Eternal Punishment is far from a perfect game, but it is a very special one to me. Although I still don't enjoy some of its core mechanics, such as the fusion and combat systems, I've come to appreciate every other aspect of it as I've gotten older. Its main cast is easily the most likeable in the series, its neo-noir-ish mood is still unmatched, the soundtrack is awesome, and its themes resonate with me now more than ever. Being an adult sucks, dealing with trauma is difficult, and learning to love and forgive yourself can be tough, but there's always a bright side to everything. In a way, Eternal Punishment did teach me to think positive. With the recent release of the English patch for the PSP remake I really do hope more people finally decide to give this game a genuine shot. It deserves to be recognized as not only one of Atlus's finest, but also as one of the greatest PS1 games.

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 :)

This is better than xenobalde 3 and One of my favorite RPGs of all time, my favorite cast out of any Persona game even over Innocent Sin and definitely over Xenoblade 3. The cast being comprised of mostly adults makes for a really interesting dynamic nothing else in the series really has, the plot is great but I don't think it'd be as great without them. Most people would say they dislike the gameplay but in this game specifically I found it very fun (sokmething I can't say about the horribly lame designed battle system in xenoblade 3) and challenging although the game is full of PS1 jank and it's definitely not for everyone, you'd probably be better off playing with a guide and one of the dungeons in the game pisses me off really bad even though I like the gameplay.

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 :)