Sin is In - Persona 2: Innocent Sin

I’ve heard about that Giten game, but don’t know anything about it. Is it like the black sheep of the SMT franchise?

I’m a big dummy who got consumed by Animal Crossing and Plague Times so I actually didn’t notice Update 1 got posted!

I actually like Tatsuya’s canon name, so I’m glad you’re going with it.

Literally never noticed this the first time I played this but YEAH, he did. Huh!

Assuming there is still time, I feel like Tatsuya would have an idea on what to do and would go to college to get a degree. It seems like a very “I’m a mostly regular protagonist” thing to do.

You’re right but he’s still my favorite.

As for what Eikichi’s deal is I’m pretty sure he’s meant to be a sort of trans sub-group in Japan.

If Hanya can sense this stuff, do you think they have paranormal days like snow days?

“Parents of students at Seven Sisters High should be advised that the school will be closed today. The cafeteria and most of the first floor has been sucked into a hell dimension. A group of True Friends and their one cool teacher are already on the scene.”

Now that someone has brought it up I have to ask: does anybody here know more about Giten Megami Tensei and about how good or bad it is?

Let me start by saying whoops, that update wasn’t meant to be posted yet. I was working on it and double-pressed enter when I was trying to space something out.

I honestly don’t know much about it, but it seems like it was legitimately made by Atlus (and not a Hotel Mario kind of thing where it was outsourced). I can make a couple of guesses as to why it exists.

Atlus had dabbled in the PC market before, with ports of both Megami Tensei and Megami Tensei II on the PC-88. Around the same time that Giten Megami Tensei came out, Atlus had been working on porting the SNES SMT games (1, 2, and If) onto the PS1.

Giten Megami Tensei is apparently meant to be a sort of bridge between the original Megami Tensei games and Shin Megami Tensei, so my guess there is that Atlus was sort of testing the waters to see if they could do a cheap and easy PC re-release of the SNES games the way they had on the Sega CD and later the PS1.

As for why it’s an h-game, that’s probably because that sort of thing was par for the course on the PC-98.

You know, that’s not what I thought at first - I figured he was more like Elly where she just really wants to be English except he just really wants to be a Western punk rocker. Given what I know about this game and LGBT themes though, I could see that being a thing. Kind of sucks that they didn’t keep up with that in the later games.

That’s actually not outside the realm of possibility, given that SMT If is technically the first game in the Persona series. The split between the timelines occurs because the world knows about the existence of demons before they manage to end the world in SMT 1.

Then again though, Devil Summoner (which is also canon to Persona) has demons invade an entire city and no one seems to care all that much.

Update 2: Joker, But Not That One (Click Here to Read)

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I’ve had… a long couple of days. I posted this update early by accident, people read it even though I deleted it, and then I thought the site un-deleted it so I wiped my work only to find out it was actually deleted. Oh well, time to re-do this.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Miyabi’s nickname in the fan translation (which is actually accurate as far as I know) is “Hanaji”. The localizers changed it to “Kozy” as a shot at Kouji “Cozy” Okada, one of the six founders of Atlus. Mark in Persona 1 was modelled after him as a joke.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Cozy Okada no longer works at Atlus - he left the company in 2003. The last game he worked on for Atlus was Digital Devil Saga (aka Avatar Tuner) before making his own studio called Gaia. Gaia was pretty much immediately eaten by Sony and made a handful of games. The only one I’d heard of is Folklore on the PS3, which is basically SMT but an action RPG.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I actually have a copy of Folklore. It’s a game that had a lot of potential but is severely undermined by the fact that you have to play through each section of the game twice in a row to progress.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Meet Eikichi. The first time I did this update I said he looked like someone who tried out for the position of SMT mid-boss and was rejected for being too over the top.

Angry: “Hey… what’s this about Tatsuya? What are you three scheming?”

Angry: “Michel Eikichi, I take it?”

Smug: “Yeah yeah yeah! Do I got you, babe?”

Surprised: “What… are you smoking?”

Angry: “What was that, you little–!?”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Honestly, this sounds like the plot of an episode of Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Normal: “Hold it, Tatsuya! I hate to stoop this low… but for the sake of my bros, I can’t let you go that easily.”

Angry: “For my honor as the Death Boss, I’m dragging you into my band!”

Angry: “Death Boss!? More like Undie Boss!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: You want to climb the corporate ladder, you’re gonna have to drop some pants.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: This line is kind of a mistranslation for reasons I don’t quite understand. Eikichi is actually saying “Come, Shinigami!” because right now, he thinks his Persona is a Japanese death god that’s following him around. Considering that Death Note was officially translated years before this re-release, I don’t know why the localizers made that choice.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: This time around, I’m not going to be doing Personalogs like I did with Persona 1. The reason for this is that for whatever reason, Atlus made a lot of unique Persona designs for Persona 2 that don’t have concept art lying around. Also, the game itself kind of does a mini-Personalog in the description of each Persona. If a Persona does have P2 concept art available, I’ll stick it at the end of each update.

New Persona: Rhadamanthus

Origin: Greece

First Appearance: P2 Original

9_2iVBrO_400x400: You’ll notice that the damage type chart in Persona 2 is a lot simpler than Persona 1’s. For one thing, a bunch of elements got cut: Gravity, Blast, Miracle and Curse are all out. The physical damage types have been simplified to five (as opposed to 10 in Persona 1) and there’s no guns anymore. The sole new addition is Water, which happens to be Rhadamanthus’s element.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: You can’t see it, but Rhadamanthus casts a water spell at Lisa, just like in the Persona awakening battles in P1.

