Shin Megami Tensei: Persona – Returning to Persona’s Roots

The early years of the PlayStation 1 era were an interesting
time for JRPGs. Many of the games now considered to be classics suffered from poor
translations and subpar localizations. In 1996 Atlus USA was one of the worst offenders
with its handing of Megami Ibunroku Persona. The game was renamed Revelations:
Persona and all of the game’s characters were redrawn to look American. Additionally
all hints of Japanese culture were removed by renaming the city of Mikage-cho to Lunarville,
and the currency was changed from yen to dollars. If that weren’t enough a
major portion of the game, the Snow Queen side-quest which leads to an
alternative ending, was completely removed. Despite the numerous flaws
Revelations: Persona went on to become a cult classic among hardcore JRPG fans.

Eleven years later in 2007 Atlus USA
released Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 in the United States. With a new staff and
a new mindset the Japanese flavor of Persona 3 remained within the game. Persona
3 and even Persona 4 went on to sell extremely well in the United States. In
2009 Atlus Japan
created an enhanced port of the original Persona for the PSP. Atlus USA released
the game in the West under its Shin Megami Tensei branding in September of the
same year. Ultimately, an extremely faithful localization of the game was
released and included the Snow Queen side-quest. While Atlus USA may have
corrected its early mistakes with Revelations: Persona with the release of SMT:
Persona, the game itself may or may not appeal to fans of the PS2 Persona
games.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona shares more of its DNA with the
mainline Megaten games than the latest Persona titles. There are no social
links, high school simulation-style sections, or even the juggling of an
in-game personal life with dungeon crawling. Instead you’ll find yourself
mostly dungeon crawling in this mid-90s title. The only familiarity Persona
fans will find here are the ability to fuse personas, gathering spell cards
from enemies, and a not-so-bleak story that revolves around friendship.

On a seemingly normal day after school a group of high
schoolers are playing a game called “Persona.” The game itself is similar to
the creepy children’s game “Bloody Mary.” While playing the game the lights
flicker for a moment and nearly everyone is struck by electricity. The students
pass out and all of them have a vision of a mysterious masked man named
Philemon. When the kids awaken they find themselves in the hospital with nothing
wrong with them. They all decide to visit their constantly ill friend Maki
Sonomura in the hospital. The ground shakes as an earthquake rocks Mikage-cho
and Maki suddenly disappears. As the students begin to search for her the
hospital is suddenly overrun with demons. Before they are ripped apart by the
monsters everyone discovers they have the ability to summon personas to fight
on their behalf. After the fight everyone discovers the entire city has been
invaded by demons and is in utter chaos. To make matter worse Maki is no where
to be found.

Never
doubt the importance of creepy and or silent girls who appear out of
nowhere in a Megaten game. The plot device called foreshadowing says
“hi!”

Persona’s gameplay doesn’t deviate much from the standard
JRPGs of the time.  Thankfully if the
main character dies in this Megaten title it’s not an automatic game over, but
the game itself is still quite punishing toward the end. Attacks consist of magic
spells, melee attacks, and gun attacks (an option present in many Megaten
titles but not found in Persona 3 and 4). An individual’s strengths and
weakness to various attacks are completely tied into what Persona he or she has
equipped. Unlike the later Persona games every character can use various
personae, taking up to three at a time into battle. While gun attacks are great
to have as an option the game’s sheer number of magic types borders on needlessly
complex–especially if you’ve played later Megaten titles.

Both of the PS2 games have six offensive magic
spell
categories in addition to support and status effect magic. Persona has a
ridiculous 15 different types in addition to support magic and status
effects.
The difference between many types of magic seems minimal at best. I’ve
played
the game for nearly 70 hours and I fail to see the difference between
nuclear
magic and blast magic, both of which are part of the force magic
category. Also,
electric magic is placed within the force magic category instead of
being elemental magic. And
non-elemental spells don’t seem to exist in Persona. I.e. the megido
family of spells still exists but they
are considered to be force instead of non-elemental/almighty. Once you
know
an enemy’s weakness spamming spells is quite easy. Nevertheless, the
categories
are quite cumbersome comparative to later games and I’m glad Atlus
ultimately culled a number of spells.

