Warning: Some minor details of Persona 4 might be spoiled in this post. They are nothing major (such as who the killer is), but they are some details about certain character arcs within the first half of the game.
As with my Persona 1 LttP thread, I'm going to try to keep major spoilers in spoiler tags, as I know not near as many people have played this game as Persona 3/4/5. I hope to convince a lot of you to check this game out.
I thought about waiting until I finished Eternal Punishment to make a thread about the Persona 2 duology, but I think it's better to do it now as I don't want to lose my thoughts on Innocent Sin, and I think having discussion of both games in one thread might be a little much at once. On my journey through the early games in the Persona series, I've now completed Persona 2 Innocent Sin. Innocent Sin is the first part of the Persona 2 duology. It's made up of the games Innocent Sin, and Eternal Punishment. For those that don't know, this game also had a troubled release history in English. There was the original PlayStation 1 version released in 1999 in Japan only. The reason that version never released in English is not known, but there is a romhack out there that translates it into English. People speculate the reason it never released in English being it's content: having some certain antagonists in the game. This was rectified in 2011 when the PSP port/remake of Innocent Sin was released in the west. I played the PSP version of the game on my PlayStation TV. Eternal Punishment's release history is troubled as well. The original did release on PS1 in English, and names of characters that were mentioned in Persona 1 were kept to the Revelations: Persona names for consistency's sake. There was a PSP port/remake of Eternal Punishment, but it never released in the US due to unstated reasons. I plan on starting Eternal Punishment today, and it will of course be that PS1 version, played on my PSTV.
Story
Innocent Sin picks up some years after the events of Persona 1, in a different city. You play as a boy named Tatsuya, who you can name freely, but I chose not to since he has a canon name. You're lured to try to rescue someone from a supposed hostage situation, but learn that it wasn't really a hostage situation. It was just Eikichi Mishima from Kasugayama High trying to get you to join his band. A fight breaks out, and the idea comes up to try to summon the Joker and make a wish, based on a rumor. The Joker shows up, but they don't have a wish for him. He drains the souls of the other bandmates, and recognizes Tatsuya. He is about to do the same to Tatsuya, but tells him he doesn't even remember what his sin is. Tatsuya, Lisa, and Eikichi all get their Personas at this point, and learn about the power of rumors. It's now off to the school to try to resolve the problem of the clock tower moving.
Rumors are a concept used frequently in this game. In Sumaru City, rumors spread almost always become true. This is how a lot of the plot happens, and plenty of times this is used in the protagonists' favor too. It's actually a really neat concept that I think they explored quite well. In the Kuzonoha Detective Agency, you can pay the chief to spread rumors for you. These can be rumors from demons, or things like certain shops selling weapons or armor, and you have a choice of things like having high prices and high quality, normal prices and normal quality, bad selection but high buyback, etc. There's a limited number of shops in the game, so it's smart to get a variety to make effective use of. For instance, you may not want to splurge the cast on high cost weapons, so you get normal quality ones, and then upgrade later in the game. You don't want to sell your old weapons to the same store you bought them from, you want another one with a high buyback price instead.
These rumors heavily play into the story. For instance, right off the bat, at Seven Sisters High, the clock tower starts working. At first you might think "big whoop, it's just a clock tower who cares", but the clock tower has never worked before. There's also a rumor that the school's emblem curses the school, so now the cast has to go through and smash all the school emblems.
Joker leads a cult called the Masked Circle, trying to collect "Ideal Energy" from people that don't have dreams to further some goals that are later detailed.
I detailed it more above, but the game is incredibly progressive. Without spoiling it outside of spoiler tags, there's a canon gay relationship in the game that gets no side-eye from the rest of the cast, and nailed this years before later games in the series would struggle with it. If you need yet another indicator of how the series dramatically changed starting with Persona 3, this is yet another one. It's very likely that Katsura Hashino's toxic beliefs caused some of the homophobia and transphobia in later games, and I really hope that didn't permeate to the rest of his team, but we will find out in the inevitable Persona 6 since Hashino won't be involved.
Persona 2 IS is not PERFECT in terms of LGBT issues though, as there are a couple of minor NPCs that are transphobic, and there is an NPC that's actually trans-positive! Given the vibe I get from the rest of the game, I have a feeling that if it were made today, I bet the transphobic NPCs would not be there.
At one point in the game, you have to go after the shadow selves of each character. People that have played Persona 4 probably think this sounds familiar, because it's basically the same thing! Their shadow shares a lot of their inner feelings they want to deny, and they have to fight it, then accept it. I still liked the implementation of it, particularly with this cast of characters.
The end of the game sets up the start of Persona 2 Eternal Punishment. It's an interesting way to handle this being a duology, and I'm really curious why they wanted to go this route back during development. Despite Persona 2 IS's ending obviously setting up the next game, it does feel like a complete game at the end of the day. The final boss felt like a final boss.
Persona 2 Innocent Sin easily has my favorite set of characters and plot in the entire series, including the modern games. I'm really curious to see if Eternal Punishment one-ups it in this department, but it's incredibly strong here.
Characters
Tatsuya Suou
The protagonist character, but he's a lot less of a blank slate than the usual fare. He does not talk other than occasional one-liners, but he's a lot more expressive than many protagonists in the series. He has little quirks such as looking at his pocketwatch or flipping a zippo lighter he has. When I first saw him flipping the lighter, I wasn't sure what exactly it was. Obviously they didn't have smartphones back when this game came out, but I thought there was a possibility it was a flip or bar phone of that late 90s era. There's a reason he carries the pocketwatch and lighter though...even though he doesn't smoke.
Tatsuya's also kind of unusual for a Persona protagonist as he's already the motorcycle riding "bad boy", and usually the protagonists aren't that. Joker in Persona 5 isn't even that, despite the image of the Phantom Thieves. Lisa has a huge crush on him and he does not have the same feelings for her (unless you choose that option later).
Lisa "Ginko" Silverman
Lisa is an American that moved to Japan when her father wanted to move to Japan, and wants her to be a "proper Japanese woman" despite her having no interest in that. In protest she teaches herself Cantonese, and often throws Cantonese words and phrases in her dialect. She has strong feelings for Tatsuya, despite those feelings being generally unrequited. She doesn't really get along with Eikichi and the two have quite a rivalry, often taking the opportunity to punch Eikichi just about every chance she gets.
She has a lot of aspects I feel inspired characters later in the series. She loves Kung Fu and learned self-defense, much like Chie from Persona 4. She's an American, like Ann from Persona 5.
Eikichi gives Lisa her nickname of "Ginko" fairly early on in the game, due to their rivalry. "Gin" refers to silver, and "ko" generally refers to women. Her last name is Silverman, so that's where the nickname comes from. It always seemed weird and kind of nonsensical to give Lisa this nickname, and I prefer to call her Lisa myself. In Persona 1, most of the characters had some kind of nickname and I wasn't sure why they did this. Part of me would think it was because of character limits on the combat screens, but many of the character names in Persona 1 are shorter than other characters. Masao is Mark's real name, but both of those are still shorter than Yukino, which is the name used on the combat screens.