New Persona: Eros

Origin: Greece

First Appearance: Giten Megami Tensei (PC-98)

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Eros is, I believe, the only starter Persona to have been in a different game - in this case, the non-canon Giten Megami Tensei. Some people asked about it when I first posted this update by accident, so here’s some answers as to what that is.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Giten Megami Tensei was an officially-made game (as far as anyone knows) on the PC-98 that was later ported to regular computers, as the PC-98 had a proprietary architecture that made it incompatible with the IBM x86 PCs that everyone outside of Japan was using. It’s got the equivalent of an AO rating in Japan, mostly because it’s an h-game. It was released in 1997 and was graphically far behind even Persona 1, and was more or less on par with the SNES SMT games.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: The plot of GMT is supposed to be a bridge between the NES Megami Tensei games and Shin Megami Tensei 1, where you play as a Devil Buster in the post-apocalypse that happens halfway through SMT1. No one has ever tried to fan translate it, and probably for good reason. I’ve heard it won’t even run on modern PCs without severe patching.

New Persona: Vulcanus

Origin: Rome

First Appearance: P2 Original

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Oh look, it’s a rare Space Dildo.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: No, I haven’t forgotten you, though your subtitles are a hell of a lot less annoying than they were in Persona 1. You look a little… different though. Weren’t you a middle-aged guy in P1 with black hair?

Surprised: “Phile…mon?”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I did an entire thing on who Philemon is in the Persona 1 LP.

Philemon: “The power you hold is called Persona. It is the power to summon the selves within you, the gods and the demons you harbor.”

Philemon: “The self suffused with divine love… the self capable of demonic cruelty… people live by wearing different masks.”

Philemon: “Your currrent self is only one of those innumerable masks. Your Persona is also among your countless selves.”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: This definition is closer to Jung than the one he gives in Persona 1.

Normal: “That’s… me…? What are you…?”

Philemon: “I summoned you here to tell you this. Now go, and with your Personas break the chains of karma laid against you…”

Normal: “Even the part about rumors coming true, and the stuff about the future…? That’s too much for it to be a coincidence.”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: If it’s anything like the Persona Game in 1, definitely do not do that! I am not dealing with twenty Maki clones again!

Normal: “The thing where you call your own cell and it shows up? Why would I want to try that?”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I was a little surprised that everyone just kind of has a cellphone, given that this game takes place in 1999. From what I remember, having a cellphone at that time was pretty uncommon, especially for high schoolers. It could also be that the Persona universe is a few years ahead of its time.

Sad: “To test if it was just a dream or something more. If the rumor really comes true, then it was all real…”

Normal: “I’ll pass. There’s no way all that could be possible…”

Sad: “That’s why I’ll prove it. Hey… are you scared or something?”

Normal: “If you say so… it does feel like we should be doing something after a dream like that. Let’s see if this is for real.”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Wow, this guy looks like a total dumbass.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: He turns people into a generic action game protagonist who uses voodoo powers to hunt the ghosts of serial killers?

Joker: “Your trump cards have been spoiled…”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: That skull looks so 90’s CGI it hurts.

Angry: “K-Ken! Shogo! Takeshi!”

Angry: “You bastard… what did you do!?”

Joker: “Ideals only cause pain to the powerless. I have freed them from that anguish… better not to yearn for impossible dreams.”

Joker: “They are lifeless shells of dreams… they can be seen, but are not. They will be forgotten and become true shadows. But enough chitchat. I have other business with you.”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: “Fanna” is a Cantonese phrase meaning “I don’t like this!” or “How annoying!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: What this is meant to show is that there are team-up attacks in Persona 2, but they work differently than in any of the later games (where they mostly only occurred upon knocking all enemies down).

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Uh, I think you’re in the wrong game. The thieves are Persona 5.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I feel like Persona 2 is way more cutscene-heavy than Persona 1 was.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: The choice we made with Ms. Saeko only really effects this as far as I know.

Joker: “Hahaha… Aaaaaahahaha! I’ll never let your dreams come true!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Seriously? You sound like a shitty Ted Woolsey translation of a SNES RPG.

Joker: “You should know by now… why I came to you all today!”

Joker: “Impossible! This can’t be… how could this happen!? What meaning is there in killing you if you do not remember!?”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Is this going to be a Broly thing where Joker is Tatsuya’s mortal enemy because he was too loud as a baby?

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I’m not sure who’s a dumber villain at this point: this guy or Aki.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I honestly have to wonder if this was at all inspired by Corpse Party, which would’ve come out on PC-98 around the same time that Giten Megami Tensei did, around two years before this game.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Anyway, once we talk to everyone…

Sad: “Plus, we don’t know where to start looking. Let’s get someone else to do something about him – like the police!”

Angry: “Who’d believe us!? We gotta arm up and kill that guy, or we’re all screwed.”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Next time, we’ll meet a returning character from Persona 1 and also see how both Devil Summoner and Shin Megami Tensei If are canon to the Persona series.

1 Like

I can’t help but be slightly confused by the decision to try to do something paranormal after the whole Personas-emerging thing. If I had to shoot at chupacabras to get them off my farm, I wouldn’t be going, “Tonight sounds like a good night to break in that oujia board!”

Also, I love Lisa’s “These guys are idiots” face.

I feel like once something supernatural happens, it’s actually a little worth seeing if it’s EVERYTHING or not. Best to check just in case, you know?

The expressions in this game are incredibly good, and Lisa’s are probably the best next to Eikichi’s.

Do you have any plans of LPing SMT if… after you’re done with this game?

Maybe. There’s an LP of it on the archive, but it was done around a decade before the translation patch released and it mostly likely was not done on real hardware (though the LPer apparently spoke Japanese and imported SNES carts tend to be fairly cheap). I tend to avoid LPing games that are already on the archive, but in this case it might be worth doing.

