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Rewarding, but not for beginners

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment probably has the most apt title of any RPG you'll see. Unless you know what you're doing, you'll be unexpectedly crushed, and it will be disheartening. Fortunately though, the plot is gripping enough to make you want to trudge through. A serial killer called JOKER is killing people by request (if you call your own cell phone #, he kills the person you hate most -- or so the urban myth goes). The heroine, Maya Amano, is busy with a routine day at the magazine publisher she works for when she gets a letter in the mail. In scrawled letters it reads, "YouRE NExT - JOKER". Not good.

This is just scratching the surface of the immense and bizarre plot, especially given that this game is just half of the story; The prequel was never imported. Fortunately, even though there are lots of references to past games, a later dungeon (Mt. Iwato) pretty much spells everything out with a couple of flashbacks. The gameplay itself is orignal: Every character gets a melee weapon, which is largely useless, and a "Persona", a summoned creature that deals magic damage. If you negotiate with enemies (you don't actually have to fight any if you don't want), they give you cards which can be exchanged for more powerful Persona. Your EXP level determines which ones you can summon, but it's not good to recklessly buy the biggest badboy Persona you can find just because he has a high level. You are given a chance to peruse the abilities each Persona will learn as it grows in power -- THIS IS IMPORTANT. Otherwise it's likely that the next boss will mop the floor with you. It's good to have a few Persona that can combine spells to cast a FUSION ATTACK. Fusions occur if you cast a certain order of spells in a row -- two or more Persona appear at the same time and combine their strength. This is the key to your survival. It's also fun to see the multitude of Fusion attack animations, which number in the dozens.

Maya joins up with her friend Ulala, a cop named Katsuya, and a shifty guy named Baofu. In order to progress, you also need to spread RUMORS (which automatically come true in Persona...don't ask). You get rumors by navigating the city and chatting with civilians who call themselves Rumormongers. When they say something important, it's highlighted in RED TEXT, and you can take that rumor to someone else who will spread it for a flat fee. The point of spreading rumors is to open up businesses that sell weapons and armor, basically. It's pretty funny to watch, because in reaction to the serial killings, a designer clothing store starts selling body armor which you can buy. The city is shown from a bird's eye view, and you just pick which district you want to go to and move around a green cursor to enter buildings. Basically, it's just like Persona 1, only without the hideous loading times. Most stores offer the same stuff (healing, buying items, etc), but they have really weird themes for doing so. For example, you can go to a tanning salon to heal your party members in one district, or go to chiropractor to heal them in another. It's pretty weird.

As for battles, things get even stranger. Instead of fighting, you can choose at almost any time to have one or more characters approach a demon and chat them up. Depending on the demon's personality and which characters you use, the demon will either get angry, scared, interested or delighted. If you amuse it enough, it will make deals with you in the future. If not, it predictably gets mad and you get nothing. Maya whips out a microphone and starts interviewing the demon. Katsuya the the cop paces around and accuses the demon of a crime. Baofu and Nate argue about baseball. It's completely insane and utterly hilarious. The only flaws in this are that everybody says the same thing every time, and the battles themselves get pretty tedious. The diffuculty of the game takes a nose-dive during the final dungeons. Very disappointing, but the story is still top-notch. I especially enjoy the detailed anime character portraits, which are also top-quality. This balances out the somewhat primative 2D character sprites and largely bland dungeons. The gigantic city itself is much prettier than the dungeons.

Fantastic!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: August 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is absolutely excellent - it really leaves nothing to be desired. The story and characters are all very drawing. You will really find yourself wanting to know more about the deep history and pasts of all characters. The artwork is lovely, and the battles are truly innovative. Talk to demons and tell them to leave the battle, or give you cards to summon new personas! The only complaint I might have is that this game is very, very difficult. Right from the bginning, battles will be a challenge, but if you can get over that (gameshark), then you'll be very very satisfied with this game... a must-own piece of Japanese pop-culture phenomena.

A Change in the RPG world

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 30, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I just received this game ... yesterday and all I can say is, Awesome! I've never liked the fantasy-like RPG's like Final Fantasy or Chrono Cross but this is not like any other i've ever played. It takes place in a more realistic world with more of an evil like atmosphere. The graphics are pretty cool too, not as well as FF series but is great though. Atlus did a great job with this game and hope I'll be more popular than it predecessor. I recommend this game to any who want a change with RPG's and anyone who is a fan of them.

Megami Tensei Suki Desu!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 10, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The Megami Tensei line has done it again: another great game with interesting characters, a gripping storyline, and a very innovative gameplay and battle system. A must-have for RPG fans!