Lisa also has aspects of characters later in the series that the later games seriously misstep. Early on in Persona 5, when Ann gets her Persona, she's clearly very uncomfortable by being in a skintight outfit, especially right after having her be under the hold of the abusive gym teacher, Kamoshida. In the next case, Yusuke tries to get her to model nude for him, something she's very clearly uncomfortable with. When Ann gets knocked down in battle, she's in this awkward pose of her butt sticking in the air. Every time they sexualize Ann, she's clearly not in control at all and very uncomfortable with it. Lisa on the other hand is pretty much the total opposite. She proclaims herself the "hottest girl in school", she has options to seduce demons or discuss love with them. The game never puts her in a position where she's sexualized on screen and NOT in control of it, and even where she is sexualized, it's not toward the player, but toward other characters like Tatsuya.
Eikichi "Michel" Mishima
Eikichi is part of a band called Gas Chamber (I'm sure that name was totally intended based on a certain group of villains that appears), and tries to recruit Tatsuya for it. He joins the group and you learn more about his past. His father runs a restaurant, and he does not like his father, asking to leave as soon as you enter the restaurant. His father wants him to be able to run the restaurant, and not be a punk band member type of person.
He's a bit of a show-off, and has a rivalry with Lisa. He's often known to charge headfirst into situations where that's ill-advised. Underneath though he doesn't have as much confidence, as he was bullied when he was younger, for things such as being overweight.
I don't know why Eikichi has the nickname "Michel" and couldn't find a reason for it, I think it's just a name he chose for himself. Oddly enough, the fan translation of the PS1 version of the game has his nickname as "Michelle", and it's likely due to the phonetics that this happened. The name is pronounced "Me-shell" rather than like you would pronounce "Michelle". This kind of thing is a downside of not having full voice acting, but there's a couple of times he has voiced lines in battle where he says it. It's probably also a result of pronunciations in Japanese being very clear since characters are sounds rather than letters like English. That said, I'm curious how it differentiates "Maya" and "Maia" in the original.
Maya Amano
Maya is a journalist in her twenties with relentless optimism. She works with Yukino on the teen magazine, Coolest. She arrives to investigate the rumors in Sevens about the school emblems cursing the school, resulting in her getting her Persona. She joins the party along with Yukino.
Yukino "Yukki" Mayuzumi.
Yukino is the only playable character that appeared in Persona 1 as a playable character. She's a photographer for the magazine, Coolest, and works with Maya. She has a very strong relationship with Maya. Yukino was often the voice of reason in Persona 1, and is the same in this game. She has more experience with Personas and fighting demons, due to the events of Persona 1.
She has a mentor she looks up to and even has feelings for, Shunsuke Fuiji.
Major spoiler character
Other characters
This section I'm going to use to talk about some side characters I have some things to say about.
Miyabi "Kozy" Hanakouji
Miyabi is the girl Eikichi had a crush on, yet she had feelings for him too. Eikichi was bullied about his weight, and after a certain incident, she felt guilty and put on weight herself. Eikichi eventually learns who she is (after not knowing that she is "Kozy") and says that he loves her no matter what she looks like.
The most interesting comparison Miyabi has is to a certain side character in Persona 4: Hanako Ohtani. Hanako is a girl in that game that's overweight and she's literally nothing else in that game except a punching bag. Every time she's on screen, it's to humiliate her and go "haha you're fat and like food!" Early on Yosuke accidentally calls her, thinking he's calling a different girl, and she shows up and sits on his new scooter, which instantly breaks, because "haha she's fat!" It's gross fat shaming. Compare it to Miyabi, who's actually an interesting character relevant to the cast, is not ridiculed or shamed for her weight, and even then one of the main characters says he accepts her no matter what she looks like. They handled this totally opposite of how they handled Hanako. Again, it's more signs that there was significant change in a negative direction over the years since this game.
Her nickname was "Kozy" because she was known to fall asleep around various places in the school. I'm pretty sure the nickname is actually a reference to the Atlus employee, Kouji "Cozy" Okada. Her last name is Hanakouji, which can kind of sound like "Kozy".
Maki Sonomura
Maki was a playable character in Persona 1, and central to the plot in the SEBEC route. She becomes a therapist, and her description mentions something about atoning for things she did in the past.
Eriko "Elly" Kirishima
Elly was a playable character in Persona 1 as well. She has a huge interest in the occult, and after graduating high school, became a model. She can be found at the internet cafe, and helps the cast interpret the Oracle of Maia. I know she becomes playable in Persona 2 Eternal Punishment.
Maya "Ms. Ideal" Okamura
Ms. Ideal was a teacher at Sevens. However she's more involved in things than she lets on. She's aware of the purpose of the stone behind the school, and warns Tatsuya to stay away from it.
Philemon
He's the creator of Personas, and really is Igor's master. He bestows the ability of Persona on people that are able to remember their names in his realm. He appeared in Persona 1 as well. He's more involved in this game though, as you go back to his realm a couple of times.
Gameplay
Persona 2 Innocent Sin's gameplay is a significant improvement on Persona 1. I do miss the first person dungeons, but this was what started up the staple third person dungeon crawling that the series would keep. The encounter rate is still high, almost as high as Persona 1's, but somehow doesn't feel quite as draining? The battles can take a long time, but they don't feel as long as Persona 1's. Somehow I went the entire game without a Persona with Estoma, which was annoying sometimes, but there were some other times I had an item or two to lower encounters.
Combat is pretty basic, but has some cool elements of its own. You issue orders to your party, and see the turn order of the left. However you can set your turn order, and as long as SOMEONE has the agility, you can have whoever you want go first.The enemy turns will still be dispersed between your party members though. You can also press the circle button any time during combat, and it will stop and go back to issuing commands after the current action. This is particularly useful in a few situations, and I know I took advantage of it on the final boss.
Let's say for example that Maya is asleep, and you have the turn order on Maya, Yukino, Lisa, Eikichi, Tatsuya. You have Yukino use an Energy Drink to help Maya recover, but Maya recovers on her own. You can press circle during Maya's action, and you can reissue commands for Yukino, Lisa, Eikichi, and Tatsuya. You can have Yukino do something else instead of wasting an item on Maya when she doesn't need it.
The other unique thing to the Persona 2 duology is Fusion Spells. Whenever you have characters cast the right spells in the right order, you'll do a fusion spell. Fusion Spells will happen automatically the first time you discover them. For instance, casting a water spell on one character, and then a water spell on the next one, gets you Heavy Rain, a water spell that deals damage based on all participating members' Dexterity. When you know how to use these, they can be particularly devastating on bosses, even if they aren't weak to them. You have to discover them on your own though. Once you discover one, it's available under fusion spells in battle. You can set it to automatically set the turn order for that fusion spell, or if you do the combination manually, you'll get the option to cast the fusion spell, or pass on it. It's a neat system that utilizes everyone's ability to change Personas. Sometimes it may be worth having a character switch to a particularly weak Persona, just so you can get a fusion spell on a boss, as it could be the difference between winning and not winning.
One thing that did annoy me about the combat though, was how any damage or healing is displayed. The game slowly shows the damage/healing numbers pop over each character/enemy one at a time. It's very slow. I'd rather they just show them all at once. Even when you press start to turn off a lot of animations and speed things up, it still can take quite a while. Without spoiling it, the final boss has multiple "pieces" to it, and this got annoying every time I would use AoE skills on it.
