Review: Persona (PSP)

Written by Marc DeAngelis

Friday, 06 November 2009 11:19

Thirteen years ago, a Japanese RPG called Revelations: Persona hit the western market. While quality game design was apparent, the abysmal localization sabotaged the first installment in Atlus' Persona series. Fortunately, the three follow-ups featured top-notch localization. But if you've still been wondering about the series' origins, you can finally explore the original Persona and experience a cohesive narrative. But localization isn't everything, of course. Does the PSP remake of Persona warrant the update, or is this just a chance for Atlus to cash in on their most popular series in the west?

Hit the link for the full review of Persona.

Persona begins in a typical Japanese high school. A group of students are playing a ritualistic game when they are knocked unconscious and experience a collective vision of a masked man who grants them the use of "personae" - the subconscious-turned-tangible forms of the darkness inside each human soul. Shortly thereafter, the students begin to realize that a dimension-transcending apparatus created by the corporation, SEBEC, is changing the world around them - or maybe they are the ones trespassing upon an alternate dimension. They arm themselves with weapons, including their personae, and set out to return to their own dimension.

Thanks to the story, Persona starts off with a bang and keeps pace by constantly developing the characters. However, players may hit a wall a few hours into the game. Persona is tough as nails, and if you don't level-up your characters, you're going to wind up dead, fast. The same goes for those players who hit "X" repeatedly during random-encounter battles. Persona is definitely not Press X: The Game.

The gameplay of Persona is rather odd. Non-combat situations pan out as one would expect, except for the fact that dungeon-crawling takes place through a first-person viewpoint. Of course, anyone familiar with Atlus' many Shin Megami Tensei series shouldn't be surprised by this. What might throw you off though is the combat engine. In most RPGs, two sides take turns attacking each other, and any character can attack any enemy. This is not the case in Persona. Each of the main characters has a specific range for each sort of attack - melee, gun, or persona. This forces the player to strategize, but it's also frustrating. For example, if you're fighting a group of distant enemies, you may only have one character that can reach them. Unless you save a battle formation that solves this specific problem, you'll be in for a long, tedious battle. This also makes several characters seem useless until you figure out exactly where they belong in your formation.

Also, in most RPGs, melee attacks are used for a go-to solution if you want to cause some modest yet useful damage. However in Persona, your melee attacks may not even put a dent in your enemies, depending on their different strengths and weaknesses. You really have to remember what enemies are resistant to melee attacks, gun shots, and the various elemental attacks of your personae. Again, this adds depth, but can become overwhelming.

Yet another idiosyncrasy of Persona is the ample supply of MP, or SP, as Persona calls it. In most RPGs, MP is easily depleted, but in Persona you'll rarely run out. This keeps the game from being too hard, since you can almost always heal your characters before another battle begins. This is most likely the case to urge the player to use the personae as a main weapon. Still though, this seems like it could be a band-aid covering up the real flaw of unfair difficulty.

The main unique feature of Persona's combat system - and the feature that distinclty marks this as an Atlus game - is the ability to "contact," or talk to your enemies. Each of your characters has a small set of speech commands to use. When contacting an enemy, their personality is revealed, and this knowledge must be used to select the correct speech command. For example, if an enemy is tagged as "foolish," then lying to them will be of benefit, while using the "pontificate" command will get you in trouble. This system has many uses. The main objective is to coerce a "spirit card" out of the enemy. These cards can be fused to create new personae, so they are, needless to say, very important. However, you can also force enemies into giving you items, or simply running away and making your battle much easier.

This social engineering aspect is just as fun as actually fighting the enemies, and is one of the highlights of the game. However, it is not without its faults. Along with the personality tags, the player is supposed to use the enemies' dialogue to decide what command to use next. For example, if the enemy hints that they want you to give them an item, it would logically follow that you would use the "bribe" command. But this doesn't always work. You can be sure you've picked the correct command just to have the enemy get made and cause a devastating amount of damage to your team. This feature definitely needed more fine-tuning in the programming department.

