Persona 2: Innocent Sin is the first part of a duology that forms Persona 2 and is a direct sequel to the first Persona game. Originally released on the Playstation, it was ported to the PSP and received some enhancements in the form of better graphics and music amongst other things. Persona 2 is unlike any of the later Persona game such as 3 and 4. While it is still a JRPG, it does not contain any of the high school simulation aspects. Instead, this is a traditional RPG with turn based battles, random encounters and an immersive story. Graphics-wise, this is at its core, a PS1 game and it is not a full remake. Therefore, the game is not fully 3D but not completely on a 2D plane either, rather it's a sort of a hybrid. The environments are pixilated and character sprites aren't the most detailed. Despite all this, it carries its charm and feels like it harkens back to those classics of its time. Surprisingly, the camera can be controlled using the shoulder buttons and it's a good thing since exits are often hidden from view unless you're looking at it head on. That's the biggest complaint, objects in the environment appear flat and sometimes it is hard to tell whether the outline in the wall is a door or a decoration.
You have the option to listen to the original music or an enhanced version of the tracks, both are good. It immediately hits you that the battle music is fantastic. The tracks are addictive and pleasing to the ear. You'll find yourself humming along to many of the pieces. One the face of things, the battle system isn't too horribly complex. It is turn based and you can see the order in which you can attack (and can even change the turn order of your own party members). There are normal attacks and magic attacks. However, then you add in other elements such as "fusion spells" which means when you set specific attacks of each party member consecutively in the right order, it creates a more powerful attack. The turn based system means that battles can drag out but you have the option to turn animations off (recommended) and set it to auto battle which means it will keep the same attacks you inputted last time to speed things up. Also in battle, there is the option to "contact" the enemy. By choosing specific actions (and there are a multitude to choose fro), you can either scare the enemy (they run away), anger them (they attack you), make them happy (you become friends and get some nice bonuses in later encounters) or make them eager (they give you cards).
All the effects from contacting the monsters ties into the the Persona system. Personas are what makes Innocent Sin stand out from the other RPGs. Each member can equip a persona, taking on its strengths and weaknesses and it also determines the magic attacks the character can use. You obtain these cards from enemies in order to make new personas. Personas can also be leveled up and swapped around, making them very versatile. There are normal equipment such as helmets, swords and other weapons for your characters too. It is a very deep system and will take a while to learn and master. This brings up the biggest complaint. The game doesn't do a very good job of explaining the whole Persona system to you. You have to use trial and error to find out for yourself how it all works. The game also doesn't truly explain any game mechanics beyond the basics of attacking and movement. It can be very confusing at the start. The in game areas are large, you get access to three suburbs at the start and it'll continually expand as you play the game and more locations come up. These locations offer new story dungeons, more NPCs and shops.
A nice touch is that NPCs don't repeat the same dialogue over and over again, after every major story point, their dialogue changes to reflect what had happened. The story is the meat of the game. It is confusing and hard to follow at the start. Thanks to the aesthetics of the game and the overall tone of the plot, it can be dark. To summarize, we follow the characters (some of which are carried over from the first Persona game) as they gain their Personas and fight the "Joker". They find that rumors are coming to life, affecting them in more ways than one. It gets interesting after the second dungeon. There will be some parts during the game where it feels padded out, such as when you're forced to go on fetch quests through four dungeons and then once again near the end of the game. While the story is solid, it isn't addictive such that you're constantly thinking about it and wanting to know what happens next. The ending is bittersweet and slightly emotional.
The story takes place in the real world and this means that dungeons are also set in real locales. Dungeons are usually inside buildings like a nightclub or inside the school so it feels weird when you're running around an urban area and monsters show up that you have to fight (even weirder is that NPCs litter these dungeons as well). It's not your traditional bright and colorful fantasy environments. During the later portion of the game, the locales turns into templates and out of this world places but they share such similar design aesthetics that it doesn't really make it that interesting to explore. Of note here is the high encounter rate, every few steps you're thrust into a battle. It gets very annoying especially when the maps are designed to confuse you and discourages exploring, not that there is much to explore in dungeons in the first place. Overall, Persona 2: Innocent Sin is a slightly dated RPG in terms of design, from the battle system to the random encounters to the sprite graphics. It's not an easy RPG, with lots of deep mechanics that will take a while to learn and master. If you speed through the game, it can be finished in under 20 hours. Take your time (and die a few times) and you can easily spend upwards of 30 hours. It's worth playing but know what you're getting into, otherwise you will come out disappointed.
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