Revelations: Persona

"Weird, and sometimes quite frustrating, Persona is saved by it's dark, twisting storyline"

Persona is a very strange RPG. Released by a company named Atlus, who is little known in the US except for their Ogre Battle series. Persona is the first game in the Revelations series by Atlus. Persona’s original sequel, called Innocent Sin was not released in the US. This was due to the fact that there was a school shooting in it, and it also contains Nazis as some of the villains (damn US censorship). The next game in the series, Eternal Punishment, was released in the US a few months ago. As soon as I get money again, I’m going to be sure to get it.

Persona is a one of a kind RPG, and one of the most original RPG’s ever made. The story is just excellent, top notch, and the battle system has some very interesting additions to it. If you are looking for a nice, refreshing change in your common RPG, be sure to pick up Persona. It is an overall good game, with some outstanding qualities. It does have its flaws though, to find out, read on:

What makes Persona so strange is it’s weird, ominous setting. It takes place in a normal, modern town, with kids that go to a high school. The town has shopping malls, hospitals, every thing a modern day town has. This adds to the factor. If Persona Revelations took place in medieval time, it would be nowhere near as effective. Because of this, Persona keeps a weird, creepy feeling through it from beginning to end, and it’s really hard to explain how it does it. The storyline has a dark, twisting tone to it, and this is something you often don’t find in too many RPG’s.

Persona Revelations has an excellent, but confusing storyline, I’ll make a summary of how the game gets started, and it starts out like this: You (a mute hero), and your friends Mark, Brad, Ellen, Alana, Yuki, and Nate are playing a game called Persona in your high school. Basically, the way the game works is this, if you do a certain ritual correctly, you can make sprits awaken. After something goes wrong while doing this ritual, You, Mark, Nate, and Yuki are struck by lightning. Each of you then has the same dream where you are a butterfly, and some strange man telling you about how you now have the ability to use the Persona, which are spirits you can use to vanquish evil. When you come to, you awaken in the nurses office, wondering what the hell just happened. You all then decide to go to the hospital, to see if anything else is wrong. You also take the time while at the hospital to visit your sick friend Mary, who has been there for months. When you get to the hospital, you go to visit Mary in her room. Soon, when you see her, she goes into convulsions, and everything fades out. When you come to again, the hospital is totally rearranged, infested with demons, and all the patients are missing! It’s now up to you to use your Personas to find out what the hell is going on, and bring an end to what is happening.

Persona Revelations has a standard turned based battle system with a few interesting additions. There are the standard options such as Persona (which summons your Persona in battle) and defend are pretty much self-explanatory, and then there are some very interesting additions. For one thing, you can use both swords and guns in battle with the same character, a cool addition there. But there is one thing that really makes this battle system stand out, and that is the fact that you can communicate with your enemies. That’s right, you can communicate with your enemies. You can talk, bribe, and even sing your way out of battles!! This is something I have never seen ever before. You have to do it right though, if you pull one wrong move, you can make your enemy even madder and that can lead to more consequences.

Persona has three different forms of game mode. In scenes with your party, where talking commences, plot twists occur, save points are and picking up treasure chests, I call these exploration rooms, because they usually take place in a medium sized room where talking commences between your party members and where items are hidden in them. For dungeon exploration, it is in first person view, similar to an everquest perspective, it’s easy to navigate, and there is no real problem there. And last, you have the world map, and for my rant on this, please see the next paragraph.

While Persona is one of the most interesting games I’ve ever played ever, it does have its flaws. One thing is its world map. I mean god, Persona has one of the worst world maps I have ever seen in any RPG ever. It is nearly impossible to navigate, the only way it is, is the fact that it gives you a mini map to look on for reference. If not, navigating this world map alone would be like finding a microscopic insect in an amusement park!!! It is the most poorly constructed world map I’ve ever laid my eyes upon. You look like a really small cone, moving in one space at a time, for over thousands of spaces!!!! It’s so unbearable to the point of you wanting to snap the game cd in half, but you really shouldn’t in the end, because Persona’s excellent story makes up for it. Other problems were that I though most of the music was annoying, and the translation wasn’t perfect. Also, it has some navigation problems in exploration rooms, which can also get very annoying. Otherwise though, if you one of those persons who can look past certain flaws, you will be fine with it, if you are a nitpicker, you should rethink about purchasing it. Up to you.

Persona is one of the most original games I’ve played in a long time. It adds many new additions, which have never seen before in any RPG. If you crave for a different form of RPG title, be sure to pick this up. It is one of the most unique and interesting video game experiences you’ll ever have. However, it does have some problems, which were stated already, but if you can look past them, Persona will make an excellent and original addition to any RPG fan’s library. Now I must find a way to get 45 bucks to purchase Eternal Punishment.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/05/01, Updated 06/05/01