Probably my biggest beef with the gameplay is how you obtain new Personas. In Persona 1, you got them by negotiating demon spell cards out of demons. You would fuse those spell cards to make new Personas. In Persona 2, they have ditched fusion altogether. Now when you negotiate with a demon, you're trying to get Tarot cards, and they'll be of the demon's arcana. In the Velvet Room, each Persona in an arcana costs a number of Tarot cards. The grind for these Tarot cards can become really steep and annoying. Without a guide, it might take a few encounters with a demon to figure out what it wants to hear, so it can be some trial and error, and you have to do it multiple times just to get enough cards. You can also form pacts with up to three demons at a time, where you will get more cards and some free cards. Free cards can be given to the Demon Painter (who looks just like Kazuma Kaneko) in exchange for cards of a particular arcana. I think in the entire series, Persona 5 still has the best method of obtaining new Personas and fusion. Dropping fusion altogether was a mistake in my opinion.
Personas still have compatibility with certain arcanas, although one issue I had with this was when I was looking for Personas to spend my cards on, some arcanas, ALL of my party members were either "bad" or "terrible" compatibility...so what even is the point of that Arcana? It just seems not worth it at all when you're better off investing in a better one. Lower compatibility means that SP costs are higher for that Persona. If you have best compatibility, then that Persona can unlock an extra skill at max rank. Any character can change Personas.
Personas still have the rank system from Persona 1, however characters just have their level, and there is no "Persona level" like there was in Persona 1. Rank goes up every time you use a Persona in battle. This means using regular attacks in battle does NOT gain ranks in that Persona, so in regular battles it's often pointless to use regular attacks, unless the enemy is immune to everything else. Because of this, this system could be an annoying grind sometimes.
Dungeons
I figure I would use this section to talk about a few dungeons in particular. Overall I liked how many of them were based on real places humans used, and some of them were wibbly wobbly town.
GOLD
I'm 90% sure this is a reference to the real life gym company, Gold's Gym. It was around in the 90s. It's basically a multi-floor fitness center. It ends up being the target of one of the Masked Circle's attacks, and it's one of the riddles you need to solve. The other place had "Silver" in the name, and if you go there instead, GOLD explodes instantly.
Concert Stage
There's not too much going on here as this dungeon as small, but you're given a limited time that only depletes when in the hallways, and you have to round up everyone in the building to evacuate them before it explodes. You also have to find the riddles the Masked Circle left about the locations of other bombs. As for why a terrorist organization leaves riddles for their bombs, who knows, it's just one of those video game logic things.
Mt. Iwato
This was a really cool experience, learning about the past of these characters through the dungeon. I can't say much about this outside spoiler tags though.
Military Bunker
When you're at Kasugayama High, and head for the bunker, you're shut in there. Rarely anyone has ever escaped the bunker before. You have to keep going and after realizing I was going in circles, I actually looked up a walkthrough to see if I was missing some clue. It turns out I wasn't, you're supposed to go in a circle three times until you're given a chance to figure out the solution and get out.
Mt. Katatsumuri
You have to travel up the mountain without the ski lift the first time, to make it to Caracol. However you're given a choice when you start it: Rush straight through, or take the longer way around and avoid enemies. The choice you make here makes the dungeon completely different. I chose to rush straight through, and this route has tougher demons and more miniboss encounters. However even going that route, this dungeon felt like it lasted FOREVER. Every floor I was like "Is this done yet?" mainly because there is no break or easy way to exit this dungeon without backtracking the whole thing. Part of it was that I had some of my characters poisoned, and no means to get rid of the poison. The strategy I used to get rid of it was to just let them get to 1HP outside of combat, and then try to get them killed in combat so I could revive them and they wouldn't have the poison anymore. Of course when I tried to do this, they leveled up and got all their HP and SP back, making this twice as hard.
Aerospace Museum
It was neat to have a different objective than "get through it". You had to rescue all the kids on the class field trip and then get to the roof. Tamaki and Tadashi help you by blocking off the next floor until you get all the kids on the current one. It was neat to see the rumors utilized to make the blimp on the roof a real blimp. During the FMV of it flying, I was like "Gee this sure reminds me of the Hindenburg." and then the music turns sour as it starts to explode like the Hindenburg. Fortunately all the kids are evacuated safely. Also it was kind of neat how they were worried about being seen as terrorists due to the rumor, but spread a counter-rumor among the kids that they weren't terrorists.
Zodiac Temples
I forget which one it is, but the temple that has all the spots of the blue goop that drains a lot of your SP, was annoying as all hell. I was still able to beat it, but man was it a pain. Chasing after the shadow selves was neat. Otherwise each temple was pretty straightforward, and I got through them all pretty easily.
Silver River
This dungeon happens near the end of the game, and you're cruising down a river in a boat. You have no control over it, you just run into battles along the way, sometimes they can be frequent. There's points where they ask you which way to go, however sometimes you have to go the right way to actually complete the dungeon. There's no way to figure it out other than either trial and error, or look up a walkthrough. It's kind of annoying that they just want you to trial and error it, but it's not too bad.
Conclusion
Persona 2 Innocent Sin is an excellent game. I know a lot of people say it's dated, and I really don't think it's much more dated than a lot of other RPGs of that era. I highly recommend it, ESPECIALLY if you really couldn't stomach Persona 1. This is my favorite cast and plot of the series, easily, and I know a lot of people hold a similar opinion to me on that.
As with my Persona 1 LttP thread, I'm going to try to keep major spoilers in spoiler tags, as I know not near as many people have played this game as Persona 3/4/5. I hope to convince a lot of you to check this game out.
I thought about waiting until I finished Eternal Punishment to make a thread about the Persona 2 duology, but I think it's better to do it now as I don't want to lose my thoughts on Innocent Sin, and I think having discussion of both games in one thread might be a little much at once. On my journey through the early games in the Persona series, I've now completed Persona 2 Innocent Sin. Innocent Sin is the first part of the Persona 2 duology. It's made up of the games Innocent Sin, and Eternal Punishment. For those that don't know, this game also had a troubled release history in English. There was the original PlayStation 1 version released in 1999 in Japan only. The reason that version never released in English is not known, but there is a romhack out there that translates it into English. People speculate the reason it never released in English being it's content: having some certain antagonists in the game. This was rectified in 2011 when the PSP port/remake of Innocent Sin was released in the west. I played the PSP version of the game on my PlayStation TV. Eternal Punishment's release history is troubled as well. The original did release on PS1 in English, and names of characters that were mentioned in Persona 1 were kept to the Revelations: Persona names for consistency's sake. There was a PSP port/remake of Eternal Punishment, but it never released in the US due to unstated reasons. I plan on starting Eternal Punishment today, and it will of course be that PS1 version, played on my PSTV.
Story
Innocent Sin picks up some years after the events of Persona 1, in a different city. You play as a boy named Tatsuya, who you can name freely, but I chose not to since he has a canon name. You're lured to try to rescue someone from a supposed hostage situation, but learn that it wasn't really a hostage situation. It was just Eikichi Mishima from Kasugayama High trying to get you to join his band. A fight breaks out, and the idea comes up to try to summon the Joker and make a wish, based on a rumor. The Joker shows up, but they don't have a wish for him. He drains the souls of the other bandmates, and recognizes Tatsuya. He is about to do the same to Tatsuya, but tells him he doesn't even remember what his sin is. Tatsuya, Lisa, and Eikichi all get their Personas at this point, and learn about the power of rumors. It's now off to the school to try to resolve the problem of the clock tower moving.
