This is easily the best Persona game. It's story is a follow up to Innocent Sin, and while it arguably doesn't hit the highs of storyline that game did, it just feels very good in a way. It has a cast of entirely adults, something I really wish Persona would try again today, but most importantly is that they're ALL likable characters. In Persona 3, 4, and 5, there's always at least one character that makes me think "I hate you, please stop talking" every time they open their mouth. Both games in the Persona 2 duology have none of those.
The gameplay is the thing people cite as an issue in this game, and I couldn't disagree more. It's gameplay is the peak of the franchise, with some small issues I admit are pain points. I think a lot of people misunderstand the combat as being standard fare of turn-based RPGs where you click a single move every turn. In reality, this game is based on actions repeating, until you interrupt the action to change commands on your characters. For example, on the Joker boss battles, when Old Maid is cast, it's best to put your entire party on Defend. Then interrupt the action after each character and see if they were changed to "Attack", and that's how you determine who got hit with the Joker.
Speaking of this game's bosses, they're incredibly strong and really stimulate your brain. Some of them may feel out of your reach the first attempt or two, but 99.9999% of the time, you absolutely have the tools to be able to do it without having to grind at all. For instance, there's a late game boss that restores about 800 HP per turn. You might think this sounds obnoxious, but you can use Fusion attacks to stack up enough damage to out-damage the heal.
There are some pain points in the game for sure. The biggest one to me is the summon system to obtain new Personas. Like Innocent Sin, you have to negotiate cards out of demons to be able to summon Personas. Making a pact with a demon gives you "Free" cards that you can have converted to any Arcana card you want (except Fool). This system can become quite the grind, however Eternal Punishment has a significant way of cutting this down. Innocent Sin's biggest issue with negotiation was the sheer number of options you had. Every character had four actions they could perform individually, and then you also have a unique action for each combination of characters. If you weren't sure what to do based on a demon's personality, this made things VERY hard to trial and error. Eternal Punishment fixes this by streamlining negotiation. Every character individually only has one action, and combinations of course have their unique interaction. Some of these combinations may end up just deferring it to one character and being the same result, and some may change over the course of the game. The trick was often to make a pact or two in the dungeon you're on, and then every time you see that demon, negotiate cards out of it so you get the "Free" cards too. The "Free" cards become your lifeline for getting new Personas.
The ending of the game is beautiful, the result of you playing two entire games to get to this point and the payoff is quite satisfying.
This version of the game is solid and very playable today, however I understand why you might have some issues with the UI and speed of the game. Some of these issues are solved by the PSP version of the game, which has a fan translation patch available on the Internet.
The gameplay is the thing people cite as an issue in this game, and I couldn't disagree more. It's gameplay is the peak of the franchise, with some small issues I admit are pain points. I think a lot of people misunderstand the combat as being standard fare of turn-based RPGs where you click a single move every turn. In reality, this game is based on actions repeating, until you interrupt the action to change commands on your characters. For example, on the Joker boss battles, when Old Maid is cast, it's best to put your entire party on Defend. Then interrupt the action after each character and see if they were changed to "Attack", and that's how you determine who got hit with the Joker.
Speaking of this game's bosses, they're incredibly strong and really stimulate your brain. Some of them may feel out of your reach the first attempt or two, but 99.9999% of the time, you absolutely have the tools to be able to do it without having to grind at all. For instance, there's a late game boss that restores about 800 HP per turn. You might think this sounds obnoxious, but you can use Fusion attacks to stack up enough damage to out-damage the heal.
There are some pain points in the game for sure. The biggest one to me is the summon system to obtain new Personas. Like Innocent Sin, you have to negotiate cards out of demons to be able to summon Personas. Making a pact with a demon gives you "Free" cards that you can have converted to any Arcana card you want (except Fool). This system can become quite the grind, however Eternal Punishment has a significant way of cutting this down. Innocent Sin's biggest issue with negotiation was the sheer number of options you had. Every character had four actions they could perform individually, and then you also have a unique action for each combination of characters. If you weren't sure what to do based on a demon's personality, this made things VERY hard to trial and error. Eternal Punishment fixes this by streamlining negotiation. Every character individually only has one action, and combinations of course have their unique interaction. Some of these combinations may end up just deferring it to one character and being the same result, and some may change over the course of the game. The trick was often to make a pact or two in the dungeon you're on, and then every time you see that demon, negotiate cards out of it so you get the "Free" cards too. The "Free" cards become your lifeline for getting new Personas.
The ending of the game is beautiful, the result of you playing two entire games to get to this point and the payoff is quite satisfying.
This version of the game is solid and very playable today, however I understand why you might have some issues with the UI and speed of the game. Some of these issues are solved by the PSP version of the game, which has a fan translation patch available on the Internet.