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LTTP: Persona 2 Innocent Sin

I

Immaculate

Banned
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OK first off if it wasnt obvious already, I'm a big P4/P3 fan. I love my
waifus
and social links and the battle system was a simple but rewarding experience. Those two games are easily among some of my favorite games off all time, but after beating them I wanted more. Ive heard countless times persona 1 is EXTREMELY dated and clunky so my next best bet was Persona 2 Innocent Sin, and I gotta say so far this game is definitely... something.

Now before I go on i wanna kinda a give a brief recap of the story to make sure I correctly understand things(mind you I'm not very far in so I don't feel this is really spoiler-y)

The MC is basically the big cool tough guy who's known to be trouble for teachers and rival schools but not only that is idolized and love throughout Seven Sisters. Rumor has it that Cuss High put a curse on Seven Sisters and no ones sure how to solve it. While meeting with your guidance counselor you get a letter that Cuss High(the gang leader Eikichi "Undie Boss" really) took one of your students hostage and you go get her back by fighting and using personas etc etc you become unconscious and find out rumors are coming true and that our worlds coming to an end etc etc. You gain back consciousness and see if what you was told about rumors coming true by playing the joker game and basically the joker wants revenge on you but you have no idea why. He let's you go and you spread a rumor(since they are coming true) to get weapons for protection and head back to school to see the old clock tower is moving when it shouldn't so that means the world is really coming to a end(I think? Not exactly sure) now I'm looking for Mr.Hanya since they all think he set the curse.

So yeah the story is off to nice start, no filler compared to P3 and P4 but everything else about the game is kinda bad. The battle system is just really dated and random encounters are the worst thing ever conceived for RPGs. I'm having fun talking to demons at least and using them to my advantage but it seems like something that could get pretty old quick. Now I know this is originally a PS1 game, but I was expecting a remake to fix some of the more dated mechanics. I'm still giving the game a shot but I'm not liking what I'm seeing from the gameplay so far. I haven't delved more into persona fusion or rumor spreading yet
either.

So yeah very mixed feelings right now.

Oh and one more thing, why the fuvk are some people bandaging their whole face? something to do with the curse?
 
lol I'm currently playing through P3 FES after finishing Golden. I remember trying out the original Persona but I found it a little too old school for my liking.
 
The Persona 2 Defense Brigade is coming, don't you worry.

What don't you like about the battle system? Some of the old stuff can be smoothed over--for example, the battles tend to feel slow until you figure out the auto-battle system and turn off unnecessary animations (pretty sure you can't remove all animations entirely but you can at least speed up battles some). The PSP port of Eternal Punishment includes even more options to make battles go by quicker, but that never made it over to North America/Europe because reasons. (Probably incredibly sad and/or frustrating reasons but no one has ever said definitively why not.)

The number of damage types and the way demon negotiation works (i.e. sloooooooooooooowly) can be a bit of a pain, I'll give you that, but it's not too hard to have at least a few people in the group who can tackle any given demon. Worst-case scenario, figure out the demon negotiation tactic for a demon quickly and you won't have to worry about not having the spell they're weak to or whatever.

If I remember correctly, the bandaged people are another rumour someone started, which of course is now coming true because of how the world works. Sounds like you're still pretty early in the game, though. Wait until you see what happens later.
 
Haven't played P2 much yet but I liked what I messed with. Just need to know that its not the type of persona that got most of us hooked.All I know is P2 isn't the travesty that P1 is. That game caused me both physical and mental pain.
 
BizzyBum said:
lol I'm currently playing through P3 FES after finishing Golden. I remember trying out the original Persona but I found it a little too old school for my liking.
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Interestingly enough, other old "blobber"-style SMTs like the original SFC games or Soul Hackers for example have held up much better. I think it mostly boils down to Persona 1 simply being a not-so-great game.
 
i could have loved p2 innocent sin, but they decided to make it the easiest video game to ever exist.

when everything does 1 damage to you, the entire gameplay systems come to a crashing halt and become utterly pointless. it is really disappointing because i love the persona series, but IS just feels like a waste of time to play just to get to the story...
 
Nice timing with this thread, I just picked IS back up again. I apparently left off right at
the entrance to Xibalba,
and I'm finishing it up right now.