Rumors are a concept used frequently in this game. In Sumaru City, rumors spread almost always become true. This is how a lot of the plot happens, and plenty of times this is used in the protagonists' favor too. It's actually a really neat concept that I think they explored quite well. In the Kuzonoha Detective Agency, you can pay the chief to spread rumors for you. These can be rumors from demons, or things like certain shops selling weapons or armor, and you have a choice of things like having high prices and high quality, normal prices and normal quality, bad selection but high buyback, etc. There's a limited number of shops in the game, so it's smart to get a variety to make effective use of. For instance, you may not want to splurge the cast on high cost weapons, so you get normal quality ones, and then upgrade later in the game. You don't want to sell your old weapons to the same store you bought them from, you want another one with a high buyback price instead.
These rumors heavily play into the story. For instance, right off the bat, at Seven Sisters High, the clock tower starts working. At first you might think "big whoop, it's just a clock tower who cares", but the clock tower has never worked before. There's also a rumor that the school's emblem curses the school, so now the cast has to go through and smash all the school emblems.
Joker leads a cult called the Masked Circle, trying to collect "Ideal Energy" from people that don't have dreams to further some goals that are later detailed.
At one point in the game, a group of Nazis showed up called the First Battalion, led by Hitler himself. Hitler in this game is called "Fuhrer", and is wearing sunglasses. He might as well be wearing Groucho Marx glasses and call himself "Totally not Hitler". They also don't call the soldiers Nazis but….they're Nazis. The original Japanese version did refer to them as Hitler and Nazis, and Hitler didn't even have the sunglasses, but this was changed in the PSP version. The reason was due to the CERO ratings board's policy against real people, and presumably Nazis being in the game. No swastikas appear in the PSP version as well, instead using the Iron Cross (another Nazi symbol), but the PS1 version did have swastikas.
Through their encounters with Joker, Lisa starts to recall something from her childhood. They head to Alaya shrine, and Tatsuya has flashbacks to his childhood of a young girl being trapped in the shrine, while he's outside it, along with Tatsuya Sudou (aka King Leo of the Masked Circle). Tatsuya Sudou had set fire to the shrine, while the little girl was supposedly dying inside.
During the party's journey through Mt. Iwato, a mountain behind the shrine, their past starts to unfold. At first you learn that Tatsuya had the idea to lock the little girl in the shrine, who is revealed to be Maya. Then you learn that he was against the idea, and instead was locked in the shrine with Maya. This was all in an effort to keep Maya from having to move away when they were children. They thought as a result of locking Maya in the shrine, they had killed her due to the fire, but it turned out that she did not die, and Tatsuya Sudou was the one that started the fire.
During the party's journey through Mt. Iwato, a mountain behind the shrine, their past starts to unfold. At first you learn that Tatsuya had the idea to lock the little girl in the shrine, who is revealed to be Maya. Then you learn that he was against the idea, and instead was locked in the shrine with Maya. This was all in an effort to keep Maya from having to move away when they were children. They thought as a result of locking Maya in the shrine, they had killed her due to the fire, but it turned out that she did not die, and Tatsuya Sudou was the one that started the fire.
The full story of what happened in their childhood was that Tatsuya, Lisa, Eikichi, and Jun Kurosu all had Featherman (basically Power Rangers or Super Sentai) masks they wore, and formed a group they called the Masked Circle. Really, they ended up starting the Masked Circle that later terrorized Sumaru City. Through Mt. Iwato, they find their old masks and learn more about this. They also had their "big sis", a girl that was older than them that they looked up to as an older sister. That girl turned out to be Maya. One day, Maya's father had to move due to an assignment, and so that meant Maya had to move away. Lisa, Eikichi, and Jun had the idea to lock Maya in the shrine so they could not take her away. Tatsuya protested this idea, but they locked him in the shrine as well. Later that night, Tatsuya Sudou, an arsonist, came and set fire to the shrine. Presumably, they thought this killed Maya, but it turned out it did not. Earlier, the Masked Circle group learned of something called the "Persona game", and played it, and all got their Personas then. Tatsuya and Maya had their Personas, and that was how they were able to escape the burning shrine. For all of the children except for Jun, these were repressed memories, and in some cases they even had false memories, such as there being false memories of them all intending to kill Maya by locking her in the shrine.
In the Caracol dungeon, Jun is eventually unable to contain the power of the Joker, and the party must fight him. He's eventually freed from the power of Joker and joins the party when Yukino gives up her Persona ability so he can have one. When Joker meets the cast as one point in Mt. Iwato, Lisa comments that Tatsuya and Jun were very close, "almost like l-" she says and is cut off by Jun telling her to shut up. You see more flashbacks of Tatsuya and Jun's past and see that she was likely about to say "lovers". The pocketwatch and lighter were two mementos of Jun that he gave to Tatsuya, which was why he keeps flipping the lighter all the time.
In one of the temples, you're given a dialogue choice after fighting Shadow Lisa: Who Tatsuya has romantic feelings for. The choices are Lisa, Maya, Jun, and Eikichi. Only one of those choices is a "joke" answer and it's Eikichi, as Eikichi has no romantic feelings for Tatsuya at all. Lisa has made it very clear she has a massive crush on Tatsuya and has been trying to allure him for the entire game. Maya has been rather quiet about it, but seems to harbor some feelings for Tatsuya. Jun has feelings for him as well though. The interesting thing about this though, is that Kazuma Kaneko and Satomi Tadashi actually consider Tatsuya and Jun's relationship canon! Persona 3/4/5 notoriously struggle with LGBT characters, meanwhile Persona 2 had a canon gay relationship and treated it completely normally! They don't make a big deal of it, when you pick that dialogue choice, Lisa says "Okay, well you like who you like…" She's not saying that in a manner of "Oh you like another man, that's weird", but in a manner of "Oh you don't like me, that's disappointing." Everyone else is supportive of Tatsuya and Jun's relationship. Hell even the DEMONS are supportive of it. One of the negotiation options you can use after this conversation is using Tatsuya and Jun to negotiate together, and their relationship is listed as "...Lovers?" Different demons comment that this was once considered taboo, but appreciate the fact that humans have moved past this being taboo. Granted, some of the demons also throw a comment in saying "If there were more humans like you, the human population would decrease.", but it does seem to me more like a "That demon wants the human race to be wiped out" type of thing. I'm still amazed that this was something this game that came out in 1999 got right, while games made in 2006, 2008, and 2016 STILL struggle with it!
In the Caracol dungeon, Jun is eventually unable to contain the power of the Joker, and the party must fight him. He's eventually freed from the power of Joker and joins the party when Yukino gives up her Persona ability so he can have one. When Joker meets the cast as one point in Mt. Iwato, Lisa comments that Tatsuya and Jun were very close, "almost like l-" she says and is cut off by Jun telling her to shut up. You see more flashbacks of Tatsuya and Jun's past and see that she was likely about to say "lovers". The pocketwatch and lighter were two mementos of Jun that he gave to Tatsuya, which was why he keeps flipping the lighter all the time.
