GAMING REVIEW: Persona 2: Innocent Sin

Persona 2: Innocent Sin is the “latest” remake that Atlus has made available for the PlayStation Portable. We all know that Persona 3 Portable was released way back in July 6, 2010 with a new female character and NPCs who players can interact with and form Social Links to, downgraded exploration mechanics, and the eerily-familiar dungeon crawling graphics that has garnered positive to negative reception from players worldwide. Persona 2: Innocent Sin, by the way, is a far more different beast than Persona 3.

Originally released for the PlayStation in 1999, Persona 2:Innocent Sin, during the PlayStation’s countdown to eternal demise, gave players a unique RPG experience with the introduction of a unique summoning system called Personas. During those times, role-playing games like Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, and Wild Arms employed cumbersome gameplay staples composed of turn-based battle mechanics and end-battle looting, which created repetitive, predictable moments for players. Persona 2 is different, the pioneer of avant garde in Japanese role-playing games, and the immovable fortress that fortified Persona 3 and 4’s global influence.

Unlike Persona 3 and 4, Persona 2: Innocent Sin assimilates basic role-playing mechanics (turn-based combat, attacking, and skill spamming), into which the main characters of the game gain valuable experience points from defeating demons plaguing the cursed corridors of Seven Sisters High. Persona 2: Innocent Sin manages to entertain the crowd with a few surprising modifications this side of dungeon-crawling – players converse with the game’s opponents to earn their loyalty or obtain sour animosity.

Unlike Persona 3 and 4, from which Social Links improve the main character’s base statistics through the fusion of different Personas belonging to a different category of Arcana, Persona 2: Innocent Sin strengthens Tatsuya Souo (the default name of the game’s hero) through the acquisition of Tarot cards accrued by contacting and socializing demons in battle. Tarot cards are then converted into more powerful Personas inside the Velvet Room.

Conversation is perhaps the chief premise that makes Persona 2: Innocent Sin a unique RPG. In addition to engaging demons in witty or destructive conversations, players are also given the opportunity to spread rumors, which can open up new portals and revelations that progress the game in multiple storytelling frames. Persona 2: Innocent Sin, despite its outdated graphics and intolerable loading, reiterates the Persona-summoning experience that has able to withstand the test of time and competing, high-market RPGs in glorious fashion.

Final Verdict

Graphics – 7
This is just a remake of the original Persona 2: Innocent Sin for the PlayStation. Nothing fancy. Nothing new. The opening theme does not create enough diversion to keep us from realizing that this is the same Persona 2: Innocent Sin 12 years back during the PlayStation’s Golden Age.

Gameplay – 9
Persona 2: Innocent Sin inspired the implementation of the Social Links for Persona 3 and 4, and it could possibly make a comeback in Atlus’s rumored development of Persona 5 for the PlayStation 3. However, Persona 2: Innocent Sin effectively fuses the basic RPG elements with a dash of “conversational combat” with enemies, which is the bedrock of improving the Persona deck to a whole new level. Different responses and special reward await for those players who invest on the game’s emotionally bewitching mini-game.

Sound – 9
Dialog pops up during some of the game’s critical moments, and there is little acclaim coming from the game’s voice-acting department. The catchy, memorable background music manages to save the day, inspiring players to keep on fighting or re-enter the Velvet Room to listen The Poem for Everyone’s Souls.

Replay Value – 10
The New Game+ allows players to re-visit their journey and experiment more on the game’s almost unchanging combat landscape.

Final Score – 8/10