The fights themselves can be aggravating as well. Enemies who cast status effects such as Blind, Confused, or Mute are common. That's fine except for the fact that they use those attacks almost all the time. Since escaping from a battle rarely works, even if only half of your team falls under a spell during the first wave of attacks, your entire side will eventually become affected, and unless you're lucky, your team will sleep through their slaughter (if they fall asleep), or destroy themselves (if confused). And that's not to mention how long the battles are. Most encounters in RPGs last for a minute or so. Persona's can last anywhere from two to ten minutes. Also, several enemies are capable of dealing out one-hit-deaths. These snares are yet another frustration of Persona.

Have you noticed the repeated use of the verb "frustrate" in this review? Yes, Persona is a very difficult RPG, and is even unfair at times. But those who appreciate older RPGs will be able to look past these flaws and see through to the positive aspects of the game.

For one thing, the story is great. Rather than a convoluted narrative that can either be interpreted as a bunch of nonsense or a deep existential introspection, Atlus throws us a straightforward but motivating story of an evil corporation, school drama, and string theory. And that's not to mention sub-plots such as the bizarre Black Market Queen scenario.

Complementing the narrative are the characters. Everyone you know from school is here - the guy that's not as cool as he thinks, the prissy girl, the stupid girl, the nerd, and the bourgeoisie possible closet case - except these guys can rip you apart with their demonic alter egos. While the dialogue can be cringe-worth from time to time, you'll get a few laughs out of Persona. Also, it's important to mention that the translation - which was game-breakingly pitiful in the PlayStation original - is in perfect English this time.

The difficult gameplay can actually be seen as positive element, depending on the player. After beating a particularly frustrating part of the game, the player can feel a great sense of accomplishment. Many will see the difficulty as the main flaw of the game, but others may not make such a big deal out of it.

The new cut-scenes in Persona are a great addition. They're well drawn and always have a narrative purpose. The anime style, of course, adds to the Japanese style of the game. I just wish there were more of them - perhaps before each boss, or so.

One of the best aspects exclusive to the PSP version of Persona is the music. The songs are unified and seem like they were created by one band (they were created by the game's director, Shoji Meguro). The lyrics, which are performed by a talented female singer, are a mix of Japanese and English. Particularly satisfying is the use of layered vocals and heavily mixed instruments. While the main battle song gets very repetitive thanks to the use of vocals, overall the score is fantastic.

Even more valuable than the positive aspects listed above is the opportunity to see the origin of the Persona series. Seeing how the game has gone from collecting spirit cards to blowing one's brains out in order to summon demons can be very interesting if you have an eye for game design.

With Persona being an Atlus game, the physical presentation should be mentioned. The physical release of the game comes in a thick cardboard box and contains the UMD case, game, and manual, as well as a two-CD soundtrack, along with brief but insightful liner notes. Atlus has always gone the extra mile for their fans, and Persona is no exception.

The remake of Persona definitely shows its age, from its dated graphics to its old school gameplay, but that's not a bad thing depending on your taste. If you're used to a Final Fantasy level of difficulty and can't imagine taking much more than that, Persona is not for you. If you didn't have trouble with the recent remakes of Dragon Quest IV and V, you shouldn't find progressing in Perona to be impossible.

So if you like your RPGs hard, Persona is a good buy. If you're already a fan of the series and want to see how it all started over a decade ago, it's practically a must-have. You'll be frustrated, definitely, but that frustration can often lead to a greater reward.

Yay - See where the series began, Good story and characters, Negotiating with enemies is a fun alternative to fighting, Great music and cut-scenes, Extra swag included in physical release

Nay - Enemies can often be cheap, Tough as nails dungeons, Seemingly un-updated in-game graphics

For those of you who hate reading or only learned to read numbers: 8/10