Persona

In 1988, I played a relatively unknown Master System RPG titled Phantasy Star, and it forever changed me as a fan of video games. Then, eight years later, another Japan-born role-playing romp would come along and leave an equally impactful mark on my life; the similarly obscure Atlus release Revelations: Persona.

Phantasy Star taught me that I loved JRPGs; Persona taught me what I wanted from them.

The harsh reality about games we used to love is that often that love can be questioned should we actually view them again with more mature eyes. For this reason, I was honestly hesitant to go back and revisit Persona via its PSP rebirth. The truth, I told myself, was that more likely than not, the game wouldn’t have stood the test of time as much as I might hope.



Boy, was I wrong. It probably took me all of about ten minutes to get back into the flow of Persona’s gameplay, and soon a feeling of shock came over me. Here I was, playing a thirteen-year-old RPG–a genre notorious for titles that end up feeling outdated a few years from launch–and I couldn’t believe how amazing and engrossing it still was.

The elements that cast their spell over my younger self–the group of every-day high schoolers dragged into something bigger than themselves, the dark and twisted storyline, the shocking (to me, at the time) level of demon interaction–it’s all still there, and every bit as enthralling as it was the first time around. Even more than that, however, was the realization that I was finally, after thirteen years, truly playing Persona. Yes, for this new PSP remake, Atlus has polished some things, added others and made for an overall better experience; and all of that is much appreciated. For us in the West, however, the biggest benefit we now receive is the chance to finally, after all this time, play the true and definitive version of the game. When it was released in 1996, the version of Persona we were given by Atlus USA was a Persona that had been heavily edited, and which had even seen its optional “Snow Queen Quest” storyline completely ripped out.

So, for me, this wasn’t just a question of playing some new release in order to write this review; it was the chance to finish what I had started so long ago. Even as it existed then, flawed and fragmented, the me from 1996 loved Persona from the minute he stepped foot into the halls of St. Hermelin High.

Now, at last, I could once and for all complete the journey that me had embarked on.



While I am waxing poetic about my adoration for Persona, however, let me be very clear on what it is–and what it isn’t. If you’ve come to be a fan of the series thanks to its PlayStation 2 chapters, then this original episode of the saga could very well feel like a punch to the face and a boot to the crotch. All the fun you’ve had getting chummy with the guys and gals surrounding your virtual self via the Social Link system is nowhere to be seen; and if you found Persona 3’s Tartarus to be a long, drawn-out dungeon-crawling experience, the 3D dungeons present here will derive devilish pleasure from kicking your ass and taking your name.

Simply put, you cannot go into Persona expecting the same kind of experience from the series that you can legitimately expect today. Persona looks, feels, and plays like an RPG from the days when RPGs were old-school, hard-core, and not afraid to make you work for everything that you earned. The game’s revival is a long-overdue event, and a wonderful way to go back and see the origins of the Persona franchise (or replay those origins for us longtime fans). Make no mistake, however; a love for where the series is now does not guarantee you’ll enjoy what it was then.

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