Revelations: Persona

"Persona!!"

I have had Persona for as long as I can remember. Actually, I can still remember somewhat how I got it. It was sometime in '97. I grabbed all of my Playstation games to a local video game trading shop. Eventually I found my self playing quite a few games. One of which was, of course, Persona. Amazingly, after playing the strange and unique game for a while, I found myself being asked to leave. As it turns out, I had spent three and a half hours playing the game at the store. I traded in my first two Playstation games ever, Theme Park and Soul Blade for the interesting game.

Story-This games story is very original. The story itself has so much to it and goes so in-depth that it would take practically this entire review to explain. Basically, the town you once knew as Lunarvale has been cut off from the rest of the world and is full of evil demons. You and your fellow class mates from St. Hermelin High School have become ''chosen'' and now have the ability to call upon the powers deep within themselves to attack the enemies. You soon find out that a diabolical man named Guido Sardenia, and his Sebec Corporation have created a devilish machine that may or may not be behind the recent demon appearances. That is about, umm, 20% of the game. I give it a 10.

Sound- Music and sound is what makes a game complete. The sound you hear in Persona is very interesting. You will hear the beautiful ones, the twisted ones, the ''heavy'' ones, and the softer ones. Persona would not be Persona without the ''Persona!''. I give it an 8.

Graphics- Being such an old game, there are no state of the art graphics, and ground breaking graphics. The game is pretty old, so of course you can't expect much. But the game looks very nice, and if you can expect to get used to them. I give it a 7.

Characters- There are many characters in Persona. For now, I'll count the Personae as characters too. Not like I'm gonna make a special section for them anyway. The character sprites them selves are strange. The seem to float when they walk, but smart people with a brain that knows the difference between happy and sad, would realize that it's just their shadows. The Personas aren't very animated, but with so many of them, it makes up for the lost point right there. Some of the characters are ones that you will adore and train. Others you would wish you could delete from the game (*Cough*Nate*Cough*). I give it a 9.

Replay ability- There are nine playable characters, and about three endings. You have to play the game several times to get the most out of it. I give it a 9.

Difficulty- The game is harder (In my opinion) than the sequel. But it is not so hard that you will never finish it. You just have to understand that leveling up on this game takes up time, but it's not hard. I give it a 9.

Overall- Persona is a definite sleeper hit. If you liked the sequel, you'll love the first one. Rent or buy? Buy or rent? You might not find a place that rents this game. I traded two games, and paid an additional ten dollars for it. I guess to like Persona, you have to be a die hard RPG fan. I mean, you can't just say ''Well I like Final Fantasy, the best series ever, so I am a die hard RPG fan.'' You have to be the kind of person who doesn't care what game it is, only that you'll do anything to play it.

Story-10
Sound-8
Graphics-7
Characters-9
Replay ability-9
Difficulty-9
Overall-9 (Would have been 8.6, but no fractions!)

Also, check out Sumaru Radio for more fun. Check out the Gamefaqs Persona message board for the link.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/01/01, Updated 10/01/01