Name(s): Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 – Innocent Sin
Platform(s): PSP
Developer(s): Atlus
Publisher(s): Atlus
Director(s): Shoji Meguro
Genre(s): Traditional Turn-Based RPG
Release Date(s): April 14, 2011 (JP) / September 20, 2011 (NA) / November 4, 2011 (EU)
Related: Shin Megami Tensei (Franchise) / Persona (Series)

I played the PSP remake of Persona 2: Innocent Sin. Some people claim it’s better than Persona 3 and Persona 4. I don’t think it is. Anyway…

The battle system is quite different from P3 and P4. Everything is, basically. You still have Personas, but every character can change theirs allowing for any possible combination. You don’t get extra turns for hitting weaknesses and there are no knockdowns. Instead, there are combination attacks. If you use a certain succession of normal attacks together, all those characters instead will perform a more powerful combination attack that either does more damage or some special effect.

This is implemented poorly. The combinations possible are very limited and require specific moves being used together in a certain order. Even if you input the correct order, they must all be in succession. If a character attacks between the combo attack participants’ turns, nothing will happen and their turns will be wasted. The odds of discovering combination attacks on your own is almost impossible. And this is fucked up, because you’ll want to be using combination attacks all the time. Not only are they stronger, but if you finish a battle with one, your Persona’s stats increase or it can morph into a stronger Persona.

Now, about stat increases. They’re unlimited. If you keep at it long enough, you can max out your Personas’ stats very easily. Each character is better with Personas of certain Arcanas. Equipping a compatible Persona makes combination attack bonuses more likely, and characters’ default Personas are all compatible with them.

That is to say, I never fused a single Persona throughout the entire game. I didn’t need to. Late-game bosses were being destroyed with the Personas the characters started with. I kept winning battles and someone’s Persona would get a stat increase at the battle’s end. Even though default Personas can’t morph, mine always had stats high enough to defeat any enemy. It’s so incredibly unbalanced and obviously exploitable.

Also, depending on if you make the right dialogue prompts, every character can get an upgraded default Persona with stronger attacks that can also be raised to max stats. Ironically, getting these upgrades isn’t necessarily worth it. For some reason, MP costs are inherent to each Persona and independent of the attack itself. Agidyne, if taught to a low-level Persona, can cost MP in the single digits compared to the doubles of Personas at a standard rank for -Dyne tier Magic.

It’s a really bizarre system, and I wonder why Atlus attempt to reinvent the wheel with it. What was wrong with traditional RPG MP scaling? I’d guess this is a myopic means of giving early-game Personas some leverage over otherwise objectively superior, higher-level Personas. But isn’t the superiority of high-level Personas the point? Part of the series’s required skills is balancing the resources necessary to procure better Personas in addition to your standard party management mechanics like equipment, etc. If you’re negligent in your long-term strategy, you should face punishment for it, in my opinion.

Persona 2‘s stat-boosting bonus not only eliminates low-level Personas’ disadvantage compared to high-level Personas—the MP system makes them better. The min-max way to play Persona 2 is “down-Fusing” powerful Magic onto low-level Personas so they can be cast with minimal MP. The stat difference will be made up for by the combination attack bonus. MP, however, is otherwise unchangeable.

Granted, you still don’t need to do that. A basic Agi hardly matters when you’re hitting enemies with your MAG stat capped. I took the upgraded unique Personas at every opportunity. I think their higher MP costs were a liability, if anything. By the time I got them, however, I had more than enough money to buy the max quantity of Precious Eggs, which fully restores SP. For the entirety of Persona 2‘s huge final dungeon, my party members were just trekking along while constantly sucking on eggs. I did run low, but never out.

So, Persona 2 is far too easy. It’s possibly the easiest JRPG I’ve ever played. The idea that I’m saying that about a Shin Megami Tensei is kind of shocking, and definitely disheartening. I suppose one could force themselves to never end a battle with a combination attack so their stats don’t inflate out of control, but virtually eliminating game mechanics just so the game doesn’t break isn’t ideal, either.

If you choose to bother with Fusion, you may want to know how different it is from Persona 3 onward. You summon new Personas by giving Igor the required number of Arcana cards for that Persona. You can think of cards as “crafting” materials, and they’re received by Negotiating with Demons in battle and choosing dialogue prompts that make them happy.

While the format is slightly different from standard SMT negotiation, it’s functionally identical. You can make educated guesses at what Demons will like to hear, but it’s essentially random. As annoying as that aspect may be, the game is basically just adding an extra layer to typical RPG post-battle item drop rates. At least Negotiating results in some funny interactions at times. Still, there’s so many types of Arcana cards that this will be a tedious process no matter what.