Deep But Ultimately Frustrating!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 9
Date: June 25, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Persona2 has all the qualities of a good rpg. The characters have such a history that you actually care about their well being. I have been playing Persona2 off and on for about a year often taking a break from it when I encounter a particularly hard boss, like the Weng Long fortune teller Ms. Shishawa (I think that was her name) in the underwater maze. Uala is my favorite character since I would most react like she would to the weird plot that makes up the drama of the game.
It has to do with a evil cult basically wanting to cleanse the world of all corruption by destroying it and creating it over again (you would think) this cult has very prominent and powerful members, heads of state, government officials, the local police, the military...celebrity fortune tellers...etc. Well you play a reporter for a small "zine" put out by the Kismet Publishing Company and you first get involved in the Joker murders...Well I could tell you the whole story but it's very long and if you don't pay attention it gets complicated. You end up fighting Narlethotep, a creature straight out of the Cthulhu mythos for those of you who are familiar with Lovecraft. There are quite a few Lovecraft inspired monsters you end up fighting. This is a very wierd and difficult rpg. The mazes and dungeons, though looking like ultra-postmodern dance clubs, buildings etc, will give you migraines and you have the bosses for whom you'll have to level up as much as possible and devise somekind of strategy because in Persona2, strength is nothing without some brains and even then you'll still get a headache. This game is hard and not for the average gamer. I recommend renting it first.

Not as good as Persona1

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 04, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is a pretty good game. I've always been a fan of the "Megamitensei" series, I own almost all of them and this is not an exception. But this game is not as good as its first half "Innocent Sin." I own the Japanese version and I believe the english version is not released yet. Anyways, the battle system, demon contact system and character design are still excellent, but I don't like the way the personas are created in this game (collecting tarot cards). It's much more fun in Persona 1 (collect two spell cards from two different demons), in which you have to consider about the moon age and other stuff. I played Persona 1 for 4 times already, but for this one, I have not even finished the first time yet. But it's still worthy to give a try!

when work really pays off

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 23, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is perhaps the most deep, engrossing...and (...) hard game ever! This is the only RPG I've ever played where ten hours of gameplay really IS ten hours of gameplay. So much work is put into the battles; tweaking your spells and stragegies to unlock combination(fusion) spells, or contacting the demons in the midst of battle to negotiate for items, money, and information. Ridiculously challenging bosses are the main problems in this game, but the amount of work you put into fighting them (and the really damn-cool story and story-sequences) make it worth your considerable effort. A must-buy for gamers looking for something macabre and new, but definately not for the faint of heart and courage.

Very fun and challenging...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Persona 2 is another rare collectible rpg for playstation. A deep expansive battle summoning system is the core to this game. The setting is the modern day which is a nice change from the normal villages, blacksmiths, and potions of most rpgs. Solid graphics, great storyline, and challenging enemies makes this a well put together game. I would love to see a part three but its been awhile so perhaps we are out of luck. I reccomend this game for any rpg fan cause its just plan fun and interesting and thats what rpgs are all about, right?

I love it.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is the only game of the whole series of Persona I could find. Though, There is no need to play the older series before. What I really like in this game are the music, the story and the characters. I think that the battle system is quite annoying. And it's kinda hard to gain the EXPs, also. This game is not an original RPG where dragons and swords rule the world, it takes place in the present time, so be ware if you didn't. There are stores, sushi bar, clinic, CDs store, parks, just like what you've seen in this world. But it's not that simple, mystic stuff can be found in this game also, rumors, fortune tellings, demons, and personas. You can say that this is the world where facts and fictions go together. The voice actings are easy to listen and understand, also matches each character's personality and looks (although the joker guy's is quite comic relief). If you enjoy serious, creepy and unique stories, get this game.

A Flawed Masterpiece

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: October 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is an RPG that tells a n entertaining story of murder set in the present time.It's based on a girl named Maya,a reporter, who works for a popular teen mag.You start game following leads on the Joker,a serial killer.The "rumor" is that one can contact this murderer for hire by simply calling there own celluar phone.The game takes place in Japan I believe and has
some nice backgrounds and atmosphere.The in-game graphics are good and the CG is beatiful,using anime style drawing.The voice acting was great and the music had strong techno and jazz tones,which is all great.In fact this whole is very differant from tradition RPG's.It's set in a gothic world where everything
is dark. It's strong occult themes and deep characters are very
off the beaten path.what I didn't like about this game is it's battle system.You start a fight with a set of questions from your enemy,if you please him' he'll give you an item.That's cool.
But fights are preset meaning you give the members (ALL members)
tasks to do in a fight.I, personally, don't like games that use
systems like this. If you are into stragy RPG's then you might like this, because story is great,but rent first.

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