Do you have any plans do to a LP for SMT IV, when you’re done with this game?

From what I heard, that LP is only one of 5 paths. There are still the other paths, plus there’s no rule that you can’t LP the same game.

Click Here for Update 3

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Welcome back to Persona 2.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: The world map is similar to Persona 1’s, but also very different. For one thing, it controls a lot better. There’s random people on the street we can talk to, but most of them don’t have anything interesting to say.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Persona 2 also dramatically simplifies the shop menu from how it was in Persona 1. Instead of crawling through a mall and forgetting where things were half the time (looking at you, Snow Queen) you get a menu of places you can go. Right now, we want to head to Shiraishi Ramen.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Oh look, it’s the dev self-insert all grown up. Tanmen, if you’re curious, is a ramen dish with pork belly in it. Strawberry tanmen is a theoretically disgusting dish, but I find pretty much anything with pork in it to be nasty.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: At least the game shits all over him. You never even meet him in Eternal Punishment, because he gets chased off by assassins before the game starts. If you’ve played the Raidou games (or Soul Hackers) you might’ve heard of the Kuzunoha Detective Agency. I doubt they even trust him with a COMP or a GUMP.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: The game is going to make a whole lot of references to Devil Summoner, which has not been fan translated and seems kind of crap even if it was. PeaceDiner (why am I not surprised their name is a P1 reference) did an LP of Devil Summoner a few years ago that I’d definitely recommend you skim through.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Gyoza are a kind of dumpling that Japanese cuisine borrows from China. They usually have pork and cabbage inside, but I’ve had vegetarian ones from a Chinese restaurant before. Actually, dessert Gyoza sounds like a really good idea - maybe do fruit instead of red beans and dip it in icing. I’d eat it.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: You say that, but Yakuza 0 established that every Asian restaurant is actually a front for an international arms smuggling ring. I’m not sure if this includes non-Asian restaurants that happen to be in Asia but I’m guessing it does. What I’m saying here is that I want to go to a pizza place and order the “special pizza” and the guy comes out of the back room with a giant fuckoff sword and a large special, no anchovies.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Anyway, to figure out what we have to do next, we need to talk to Lisa, who for some reason just kinda… knows.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Now, I got a bit confused here because I thought by “chief” she was referring to Kozy, so I went back to Sumaru Prison to see if she was still there. No, what we need to do is exit Kameya Alley and come back.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: This time, you’ll notice that there’s a new destination available: the Kuzunoha Detective Agency.

Confused: “Th-that thing scared me… what the hell is this?”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: If you’ve read my Persona 1 LP, you’ll know who Tamaki is. Just in case you haven’t…

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Tamaki is the female protagonist from Shin Megami Tensei If. She’s also a point of controversy because she’s designed after a Japanese actress by the name of Yuki Uchida, who Tadashi Satomi (the scenario writer for Persona 1 and 2) had a massive crush on to the point of making a self-insert character and shipping it with her. There’s a very good reason Tadashi Satomi doesn’t work at Atlus anymore.

Surprised: “You guys spread those just to tease Tadashi!?”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I am really, really surprised that Atlus didn’t hire someone to sit by Tadashi Satomi’s desk and blast an air horn into his ear any time he tried to do a self-insert or got horny for late-90s idols.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: This guy. The game never tells you this, and there’s no way you could know it unless you played Devil Summoner, but Todoroki is actually the protagonist of Devil Summoner… or rather, he’s being possessed by the protagonist of Devil Summoner. I’m going to post some spoilers for Devil Summoner as it was never localized and probably never will be.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: In Devil Summoner, the protagonist character dies pretty early into the game, and winds up possessing the body of a detective by the name of Kyouji Kuzunoha. At some point between Soul Hackers and Innocent Sin, the protagonist of Devil Summoner switched bodies to Todoroki’s.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Here’s how rumors work, at least as far as I understand it. There’s two types: rumors you get from “rumormongers” and rumors you get from demons. The demon ones are all supposedly useless - they basically get you Personas with alternate spells that aren’t worth the trouble.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I don’t think rumors work that fast.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Char Siu ramen (also spelled “Chashu”) is a kind of ramen that originated in China. It’s made with sliced pork that’s been braised in “chashu sauce” which as far as I understand it is mostly just soy sauce.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: On a side note, banana char siu ramen sounds like something you’d have seen in one of those cookbooks from the 1960s where they thought it was acceptable to cover bananas in ham and then dip the resulting monstrosity in mayonnaise.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: You know, when they said she was an ex-spy who sold weapons, you’d think they’d mean guns and not guitar cases… unless the guitar case has a rifle in it.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I have no idea how char siu ramen tastes, mostly because there’s a handful of ramen places in Connecticut, but I kind of want some even though I don’t usually eat pork because beef is the superior meat.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Wonder who that could be?

Surprised: “Haime!? Really? I wonder if that’s Joker?”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Lisa is about one step away from being one of those weeaboos that does the whole “Gomenasorry!” thing.

