Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 - Innocent Sin

 PSP
  • Publisher: Atlus
  • Release Date: Sep 20, 2011
User Score
5.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 342 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 155 out of 342
  2. Mixed: 33 out of 342
  3. Negative: 154 out of 342
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  1. BambiRue
    Mar 30, 2020
    6
    How do you tell if someone watches let's plays of persona games or plays them themselves? Ask them what they think of persona 2 - if they don't mention the outdated gameplay they didn't play.

    While the characters are unique, likable, and memorable, and the story is unique, the story is mess that is chopped up between 2 games so it barely makes sense. The story often avoids telling you    How do you tell if someone watches let's plays of persona games or plays them themselves? Ask them what they think of persona 2 - if they don't mention the outdated gameplay they didn't play.

    While the characters are unique, likable, and memorable, and the story is unique, the story is mess that is chopped up between 2 games so it barely makes sense. The story often avoids telling you where things are or what to do next, which can become frustrating at times and often lacks focus. Some features, such as the romances, are so pointless I don't know why they bothered adding them. I think a lot of people overate how good the story is because of how edgy it is and because the characters hold up so well.

    The gameplay and graphics are outdated, but it is an old game so that is not its fault so I won't even factor that in since the mechanics were standard for their time. If you play, be prepared for high encounter rates and very, very old-school pixel art.    … Expand
  2. VidyaBum
    Aug 17, 2015
    7
    Once a legend, always a legend. And all the same, once a game with problems, always a game with problems.

    Of course some problems age well, some don't. If your graphics were crap when you came out, it's still gonna be crap 10 years later. When your gameplay was crap, it's gonna get a whole lot crappier with time, since new, better and more polished games will have come out till then and    Once a legend, always a legend. And all the same, once a game with problems, always a game with problems.

    Of course some problems age well, some don't. If your graphics were crap when you came out, it's still gonna be crap 10 years later. When your gameplay was crap, it's gonna get a whole lot crappier with time, since new, better and more polished games will have come out till then and the progress will make you look a whole lot worse.

    Innocent Sin is a game that has aged overall quite badly. Before I started it, it was presented as "the True Persona" while P3 was sort of the Final Fantasy VII of the Persona series, the game that put the series in the spotlight but was overall far, far worse. Considering that I despise FF7 and think very highly of P3, my expectations were soaring, and to be honest, they were somewhat satisfied.

    The biggest and pretty much only quality of P2IS is it's story and cast. I wouldn't spoil anything to you, but let's just say that this is probably the most fantastic story I've ever been in. And I don't mean fantastic as a quality but as a style. It's perfectly outworldly and irrational, yet makes overall very good sense. The stretches in plot and writing are all mostly properly justified and they all feel extremely good. With a cast that is probably on par if not better with the cast of P3 or P4, IS stands on the top of the series in terms of how grand the story gets, and although the cast is debatably better than other Personas', I generally liked them more, probably because they had actual adults(2 out of 6 characters are adults) and they are more focused, as you have a much smaller cast here.

    Yet while it stands at the top of the series in terms of story and cast, the entirety of the rest of the game is inferior, except for the music. The battle and boss themes speak for themselves on Youtube. And overall the music is very nice everywhere, it's a different style but it's as good as P4 IMO.

    The graphics look like **** but who is going to be surprised about that on a PS1 isometric game? To put it in perspective, it's roughly the same visual quality as Suikoden 2.

    The gameplay is however a complete break from later Personas:
    One: no social links. It's straightforward story where you go from dungeon to dungeon.
    Two: No fusions. You have to farm Tarot cards.
    Three: no slices of life. Again, it's a straightforward story.

    It honestly felt more like a classic SMT than a modern Persona. And while this is acceptable, what takes this down from a 10/10 old game to a mere 6 or 7 is its age and general 90ness.

    By 90sness I mean a lot of generally terrible ideas that were prevalent in the PS1 era and have fortunately died:
    -VERY long animations
    -Fights take far too long, turns take over 40s, some take over a minute
    -Tarot card farming is a guessing game and is utterly uninteresting
    -Menus lag, and the game has a generally very poor programming where it takes ~2 seconds for every menu screen, and the menus are HORRIBLY designed so you have to do 2 menus per character per turn, and you have 5 characters, and then you have to watch ~2s for every Persona animation + ~2s for every attack animation + 1s for EVERY ENEMY DAMAGED, one after the other. You do a mass attack and you get 1 second lost for every enemy damaged...just what the hell, for back then this was poor programming, for today it's just monstrously slow.

    These alone make the game a massive chore to play. I never want to do a single fight not because they're hard or annoying or luck-based(like in P3) but because they're sloooooooooow. The menus are slow. The animations are slow(and don't look good at all). The attacks are slow. Everything is slow. Because the PSP version of the game is also piss easy(never died on my first playthrough even though I played like arse and was on auto-attack all the time), I at least can breeze through, but it's still a pain to play.

