Why am I supposed to feel bad for an entitled millennial whining about how it’s hard to be an adult? Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, dumbass
"I just moved here, but Aoba sure is a great place." (Young Man)
Before starting this review, I need to say this kind of works as my combined thoughts on Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. My score is indicative of just this game, but I never felt like I wanted to make a review for both since the gameplay is practically identical and I'd just be repeating myself a lot.
Eternal Punishment has some seriously missed potential. There are some great ideas here that are tough to appreciate from the gameplay that is present.
Being that Eternal Punishment is a direct sequel to Innocent Sin, it reuses a ton of assets from the original game, with the major culprits being the dungeons and music. Logically, the reused dungeons make sense as they pertain to the story's happenings, but I think there comes a point where, in development, the creators should have asked themselves if that was truly an ideal way to entertain the player. I would have liked to see how the settings have changed atmospherically in the sequel, but all we got were map layout updates. I was also disappointed by the game's soundtrack this time around. Most songs are either remixed or just reused entirely. There's some new songs though, one of which is the Aoba Park theme which is a beautiful track, and this remix of the Mountain Trail theme, but I enjoyed Innocent Sin’s OST more since all the music was brand new.
It's clear the developers drew some inspiration from Phantasy Star when making this combat system. Combat revolving around auto-battling, a 5-character party, and most notably, fusion spells. Differing from PSIV, you're able to switch around turn orders mid-battle, which is a great addition for fusion spells considering PSIV had you making your characters defend to link the turns for people with varying speed stats. I honestly never really ended up using these in Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, as a lot just seemed worse than their non-chainable counterparts. An instance being when you use spells that target groups of enemies that share the same element, you can be prompted to turn it into a fusion spell that only attacks one enemy instead, which was inconvenient in standard battles with enemy groups. You can opt out of using the fusion spell before it happens in battle, which is another great addition, so it's not really an issue. The only time I ended up really using them was when combining two elements to do a bit more damage in boss fights. A major oversight, or intended mechanic, depending on who you ask, is the defend trick, where you cancel auto-battle and make everyone defend after their action. It's tedious to use in standard battles but proves extremely effective in boss battles due to you taking close to no damage. It really does make me believe it's an oversight, unless the developers thought it would be too useless to waste an extra turn defending. A cool aspect of the combat was the ability to have characters be able to switch their personae without wasting a turn, which led me to use it quite frequently. Turning anyone into a healer out of the blue was very helpful.
EP is known to be one of the harder entries in the SMT franchise, and I was well aware of this from friends. I know it sounds condescending, but I thought it was going to be a case of Persona 5 fans playing an older RPG, but Eternal Punishment is one of the harder RPG titles in the PS1 library, in my opinion. The difficulty was kind of mixed in its tedious structure along with its slow combat and frustrating encounter rate. By tedious structure, I am referring to demon fusion, which is done by gathering spell cards through demon negotiation. When fusing demons, there are different arcanas of cards they will give you pertaining to their arcana. Later on, demons will give you more and more per negotiation as the card requirements for fusions rise for higher-leveled personae. It's pretty easy to find a way to entertain them for cards, as there's multiple character combinations that work, but the strategy you want to go for is to form a contract with them, which usually has a very small amount or 1 specific character combo that raises their joy stat. The reason you want to do this is because after contract formation, when you entertain them for cards, they'll give you wild cards, which you can give to someone in the velvet room to change into any arcana you want. Considering there's over 20 card types in the game, this is the most convenient method of fusing personae. There’s different personae to fuse in each arcana of cards, which explains why you’d want the wild cards for complete freedom of your team's builds. It’s frustrating to find the joy-raising action to initiate these contracts, part of it being that they’re integral to the gameplay. There’s an art to demon negotiation; you’ll be able to tell what works sometimes from your characters' personalities meshing well with the demons, but it is by no means consistent. It’s something that’s fun at first but quickly becomes tedious when you're tasked with doing it more than a few times. It felt like I was just aimlessly trying anything that might work, which most times resulted in the demon getting mad and you having to enter a new encounter to try again. The salt on the wound is that making them mad will have them break your contract… Persona 2 is best played with a notebook nearby to write down the correct prompts for these demons. Even though the end result is a team with some killer personae, it's a goal that’s hard to work towards with all the tedium associated with it.
Now, the slow combat. Not only is the game some of the slowest combat on the system, but it is also grindy as all hell. Throughout the game, you’ll need to fuse new personae a lot to stay on top of the game's difficulty. To unlock the moves on each persona, you’ll have to use any of their moves to get them to slowly rank up to their max level of 8 and get each move associated with them. Why would you want to rank them up all the way? Because sometimes the personae will have an integral move like healing everyone, or attack moves which you'll need for them to be useful. This was by far the most annoying part of the game's combat. When I’d get to a skill-check boss fight, I’d have to back out and grind up new personas, which got really irritating. I honestly wouldn’t mind the idea of it if they’d rank up quicker, because later on it started to tread on multiple hours of grinding. You can get them to skip 2 ranks from finishing battles with fusion attacks from a lucky mutation, but I could never get this to happen, so take that as you will. Even though I have a lot of complaints about this game's systems, it’s still fun to make builds for your characters with persona fusion. You can add a stat boost card and a card to add a certain move during the fusion, which adds a good layer of customizability. There’s also a level-up bonus for each persona to add a point to a particular stat, which is something you need to think about so you can boost your character's strengths. It’s as fun as the rest of the series in that regard; there’s still a bunch of pondering time spent in the velvet room, but it’s hard to look past the requirements of doing so.
I will say, though, that Eternal Punishment has great boss fights; almost every boss in the game will make you switch up your strategy and punish you if you don't. For instance, there's one fight later on where the boss heals a set amount of HP passively every turn, so you'll need to utilize fusion spells to maximize damage while balancing out support for your party. They were always a challenge to look forward to, and I was always preemptively aware that there would be a challenge that I'd have to face when outside boss doors in dungeons, no matter how high level or good my personae were.
By far the most endearing aspect of Eternal Punishment is its cast of characters. It's really nice to see a game tackle aspects of adulthood in such a blunt way in a real-life setting. These characters are people that most can truly relate to. By the time they started revealing a lot about them near the end through flashbacks, I got a bit emotional. These characters have realistic internal conflicts, not some shit out of Persona 5. I do wish there was more of it throughout the game. It may be the absurd amount of time spent in dungeons, but it really feels like there were barely any cutscenes for these characters to develop. Of course, the ones we have are great, but I wanted more.
I'm being told I should have played the PSP releases of these games, but I always like playing original releases because I like to admire what games did at the time of their original release. Part of the reason P1 is so interesting to me is that it is an early 5th generation title, and it was up in the air what to make next since there wasn’t really a blueprint yet. I feel more in tune with the innovations associated with games when I play their original releases, since a lot feels lost to me when I look at HD re-releases. Just looking at the UI in these titles and how they tried to make P1 overly accessible with the fast movement and out-of-place soundtrack, which completely alters the heavy atmosphere the Revelations version has, it was evident enough that these were not the definitive ways for me to play these titles. For the P2 games, though, the redone soundtracks actually sound really nice, but the battle UI looks and plays awful. So, that's just in case anyone was wondering why I played these versions instead.
