Shin Megami Tensei: Persona Review
The unexpected success of Atlus' Persona 3 and 4 introduced tons of new fans to the series that probably haven't experienced anything that came prior. Thus, Atlus is releasing a remake of the original Persona (released on the PlayStation back in 1996) on the PlayStation Portable, with some changes that bring the game closer to the experience found in Persona 3 and 4. But does this tarnish the original game, or deliver a refined experience that both long-time and new fans can enjoy?
The most notable change long-time fans will notice in the North American version is a completely retranslated script. The original PlayStation version westernized the Japanese setting of the game, giving the script an entirely different take. The characters were radically edited (some even changing nationalities in one severe case) and an entire sub-quest was removed from the game. The remake is much more faithful to the original Japanese script and adds back the removed sub-quest. For newer fans, all the same spells, items, and Persona names from Persona 3 and 4 are kept, making the transition much less jarring than if one was to play the original PlayStation version.
While a new translation is nice, a game needs a good story to back it if it's going to interest players. Thankfully Persona's story, while nothing truly groundbreaking, is entertaining enough to keep player's going. The story begins with a group of kids who are granted the power of "Persona", the ability to summon the powers within themselves in battle. They get caught up in an evil plot involving a madman trying to take over a parallel dimension to become a god, although as the player gets deeper into the game more truths begin to come to light. Most of the characters are also nicely developed, having their own flaws and strengths that are touched upon, although sadly a few characters are given more attention over the others, which was a bit of a disappointment.
Battles in Persona are very different than those found in other RPGs, or even Persona 3 and 4. Characters and enemies are placed on squares on a grid. Depending on where the characters are placed, they might not be able to attack certain areas of the grid, or use a magic spell on a specific enemy. This also applies to the enemies, which requires the player to constantly keep track of where everyone is placed on the grid to deal the greatest amount of damage while limiting the damage they take from enemies. While the game makes this easy to edit in and out of battle, in some battles this becomes somewhat of a bother because players have to spend too much time micromanaging instead of enjoying the battle.
