Man both I love persona 2 innocent sin and eternal punishment they gotta be my favorite genders ever man like I remember looking up this game just to found out it's Japanese only no subtitles and that the ps1 version has shit dubbing and since I didn't have a ps1 emulator at the time since i was retarded i was like fuck it I heard this game hella underrated and that it has a adult cast like fuck me Im actually missing out then one day randomly i see on my now banned twitter account that the entire game has been subbed and translated like I had an actual will to live put in front of me man I was so excited then I started the game and the pixels looked hella smugded and hella ugly and I couldn't get out of the office and my gane would random just completely freeze and I would have to make a save state and close the app so I decided to go eepy sleepy since it was 1 am anyway wake up find out I accidentally turned on and upscale setting that made the pixel smudged and made it run on like 8 fps and actually payed attention to the dialogue so I can actually do what I had to do and left the office and man what a fucking game man like I this isn't the best ever I know but like goddamn I wished persona games used adult shit more like this game justs hits even hsrder now that I'm actually an adult and a 16 year old who only played the first persona 2 since the main character like men its just a whole different experience like baofus whole lil comment in the train about adult life being horrible n shit just hit like crazy such a good scene and like damn being older he was so right man I love all the characters to man like baofus my 2nd fav persona character and my 2nd favorite character from like Japanese media right behind tatsuya which says alot about both of them since i fw baofu heavy man like I wish I was like him fr but yeah back to it I genuinely don't dislike a single thing about this game at that's are this and re4 are the only games I can really say that about like this game is actually perfect balance of too hard and too easy more on the hard side but I like that I love the plot I love the returning charcters from the first game and innocent sin like tatsuya man I love baufo like I said but like tatsuya might be in my top 5 main characters in video games ever man like hes tough just his design alone like that shot in the lil mini side novel story thing (favorite part of the game but ill get to it) where he's just laying there with all this inky hands covering him just like clicked in my brain it's so hard to explain like It was so cool and I love his whole character in general man he's so cool and I wish maya just spoke like you think they woulda just did that like we already know Maya's personality and character but like still it's so lame and the whole way they basically made her tatsuyas love interest is weird like let that man be gay and he's like 17 also half your age but like persona am I right lame ass shit but yeah it's whatever back to the game I love the end fight and his theme like holy shit ion know if I like the og music or the PSP more but either way that shit was just insane man I love that they based alot shit around lovecraft like thats based AF the music felt more lovecraft than that shitty call of Cthulhu game I tried to play but yeah I remember like finally getting to the boss and I already knew this game Is like the second or number one hardest game in the series but like goddamn man I spent deadass 3-4 hours just fighting him and having to resort to save states so I didn't have to restart every time died but still couldn't beat him so I gave up and realized I'm not built for this and left the game alone for a while 2 months later I'm like oh shit I still needa beat him had to do the same thing as before and use hella save states and like strategize to the point that my head got pounding headache since I'm retarded and dont like actually thinking just scraping by with just baofu and katsuya(goated character btw) reviving Maya so they can be bait so they didn't die and dead runing out of like three 99 stacks of heals and sp heals and all my fucking somas and when that fucking bitch died I've never felt more relieve and satisfaction for anything video game related ever man like deadass prob my 2nd boss fight right there next to maruki ad my fav persona boss and def top 10 or 5 for boss fights In general for me man like goddamn man and after allat I found out randomly talking to igor i think that this game comes with a multiple chapter side gameplay with way WAY more text that makes it feel like a short novel revolving entirely around tatsuya and what he was doing while was missing in the main story like genuinely i can't word my fucking enjoyment and excitement when I found this out man like holy shit my 16-17 year old self was giggling and kicking my feet in the air like a fucking girl man I love that shit so much like I know people would hate it but I wish the whole game was like written like that man like I love books shits so fun man but yeah imma stop before I keep going I love this game if their was a top 20 for my fav games its would be there for sure 10/10| psp opening a 7/10 just vibes og openings a 7/10 also vibes

it gets everything right
the immediately apparent and very convinient improvements in the ui are a quality of life change that was sorely needed in Innocent Sin, this game can be played at a much faster pace if wanted and it feels so much better, it's also overall harder than the previous installment which is appreciated, and even if the amount of tools you get does eventually limit the ways in which the game can truly challenge you it still feels satisfying to master persona switching strategies, even more so than in Innocent Sin
the themes of the story are built on so well I'm still in awe after finishing it, the adult cast of the game not only allows it to go to darker places but also to feel more sincere in its hopeful messaging, Maya's motto "let's think positive!" is not a hollow encouragement to ignore your problems and indulge in ignorance that's coming from a shallow person, it's about finding a way to be optimistic in spite of tragedy and learning to be the master of your own life, while not succumbing to hatred, and the game plays on it excellently
and it definitely helps that the cast are all fantastic and that the game even finds ways to give more meaning to the journey of Innocent Sin, making both games feel like they matter