What can I take away from these games? I will never complain about lengthy combat animations again. Kidding, but not really... These games definitely got me more interested in trying out the classic SMT games, and newer SMT games, for that matter, and I liked P2’s structure as opposed to the later entries in the Persona series. If you like this game and feel like I’m missing something, feel free to let me know in the comments. I’m curious to know aspects of why people enjoy this game.
Side Note: Whenever I play SMT games, something befalls me every single time. When I was playing Nocturne, I was incapable of sleeping for a week for some reason? During Revelations, I got hacked on every single account I own from what I think to be my cookies getting logged, and yes, even my Backloggd was hacked. Can you believe the nerve of someone to hack a Backloggd account? Someone must really hate me. During this game, I got sick for the first time in like 2 years and feel like shit. I fear for my life next time I go back to this series. I'll end off this review by reminding everyone to use 2 Factor sign in for your accounts. Stay safe out there, fellas...
Before starting this review, I need to say this kind of works as my combined thoughts on Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment. My score is indicative of just this game, but I never felt like I wanted to make a review for both since the gameplay is practically identical and I'd just be repeating myself a lot.
Eternal Punishment has some seriously missed potential. There are some great ideas here that are tough to appreciate from the gameplay that is present.
Being that Eternal Punishment is a direct sequel to Innocent Sin, it reuses a ton of assets from the original game, with the major culprits being the dungeons and music. Logically, the reused dungeons make sense as they pertain to the story's happenings, but I think there comes a point where, in development, the creators should have asked themselves if that was truly an ideal way to entertain the player. I would have liked to see how the settings have changed atmospherically in the sequel, but all we got were map layout updates. I was also disappointed by the game's soundtrack this time around. Most songs are either remixed or just reused entirely. There's some new songs though, one of which is the Aoba Park theme which is a beautiful track, and this remix of the Mountain Trail theme, but I enjoyed Innocent Sin’s OST more since all the music was brand new.
It's clear the developers drew some inspiration from Phantasy Star when making this combat system. Combat revolving around auto-battling, a 5-character party, and most notably, fusion spells. Differing from PSIV, you're able to switch around turn orders mid-battle, which is a great addition for fusion spells considering PSIV had you making your characters defend to link the turns for people with varying speed stats. I honestly never really ended up using these in Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, as a lot just seemed worse than their non-chainable counterparts. An instance being when you use spells that target groups of enemies that share the same element, you can be prompted to turn it into a fusion spell that only attacks one enemy instead, which was inconvenient in standard battles with enemy groups. You can opt out of using the fusion spell before it happens in battle, which is another great addition, so it's not really an issue. The only time I ended up really using them was when combining two elements to do a bit more damage in boss fights. A major oversight, or intended mechanic, depending on who you ask, is the defend trick, where you cancel auto-battle and make everyone defend after their action. It's tedious to use in standard battles but proves extremely effective in boss battles due to you taking close to no damage. It really does make me believe it's an oversight, unless the developers thought it would be too useless to waste an extra turn defending. A cool aspect of the combat was the ability to have characters be able to switch their personae without wasting a turn, which led me to use it quite frequently. Turning anyone into a healer out of the blue was very helpful.
EP is known to be one of the harder entries in the SMT franchise, and I was well aware of this from friends. I know it sounds condescending, but I thought it was going to be a case of Persona 5 fans playing an older RPG, but Eternal Punishment is one of the harder RPG titles in the PS1 library, in my opinion. The difficulty was kind of mixed in its tedious structure along with its slow combat and frustrating encounter rate. By tedious structure, I am referring to demon fusion, which is done by gathering spell cards through demon negotiation. When fusing demons, there are different arcanas of cards they will give you pertaining to their arcana. Later on, demons will give you more and more per negotiation as the card requirements for fusions rise for higher-leveled personae. It's pretty easy to find a way to entertain them for cards, as there's multiple character combinations that work, but the strategy you want to go for is to form a contract with them, which usually has a very small amount or 1 specific character combo that raises their joy stat. The reason you want to do this is because after contract formation, when you entertain them for cards, they'll give you wild cards, which you can give to someone in the velvet room to change into any arcana you want. Considering there's over 20 card types in the game, this is the most convenient method of fusing personae. There’s different personae to fuse in each arcana of cards, which explains why you’d want the wild cards for complete freedom of your team's builds. It’s frustrating to find the joy-raising action to initiate these contracts, part of it being that they’re integral to the gameplay. There’s an art to demon negotiation; you’ll be able to tell what works sometimes from your characters' personalities meshing well with the demons, but it is by no means consistent. It’s something that’s fun at first but quickly becomes tedious when you're tasked with doing it more than a few times. It felt like I was just aimlessly trying anything that might work, which most times resulted in the demon getting mad and you having to enter a new encounter to try again. The salt on the wound is that making them mad will have them break your contract… Persona 2 is best played with a notebook nearby to write down the correct prompts for these demons. Even though the end result is a team with some killer personae, it's a goal that’s hard to work towards with all the tedium associated with it.
Now, the slow combat. Not only is the game some of the slowest combat on the system, but it is also grindy as all hell. Throughout the game, you’ll need to fuse new personae a lot to stay on top of the game's difficulty. To unlock the moves on each persona, you’ll have to use any of their moves to get them to slowly rank up to their max level of 8 and get each move associated with them. Why would you want to rank them up all the way? Because sometimes the personae will have an integral move like healing everyone, or attack moves which you'll need for them to be useful. This was by far the most annoying part of the game's combat. When I’d get to a skill-check boss fight, I’d have to back out and grind up new personas, which got really irritating. I honestly wouldn’t mind the idea of it if they’d rank up quicker, because later on it started to tread on multiple hours of grinding. You can get them to skip 2 ranks from finishing battles with fusion attacks from a lucky mutation, but I could never get this to happen, so take that as you will. Even though I have a lot of complaints about this game's systems, it’s still fun to make builds for your characters with persona fusion. You can add a stat boost card and a card to add a certain move during the fusion, which adds a good layer of customizability. There’s also a level-up bonus for each persona to add a point to a particular stat, which is something you need to think about so you can boost your character's strengths. It’s as fun as the rest of the series in that regard; there’s still a bunch of pondering time spent in the velvet room, but it’s hard to look past the requirements of doing so.
I will say, though, that Eternal Punishment has great boss fights; almost every boss in the game will make you switch up your strategy and punish you if you don't. For instance, there's one fight later on where the boss heals a set amount of HP passively every turn, so you'll need to utilize fusion spells to maximize damage while balancing out support for your party. They were always a challenge to look forward to, and I was always preemptively aware that there would be a challenge that I'd have to face when outside boss doors in dungeons, no matter how high level or good my personae were.
By far the most endearing aspect of Eternal Punishment is its cast of characters. It's really nice to see a game tackle aspects of adulthood in such a blunt way in a real-life setting. These characters are people that most can truly relate to. By the time they started revealing a lot about them near the end through flashbacks, I got a bit emotional. These characters have realistic internal conflicts, not some shit out of Persona 5. I do wish there was more of it throughout the game. It may be the absurd amount of time spent in dungeons, but it really feels like there were barely any cutscenes for these characters to develop. Of course, the ones we have are great, but I wanted more.
