Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (PSP) Review
Can an innocent sin be forgiven, or must its punishment be eternal? Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, the follow-up to Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2: Innocent Sin, asks that thought-provoking question in a compelling narrative. Unfortunately, while the believably written characters and philosophical plot manage to delight beyond the sands of time, Eternal Punishment’s PSP remake suffers from dated gameplay mechanics that make playing it a trial in patience. However, an ultimately rewarding experience awaits those who can see the game through to its conclusion.
Eternal Punishment was initially released in 2000 for the Sony PlayStation. Though it’s the second part of the Persona 2 duology, it was the first to receive an official English localization. It wasn’t until 2011’s PSP remake of Innocent Sin that it would receive the same treatment. A PSP remake of Eternal Punishment soon followed in 2012 but was only released in Japan. Those who played the PSP version of Innocent Sin would have to get the older Eternal Punishment port on PSN to see the tale’s conclusion without the added bells and whistles of the PSP remake. That is until an English patch was created for import copies of the PSP version, thanks to sayucchin. Utilizing an edited translation of the official PlayStation port for the script of Eternal Punishment alongside approved translations of the added Additional Scenarios from the PSP version, you can now play the definitive version of Eternal Punishment.
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment takes place in Sumaru City, where 23-year-old Maya Amano works as a journalist. Her current assignment concerns the JOKER case, a supernatural phenomenon rumored to have a connection to cell phones. Should a call be made to JOKER, they’ll kill whoever the person calling asks them to. After encountering the actual JOKER while investigating, Maya and her companions are given the power to fight by calling on their Personas, paranormal manifestations of their inner selves. Soon, they find themselves dragged into a conflict where rumors can become a reality and nothing is what it seems on the surface. A national paranormal conspiracy threatens not only their home but the entire world at large. Will they succeed in their efforts to save everyone even as harsh truths about life as they know it become revealed?
It’s an understatement to say that Persona 2: Eternal Punishment’s story is its most vital feature. The duology for P2 arguably has some of the best writing of the Shin Megami Tensei spin-off series, bringing a lot of exciting plot points to the table. While understanding and background knowledge of Innocent Sin and even the first Shin Megami Tensei: Persona’s events give the tale much more impact, Eternal Punishment can also serve as a decent stand-alone story due to its overall narrative strengths. Regardless of how you come into the story, it excellently conveys its core messages. Despite the game’s narrative being over twenty years old, its themes have a timeless and universal quality that still resonates.
Eternal Punishment deviates somewhat from the norm regarding modern Persona tropes. The game’s leading party is adult characters, which is still relatively rare for JRPGs and virtually unheard of in other mainline Persona games. Maya is a great main character, particularly if people have a connection with her from her appearance in Innocent Sin. She’s joined by her best friend Ulala, a down-on-her-luck young woman (especially when it comes to romance) who also has some of the most believable reactions to the paranormal events they find themselves wrapped up in; a by-the-books police detective named Katsuya (my fave character of the party!) struggling to understand his younger brother Tatsuya’s bewildering actions and apparent connections to the current paranormal events; and Baofu, a surly realist of an extortionist collecting various rumors with a surprising amount of knowledge regarding the Taiwanese mafia.
Two returning characters from the first Persona title and a surprising addition from Innocent Sin also join the main cast later on. The PSP version of Eternal Punishment even delves further into Tatsuya’s actions at specific points in the plot through unlockable Additional Scenarios utilizing a visual novel-style storytelling approach. Truthfully, I found the focus on older characters and their various real-life issues rather refreshing compared to other Persona titles.
While Eternal Punishment has one set ending, player choice still plays a critical factor in how things pan out in certain scenes and even gameplay elements. Maya is a silent protagonist, but you can occasionally choose her responses to help “flavor” a scene to your liking. You can even carry over save data from a playthrough of Innocent Sin, allowing the game to reference some of your previously made decisions (for instance, if you initiated a Tatsuya and Jun romance or something of that ilk). Choosing which Shin Megami Tensei: Persona character to have temporarily join your party impacts later dungeons and boss fights, and even just how many of Tatsuya’s Additional Scenarios you can unlock. You can even manipulate rumors you gather throughout various points of the game to your advantage, depending on how you approach them!
Choices also spill over into battle strategy, with much freedom and customization in approaching combat. The central conceit here is Persona summoning, which you accomplish by collecting a required amount of Tarot Cards. This acquisition of Tarot Cards occurs during combat with demon characters, where instead of simply attacking them in traditional turn-based order, you can choose to make contact instead. You can strike up a conversation with a demon and, if it goes well, gain Tarot Cards from them as a show of trust. Once you collect enough of them, you’ll head to the Velvet Room and use them to summon a new Persona.