    But beyond these, the design problems just show all over:
    -Dungeons are almost universally labyrinthic, too long or fetch quests. The fetch quests happen the most, and are the worst: you're literally put in the dungeon and are told to find ONE ITEM. And to do that, you have to scour every floor, every shelf, every container, for it, while randm encounters harass you with super slow fights. FU*K IT.
    -There is a lot of old game design problems like not being clearly told what is going on. The story often lacks foreshadowing or proper amount of text, it feels like chunks of text being given but there are parts missing to properly express everything.
    -There are far too many ellipses for about half the game.
    -Many story elements are just plainly not explained.
    The general feeling I got out of Persona2 IS is a sense of fun and quality ideas, but also vagueness. The age shows in storytelling, gameplay and general design, and although I assure it's worth trying, it's nowhere near a "true Persona" that would shame its sequels.    … Expand
  3. NoonebutMark
    Nov 3, 2014
    7
    This was the very first persona game that I played. I actually like it despite the dated graphics and slow gameplay.

    The story is engaging and thrilling within is a cast of enjoyable characters. You also will get to listen to lovely soundtracks. What made me think of continuing this game though were a lot of factors: high battle rate, sluggish gameplay, date graphics and FMVs,    This was the very first persona game that I played. I actually like it despite the dated graphics and slow gameplay.

    The story is engaging and thrilling within is a cast of enjoyable characters. You also will get to listen to lovely soundtracks.

    What made me think of continuing this game though were a lot of factors: high battle rate, sluggish gameplay, date graphics and FMVs, mediocre voice overs, and the lack of New Game+!

    This game would have truly paralled Persona 3 and 4 if the gameplay and graphics were remade 'cause the story is just plain awesome.    … Expand
  4. Wingandwind
    Apr 18, 2020
    7
    This was a good game. Was.

    While the soundtrack is great, this game suffers due to its age. The art, gameplay, and menus are so outdated this game is nearly unplayable post 2000. The battle system is much slower and more complex than the modern personas and definitely will become annoying if it doesn’t come to you naturally. The strongest parts of the game are the the story. The    This was a good game. Was.

    While the soundtrack is great, this game suffers due to its age. The art, gameplay, and menus are so outdated this game is nearly unplayable post 2000.

    The battle system is much slower and more complex than the modern personas and definitely will become annoying if it doesn’t come to you naturally. The strongest parts of the game are the the story. The characters are a step up from the previous game and the story has aged well outside of Hitler being involved. However, without social links or confidants, you only get to know the characters so well.

    Buy, rent, watch an LP, or skip? LP. Getting the game legally is harder to do each year and while the gameplay may not be worth it, the storyline and characters are still enjoyable.    … Expand
  5. Pasifull
    Sep 6, 2021
    7
    Although it's hard to defend the slow combat and frustrating dungeon design; the style, characters and story will stay with me for quite a while.
  6. retr0_1992
    Aug 19, 2021
    7
    This game is really overrated in the internet, but in metacritic is underrated xD
    The gameplay is brainless, boring and repetitive, but the plot and characters are great, not the best in the franchise but still great. I only recommend this if you are fan of SMT or Persona
  7. MunhozMCM
    Aug 19, 2022
    7
    My Score:

    (7) - Good.

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  8. Poccigoni
    Aug 17, 2023
    7
    Persona 2 is screaming for a remake.

    Persona 2 - Innocent Sin presents us a good story, which is on par (if not better) with modern Persona games, but it is kind of confusing for the first part of the game. The characters, while not having social links, feel as deep and relatable as the ones in the future games. However, where this game shows it's age is in gameplay. While the    Persona 2 is screaming for a remake.

    Persona 2 - Innocent Sin presents us a good story, which is on par (if not better) with modern Persona games, but it is kind of confusing for the first part of the game. The characters, while not having social links, feel as deep and relatable as the ones in the future games.
    However, where this game shows it's age is in gameplay. While the story/characters for Persona 2 are around an 8, the gameplay is a 4 at best. 80% of the dungeons in the game are extremely easy, some of them only having one path. Demon battles are very slow, and you need to reorder your party every single time you enter a new battle.
    The game also wants you to use fusion spells. But it wants you to use them TOO much. Most battles consist of casting a fusion spell and winning the battle - if you are fighting a boss, then use 4 turns for 4 fusion spells - which basically erases the need for strategy.

    Overall, Persona 2 is a game that could be way more enjoyable if it got a remake, since while the story/characters are good, the gameplay just shows how some old RPG mechanics have aged really badly.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

13
#13 Best PSP Game of 2011
3
#3 Most Discussed PSP Game of 2011
6
#6 Most Shared PSP Game of 2011

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
  1. Play UK
    Jan 25, 2012
    65
    A rather tame experience. [Feb 2012, p.82]
  2. Games Master UK
    Dec 17, 2011
    76
    Old school JRPG with a few unique twists, strictly for genre fans. [Jan 2012, p.94]
  3. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    Dec 5, 2011
    80
    Persona 2 isn't for everyone. The esoteric style and ageing looks will see off many a curious gamer, but persevere through the niggles and you'll uncover a stylish, incredibly written, charismatic experience.
    Read full review
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