I wasn't very into Innocent Sin, but I had respect for it, I understood that me not being very into it was very personal, and I had some general fondness for the plot.

Eternal Punishment has the same issues (poor combat and dungeon design), but everything that was good about Innocent Sin is not present.

The plot is messy in Innocent Sin, but it felt like there were some trough-lines. Even if the plot didn't feel concise, the similar themes tied everything together. On the other hand, Eternal Punishment feels completely all over the place, with no common ground.

Even the rumor system feels much less grounded and part of the world of Eternal Punishment than it did in Innocent Sin, which is a shame since rumors are so essential to the game's identity.

I think at the heart of it Innocent Sin was good since it was the story of Tatsuya, Eikichi, Lisa, and Jun; Eternal Punishment is also that, but wrapped around a bunch of other things that feel pointless.

Maybe it's a bit rude to compare the two so closely, but it is a duology, and Eternal Punishment is at its best when it's just the second half of Innocent Sin— which it is for the last five minutes.

Also, to end on an incredibly petty note, making Maya a silent protagonist is terrible. Tatsuya as a silent protagonist was also terrible, so they made the smart move and made him an actual character—at the cost of Maya's character.

I very desperately wanted to like Persona 2 as a whole— I am a pretentious person, honestly— but I just do not see anything interesting in the story of Eternal Punishment until the literal last moments. I do respect that the game was willing to end on an imperfect and somber note.

Um dos jogos mais interessantes da série na minha visão, e que conseguiu atender a maioria das minhas expectativas.

A história, como era de se esperar, está muito boa, e com uma pegada um pouco diferente, não tão absurda/cheia de surpresas, mas igualmente bonita, focando nos problemas e dificuldades de quando se torna adulto, como o medo e a incerteza do futuro, ou o apego excessivo ao passado.

O cast de personagens principais é excelente, com vários personagens já conhecidos e com outros novos e muito bem feitos. Destaco em especial o Baofu e a Ulala, que são boas representações da fase adulta, cada um do seu jeito e com seu carisma. Também vale destacar a "inversão de papeis" entre o Tatsuya e a Maya, o personagem que era mudo ganha destaque, enquanto o outro perde em troca do storytelling. Não vejo como um problema, mas é uma mudança considerável pra quem gostava muito da Maya do IS.

A trilha sonora mantém a alta qualidade da série, com destaque pro tema dos créditos "Change Your Way". Música linda e que toca no mapa em uma versão bem bonitinha.

A jogabilidade é ok, as dungeons são bem legais, mas problemas como a necessidade de grinding e os MUITOS encontros aleatórios realmente tiram meu apreço pelo combate.

No mais, Eternal Punishment é um ótimo jogo, bem único dentro da série Persona, visto que muitos dos seus temas focam na vida adulta, (escolhi não falar muito para não dar spoiler) e com certeza vale a pena ser jogado, mesmo com o problema do combate datado.

While Innocent Sin feels like the introduction in terms of gameplay, mechanics and story, Eternal Punishment ramps up its difficulty and stakes in terms of gameplay, giving more proper cohesion and make you fully invested during the combat (though, if you play your cards right, you could end up just spamming Last Quake or Meltdown for most of the game), the rumor system offers more fun results that gives you a complete edge on certain levels and the cast is fantastic.

Despite its reputation as "the snob's choice" in the series, it is just a really well made duology where every single theme, character and meaning come together into a full circle, a coming of age on the most extreme way possible with a nice sprinkle of lovecraft into it.

Fantastic. Beautiful story, engaging cast, and an insightful look at the meaning and value of relationships, consensus reality, responsibility, and persevering even when the end seems written in stone, among many other things. The gameplay and dungeon crawling were still a test of my patience at times, but there but other times I vibed with it so perhaps it's just a matter of taste. In any case, still worth it to experience this beautiful story. One of those games where it may be a good idea to keep paper and a pencil handy.

