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Persona 2: Eternal Punishment |Import OT| "I'll accept my punishment... but not now."

Dantis

Member
On the other hand(and boy does this make me sad), Corpse Party was a surprising critical and financial success, while Innocent Sin did poorly in both regards.

Yeah. I've never even seen Innocent Sin in the shops over here. Real, real shame.

I'm glad Corpse Party did well though. It was quite deserving of it. The translation was excellent and the price-point was spot on.
 
Kazuma Kaneko: God of Character Design!

There's several companies smaller than Atlus still localizing PSP games in 2013. That Atlus doesn't want to or can't afford to localize a mainline Persona game is more than a little baffling.

Don't blame Atlus, blame those who passed up on IS.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Yeah. I've never even seen Innocent Sin in the shops over here. Real, real shame.

I'm glad Corpse Party did well though. It was quite deserving of it. The translation was excellent and the price-point was spot on.

It did get an EU release, but I don't know how it did there, I just remember reviewers blasting IS(even though P1 got great reviews in comparison), and the OT was practically a wasteland.

IS isn't a bad game, but I think EP is easily twice as good, and has lots more content.

Could be because I played EP first.


Anyways, I'm as far as the Gold Gym. Does anyone know when/how the added scenario becomes accessible? I know the game well enough to get by in terms of story and spells, the only thing that'll be tough is negotiation and fusion.

The actual talking is a cinch. Anyone who's played IS/EP knows that outside of the initial conversation, whatever choices you pick are pretty much random anyway.
 

Dantis

Member
It did get an EU release, but I don't know how it did there, I just remember reviewers blasting IS(even though P1 got great reviews in comparison), and the OT was practically a wasteland.

IS isn't a bad game, but I think EP is easily twice as good, and has lots more content.

Could be because I played EP first.

Yep, my copy is a PAL one. I think it was pretty much only available through online retail though. Like I say, I never saw it in the shops.

The reviews were unfair. It seemed some reviewers weren't aware that you could skip battle animations, and things like that.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Also, it's pretty much a given this will get fan translated eventually. I'd love to take it on, but finding PSP-savvy folk isn't an easy feat, and the VC3 guys have their hands full.

If it becomes a thing though, I'd happily pounce on the chance to edit the script.

I'd largely just update EP PS1's script, it's Tatsuya's scenario that I'd do from scratch.


I wish I could say the PSP game had a dirt cheap Best release or something, but at a glance, it's still pretty dang pricey.
 
To be fair, Innocent Sin was oddly poorly balanced in the update, making an easy game with some nice difficulty spikes and a massive one at the end, even easier with a higher encounter rate where in most encounters you take like 1-10 damage. Despite the slick new interface, I actually felt ps1 Innocent Sin went faster, had more challenge, and the gameplay flowed better over all. So strange how P1P ended up being the better port despite the music and sound effect changes in it. P2EP got a far better port with proper rebalancing that keeps it's original difficulty and gameplay flow in tact, a proper conversion of the originals menu system that while streamlining them like ISP, also kept functionality that was removed in ISP, and lastly, the new content is actually world building for the Persona universe and very very interesting unlike Innocent Sin's two bad quests and map maker and dlc we didn't get. It is a real shame we most likely aren't getting this one....An eternal punishment, for our innocent sin.
 

Dantis

Member
To be fair, Innocent Sin was oddly poorly balanced in the update, making an easy game with some nice difficulty spikes and a massive one at the end, even easier with a higher encounter rate where in most encounters you take like 1-10 damage. Despite the slick new interface, I actually felt ps1 Innocent Sin went faster, had more challenge, and the gameplay flowed better over all. So strange how P1P ended up being the better port despite the music and sound effect changes in it. P2EP got a far better port with proper rebalancing that keeps it's original difficulty and gameplay flow in tact, a proper conversion of the originals menu system that while streamlining them like ISP, also kept functionality that was removed in ISP, and lastly, the new content is actually world building for the Persona universe and very very interesting unlike Innocent Sin's two bad quests and map maker and dlc we didn't get. It is a real shame we most likely aren't getting this one....An eternal punishment, for our innocent sin.

