Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Keith Schleicher

The term “Persona” represents the belief that we all use different responses to different social situations.  You might even call it a social mask, which is appropriate due to the fact that Persona is an Italian word derived from the original Latin word for mask.  In literature a mask can be used, or even the same person appearing multiple times in a similar scene using a different perspective.  The movie Fight Club could be considered a modern example of this.

Now Atlus is releasing the original Revelations: Persona as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona for the PSP.  Those familiar with the Persona series will be in for a shock as this title has several differences from the recent Persona 3 and Persona 4 titles.  However, there should be enough familiar to them that fans won’t feel too out of place.

In Persona you play as an unnamed high school student.  While playing a ritual-like game, everyone in the room is knocked unconscious and a being bestows everyone the ability to summon Persona.  Shortly after this happens the members of the class determine that the city is being attacked by all sorts of demons.  You set out to find the reason behind this invasion and try to stop the cause.

Persona has retained the original Japanese portraits instead of the American translation of Revelations: Persona.  For instance, in Revelations the main character had red hair and pale skin tone while Masao was renamed Mark and changed to an African-American.  All of these localization changes were scrapped for the PSP remake.  This provides you with a truer Persona experience.

When you first start Persona you see yourself and your other classmates from the third-person perspective, something that you should be familiar with from the other Persona games.  Once you step out of the room, you discover that you are traveling in a first-person perspective.  It is an odd feeling at first going through the buildings this way, but it works.  While each separate building has slightly different textures, inside of each building the textures look so similar that maneuvering through the buildings can be confusing without using the map often.

Graphically Persona won't impress you.  While the text looks better because the PSP produces higher resolutions than the PS1, the models for your characters look bland without much detail.  Some features distinguish the different members of your party, but sometimes it's hard to tell who is available to interact with.

The music in the Persona games has always been fun and kitschy.  They have been a highlight of the titles.  While the music still has the same vibe, it doesn't have the same energy as the later Persona games.  The battle music is darker than the previous games, and it almost borders on being boring.  It also loops much quicker than the other games.  The map music has an eerie ambiance to it, but it loops as well.  The voices in the game don't match the look of the characters either, especially Nanjo.

When you go into combat, you again view the action from a third-person perspective.  The difference from this combat screen to other Shin Megami Tensei games, and a large number of JRPGs, is the fact that you are playing on a grid with each party on opposite sides of the play area.  Since your weapons can only attack in specific spots, you need to place your party in the most effective spots for the weapon/skill they are using.  There is some frustration with putting your party in the correct spots on the grid, as you can’t put anyone side by side next to each other.  That frustration increases when you need to fit five party members into the grid.  It also takes a full turn to move members of your party.  This mechanic slows down the combat significantly.  It would have been nice if you could move and then attack or use a skill in the same turn.

One of the more unique options in Persona is the fact that you can interact with the enemies as you are fighting them.  If you make them angry, they may get the first attack.  If you make them happy, they may give you something in return and then leave or just be happy throughout the entire battle.  Making them fearful will cause them to leave.  If they become interested, you can gain a contact card from them.  These contact cards are very advantageous for two reasons.  First, if you encounter an enemy while having their contact card they will leave the combat.  Second, these contact cards can be used to create other Personas.

Negotiating with the enemies isn’t as easy as just going along a dialogue tree and finding the correct options to use.  Instead, each character in your party has four unique responses they can use to interact with the enemies.  The phase of the moon and whether the enemy asks you for an item determines if you get the contact card.  Since there are many different members of your party and different responses, figuring out the correct response to get the contact card takes some trial-and-error if you don’t have a guide.  You can use the characteristics of your party to try to match up with the characteristics of the creatures.

If you do end up fighting the enemies, you have a lot of options at your disposal.  Melee combat weapons are used for standard attack.  Guns like rifles and pistols are also available for ranged attacks.  Skills are available through your equipped Persona, which act like your magic in the game.  Each weapon and skill has their own attack pattern as well as strengths and weaknesses against certain enemies.  You need to use all of them efficiently to get through combat.  It does seem a bit odd to use guns in a RPG like this, but in some instances it feels like it works.

If you have played a Shin Megami Tensei game, then you know their reputation for having high random encounter rates.  Persona continues that tradition in spades.  The encounter rate feels higher than any of the other Shin Megami Tensei games I’ve played.  If the combat and negotiations were quicker, this wouldn’t be as big of an issue.  Persona will take a lot of time in combat, so be sure that you enjoy the combat system because a majority of your time is spent there.

The combat is important because it not only levels up the characters in your party, but also your Persona.  While your Persona does gain experience with each battle, the Persona gains more experience if used during the battle.  As the Persona gains levels, they learn new abilities that can be used.  These can be offensive powers that attack enemies, defensive powers that protect your team, or other abilities such as the ability to heal.

Sometimes you need to go back to your roots.  Many video games companies have done this by re-releasing classic games in a compilation or “updating” the game play to make it seem to be a bit cooler.  That’s not what Atlus has done with the original Persona game.  They have gone back, listened to the fans’ criticisms, and given it a fresh coat of paint to make it look good on the PSP.  The translation issues have been resolved and the new movies look spectacular.  However, the music and graphics are disappointing and the high encounter rate is frustrating.  If you are fan of the Persona titles, then you should have a good idea of what to expect.  Just don't set your expectations too high since playing the previous Persona titles will most likely spoil you to this game and show you how far the Persona series has come.

Gaming Trend Score

75

1. Graphics: 74
2. Audio: 68
3. Controls: 85
4. Gameplay: 74
5. Value/Replay: 77
6. OVERALL:75