u/Denyzevs

I want to lick Lisa's armpits, I'm sure it tastes like lemonade.

Hello everyone, welcome to the second part of this review series. I just graduated from college and so you can guess that it doesn't really feel all that satisfying. But in the meantime, among all the chaos and other Megaten games, I finally finished Persona 2: Innocent Sin at around 30 hours, and not to spoil everything but what a game. I thoroughly enjoyed it from top to bottom, and I am excited to play Eternal Punishment.

To establish a quick and easy format, I'll discuss briefly the story and gameplay, subdivided into what I think are relevant highlights, and then give my conclusions and final score, so please enjoy if you read this and larp with me.

Story:

Cast:

Okay let's get this out of the way. The Innocent Sin cast is the easiest 11/10 ever. I love everyone here. The main cast in incredible and the character writing in the game is near impeccable. My favorite is of course Ginko, the silly little goober, but everyone else is not far behind.

Jun, despite joining late, had incredible development in Xibalba, oh my god. The twists and turns he goes through. The slow unravelling of the mysteries surrounding him. The final reveal of his father and mother. Simply amazing.

Maya was really good, and I bet I'll like her more in Eternal Punishment, but she was probably on the lesser side of the cast for me, but the intrigue she added to the story is second to none. The clash of reality and fiction and her interactions with it really made the main plot great.

Michel is really fun and his side plot with his girlfriend is really nice actually. The sudden twist in his constellation dungeon about her was fantastically done (LOVE), and I will hear him say LET'S GO EVERYBODY for weeks to come.

I love Ginko. I love how earnest she is, I love how true she is. She accepts her flaws immediately, but she still exhibits how genuine she is about her feelings about everyone, while still being half of the comic relief duo with Eikichi. Yes, I said yes to her. I fall hard for sincerity.

And finally the returning cast being Brown, Maki, Elly, and Nanjo. I love how we know how they're doing because I genuinely do love P1's cast. The more I think about them, the more I love them. Maki being a therapist is perfect, Elly dropping hints about P1 MC (New headcanon, P1 MC actually DID get with Elly), Brown being a lameass comedian (Hell yes, that's a good niche actually), and Nanjo aura farming just to give an ultimate weapon while still trying to be Japan's top dog, is really nice.

Yukino is amazing, I love how she actually got with someone outside the main crew, I love how she acts like the big sister of the group, how mature she's grown, and we even learn she failed at her ventures, which is why she's here with us now. I will say closing her character arc with her relinquishing her Persona is a PERFECT end to a Persona user's journey and I wish we got more.

Yeah, I would give this cast a solid 12/10.

Main plot:

Bonkers. That's the most apt description of this main plot. And I love it. There's a lot of moving parts, a lot of red herrings, and the whole idea of rumors becoming reality is a really good premise and it was done very well here, but I'm gonna say it, this story hinged on its cast. This is an extremely character driven narrative that focuses on the effect of external stimuli on one's mental state, the effect of trauma and mental stress on one's way of seeing the world.

It did get a bit convoluted at times but I feel like most threads were closed very satisfyingly, especially Jun's story.

That being said it may be a surprise but I actually do like Persona 1's story more. But I'm not a stickler for the rules, my grading has as much integrity as an Oreo dipped in milk.

They both deserve a 9/10. While Persona 1's story was lacking in volume but had good execution, Persona 2 Innocent Sin felt like it had a bit too much story. So I think they can both fit in this echelon. Spoiler alert, they're the best in the series for me. Nyarlathotep and Kandori are going to be very interesting think pieces for me for days to come.

Yes I punched Philemon.

Gameplay:

Dungeons: Okay, so I will say I really enjoyed the dungeons in this game. There's a good complexity to them that really tickles my brain, and it feels really good to fill out a map. My favorite I believe was the Abandoned Factory (Yes, really) because of all the connecting passages and the note scavenger hunt, although I think the best dungeon is Xibalba because of the theming and the way finding is really good.

My only complaint is the lack of vertical complexity of any dungeon in the game, but they made up for it by having multiple access points. Just needed a bit more after Persona 1 blew my mind. The dungeons get a solid 8/10.

Combat: Fusion spells are really fun. I enjoyed discovering them and then just consulting a guide because I'm missing so much damage just using the medium and high damage skills and need the DX based skills.