Every Persona has its unique skill set, and you can further tailor a Persona’s abilities and stats by giving them additional ability cards upon creation. Having a Persona with various abilities and skills can be vital while traversing dungeons, as you need to rely on buffing and debuffing regularly and hitting an enemy’s weak points to turn the tide of battle. Depending on which moves an equipped Persona has in their arsenal, up to three party members can combine their abilities to create powerful Fusion Spells with a list of available options and how to initiate them accessible during combat for a refresher. You can even play around with turn order to ensure a Fusion Spell, healing, or buff occurs early in the battle.
While it can be fun to strategize and experiment with combat to find what works best for you, I can’t say that the system is flawless. Contacting demons can be a risky business. At first, you have no idea what character dialogue choices a demon may or may not react favorably to: anger them enough, and they become hostile. Once you find the option that works for a particular demon, you can spam that dialogue choice constantly until you get the desired result. Battles get repetitive due to their turn-based nature once you figure out best strategies since you repeat those steps continually.
Combat ranges from frustratingly difficult when initially leveling up Persona to acquire all their skills— especially if you should happen to get into a fight with enemies without a weakness you can readily exploit—to downright tedious if you know exactly how to end the battle quickly. Even powerful Fusion Spells have inherent flaws that can give you pause on when to use them, such as two-group-affecting spells turning into a single target spell when fighting multiple hordes or if one character can no longer act due to a debuff when the timing presents itself. Playing around with character order also affects when enemies attack. It doesn’t help that dungeons are often long treks riddled with traps and puzzles where you usually get into a fight every two or three steps. Truthfully, I immensely enjoyed uncovering story scenes whenever I played Eternal Punishment. Still, I took some rather lengthy breaks from it in between dungeon explorations to keep from feeling burned out.
Visually, the PSP version of Eternal Punishment received a fresh coat of paint as far as graphics and art direction. I love the updated-yet-still-obviously-early-2000s character designs and artwork, though the visual presentation might not be for everyone, particularly those used to the modern Persona aesthetic. The creative VN-esque story presentation of the Additional Scenarios is interesting, and I enjoy comparing the new animated intro movie with the original PlayStation version in the movies section of the Gallery. The character designs are unique and expressive, and I love the detail in the spritework.
I was impressed by this port’s sound effects and partial voice acting. The music is phenomenal in its remixed form and original score, and you unlock both soundtracks, along with a few Innocent Sin songs, in the Gallery after beating the game. I especially enjoy the central vocal theme, “Change Your Way,” by Elisha La’Verne. For the most part, I was impressed with the fan translation script and liked that Japanese honorifics were kept when appropriate and made sense for character dynamics.
I was at fifty-nine hours when I finally beat Eternal Punishment, and I know there are easily more than fifty hours of side content that I didn’t unlock. The sheer number of things to do in Eternal Punishment is staggering if you’ve got the patience for it. I credit the title for offering high replayability because each playthrough can go very differently depending on your approach and choices. A “Restart” option allows you to carry some elements from a cleared save file to a new game if you so choose.
Overall, I’m glad I was able to play this version of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment in its entirety. It’s a phenomenal game from a storytelling stance, made even all the more impressive given the title’s age and the high caliber of writing the series is generally known for. Unfortunately, I wish some of the gameplay elements, particularly dungeon exploration and the high frequency of random encounters, weren’t quite as dated; I can see where the Eternal Punishment would be a hard sell for gamers who don’t have the patience for more traditional old-school RPG mechanics.
As it stands, the PSP version of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is the definitive version of the game to play, given its slight quality of life improvements, updated visuals, and the added Additional Scenario sequences, even if it might not offer enough to entice everyone to import a copy of the game given the dated mechanics. I can only hope that Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, along with the first Shin Megami Tensei: Persona and Persona 2: Innocent Sin, might one day get the same type of remake overhaul Persona 3 Reload received since the story and characters still impressively stand the test of time.
Fan Translation Disclaimer: Over the last two decades, fan localizations of titles unreleased in the West have opened up exciting new experiences for gamers around the world. However, it’s important to note that fan translations are NOT endorsed by the original developers or publishers of these games. As the story and dialogue in fan localizations are unofficial interpretations of the original text, our “Story” score may not accurately reflect the genuine intent of the developers. RPGFan only reviews fan translations if there is little to no evidence of an official localization in the immediate future.
