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What are the general opinions on Persona 1 & 2?
- Thread starter TheEchosOfTheCyborg
- Start date
1: Kind of aged poorly but still worth playing if you like JRPGs and can get the PSP version.
2: Bomb ass games. IS is a little too easy but worth playing for everything else. EP is amazing all around.
2: Bomb ass games. IS is a little too easy but worth playing for everything else. EP is amazing all around.
Well said.
I don't think they're very good. Combat is boring, dungeon exploration is boring, and demon negotiation is completely tedious.
Not sure if my experience is representative, but it boils down to this for me: Persona 1 on PSP lets you speed up battles quite a bit, and after a while demon negotiation ceases to be a requirement because you're so overpowered that you can destroy entire dungeons with a single spell almost until the end of the game.
Innocent Sin PSP doesn't really have any speed-up options, so every battle you have to go through all the animations. Demon negotiation takes way longer in Innocent Sin versus P1P, and arguably you have to do it for longer in that game than P1. Other mechanics added to the battle system are kind of neat but also prolong battles, like fusion attacks. And in general I think Innocent Sin is just a longer game. All of those things make it more of a slog to get through, even though the story and characters are a lot better.
It's possible that without the experience of P1P, I would've been in a more charitable mindset.
Something else that sucks: there's no official or fan translation for Eternal Punishment PSP, and I'm very reluctant to start the original PS1 version because of the translation differences and the worry that it'll be even more tedious than Innocent Sin.
Agree to disagree then. I played both games for the first time this year and I'll absolutely play IS again way before I ever touch P3.
Again, agree to disagree. I thought Tartarus was a boring slog that dragged P3 down completely and it's the main reason why I won't replay it anytime soon. I do agree that IS's gameplay at times can be slow and monotonous but I just straight up don't agree with the thinking that P3 also doesn't have slow and monotonous gameplay at times.
Encounter rate is lower, animations are fast because it's not a ps1 port and the translation is fine afaik, if you played through all of 2, EP is a breeze... also the auto battle options are better. Don't bother with map sidequests and you'll be fine
If IS had a lower encounter rate and animation skipping the game would be neat, i liked the negotiations because i could skip battles i'd definitely die in because of low hp/sp so the novelty kept me playing since i hadnt played 1
Oh, I'm sure the translation is fine as a standalone thing, I mean more that a whole bunch of names have apparently changed and I don't really want to have to figure out what names in EP map to which people/places in IS. Interesting that the PS1 version might actually be less clunky that P2P:IS, though, not sure I believe it but it's the first time anyone's even mentioned the possibility so I'm intrigued.
In my humble opinion...
Persona 1
Persona 1
- First-Person view dungeon crawling. Don't like it.
- Turn-based battle system. These days, too long and slow; the PSP version faster speed doesn't that fast either.
- Talking to demons/enemies are amusing at first, but tedious later.
- Random encounter. HIGH random encounter rate.
- LONG & FREQUENT LOADING TIMES (PS1 version).
- Americanized PS1 version or faihfull localization PSP version with some/different music tracks.
- Music is decent. I wish PSP have options to choose original OST as well...
- Story is between average to above-average.
- Negotiating to demons/enemies also improved with character combinations. But still tedious later...
- OK OST I guess.
- Rumor system is OK.
- Able to convert data from IS to EP (still Japanese exclusive though...).
- Improved art-style, art-direction, and graphics.
- More improved battle system; fusion spells, faster animations.
- THIRD PERSON VIEW IN DUNGEONS.
- Improved loading times.
- SAVE ALMOST ANYWHERE.
- Best Persona storyline from the beginning of Innocent Sin to the climax of Eternal Punishment.
- Persona 1 cameos.
- More playable adult characters in Eternal Punishment, and they're awesome.
Thanks for the input! That's really odd that they'd put speed options in the P1 port but not the IS port.
I can't remember if it's literally no speed-up options, or if the options they had in the game were just insufficient. Either way, yeah, it kinda sucked.
The brutal part is that apparently Eternal Punishment PSP fixes this by giving you several animation speed-up options, including a hyper-fast option that cuts the animations altogether. But then, of course, we never got that version in the west, so...
Persona on PSX has a terrible translation that dulls the plot and makes the battle system more confusing but I've heard good things about the remake. It does have a great soundtrack though, which was changed in the PSP versions.
I just beat it thursday and wrote my thoughts on it. If this goes against self-promo rules I'll delete it, but I legitimately don't make money from this.
I just beat it thursday and wrote my thoughts on it. If this goes against self-promo rules I'll delete it, but I legitimately don't make money from this.
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They're okay, but tedious in a lot fo ways. Definitely show their age when played from a modern perspective. I won't replay them, but I'll look at the concept art and occasionally watch the psp opening movies
I'd be down for P6 and future games to take a page from 1 and 2's darker, weirder tone and merge that with the style they've figured out for 3-5. Some older party members like in P2:EP would be good too. Just to mix things up.
