Topic: Original Persona and Persona 2

I have recently completed Persona 4 on the Vita. Absolutely fantastic game from start to finish. Needless to say, I would like more of the same.

I will be getting Persona 3 Portable, but has anyone played the PSP versions of Persona 1 and 2 (available on PSN)? I am curious as to how they have aged and stack against Persona 4. Is Persona Q on the 3DS similar to Persona 4 gameplay wise?

Persona 1, 2 and Q do not have the social sim aspect of 3 and 4 (i.e the social link system)

So the earlier games don't have the Social Link features? That's a bit disappointing, but are they still good?

Persona 1 and 2 are pretty good. The first one is a dungeon crawler with a sorta confusing grid battle system. It would be fine if monsters fit on the grid neatly, but they don't, and of course, your attacks can have some weird range and you never get a feel for the range of your enemies...but other than that, it's good fun, especially if you liked the negotiation aspects from other SMT games. If you're not familiar, you talk to demons and based on their personality traits, you try to coerce them into different states - usually you want them to give you a spell card to make new Persona. It can be very difficult, especially with demons that have the "snappish" trait - I've noticed they're very unpredictable and you might have to cycle through different choices to try to get the right reaction.

If you have the spell card, you can not only make Personas with it, but you can also make your enemies leave simply by possessing their spell card the next time you talk to them. It doesn't seem to work on bosses, though.

Overall the game is difficult, but not more so than other SMT games. Remember to upgrade equipment (I have yet to find an equipment shop, so explore a lot and pay attention to battle drops), rank up Personas by using them, and don't rely too much on talking your way out of situations because then you'll get underleveled really quick. BTW, you seem to earn experience through participation and performance, though it's very opaque about it. Just make sure every body fights, though, and you'll be fine. Also, pay attention to the map, because there are dead ends everywhere and no, they don't seem to hide important things in dead end routes. They're just there to waste your time...

As for Persona 2, it's more of the same, but with a cooler story, no First-Person Dungeons (instead you have Isometric Dungeons), and a different battle system and level-up system, the latter of which IIRC was more standard, and the former relies more on turn order and performing combos rather than character position. It still has its problems, but I greatly preferred it over Persona 1's battle system. Of course, that's Persona 2: Innocent Sin. Persona 2: Eternal Punishment changed things yet again, but I haven't played it so I can't really give the details...

Cheers for the info. I don't mind a dungeon crawler and these games seem to be a good challenge. Will probably pick both of them up after i finish persona 3 portable.

Is there 2 versions of Persona 2? Seems strange that they aren't selling Eternal Punishment on PSN.

They are selling EP on PSN in the US and Japan. The PSP port sadly wasn't localized to the West.

Shame Eternal Punishment isn't in PAL regions yet, even as a PSOne Classic, since from what I hear, EP sorta picks up where IS left off.

Innocent Sin (the first part of Persona 2) on PSN is the PSP remake. (the PS1 version was never officially localized)
Eternal Punishment (the second part) on PSN is the PS1 version. Conversely the PSP remake was never localized probably because by that point PSP sales had dried up in the west to the point even Atlus wasn't supporting new localizations anymore.

I see. Was wondering what Caniswolfred was talking about. Good old SCEE eh? Will still be getting the games at some point and will get Eternal Punishment on a JP or US account.