I guarantee that the altered difficulty had nothing to do with the lowered sales. I think it was just a lack of interest in what is, realistically, a very outdated game.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
I guarantee that the altered difficulty had nothing to do with the lowered sales. I think it was just a lack of interest in what is, realistically, a very outdated game.

I'm still confused that {1 did better when it's a first person dungeon crawler, but I think IS/EP's dungeons are actually more time consuming, so...

On the bright side, this means Soul Hackers should be a huge success!
 
My favorite Persona as well. Once you play Persona 1 and Persona 2 Innocent Sin then proceed to P2 Eternal Punishment, you realize how they improved the series with each game, it looks as if the dev team found the right balance to everything they wanted to pull off.

I played the PS1 version right after finishing the Innocent Sin port, it was pretty awesome since I had all the storyline fresh in my mind, kinda makes EP all the more interesting as you get other perspectives.

Too bad the PSP port is not going to see an english release, but I won't hold it against Atlus, if the game did poorly in Japan and Innocent Sin was far from a success in NA, why should they bother doing it? It's not like they can throw money around on projects just ´cause the fans "demand" it.

I wish I could say the PSP game had a dirt cheap Best release or something, but at a glance, it's still pretty dang pricey.

Since the game didn't do very well in Japan, I'm inclined to believe it won't see a Best release, as you can see the PSP version of Innocent Sin did not get one. Besides I'm guessing it's a tad bit early for a Best version to pop up.
 
I'm still confused that {1 did better when it's a first person dungeon crawler, but I think IS/EP's dungeons are actually more time consuming, so...

On the bright side, this means Soul Hackers should be a huge success!

Some people have told me that Japanese fans font like eternal punishment or making what some people, including me, consider the best damn character in the entire series silent. Or maybe the people buying persona games now aren't looking for what 1/2's have to offer and were fooled once because P1P had the word Persona on it?
 

Dantis

Member
I'm still confused that {1 did better when it's a first person dungeon crawler, but I think IS/EP's dungeons are actually more time consuming, so...

On the bright side, this means Soul Hackers should be a huge success!

P1 had a more revamped image though. The font and logo, along with the dynamite Meguro soundtrack and CG cutscenes make it more appealing, I think. It all felt more modern, even though the actual game really wasn't.

I think Soul Hackers will sell rather poorly, unfortunately. I cannot picture a scenario where it is a success.

Time to learn Japanese, Dantis.

I thought about attempting it so that I could understand the new content in P4G, but when I realised how complex (And frankly, illogical) Kanji was, I gave up and just memorised Katakana so that I could actually read what move I was using, haha.
 
P1 had a more revamped image though. The font and logo, along with the dynamite Meguro soundtrack and CG cutscenes make it more appealing, I think. It all felt more modern, even though the actual game really wasn't.

I think Soul Hackers will sell rather poorly, unfortunately. I cannot picture a scenario where it is a success.

You mean the mediocre to pretty ok meguro soundtrack :p
 

cj_iwakura

Member
P1 had a more revamped image though. The font and logo, along with the dynamite Meguro soundtrack and CG cutscenes make it more appealing, I think. It all felt more modern, even though the actual game really wasn't.

I think Soul Hackers will sell rather poorly, unfortunately. I cannot picture a scenario where it is a success.

It's coming out on a hugely successful platform starved for RPGs, is one of the best games in the series, and focuses on cyberpunk, Native American mythology, and warring occult societies/megacorps?
 

Dantis

Member
You mean the mediocre to pretty ok meguro soundtrack :p

You're in the minority. People love Meguro. You know who the first three people credited in both Arena and Golden are? Hashino, Meguro and Soejima. In Arena, this is especially hilarious, considering how little influence they had on it.

They're associated with quality, and an entirely new soundtrack by Meguro is much more appealing to JRPG fans than a rearranged one by Toshiki Konishi.