Angry: “Let’s go back to Sevens, Tatsuya! Hanya might know something about Joker!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Here’s P2’s world map. Thankfully, they did away with the map being one contiguous thing like it was in Persona 1. No more memorizing exactly where everything is from everything else here.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: One thing that’s going to come up a few times in the next couple of minutes is the idea of the Pleiades, and this is the first real reference to them.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: The Pleiades are two things: a cluster of stars and a name for a group of Greek goddesses who were probably invented to explain the cluster of stars. The name means “Daughters of Pleione”, as the goddesses were said to be the daughters of Pleione and Atlas.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: The weird thing is, if you’ll look back at the clock in the cutscene (or at Tatsuya’s emblem in the first update) you’ll notice that they only have six stars. This is because the ancient Japanese recognized the constellation differently than the Greeks did… though why they picked the name Seven Sisters but used the Japanese constellation is a mystery.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I had to dive down a fucking hole to find out what the deal with this is. Namu Amida Butsu is a chant (and apparently not a mantra) that’s part of something called Pure Land Buddhism.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Pure Land Buddhism is a denomination of Buddhism based around worshipping a Buddha by the name of Amida Buddha (as opposed to the original Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama) who is also known as the “Buddha of Infinite Light and Life”. It’s apparently the main denomination of Buddhism in Japan. The chant “Namu Amida Butsu” means “I entrust myself to Amida Buddha”. Apparently, that chant isn’t meant to be a petition-style prayer, but whatever.

Smug: “Take it easy, gramps! There’s no need to be scared. Long as I’m around, you got nothing to worry about!”

Normal: “Are you talking about… that teacher who died in the clock tower?”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: This feels way too much like a standard medieval fantasy RPG.

Angry: “Kehhei!? What’s going on!? Does this mean it isn’t enough to take the emblems off our uniforms!?”

Angry: “Let’s hurry and find Principal Hanya! We need to lift the curse before my face and Tatsuya’s gets all messed up!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: “Kehhei” is a Cantonese word that’s basically the equivalent of saying “Dammit!” I don’t know why Lisa would use that with the !? rather than just an exclamation point.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: As soon as we step into the school, we get our first random battle. You’ll notice in the (admittedly blurry due to the PSP’s video output) screenshot that the minimap turned yellow. Persona 2 has a “encounter tracker” mechanic much like a few of the SMT games where your minimap will change colors to show you how close you are to your next random encounter.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: So, let’s talk about Persona 2’s demon negotiations. Like the first game, all the enemies we face are traditional SMT demons rather than shadows. I actually answered no because… well, let’s see. I’ve done most of SMT 1, Persona 1, Persona 5, and about three minutes of Strange Journey before I deleted it off my flashcart because it sucked. I’m practically a qualified Devil Buster.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Okay, fine. If you’re gonna guilt trip me…

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Just like Persona 1, we’ve got the emotion gauge back. It works exactly the same way as it did in P1: each character has a list of negotiation techniques and each demon has specific techniques that’ll make it feel a certain way. Unlike P1, there’s no optional party members so we don’t have to worry about a Kuchisake-onna situation where we can’t negotiate because we don’t have the right party member.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: The main difference is that instead of always wanting to max out Eager for spell cards, we now have two options. Maxing out Happy will cause the demon to make a pact with you. I’m not sure what that does other than unlock new dialog options and maybe change what the demons drop. I think you can use it the same way you used spell cards in P1 to make demons fuck off instantly via negotiation.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: There is a catch to this, though. Maxing out Angry will cause any pact you have with a demon to be broken. That’s not a huge deal, given that I think negotiations in P2 are less random than in P1.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: This part, right here? In the intro for the LP, I said that this game is largely considered a “two steps forward, one step back” situation from Persona 1. In exchange for fixing the godawful EXP system, we have to deal with this. You see, Personas in P2 are not made from spell cards or demon fusion. Instead, you have to collect Tarot Cards like it’s fucking Yu-gi-oh or some shit and then believe in the heart of the cards to get new Personas.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Okay, fine. You can go without me repeatedly spamming Agi at you because you’re immune to bullets in pretty much every SMT game that has guns in it.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: The first place we want to head (or at least, that I went to) is the Courtyard.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: When we got here earlier, there was a statue of Hanya on the pedestal. I wonder where it’s gone off to? My bet is that Jihei and his party showed up and tore it down.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Nope, the statue’s just moving around.

Normal: “Yep. It’s movin’.”

Normal: “…So that settles it?”

Normal: “I think so.”

Angry: “Gaaaaah! Hell no! That’s impossible! How could something this ridiculous actually happen!? M-my 3,000 yen!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I should mention that while they’re talking, the statue is walking circles around the Narurato Stone.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Also, I think this dialog right here is better than most of the dialog in P1. If this was P1, we’d have Mark going “The statue’s moving, guys!” and Nanjo responding “You dunce! According to my calculations there’s a 51% chance that the statue is actually just an animatronic.” like the Jimmy Neutron-ass motherfucker he is.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: As soon as I went back into the school, I got into an encounter with Nightmare (Moon is the demon group she’s in). The good news is that we can negotiate for tarot cards even if the demon is higher level than we are.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: If I remember right, every playable character in this game (with… two exceptions?) can be gay. The weird part about this is that modern Atlus is pretty much the exact opposite - see that one scene in Persona 5 or Catherine Full Body and the controversy surrounding that. I don’t really understand why they made that turn other than that most of the people who made this game don’t work at Atlus anymore.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: However, for negotiation purposes, this is the right answer.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Most of the demons in the school just want to go to school, and I feel like if Jack Frost can do it (see: SMT If…) they can too.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Unfortunately, I don’t think Moon-type demons are the magic-absorbing powerhouses they were in Persona 1. Lilim in particular got nerfed so hard there’s almost no reason to fuse her.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: The game doesn’t really tell us this, but we’re trying to get to the Principal’s Office, which is on the third floor. I should’ve done some grinding before we went there but that’s fine. That’s another issue with P2: if you know where you’re going, you won’t run into enough encounters to be appropriately levelled. You also don’t get EXP from negotiations.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I fucked up a negotiation with this poltergeist, so I had to fight it.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: One neat thing Persona 2 does is eliminates the “battle line” we saw in Persona 1. The party (and enemies) will move around the battlefield as they fight. Eikichi starts closest to the enemy because he was the one negotiating.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Lisa’s main weapon is kung fu, making her this party’s Reiji. I wish Reiji was playable in this game, because he was criminally underused in P1.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Remember how I said the only way that guitar case would be useful is if it had a gun in it? The guitar case IS a gun!