In one of the temples, you're given a dialogue choice after fighting Shadow Lisa: Who Tatsuya has romantic feelings for. The choices are Lisa, Maya, Jun, and Eikichi. Only one of those choices is a "joke" answer and it's Eikichi, as Eikichi has no romantic feelings for Tatsuya at all. Lisa has made it very clear she has a massive crush on Tatsuya and has been trying to allure him for the entire game. Maya has been rather quiet about it, but seems to harbor some feelings for Tatsuya. Jun has feelings for him as well though. The interesting thing about this though, is that Kazuma Kaneko and Satomi Tadashi actually consider Tatsuya and Jun's relationship canon! Persona 3/4/5 notoriously struggle with LGBT characters, meanwhile Persona 2 had a canon gay relationship and treated it completely normally! They don't make a big deal of it, when you pick that dialogue choice, Lisa says "Okay, well you like who you like…" She's not saying that in a manner of "Oh you like another man, that's weird", but in a manner of "Oh you don't like me, that's disappointing." Everyone else is supportive of Tatsuya and Jun's relationship. Hell even the DEMONS are supportive of it. One of the negotiation options you can use after this conversation is using Tatsuya and Jun to negotiate together, and their relationship is listed as "...Lovers?" Different demons comment that this was once considered taboo, but appreciate the fact that humans have moved past this being taboo. Granted, some of the demons also throw a comment in saying "If there were more humans like you, the human population would decrease.", but it does seem to me more like a "That demon wants the human race to be wiped out" type of thing. I'm still amazed that this was something this game that came out in 1999 got right, while games made in 2006, 2008, and 2016 STILL struggle with it!
I detailed it more above, but the game is incredibly progressive. Without spoiling it outside of spoiler tags, there's a canon gay relationship in the game that gets no side-eye from the rest of the cast, and nailed this years before later games in the series would struggle with it. If you need yet another indicator of how the series dramatically changed starting with Persona 3, this is yet another one. It's very likely that Katsura Hashino's toxic beliefs caused some of the homophobia and transphobia in later games, and I really hope that didn't permeate to the rest of his team, but we will find out in the inevitable Persona 6 since Hashino won't be involved.
Persona 2 IS is not PERFECT in terms of LGBT issues though, as there are a couple of minor NPCs that are transphobic, and there is an NPC that's actually trans-positive! Given the vibe I get from the rest of the game, I have a feeling that if it were made today, I bet the transphobic NPCs would not be there.
At one point in the game, you have to go after the shadow selves of each character. People that have played Persona 4 probably think this sounds familiar, because it's basically the same thing! Their shadow shares a lot of their inner feelings they want to deny, and they have to fight it, then accept it. I still liked the implementation of it, particularly with this cast of characters.
The end of the game sets up the start of Persona 2 Eternal Punishment. It's an interesting way to handle this being a duology, and I'm really curious why they wanted to go this route back during development. Despite Persona 2 IS's ending obviously setting up the next game, it does feel like a complete game at the end of the day. The final boss felt like a final boss.
Persona 2 Innocent Sin easily has my favorite set of characters and plot in the entire series, including the modern games. I'm really curious to see if Eternal Punishment one-ups it in this department, but it's incredibly strong here.
Characters
Tatsuya Suou
The protagonist character, but he's a lot less of a blank slate than the usual fare. He does not talk other than occasional one-liners, but he's a lot more expressive than many protagonists in the series. He has little quirks such as looking at his pocketwatch or flipping a zippo lighter he has. When I first saw him flipping the lighter, I wasn't sure what exactly it was. Obviously they didn't have smartphones back when this game came out, but I thought there was a possibility it was a flip or bar phone of that late 90s era. There's a reason he carries the pocketwatch and lighter though...even though he doesn't smoke.
Tatsuya's also kind of unusual for a Persona protagonist as he's already the motorcycle riding "bad boy", and usually the protagonists aren't that. Joker in Persona 5 isn't even that, despite the image of the Phantom Thieves. Lisa has a huge crush on him and he does not have the same feelings for her (unless you choose that option later).
Tatsuya's romantic relationship with Jun is actually considered canon by Kazuma Kaneko and Satomi Tadashi.
King Leo of the Masked Circle's true identity is Tatsuya Sudou, who isn't related, but his name is very similar. I'm curious if the game still keeps his name the same if you choose to name Tatsuya something different, but I doubt it. I think this is all the more reason to not rename Tatsuya at the start of the game.
King Leo of the Masked Circle's true identity is Tatsuya Sudou, who isn't related, but his name is very similar. I'm curious if the game still keeps his name the same if you choose to name Tatsuya something different, but I doubt it. I think this is all the more reason to not rename Tatsuya at the start of the game.
Lisa "Ginko" Silverman
Lisa is an American that moved to Japan when her father wanted to move to Japan, and wants her to be a "proper Japanese woman" despite her having no interest in that. In protest she teaches herself Cantonese, and often throws Cantonese words and phrases in her dialect. She has strong feelings for Tatsuya, despite those feelings being generally unrequited. She doesn't really get along with Eikichi and the two have quite a rivalry, often taking the opportunity to punch Eikichi just about every chance she gets.
She has a lot of aspects I feel inspired characters later in the series. She loves Kung Fu and learned self-defense, much like Chie from Persona 4. She's an American, like Ann from Persona 5.
Eikichi gives Lisa her nickname of "Ginko" fairly early on in the game, due to their rivalry. "Gin" refers to silver, and "ko" generally refers to women. Her last name is Silverman, so that's where the nickname comes from. It always seemed weird and kind of nonsensical to give Lisa this nickname, and I prefer to call her Lisa myself. In Persona 1, most of the characters had some kind of nickname and I wasn't sure why they did this. Part of me would think it was because of character limits on the combat screens, but many of the character names in Persona 1 are shorter than other characters. Masao is Mark's real name, but both of those are still shorter than Yukino, which is the name used on the combat screens.
Lisa also has aspects of characters later in the series that the later games seriously misstep. Early on in Persona 5, when Ann gets her Persona, she's clearly very uncomfortable by being in a skintight outfit, especially right after having her be under the hold of the abusive gym teacher, Kamoshida. In the next case, Yusuke tries to get her to model nude for him, something she's very clearly uncomfortable with. When Ann gets knocked down in battle, she's in this awkward pose of her butt sticking in the air. Every time they sexualize Ann, she's clearly not in control at all and very uncomfortable with it. Lisa on the other hand is pretty much the total opposite. She proclaims herself the "hottest girl in school", she has options to seduce demons or discuss love with them. The game never puts her in a position where she's sexualized on screen and NOT in control of it, and even where she is sexualized, it's not toward the player, but toward other characters like Tatsuya.
It's revealed that Lisa has often taken part in drug use and compensated dating with older men. The compensated dating thing, I learned is a Japanese thing involving younger girls (like high school age) and is really fucked up. It sounds similar to what we know as "sugar daddies", but it goes into pedophilia instead.
Eikichi "Michel" Mishima
Eikichi is part of a band called Gas Chamber (I'm sure that name was totally intended based on a certain group of villains that appears), and tries to recruit Tatsuya for it. He joins the group and you learn more about his past. His father runs a restaurant, and he does not like his father, asking to leave as soon as you enter the restaurant. His father wants him to be able to run the restaurant, and not be a punk band member type of person.
He's a bit of a show-off, and has a rivalry with Lisa. He's often known to charge headfirst into situations where that's ill-advised. Underneath though he doesn't have as much confidence, as he was bullied when he was younger, for things such as being overweight.
Eikichi "kidnaps" a girl named Kozy, when he did not know she was actually a girl he had a crush on when he was younger: Miyabi Hanakouji. He eventually learns the truth that Kozy is Miyabi, but he did not recognize her before as she had aged and gained weight. When Eikichi was younger, jealous boys pulled down his pants in front of Miyabi and told him she hated fat people. Miyabi felt guilty as a result and put on weight over time. When Eikichi and Miyabi meet up in the temple, Eikichi confesses that he loves her no matter what she looks like. I plan to talk about Miyabi later on, but this was a really cool moment to see given things that happen in later games.
