With Persona 3 and 4 reviving this once dormant franchise, Atlus has decided to give PSP owners a chance to see where the series started with a remake of the original on the PS1. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona brings a lot of stuff back to the game that North American gamers missed out on back in the day along with adding some new stuff that helps make it a good fit for the PSP. We got our hands on the final build to see how the game differs from the newer installments that we’re familiar with.

Persona’s story starts with this group of eight kids performing what they think is an innocent ritual that is supposed to summon a Persona in front of them, which surprisingly works. They are quickly struck by lightning out of nowhere and gain the power of controlling Personas, which are basically gothic Pokemon in a sense, just before a strange supernatural event occurs that brings demons into their world. Of course, there is somebody behind all of this and you discover that answer earlier than you’d really expect, but the chase to catch him makes up most of the game we’ve played so far. Beyond just the basic improvements to localization that are to be expected, the Snow Queen quest has returned so that North American players can finally check it out since it was left out of the original.

If you’re not familiar with Persona, you probably should temper expectations that the recent sequels have given you since it is definitely a PS1 game with some rough edges that have been smoothed out by sequels. The visuals are definitely still the same as they were on the PS1, though they seem to be a bit sharper and have been reworked to fit the PSP’s widescreen display. Movement is confined to diagonal movement in normal areas, first-person for dungeons, and then a zoomed-out perspective of the city as you move an icon around the streets towards points of interest. It will definitely take some time to get used to these different means of getting around compared to Persona 4.

Fans of being able to pick and choose which encounters to take on in Persona 4 dungeons will be disappointed to find out that they are random in Persona, even the player/enemy advantage. Dungeons in Persona include some trap elements, mostly in the form of drops and spots that force you in a certain direction. Dungeons also include a few rooms that you won’t find normally in Persona 4, from normal rooms with chests in them to the Velvet Room or a save point. For the most part, the dungeons haven’t really changed that much between this and Persona 4, minus the first-person view point.

As the title states, Persona is all about the Personas you take on and control in battle. This might be where you’ll find the biggest difference between how this and Persona 4 handle one of its features. In Persona, you actually chat with a type of enemy and use any number of approaches, from persuasion to pleading to dancing, until the eager portion of their mood meter is full so you can request their spell card. Once you get a spell card, the battle is over without any experience gained, so it’s wise to not go overboard with collecting cards when fighting is important, as well. Take at least two spell cards to Igor at the Velvet Room and he can help you fuse any combination of them together into a usable Persona. You’re able to add an object to get any one of numerous side effects, like a specific spell, to your new Persona’s repertoire.

The difference between Persona use and creation between Persona and Persona 4 continues with the actual use in battle. You’re only able to take on a Persona when your character’s Persona level equals or succeeds the Persona’s personal level, but there’s another layer on this Persona situation. A Persona doesn’t even offer all of its moves or spells right away, so as you use it more, it ranks up to gain new moves until it maxes out at the eighth rank. At that point, you can keep on using it if it suits your needs, but the game seems to be built around creating new Personas and aiming to create the most powerful Personas you can find. Luckily, you’re able to carry three Personas for each of the five people in your party and an extra 16 in the Velvet Room, so there’s a decent amount of storage for Personas you like.

Persona’s battle system hasn’t changed much over the years, though it does feature one major difference. The formation of your party is very important, so keeping weaker characters in the back will keep them safer, but usually at the cost of some range. There are a good variety of formations you can create and save to switch between on the fly in battle. Other differences include the gun option, as each party member has a gun of some kind that is another option in battle if the enemies in front of you are weak to it. The whole analysis feature doesn’t check off the results of your attacks like Persona 4, but reveals their entire profile after you win your first fight against them.

What’s become readily apparent from the 20 hours of Persona we’ve played to this point is that this is definitely a predecessor to the Persona games you’ve likely played by now. Things have definitely changed in the twelve years between this game’s original release and the release of Persona 4, so you can see where the series started on September 22 on both retail shelves and PSN. Look for a review next week, maybe as early as September 1.

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About This Author: Chris Selogy

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