9_2iVBrO_400x400: No more dumbass “one character at a time” EXP system to deal with, no more P-levels.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Unlike P1, Tatsuya gets a small stat bonus on levelup outside of the points we can assign. You’ll notice that Magic Attack and Magic Defense are no longer linked to the Persona. Most guides for this game will tell you to max out Dexterity and put a few points in Vitality, so we’ll do that.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: To get an idea of how low the encounter rate is in P2, I managed to get here from the start of the school with only three random encounters.

Normal: “Wai! Hey, you! Have you seen the principal?”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Yeah, I’m sure he can handle Joker when he got wrecked by Hypnos in P1.

Smug: “The great Michel comes all the way to Sevens and its own principal isn’t here? sigh The great rock 'n roll swindle!”

Smug: “Okay! Time to introduce to one and all the headlining act, yours truly, Mi–”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: This is like, the second time in 20 minutes we’ve seen Eikichi flat on the floor.

Angry: “WHAT!? Okay, back up! This whole thing happened because YOU summoned that Joker!”

Angry: “So take some responsibility and do something about this!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Didn’t he say he’d handle it back like… ten minutes ago?

Angry: “Kehhei! Now you’ve crossed a line, buster! How was I supposed to know at the time what would happen!?”

Angry: “And what’s with all your big talk!? You’re just an Undie Boss who pervs on people by yanking their pants down! Undie Boss! Undie Boss!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Lisa will now be known as Ginko for the rest of the game. This is because “gin” is the Japanese word for silver (as a play on her last name), with the “ko” part being a common ending for female names the way adding an “a” or “ina” is in English. This is also probably a reference to Devil Summoner, where there’s a character by the name of Madame Ginko who runs a club and gives jobs to the protagonist.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Meet Maya Amano, the protagonist of Eternal Punishment. Her friend next to her might be a bit familiar to those of you who read the Persona 1 LP.

Normal: “Things seem to be getting steamy here. C’mon, kids, not everybody wants to get caught up in a lover’s quarrel!”

Normal: “At times, I’m am ambitious reporter! Other times, a mild-mannered editor! But my true identity is…”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Oh shit! Yukino! You’re still level 60 and have that Armaiti I built for you, right? I mean, unless you levelled up to 99 in the SEBEC route that canonically happened after Snow Queen.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I guess I was wrong when I said none of the P1 cast went to college, because Yukino apparently did.

Smug: “Really!? Great! Here, babe, take my picture for the cover of the–”

Normal: "We came here to do interviews for a special report we’re working on, called ‘The Rumors of High Schoolers.’ "

Normal: “The emblem curse here at Sevens is the best known one after the Joker Game, you know.”

Normal: “But it’s been chaos since just after we got here. No one’s been willing to give us an interview!”

Normal: “What’s going on here!? Can you tell us what you know? Is it related to what we came here to interview people about?”

Normal: “Hmm… I’m not sure I buy that.”

Smug: “True stories, babies! We’re not looking for Sevens’ principal and we certainly never got stomped by any Joker!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Side note here, Yukino is 20 and Eikichi is 16. Lisa and Tatsuya are both 17.

Normal: “If you’re trying to cover it up, I take it that it’s a pretty big scoop! In which case… we’re definitely not letting you go!”

Angry: “Look out! You gotta stay back, ladies!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: These are basic zombies, the kind Yukino killed probably a hundred of before Snow Queen even started. She’s got Armaiti, one Megidolaon and they’re toast.

Surprised: “H-How do you know about demons!?”

New Persona: Maia

Origin: Greece

Persona 2 Original

Returning Persona: Vesta

Origin: Rome

First Appearance: Shin Megami Tensei If… (SNES)

image

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Wait… what? Where’s Armaiti? Atlus really should’ve put in some kind of save transfer thing like they did with IS and EP.

Surprised: “Whoa! What’s wrong? Were you that scared?”

Sad: “Huh…? Why am I crying? It’s so strange, but… sniff I can’t stop…”

Surprised: “How weird… I felt it, too. What was that wave of nostalgia…?”

Normal: “Could you elaborate? I know more than you’d think about demons. Maybe I could help you kids out a bit.”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I don’t know why, but this feels like something Jotaro would say in Diamond is Unbreakable. It’s entirely possible they were modelling Yukino’s dialog after it: the manga run of Jojo Part 4 ended in 1995.

Normal: “You mean you three have the same powers I do? Persona, huh… so it’s not just my guardian angel… and wow, I can’t believe you’re a Persona-user too, Yukki!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: As far as I know, it’s a coincidence (and not a reference to Revelations Persona where Yukino was called “Yuki”) that Maya calls her that. I think I mentioned this before, but Eternal Punishment uses the Revelations Persona names for the P1 characters.

Normal: “Have you guys never played it?”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I’m pretty sure this is another line almost entirely ripped from Diamond is Unbreakable, from the first time Jotaro meets Josuke.

Confused: “I played a kid’s game like that in a dream once, but…”

Surprised: “A dream…!?”

Normal: “Lisa, right? Know anything about this?”

Sad: “No, nothing… I’ve never played any game like that…”

Surprised: “Haime!? Seriously!? You’re gonna come along with us?”

Happy: “You three are chasing Joker himself, right? If we could catch him, that’d be one hell of a scoop! Plus, if we go with you, maybe I can find out how I became a Persona user.”

