Shin Megami Tensei: Persona: Let’s Get Funky

By Spencer . September 1, 2009 . 6:00pm

Atlus’ remastered PSP release of Persona is like watching a movie in technicolor. Same story, new presentation. Elements from Persona 3, arguably the series biggest hit, like a colorful cityscape and pop soundtrack have been retrofitted into Shin Megami Tensei: Persona so the original title feels like a later entry.

But, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona doesn’t have social links or random dungeons. This game is a dungeon crawler with a first person perspective like the pre-Nocturne Shin Megami Tensei titles. Dungeons in this game, mostly due to the perspective, are tougher to wade through. It’s easy to get lost even with the helpful mini-map that notes which areas you explored. This probably isn’t going to sound right, but getting lost is part of the fun. SMT: Persona is a dungeon crawler and these dungeons are tougher than the open fields where you can run in a circle to dodge shadows. Oh, and you can’t evade enemies in Persona either. Fights are random encounters and running from them is usually futile.

Battles in Shin Megami Tensei: Persona use a different system too. The crux of fights is still exploiting weaknesses, but now you have a wealth of attacks to manage. Nuclear, gravity, earth, expel, miracle, guns… the “element” list is lengthy. Even if you have the right spell you have to make sure your character is in the right position to hit a target. Persona has a strategy RPG style grid where attacks have a fixed range. Mark’s shotgun, for instance, mainly hits enemies in the middle, if you put him in the front row. Place Mark in the middle of your grid and he can shoot enemies in the front row, but if you do that his axe won’t be able to hit anyone. There’s a bit more strategy to SMT: Persona’s battle system than knocking enemies down and going for an all out attack. The thing that players need to watch out for are status attacks. Just like the list of elements there are a plethora of status effects ranging from staples like HP draining poison to happiness (your character may not listen to you) and guilt (can’t use physical attacks). Each status effect has a degree too. Higher levels of guilt prevent your character from casting sword slashing and spell slinging.

SMT: Persona also has the demon negotiating system, a Shin Megami Tensei staple dropped from future Persona games. Comparatively, it’s basic and demons don’t ask moral questions. Negotiating consists of picking conversation styles ranging from invite to condescend to dance. Nothing tames deadly demons more than a six stepping. Once you figure out which option works you do the same thing over and over to earn a spell card. Hand these to Igor and he’ll fuse new personae for you.

If this sounds like an old school RPG, you’re on the right track. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona’s system is largely unchanged, which has a love it or hate it appeal. The skip feature, an option that speeds up battles and turns off persona summoning animations, is the biggest gameplay enhancement in the PSP version.

The story and bizarre world is what made and still makes Persona worthwhile. In the beginning of the game you and a bunch of misfits play a tag-like game in a classroom while bellowing “Persona!”. This summons butterflies and Philemon, a masked man who bestows the ability to summon personas. There isn’t time to date your teammates after that since a barrier seals everyone in town and demons start appearing. Good thing 7-Elevens carry assault rifles. The journey takes players through “worlds” and neatly wraps up the question “what are Personas?”

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona features a new stick to the source material localization and original character artwork, but the cast acts more or less like Atlus’ 90’s localization. Nanjou is still stuffy and abrasive. Mark is a dancing fool and Hidehiko is an annoyingly cocky. Fortunately, you have some choice in who joins your team, which adds a little replay value to Persona.

Actually, there’s a whole second quest in Persona to discover, if you take the time to find it. The Snow Queen quest, a grueling trek through dungeons with a different plot, is included in Shin Megami Tensei: Persona. And its easier to ~~suffer~~ play through. Thanks to the quicksave feature you can take breaks through hours of grinding.

On second thought, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona is like a remastered director’s cut. The PSP re-release has new for North America content and a faithful localization old and new fans will appreciate — if they don’t mind dungeon crawling.

TAGS: Atlus, Persona, Playtests, PSP, Shin Megami Tensei

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TyeTheCzar

"Mark"? Don't tell me they kept the character's names Americanised?! That's one of the cardinal sins on localization!

Spencer

Characters have nicknames and full names. So for "Mark" they use his Japanese name, Masao Inaba, as his full name and Mark as his nickname. Elly is the same way too.

Chow

Just as long as they don't change his sprite drastically for attempted political correctness.

Hraesvelgr

He was called Mark in the Japanese version of the game too, although it was just a nickname... Sheesh, the screenshots on this very page show that they didn't make the changes they made in the PSX version.

Dasuzero

I have no idea why they changed the soundtrack. :\

Hiryuu

I'm kinda tired hearing that same line repeated over and over again.

It got its music changed and it isn't the same as the original. We got that already, why haven't you? Or better yet, got over it?

But, I digress, it might be the best sounding thing in the world and there would still be complaints about it from the purists.

Dasuzero

what the hell?

If I feel the new soundtrack is worse, I'm going to complain about it. I complained when Wild Arms: Alter Code F cut some of the best themes from the original (even though most of the soundtrack was still very good), it blew my mind when NST not only changed the music for Crystalis GBC but added crap in it's place, I deplore what's been heard in some digitally distributed "remakes" (Turtles in Time Re-shelled, Contra XBLA, etc)...

