Update 1: Bike Maintenance (Click Here to Expand)
: Welcome to Innocent Sin. Just like the P1 remake (which you can see two games down on the list, underneath my attempt to play the Mizzurna Falls translation) it gets an animated background screen. Ignore the time on that by the way - the clock battery on the PSP is already starting to go.
: Unlike Persona 1, the sprites in this game have actual animations. The load screen shows off our main character’s sprite - there’s a lot of loading in Persona 2, but the PSP cuts the times dramatically from what they were on the PS1. Having the game installed to a memory card cuts that even further.
: Meet our protagonist. I didn’t capture it because the animation in this game is extremely fluid, but the bike backfires when he tries to start it.
: Right from the start, it seems like pretty much everyone wants to pick a fight with our protagonist. I liked when Persona 5 did that.. for about two seconds until Joker instantly becomes everyone’s best friend.
: Damn PSP must be ready to die, it’s not even showing the colors right. Guess I’ll have to order a new one.
: One of the major overhauls from the PS1 version is that they added in multiple portraits for each of the major characters. I’ll try to implement them in the LP.
: Well, this is certainly different from Persona 1.
: This is the first time we’ll see this phrase in the Persona series. Every other game from here on in will open with this line somewhere in the first couple of minutes.
: Wait.. what? Are we in some kind of bad ending for Snow Queen? Hypnos Tower pretty much made it clear that Hanya should never be in charge of anything.
: “That goes for you too! Didn’t you hear what I said!? Why won’t you obey me!? This is unacceptable!”
: Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment are the only parts of the Persona series where the protagonist has a single canon name to begin with. While normally I’d give a vote on this, I think I’d rather leave his canon name alone.
: Just like Persona 1, each of our party members also has a nickname. Tatsuya’s canon one is Ta-chan, which isn’t really much of a nickname. My guess is, if this is anything like Persona 1, his nickname will only rarely be referred to - so if you want to suggest a new one, go right ahead.
: “If that nasty resonance I sensed from the halls was you, it makes sense… looks like you’re as much trouble as they say.”
: Whoa whoa whoa, hold on there. Did he just say he sensed the weird color inversion?
: Sure doesn’t seem threatening at all.
: What!? What the hell is Ms. Saeko doing here?
: Persona 2 is entirely in third person, which is a major step up from Persona 1.
: The game is also nice enough to update the top-left corner with a more precise reading of where we are. No more floundering around St. Hermelin with no idea of what any given room is unless you can read the Japanese room signs.
: Anyway, to progress, we have to go to the main hall. The map screen has also been updated in that it shows NPCs who have dialog.
: Ms. Saeko has apparently taken a page out of Reiji’s playbook. We have to talk to a bunch of students around the school to find her.
: Joker.. game? Yeah, I know about Joker’s game. It was pretty mediocre outside of the UI design and the combat and even Royal isn’t really going to fix what’s wrong with it.
: Meanwhile, on the second floor..
: I have to say, this is not necessarily the best way to start a game. Right now it’s pretty straightforward, but just wait.
: He has a statue!?
: You might think we want to talk to Hanya again, but no one wants to talk to Hanya. Instead, we need to go a little further into the courtyard.
: Yeah, I don’t want to get too close to Naruto, either. Have you ever seen the Naruto fanbase?
: Seriously, what is it with high schools in Japan being used to seal off demons? First we had Nyx, and now this. This is where things get a little confusing. What we have to do is talk to Ms. Ideal twice.
: Very helpful. This is the game’s way of telling us to consult a guide, which says we need to go back to the main area and talk to the students there.
: Great. Now we get to loop back. Seriously Reiji, what the shit? What did I ever do to you?
: Ms. Saeko has somehow aged like fifteen years between 1996 and 1999. Have I mentioned Innocent Sin takes place in 1999? Maybe it’s a side effect of being possessed by Nyx, or the curse laid on the year 1999 by YIIK.
: “Don’t worry, guidance counseling is a pretty informal process.”
: “Good, good. Well, then! Have you decided what you want to do after graduation?”
: So uh, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I’ll let you, the readers, pick which options we go with here. The bad news is I don’t have a copy of the script the way I did for Persona 1, so I have no way of knowing about any alternate dialog. The only copy of the script that exists is for the fan translation of the PS1 version, which seems to be pretty good but is not identical to the official translation.
: Anyway, for sake of argument and advancing the plot, I went with “Yeah I’ve decided” because I want Tatsuya to be like Yukino.
: “Is that so? You seemed indecisive for long enough, but I’m glad you did give it some thought.”
: “And? Will you apply to college or go job hunting?”
: I answered college, but what Tatsuya likes is working with machines, as we’ve already seen.
: “Oh, really! Is there something in particular you want to study? If you’re just saying what you think I want to hear, think harder. Do you really want to go to college?”
: Again, I picked the top option. I don’t know why, but it seems like 1999 was a bit too late for not going to college and expecting to get a job.
: Oh, hi Aigis. What’re you doing outside of Persona 3?
: “Lisa! What’s all the hubbub about?”
: “Well, all right… see you, Tatsuya.”
: “Wait a sec… aiyah!”
: “But oh yeah, that can wait! I got a challenge note for you! A guy from Cuss High told me to give it to you!”
: Several years of watching Youtube Poop back in the early 2000s automatically made my mind wander to “It’s from Bowser! It says, dear pesky plumbers…” when I read this.
: “Haime! Seriously!? Now that’s old-school… I dunno, though, rumor has it this guy’s really strong!”
: You might be wondering what’s with the “Haime!” and I can explain that. Basically, Lisa is what happens if you take Ann Takamaki from Persona 5 and throw her in a blender with Chie from Persona 4. She likes to say random things in Cantonese. Haime! means “Really?” or “Seriously?”
: “I also heard a rumor that it was a Cuss High jerk who cursed our emblem… I bet it was this same guy!”
: And with that, we’re off to Sumaru Prison. Next time, we’ll stage a rescue and meet a certain jangly key man. If you want to see different choices from the ones I made in this update, or would like to give Tatsuya a different nickname, please post your choices in the thread.