I'd be down for P6 and future games to take a page from 1 and 2's darker, weirder tone and merge that with the style they've figured out for 3-5. Some older party members like in P2:EP would be good too. Just to mix things up.
No random encounters alone makes P3-5 better IMO.
I'l glad take Tartarus over being forced to deal with P2's tedious combat and Demon Negotiation.
I played and beat Persona 1.
90% of my time was spent was"damage everything magic and then heal" and unlike P3-5 the flow of combat was not enjoyable to me.
I think I rearranged my party formation once and then never had to do it again.
Namewise, IS and EP use the american localization so it's not that bad iirc, unless psp persona 1 changed them back to japanese...at least i managed to keep up with the story
Im not sure if the clunkyness is an IS thing or a Psp one, but im pretty sure the encounter rate in both EPs is lower than in IS and the auto battle menu order is swapped so you can do things faster.
The "flow of combat" in P3-5 is the most safe junk food JRPG combat you could possibly get. Exploit weakness for big damage while your friends sit around patting you on the back. It's Press Turn with none of the nuance.
I'll take P1 any day.
I'll take the one I think is actually fun thanks. Considering how long the P1 combat system lasted I'm gonna take a bet that I'm not in the minority here.
Innocent Sin PSP updated the translation to match the re-translation for P1P, which removed all the changes made to set the game in America instead of Japan. Eternal Punishment PS1 uses the original Americanized translation. There's a chart explaining the various name differences from when the PS1 version got re-released: https://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/02/25/persona-2-eternal-punishment-hits-psn-tomorrow/
The issue is less going from IS to EP in general, and more specifically going from the PSP version of IS to the original version of EP.
Just because P1 tried something a little deeper than constant immediate catharsis doesn't make it bad. It was experimental.
It's the reception to P1's combat that makes JRPGs all about ridiculous spectacle nowadays.
Were you ever challenged at any point in P5? Ever at all? I don't mean "this boss has a lot of HP" I mean any point where you actually had to think up a strategy to deal with your opponent.
Oh good to know
Yeah it might be a bitch to keep up with the names, i forgot Yukino is in IS(which is obviously a japanese name lol)
More challenge then I ever had in Persona 1 that's for sure. At least in most P5 encounters I need to take time to find the best spell/skill to use.
I wasn't kidding when I said 90% of my playtime of P1 was spamming Magryva. I don't think I had anything resembling a challenge until the last dungeon whereas there were several fights I almost lost in P5.
I've tried innocent sin(psp version) multiple times at this point and I just cant stick with it. Characters and story seem pretty interesting but everything related to the gameplay is just not good at all imo.
Summoning new personas with the stupid tarot system is so unintuitive and overly complicated.
Battles are slow and boring and, at least from the few hours I played, braindead easy. Literally just spam fusion spells any chance you get and watch things just get obliterated.
Encounter rate is also such, such garbage. Every five steps leads you into another slow, ridiculously easy encounter. I think I usually drop the game once you get thrown into sole kind of poison cave as this is where my biggest issues with the game are just put in front of the spotlight so much.
I really want to like this game, but I fear the only way I'll get through it will be playing with cheats to get rid of encounters/be max level or whatever or just waiting for a hopeful remake in the future.
Summoning new personas with the stupid tarot system is so unintuitive and overly complicated.
Battles are slow and boring and, at least from the few hours I played, braindead easy. Literally just spam fusion spells any chance you get and watch things just get obliterated.
Encounter rate is also such, such garbage. Every five steps leads you into another slow, ridiculously easy encounter. I think I usually drop the game once you get thrown into sole kind of poison cave as this is where my biggest issues with the game are just put in front of the spotlight so much.
I really want to like this game, but I fear the only way I'll get through it will be playing with cheats to get rid of encounters/be max level or whatever or just waiting for a hopeful remake in the future.
"Finding the the best spell to use" isn't strategy. It's picking an option out of a list.
Still more strategy then I ever used in Persona 1 so I guess it still wins.
Don't know what to tell you fam, but my P1 playthrough was nothing of the sort, and I constantly switched up my loadouts to deal with new situations.
Congrats on lucking your way into the one surefire solution to P1, but let's not kid ourselves that P5 is anything but babby easy.
Persona 1 is not hard. Like at all. It's easily the easiest Persona game I've played. Frankly it's the easiest MegaTen related game I've played.
As a huge p2 mark it absolutely is and also factors into why specific things are the way they are in 3-5 onwards. There's alot of plot in there too and you get some crazy shit and learn how badly the team fucks up in 2is. You learn alot about Uncle Phil and why he's bairly in 3-5 and why all the villians of 4-5 are jobbers compared to 1-3. It's like really important reading material to enjoy the franchise alot more. But 3-5 were written in such a way to be standalone and the extra stuff from the last few games just adds to it more than anything. As far as one goes it's not that great of a game and matters alot less than the p2 dualogy.
