Rumor or reality?
I'm extremely conflicted about how I feel about this game. Some obvious excellent elements are here with the extremely likable and relatable characters and incredibly ridiculous story I didn't expect barring some of the most tedious gameplay I have ever played in a japanese role playing game. I've managed to try both versions and with some outside advice went with the PSX version to complete despite being more tedious than I expected although playing the PSP version and completely brushing off the combat somehow didn't sit right with me.
The story and the characters are truly what redeems this game in my eyes are for a lot of people the important part of Persona 2 in general. The story goes in directions I really didn't expect and provide some meaning about the consequences of our actions being in our youth affecting who we are. The characters easily deserve spots as some of the developer's most well written with how they are portrayed and presented in the story and how everything ties together with one of the most bittersweet endings I've seen in a JRPG.
So in full honesty here, I've kinda been dreading playing this game. I can mostly say I am not a fan of old megaten gameplay barring the original Soul Hackers for being enough fast paced and not completely brainless in itself which seems to be a problem with how old megaten JRPGs seem to be. If you played the PlayStation Portable version, the general notion would be to play on easy and completely ignore this facet of the game which I was almost tempted to do but I didn't personally like the notion of skipping a facet of the game entirely and just rating the narrative elements which is good since it feels kinda disingenuous personally. Now the PSX version removes the easy factor and makes you have to actually learn the system itself but sad to see the system is extremely slow and not satisfying to me either. All of this encompassed with an extremely high encounter rate which made it hard to ignore this element of the game really bogs it down to me since while I can ignore bad gameplay with a great narrative/characters, there's a limit and this game reached it fairly early.
I still think people should really give this game a shot on either version they truly want since you'll be paying for it with your time if anything. Not gonna lie and say I'm glad I played the PSX version instead but I can say I'm personally proud for getting through it. Major gameplay grievances aside, Persona 2: Innocent Sin definitely deserves the praise it gets but I feel it should be put with an asterisk next to it since it feels like having to ignore the elephant in the room.
I'm extremely conflicted about how I feel about this game. Some obvious excellent elements are here with the extremely likable and relatable characters and incredibly ridiculous story I didn't expect barring some of the most tedious gameplay I have ever played in a japanese role playing game. I've managed to try both versions and with some outside advice went with the PSX version to complete despite being more tedious than I expected although playing the PSP version and completely brushing off the combat somehow didn't sit right with me.
The story and the characters are truly what redeems this game in my eyes are for a lot of people the important part of Persona 2 in general. The story goes in directions I really didn't expect and provide some meaning about the consequences of our actions being in our youth affecting who we are. The characters easily deserve spots as some of the developer's most well written with how they are portrayed and presented in the story and how everything ties together with one of the most bittersweet endings I've seen in a JRPG.
So in full honesty here, I've kinda been dreading playing this game. I can mostly say I am not a fan of old megaten gameplay barring the original Soul Hackers for being enough fast paced and not completely brainless in itself which seems to be a problem with how old megaten JRPGs seem to be. If you played the PlayStation Portable version, the general notion would be to play on easy and completely ignore this facet of the game which I was almost tempted to do but I didn't personally like the notion of skipping a facet of the game entirely and just rating the narrative elements which is good since it feels kinda disingenuous personally. Now the PSX version removes the easy factor and makes you have to actually learn the system itself but sad to see the system is extremely slow and not satisfying to me either. All of this encompassed with an extremely high encounter rate which made it hard to ignore this element of the game really bogs it down to me since while I can ignore bad gameplay with a great narrative/characters, there's a limit and this game reached it fairly early.
I still think people should really give this game a shot on either version they truly want since you'll be paying for it with your time if anything. Not gonna lie and say I'm glad I played the PSX version instead but I can say I'm personally proud for getting through it. Major gameplay grievances aside, Persona 2: Innocent Sin definitely deserves the praise it gets but I feel it should be put with an asterisk next to it since it feels like having to ignore the elephant in the room.