Note: Played the PSP port. Also, spoilers in the story section.
I've heard Persona 2: Innocent Sin praised as one of Atlus' absolute best games for quite a while, and a few weeks ago, interested in getting back into the SMT franchise, I finally decided I should give it a try. Bottom line is, I see where its fans are coming from, but I can't really say I felt the same way about it.
What is most commonly brought up as Innocent Sin's biggest flaw is the combat, and with that comes an asterisk- the PS1 version is apparently a bit better in this regard, but by the time I found that out, I was deep enough into the PSP port to not want to switch over. As far as the version I did play... yeah, kinda? Mechanically it works, it's just simple and slow as shit. I think I didn't suffer as much as you would on a PSP cause I just held fast forward on every fight (including the final boss- oops), but I can't say that makes it less bad, it just makes it less annoying. On the positive side of things I think this is my favorite demon conversation system in the entire series? I know it's from Persona 1 but there's a proper amount of strategy (well, of trial and error, but close enough) in it without sacrificing personality, not to mention there's a fuckton of unique dialogue you can get. I like the card system for fusing Personas but with the combat being what it is it doesn't really come together as necessary, especially with a lot of high tier Personas actually having pretty mediocre skillsets.
On the flip side, Persona 2's greatest strength is definitely its main cast- each of them is incredibly endearing and they play off each other amazingly in both comedic and serious scenes. Tatsuya, the MC, is inevitably the weakest link due to Atlus' obsession with silent protagonists, but even then there's some neat stuff to dig into rather than a complete blank slate. Eikichi, the "bro" character, has a good amount of depth to him and is actually pretty funny, though he does run into the issue of sometimes being treated as a joke when he shouldn't by the rest of the cast- Lisa Silverman is maybe the most interesting character in the cast, "openly has a crush on the MC and their entire relationship is built around neither knowing what to do about it" is bizarre but simultaneously relatable, and she's overall usually very neat. Maya is probably my least favorite of the proper characters but I appreciate this utter force of positivity that she is in every circumstance, that can very easily be done wrong but it never comes off as irritating in her case. Finally there's Yukino, apparently a returning character from Persona 1- she's really fucking cool, though with every other character sharing a really deep bond you slowly unravel through the game, she feels a bit out of place in that regard. Still there's a really genuine sense of friendship in the cast's scenes together, and I think that when Persona 2 works, it's usually because of them.
When it doesn't work, is in its greater themes and grander scope storytelling- first off capping off the game with an ultimate climax of "is humanity bad or good? beat the shit out of god to find out" is such a fucking trite cliche in JRPGs that I couldn't believe this otherwise pretty original plot was heading in that direction. I'm oversimplifying, there's more to it, I think the overarching villain is a good one, though his actual actions are pretty poorly explained in the game proper (am loathe to admit it but just looking shit up on the wiki helped a lot) and I appreciate the themes of fatherhood and trying to find a purpose tied into it but I dunno, it never clicked. I think the reason why it didn't, and the biggest writing issue with P2, is that it just goes too fast in its second half. Suddenly Hitler and his magic mecha army are attacking the town and we find out who Joker is and we fight him and we find out what the link between the characters is and a bunch of characters have arcs and we learn that like 30 different conspiracy theories are true and we find out that- it's a lot of stuff and none of it has the time to sink in, especially with so many concepts being thrown at you that you're not sure if they matter of you're supposed to understand them. I can see that the things being done here are good, but they, just don't have any emotional impact. Me being stupid might also play a role, though- I missed a few connections that enhance my opinion of the story a lot, and I don't know if it's because IS doesn't highlight them properly or if it's because I just missed them. So I dunno, not the biggest fan I suppose. Definitely interested in Eternal Punishment though.
I've heard Persona 2: Innocent Sin praised as one of Atlus' absolute best games for quite a while, and a few weeks ago, interested in getting back into the SMT franchise, I finally decided I should give it a try. Bottom line is, I see where its fans are coming from, but I can't really say I felt the same way about it.
What is most commonly brought up as Innocent Sin's biggest flaw is the combat, and with that comes an asterisk- the PS1 version is apparently a bit better in this regard, but by the time I found that out, I was deep enough into the PSP port to not want to switch over. As far as the version I did play... yeah, kinda? Mechanically it works, it's just simple and slow as shit. I think I didn't suffer as much as you would on a PSP cause I just held fast forward on every fight (including the final boss- oops), but I can't say that makes it less bad, it just makes it less annoying. On the positive side of things I think this is my favorite demon conversation system in the entire series? I know it's from Persona 1 but there's a proper amount of strategy (well, of trial and error, but close enough) in it without sacrificing personality, not to mention there's a fuckton of unique dialogue you can get. I like the card system for fusing Personas but with the combat being what it is it doesn't really come together as necessary, especially with a lot of high tier Personas actually having pretty mediocre skillsets.
On the flip side, Persona 2's greatest strength is definitely its main cast- each of them is incredibly endearing and they play off each other amazingly in both comedic and serious scenes. Tatsuya, the MC, is inevitably the weakest link due to Atlus' obsession with silent protagonists, but even then there's some neat stuff to dig into rather than a complete blank slate. Eikichi, the "bro" character, has a good amount of depth to him and is actually pretty funny, though he does run into the issue of sometimes being treated as a joke when he shouldn't by the rest of the cast- Lisa Silverman is maybe the most interesting character in the cast, "openly has a crush on the MC and their entire relationship is built around neither knowing what to do about it" is bizarre but simultaneously relatable, and she's overall usually very neat. Maya is probably my least favorite of the proper characters but I appreciate this utter force of positivity that she is in every circumstance, that can very easily be done wrong but it never comes off as irritating in her case. Finally there's Yukino, apparently a returning character from Persona 1- she's really fucking cool, though with every other character sharing a really deep bond you slowly unravel through the game, she feels a bit out of place in that regard. Still there's a really genuine sense of friendship in the cast's scenes together, and I think that when Persona 2 works, it's usually because of them.
When it doesn't work, is in its greater themes and grander scope storytelling- first off capping off the game with an ultimate climax of "is humanity bad or good? beat the shit out of god to find out" is such a fucking trite cliche in JRPGs that I couldn't believe this otherwise pretty original plot was heading in that direction. I'm oversimplifying, there's more to it, I think the overarching villain is a good one, though his actual actions are pretty poorly explained in the game proper (am loathe to admit it but just looking shit up on the wiki helped a lot) and I appreciate the themes of fatherhood and trying to find a purpose tied into it but I dunno, it never clicked. I think the reason why it didn't, and the biggest writing issue with P2, is that it just goes too fast in its second half. Suddenly Hitler and his magic mecha army are attacking the town and we find out who Joker is and we fight him and we find out what the link between the characters is and a bunch of characters have arcs and we learn that like 30 different conspiracy theories are true and we find out that- it's a lot of stuff and none of it has the time to sink in, especially with so many concepts being thrown at you that you're not sure if they matter of you're supposed to understand them. I can see that the things being done here are good, but they, just don't have any emotional impact. Me being stupid might also play a role, though- I missed a few connections that enhance my opinion of the story a lot, and I don't know if it's because IS doesn't highlight them properly or if it's because I just missed them. So I dunno, not the biggest fan I suppose. Definitely interested in Eternal Punishment though.