You're right that some people would complain even if it was the best sounding thing in the world. But some people feel it's not, and unless you can find some notable consensus on it being an improvement over the original score, I really would appreciate it if you'd shut up.

I mean, maybe five years from now there will be some blinding revelation that they made the right decision. But that doesn't happen in a lot of cases where aspects of games are altered so drastically, so I hope you'll understand why I'm not anticipating it here.

Hiryuu

Ah, censor that which dissents opinion. The folly.

Anyways, truth of the matter is that it's ATLUS taking what they're getting back from people to make such a decision to do the game soundtrack and the game the way they are...why else would they change it? They're doing it for the people that requested such things so...there would -probably- be your majority opinion that you're inquiring about beforehand.

But I just get this feeling that anyone that's played the original will automatically go 'omg not liek de originuhl suxxx' without even taking it from a fresh perspective and not taking into account the way 3 and 4 were done and how well presented, overall, the OSTs were in the very same fashion. But again, this is my opinion. Maybe you don't go for that whole BABYBABYBABYBABYBABY like some other people do...but killing opinions that state otherwise in your tone doesn't really help your case.

Forgive me if I don't share the viewpoint, verbatim, as you but I do believe that you shouldn't write a completely redone OST in the fashion that it was off just because of what its comparison is to the old that you hold so dear. I don't think they would work so hard otherwise just to piss off their fans.

Hraesvelgr

Yeah, I agree, the new OST kinda sucks. I also agree about the Wild Arms remake, but then, I felt that the remake was dumbed down overall compared to the original.

Chris Taran

The new soundtrack is one of my favorite parts of the new game. Been listening to it quite a bit at home.

The original game still exists, if you prefer that version, you're welcome to play it.

Vanilla

I have to admit that Persona PSP hasn't shaped up to be what I thought it would. I guess it's mostly my fault for being a fairly recent fan, having only played P3 and 4. I'd assumed they were remaking it to cater to the newer fans, which is...something they're clearly not doing. I won't complain just yet though (and even if I wanted to, I wouldn't, since this is clearly geared towards old faithfuls of the series anyway).

I'm still a little upset that they didn't redesign the character portraits though. I personally think anime designs from the 90's aren't that great.

Hraesvelgr

In some ways, I would say the game *has* been remade to cater to the newer fans. The fact that the soundtrack is almost entirely new (and smaller, thus more repetitive) and in the style of P3/P4 and the fact that the game has been made easier tells me that they wanted to make it accessible to newer fans, while still keeping a lot of things that fans of the older games really liked.

And it just wouldn't be the same if they redid the character portraits. The game's supposed to take place in the 90s, so I think it's rather fitting.

Vanilla

You're right; they are changing things around to accommodate for new fans. I still can't help but see it as half-baked, though.

For example, I'm one of the people who didn't like the fact that they changed the OST so drastically. They wanted to retain that old-school feeling--so why did they change something so tightly bound to the mood of the game and make it so modernized? I like the songs themselves a lot, but I can't really imagine a lot of them in Persona 1.

I guess I've been spoiled by the gorgeous character designs in P3 and P4, but I feel like they could've retained the old-school feeling just with the clothing designs (those uniforms definitely give off a 90's vibe, I'd say).

I guess I'm of the opposite opinion with you here on what they should've changed and kept. You're right though, Atlus is trying to provide an experience that both its new and old fans can share synonymously, and I'll be damned if I'm not going to give it a fair chance.

Hraesvelgr

I'm not saying they should have changed anything, just that I know why they did. I don't particularly like the new OST, especially because I loved the original versions music. I *do* like the improved city map compared to that ugly mess from the original, but... that's about it, really.

As for the character designs, I don't think they were anything special in P3 and P4. To be fair, there isn't much you can do for a group of people wearing school uniforms (and the same goes for this game, honestly)... I wouldn't mind if they updated the quality of the art for this game, but that's about it, really.

manga

Game preordered, just waiting for it to be released so it can be shipped to me :)

I´m used to random encounters and after Cross Edge I´m a bit used to attacks having a fixed range as well. I´m used to it from SRPGs, but not like this.

If this is anywhere as good as Persona 2: EP then I will be pleased.

First first person dungeon crawler for me so it´ll be a new experience.

THRONE

I wouldn't exactly base a P2 purchase off of P1, especially if you dislike it. The battle system and dungeons are quite different. I probably never would have continued with the series after playing P1 tbh, P2 was a shining gem.

manga

We´ll just have to see what I think of the game when I´ve played it. That will tell me if I made a correct choice or not.

Chris Taran

Very much looking forward to the release! Love the music from what I've heard so far (been playing the opening movie track over and over again, it's so addictingly good).

It will be nice to see where my current favorite franchise came from to appreciate the changes made in the modern Persona's more. I'm glad they've made a lot of improvements to the game over the original which will make it easier for modern fans to enjoy.

Really can't wait for those soundtrack CD's!