I'm being told I should have played the PSP releases of these games, but I always like playing original releases because I like to admire what games did at the time of their original release. Part of the reason P1 is so interesting to me is that it is an early 5th generation title, and it was up in the air what to make next since there wasn’t really a blueprint yet. I feel more in tune with the innovations associated with games when I play their original releases, since a lot feels lost to me when I look at HD re-releases. Just looking at the UI in these titles and how they tried to make P1 overly accessible with the fast movement and out-of-place soundtrack, which completely alters the heavy atmosphere the Revelations version has, it was evident enough that these were not the definitive ways for me to play these titles. For the P2 games, though, the redone soundtracks actually sound really nice, but the battle UI looks and plays awful. So, that's just in case anyone was wondering why I played these versions instead.
What can I take away from these games? I will never complain about lengthy combat animations again. Kidding, but not really... These games definitely got me more interested in trying out the classic SMT games, and newer SMT games, for that matter, and I liked P2’s structure as opposed to the later entries in the Persona series. If you like this game and feel like I’m missing something, feel free to let me know in the comments. I’m curious to know aspects of why people enjoy this game.
Side Note: Whenever I play SMT games, something befalls me every single time. When I was playing Nocturne, I was incapable of sleeping for a week for some reason? During Revelations, I got hacked on every single account I own from what I think to be my cookies getting logged, and yes, even my Backloggd was hacked. Can you believe the nerve of someone to hack a Backloggd account? Someone must really hate me. During this game, I got sick for the first time in like 2 years and feel like shit. I fear for my life next time I go back to this series. I'll end off this review by reminding everyone to use 2 Factor sign in for your accounts. Stay safe out there, fellas...
"There are good things even when you become an adult... Just a few..."
"This is... the burden of sin"
might be a bit more personal of a review at the start than i intended but oh well! also dragged on new-persona a bit more than i wanted but i'm keeping it in because i find it important to my thoughts on the game
i think i played eternal punishment at the perfect time in my life. i'm a largely aimless adult who thought they knew what they wanted out of life but is currently just in a state of trying to find something that makes sense, something to hold onto and give me a direction. at the same time, i'm only 20 years old at the time of playing the game and writing this, and more than an aimless and confused adult, i'm a scared kid who doesn't know and isn't ready for what being an adult entails. because of this, i've never really related more to a cast of characters in a game more than the cast of eternal punishment.
if you know anything about persona it's probably persona 4 and 5, which uh. you can see my reviews on those games to find out how i feel about them. their casts are of teenagers whose biggest problems never seemed to be anything that i could relate to, other than futaba who is autistic and has trauma, but even then there's this thin layer of tropiness on every character so you can't even relate to them past a superficial level of recognizing a small bit of yourself in them for the sake of doing the bare minimum to be hip and relatable teenagers.
in p2ep however, you have a group that amounts to a directionless adult, an adult who is questioning his direction, an adult who lost his way, and an adult who is too absorbed in the direction she took to really go any other way (she is the weakest example of the theme). later on, you also get (in my playthrough at least, there are two persona 1 party members you can choose between later on and i chose nanjo) an adult who found his way and has an experience that strengthens his resolve, and a teenager who is deeply afraid of being alone, and is scared of what becoming an adult is going to mean for him.
the party in eternal punishment are all handled so well and the way they interact with each other feels just as real as the friends in innocent sin. its a palpable feeling where these characters are in their lives and careers and how happy they are with it and i love it, it made me feel like maybe there is a way for me to claw my way out of the uncertainty of early adulthood, a way for me to... Change My Way.
sorry
aside from the characters, the narrative is also a great continuation of innocent sin and the original persona (but mostly innocent sin). you get really nice conclusions and additions to the characters from the first game sprinkled throughout, and seeing as it is a sequel to innocent sin, a lot of content that is greatly benefited by having played that game first. whereas innocent sin ends in a sorrowful and hopeless note for these kids who didn't do anything to deserve it, eternal punishment highlights that hopelessness at first, but ultimately shows it all through a lens of hope. i won't spoil much but these characters get mostly happy endings and they get to move on with their lives and find a place and direction they can be happy with, and after playing 2 games i would hope i at least get to feel a little nice about what happens in the end.
gameplay wise, eternal punishments psp port is a lot better than the psp port of innocent sin. a lot of minor quality of life features make the battle system a lot more fun to mess with and it isn't so awful that you're going to be begging for a visual novel adaptation. it's honestly one of the more fun turn based systems in a jrpg i've played even if near the end i started to get a little bored, at least of the random encounters and some reoccurring bosses. the dungeon crawling is also a lot better in this one aside from a certain dungeon near the end of the game. it's hardly ever aimless and frustrating like i felt innocent sin could be.
overall, eternal punishment is an amazing game and a perfect finale to innocent sin, and it's a shame that persona just never was this good or real again. maybe with a new director to the series we could see a return to this style of storytelling and presentation in the series, but with how popular the newest games are and how prominent the dating sim elements are, i don't see that happening sadly. it's not all bad though, because these old games, or in the case of the original and the psp port of innocent sin, the stories, hold up incredibly well and far surpass their younger peers. i implore anyone who feels like they can't get into modern persona or just anyone who wants a good jrpg to sink a few weeks into to play this duology, i promise you won't be disappointed.
"This is... the burden of sin"
might be a bit more personal of a review at the start than i intended but oh well! also dragged on new-persona a bit more than i wanted but i'm keeping it in because i find it important to my thoughts on the game
i think i played eternal punishment at the perfect time in my life. i'm a largely aimless adult who thought they knew what they wanted out of life but is currently just in a state of trying to find something that makes sense, something to hold onto and give me a direction. at the same time, i'm only 20 years old at the time of playing the game and writing this, and more than an aimless and confused adult, i'm a scared kid who doesn't know and isn't ready for what being an adult entails. because of this, i've never really related more to a cast of characters in a game more than the cast of eternal punishment.
if you know anything about persona it's probably persona 4 and 5, which uh. you can see my reviews on those games to find out how i feel about them. their casts are of teenagers whose biggest problems never seemed to be anything that i could relate to, other than futaba who is autistic and has trauma, but even then there's this thin layer of tropiness on every character so you can't even relate to them past a superficial level of recognizing a small bit of yourself in them for the sake of doing the bare minimum to be hip and relatable teenagers.
in p2ep however, you have a group that amounts to a directionless adult, an adult who is questioning his direction, an adult who lost his way, and an adult who is too absorbed in the direction she took to really go any other way (she is the weakest example of the theme). later on, you also get (in my playthrough at least, there are two persona 1 party members you can choose between later on and i chose nanjo) an adult who found his way and has an experience that strengthens his resolve, and a teenager who is deeply afraid of being alone, and is scared of what becoming an adult is going to mean for him.
the party in eternal punishment are all handled so well and the way they interact with each other feels just as real as the friends in innocent sin. its a palpable feeling where these characters are in their lives and careers and how happy they are with it and i love it, it made me feel like maybe there is a way for me to claw my way out of the uncertainty of early adulthood, a way for me to... Change My Way.
