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.

I honestly have a lot less to say about Eternal Punishment as I did with Innocent Sin. I found the game to be enjoyable, but definitely did start to grow dull toward the middle to end sections, and it didn't pick up much in the conclusion for me.

I think much of this has to do with a lot of the story being retreading of Innocent Sin, with a lot of the structure being entirely beat for beat recreations of events in Innocent Sin. There was nothing offensive, but very few standout moments that had me feeling satisfied. I'd say that the major problem I had was the emotional throughline felt weak to me, as it was largely pushed toward Tatsuya who is not present through most of the game and story until the very end. While it didn't have anything as offensively bad or gross as the nazis, or the wasted potential of the Masked Circle in the first game... It also just felt lacking. Such as finding the fortune telling to be weaker than the wish granting and shadow men scenario in Innocent Sin. Again, just an alright and passable story that didn't grip me as much as I would have liked.

As far as the main cast: While I did enjoy Katsuya and Baofu and their bickering, I didn't really feel much for Ulala or Maya, who was weakened greatly with her voice being taken away. Maya still served as a better protagonist that Tatsuya in my opinion, but making her silent was a large mistake. As a result, with it largely being the four characters through most of the story, I felt their chemistry could have been stronger. With Maya silent, there was no fun banter with Ulala with her, and instead the best banter Ulala gets is with Baofu. Katsuya and Baofu have their moments with their morals ending up on opposite sides given one is a detective and one is a vigilante, but there also wasn't much with Baofu and Maya. Katsuya's crush on Maya was cute however. Tatsuya himself felt like he was written into being too gloomy, and while it makes sense in this scenario and with the themes of maturing and adulthood, it does take away other aspects of his character from the past game with him making goofy sounds to demons. I had gone with Nanjo route for story, and Nanjo largely was just the same as he was in P1, but I felt he had less chemistry with the EP cast than Yukino did with Maya in IS. As a result, it often feels like there are 3 1/2 party members for the full game, with Ulala, Katsuya, Baofu, and silent protagonist Maya. I would have liked the party to have a stronger connection, which probably would have helped with Maya no longer being silent, and Tatsuya opening up more in the end game.

The gameplay was largely the same, with a bit more difficulty put onto boss fights so they weren't as braindead as they were in Innocent Sin. I found the game to be a good blend of difficulty for the limited combat system, only finding some aspects to be more annoying and not well thought out. Such as the Old Maid skill being something that bosses could spam rather than having a cooldown or trigger to activate, and that some enemies had skills that could completely drain your wallet. In that sense, they just felt more mean-spirited than difficult. Beyond that, my thoughts from Innocent Sin's gameplay is largely the same. It was serviceable, was an improvement to problems in P1, still miss the grid system, but still doesn't reward exploiting weaknesses as much as SMT games, or future Persona games. Leading to using your favorite spell over and over again generally being the best strategy.

Overall, Eternal Punishment is mostly a lot more of Innocent Sin, but without the offensive parts of it. It has a decent story, a decent cast of characters, and decent gameplay for the time it came out in. Though, I think it does lack the strong emotional core and the highlights of Innocent Sin that I liked about it. In this sense, Eternal Punishment was fun, but nothing standout to me. Compared to Innocent Sin's constant highlights and low points, Eternal Punishment was just a steady ride from beginning to end. 3.5/5