Persona 2 Innocent Sin Review - Sins of our Past

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more motivated than ever to get right back into the swing of things despite my personal feelings towards the original persona the game sold very well especially when you consider the size of atlas at the time atlus would be crazy to not capitalize on this success and around three years later in 1999 we were introduced to persona 2 innocent sin only in japan alright let's just get right into this now persona 2 is actually a duology the first part innocent sin was originally never released worldwide the reason for which has never been officially stated but it's most likely because some of the game's imagery could have stirred up a lot of controversy we did however end up getting the second part of the duology eternal punishment in the year 2000. it wasn't until 2011 when us north american players finally got to play an official translation of innocent sin in the form of the psp re-release this is the version that i'll be using for this review because i actually do have some experience with this game i played it not too long after i finished persona 3 for the first time and i honestly don't remember a whole lot from that experience over the years persona 2 has slowly been gaining popularity especially innocent sin it's still not nearly at the popularity of the modern persona games but people who have played the game have fallen in love with the cast of characters and the story with the nature of persona 2 being a duology this review specifically is going to be about innocent sin i want to review the game in the context of its release so with the story specifically i'm going to be ignoring any extra context or answers in eternal punishment so we can see how the game stands on its own so this is your spoiler warning now if you have any interest in persona 2 innocent sin please stop watching the video now persona 2 is a very story heavy game with a huge focus on its characters i don't want to rob any surprises from anybody because the story is actually really good the game opens up at 7 sisters high school with our main protagonist tatsuya suo fixing up his motorcycle unlike the persona 1 protagonist tatsu here is actually a pretty popular student so much so that he catches the attention of the boss of kasumi yaga hai kichi mashima ikichi sends tatsuya a letter claiming that they have one of their students from seven sisters as hostage and wants to meet him at samaru prison with no time to waste tatsuya and his fellow classmate lisa silverman rushed over only to find out that this hostage situation is a complete joke the entire scenario was set up by akichi's friends it turns out that the boys were going to form a band of their own and they wanted tatsuyu to be a part of it lisa argues with akiichi for wasting everyone's time and it gets so heated that lisa akichi and tatsuya all begin to awaken to their personas they pass out afterwards and awaken the realm of unconsciousness where they meet philemon philemon warns the kids of an entity that threatens their existence and that their home samaru city is also going through a strange phenomenon in samurai city rumors have the potential to become reality when the group wakes up lisa wants to try out a rather famous rumor to see if what they just dreamed of was real or not so the rumor in question is a rumor about a wish-granting entity known as the joker if you do a certain chant and call your own phone number the joker will be summoned to help fulfill your dream but if you freeze up and are unable to tell him he'll steal away your ideals because he believes that if you're unwilling to follow through with them you don't deserve the right to have dreams to begin with if joker takes away your dreams you'll become what are known as shadow men if this happens you'll slowly fade away from existence and you'll be forgotten by the masses it'll be like you were never born to begin with this ends up happening to akichi's friends when they try out the joker rumor joker also seems to have it out for tatsuya for reasons that our protagonists can't remember joker attacks the group but refuses to kill them until tatsuya remembers the sin he committed even though they just got their asses kicked tatsuya is very eager to jump back into investigating joker lisa and akichi tag along for extra firepower the group ends up going back to seven sisters high school where they find out that a rumor about the school emblem being cursed has come true and that their principal was spotted with a masked man while the students tried to figure out a way to break the school emblem curse they come across two reporters that are also looking into the joker rumor the freelance photographer is actually yukino from persona 1 which is pretty cool the introductions are cut short however when demons suddenly storm the room it turns out that not only yukino still has access to her persona but maya also seems to have some light experience with summoning a persona as well since maya and yukino have the same goal in mind they decide to join tatsuya's group in order to take down joker together this is the basic setup to persona 2's plot and it's a lot to take in at once in a very short amount of time we're introduced to a lot of major characters reintroduced to the concept of a persona have had future plot elements foreshadowed and have had the concepts of rumors explained to the player this all happens in the span of less than an hour and it's honestly a lot to take in all at once it's not a terrible introduction but it feels as though a lot of information is quickly skimmed over so that we can get a full party assembled but after this introduction to the characters the story becomes relatively straightforward we have our ragtag group of persona users going up against not only joker but also a cult based off the zodiac signs known as the masked circle unlike persona 1 the party members of this game are set in stone this has a very