Other problematic areas in the gameplay include fighting on
an isometric grid during battles and the leveling system. The grid in battle is
reminiscent of Lunar games and can be just as annoying. If a character can’t
reach an enemy on the field he or she automatically loses a turn. Depending on
where characters are placed their attacks (including guns) may never reach an
enemy due to being out of range or too close to attack. Why characters can’t
shoot enemies point blank with guns is beyond me. Given the problems with the
grid battle system it’s also not surprising that Atlus removed it from later
Persona games.

As for leveling characters, a character gains
experience
based on the amount of damage dealt to enemies. If a character only
heals or is
incapacitated for the entire fight (but isn’t killed) he or she will
only gain
a minimal amount of experience. On the flip side of a character takes
down most
or all of the enemies in battle he or she will take the majority of
experience
points. While the problem is easily remedied by having strong characters
constantly defend during a fight, the issue can surface again if
characters
leave the party for a long period of time. And toward the end of the
game this definitely happens. Equipped personas gain exp separately from
the characters and
won’t earn decent amounts of points unless they attack in battle. If
you’re
willing to constantly grind for hours it’s not a huge issue, but if you
dislike
grinding leveling can troublesome.

Demon
negotiation can become manageable after you come to understand many
aspects of it. Matching party member traits to demon traits is really
important.

The demon negotiation system is one of my favorite aspects
of Persona’s battle system. Unlike mainline and some spinoff Megaten titles the
ultimate goal of demon negotiation is to obtain a spell card to create a
persona, rather than having the demon itself join the party. Appealing to demon
types can be a frustrating trial and error process when trying to get spell
cards, but different character actions can elicit different reactions. While
the goal is to obtain a card, savvy players can also talk their way
out of particularly tough fights. Occasionally being able to stop a fight and
convince a demon to leave can be the difference between surviving and seeing a game
over screen.

Graphically, Persona has been enhanced lot from its first PS1
iteration. Awkward 3D rendered cut scenes have been replaced by beautiful cell
shaded anime scenes. Character sprites, personae, and demons are nicely
animated but mostly lack facial detail. The lack of detail would normally be
annoying but I found the animated poses to be adequately expressive. Additionally,
the user interface has been updated. The new UI is both sleeker and more in line
with the PS2 Persona games. Even with the lightly overhauled graphics and sleek
UI Persona still looks very much like an early PS1 game. In game graphics and
textures are ugly at times and haven’t aged well. To put it another way, this
game makes the best parts of Final Fantasy VII look downright gorgeous. If
you’re big on graphics and can no longer stomach older PS1 games Persona will
be an outright eyesore.

Like the graphics Persona’s music was also enhanced. Shoji
Meguro remixed select tracks from the original game and updated them to feel
similar to the later Persona games. The original songs were remixed and vocals
were added to other songs. The result is a catchy rock/j-pop oriented
soundtrack that is easily on par with the PS2 Persona titles. Unfortunately,
the remixes have been controversial among fans that played the PS1 game and
prefer to hear the original soundtrack. Voice acting has also been added to the
North American version of the anime cut scenes. The acting isn’t memorable but
the actors do an okay job with their lines. There isn’t a tremendous amount of
voice work in the game so it probably would have been a waste for Atlus to hire
top actors. If you go into this game expecting the same quality of voice acting
from the PS2 Persona games you’re going to be very disappointed.

In many parts of my review I may seem overly
negative on
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona. I assure you that despite my complaints I
found
the game to be enjoyable as both a fan of JRPGs and the new Persona
titles.
Unfortunately the game began to drag as I reached the 65 hour mark and I
simply
gave up on it in favor of Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey. Although I
was
only hours away from the final boss and on my way to the game’s good
ending the
leveling system ultimately frustrated me as the game became more
difficult. Even
with updated graphics and music Persona feels very much like an old
school PS1
RPG. If you’re into grinding for levels, good dungeon crawls, don’t mind
getting lost, and you don’t mind the lack of distraction from dungeon
crawling,
Persona is a fantastic game to pick up. If you prefer the social
elements and
the newer game design choices of the later Persona titles more than the
actual
dungeon crawling, SMT: Persona may or may not be for you. Regardless of
its quirks any self-proclaimed Persona fan should at least try this game
out.

Images courtesy of GameSpot.com.