2: IS is without a doubt my favorite game in the Persona series, followed closely by 3. The soundtrack is huge and varied, demon negotiations were improved upon SIGNIFICANTLY from 1. I especially love group negotiations. I think the overworld is probably the best, by far. Persona 5 could really benefit from having access to multiple districts as you play. 3, and especially 4, felt cramped.
 
chrominance said:
The Persona 2 Defense Brigade is coming, don't you worry.

What don't you like about the battle system? Some of the old stuff can be smoothed over--for example, the battles tend to feel slow until you figure out the auto-battle system and turn off unnecessary animations (pretty sure you can't remove all animations entirely but you can at least speed up battles some). The PSP port of Eternal Punishment includes even more options to make battles go by quicker, but that never made it over to North America/Europe because reasons. (Probably incredibly sad and/or frustrating reasons but no one has ever said definitively why not.)

The number of damage types and the way demon negotiation works (i.e. sloooooooooooooowly) can be a bit of a pain, I'll give you that, but it's not too hard to have at least a few people in the group who can tackle any given demon. Worst-case scenario, figure out the demon negotiation tactic for a demon quickly and you won't have to worry about not having the spell they're weak to or whatever.

If I remember correctly, the bandaged people are another rumour someone started, which of course is now coming true because of how the world works. Sounds like you're still pretty early in the game, though. Wait until you see what happens later.
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It just feels really old. Needs a new coat of paint

EDIT: and making persona is really difficult for me to understand, but I'm only at zodiac club so I'm not sure if I should worry about that yet. Can someone explain it in the most simplest way possible?
 
chrominance said:
The Persona 2 Defense Brigade is coming, don't you worry.

What don't you like about the battle system? Some of the old stuff can be smoothed over--for example, the battles tend to feel slow until you figure out the auto-battle system and turn off unnecessary animations (pretty sure you can't remove all animations entirely but you can at least speed up battles some). The PSP port of Eternal Punishment includes even more options to make battles go by quicker, but that never made it over to North America/Europe because reasons. (Probably incredibly sad and/or frustrating reasons but no one has ever said definitively why not.)

The number of damage types and the way demon negotiation works (i.e. sloooooooooooooowly) can be a bit of a pain, I'll give you that, but it's not too hard to have at least a few people in the group who can tackle any given demon. Worst-case scenario, figure out the demon negotiation tactic for a demon quickly and you won't have to worry about not having the spell they're weak to or whatever.

If I remember correctly, the bandaged people are another rumour someone started, which of course is now coming true because of how the world works. Sounds like you're still pretty early in the game, though. Wait until you see what happens later.
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REPORTING FOR DUTY SIR.

and I gotta say so far this game is definitely... something.
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Oh you ain't seen NUFFIN' yet. This game is some of the best Megaten Crazy distilled and shot right into the veins in ever-increasing dosages. That, plus the music, the characters, and the dialogue are worth the sky-high sludge of actual gameplay.

EDIT: and making persona is really difficult for me to understand, but I'm only at zodiac club so I'm not sure if I should worry about that yet. Can someone explain it in the most simplest way possible?
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Basically you schmooze demons for cards. Get enough (each demon has an arcana that you get that card and I think only Fool from, it's been a while) from. Take those to our old friend The Demon Painter and he'll do you up a new persona. The number of cards corresponds to the size of the persona. Early on its like 8 or 9, but towards the end its passing 200 per. It's one of the reasons I milked demons I knew the answers to for lots of cards so I wasn't stuck, plus you don't really NEED to work your persona replacement like alot of Megaten really. Spell combos and a really, really generous tuning on that version ensure that.
 
Very quickly we learn who has played Persona 1 in any form and who has not! Fusion in P1 was insane compared to P2:IS. (also get off my lawn shakes cane etc. etc. etc. but seriously you guys I didn't even touch Persona until 2009, if I can finish P1 so can you!)

Re: remake. I think the battle system could use some streamlining (do we really need, like, eight elemental damage types and three physical damage types?) and a much better UI, but by and large I thought the battle system itself was okay. You'd have to totally retune the game, I think, if you took out the random encounters or lowered their rate, which is probably the biggest problem with how P2 works. Neither Sega nor Atlus seem particularly inclined to do this, though; I'm guessing P1 and P2 are deadweight to the franchise now, unfortunately.
 