sorry
aside from the characters, the narrative is also a great continuation of innocent sin and the original persona (but mostly innocent sin). you get really nice conclusions and additions to the characters from the first game sprinkled throughout, and seeing as it is a sequel to innocent sin, a lot of content that is greatly benefited by having played that game first. whereas innocent sin ends in a sorrowful and hopeless note for these kids who didn't do anything to deserve it, eternal punishment highlights that hopelessness at first, but ultimately shows it all through a lens of hope. i won't spoil much but these characters get mostly happy endings and they get to move on with their lives and find a place and direction they can be happy with, and after playing 2 games i would hope i at least get to feel a little nice about what happens in the end.
gameplay wise, eternal punishments psp port is a lot better than the psp port of innocent sin. a lot of minor quality of life features make the battle system a lot more fun to mess with and it isn't so awful that you're going to be begging for a visual novel adaptation. it's honestly one of the more fun turn based systems in a jrpg i've played even if near the end i started to get a little bored, at least of the random encounters and some reoccurring bosses. the dungeon crawling is also a lot better in this one aside from a certain dungeon near the end of the game. it's hardly ever aimless and frustrating like i felt innocent sin could be.
overall, eternal punishment is an amazing game and a perfect finale to innocent sin, and it's a shame that persona just never was this good or real again. maybe with a new director to the series we could see a return to this style of storytelling and presentation in the series, but with how popular the newest games are and how prominent the dating sim elements are, i don't see that happening sadly. it's not all bad though, because these old games, or in the case of the original and the psp port of innocent sin, the stories, hold up incredibly well and far surpass their younger peers. i implore anyone who feels like they can't get into modern persona or just anyone who wants a good jrpg to sink a few weeks into to play this duology, i promise you won't be disappointed.
A game about being haunted by what could have been, a game about knowing exactly what you're going to be haunted by for the rest of your life before you've even had a chance to really live it, and a game about the tragedy of not being able to stop someone from being haunted the way you were.
And above all a game about knowing that in the midst of that, there are still experiences that are worth fighting to see, people that are worth fighting to save. Even if there are just a few.
And above all a game about knowing that in the midst of that, there are still experiences that are worth fighting to see, people that are worth fighting to save. Even if there are just a few.
Oh where to start with this title. I'll keep it short like usual. Persona 2 Eternal Punishment is a game that I really adored a lot about such as the music, art direction, and gripping narrative. By the end, I grew very attached to all of the characters in my party. However, the game has one gargantuan issue that holds it back which is the gameplay. While not exactly bad by any means, Persona 2's combat is grindy and frustrating.
Ultimately, am I giving Persona 2 Eternal Punishment a lot of slack for poor gameplay? Yes. But that just goes to show how high quality every other aspect of it is.
Ultimately, am I giving Persona 2 Eternal Punishment a lot of slack for poor gameplay? Yes. But that just goes to show how high quality every other aspect of it is.
I love Tatsuya Suou
It's okay to feel guilt, regret, or to yearn for something long since lost. It's normal for traumatic experiences to affect you as a person, or to feel that your actions mean that something is entirely your responsibility.
But you don't have to bear the burden alone. There'll always be someone who cares, or wants to help, and things will eventually get better.
In these turbulent times, the Persona 2 duology provide some powerful, meaningful messages that are more important to abide by now than they possibly ever have been. So, let's be positive, everyone.
But you don't have to bear the burden alone. There'll always be someone who cares, or wants to help, and things will eventually get better.
In these turbulent times, the Persona 2 duology provide some powerful, meaningful messages that are more important to abide by now than they possibly ever have been. So, let's be positive, everyone.
my new favorite persona game with the best characters, best story, and best ending. i was a mess by the credit roll
combat is such a huge improvement over the previous games. extremely challenging and rewarding at the same time. its so satisfying to see one of your fusion moves fuck up an entire squad of 5 enemies but random encounters can just as well kill you and squad wipe you if you're not careful. not to mention it is soooo much faster. literal game changer. only thing weird is that the attack order changes every time but the menus are so fast you get used to it.
i didnt mention this in the last review but i dont really like the whole thing of choosing every party member's persona -- having 5 party members each with their own affinities with certain tarots and adding considering fusion spells (which you will NEED to take into account) is kind of too much for me.
the characters are incredible and realistic. katsuya is in contention for being my favorite persona character but the whole main cast is amazing. i pray that one day persona is able to have another cast of adult party members because it makes for a much darker and different game than the other personas.
i dont really know what else to say other than play this game. its peak
combat is such a huge improvement over the previous games. extremely challenging and rewarding at the same time. its so satisfying to see one of your fusion moves fuck up an entire squad of 5 enemies but random encounters can just as well kill you and squad wipe you if you're not careful. not to mention it is soooo much faster. literal game changer. only thing weird is that the attack order changes every time but the menus are so fast you get used to it.
i didnt mention this in the last review but i dont really like the whole thing of choosing every party member's persona -- having 5 party members each with their own affinities with certain tarots and adding considering fusion spells (which you will NEED to take into account) is kind of too much for me.
the characters are incredible and realistic. katsuya is in contention for being my favorite persona character but the whole main cast is amazing. i pray that one day persona is able to have another cast of adult party members because it makes for a much darker and different game than the other personas.
i dont really know what else to say other than play this game. its peak
this game is 100 times better than innocent sin and innocent sin is already perfect in my eyes. this game perfect expands upon the lore and themes in persona 2 innocent sin, and translates them into more mature adult characters. where as in p2is the party is split 3/2 teens/adults, this games cast is all adults, all at different points in their lives, all having made mistakes. this game shows the adult perspective of the themes presented in p2is and how adults deal with their pasts and their idea of how to do so. however, one this is clear and that amongst all their differing ideas and values, that people are able to change who they are and are not bound to one incident in their lives. without spoiling, the final cutscene to this game not only perfectly juxtaposes the first games final cutscene, but it also perfectly encapsulates persona 2 as a whole.
once again, this games soundtrack is fucking phenominal, as is shares tracks with p2is. graphically, the persona 2 duology are my favourite looking games and how all video games should, actually. the gameplay in this game is far more challenging in this game, and is so smooth, it makes random encounters almost redundant, as they can be over incredibly quickly if you know what youre doing. the biggest upside to these games being the oldsona games is that it doesnt have the wild card mechanic of neosona, so team building is able to be far more indepth than available in those games (Not a bad thing for 3,4,5 as they are built with wild card in mind, its just nice being able to create an entire team build)
yeah, persona 2 is special :)
once again, this games soundtrack is fucking phenominal, as is shares tracks with p2is. graphically, the persona 2 duology are my favourite looking games and how all video games should, actually. the gameplay in this game is far more challenging in this game, and is so smooth, it makes random encounters almost redundant, as they can be over incredibly quickly if you know what youre doing. the biggest upside to these games being the oldsona games is that it doesnt have the wild card mechanic of neosona, so team building is able to be far more indepth than available in those games (Not a bad thing for 3,4,5 as they are built with wild card in mind, its just nice being able to create an entire team build)
yeah, persona 2 is special :)
finally a jrpg about a bunch of adults who don't know how to do their taxes
This review contains spoilers
Innocents sin story gave me mental damage
Eternal punishments gameplay gave me mental damage
IS is braindead easy but EP isn't and it really shows the cracks in p2s gameplay when you actually have to try, its not the hardest rpg ever or anything if you have patience for the old school style grind kind of similar to p1, then you get a pretty solid game with, decent themes about adults who are still figuring themselves out.