Normal: “I’ll tag along. Now that I know this guy’s in cahoots with demons, I can’t sit back and do nothing.”

Surprised: “Hold on a sec! Our only lead is Principal Hanya, and he’s not here. There’s nothing for us to do even if you come along!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: You’d think Yukino would have something to say here, given that she’s met Hanya and knows he’s not a Persona user.

Normal: “But Maya-san, how are we supposed to deal with this? Do you have a plan?”

Normal: “I know! Let’s destroy all the emblems in the school. Getting rid of the cause of the problem should help, right?”

Normal: “If rumors ARE coming true, the curse’ll be lifted once the emblems are gone. But could that really be happening?”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: “Think positive” and “Let’s think positive!” are Maya’s catch phrases.

Normal: “Like… the clocks in the classrooms? Their faces have the same design as our emblem.”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: In Japan (at least, supposedly) the Pleiades constellation has a few different names. One of them… is Subaru. That’s where the car company by the same name gets their emblem, which would technically be the same as the one Seven Sisters uses. If the curse extends to those, that might be a problem.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: We can talk to all of our party members, so let’s do that.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Essentially, the entirety of Persona 1 is non-canon. In fact, there is nowhere that actually shows the canon sequence of events in that game. Persona 2 assumes that Yukino went on the SEBEC route after Snow Queen.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Not to mention a giant penis monster and Nyx.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: SEBEC’s Kandori, who got defeated by the auto-battle button.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Once we try to leave the room…

Smug: “Could I bother you two fine misses for a second? I’ve got a special present for you as our new allies!”

Happy: “This is so cute! Can I really have one? Look, Yukki, they’re a matching set!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I’m not going to ask where Eikichi got a pair of pink handguns, nor am I going to ask why he didn’t mention that he had them until just now.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Yukino’s weapon of choice, just in case you didn’t read the Persona 1 LP, is a set of throwing knives.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Anyway, I had to cut recording short thanks to the asshole across the street, who had one of the thirty or so dead trees in his hard fall on a power line for the fifth time in two years. Next time, we’ll go on a quest to destroy every clock in Seven Sisters High School and also grind because I forgot to do that.

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SMT 4 is a game I could potentially do, since as far as I’m aware no completed LP exists of it. However, I’d have to do it on an emulator (due to 3DS capture hardware being incredibly expensive and the hack-based alternative not being great either) which I’m a little averse to.

There are actually four routes, and I’m not sure how I feel about playing through the game three times (two of the four routes are basically identical). I couldn’t finish SMT 1 on real hardware, and I’m sure that while If is a little less brutal it’s still an early SMT game. The last thing I’d want is to start another LP I can’t finish.

They are. I kind of wish Atlus had re-done the portraits for Persona 1 the same way they did for this game. It’s kind of jarring going from P1’s artstyle to this.

I love Eikichi but damn is he a fucking idiot sometimes.

My dude you popped a god out of your head by focusing real hard. Why did you take this bet?

Best I can find for this is that Ginko means Bank, and given she has a rich family… well, that follows. I coulda swore the instruction book had a guide of her Chinese and an explanation for the nickname but I can’t find it…

Yeah, I went and looked it up and edited the post. It’s actually a play on her last name, because “gin” is the Japanese word for silver. It’s also a reference to Devil Summoner, which must’ve been awkward for the localizers because Devil Summoner was never translated and Soul Hackers wouldn’t be for several years after the PSP version of Innocent Sin.

Click here for Update 4

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Welcome to Update 4, in which I realize that Persona 2 is not exactly the best Persona game.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Right outside the Principal’s Office, I run into Ratatoskr, who is a legendary squirrel from Norse mythology who runs up and down Yggdrasil delivering messages. In this game, Ratatotskr is a furry.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: There’s also Pixie, which we need to encounter a few times if we want some decent spells later.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: The problem with the negotiation system is this. Persona 2 is an extremely slow game - and I don’t mean the pacing. There’s long load screens before and after every battle, and the menus move very slowly compared to Persona 1’s. Negotiations in particular suck because every time you want to negotiate, you have to go through this menu, select a person, then hit “confirm” at the bottom.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: You can use two or three characters at once to negotiate, as seen here.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: This is another problem. The negotiation techniques all have lengthy animations (and sometimes multiple text boxes) associated with them. The animations are also very slow.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Just like in Persona 1, there’s a free heal spot in the first dungeon which can be abused to grind. Unfortunately, the enemies here give fuck all for EXP.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Shortly thereafter, we have our first Persona Mutation.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: There are four kinds of mutations, and all of them are things you want. They are:

  • Stats Increased - Does exactly what it says, increases all of the Persona’s stats. There’s a cap on how high they can go.

  • Two Ranks Up - Increases the Persona’s Rank by 2. Just like in Persona 1, Personas have six “Ranks”, with each one giving higher stats and access to more spells. At Rank 6, you can “return” a Persona to the Velvet Room to get an item.

  • Mutation Skill - Every Persona has a hidden “Mutation Skill” that is learned this way. Some are better than others.

  • Evolution - Some Personas can evolve into higher forms or into different Personas in the same Arcana tree. I’m not entirely sure how this works.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: There’s seven classrooms we need to enter to smash the clocks inside: three on the first floor, two on the second floor, and two on the third floor.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Right outside Room 1-A, the party learns their second Fusion spell: Blazing Burst. Fusion spells are pretty much exclusive to Persona 2 (P3 uses them but not nearly to the same degree).