Big Jeffrey said:
the random encounters are the fing worst in this game
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They're a LOT better in the PSP version. If you think the PSP version is bad, you haven't gone through the PSX IS final dungeon. That was hell.

The battle system is fine. It's "aged" sure, and some people may not like it but once you understand the auto-battle system it's basically a faster way of playing JRPGs than the standard "manually enter everyone's commands again" systems.

Anyway OP, you're about the first 5 or so hours into the game story-wise. You haven't even gotten into the meat and potatoes of the story just yet and you're barely remembering it. :/
 
Game feels a bit clunky and it definitely shows its age. Not only that, but I think Persona 3 really benefitted from voice acting and that's part of why the series skyrocketed in popularity at that point (among other reasons, too).

With that said, the full story in Persona 2 feels significantly more epic, and if you've played other Persona games (like 3 and 4) it gives far more insight into the nature of the Persona universe than 3 and 4, which is why I really like both P2 games. I'd love it if P5 returns to a story that touches on the overall Persona plots instead of just being like "oh no! This evil thing in this one town is really evil!" Persona 4 was especially guilty of that.

And the music can be pretty sweet, too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-BA27yWX1o
 
Play it if only as a set up for eternal punishment.

Encounter rate,imo, was better in EP.

For Eternal Punishment the Characters, plot, and difficulty were much better.

EP was actually more challenging than IS as well, and demons are doing 1 damage (lololol)

Make sure you play Eternal punishment OP, DAMN good Jrpg, great Persona and this is from someone who played it after 3, AND 4
 
P2IS spoilers inbound. I'll put 'em in tags just to be on the safe side.


Immaculate said:
Oh and one more thing, why the fuvk are some people bandaging their whole face? something to do with the curse?
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Yes. Specifically, a
rumour was spread that wearing Seven High's emblem will cause your face to fall off (the curse). Hence, random students having to bandage their faces to keep it from peeling away (the emblem is on the school uniforms)
.


robotzombie said:
i could have loved p2 innocent sin, but they decided to make it the easiest video game to ever exist.

when everything does 1 damage to you, the entire gameplay systems come to a crashing halt and become utterly pointless. it is really disappointing because i love the persona series, but IS just feels like a waste of time to play just to get to the story...
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Should have played on Hard, bro. Normal mode isn't anything like the PS1 version, which by default was balls-hard.


Immaculate said:
It just feels really old. Needs a new coat of paint

EDIT: and making persona is really difficult for me to understand, but I'm only at zodiac club so I'm not sure if I should worry about that yet. Can someone explain it in the most simplest way possible?
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Faily simple, as it doesn't involve fusion like other Persona games. Basically, negotiate with demons and get their Interest up (yellow). Do it three times and they'll fork over Tarot cards of their Arcana (low-level demons give less cards than higher-level ones). You use these cards in the Velvet Room to "purchase" new Personas from Igor. Obviously Magician cards can only be used to summon Magician Persona, etc. Easy-peasy.


SatelliteOfLove said:
Get enough (each demon has an arcana that you get that card and I think only Fool from, it's been a while) from.
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Actually Fool cards are incredibly rare and difficult to obtain. I think you're talking about Free Tarot, which are blank cards you take to the Demon Painter to turn them into any other Arcana Tarot. To get Free Tarots from demons you have to get their Joy (Green) up through Contact. After the third time they'll ask if you want to make a contract. Agree and the next time they show up in battle, get their Joy up again and they'll offer to give you things like Money, Items or Free Tarots. Choose Free Tarot and they'll give you a fixed amount of cards. This is good if you're looking for cards of a particular Arcana but they aren't showing up in the dungeons.


I'm sure you're aware by now OP but you can combine Persona attacks by attacking with certain spells in a certain set order. There are a lot to discover and it's a good idea to use them constantly as Fusion/Combination attacks are the only way to invoke Persona mutations which give a variety of benefits. Also know that there are missable, exclusive Personas for each character that can be earned if you make the right decisions during certain story segments. Basically,
if you're given a choice to aid your friend(s) or let them handle the situation themselves... choose the latter.
Believe in your friends.
 