You can also get skill cards to teach your Personas specific attacks. It should go without saying that this makes abusing low-level Personas even easier, as you can simply teach them high-level attacks instead of dealing with Fusion and Arcana cards.

There are no social links. Persona 2 is a standard RPG. You can walk around town, talk to people, and buy items and weapons. Other than the dungeons, that’s your gameplay. Acquiring new equipment is kind of interesting. Persona 2‘s plot revolves around a mystical power causing rumors to become reality (which opens so many plot holes I don’t even want to think about). You can go to the “local detective agency” and pay them to spread a rumor such as “[shop] sells strong weapons but they’re expensive,” or if you want, “[shop] sells weak weapons but they’re cheap,” or “[shop] sells weak weapons but pays more for what you sell,” etc.

It’s a really neat idea, but there isn’t too much to it. You’ll have so much money that you’ll always pursue the strongest weapons. Also, because there’s no way to undo a rumor, if you don’t choose the strongest weapons you won’t be able to buy them from that specific shop. You’ll have another chance when the next shop becomes available, but that means making sure the game’s final shop has the strongest possible weapons is paramount.

I think that covers the gameplay. Spread rumors, buy equipment, go through dungeon mazes and battle enemies with your Personas, attempting to finish battles with combination attacks for game-breaking bonuses. Let’s move on to what I consider the more important stuff. I’d also like to whine about the battles being very fucking slow. It drove me nuts at some points.

First off, the setting. As always, I love it. Persona 2 is set in a bunch of realistic cities and areas. They look great. The graphics have a lot of sheen to them on the PSP and the menus are so polished it’s just a straight-up joy to look at. I love the future!

Also, the soundtrack is excellent. In a very cool move, Atlus allows you to either play the game with the original soundtrack or the new soundtrack that’s been redone by Shoji Meguro, the current series’s music director. The songs are the same, but Shoji Meguro adds an extra flair to them that makes them sound increasingly contemporary which is a perfect fit for Persona 2‘s setting.

As usual, Shoji Meguro hits the ball out of the park in the soundtrack department. The sound font of the music is likewise amazing. Very well done. I love the shop themes and city music. Unfortunately, the battle themes this time around are often lacking. Too bad. I like how there are several cities in this game (five or six I think) and each one has its own shops with different visual and audio themes. The variety in the shop areas is really above and beyond the call of duty. One of them is entirely pirate-themed. Functionally, it’s a standard shop, but it stands out in other regards. I love it. The setting, music, and graphical style of Persona 2 are all impeccable.

The story in general is much more light-hearted than Persona 3. Some High Schoolers hear a rumor that if you perform a certain ritual, a being called Joker will come and grant your any wish. So they try it and, surprise surprise, Joker is evil and attempts to steal the ambition of the characters, which turns its victims into depressed zombies. But it turns out you and your friends have Personas that can combat Joker. Joker runs off in a hurry, setting his Demon minions upon you for the rest of the game while your party tries to prevent any more victims of Joker.

There’s more to it than this, but I won’t spoil it. Joker is a cool character, and the mystery of Joker’s identity kept me playing. The plot gets absurd later (you’ll know exactly when this is), which is saying a lot, because the game is already much sillier than most SMTs. I’m fine with that though, because SMT games have a great sense of humor, and Persona 2: Innocent Sin is no exception. It’s not as dark as many of the other games in the franchise, but the Persona series was meant to be like that in the first place.

Overall, the plot isn’t amazing. It’s good, but below par compared to other SMTs I’ve played. It isn’t too elaborate, has a lot of logical holes regarding the rumor aspect, and I feel there isn’t as much pertinent symbolism or psychological exploration in this game as its sequels. All in all, I enjoyed Persona 2: Innocent Sin and expect most people will, but it’s not in my ranking of the absolute best Shin Megami Tensei games.

I’m currently waiting for Eternal Punishment‘s PSP port to be translated. I’m excited to see the plot continued. Persona 2: Innocent Sin had very likable characters even if they weren’t particularly complex. Supposedly, Innocent Sin‘s original PlayStation version never received an English localization because of an implied homosexual romance. I don’t necessarily believe that, though given how bastardized the first Persona‘s localization is, maybe there’s truth to it. Times have changed since then, and Persona 2: Innocent Sin is now officially translated in an excellent remake.