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Fusion spells give you a cut-in image when used (this is something they did in the PSP remake). They’re cast by having two or more party members using certain spells on their turn. Blazing Burst requires two characters to use Agi (the lowest-tier fire spell) back to back. Right now, only Tatsuya and Yukino can do this. Fusion spells will only appear on your list if you’ve cast them once: you basically have to use a guide (or guess) to figure out how to use them.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: By the way, you might ask why in the last update I said we want to level Dexterity in the same way we levelled Agility in Persona 1. Let me explain.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Most Fusion spells do damage based on how high the Dexterity of the characters performing them is. That’s why.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I got a bunch of tarot cards off Pixies, and we want to use those, so let’s head to the Velvet Room.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Christ! What’s wrong with your face!? I mean, I know Igor is supposed to be a bit freaky looking…

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Anyway, the Velvet Room has changed significantly since Persona 1. In Persona 1, Igor fused demons into Personas by calling them on the phone. Here, things are a bit… different.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Nameless and Belladonna were both in Persona 1’s Velvet Room, but you couldn’t talk to them.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: The Demon Painter is supposed to be Kazuma Kaneko, the artist who did all of the original artwork for the early SMT games. He has a use if you find blank tarot cards, of which we have none.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Belladonna is a deaf singer, and Nameless is a blind pianist.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Anyway, this is the problem with Persona 2. Unlike every other Persona game, you have to grind negotiations to get tarot cards to make Personas. There’s a few familiar faces on the list.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Pascal the Dog costs 178 Fortune cards. I have no idea where the hell we’re going to find that many.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Just like in Persona 1, we have the option of giving certain items to a fused Persona. Skill cards give skills, Incense cards boost stats, and I have no idea what Material cards do.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Is this what a Stevie Wonder concert is like?

Returning Persona: Pixie

Origin: England

First Appearance: Megami Tensei II (NES)

9_2iVBrO_400x400: You’ll notice that none of the Personas in Persona 2 use the old art from the SNES games or Devil Summoner. I have no idea why Atlus did this and then re-used the shit out of Nocturne’s models in Persona 3 and 4.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: We can only hold a total of 10 personas, and that counts the five we have equipped. The guide for this game says you want to equip Pixie to Tatsuya. That’s wrong. You want to equip it to Maya, because her Persona SUCKS.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Most of the rooms are exactly the same: you go into the room, smash the clock, and either a party member or an NPC will confirm you’ve smashed the clock. 1-D is a bit different though: I think because the developers assumed you would do the rooms starting from the principal’s office on the third floor and working your way down.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: This line is super awkward.

Normal: “No… just some fatty called Kozy…”

Normal: “Wow… so Hanakouji-san goes to Sevens… haha… wow…”

Surprised: “Aiyah! Stooooop!”

Sweatdrop: “H-Hey, Undie Boss! I know Miyabi really well… what was your relationship with her?”

Angry: “Gah! Hold it in… keep it together…”

Sweatdrop: “Sooo… uh… how do you know her?”

Normal: “O-our relationship? Well…”

Smug: "She’s my ex-girlfriend! We were dating in grade school! We broke up eventually, but I still can’t forget her face when she cried and said, ‘Eikichi-kun, I can’t bear to be apart!’ "

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Anyway, I spend most of the next 30 minutes or so running around the school smashing all the clocks. The game is nice enough to put NPCs outside the rooms that do not have clocks in them.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: One thing I also figured out is that you can change the turn order for the party. This is why we don’t pump Agility like we did in Persona 1, because most of the time Tatsuya would just be waiting for the slower party members to be in the right position to do a fusion spell.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: This is why we got that Pixie, by the way. Around the second floor, the Pixie ranked up and learned Garu, allowing us to use Mega Blaze, which consists of two people using Agi and one using Garu. Mega Blaze hits all enemies, and given that a good amount of the enemies we’re fighting are immune to physical damage, this is a pretty good way to take them out.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Once you go through all the classrooms, you’ll get a prompt to go to the Teacher’s Lounge, which is on the second floor.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: If you haven’t read the Persona 1 LP, Ms. Saeko was Yukino’s teacher at St. Hermelin and also the person who took her out of the delinquent lifestyle. Yukino saved her from getting taken over by Nyx in the Snow Queen route.

Saeko: “Y-Yukino…? It really is you, Yukino! I transferred here last year. But never mind me – what are YOU doing here? Don’t tell me you’re redoing high school…?”

Happy: “Oh, no. I’m on assignment! I have a part-time job as an assistant photographer, so I came to cover a story.”

Surprised: “Aiyah! Ms. Saeko and Yukino-san know each other?”

Saeko: “She was a student of mine at my last school.”

Saeko: "Your timing in coming here wasn’t very good, I’m afraid. As you can see, we’re in a bit of a crisis…

Normal: “Yeah, about that, there’s something I need to tell you…”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: There’s three clocks in the teacher’s lounge, each with a convenient cardboard box underneath them Tatsuya can stand on to reach it.

Angry: “Damn Hamya… but if everyone’s like this, there’s not much we can do.”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Hanya’s nickname in the Japanese version of Persona 1 was “Hannya”, after the Japanese demon of the same name. If you’ve played Yakuza, you’ve probably seen one on Majima’s back. In the PSP re-release, it was changed to “Hamya” for reasons unknown.