I don't know why Eikichi has the nickname "Michel" and couldn't find a reason for it, I think it's just a name he chose for himself. Oddly enough, the fan translation of the PS1 version of the game has his nickname as "Michelle", and it's likely due to the phonetics that this happened. The name is pronounced "Me-shell" rather than like you would pronounce "Michelle". This kind of thing is a downside of not having full voice acting, but there's a couple of times he has voiced lines in battle where he says it. It's probably also a result of pronunciations in Japanese being very clear since characters are sounds rather than letters like English. That said, I'm curious how it differentiates "Maya" and "Maia" in the original.
Maya Amano
Maya is a journalist in her twenties with relentless optimism. She works with Yukino on the teen magazine, Coolest. She arrives to investigate the rumors in Sevens about the school emblems cursing the school, resulting in her getting her Persona. She joins the party along with Yukino.
Maya actually did know the others ten years prior, but forgot about them over time. When she was about to move away, Lisa, Eikichi, and Jun had the idea to lock her in Alaya shrine to prevent her from moving away. They were tricked into believing they killed her, thinking she died in the fire set by Tatsuya Sudou. Jun in particular looked up to Maya, referring to her as "Big sis".
Maya aspired to be a journalist since the death of her father. Her father went to cover a war zone and died there. She made a stuffed rabbit to give to him, but he told her to give it to him when he got home. She still kept it and used it to encourage the party throughout the game.
At the end of the game, Ms. Ideal shows up and stabs and kills Maya with the Spear of Destiny. This causes the party to ask Philemon to help them, and they find out they can envision a timeline where they did not meet, and forgot about each other.
Before the Mt. Iwato dungeon, Maya leaves the party briefly, and then rejoins before it. However something is not right, and I caught it as it was happening. Maya's eyes are mysteriously red, and if you have her negotiate with demons in battle, she says "I don't feel like it.", which is very uncharacteristic for her. She says really bizarre things for her personality like how "I'm sorry is an awful phrase, because it just shifts the focus on yourself." The real Maya shows up, and you find out shortly that she is actually shadow Maya and have to fight her. I thought it was really cool to have the shadow hiding among your party like that for a while.
Despite being put in danger when she was young, she does not harbor any ill will toward Lisa, Eikichi, and Jun. She's very kind-hearted and understands that the fire itself was not set by them.
Throughout the game, you hear about the Oracle of Maia. Maia is Maya's first Persona (if that ain't a mouthful), and it becomes revealed the Oracle of Maia must be sacrificed. When this was said, I totally called that they would attempt to kill Maya eventually, but didn't think it would actually happen like it does! It was quite a shock to see that, and her death was really tragic.
Maya aspired to be a journalist since the death of her father. Her father went to cover a war zone and died there. She made a stuffed rabbit to give to him, but he told her to give it to him when he got home. She still kept it and used it to encourage the party throughout the game.
At the end of the game, Ms. Ideal shows up and stabs and kills Maya with the Spear of Destiny. This causes the party to ask Philemon to help them, and they find out they can envision a timeline where they did not meet, and forgot about each other.
Before the Mt. Iwato dungeon, Maya leaves the party briefly, and then rejoins before it. However something is not right, and I caught it as it was happening. Maya's eyes are mysteriously red, and if you have her negotiate with demons in battle, she says "I don't feel like it.", which is very uncharacteristic for her. She says really bizarre things for her personality like how "I'm sorry is an awful phrase, because it just shifts the focus on yourself." The real Maya shows up, and you find out shortly that she is actually shadow Maya and have to fight her. I thought it was really cool to have the shadow hiding among your party like that for a while.
Despite being put in danger when she was young, she does not harbor any ill will toward Lisa, Eikichi, and Jun. She's very kind-hearted and understands that the fire itself was not set by them.
Throughout the game, you hear about the Oracle of Maia. Maia is Maya's first Persona (if that ain't a mouthful), and it becomes revealed the Oracle of Maia must be sacrificed. When this was said, I totally called that they would attempt to kill Maya eventually, but didn't think it would actually happen like it does! It was quite a shock to see that, and her death was really tragic.
Yukino "Yukki" Mayuzumi.
Yukino is the only playable character that appeared in Persona 1 as a playable character. She's a photographer for the magazine, Coolest, and works with Maya. She has a very strong relationship with Maya. Yukino was often the voice of reason in Persona 1, and is the same in this game. She has more experience with Personas and fighting demons, due to the events of Persona 1.
She has a mentor she looks up to and even has feelings for, Shunsuke Fuiji.
Fuiji is killed before she reaches Caracol, and she's grieving his death. At this point you're given an option to let her stay and grieve, or move on as he wants her to do. I chose to get her to move on, and as a result she gets her ultimate Persona, Durga.
I looked up what happens if you choose the other option. She eventually comes into Caracol, and you see Shadow Yukino and Anna, someone she had been trying to save most of the game. You see Yukino and Anna kiss, before jumping off of the bridge, killing Anna and taking Shadow Yukino's consciousness to the abyss, as well as the real Yukino.
After the fight against Angel Joker, Jun is freed from the Joker. However he's lost his ability to use a Persona. In Philemon's realm, Yukino offers to give up her Persona ability to allow him to be able to use it. Jun can do it as long as he can remember his name in that realm, and he can. Yukino states that it's time for her to move on, and goes with Anna after the First Battalion. Interestingly enough, at Hiiragi Therapy, Maki Sonomura was a therapist there. Before this event, you will see Maki there, but afterward, you're told she went off with some old friends after the First Battalion. This is presumably referring to Yukino and also Elly, who was formerly in the internet cafe.
I looked up what happens if you choose the other option. She eventually comes into Caracol, and you see Shadow Yukino and Anna, someone she had been trying to save most of the game. You see Yukino and Anna kiss, before jumping off of the bridge, killing Anna and taking Shadow Yukino's consciousness to the abyss, as well as the real Yukino.
After the fight against Angel Joker, Jun is freed from the Joker. However he's lost his ability to use a Persona. In Philemon's realm, Yukino offers to give up her Persona ability to allow him to be able to use it. Jun can do it as long as he can remember his name in that realm, and he can. Yukino states that it's time for her to move on, and goes with Anna after the First Battalion. Interestingly enough, at Hiiragi Therapy, Maki Sonomura was a therapist there. Before this event, you will see Maki there, but afterward, you're told she went off with some old friends after the First Battalion. This is presumably referring to Yukino and also Elly, who was formerly in the internet cafe.
Major spoiler character
Jun Kurosu
Jun is the true identity of the Joker. He became the Joker over time, partially due to his father, and led the Masked Circle. Eventually he is brought to his senses by everyone else, and joins the party.
He feels genuinely remorseful for the things he did while he was the Joker. He also has a special relationship with Tatsuya, and as I mentioned before, their relationship is considered canon.
Jun always loved flowers, and the meaning behind them. His weapon (which I'm still not clear on how it works) is even flowers that he throws. I presume they must be fake and have razorblade edges or something?
Jun is the true identity of the Joker. He became the Joker over time, partially due to his father, and led the Masked Circle. Eventually he is brought to his senses by everyone else, and joins the party.
He feels genuinely remorseful for the things he did while he was the Joker. He also has a special relationship with Tatsuya, and as I mentioned before, their relationship is considered canon.
Jun always loved flowers, and the meaning behind them. His weapon (which I'm still not clear on how it works) is even flowers that he throws. I presume they must be fake and have razorblade edges or something?