It is kind of nice to show that stuff doesn't magically go away when you reach adulthood, as well as tatsuya being a mopey kind of nerd who was the one who couldn't let go it recon textualizes how he acts in Innocent sin and the fact hes still a teenager who doesn't know how to ask for help as opposed to the adults who also don't know how but know better.
Maya is very expressive but I really wish she could talk and have banter like she did in innocent sin especially with her roommate ulala who has a better relationship with baofu than she does with maya because baofu and her can talk to eachother and grow a relationship, baofu also has a great relationship with katsuya because their good cop bad cop approach is entertaining and they learn.
I feel the p1 fanservice is a bit heavy handed in this game and personally was handled better in innocent sin.
I guess I prefer IS but only because of a few things including gameplay, I want to say the party dynamic as a whole in IS is better since you have 4 characters who talk to each other while EP you have Ulala, Baofu and katsuya their interactions are insanely good and hit me when I didn't expect them but because the additional p1 party member is more for plot and as stated maya is silent and tatsuya really only gets connections during the end, it really is just 3 characters.
not a bad game though if you can handle the grind you'll love it
Eternal punishments gameplay gave me mental damage
IS is braindead easy but EP isn't and it really shows the cracks in p2s gameplay when you actually have to try, its not the hardest rpg ever or anything if you have patience for the old school style grind kind of similar to p1, then you get a pretty solid game with, decent themes about adults who are still figuring themselves out.
It is kind of nice to show that stuff doesn't magically go away when you reach adulthood, as well as tatsuya being a mopey kind of nerd who was the one who couldn't let go it recon textualizes how he acts in Innocent sin and the fact hes still a teenager who doesn't know how to ask for help as opposed to the adults who also don't know how but know better.
Maya is very expressive but I really wish she could talk and have banter like she did in innocent sin especially with her roommate ulala who has a better relationship with baofu than she does with maya because baofu and her can talk to eachother and grow a relationship, baofu also has a great relationship with katsuya because their good cop bad cop approach is entertaining and they learn.
I feel the p1 fanservice is a bit heavy handed in this game and personally was handled better in innocent sin.
I guess I prefer IS but only because of a few things including gameplay, I want to say the party dynamic as a whole in IS is better since you have 4 characters who talk to each other while EP you have Ulala, Baofu and katsuya their interactions are insanely good and hit me when I didn't expect them but because the additional p1 party member is more for plot and as stated maya is silent and tatsuya really only gets connections during the end, it really is just 3 characters.
not a bad game though if you can handle the grind you'll love it
The Persona game than Persona fans don't want you to play.
Innocent sin walked so Eternal Punishment could RUN
I like to tell people that Persona 1 is a Shin Megami Tensei game, Persona 2 is a Final Fantasy Game, and Persona 3 is a Persona game. Eternal Punishment complicates this little mantra significantly, because it is WAY more of a Shin Megami Tensei game in its design than Innocent Sin is.
When I say that, I mean it has more Matadors. A "Matador", for the record, is when Atlus stops the player with a mandatory boss who is clearly meant to be defeated in one particular way which will almost certainly require grinding. The bosses can be defeated without employing the one, clear solution, yes, but doing so is a miserable experience, and often one that leans heavily on RNG.
I hate Matadors. They are probably my least favorite thing about the entire wider SMT franchise. This, I realize, is far from universal. Many lovers of SMT are drawn to it specifically because of these puzzle bosses challenging them to rifle through their drawer until they find a suitable key. I however despise being sent away to spend potentially several hours sourcing new party members, and several more in trial and error if I don't open up the wikis and charts. I hate being told to "go get the thing." I want to be able to figure out a solution with what I have, but in Eternal Punishment and often elsewhere in SMT, "what I have" is barely capable of inflicting any damage at all.
Over the course of Eternal Punishment, on the PSP's Normal mode, despite dutifully playing out all of my prescribed random encounters on my way through every dungeon, I had to grind intensely at four separate points in the story. When I say "had to" I do not mean that I had to do this to match up to the hilariously inflated level ranges that online guides always provide. I remained ten or more levels under every boss's level and every guide's recommendation for the entire run. I had to grind like that just to keep up with being UNDERLEVELED. In order to fuse the personas that could give me the puzzle boss gimmick keys I needed and actually be useful with them, I often needed to slam out a full ten levels. I can and do hold this EXP curve against Eternal Punishment. This is a Persona 1 level of keep-up grinding that is on display by the end of the game. I'm sure that the veterans who knew about the double experience fortune... thing that you can do from the start and who spent time hunting down every rare encounter and who tracked down all the sidequests experienced a lot less of this, but even if that remedies the situation, having such things be necessary to finish a playthrough isn't great either.
To rub more salt in the grinding wound, players need EXP, yes, but they also need cards, and they cannot get those two things at the same time. The negotiation card grind is a completely parallel activity that cannot be done simultaneously with actually killing things for EXP. This means that pretty much every time there's a grind to be done, there are actually two grinds to be done... and that's if you don't have to fish for material cards from rare encounters.
If I did not have access to a great auto-battle system, the ability to turn off battle animations, and an emulator's fast-forward function, I imagine that I would not have finished Eternal Punishment, and that would have been a massive shame, because its story is at least as good as Innocent Sin's and it's better paced. It walks a wonderfully fine line between reusing old environments and inventing new ones, and I'm so glad that I played it. I just can't see myself wanting to do it again.
I actually lowered the entry bar on my silly little "five-star club" in order to let Innocent Sin into it. It got away with it because while some of its systems were definitely rough, they could mostly be ignored, and the PS1 version kept things engaging enough when those questionable systems WERE being ignored that the ultimate experience was still fantastic. I certainly enjoyed my time with Eternal Punishment, but not without some very significant things repeatedly getting in the way. Even still, I recognize that a lot of my grievances are tied to my preference for difficulty being delivered IN battles, rather than scavenger hunting outside them. There exists a legion of players who love the latter, and I'm not about to argue with them.
I admire Eternal Punishment's commitment to the systems that Innocent Sin so overlooked, but I have to admit, I had a better time when they were largely being ignored.
When I say that, I mean it has more Matadors. A "Matador", for the record, is when Atlus stops the player with a mandatory boss who is clearly meant to be defeated in one particular way which will almost certainly require grinding. The bosses can be defeated without employing the one, clear solution, yes, but doing so is a miserable experience, and often one that leans heavily on RNG.
I hate Matadors. They are probably my least favorite thing about the entire wider SMT franchise. This, I realize, is far from universal. Many lovers of SMT are drawn to it specifically because of these puzzle bosses challenging them to rifle through their drawer until they find a suitable key. I however despise being sent away to spend potentially several hours sourcing new party members, and several more in trial and error if I don't open up the wikis and charts. I hate being told to "go get the thing." I want to be able to figure out a solution with what I have, but in Eternal Punishment and often elsewhere in SMT, "what I have" is barely capable of inflicting any damage at all.
