isn't bad. Music can get monotonous at times, but it does create an atmosphere fitting for the story. Battle system is what makes this game stands out, you can contact the enemies, there are several commands to use by each character such as yell, persuade and praise; certain enemy likes particular commands, and if you make them happy, they will join you in the form of a card. With these cards you can create persona (like Guardian Forces in FFVIII,) summon creatures that have different abilities, I finished the game once already but did not find all the combinations for creating personas. To my knowledge there are 2 endings, depending on your answer towards the end, you can either continue with the story, or finish the game. Control is somewhat awkard, part of the game is played in first person view. If you want something different to occupy your time with, get this, it is definitely a game worth playing. Overall score, 86 out of 100.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This game is the bomb!!, May 14, 2001
This game has good music,a great storyline,a simple combat system,good and simple dialogue.The only bad thing about this game is that most of the time it's in 16bit graphics.This game is for hardcore RPG players because you will spend days just to get your levels up or tring to get items,spell cards,and new personas.So my opinion is that this game is not for people who mostly play action games because this game can get some what repeatable and you can't move around in combat.Thats what I think of this great game.
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