Haven't finished P2 yet, but from what I played it has a way better story/characters than P4 does. The only negative I have is that the gameplay feels OLDDDDD and its really, really slow.

If it had the fast paced fluidity of p3 and 4, it might be my favorite in the series.
 
I turned on IS the other day and could not remember what I'm supposed to be doing. I think the last dungeon was a club... but then I don't remember finishing that dungeon. Fun game but the battle system is so goddamn slow.
 
Thanks for explanations guys, I'm coming to understand stuff better now!
TheSeks said:
They're a LOT better in the PSP version. If you think the PSP version is bad, you haven't gone through the PSX IS final dungeon. That was hell.

The battle system is fine. It's "aged" sure, and some people may not like it but once you understand the auto-battle system it's basically a faster way of playing JRPGs than the standard "manually enter everyone's commands again" systems.

Anyway OP, you're about the first 5 or so hours into the game story-wise. You haven't even gotten into the meat and potatoes of the story just yet and you're barely remembering it. :/
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In my defense the game does throw a lot of stuff at you :P I'm at the
bomb shelter basement maze dungeon
and understand a lot of stuff now. I get the gist and then some
 
Something something salty rage about EPPSP not getting translated.

robotzombie said:
i could have loved p2 innocent sin, but they decided to make it the easiest video game to ever exist.

when everything does 1 damage to you, the entire gameplay systems come to a crashing halt and become utterly pointless. it is really disappointing because i love the persona series, but IS just feels like a waste of time to play just to get to the story...
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The PSP version was seriously nerfed. In the original, the final boss in particular would eat your lunch and come back for seconds, but the remake...lol

Also, the remixes fit the game a lot better than the ones from P1.
 
Psxphile said:
How so? Seems pretty faithful to the original, save for a few extra bells and whistles and the Climax Theatre thing that didn't quite pan out for us westerners.
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The difficulty is completely screwed up. The encounter rate has been significantly increased. The menus were altered. There are loads of little technical issues everywhere.

It is unfortunate that many people first experienced the game through the PSP version. As Buddha said, it is not a good port at all. Mind you, the original isn't some amazing shining gem, but at least it has its merits. And the enemies aren't doing single digit damage the entire game.

Just take it with you. said:
The PSP version was seriously nerfed. In the original, the final boss in particular would eat your lunch and come back for seconds, but the remake...lol

Also, the remixes fit the game a lot better than the ones from P1.
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Yeah, if you really want to see how badly they screwed it up, watch some videos of the PS1 version on YouTube. Enemies in the first dungeon that did 8-9 points of damage are now doing... 1.
 
cj_iwakura said:
Not really. Vanilla IS is a damn easy game. Only the final boss was significantly rebalanced to match it.

EP is a much tougher game, and the port keeps that intact.
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No, the entire game has been rebalanced. It's not merely just the final boss. Enemies have had their damage cut in half or more in the PSP port. It's incredibly awful.
 
Follow this spoiler-free guide to a T.

It's phenomenal. It facilitates contacting, and helps you avoid missing missable Personas/items.

-> Don't get too hung on the game's difficulty. P2:IS is piss easy (even moreso than the PSX version) and you can get through the game with your starting Persona + their evolutions. The guide I linked alerts you to some potentially devastating Personas combos, so be sure to check em out.
-> Pace yourself. The game gets pretty dull after repeated play, so take breaks.
->Go to various area (like the shops and what not) and talk to your party members. They have different things to say after every major juncture, and they're pretty interesting.

buddha0991 said:
P2EP > P4 > P2IS > P3FES ANSWER > P1 > P3FES JOURNEY

all are great games, but imo, P2IS PSP is not a great port.
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P4 (EVERYTHING AFTER THE BEGINNING) > P3FES (PAST THE HALFWAY POINT) > P3FES (BEFORE THE HALFWAY POINT) > P4U > P4A> PQ > P1 (MAIN QUEST) > P1 (SNOW QUEEN) > P2IS (ALL) = P2EP (ALL)
 
I started playing the game recently and am about 35 hours in. I just
finished Caracol and got Apollo/Artemis/other Personas with mana costs so high I will never use them.