It's coming out on a hugely successful platform starved for RPGs, is one of the best games in the series, and focuses on cyberpunk, Native American mythology, and warring occult societies/megacorps?

It's still a Saturn game.

I consider myself a fair fan of MegaTen, right? Particularly the games involving Hashino, Kaneko, Soejima and Meguro. And I only find myself mildly interested in Soul Hackers. To someone who is unfamiliar with it, it looks and sounds very outdated.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
You're in the minority. People love Meguro. You know who the first three people credited in both Arena and Golden are? Hashino, Meguro and Soejima. In Arena, this is especially hilarious, considering how little influence they had on it.

They're associated with quality, and an entirely new soundtrack by Meguro is much more appealing to JRPG fans than a rearranged one by Toshiki Konishi.

You're actually in the minority. People overwhelmingly lambasted the new OST in favor of the old one. That's why IS added the original OST back in.

The original Persona OST had a theme of occult horror, not happy go lucky Jpop. It didn't fit at all.
 
You're in the minority. People love Meguro. You know who the first three people credited in both Arena and Golden are? Hashino, Meguro and Soejima. In Arena, this is especially hilarious, considering how little influence they had on it.

They're associated with quality, and an entirely new soundtrack by Meguro is much more appealing to JRPG fans than a rearranged one by Toshiki Konishi.

I am not. I love meguro too but this is definitely one of his weaker osts. It does not fit the games atmosphere for the most part, and while yes, meguros name has star power behind it, the majority of people who appreciate p1/p1p or older megatens wish the option for the original ost was there.
 

Dantis

Member
You're actually in the minority. People overwhelmingly lambasted the new OST in favor of the old one. That's why IS added the original OST back in.

The original Persona OST had a theme of occult horror, not happy go lucky Jpop. It didn't fit at all.

The people you're talking about who lambasted it are the people who will have bought P1 and IS either way.

I'm talking about the not-so-hardcore fans. Persona is now known for its quirky and awesome music, and P1 goes along with that style.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
The people you're talking about who lambasted it are the people who will have bought P1 and IS either way.

I'm talking about the not-so-hardcore fans. Persona is now known for its quirky and awesome music, and P1 goes along with that style.

Which it shouldn't. It changes the game's tone. That type of music fits P3 and P4, not P1. It'd be like if you took out the score of a Sergio Leone film and added Michael Bay style scoring.
 

Dantis

Member
Which it shouldn't. It changes the game's tone. That type of music fits P3 and P4, not P1. It'd be like if you took out the score of a Sergio Leone film and added Michael Bay style scoring.

Whether or not it fits isn't the point, we're talking about why it sold better.

What you're saying is the same as my arguments about P4G's new music. I agree, but if they'd left in the P1 PS1 soundtrack it would have been a much less appealing package.
 

MoogPaul

Member
Sad awesome thread. Not only does this thread hurt, but it brings up hurtful Trails memories as well. We need a moment of silence up in here.
 
No, p1 should not have changed it's "noise" and P2 was correct in keeping it's meh ost, like you put both of those osts previously. P1P DID sell better because it tried to make P3/4 fans think P1 was something it's not, and that's a crappy way to sell something, almost like a bait and switch.
 

Necrovex

Member
I thought about attempting it so that I could understand the new content in P4G, but when I realised how complex (And frankly, illogical) Kanji was, I gave up and just memorised Katakana so that I could actually read what move I was using, haha.

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to learn Kanji. It's simply pure memorization. My professor told me she had to write each Kanji at least a hundred time to truly remember it.

Katakana? Heh, I wouldn't expect words such as Bufu or Agi to use katakana; they both seem very Japanesish words, so I would have expected hiragana.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
SMH. I thought this was a Sega Saturn "SURPRISE!" move on Atlus' part. :(
 

Dantis

Member
Yeah, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to learn Kanji. It's simply pure memorization. My professor told me she had to write each Kanji at least a hundred time to truly remember it.

