Persona / B001V7UX1W
Persona was the first game I ever played on the Playstation 1, and I had never seen anything quite like it - before or since. I had played, and loved, many "save the princess" medieval-flavored RPGs, but I had never seen an RPG like Persona - so dark and yet so steeped in the "real" world. The high school in Persona felt more real and immediate to me than any dozen or so fantasy worlds; little touches like the variant personalities of your friends (loner, snob, air-head) which superficially hid deeper, more human traits simply blew me away.
Really, there's nothing about Persona that I didn't love. The plot is masterfully dark and human, and I emphasized strongly with Mary, an ill girl who struggles with feelings of anger and hopelessness as the world passes her by. The soundtrack is absolutely gorgeous, and again takes a more modern, dark twist over the light-hearted tracks of this RPG's fantasy counterpart. Even little touches like the varied battle-shouts, actual guns (!) used in battle against the demons, and the hilarious contact system which allowed you to bully, bribe, and barter with your enemies blew me away.
When they announced the re-release of Persona on the PSP, I couldn't pre-order fast enough. Partly for the joy of taking my favorite game of all time on the plane with me, but *mostly* for the newly restored "Snow Queen Quest" which, as a child, I was always distraught that Atlas hadn't released with the original game. And, in many - perhaps, MOST - ways, this is a textbook example of exactly how to re-release a game... for the most part.
First, I was pleased to note that the story has not been altered or changed. The original translation has been replaced, which is usually a pet peeve of mine, but the new translation matches up pretty well to the story I'm familiar with. New hints are dropped at the beginning regarding the Snow Queen Quest, which I do appreciate as it makes the new quest more immersive and less of an "add-on". The world map has been upgraded to more closely resemble the world map in Persona 2, and as the world map in Persona 1 was the *only* thing I didn't like about the game, this change is for the best. Everything else is largely unchanged - the graphics are largely the same, and seem subtly 'brighter' and more vibrant. The game cut-scenes are absolutely gorgeous, although it does seem a bit surprising that captions aren't offered as a choice in this day and age - I guess deaf people don't play video games or they get to have a friend translate the spoken-words in the cut scenes.
Really, though, in most ways that matter, this is the game I knew and loved. The Snow Queen Quest is a welcome addition (although the difficultly level is nothing to sneer at, and you pretty much *have* to power level your way through the game, which can take some of the fun out of it). Annoyingly, you do have to perform a Guide Dang It series of conversations before the SQQ will open up - it's not something that anyone will stumble into, I'm afraid, much like the original Guide Dang It actions for getting Chris (which were largely *possible* to stumble into... as long as you spoke to everyone _once_, but didn't speak to certain people _twice_, and of course, you had to deliberately seek out party members in order to turn them down when they asked to join!).
And the mention of Chris segues me neatly into my translation complaints. I know I'm going to get dinged for this, but I preferred the American names of the characters to the Japanese names and I'm sorry to have those names lost. I can remember which character is 'Mark' and which character is 'Mary', but trying to assign gender in my brain between two equally unfamiliar names like 'Maki' and 'Masao' is difficult to perform on the fly. And expecting me to remember the differences between 'Yuki', 'Yuka', and 'Yuko' is just unreasonable, and I say this as someone who watches more anime than most, I would wager. Also, am I the only one who doesn't understand why game companies will translate, say, the description of spells, but not the actual NAME of said spells? It's all well and good to tell me that a spell is cure spell, but why change the name from "Cure" (the English name in the original) to "Dia"? Having to learn all these arbitrary changes makes battle slow and cumbersome ("Dia" - was that the spell that cures people or the spell that raises 'diamond' defense walls?) and for what purpose? Don't even get me *started* on the new Persona names. I was equally disappointed to see that the Americanization of the characters has been discarded - the African-American character has reverted back to Japanese, and all the blondes, brunettes, and redheads have black hair again, making it tricky to tell them apart in battle, given that everyone has an identical school uniform on.
I also have to register a complaint with the soundtrack changes - the original Persona 1 had the most intensely awesome soundtrack ever, but what's with this new stuff? Most of it is good and fine, but the battle music is bloody TERRIBLE and it never seems to change up. It sounds like a pop-song from the Britney Spears era and if you think that hearing "Hit Me Baby One More Time" or the Japanese equivalent Every. Single. Battle. won't get old after the first dozen battles, then bully on you, but I wasn't born with that kind of patience. Especially considering that the Persona games are kind of notorious for frequent battles.
Having now whined myself inside-out, this is still an awesome game. If you're new to the series, buy it and check it out - you won't be disappointed. If you're a long-time fan, buy it for the Snow Queen Quest...just remember to grind yourself silly before you enter the school. Oh, and I'll post the trigger events in the comments section here.
~ Ana MardollGet more detail about
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona.