Over the course of Eternal Punishment, on the PSP's Normal mode, despite dutifully playing out all of my prescribed random encounters on my way through every dungeon, I had to grind intensely at four separate points in the story. When I say "had to" I do not mean that I had to do this to match up to the hilariously inflated level ranges that online guides always provide. I remained ten or more levels under every boss's level and every guide's recommendation for the entire run. I had to grind like that just to keep up with being UNDERLEVELED. In order to fuse the personas that could give me the puzzle boss gimmick keys I needed and actually be useful with them, I often needed to slam out a full ten levels. I can and do hold this EXP curve against Eternal Punishment. This is a Persona 1 level of keep-up grinding that is on display by the end of the game. I'm sure that the veterans who knew about the double experience fortune... thing that you can do from the start and who spent time hunting down every rare encounter and who tracked down all the sidequests experienced a lot less of this, but even if that remedies the situation, having such things be necessary to finish a playthrough isn't great either.
To rub more salt in the grinding wound, players need EXP, yes, but they also need cards, and they cannot get those two things at the same time. The negotiation card grind is a completely parallel activity that cannot be done simultaneously with actually killing things for EXP. This means that pretty much every time there's a grind to be done, there are actually two grinds to be done... and that's if you don't have to fish for material cards from rare encounters.
If I did not have access to a great auto-battle system, the ability to turn off battle animations, and an emulator's fast-forward function, I imagine that I would not have finished Eternal Punishment, and that would have been a massive shame, because its story is at least as good as Innocent Sin's and it's better paced. It walks a wonderfully fine line between reusing old environments and inventing new ones, and I'm so glad that I played it. I just can't see myself wanting to do it again.
I actually lowered the entry bar on my silly little "five-star club" in order to let Innocent Sin into it. It got away with it because while some of its systems were definitely rough, they could mostly be ignored, and the PS1 version kept things engaging enough when those questionable systems WERE being ignored that the ultimate experience was still fantastic. I certainly enjoyed my time with Eternal Punishment, but not without some very significant things repeatedly getting in the way. Even still, I recognize that a lot of my grievances are tied to my preference for difficulty being delivered IN battles, rather than scavenger hunting outside them. There exists a legion of players who love the latter, and I'm not about to argue with them.
I admire Eternal Punishment's commitment to the systems that Innocent Sin so overlooked, but I have to admit, I had a better time when they were largely being ignored.
I wish Atlus make games about something again.
Not a proper review yet but this is one of my favorite games and I created a comprehensive Google Doc for newcomers interested in trying Persona 2 that I wanted to share. Proper review coming when I replay the duology this winter.
https://bit.ly/3JbNrNs
https://bit.ly/3JbNrNs
The best persona game, period. Its themes of struggling to integrate with society as an adult speak much more clearly to me then the stories of later entries in the series.
on top of that, there's some of the most challenging and rewarding gameplay in the franchise. everyone in persona 2 can use every persona, so having the right set up of personas is critical to success in boss fights, which will more than likely fuck your shit up if unprepared. The translation is wonky at points, as most of the spell names are very literally translated, but compared to revelations: persona its night and day, as there's no censorship or Americanization here. all in all this is one of my favourite JRPGs of all time and a contender for one of my favourite games period.
on top of that, there's some of the most challenging and rewarding gameplay in the franchise. everyone in persona 2 can use every persona, so having the right set up of personas is critical to success in boss fights, which will more than likely fuck your shit up if unprepared. The translation is wonky at points, as most of the spell names are very literally translated, but compared to revelations: persona its night and day, as there's no censorship or Americanization here. all in all this is one of my favourite JRPGs of all time and a contender for one of my favourite games period.
Nearly perfect game. Combat is much more engaging than Innocent Sin, but I felt like some parts weren not balanced well and it encouraged a bit too much grinding All that aside, this game was fantastic. Might be my favorite cast in the series, and that says a lot because I love basically every character in these games. The story is also really damn good, and the ending credits just sealed everything for me. Loved this
The Persona series is no stranger to follow-up games that further explore the story, setting, and characters of each numbered sequel. Among them, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is unique. It's not a rhythm game, it's not a fighting game, it's not an action-RPG, but rather a full proper sequel that effectively qualifies as the second half of a duology, carrying on Innocent Sin's mechanics and themes in a way that feels like a natural progression. Two halves of a whole.
Eternal Punishment is even further differentiated by how it shifts the narrative focus away from teenagers for the first and only time in the franchise, instead putting the player in control of a group of adults with decidedly adult problems. Maya (former party member turned silent protagonist) works a full-time job writing for a fashion magazine, her roommate Ulala was conned out of a substantial amount of money by her boyfriend, Baofu is a professional extortionist, and even returning characters from Persona 1 are now adults who have far more weight placed upon their shoulders. What is normally portrayed as a sort of out-group in the Persona series - often times antagonistic or simply incapable of appreciating what teenagers go through - is instead represented in a different light. Maybe adults are disconnected from the troubles of youth, but likewise, teens don't know how difficult being an adult can be.
"Is it hard being an adult? No, nevermind... Forget about it..."
"What about you?"
"....."
"It's the same. Nothing feels good. The pain just keeps growing..."
I mean, a key plot point is that "society" is literally Jokerfying people. I'd love for another Persona game to feature a cast of 20-to-30-somethings who are too busy getting wasted to form Social Links. Ain't nobody is making friends after 30. Unfortunately, even if Atlus did this, I'm sure they'd find some way to put you on the other end of the high schooler-dating-adult dynamic. Would that be more creepy? Ah, I'd rather not think about it.
Overall, I enjoyed the cast dynamic better than the first game, and I found it resulted in some really fun dialog options when attempting to negotiate with demons. The rumor system also feels more robust, though still not quite as in-depth as I'd like to be. There's so much potential there, but I can see why they weren't able to live to it at the time. At least it's better here than it was in Innocent Sin, and t's definitely worth fussing with enough that you're able to unlock the secret Nekomata hiding in the detective agency's bathroom. The battle system is pretty much unaltered, so you'll probably get the same mileage out of it, though I did find Eternal Punishment to be more challenging overall, which is appropriate if you treat this as the second half of a single game as I did. Going from Innocent Sin straight to this feels good, and that's probably the best way to approach Eternal Punishment, especially considering the plot won't really make a whole lot of sense without the context of the last game. I can't imagine jumping into this back in the year 2000 with no way to appreciate the story of Innocent Sin, there's so much here that is set up prior to the start of the game, and cameos by Innocent Sin's party members would just feel hollow without all the emotional baggage of the first game.
If you have the time and the wherewithal to dig up the Innocent Sin English patch (I'll be damned if I can find it now...) and are willing to grab a PSX ISO for Eternal Punishment, and you have an interest in PlayStation era Shin Megami Tensei games, then I'd strongly suggest seeking both parts of Persona 2 out and playing them as a pair. Of course, it would be way easier if Atlus would just port these to modern consoles, but given their track record, they'd find some way to fuck that up.