Katakana? Heh, I wouldn't expect words such as Bufu or Agi to use katakana; they both seem very Japanesish words, so I would have expected hiragana.

Haha, I expected the same thing! I spent ages memorising Hiragana whilst I waited for the game to come, and then when it arrived I realised all the moves were Katakana and I had to restart from scratch.

Don't remember any of it now except for Bufu, haha.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Haha, I expected the same thing! I spent ages memorising Hiragana whilst I waited for the game to come, and then when it arrived I realised all the moves were Katakana and I had to restart from scratch.

Don't remember any of it now except for Bufu, haha.

Thanks to Soul Hackers, I recognize Me/Dia, Agi, Zio, Bufu,Garu, Recarm, and the -kaja/nds on sight.


Also, that Kotaku article on XSeed was a fantastic read, if a little disheartening.
 

jello44

Chie is the worst waifu
There's several companies smaller than Atlus still localizing PSP games in 2013. That Atlus doesn't want to or can't afford to localize a mainline Persona game is more than a little baffling.

Not to mention that Atlus published not one, but TWO PSP games this year.
 

Terra_Ex

Member
Nice that history repeats itself with Atlus, last time we got EP but no IS, this time we get IS but no EP, how nice. I'd like to say I'm looking forward to picking up Soul Hackers but with a nice little region lock to contend with it'll likely be a good few years before I get any chance of playing that (assuming Ghostlight's stars align in their usually timely fashion).

Looking forward to the eventual fan translation or Japan ending their obsession with portables in the distant future. Are many japanese devs entertaining the notion of PC ports like with the Ys games atm, I know Ghostlight was investigating this a while back, just seems like it'd be the perfect fit for a lot of these games what with modern DD services supporting the whole spectrum of games in terms of graphical fidelity.

Nice OT btw, it brought me joy and tears to go along with my bitterness :(
 

7threst

Member
Even though I really want to play this, I can't blame Atlus for not localizing. It's a niche game in an already niche genre. On a handheld that didn't do really spectacular numbers in the west. Seeing that Vita isn't doing spectacular either, the fact that people are surprised Atlus doesn't bring this over to the US/Europa is more surprising to me. Who is going to buy this? No offence, but Atlus is a business, not a charity for a small group of people who like to play this game.
 

Dantis

Member
Even though I really want to play this, I can't blame Atlus for not localizing. It's a niche game in an already niche genre. On a handheld that didn't do really spectacular numbers in the west. Seeing that Vita isn't doing spectacular either, the fact that people are surprised Atlus doesn't bring this over to the US/Europa is more surprising to me. Who is going to buy this? No offence, but Atlus is a business, not a charity for a small group of people who like to play this game.

You're right, games like Growlanser no doubt sell miles better.
 

Acosta

Member
By the way, I have a "baka gaijin" anecdote for this game.

First time I went to Japan, I was in that phase where I still thought I would learn Japanese to play games, so I bought several random games (RPGs of course, never let common sense get in the way of your dreams!). And one of them was this one, that mythical beast known as Persona that me as dirty European has never seen except for some flippant features about the games I will never, ever see, so I obviously bought it.

The funny thing is that I had not idea this was the second part of Persona 2, so I bought this but not Innocent Sin, which I discovered when arriving home. So, I never played it:

BhIrC.jpg


Here, in pristine condition :p I actually was planning to open it in a symbolic way once I had bought the game for PSP, silly me, but I guess it will have to wait. My PS3 is american so I guess that in theory I could hunt down the american version of the game and play on it, but the prices I have seen are not encouraging and I don't use ebay.
 
Aw man, memories. I had a fucking blast with the PS1 version 4 years ago. IMO easily among the very best of its genre and criminally underrated and overlooked. In fact, I found it to be in line with Persona 3: FES and Persona 4 in terms of quality and those two are some of the best JRPGs you'll ever see.
 