Logging completion of the Additional Scenario that the PSP remake added.

Really cool stuff. Was super fun to jump back into this world after so long and feel all those feelings I loved again. Halfway through it I realized I really just want to replay the whole game again but I think I'm gonna have to save that for another time. Not sure I'm going to have the time to sink into this before Reload comes out in a few weeks lol.

Anyway, this was a joy. Running around as Tatsuya smoking bad guys was fun, and I liked the kind of visual-novel thing they had going on with describing every scene.

Fighting Kandori and Nyarlathotep in this game was fucking amazing, two of my favorite characters in Eternal Punishment, fucking cool as shit.
Also interesting you fight Izanami who is the main antagonist of Persona 4? So that's cool ??

Overall a fun time, rather short, but that's quite alright with me. Maybe one day I'll replay the whole game, who knows.

An enhanced port of what was already the best Persona game, this is definitely the version to play if you haven't played before. Unlike the Innocent Sin PSP port, this version actually made sure to kept atmospheric elements like the UI sounds from the PS1 version of the game. There's numerous other quality of life improvements, including not hiding the nature of the combat being based on repetition. One of the biggest QoL improvements is actually being able to view each characters Persona compatibility without having to either do it by trial and error or looking it up on the internet.

Most of all, the game includes the new Tatsuya scenario. I personally think the scenario was quite good. The only issue I really had with it was the third part being a new dungeon, but that dungeon was really just a reskin of a dungeon already in the game, and a lot of the explanation for navigating it wasn't really necessary. However I liked that the bosses were cool, and many of them even involved a philosophical question that didn't have "OBVIOUS RIGHT ANSWER" and "OBVIOUS WRONG ANSWER", you were supposed to think about it and think about what mythological figure you were talking to. If you could answer correctly, you could potentially skip the boss entirely.

Eternal Punishment was already the best Persona, and this version served only to make it better. If you're going to play it, I recommend this version for sure. I will say some minor atmospheric things from the PSX version are missing from this version, but that pales in comparison to what it gained.

The game has a fan translated English patch out there on the internet, so be sure to use that if you can't read Japanese.

No Sinner can go on without a Punishment.
Any word that I can put in this review would not be enough to convey my feelings about this game. Saying that it is a masterpiece is not sufficient, for no language has a word to describe this story.
I simply love this game and the story that it portrays. For me, this is a story of love, how Tatsuya descended to the lowest mental state a person can endure just for Maya's and her world's sake is beautiful. How he tries to atone for his Sin and receive his Punishment for it, how the only thing he wants is to protect her smile, how he pleads that she never stops smiling. That was too personal for me, and I adore this type of story. And the ending of this game... What can I say about it? It's bittersweet. Tatsuya was able to save his lover and protect that wonderful smile, but at the same time, he had to atone for his Sin. He cannot live with her; the only thing he was granted to do is give her a kiss and a promise, and finally, he atoned, asking for his brother and friends to protect her in his place.
As for me, as a spectator of this story, I can only pray... for they are connected by that ocean, they can meet again.

"𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒖𝒃𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔: 𝒔𝒐 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆, 𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒂 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉."

Out of the Persona 2 duology I've always heard more praise for Eternal Punishment, but after how much I loved Innocent Sin it honestly kinda fell short of my expectations. The difficulty is definitely a bit higher compared to Innocent Sin (both the PSX and PSP versions) which is neither inherently positive or negative for me, but I did find myself growing increasingly frustrated towards the last 10 or so hours due to that portion of the game being more densely packed with maze-like and annoying to navigate dungeons as well as two especially grindy boss battles. While I really like the party members on an individual level and they personally resonate with me a lot more, collectively they lack the chemistry that Innocent Sin's party had. Maya unfortunately becomes a lot less interesting as a silent protagonist, but in exchange Tatsuya is no longer silent and shines more, and I think Eternal Punishment definitely cemented my fondness of him. Nanjo and Elly aren't as well integrated into the story as Yukki previously was in Innocent Sin. Their routes feel tacked on and the game dedicates an unnecessarily large chunk of the overall playtime to following up storylines from Persona 1 that not everyone going into Persona 2 will necessarily have played. To add insult to injury depending on whose route you pick there's a 50% chance you will be locked out of proceeding with Tatsuya's additional scenario like I was, which I certainly didn't appreciate.