Other characters
This section I'm going to use to talk about some side characters I have some things to say about.
Miyabi "Kozy" Hanakouji
Miyabi is the girl Eikichi had a crush on, yet she had feelings for him too. Eikichi was bullied about his weight, and after a certain incident, she felt guilty and put on weight herself. Eikichi eventually learns who she is (after not knowing that she is "Kozy") and says that he loves her no matter what she looks like.
The most interesting comparison Miyabi has is to a certain side character in Persona 4: Hanako Ohtani. Hanako is a girl in that game that's overweight and she's literally nothing else in that game except a punching bag. Every time she's on screen, it's to humiliate her and go "haha you're fat and like food!" Early on Yosuke accidentally calls her, thinking he's calling a different girl, and she shows up and sits on his new scooter, which instantly breaks, because "haha she's fat!" It's gross fat shaming. Compare it to Miyabi, who's actually an interesting character relevant to the cast, is not ridiculed or shamed for her weight, and even then one of the main characters says he accepts her no matter what she looks like. They handled this totally opposite of how they handled Hanako. Again, it's more signs that there was significant change in a negative direction over the years since this game.
Her nickname was "Kozy" because she was known to fall asleep around various places in the school. I'm pretty sure the nickname is actually a reference to the Atlus employee, Kouji "Cozy" Okada. Her last name is Hanakouji, which can kind of sound like "Kozy".
Maki Sonomura
Maki was a playable character in Persona 1, and central to the plot in the SEBEC route. She becomes a therapist, and her description mentions something about atoning for things she did in the past.
Maki was actually the villain of Persona 1, as the Maki that travels with the party is the ideal Maki, while the real one was still in the hospital. Due to Kandori's experimentation on her, she was about to create an alternate reality that caused chaos upon the city. It's debatable whether Maki is actually the villain, but the developer actually do consider her a villain. However Maki is actually redeemable, unlike most villains that are comic book-level evil. She becomes a therapist in the Persona 2 duology to do just that.
Eriko "Elly" Kirishima
Elly was a playable character in Persona 1 as well. She has a huge interest in the occult, and after graduating high school, became a model. She can be found at the internet cafe, and helps the cast interpret the Oracle of Maia. I know she becomes playable in Persona 2 Eternal Punishment.
Adolf "Fuhrer" Hitler
Literally Hitler.
Basically there were rumors that Hitler didn't actually kill himself, and he was secretly living in Antarctica, and so this causes the First Battalion to invade. They have Nazi robots now apparently, and guys who's heads spin 360 degrees.
He wanted to take over the alien ship Xibalba to exercise his rule over Sumaru City as a Dictator. I also feel like calling the energy "Ideal Energy" might be a reference to Hitler's philosophy of only keeping white non-Jewish people alive as "ideal" people, but I could be wrong about that. I also think the fact that there's a book called In Lak'ech that outlines everything as prophecy and turns it into rumors, including Hitler, might be a reference to Mein Kampf. Some of this is hard to know without knowing the original Japanese version of the game, where Hitler was referred to as Hitler though, so it's guesswork on my part.
Hitler and the Last Battalion were censored in the PSP remake, as the CERO ratings board in Japan wouldn't permit real people (like Hitler). Hitler was changed to "Fuhrer", and given sunglasses, and the Last Battalion no longer had Swastikas, instead using the Iron Cross (another Nazi symbol). Granted, I'm not sure how they could get away with the Iron Cross separately by those rules. Also it was kind of weird hearing people refer to "Fuhrer" like someone they already knew who he was, even though they were obviously talking about Hitler.
Literally Hitler.
Basically there were rumors that Hitler didn't actually kill himself, and he was secretly living in Antarctica, and so this causes the First Battalion to invade. They have Nazi robots now apparently, and guys who's heads spin 360 degrees.
He wanted to take over the alien ship Xibalba to exercise his rule over Sumaru City as a Dictator. I also feel like calling the energy "Ideal Energy" might be a reference to Hitler's philosophy of only keeping white non-Jewish people alive as "ideal" people, but I could be wrong about that. I also think the fact that there's a book called In Lak'ech that outlines everything as prophecy and turns it into rumors, including Hitler, might be a reference to Mein Kampf. Some of this is hard to know without knowing the original Japanese version of the game, where Hitler was referred to as Hitler though, so it's guesswork on my part.
Hitler and the Last Battalion were censored in the PSP remake, as the CERO ratings board in Japan wouldn't permit real people (like Hitler). Hitler was changed to "Fuhrer", and given sunglasses, and the Last Battalion no longer had Swastikas, instead using the Iron Cross (another Nazi symbol). Granted, I'm not sure how they could get away with the Iron Cross separately by those rules. Also it was kind of weird hearing people refer to "Fuhrer" like someone they already knew who he was, even though they were obviously talking about Hitler.
Maya "Ms. Ideal" Okamura
Ms. Ideal was a teacher at Sevens. However she's more involved in things than she lets on. She's aware of the purpose of the stone behind the school, and warns Tatsuya to stay away from it.
She eventually loses her mind and wants the apocalypse to come sooner. She allows herself to get captured and taken into Xibalba, where she activates the Bolontiku to fight the party. At the very end of the game, she appears and kills Maya with the Spear of Destiny, to fulfill the Oracle of Maia.
Philemon
He's the creator of Personas, and really is Igor's master. He bestows the ability of Persona on people that are able to remember their names in his realm. He appeared in Persona 1 as well. He's more involved in this game though, as you go back to his realm a couple of times.
Something neat this game started, that actually stuck through Persona 3, 4, and 5, was having the place you learn about Personas (Velvet Room in later games) be actually located in something involving the end of the game. In this game, it was actually at the heart of Xibalba. In Persona 3, the Velvet Room is an elevator that is going to the top of Tartarus. In Persona 4, it's a limo going through the TV world, to what's inevitably the unfogged version of the TV world. In Persona 5, it's at the bottom of Mementos.
Philemon gives the party the option to focus, and create another timeline when none of them met each other. While it's painful to have to be forgotten, something Maya often states is worse than death, this is the only way to get Maya back.
I only learned about this this morning, but as Tatsuya is the last one to leave, Philemon asks if he has anything to say. Your choices are "Thank him" or "Hit him". If you choose "Thank him", he says there's no need to thank him. If you choose "Hit him", it knocks his mask off and his face is the same as Tatsuya's! He says "I am you, and you are me"
Philemon gives the party the option to focus, and create another timeline when none of them met each other. While it's painful to have to be forgotten, something Maya often states is worse than death, this is the only way to get Maya back.
I only learned about this this morning, but as Tatsuya is the last one to leave, Philemon asks if he has anything to say. Your choices are "Thank him" or "Hit him". If you choose "Thank him", he says there's no need to thank him. If you choose "Hit him", it knocks his mask off and his face is the same as Tatsuya's! He says "I am you, and you are me"
Gameplay
Persona 2 Innocent Sin's gameplay is a significant improvement on Persona 1. I do miss the first person dungeons, but this was what started up the staple third person dungeon crawling that the series would keep. The encounter rate is still high, almost as high as Persona 1's, but somehow doesn't feel quite as draining? The battles can take a long time, but they don't feel as long as Persona 1's. Somehow I went the entire game without a Persona with Estoma, which was annoying sometimes, but there were some other times I had an item or two to lower encounters.
