Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

 PSP
  • Publisher: Atlus
  • Release Date: Sep 22, 2009
User Score
4.5

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 262 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 92 out of 262
  2. Mixed: 25 out of 262
  3. Negative: 145 out of 262

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  1. TheRebel
    Oct 19, 2014
    7
    Story:
    The Persona series is well known for its creative storylines, and Persona PSP is no exception. The main character(you), and his friends play the "Persona" game at school, until a strange occurrence disturbs them. Their world is subsequently attacked by creatures from another world.
    Gameplay: Persona is a turn-based jrpg, with elements of a dungeon crawler. I want to begin by    Story:
    The Persona series is well known for its creative storylines, and Persona PSP is no exception. The main character(you), and his friends play the "Persona" game at school, until a strange occurrence disturbs them. Their world is subsequently attacked by creatures from another world.

    Gameplay:
    Persona is a turn-based jrpg, with elements of a dungeon crawler. I want to begin by stating this: You WILL eventually become annoyed of the random encounters. The encounters interrupt the flow of the storyline and could potentially ruin your overall enjoyment of the game, depending on how patient you are. As an example, imagine playing Pokemon with an unlimited amount of tall grass in every inch of the game. That is how Persona's random encounters work. Thankfully, the gameplay is very solid. You and 4 other characters battle against the creatures using your Personas. The battles take place on a grid, where you can arrange the formation to your liking. A fun aspect of the game is creating your own Personas. You can get spell cards from enemies and create Personas with new abilities by combining them together.

    Graphics:
    The entire appearance of the game is its weakest aspect. The animations are stiff, repetitive, and aesthetically unpleasant. The enemy designs are typically creative, however, some are just plain odd. The walls on each dungeon are as repetitive as the floor above and below it. It shows extreme laziness from the developer, who did not want to draw more walls to help differentiate floors from each other.

    Verdict:
    Persona is a good game, with some
    annoyances. Impatient gamers should NOT play this game, as the random encounters will destroy the experience. Persona and RPG fans should enjoy this game because of the game's many positives: The storyline, gameplay mechanics, and the length (50+ hours).    … Expand
  2. INU4SH4
    Jul 25, 2020
    7
    And so I finally play the first Persona game and I got to say it was quite surprising. I've heard a lot of terrible things about this game from the fans and I was quite pessimistic before playing it but after I actually finished it, I can say it was a positive experience. I don't really get why this gets so much hate from the fans of Persona. It was a very solid start to a great video gameAnd so I finally play the first Persona game and I got to say it was quite surprising. I've heard a lot of terrible things about this game from the fans and I was quite pessimistic before playing it but after I actually finished it, I can say it was a positive experience. I don't really get why this gets so much hate from the fans of Persona. It was a very solid start to a great video game series.

    I will just sum it down to pros and cons since this game has a mix of flaws and also some great design choices.

    Pros:

    - Fantastic soundtrack. Just like the other Atlus games, it sports very upbeat music to contrast with its serious themes and it's quite fitting
    - A lot of combat options and a decent demon compendium to try out
    - 2 very different story routes basically making this a 2 games in 1 disc. Therefore, good replay value
    - Interesting twist close to the end of the main story route with smart writing
    - Good fusion system encouraging you to get all the Persona cards
    - Decent looking for a PS1 game
    - Long game. So if you're looking for a game to sink dozens of hours this might be it. Just prepare for some frustrating fights

    Cons:

    - Some of the dungeons felt like a shore and overstayed their welcome. Their design, in general, wasn't that great and most dungeons felt repetitive
    - The cast wasn't that great. Some characters didn't really get fleshed out and were just plain annoying throughout the game. Good thing you have multiple choices but once you pick one you have to stick with them until the end. And some of them are mandatory depending on the route
    - For the most part, the main route was pretty uninteresting and not on par with the other Persona games' writing, unfortunately. It gets good later, but it takes too long
    - The character icons could look better. Atlus definitely should have reworked this point. Although the game looks fine in general, the character faces look really dated compared to Persona 2
    - Although the demon compendium was pretty decent, there were a lot of crappy demons with useless skill sets    … Expand
  3. AceOfCakez
    May 24, 2013
    5
    This is just a standard JRPG dungeon crawler. It's nice to see the roots of the Persona series but unless you love grinding and dungeon crawling, stay away from this one. Also, keep in mind that you can reject new party members. If you choose to keep them, you won't be able to get other party members in the future.
  4. JoeS
    Nov 18, 2009
    6
    Mildly fun but overall lacking a lot. Perhaps the other reviewers were right in saying that I should have started with another Persona game first because this game just isn't grabbing my attention. Annoyingly frequent monster battles mixed with poor graphics and, what feels in this day and age to be a rather uninspired combat system make this something that I could have just as Mildly fun but overall lacking a lot. Perhaps the other reviewers were right in saying that I should have started with another Persona game first because this game just isn't grabbing my attention. Annoyingly frequent monster battles mixed with poor graphics and, what feels in this day and age to be a rather uninspired combat system make this something that I could have just as easily skipped.… Expand
  5. death12123
    Jun 12, 2020
    5
    Sometimes you have to start somewhere. Persona 1 is the start of the Persona franchise and grew into a much bigger franchise today. Never forget Atlus where you came from.