Angry: “Anyway, don’t we have a big clock to go break?”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Chinyan is a Cantonese word meaning “Lover” or “Darling”.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I’m honestly surprised that Ms. Saeko didn’t develop a Persona at some point. This would be the second time she’s been mind controlled in two games.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: So yeah, here’s the thing about Lisa: despite having American parents, Lisa does not speak English.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: We can also talk to our party members quick, but only Lisa and Yukino have dialog I want to go over because it has a new Cantonese expression.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: “Kaumena!” means “Help!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: On the way out, we pick up another Fusion Spell, Kamaitaichi. This is done by using a water spell, an earth spell, and a wind spell in that order.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: We then level up and rank up Rhadamanthus, which allows us to get another fusion spell.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Wind Slash EX is performed using I think a wind spell and I think any sword-type move in that order. Theoretically, we can now do a ton of single-target damage by using Blazing Burst and Wind Slash EX on the same turn.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: I should mention that there’s also Earth Slice EX and Flame Cut EX, which work exactly the same way as Wind Slash only with a fire or earth spell in place of a wind one. Basically, every single-target elemental spell probably has a fusion spell with a sword.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: This seems weird until you realize that “Hai!” is supposed to be Cantonese… even though it has the same meaning in Japanese, which is “Okay!” or “Yes!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: We then need to talk to all of our party members. I really feel like Atlus didn’t quite understand pacing when they did this, because at this point we’re well over an hour into the game and most of that has been cutscenes and dialog.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Oh, right. Now would be a good time to mention that there’s a sidequest I missed. There’s around 14 of them in Innocent Sin, and most of them are not worth doing. In this case, we could’ve gone back to the detective agency and had them spread a rumor about a toilet ghost, which we’d then fight as a mini-boss. There’s not much of a reward for it and the window to do it ends pretty much right here.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Once we reach the stairs to the clock tower, Lisa lets us know we’re about to run into a boss fight. Thanks, Lisa.

Sigh: “Looks like Mr. Hanya’s not here, either. Let’s hurry and break the big clock so we can get outta here.”

Surprised: “U-U-Undie Boss! B-Behind! Behind you!”

Confused: “…Huh?”

Angry: “Ugh… Hamya!? Look, up there!”

Angry: “Principal Hanya! So you were mixed up with Joker! The emblem curse and everyone acting weird is all because you teamed up with Joker, isn’t it!? Fess up!”

Hanya: “Foolish girl! How dare you? The emblem curse is a divine punishment brought on by the students’ poor conduct!”

Hanya: “You fools forget that you’re students and waste your lives worrying about dating and fashion!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: If this sounds familiar at all, it’s because this is more or less the same spiel Morooka (the initial homeroom teacher) gives in Persona 4. Atlus recycled a lot of shit in Persona 4 from this game and just kind of hoped no one would notice.

Hanya: “You brought this curse on yourselves! Though I didn’t think the rumor Cuss High started would come true…”

Angry: “So what did he give you!?”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Hanya made a deal with the devil… to get his hair back. And also to live out his stupid fantasy from Snow Queen.

Angry: “Joker! Weren’t you out for revenge on us!? What’s the point in granting a stupid geezer’s wish!?”

Joker: “Revenge isn’t my only motive. This is between myself, the Giver, and you, the Thief… a battle with Tatsuya Suou for my dream!”

Joker: “I’ll never let you destroy my dream again… I won’t make the same mistake twice!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: The way I did this boss fight was not optimal because I am an idiot and listened to this dipshit guide author. He claims you can beat Hanya in three hits using Mega Blaze. He was probably playing on Easy.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Hanya is weak to fire, but you want to use Blazing Burst instead, so that Maya, Eikichi and Lisa can use Kamaitaichi. It’ll do more damage that way. Persona 2 follows the idea that multi-target spells do less damage than single-target spells.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: This is Hanya’s Persona… which is a Hannya. This would make sense if the localizers hadn’t fucked it up in Persona 1!

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Hanya is mostly about single-target attacks: he has a weak physical attack with his wrench and his Persona has a couple of single-target attacks, one of which has a chance to freeze.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Dark Young Legend is honestly his worst attack, and also his only multi-target attack. This fight would’ve gone way faster had I used the Blazing Burst/Kamaitaichi setup and not followed the guide.

Confused: “Wh-What the!?”

Angry: “Careful, everyone! It’s collapsing!”

Hurt: “Oww… is everyone okay?”

Angry: “Hey! Wait, you bastard!”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: An… Innocent… Sin?

9_2iVBrO_400x400: If you’ll recall, this poem plays during the opening sequence.

Normal: “That’s from a poem called ‘Der Doppelganger.’ Have you heard of it, Tatsuya-kun?”

Happy: “Oh, no! I just thought there were some similarities. Ah, ignore me, Tatsuya-kun.”

Normal: “Think positive, guys! You have to, at times like this. We’re not out of leads just yet. Let’s chase the rumors! They’ll surely lead us straight to Joker.”

Normal: “Hey, that’s a great idea! Hamya did say that the emblem curse was started by some students from Cuss High.”

Normal: “Whoa there! There’s no one at Kasugayama High whom the great Michel knows of that would start such a rumor. We’d be wasting our time checking it out. If we’re gonna search, let’s start somewhere else.”

9_2iVBrO_400x400: So, uh… this decision has a pretty big impact on a scene much later in the game. I selected “He’s Dead” here and then realized I forgot to save before I fought Hanya. I can always go back and replay the school dungeon, since I missed the sidequest as well.

9_2iVBrO_400x400: Therefore, I’ll let you vote. But before I do, I need to tell you what this question is really asking. The real question is “Do you want to see the Persona 1 party members one last time?”. If Hanya is dead, we get to see the P1 cast again. If he’s not, we get an alternate joke version of a scene where the P1 cast would be.

I’d prefer to see the P1 cast than the joke scene.

Let us see our good good friends from P1 again. Then just tell us what the joke scene is. Fuck Hanya.

Also I’ll be honest, my understanding of why the game is called Innocent Sin makes me really like it as a title, but we’ll talk about that later when it’s relevant and not Atlus trying very hard to foreshadow… something.

Hanya dies and we get to see the P1 cast? I fail to see how an Atlus joke scene could beat that.

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