Eternal Punishment is even further differentiated by how it shifts the narrative focus away from teenagers for the first and only time in the franchise, instead putting the player in control of a group of adults with decidedly adult problems. Maya (former party member turned silent protagonist) works a full-time job writing for a fashion magazine, her roommate Ulala was conned out of a substantial amount of money by her boyfriend, Baofu is a professional extortionist, and even returning characters from Persona 1 are now adults who have far more weight placed upon their shoulders. What is normally portrayed as a sort of out-group in the Persona series - often times antagonistic or simply incapable of appreciating what teenagers go through - is instead represented in a different light. Maybe adults are disconnected from the troubles of youth, but likewise, teens don't know how difficult being an adult can be.
"Is it hard being an adult? No, nevermind... Forget about it..."
"What about you?"
"....."
"It's the same. Nothing feels good. The pain just keeps growing..."
I mean, a key plot point is that "society" is literally Jokerfying people. I'd love for another Persona game to feature a cast of 20-to-30-somethings who are too busy getting wasted to form Social Links. Ain't nobody is making friends after 30. Unfortunately, even if Atlus did this, I'm sure they'd find some way to put you on the other end of the high schooler-dating-adult dynamic. Would that be more creepy? Ah, I'd rather not think about it.
Overall, I enjoyed the cast dynamic better than the first game, and I found it resulted in some really fun dialog options when attempting to negotiate with demons. The rumor system also feels more robust, though still not quite as in-depth as I'd like to be. There's so much potential there, but I can see why they weren't able to live to it at the time. At least it's better here than it was in Innocent Sin, and t's definitely worth fussing with enough that you're able to unlock the secret Nekomata hiding in the detective agency's bathroom. The battle system is pretty much unaltered, so you'll probably get the same mileage out of it, though I did find Eternal Punishment to be more challenging overall, which is appropriate if you treat this as the second half of a single game as I did. Going from Innocent Sin straight to this feels good, and that's probably the best way to approach Eternal Punishment, especially considering the plot won't really make a whole lot of sense without the context of the last game. I can't imagine jumping into this back in the year 2000 with no way to appreciate the story of Innocent Sin, there's so much here that is set up prior to the start of the game, and cameos by Innocent Sin's party members would just feel hollow without all the emotional baggage of the first game.
If you have the time and the wherewithal to dig up the Innocent Sin English patch (I'll be damned if I can find it now...) and are willing to grab a PSX ISO for Eternal Punishment, and you have an interest in PlayStation era Shin Megami Tensei games, then I'd strongly suggest seeking both parts of Persona 2 out and playing them as a pair. Of course, it would be way easier if Atlus would just port these to modern consoles, but given their track record, they'd find some way to fuck that up.
Baofu spread the 2 girls 1 cup rumour.
it made me cry a lot ;-;
Easily my favorite SMT game alongside Nocturne. The only Persona game that speaks to the struggles of being an adult rather than a teenager. This isn't inherently better, but it's certainly a breath of fresh air from the series if you've come off of 3-5. After beating this game, I ended up beating it twice more almost back to back. Maya is my singular favorite character from anything, but she's a silent protagonist in this game and shines primarily in Innocent Sin. Definitely play that first.
The perfect Persona game.
This is the Persona 2 people should be paying more attention to, honestly.
uniquely punishing combat system, to befit a narrative about the cruel and relentless reality of transitioning from youth to adulthood
This review contains spoilers
I was legitimately surprised what a large leap this was over Innocent Sin. That's not to say that EP fixes every issue but it feels like a much more complete product overall.
The combat feels way more involved and interesting without becoming too easy either. It felt like I was actually meant to plan out each turn and not just autobattle everything to death which was a nice change of pace, and made SP management way less of a nuisance and fusion spells way more fun to use. It compensates by making battles more difficult, which is a welcome change and there are plenty of ways it throws a wrench into your setup. I won't go as far as to call it perfect, because I still ended up estoma-ing through some dungeons, but it's probably the best way to maximize this system. The dungeon layouts are probably the area that's seen the least improvement, probably the weakest aspect of the P2 duology as a whole. The less random traps is nice but the sprawling layouts didn't really do much more for me.
I would be lying though if I said the story isn't where this game is at it's best. The cast is absolutely fantastic and made me actively want to talk to them in every location, I'm honestly surprised so many people seem to like IS' cast better. There's a really strong overarching theme with how each of them struggles with adulthood, from past regrets to uncertainty about the future, and the new drive they each get at the end feels really satisfying. I really enjoyed the spin on Tatsuya's character as well, Innocent Sin really helped to put you in his shoes and EP delivers on that. It does a really good job of showing the pain he's been through, and his struggle with leaving behind his friends feels powerful after having a whole game to see those bonds. There were real stakes at play and they were delivered on excellently by the ending, I appreciate how it has real consequences for Tatsuya even if it is tragic. Also worth mentioning how amazing the last FMV is too, while Maya doesn't have the character she had in IS due to being the protagonist I think it was a great way to show how she's learned from others to not let the past torment her.
(Side note but I don't have much to say about the Persona 1 stuff since I haven't played it yet, though I knew enough for it to be enjoyable enough)
This game was a much different tone and feel than the other Persona games I've played, but I appreciate it a lot for that. I'm not sure whether they'll make something like this again, and that speaks to how unique it feels, like it was on the border between old and new Persona and Atlus as a whole. EP really brings out the best of what IS does well, while making a lot of it's own improvements and bringing a really strong story and cast to the table as well.
The combat feels way more involved and interesting without becoming too easy either. It felt like I was actually meant to plan out each turn and not just autobattle everything to death which was a nice change of pace, and made SP management way less of a nuisance and fusion spells way more fun to use. It compensates by making battles more difficult, which is a welcome change and there are plenty of ways it throws a wrench into your setup. I won't go as far as to call it perfect, because I still ended up estoma-ing through some dungeons, but it's probably the best way to maximize this system. The dungeon layouts are probably the area that's seen the least improvement, probably the weakest aspect of the P2 duology as a whole. The less random traps is nice but the sprawling layouts didn't really do much more for me.
I would be lying though if I said the story isn't where this game is at it's best. The cast is absolutely fantastic and made me actively want to talk to them in every location, I'm honestly surprised so many people seem to like IS' cast better. There's a really strong overarching theme with how each of them struggles with adulthood, from past regrets to uncertainty about the future, and the new drive they each get at the end feels really satisfying. I really enjoyed the spin on Tatsuya's character as well, Innocent Sin really helped to put you in his shoes and EP delivers on that. It does a really good job of showing the pain he's been through, and his struggle with leaving behind his friends feels powerful after having a whole game to see those bonds. There were real stakes at play and they were delivered on excellently by the ending, I appreciate how it has real consequences for Tatsuya even if it is tragic. Also worth mentioning how amazing the last FMV is too, while Maya doesn't have the character she had in IS due to being the protagonist I think it was a great way to show how she's learned from others to not let the past torment her.
(Side note but I don't have much to say about the Persona 1 stuff since I haven't played it yet, though I knew enough for it to be enjoyable enough)
This game was a much different tone and feel than the other Persona games I've played, but I appreciate it a lot for that. I'm not sure whether they'll make something like this again, and that speaks to how unique it feels, like it was on the border between old and new Persona and Atlus as a whole. EP really brings out the best of what IS does well, while making a lot of it's own improvements and bringing a really strong story and cast to the table as well.