I finished the game 14 levels below Nyarlathotep, even with the difficulty mod for the ROM which I had to hunt down, so it is a very easy game, but by being very underlevelled, I was taking more damage and my damage never went over 300 by the end so I think I still got a good challenge out of it.

Kids, gamble in SMT games, you WILL become a millionaire.

The rumor mechanic is fantastic but getting the ultimate weapon rumors were ASININE but I still had to do it because I wanted to see Nanjo. Overall, I really enjoyed the combat and the gameplay surrounding it, but I kinda wanted the grid gameplay to happen as well. Though of course people don't like it but I did and Fusion Spells could be interesting. I'm not rating what ifs.

It's solid, and I liked it. 7/10.

Conclusion:

OldSona magic strikes again. Instead of a really deep and interesting dive into Jungian psychology, we get a crazy complicated and insanely long and fun plot, where the central cast is at the center of it all. This makes the cast so much more fleshed out and incredibly relatable. I love all of them and wouldn't trade them for the world.

Gameplay improves from P1 but each has their own issues and upsides, both of them have ungodly encounter rates but I got through most of them without Estoma so idk, it really depends on the player and their tolerance. Disguise Kits ftw though.

I cannot sing the praises for this cast enough. I think I need to start making a new copy pasta.

P1 best story

P2 Best cast (Bar none, it makes almost every other Persona cast look like sock puppets)

P5 best gameplay

Although P2 has two games so it might be cheating but to be fair, even just the Innocent Sin cast plus P1 cameos completely overshadow NewSona casts for me. Please play it, do your due diligence of talking to everyone, and fall in love with them as I did.

Final score: LET'S GO EVERYBODY/10

I hope when the proverbial birdomuck hits the fan, they don't do anything to you, Carly.

Hal Jordan is THE Green Lantern, the central figure of the entire Green Lantern mythos, and one of the coolest and deepest characters in DC, and yet his only Death Battle is a really bad one.

He deserves an episode on par with Kylemon, and is comparatively simpler. He's not an artist, he's not the most creative, his constructs are what exactly gets the job done.

He also has a lot of abilities that don't get talked about and definitely wasn't shown or even mentioned in his only DB, like being able to wield each ring individually to equal mastery as their corps leaders, being able to use the Black Ring to resurrect himself, using his Green and Black rings to fully revive himself that even the White Ring couldn't do, his ability to become Pure willpower, etc.

It's really unfortunate but I do hope he gets a proper runback against maybe Nova Prime.

I'll make a long story short, depression is getting the best of me so I decided to play every Megaten Game I can reasonably buy or emulate and review them. I actually wanted to start with SMT4 but I only played the Neutral route and I am in no hurry to play through that atrocious map again so I began with Persona 1 instead.

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To establish a quick and easy format, I'll discuss briefly the story and gameplay, subdivided into what I think are relevant highlights, and then give my conclusions and final score, so please enjoy if you read this and larp with me.

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Story:

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SEBEC Quest: I actually think this was a fantastic story, with its only real flaw being its length being very short.

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Maki is a fantastic deuteragonist. So far from the 4 Persona games that I have played (I will play the P2 duology soon, I promise), Maki is the most interesting out of all the characters so far, likely because the entire SEBEC Quest is her story and very little else, but it does a fantastic job and with exploring her psyche.

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Maki, Mai, and Aki serving as her alteregos really drive home just how depressed she is with her sickness as well as her ever growing nihilism. The desire to hide from the world, the desire to let someone else take charge, and the ideal to be better, are all fantastic facets to explore in this quest, and I really like how despite their short conversation, the Ideal Maki makes it a point to refute the real Maki's nihilism by showing that the real her can very easily achieve her Ideal by nurturing her friends AND improve herself.

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The ending is also great at how sad it was to watch the Ideal Maki be left alone since that's the Maki we travelled with, but Philemon made me realize that she's not gone. The Ideal Maki's smile is now the real Maki's smile. No longer a mask or seperate identity but now made her own.

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The group was also great, I made sure to talk to them every time I had a chance and the banter is fantastic, it does a better job of diagetically giving you their personalities and their changes as they react to the events of the quest. This carries over to the Snow Queen Quest later on. My favorites are definitely Ayase and Elly.

