Persona 2: Innocent Sin

When Persona 3, the fourth Persona game, was released on PS2 back in 2007/8 it rapidly gained huge popularity and in so doing took the series from cult fan favourite to genre synonym. It was a revelation.  You would be forgiven for thinking it came from out of nowhere but looking back at the previous three games the evolution is clear. So for those of us wanting more Persona in our lives there is surely the option of playing these older titles?

The problem with that is not only were none of these three games released in the UK, but one of them wasn’t even available in English.  The reasons for this are unclear but Persona 2: Innocent Sin has been largely unplayable for mono-lingual English speakers much to the chagrin of Megaten fans. However, not only do we now have the opportunity to play it in English and on current hardware, but we get the V.I.P treatment with a fan-pleasing re-release that has clearly been treated with sympathy and respect. Menus have been given a lick of paint, the battle system is replaced with the one from Eternal Punishment, there’s a new Sumaru Climax Theatre feature added allowing you to explore gaiden stories written by different Atlus staff and Shigenori Soejima has re-drawn and added new character portraits which look utterly fantastic.

You play as Tatsuya Suou, a reticent high school student who, along with fellow high school students Eikichi, the narcissistic “Gang Leader,” and Lisa, an energetic popular girl, join forces with Maya, a magazine editor and Yukino, Maya’s workmate and returning character from the first Persona game, during the peculiar events surrounding Seven Sisters High. Students are inexplicably suffering from disfiguring ailments, there are rumours being spread that the school’s symbol is cursed and, on top of all this, the students are dialling their own number from their mobile phone to play The Joker Game. When summoned The Joker will either grant their wish or turn them into Shadow Selves by draining their Energy and rumours seem to be inexplicably coming true.

Initially it’s entirely unclear how or if all these happenings are connected but to get to the bottom of it you must explore the school and traverse the surrounding areas of the fictional Sumaru City.  Progressing in the story involves negotiating maze like dungeons and a series of random enemy encounters which are entirely too frequent which sadly undermines any sense of enjoyable pacing.  In latter games this problem was allayed well by introducing two skills for use when either exploring or levelling up: one for raising and one for lowering enemy encounter rates and going back to Persona 2 made me long for such a system.

Enemy encounters are essential, though, and each one starts out with the option to Contact the enemy which involves using your characters’ abilities to chat with the demon.  If you manage to satisfy them you can form a pact or even better, obtain a Tarot Card from them that can be used in the Velvet Room to create new, more powerful Persona.  Persona are essentially dormant, subconscious parts of your Self that are awakened and summoned to aid you when you need them most by offering you skills, stat boosts and abilities to use in battle.  There are numerous types each with their own strengths and weaknesses.  Fighting/chatting, obtaining one of the many different Tarot Cards then hitting the Velvet Rooms and fusing them to create new, stronger and rarer Persona is a really deep and satisfying exercise.  It gives you the feeling of control; that you have created your own personal team for battle and that by doing some prep work you can swing the odds of winning in your favour.

It’s a shame that such a rewarding and enjoyable mechanic is at the heart of a late 90s JRPG battle system. Battles can become long, drawn-out affairs because you can’t skip battle animations, you choose all your parties moves at the start of each turn then just sit back and wait for what seems like an inordinate amount of time.  This is totally fine if you are patient but this, coupled with the enemy encounter rate, might turn off some people not accustomed to that old-school style.  If you can’t see past these issues then you will miss out on an utterly fantastic, unique and genuinely thought-provoking story.  Persona and the Megaten games in general are loved by many due in no small part to the fact they don’t pull punches.  Straight out the gate you’re dealing with curses, sin, existential and philosophical quandaries, demons, religious and occult iconography as well as Lovecraft and Jung characters (Jung’s work is clearly a massive influence on Persona). It’s this infectious mix of the Occult, Psychology and Religion within a modern, everyday world that creates such a dynamic and energetic combination that is so hugely enjoyable and makes being with Tatsuya et al as they are confronted with all this genuinely enrapturing.  The story does take an abnormally long time to heat up but when it does the pay-off is well worth it as it’s one of the most affecting and original stories of its era and rivals anything released in the past decade.