The tone of the game feels more like that of an SMT to me than modern Persona which I've been appreciating a lot more. While the gameplay is very dull (I autobattle almost every battle, even boss encounters) I find the plot and characters really good. I like Maya and Michel the most. Tone-wise, I would love for Atlus to return to something like this for Persona 5. I think darker tones always suit these kind of games more.

If I played the game when it first came out I'm sure I would love it but the lack of fusion and really slow/easy battle system makes it a chore to play at times. Ranking up Personas to get a specific skill can be annoying. I guess I could change to Hard mode but the battles are slow enough as is.

Not a bad game though, I'm looking forward to seeing the story to its end.
 
I'm really loving the cast right now. probably my favorite group out of all the games I've play and its what keeps me coming back. the first thing on my mind is "i cant wait to get through this dungeon just so i can see them interact and grow more", so yeah really loving that. I've gotten use to the battle system and actually like it a bit more now too, so yeah the game is really growing on me.

But the thing I like the most is the city itself. It feels so alive compared to P3 and P4 which looking back, felt really constricted. Everything just comes together nicely and it actually feels more like high school setting with rival schools, rumor spreading and alot of different places to explore. They nailed that aspect just right and I really want something similar or close to this back in P5
 
Immaculate said:
I'm really loving the cast right now. probably my favorite group out of all the games I've play and its what keeps me coming back. the first thing on my mind is "i cant wait to get through this dungeon just so i can see them interact and grow more", so yeah really loving that. I've gotten use to the battle system and actually like it a bit more now too, so yeah the game is really growing on me.

But the thing I like the most is the city itself. It feels so alive compared to P3 and P4 which looking back, felt really constricted. Everything just comes together nicely and it actually feels more like high school setting with rival schools, rumor spreading and alot of different places to explore. They nailed that aspect just right and I really want something similar or close to this back in P5
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I agree with that! I love the cast. When dungeons have those encounter-less rooms where the characters stand around and you can hear what they have to say about what's going on... that's great. It really makes them feel more like characters rather than just party members.

The city is great. It's really easy to navigate and the rumors allow you to slightly customize it. It reminds me of SMTIV but with an easy to understand map and no encounters. The locations feel more alive to me than in the modern Persona games - maybe because I don't need to trudge a character through empty 3D environments. I've kind of been hoping that P5 would take more influence from this game than P3/P4 atmosphere and tone-wise since I started it. Though I doubt that'll happen I can still dream!

I'm at the final boss right now, but since it's late I'm going to finish it tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm not sure if I'll play Eternal Punishment. I was reading about it and it looks like it lacks some features which would make it a less enjoyable experience for me. I'd really miss not being able to adjust the battle speed. It's possible I could import it but my Japanese still needs some work before I can play an RPG.
 
Ok, the gameplay and the level-design has not aged well.

But play this game for the story, the music (especially with the arranged PSP soundtrack) and the atmosphere. It's fantastic and has not aged at all. So good that I was totally sucked in and (nearly) forgot the game's flaws. Don't hesitate to play with cheats if you can't stand it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAdwR8PQ_WI
 
Glittering Crux said:
I agree with that! I love the cast. When dungeons have those encounter-less rooms where the characters stand around and you can hear what they have to say about what's going on... that's great. It really makes them feel more like characters rather than just party members.

The city is great. It's really easy to navigate and the rumors allow you to slightly customize it. It reminds me of SMTIV but with an easy to understand map and no encounters. The locations feel more alive to me than in the modern Persona games - maybe because I don't need to trudge a character through empty 3D environments. I've kind of been hoping that P5 would take more influence from this game than P3/P4 atmosphere and tone-wise since I started it. Though I doubt that'll happen I can still dream!

I'm at the final boss right now, but since it's late I'm going to finish it tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm not sure if I'll play Eternal Punishment. I was reading about it and it looks like it lacks some features which would make it a less enjoyable experience for me. I'd really miss not being able to adjust the battle speed. It's possible I could import it but my Japanese still needs some work before I can play an RPG.
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animation skip is still there, but in the settings menu, and it disables for bosses.
 
buddha0991 said:
Everyone playing this game, do not forget this game's sequel:



(too bad we never got the PSP version, and have to contend with the PS1 version on PSN [US only])
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The PS1 version is still amazing. Load times aren't so bad and the encounter rate is good enough. Only thing which could be annoying, depending on your preference is the UI. It's really dated. Really, really dated.

