1996 Atlus - Atlus - PSX
I had very high hopes for Persona. It takes place in the modern world, it has a unique battle system involving more than just fighting, and the irrevocably cool concept of demonic possession. Unfortunately, I can't think of a single thing that was done right in this game, no matter how amazing it could have been.
Persona begins with some of your characters and some NPCs in an abandoned lot, performing some kind of magic ritual, because rebelling by smoking is just so last week. Something goes terribly wrong (gee, who could have guessed?), and the world. . .or maybe just the town your characters live in. . .is flooded with demons. Your task is to run around and figure out what's going on, and then stop it.
First, the graphics are downright ugly. The overhead map is a mass of gray squares with a little green cursor representing your character. The dungeon screens are akin to a very, very old PC adventure game, except that the lack of landmarks and such make navigation extremely difficult. The battle and field screens are nothing special, but at least not as bad as the rest.
The music and sound was unmemorable, and poorly executed. . .when you hear a gunshot a few seconds after the bullet has hit the target, that's a BAD thing.
The story is the most predictable tripe I have ever seen in an RPG. Perhaps the developers, whom I believe are from Japan, don't know much about American pop culture, and therefore thought they were being original, or at least entertaining. Unfortunately, they were wrong.
The characters are your standard horror movie cast, including the token black guy, who plays basketball and seems to speak in some sort of 'ebonics'. . .however, given the poor translation, it's difficult to tell.
The battle system had quite a bit of potential. The fighting itself took place on a grid-like system, but before the fighting began, you had the chance to talk to the enemy, which can provoke certain reactions. The talk function is more entertaining than the battles themselves, but the novelty wears off rather quickly. This is, of course, due to the poor translation; the various talk commands are strangely named, and the lines your characters spout are strange, confusing, lame, and not in the good way either.
As far as the fighting itself goes, it's a turn-based system which takes place on a grid. Character and enemy placement are important, as line of sight and attack range comes into play. Beyond that, each character has a special magical spell, which summons their Persona. Much like other games' summon spells, this tends to destroy all the enemies.
I seem to have. . .*cough*. . .misplaced my copy of Persona (thankfully), and even if I still had it, I wouldn't bear to play another minute of it to produce more substance for this anti-cenotaph of a review.
2/10
//James