Beaten: Oct 5 2021
Time: 43 Hours
Platform: Xbox Series X via Retroarch in dev mode/PS Vita
I loved Persona 2 Innocent Sin when I played it last year. It's a masterful game, full of well realized characters and the strongest characters in the whole series, BAR NONE. Plus, it's got maybe the most imaginitive plot out of any jrpg I've ever played? Rumors become reality, and it just escalates so damn well from there, not only taking that idea to it's extreme, but also exploring it so well along the way. The only real flaw I felt with it was the battle system, which was a bit on the slow side, but for such a short game I didn't think it was a huge issue.
Eternal Punishment, the second half of Persona 2, is about as perfect a companion piece I've ever seen. It stands on its own as a full experience, and if you've played the first game, it feels like there's mountains of references and thematic callbacks buried under each line of code. I'm not sure why it took me a whole year to finally play it, but oh man am I glad I did!
Most mechanics from the first game are included here. The rumor system is expanded upon, and although it isn't as central to the plot in this game, it's just as if not more fully explored here. Sometimes you're just spreading rumors like "yeah this shop sells weapons I guess", but sometimes you're unlocking new dungeons, moving restaurants halfway across the city, or inspiring fashion designers on accident. Every time you spread a rumor, going and checking if it worked still feels like a rush, like "did it actually happen? does this surf shop owner now smuggle for the mafia?" and it's just addictingggggg.
Demon conversations also work the way they did in the first game, and it's just as fun of a system here. It's got all the complexity of the early smt games, but with so much more repeatability and variety of outcomes. You're trying to induce emotional responses in the demons, and if you get them to feel strongly enough they'll react, but what they react to and how you get them to feel happy or interested or scared is monstrously varied.
Moving on to the main portion of the game, you'll be spending your time with the game in around 20 dungeons, almost all of which are immaculate and fun as hell to navigate! They're less tedious than old school smt dungeons, but also incorporate some puzzle elements in there. Honestly the best comparison for dungeon design is Nocturne, but where that game tends to theme itself after an eerie sense of emptiness and otherworldliness, the dungeons here are, for the most part, very grounded, real placess. You go through a high school, a gym, a museum, and it's all just full of flavor.
The battle system is the real star of the show here though. At it's core it's a pretty standard turn based battle system, albeit with like 16 different attack types, but the way it's impelemented pushes you to focus on auto-battle. In fact, auto-battle is the default battle mode, and while you're in auto mode, the order that your characters take their turns kind of.. shifts. If a character's got a high agility, they can have another turn without waiting all the way through every other turn. What comes out of this is a very flexible system that feels like it flows much quicker than most turn based systems, and as you get your attack patterns designed well, one where you can just watch if you want, or speed through if you don't.
It's a huge improvement on the first game, which is interesting because the version of the first game I played was the remaster for the PSP??? And the original game supposedly plays much more like this game???? What a weird change to make.
Anyways, this is a game you really should experience yourself, particularly if you like the kinda heady anime from the late 90s/early 2000s, because this feels almost exactly like those. Particularly Serial Experiments Lain felt a lot like this. I don't really have an explanation as to why besides "depression and weird" though haha.
So yeah, play this game, but play the first one first. Goodnight :)
Time: 43 Hours
Platform: Xbox Series X via Retroarch in dev mode/PS Vita
I loved Persona 2 Innocent Sin when I played it last year. It's a masterful game, full of well realized characters and the strongest characters in the whole series, BAR NONE. Plus, it's got maybe the most imaginitive plot out of any jrpg I've ever played? Rumors become reality, and it just escalates so damn well from there, not only taking that idea to it's extreme, but also exploring it so well along the way. The only real flaw I felt with it was the battle system, which was a bit on the slow side, but for such a short game I didn't think it was a huge issue.
Eternal Punishment, the second half of Persona 2, is about as perfect a companion piece I've ever seen. It stands on its own as a full experience, and if you've played the first game, it feels like there's mountains of references and thematic callbacks buried under each line of code. I'm not sure why it took me a whole year to finally play it, but oh man am I glad I did!
Most mechanics from the first game are included here. The rumor system is expanded upon, and although it isn't as central to the plot in this game, it's just as if not more fully explored here. Sometimes you're just spreading rumors like "yeah this shop sells weapons I guess", but sometimes you're unlocking new dungeons, moving restaurants halfway across the city, or inspiring fashion designers on accident. Every time you spread a rumor, going and checking if it worked still feels like a rush, like "did it actually happen? does this surf shop owner now smuggle for the mafia?" and it's just addictingggggg.
Demon conversations also work the way they did in the first game, and it's just as fun of a system here. It's got all the complexity of the early smt games, but with so much more repeatability and variety of outcomes. You're trying to induce emotional responses in the demons, and if you get them to feel strongly enough they'll react, but what they react to and how you get them to feel happy or interested or scared is monstrously varied.
Moving on to the main portion of the game, you'll be spending your time with the game in around 20 dungeons, almost all of which are immaculate and fun as hell to navigate! They're less tedious than old school smt dungeons, but also incorporate some puzzle elements in there. Honestly the best comparison for dungeon design is Nocturne, but where that game tends to theme itself after an eerie sense of emptiness and otherworldliness, the dungeons here are, for the most part, very grounded, real placess. You go through a high school, a gym, a museum, and it's all just full of flavor.
The battle system is the real star of the show here though. At it's core it's a pretty standard turn based battle system, albeit with like 16 different attack types, but the way it's impelemented pushes you to focus on auto-battle. In fact, auto-battle is the default battle mode, and while you're in auto mode, the order that your characters take their turns kind of.. shifts. If a character's got a high agility, they can have another turn without waiting all the way through every other turn. What comes out of this is a very flexible system that feels like it flows much quicker than most turn based systems, and as you get your attack patterns designed well, one where you can just watch if you want, or speed through if you don't.
It's a huge improvement on the first game, which is interesting because the version of the first game I played was the remaster for the PSP??? And the original game supposedly plays much more like this game???? What a weird change to make.
Anyways, this is a game you really should experience yourself, particularly if you like the kinda heady anime from the late 90s/early 2000s, because this feels almost exactly like those. Particularly Serial Experiments Lain felt a lot like this. I don't really have an explanation as to why besides "depression and weird" though haha.
So yeah, play this game, but play the first one first. Goodnight :)
I just got so burnt out from the terrible gameplay of Innocent Sin, when I tried to play this right after I just straight up gave up at the boss because I was fed up. Going to come back to it, but it's probably a bad game like Innocent Sin.
loved this one more than its predecessor, sure the gameplay is harder but the cast is so much better. The last game wrapped their stories up nicely, also this one features baofu sooo...
This game is home to amazing sprite work with beautiful settings, although its combat feels rather dated in the way that the moves happen in a sequence and not as you input them which hasnt left a good impression in me both in this game and its predecessor (innocent sin). What stands out about this game is its phenomenal story, Persona 2 is a masterclass of storytelling in the persona franchise, not only from the perspective of the characters own stories and relationship developments, but in how well paced it all is, in terms of Persona stories, theres this and then theres everything else