But I highly recommend playing EP after IS. Just not right after since some of it is a retread.
 
buddha0991 said:
Everyone playing this game, do not forget this game's sequel:



(too bad we never got the PSP version, and have to contend with the PS1 version on PSN [US only])
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Isn't there a fan translation project for the PSP version of Eternal Punishment?

Edit: Hivemind!
 
Fandangox said:
This is my favorite Persona Cast.
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I prefer the EP cast, but these kids rock. I love all the Persona games warts and all. But Persona 2 IS and EP are just something special. The characters and story in the games are just so damned good. And the way they all tie in once you beat EP, just gets me. One of the most satisfying and emotional stories in JRPG history.
 
robotzombie said:
i could have loved p2 innocent sin, but they decided to make it the easiest video game to ever exist.

when everything does 1 damage to you, the entire gameplay systems come to a crashing halt and become utterly pointless. it is really disappointing because i love the persona series, but IS just feels like a waste of time to play just to get to the story...
Click to expand...

Protag said:
Play it if only as a set up for eternal punishment.

Encounter rate,imo, was better in EP.

For Eternal Punishment the Characters, plot, and difficulty were much better.

EP was actually more challenging than IS as well, and demons are doing 1 damage (lololol)

Make sure you play Eternal punishment OP, DAMN good Jrpg, great Persona and this is from someone who played it after 3, AND 4
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Im not seeing enemies do 1 damage anymore(earlier in the beginning I was) but the more I play they're doing 10-40 damage on me. I already spread rumors about the defense and weapon shops and already have the most quality/expensive stuff too so what am I doing wrong?
 
Convenient to have this thread around; I've been playing the game off and on for the past week or so while out of town. It's my first Persona (and SMT, for that matter) game; I heard great things about the story, and it was cheap on PSN a while back, so I decided to give it a whirl. I should preface this by saying that while I haven't played P3 or P4, from what I've heard about their simulation elements I don't think I would enjoy them a ton, so P2's more traditional JRPG gameplay seems like a better match.

I've just cleared
Kasugayama High
and am doing some shopping/re-equipping/Persona work before continuing on. Thoughts so far:
  • I'm playing this on my Vita, and the load times just barely hit 'tolerable'. I would not have wanted to play this on PSP.
  • The encounter rate is a little high, but not a dealbreaker.
  • Grinding for cards through Contacts seems like... well, a grind. That said, once I started playing around with the Persona system some more it grew on me. (Though I am a little unclear as to how a Persona's stats effect the person it's assigned to.)
  • Music (playing with remastered version) is great. Based Meguro.
  • While the plot hasn't kicked into high gear yet, and there are a few fairly tropey points so far (game seems to be setting up a Lisa/Tatsuya/Maya love triangle, the
    themed underlings Joker has
    , stuff like that) I've really enjoyed the dialogue and characters. Blows my mind how much extra dialogue there is scattered about at all the various shops/etc. after each event.
  • Also on the plot note: I've been spoiled on some things, but hopefully that won't effect my enjoyment that much. I'm also almost entirely spoiler-free for Eternal Punishment.
  • It's not a gorgeous game, but the sprite work holds up fairly well. I usually leave battle animations off though, since they're not all that impressive and take a boatload of time.
  • Speaking of battles, while it took me a little while to get the hang of it, I'm enjoying the system. I think I'm a little underleveled right now, so it can be a war of attrition if nothing I have is particularly effective against a boss or enemy, but usually Fusion Spells make up the gap. And being able to set autobattle commands is nice.
Short version: enjoying it quite a bit so far. It's the most traditional JRPG I've played in a while, and it's holding up really pretty well.
 
Immaculate said:
Im not seeing enemies do 1 damage anymore(earlier in the beginning I was) but the more I play they're doing 10-40 damage on me. I already spread rumors about the defense and weapon shops and already have the most quality/expensive stuff too so what am I doing wrong?
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I actually rememembered after posting that i was wrong, and that even on hard, its not much of a challenge.