obvious benefit of giving every character major development throughout the story because the devs know which characters are going to be with you persona 1 suffered a bit because the 5th party member ended up feeling underdeveloped and underutilized because the story was written in a way where it didn't matter much who you picked without giving too much away there's a much greater focus on the party members themselves and the relationships within the party these characters all react to events in different ways and discuss them with each other it gives us a really good idea to who these people are outside of the story character interactions are also top-notch there's a bit more comedy and innocent sin than what i was expecting lisa and nikichi's interactions were some of my favorite ones in the game because of how much they argue about pretty much everything this game is still dark don't get me wrong but there's a lot of scenes used to keep the game from being depressing visually the jump from persona 1 to persona 2 is significant innocence sin came out three years after the previous game and it really shows the biggest difference just being the change in perspective in persona 1 almost every area was in a first person perspective the exception being these small rooms that you can explore for items or to talk to party members in persona 2 the entire game is presented in this isometric perspective that uses a mix of sprites and 3d models to create the environments this visual style has actually aged very well persona 1's environment design suffered a lot with it being displayed in the first person perspective most of the dungeons were confined into being these big mazes with very blocky designs it was very claustrophobic and didn't do a great job of being the environment it was supposed to represent in contrast persona 2's environments are much more organic and realistic the first dungeon is a high school so the layout is filled with hallways and classrooms you're supposed to explore in order to break the school's curse almost all the dungeon design is grounded in reality aside from the few that are affected from the rumor system and also the last dungeon the in-game cutscenes have also seen a massive improvement characters now have unique sprites that react to what's going on in the story and are overall more expressive with one of my favorites being the sprite of akichi something especially cool is the fact that the characters all have multiple portraits instead of just one this adds so much to the overall cutscene direction characters now look scared embarrassed or angry when saying certain lines the persona 2 duology was the only time this was even in the series even persona 5 royal sticks with using one base face for every character that changes facial expressions with only a single alternative portrait i don't usually talk about graphics in my videos but i thought it was worth mentioning here because of how impressed i am with the presentation persona 1 still looks fine but persona 2 is on a whole other level but graphics aren't everything to me something that you do for a good majority of the classic persona trilogy are random encounters i didn't think very highly of persona 1's battle system and balance so i was hoping that persona 2 would fix the problems i had with it on many levels yes i think persona 2 improves on the original game's battle system while having some interesting mechanics of its own to make the game stand out however there are still a few issues here that in some ways makes the battle system worse than in persona 1. some already know what i'm about to say but for those who haven't played the game i'm going to have to go into more detail persona 2's combat system is very similar to the first games but there was some unnecessary fact that was trimmed off for example persona 1's combat system took place on a grid this meant that you had to consider where you'd place your party members because most attacks had a certain amount of range that you had to worry about some skills even had the ability to provide splash damage to a certain amount of the battlefield persona 2 drops the system in favor for a more traditional setup i honestly don't miss the grid system it wasn't really anything to worry about and i ended up just keeping almost everyone in the front row anyways plus magic had unlimited range anyways so your position at the end of the day didn't really matter instead persona 2's combat revolves around the fusion spell system to perform a fusion spell you have to have your party members use certain skill in a certain order for example if you have two characters use fire spells next to each other you'll discover the spell blazing burst which deals much more damage to an enemy than just using the spells individually discovering a fusion spell makes the characters use it once automatically but after you can pick and choose when you want the spell to be used fusion spells are only casted when the last party member begins their turn so let's say you have a fusion spell that requires three party members to use the first two will pass their turn so they can prepare to cast the spell this adds some risk to using fusion spells because if a party member dies or has an ailment on them the spell will be cancelled and those turns will be wasted there are a lot of fusion spells to discover and while some of them follow the same rules such as applying an element to the sword skill straight slash the more powerful skills require you to have a very specific setup like the end game skill grand cross which sees all five party members casting their ultimate skills in a certain order but it's certainly worth it because of how much damage you could potentially do you can discover some of these skills on your own but i recommend using a guide for the more specific spells because they can be a bit of a pain to find something interesting is that if you finish a battle with a fusion spell there's a chance that one of the personas