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The Harem Queen side plot was honestly pretty good and the twist that they were the real ones that disappeared was good. It just shows that Maki still wanted her real friends inside her dream world.

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Overall the story in SEBEC was a solid 8/10 for me. It's major flaw is there's enough of it, but what's there is great.

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Snow Queen Quest: I actually liked this one less but more because the Tower stories were far too short for me to get a feel for it than the stories being lesser in quality.

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I unironically enjoyed the Nemesis tower the most because of how you can fuck with her by getting to her as soon as possible. I can empathize with the Hypnos tower, but it's hard to with the Nemesis tower. Eternal beauty and all that just strike with me but I do feel for a life wasted due to future anxiety. If this was made during the pandemic this would be perfect.

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Miss Saeko and the Night Queen were amazing though. I love the twist, Miss Saeko's realization, and how the Night Queen was basically just Nyx but with a funky personality. Also Maki and Kandori were there which was a shock but a welcome one, it reminds me that this is just a side quest to the SEBEC Quest lol.

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Overall this one's a 7/10

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Gameplay:

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Dungeons: Alright this will be quick but gushy. I LOVE THE DUNGEONS IN THIS GAME. Not a single bad dungeon all game. It's just banger after banger after banger. The SEBEC Quest has more dungeons and all of them are all solid to this is the good shit level. I especially enjoyed the Alaya Shrine dungeon with all the backtracking I did to get to the sea of souls. The music is on point and I love getting lost.

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The Ice Castle is one of the best dungeons in the entire franchise. It is probably the only dungeon I would say is equal to Sector Eridanus in Strange Journey. I freaking love it so much. Multiple levels and floors of backtracking, so much important loot and story and lore and the music is amazing and the visuals is great and oh my god it is... So perfect. Of course the towers are no slouch but...

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This single dungeon completely blows every single dungeon in new Persona out of the water combined and it is not close. Compared to the Ice Castle, the best dungeon in P5, which I believe is Okumura's palace is a weak 4/10. That's not to even mention Tartarus, the TV World, and Mementos being 1/10.

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Persona 1's dungeons are incredible. 12/10

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Combat: It's honestly not bad. Certainly better than classic SMT but it's not bad. I enjoyed it in the moment, I also enjoyed dropping Megidoloan until those damn Angels entered the fray. The item fusion mechanic is honestly great as precursors to Skill cards. This is a solid 6/10 for me.

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Conclusion:

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Persona 1 is definitely a product of its time but it's honestly better than people said it was. I had a blast. I feel like people approach games wrong sometimes and judge Persona 1 based on the okay combat gameplay but dungeons are just as much a part of gameplay as the combat as they serve as puzzle boxes to solve. The things people complained about are what I found most enjoyable, and it certainly carries a lot of SMT's DNA in it still, but I see the seeds being planted for the bomb that is modern Persona.

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Overall, with its good thematic storytelling and character interactions, as well as its good combat and some of the best dungeons in the entire SMT franchise, Persona 1 is worthy of being played even in 2026. I barely scratched the surface of the stories, character interactions, and gameplay, and words will not be enough to describe how incredible the dungeons are, so if this makes you interested in playing it, please do so.

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Final score: Better than Pokemon Platinum, but worse than Pokemon Emerald/10

I'm writing this just because I can't contain my love for this game as of now and as a prelude to a review I'm writing about it.

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And so, I will simply say for now:

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OH MY GOD I LOVE THE DUNGEONS IN THIS GAME! All of them are so good, the music is on point, the theming is great and the exploration is fantastic. I just love how I can get lost and have to pathfind and backtrack up and down, it just feels so good.

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I'm playing Persona 4 concurrently and I just fall asleep at the wheel while doing the procedurally generated corridors, it's just so boring going in a straight line.

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The Ice Castle is by far my favorite and might be a contender for the best dungeon in the entire franchise next to Sector Eridanus. Persona 1 really has no bad dungeon in my opinion, all of them from the SEBEC building to the Alaya Ruins to the Ice Castle are banger after banger after banger of dungeons.

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I know P1 gets a lot of flack for having basic gameplay but I think people don't take into account that these games' gameplay, especially SMT games, are half exploration and half combat. Overall P1 blows every other Persona I've played out of the water in terms of overall gameplay.

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I just got my ass beat by the Night Queen so I'll have to backtrack but it will be my pleasure to do so.