Persona games have made a comeback – it’s time to bring back the originals
Persona 5 brought mainstream popularity to the series like it had never seen before. Suddenly everyone was playing the high school simulator cum RPG, despite the game representing the 20th anniversary for the series. People may know that Persona is a spin-off of Shin Megami Tensei, but Persona games from Persona 3 onwards feel like a spin-off of the original trilogy.
This is why Atlus continues to give us ever more Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5 spin-offs and ports while pretending the first three games never existed. Upgraded versions of all three of the modern games recently came to Xbox Game Pass, and while each story is standalone, it’s nice to have more of what you love. So why can’t we have the PSP versions of Persona 1, Persona 2, and, um, Persona 2?
Unlike Persona 3, 4, and 5, the first three titles are stuck in the PSP era.
For those who don’t know the history of the Persona games, the high school simulator part only really became a staple from Persona 3. Before then it was more like your traditional pixel art JRPG. There were teammates you could build relationships with, and different people to recruit, but it wasn’t in the overt way that social links are. The relationships weren’t gamified, it was more just a way of interacting and exploring.
Many parts of these original games are dated by today’s standards. There are no difficulty settings, and the difficulty curve is exceptionally steep. You could fuse personas right from the start, and recruiting the best ones was vital to your success. There was no hand-holding, and you could easily get stuck trying to find out what to do next with no signposting to help you out.
The spirit of Persona was here, though. Including the idea of building relationships with others in order to save the world. A lot of the story was told through dialogue with others, and interactions with NPCs could give you big advantages in battles. Before there were time limits put in place, you were encouraged to explore your world thoroughly, and find side-quests with interesting rewards. You might not know the purpose of each at first, but trying things out was part of the process.
As mentioned previously, there are two Persona 2 games. The first was called Persona 2: Innocent Sin, and the second is called Persona 2: Eternal Punishment. They are not sequels to each other, but they are also not quite standalone games. They are not the same game with different characters or personas like you see with the Pokémon series either.
Persona 2: Innocent Sin didn't release in the West until its PSP remake in 2011.
These two share some of the same characters and plot points, but tell a different story, supposedly set in a different world. You might get more from Eternal Punishment if you’ve played Innocent Sin, but it’s not necessary. Atlus didn’t think so either, as Innocent Sin was never released in the West until it was remade for the PSP around 12 years after the original.
The mystery surrounding Innocent Sin and why it was never released in the West has made it all the more alluring, but there is a reason why the team was so cautious in releasing it. It’s because Innocent Sin is full of swastikas and Nazis, and the main antagonist is none other than Adolf Hitler. To soften this for the West, the PSP remake changed his name to Fuhrer, and made him wear a pair of rather fetching shades. This let the audience know that it was definitely Adolf Hitler, without saying it explicitly like before.
While one of the main antagonists of Persona 3 might have been an allusion to Jesus, we haven’t really seen anything as explicitly wild as this since Innocent Sin. While Nazis are the bad guys in almost every game they are a part of, you still don’t expect it from a JRPG. That’s what made the original Persona games so touching yet wacky. There’s a whiplash you get from emotional plot points suddenly morphing into Japanese Wolfenstein.
In a world of remakes, reboots, and remasters, we aren’t asking for the original Personas to be remade in the style of the modern ones, but a way to play them on modern consoles would be nice. Sometimes a girl just wants to take down Hitler using the personification of her inner turmoil. Is that too much to ask?