Combat is pretty basic, but has some cool elements of its own. You issue orders to your party, and see the turn order of the left. However you can set your turn order, and as long as SOMEONE has the agility, you can have whoever you want go first.The enemy turns will still be dispersed between your party members though. You can also press the circle button any time during combat, and it will stop and go back to issuing commands after the current action. This is particularly useful in a few situations, and I know I took advantage of it on the final boss.
Let's say for example that Maya is asleep, and you have the turn order on Maya, Yukino, Lisa, Eikichi, Tatsuya. You have Yukino use an Energy Drink to help Maya recover, but Maya recovers on her own. You can press circle during Maya's action, and you can reissue commands for Yukino, Lisa, Eikichi, and Tatsuya. You can have Yukino do something else instead of wasting an item on Maya when she doesn't need it.
The other unique thing to the Persona 2 duology is Fusion Spells. Whenever you have characters cast the right spells in the right order, you'll do a fusion spell. Fusion Spells will happen automatically the first time you discover them. For instance, casting a water spell on one character, and then a water spell on the next one, gets you Heavy Rain, a water spell that deals damage based on all participating members' Dexterity. When you know how to use these, they can be particularly devastating on bosses, even if they aren't weak to them. You have to discover them on your own though. Once you discover one, it's available under fusion spells in battle. You can set it to automatically set the turn order for that fusion spell, or if you do the combination manually, you'll get the option to cast the fusion spell, or pass on it. It's a neat system that utilizes everyone's ability to change Personas. Sometimes it may be worth having a character switch to a particularly weak Persona, just so you can get a fusion spell on a boss, as it could be the difference between winning and not winning.
One thing that did annoy me about the combat though, was how any damage or healing is displayed. The game slowly shows the damage/healing numbers pop over each character/enemy one at a time. It's very slow. I'd rather they just show them all at once. Even when you press start to turn off a lot of animations and speed things up, it still can take quite a while. Without spoiling it, the final boss has multiple "pieces" to it, and this got annoying every time I would use AoE skills on it.
Probably my biggest beef with the gameplay is how you obtain new Personas. In Persona 1, you got them by negotiating demon spell cards out of demons. You would fuse those spell cards to make new Personas. In Persona 2, they have ditched fusion altogether. Now when you negotiate with a demon, you're trying to get Tarot cards, and they'll be of the demon's arcana. In the Velvet Room, each Persona in an arcana costs a number of Tarot cards. The grind for these Tarot cards can become really steep and annoying. Without a guide, it might take a few encounters with a demon to figure out what it wants to hear, so it can be some trial and error, and you have to do it multiple times just to get enough cards. You can also form pacts with up to three demons at a time, where you will get more cards and some free cards. Free cards can be given to the Demon Painter (who looks just like Kazuma Kaneko) in exchange for cards of a particular arcana. I think in the entire series, Persona 5 still has the best method of obtaining new Personas and fusion. Dropping fusion altogether was a mistake in my opinion.
Personas still have compatibility with certain arcanas, although one issue I had with this was when I was looking for Personas to spend my cards on, some arcanas, ALL of my party members were either "bad" or "terrible" compatibility...so what even is the point of that Arcana? It just seems not worth it at all when you're better off investing in a better one. Lower compatibility means that SP costs are higher for that Persona. If you have best compatibility, then that Persona can unlock an extra skill at max rank. Any character can change Personas.
When you lose Yukino and get Jun, you still get to keep Yukino's Personas, Vesta and Durga. Jun is the only one able to use both of them, but doesn't have best compatibility with them, only at good levels.
Personas still have the rank system from Persona 1, however characters just have their level, and there is no "Persona level" like there was in Persona 1. Rank goes up every time you use a Persona in battle. This means using regular attacks in battle does NOT gain ranks in that Persona, so in regular battles it's often pointless to use regular attacks, unless the enemy is immune to everything else. Because of this, this system could be an annoying grind sometimes.
Dungeons
I figure I would use this section to talk about a few dungeons in particular. Overall I liked how many of them were based on real places humans used, and some of them were wibbly wobbly town.
GOLD
I'm 90% sure this is a reference to the real life gym company, Gold's Gym. It was around in the 90s. It's basically a multi-floor fitness center. It ends up being the target of one of the Masked Circle's attacks, and it's one of the riddles you need to solve. The other place had "Silver" in the name, and if you go there instead, GOLD explodes instantly.
Concert Stage
There's not too much going on here as this dungeon as small, but you're given a limited time that only depletes when in the hallways, and you have to round up everyone in the building to evacuate them before it explodes. You also have to find the riddles the Masked Circle left about the locations of other bombs. As for why a terrorist organization leaves riddles for their bombs, who knows, it's just one of those video game logic things.
Mt. Iwato
This was a really cool experience, learning about the past of these characters through the dungeon. I can't say much about this outside spoiler tags though.
Military Bunker
When you're at Kasugayama High, and head for the bunker, you're shut in there. Rarely anyone has ever escaped the bunker before. You have to keep going and after realizing I was going in circles, I actually looked up a walkthrough to see if I was missing some clue. It turns out I wasn't, you're supposed to go in a circle three times until you're given a chance to figure out the solution and get out.
Mt. Katatsumuri
You have to travel up the mountain without the ski lift the first time, to make it to Caracol. However you're given a choice when you start it: Rush straight through, or take the longer way around and avoid enemies. The choice you make here makes the dungeon completely different. I chose to rush straight through, and this route has tougher demons and more miniboss encounters. However even going that route, this dungeon felt like it lasted FOREVER. Every floor I was like "Is this done yet?" mainly because there is no break or easy way to exit this dungeon without backtracking the whole thing. Part of it was that I had some of my characters poisoned, and no means to get rid of the poison. The strategy I used to get rid of it was to just let them get to 1HP outside of combat, and then try to get them killed in combat so I could revive them and they wouldn't have the poison anymore. Of course when I tried to do this, they leveled up and got all their HP and SP back, making this twice as hard.
Aerospace Museum
It was neat to have a different objective than "get through it". You had to rescue all the kids on the class field trip and then get to the roof. Tamaki and Tadashi help you by blocking off the next floor until you get all the kids on the current one. It was neat to see the rumors utilized to make the blimp on the roof a real blimp. During the FMV of it flying, I was like "Gee this sure reminds me of the Hindenburg." and then the music turns sour as it starts to explode like the Hindenburg. Fortunately all the kids are evacuated safely. Also it was kind of neat how they were worried about being seen as terrorists due to the rumor, but spread a counter-rumor among the kids that they weren't terrorists.
Zodiac Temples
I forget which one it is, but the temple that has all the spots of the blue goop that drains a lot of your SP, was annoying as all hell. I was still able to beat it, but man was it a pain. Chasing after the shadow selves was neat. Otherwise each temple was pretty straightforward, and I got through them all pretty easily.
Silver River
This dungeon happens near the end of the game, and you're cruising down a river in a boat. You have no control over it, you just run into battles along the way, sometimes they can be frequent. There's points where they ask you which way to go, however sometimes you have to go the right way to actually complete the dungeon. There's no way to figure it out other than either trial and error, or look up a walkthrough. It's kind of annoying that they just want you to trial and error it, but it's not too bad.
Conclusion
Persona 2 Innocent Sin is an excellent game. I know a lot of people say it's dated, and I really don't think it's much more dated than a lot of other RPGs of that era. I highly recommend it, ESPECIALLY if you really couldn't stomach Persona 1. This is my favorite cast and plot of the series, easily, and I know a lot of people hold a similar opinion to me on that.