There is literally no challenge in P5. You just like it because it's designed to be cathartic. That's how games like that get you.
Both I really enjoyed.
Though I enjoyed persona 1 more so.
I clocked 100 hours on P1 while on P2 I clocked 60 hours.
P2 is great but its divided between two games - to be honest I enjoyed the battle system in the first game more and also the monster variety.
The story was unique for P1 and P2's story was great too, the concept of what rumors do and what occurs is great.
I wish they would remake both under the same style as P3 and P4 - keep the music, story, characters ,etc as is.
Though I enjoyed persona 1 more so.
I clocked 100 hours on P1 while on P2 I clocked 60 hours.
P2 is great but its divided between two games - to be honest I enjoyed the battle system in the first game more and also the monster variety.
The story was unique for P1 and P2's story was great too, the concept of what rumors do and what occurs is great.
I wish they would remake both under the same style as P3 and P4 - keep the music, story, characters ,etc as is.
Or maybe I like it because I like and there's no grand conspiracy? Persona 5 is not the hardest game I've ever played but I also played it on normal.
I frankly don't care if you think it's easy but don't start spouting crap about how the game "gets me."
Their worlds and atmosphere are unparalleled even within the MegaTen franchise as a whole and I love all of the characters. P1's original PS1 soundtrack is one of the best too, essentially being Silent Hill meets Eurodance.
P2 has a lot of interesting parallels to P5 as well. It is so worth checking out the way the P2 duo handles similar themes and characters.
P2 has a lot of interesting parallels to P5 as well. It is so worth checking out the way the P2 duo handles similar themes and characters.
Definitely not light years considering the—albeit avoidable—transphobic joke NPCs, but still a huge step above thanks to Jun.
I think you typo'd P2, easy mistake to make, it's only a number difference.
P2:IS just actually legitimately sucks as a game, sadly. It only has a cult classic status due to its story and characters.
P5 apart from being about a bunch of high school cliches battling the Shitty Adults, is also about as mindlessly easy as RPGs get.
P5 on hard is about the same as the PS2 era megaten games, it only breaks down in the last few dungeons. As JRPGs go it's nowhere near close to the easiest in the genre.
I haven't played Persona 1 yet, but I played Persona 2 Innocent Sin PSP and Eternal Punishment PSX.
I would highly recommend Persona 2 duology if you love the occult, cosmic horror, mythology, heavy psychological narratives, conspiracies and sci-fi madness. The story can be cryptic at some times, so I do recommend talking to characters to get the gist.
As for game-play, you'd need to have a strong mental fortitude and patience to tank those bloody encounter rates and pitfalls. Besides those implications, I don't think much is of a concern.
I must be the only one who likes the combat system.
I would highly recommend Persona 2 duology if you love the occult, cosmic horror, mythology, heavy psychological narratives, conspiracies and sci-fi madness. The story can be cryptic at some times, so I do recommend talking to characters to get the gist.
As for game-play, you'd need to have a strong mental fortitude and patience to tank those bloody encounter rates and pitfalls. Besides those implications, I don't think much is of a concern.
I must be the only one who likes the combat system.
- The fusion spells are fun to play with, you can get experimental with them
- Contact system, humorous and charming. You either love it or hate it.
- A lot of strategy. IS is easier so I recommend being slightly under-levelled to experience a good challenge. EP is like playing chess, but with magical ghosties and demons. The bosses can be unpredictable, so you have to be on your toes, which is a good thing, because it gets you rolling.
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Echoing the same P1=meh, P2=amazing story/characters, tedious everything else sentiments.
P2's battle system is a slog but the folks here saying that P1's grid-based nonsense was good, actually, is one of the top 10 most insane things I've read on these forums.
P2's battle system is a slog but the folks here saying that P1's grid-based nonsense was good, actually, is one of the top 10 most insane things I've read on these forums.
SEBEC isnt. Snow Queen is. Hell, Snow Queen is hard enough to even initiate, let alone play through
Considering P1 a single thing is wrong when both routes are so distinct
I don't think the combat in P1 is good. It was just not bad enough to the point of annoying me, and it had plenty of tools to make it a non nuisance specially on the psp version. The right persona with max affinity and area wide nukes and you'd never have to care about formation or inputs again save for the rare monster that reflects/absorb your attack
People should learn more about abuse Estoma, Fusion spells and befriend demons to finish battle without have to fight a lot (and get free cards) in their lives.
And I consider Ulala Serizawa one of the best characters in any media.
And I consider Ulala Serizawa one of the best characters in any media.
Sorry by the time I beat SEBEC I was to bored to bother with Snow Queen when I saw they want you to do this shit on a time limit.
It's either persona 1 or 2 where I spent an hour going through a dungeon. Got to the end. Then the game told me to do it all over again by warning me to the beginning.
That's when I stopped playing.
Though I wish Persona would go back to these darker themes and settings.
That's when I stopped playing.
Though I wish Persona would go back to these darker themes and settings.