Telling you, just finish IS then go intovEternal Punishment. Much, Much better of the Duology.
 
Protag said:
I actually rememembered after posting that i was wrong, and that even on hard, its not much of a challenge.

Telling you, just finish IS then go intovEternal Punishment. Much, Much better of the Duology.
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yeah almost done with it havent played in a week-ish since ive been messing around with smt iv. I was at
the top of mount katsi-whatever and was going to the area where yukinos mentor/love interest went to take pics even tho the last battlion was taking over the area
but i think the main reason i stopped was because i was getting REALLY burned out because it was just dungeon after dungeon after dungeon.

now the story is also a complete clusterfuck to me but i guess its vecause somethings are still unexplained

why does MAJOR SPOILERS
Jun or the Joker want revenge on us still? I thought the main reason was because of the fact we "killed" maya by locking her up when we were all kids because we didnt want her to leave but shes kinda alive now so whats the point anymore lol

and why did that guy(king leo) set the place were the MC and Maya were locked up together on fire? was he just some random arsonists? how did we ruin his life?
 
I wanted to play this game for so long. I'm furious at the lack of attention Atlus gave this port. Persona 1 PSP obviously had a lot of time and care put into it. They added a lot of things to help with certain dated aspect (things that speed up the combat without butchering the visual style). But this shit? Let's just rush it out with almost nothing done to the menus, interface and battle speed.
 
Played both this and P1 last summer and disliked both greatly. I found P1 far more tolerable as its mechanics and combat system ran tremendously faster, and especially given how the tarot/negotiation system wasn't nearly the bloated mess that it was in P2. Thankfully grinding certain tarot's wasn't too necessary given how imbalanced the entire game was, I probably would have hated the thing more if it necessitated more upkeep(and I -really- disliked it).

I also felt the plot and story in P2 was lackluster as well. Despite the foreboding title aesthetic and deep "red" veneer, it was a light-hearted romp that only had a few moments of meaningful story deliberation amidst the seemingly non-stop antics and silliness that pervaded the rest of the game. I can certainly understand people loving it, but I wasn't very engaged and given how often Persona-GAF has raved about P2 having the best plot and story in the franchise I felt it was a very limp. The 11th hour exposition just seemingly comes out of nowhere and is what I imagine most people remember most fondly, but again after 30 hours of meandering through the game, it didn't exactly provide me the reaction that many of the diehards rave about.

I posted quite a bit on my playthrough last year in the community thread, and some others playing simultaneously had similar thoughts. Should really dig up some of them as I have forgotten specific complaints beyond what I mentioned above, but ultimately I was so bummed out by IS that I decided against bothering playing P2 EP afterwards. A shame as supposedly that is the game that everyone seemingly actually loves when discussing P2.
 
I felt the same way, playing P2:IS after P3 and P4. The gameplay felt sluggish and slow and hitting WEAK just doesn't have the intense visceral satisfaction (and gameplay advantage) as ONE MORE. Given the random encounters, you also don't have that constant state of awareness to keep the dungeons interesting. P2's old school traps and pitfalls just slow down progress rather then seriously hinder and demon negotiation, while amusing the first few times, quickly becomes routine.

But golly, the story goes crazy indie arthouse in a great way. The characters are still personally and strongly invested in solving the mystery, most attached through affected acquaintances, even as things crazily escalate further from reality and they react accordingly. The loading times were a bummer but I still wandered around talking to all the NPCs and my party members because man, everyone's got stuff to say and frequently reveals something about the plot or about the character or something enlightening.

... If it weren't for all the incidental dialogue, reading/watching an LP might've been a better experience. I dunno. You can't go backwards with this series, I suppose. Just found myself missing the modern game design bells and whistles.
 
Yea, I did get a kick out of the incidental dialogue far moreso than the main scenario stuff. There was a tremendous amount of it too, especially with the whole 'rumor' mechanic as well, which like most of the game was poorly executed.

Also the spritework was some of the best of the PS1 era, recall many moments clearly thinking how great the artistry of certain scenes were, at least the exaggerated gestures and animations.

Still would call it one of the worst games I've ever played though.
 
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