I just wish these companies would man up and say it isn't coming, period. At least pull the band aid off in one fast rip. I recently played the PSX one after finally playing P2:IS and it is a better game than its PSP prequel. The gameplay is much better, the characters are great (though I love IS's cast too.) and the story is just plain heartbreaking. It annoys me that Atlus wouldn't release it on PSN at least, so we could have the entire persona series on Vita.

It's a shame too because the remixed OST for the PSP relase is amazing. And holy crap I love the map music.
 

Squire

Banned
Even though I really want to play this, I can't blame Atlus for not localizing. It's a niche game in an already niche genre. On a handheld that didn't do really spectacular numbers in the west. Seeing that Vita isn't doing spectacular either, the fact that people are surprised Atlus doesn't bring this over to the US/Europa is more surprising to me. Who is going to buy this? No offence, but Atlus is a business, not a charity for a small group of people who like to play this game.

Tell me more.
 

dan2026

Member
I don't know exactly why Atlus inspires so much devotion in people.

They have been kicking Europe in the balls for years now.

I am not surprised Persona 4 Arena didn't do well, when they cut off a huge part of the fighting game market by not releasing it.

And this is coming from a Persona fan. I'm playing Golden right now (which I had to import...but at least I had the choice this time)
 

mollipen

Member
There's several companies smaller than Atlus still localizing PSP games in 2013. That Atlus doesn't want to or can't afford to localize a mainline Persona game is more than a little baffling.

Are those the only two reasons Altus wouldn't bring P2:EP PSP to America?
 

Squire

Banned
I don't know exactly why Atlus inspires so much devotion in people.

They have been kicking Europe in the balls for years now.

NA isn't in Europe. I feel your pain, but the people in the states have few reasons to dislike Atlus.
 
How the devil did I miss this thread?

At any rate, I think I'll go ahead and dig out my PS1 copy that I picked up during one the reprints several years ago. It sat on my shelf for a while, and I finally started it after the IS fanlation had come out, but stopped playing for whatever reason. By the time I thought about starting again, IS PSP was announced, so naturally I waited for EP PSP. But with things the way they are now, I suppose it's time to start again.
 
I just wish these companies would man up and say it isn't coming, period. At least pull the band aid off in one fast rip. I recently played the PSX one after finally playing P2:IS and it is a better game than its PSP prequel. The gameplay is much better, the characters are great (though I love IS's cast too.) and the story is just plain heartbreaking. It annoys me that Atlus wouldn't release it on PSN at least, so we could have the entire persona series on Vita.

It's a shame too because the remixed OST for the PSP relase is amazing. And holy crap I love the map music.

What about IS PSP didn't you like over EP PS1? I am genuinely curious, as I always felt that IS PSP was improperly rebalanced, IS PS1 was more properly balanced.
 
I really enjoyed P2 IS. Perhaps a digital only release would be a better option for atlus. I'd prefer a physical copy but if atlus isnt confident enough in there game then a digital release is our best bet. I mean xseed has been doing it for some time now, why not atlus?
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Are those the only two reasons Altus wouldn't bring P2:EP PSP to America?

If you've got another theory, I'm listening.


And nope, core Persona weren't enough to take out (Gold Gym)
Joker Ulala.

Off to the Velvet Room! (I think I'll need my PS1 copy as reference material.)
 
What about IS PSP didn't you like over EP PS1? I am genuinely curious, as I always felt that IS PSP was improperly rebalanced, IS PS1 was more properly balanced.

IS PSP was flat out mindless as far as combat was concerned. Never once was I in any danger the entire game. Eternal Punishment makes you think on occasion, fusions aren't quite as easy, and it's a bit harder to magic spam. I do also prefer the scenario in EP a bit more than I did IS, though I don't want to take away from IS's scenario, it has some amazing moments, but EP beats it out.

I think its a shame the releases for these game have been split TWICE in the US because honestly neither game is complete without the other. EP needs the context of IS and IS needs the closure of EP.

IS's ending was amazing, but EP's ending is one of the best endings of all time.
 
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