    My review will be going off from moving to the PS1 to the PSP. Everything about the game is way more improved than the original however I consider some things to be downgrades. Pros 1. The game is complete this    Sometimes you have to start somewhere. Persona 1 is the start of the Persona franchise and grew into a much bigger franchise today. Never forget Atlus where you came from.

    My review will be going off from moving to the PS1 to the PSP.
    Everything about the game is way more improved than the original however I consider some things to be downgrades.

    Pros
    1. The game is complete this time including the original JP names
    2. Added cinematic cutscenes overall feel nicer.
    3. The original counter rate is now here where as the PS1 version it was reduced with more EXP.
    4. The game is WAY faster than the PS1. It's not even a comparison, this is a overall upgrade on that part.
    5. Snow Queen & SEBEC

    However the cons make me dislike the game overall.
    Cons
    1. Persona Revelations had a more darker feel and look. It actually looked like a SMT game with the original release. This just feels off.
    2. The soundtrack. It's AWFUL compared to the original PS1 soundtrack. There's not even a way to use the original soundtrack and even years later with mods to have the original soundtrack, it's not perfect and it's missing many songs for generic ones.
    3. The battle theme. This alone made me mute the game after three battles. Revelations Persona had a billion times better battle theme. This soundtrack really ruins the feel of Persona 1.
    4. Not a fan of some voices. This is more of a personal feel. I actually liked the PS1 voices specifically because of the old school effects and voice lines that added to that dark feel you never have today.
    5. Removed sound effects. They have the text bubbles yes BUT WHERES THE SOUND EFFECTS? The whole point of a remake is to improve on stuff and add on from the original not remove things and make it worse.
    6. Certain cutscenes I think would've been fine off as regular dialogue. I don't know, in the original it went by faster but here some cutscenes just felt tedious.

    If it wasn't for the soundtrack and removed things I could've rated this game a 8 but playing a game muted isn't fun and playing the game unmuted is just god awful and annoying.

    Nowadays you can slap on the PS1 Ost (Mostly) and enjoy the game but this review is based off my initial experience. 5 out of 10 but with the soundtrack mod 7 out of 10. A soundtrack really can effect the way how a game feels. The PSP soundtrack took away every feeling of the original Persona I ever had and destroyed this version of the game.

    If it was perfectly made with all the improvements but had all the removed stuff from the PS1, I'd rate it a 8 like how I did the PS1 version.    … Expand
  6. BambiRue
    Mar 31, 2020
    7
    Outdated but not bad.

    While the game is seriously outdated and barely playable for modern players, the story has real charm even if it is simple. It isn't hard to see why this game sparked a sequel. the characters aren't deep, but they are all pretty likeable for what they are. I think a lot of people dismiss this one just because it isn't as flashy as the games that came after it. And    Outdated but not bad.

    While the game is seriously outdated and barely playable for modern players, the story has real charm even if it is simple. It isn't hard to see why this game sparked a sequel. the characters aren't deep, but they are all pretty likeable for what they are. I think a lot of people dismiss this one just because it isn't as flashy as the games that came after it. And the OST has some serious bops.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

23
#23 Best PSP Game of 2009
9
#9 Most Discussed PSP Game of 2009
6
#6 Most Shared PSP Game of 2009

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 30 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 30
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 30
  3. Negative: 1 out of 30
  1. Gamervision
    85
    It may be unfair to compare the first game in a series to titles that came much later, but in a post-Persona 4 world such comparisons are inevitable. That being said, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona is a great game in its own right, and worthy of being in the collection of any RPG fan.
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  2. Destructoid
    85
    For both new and old series fans, it's really fun to see how one of the most popular role-playing game series started out.
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  3. RPG Fan
    91
    Persona for the PSP was a killer trip down memory lane with a pair of high-definition rose-colored glasses. The new upgrades made the experience smoother without sacrificing the game's integrity.
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