that participated in the spell will mutate a persona mutation can result in many different benefits there's a chance that the persona can learn a new hidden skill increase its own stats gain additional ranks and even change forms in the velvet room the persona 1 ranking system is back in this game meaning that you have to use the persona multiple times in battle so it can learn a new skill performing fusion spells actually count towards the ranking of every party member's personas so it's a great way to rank them up quickly plus there's a chance you can get lucky and the persona will gain multiple ranks due to a mutation the fusion spell system is core to the combat of persona 2. there's no denying that but a decision that i dislike is the fact that in order to make the fusion spell system seem more important other skills had to be nerfed for example the spells that are supposed to attack all enemies have been changed to now only affect a certain group of enemies there are a few exceptions to this rule but for the most part skills like maguero or maragi have become far less useful enemy formations and innocent sin pretty much discouraged the use of attack all spells for the most part sometimes you can get lucky and get a formation that you can wipe out with magueru but this is few and far between it's certainly not a design choice that ruins the game for me but it's just a bit disappointing that some fusion spells only give the illusion of being useful because other skills were nerfed much like in persona 1 characters are able to wield multiple personas in battle and can switch to them on the fly this time around the persona affinity system has been changed a bit since the original game as well in persona 1 personas could activate certain abilities depending on their affinity with the user and if the situation demands for it if the affinity with the arcano is classified as bad the persona could be equipped but not usable in battle in persona 2 unless the infinity is classified as worst any party member can equip and summon a persona in battle here's where it gets a bit different though effini will affect how much sp it'll cost to summon the persona as well as increasing the mutation chance for example if the affinity with the arcana is good or great you'll get a discounted sp cost and a decent mutation chance well if the arcana infinity is bad you'll have to spend 50 percent more sp in order to summon the persona and the mutation rate will be around a one percent chance the way you acquire new personas of persona 2 is different enough to talk about while at the same time being very familiar to the other games just like in persona 1 you have to contact demons and attempt to make them eager if you're successful making a demon eager instead of giving you a spell card the demon will actually give you a stack of tarot cards that represent the arcana that they are a part of the amount of cards you get depends on how powerful the demon is these cards are used in the velvet room to summon new personas to add to your arsenal here's where the differences start you don't have to be the same level as the demon this time around to get the tarot cards this means in any conversation with any demon you can always get a reward for making them eager however by being the same level or higher than the enemy when you make the demon happy you are able to form a pact with them the main appeal of formula pact with a demon is that if you make them eager in another battle they'll throw in blank tarot cards alongside the ones they already gave you you can bring these blank cards to kaneko over here and you'll turn them into whatever arcana you want this is such a good concept because it means you're never out of luck if you can't find the demon of the right arcana to converse with i don't really mind this change because the tarot cards are functionally the same as just fusing demons together i don't really find this better or worse than the previous method but i appreciate that there was attempt to do something different here even though it ended up not sticking with the franchise another great idea is the fact that you can actually summon and equip personas that are a higher level than you there's a five level threshold that you have to work with so if you're level 30 you can summon and use a persona that's level 35. i like this idea a lot because it cuts down on level grinding speaking of which persona 2 fixes one of the issues i had with persona 1 where the experience you gained from battles was divided up in a weird way that would leave one character overleveled now it's even across the board so it may sound as though i actually like the battle system in this game a lot well not exactly there are not only still a few problems that were unfixed from persona 1 but there was another one that was introduced that actually ruins a lot of my overall enjoyment of this game let's start off with one of my complaints that wasn't really fixed the contact system in persona 2 is still about as annoying as before in some cases i actually find it worse here there's still the problem with having too many contact options to consider when talking to demons but it's even worse here now because you have the option to pair up characters together for contact it's so needlessly complex especially when you realize that for a good majority of demons you can get them eager without doing these team-up contacts like i get the idea and it helps show off the character interactions more but it feels pretty needless but persona 2's battle system has one major flaw that ruins the entire experience difficulty is something that i've mentioned in the past a couple of times what i usually say is that i don't care if a game is easy as long as it's fun to play and isn't brainless it's the reason as to why i think persona 4 goal and persona 5 royal are still fun games to play even though they're pretty easy at the end of the day in my opinion persona 2 innocence in at least the psp version is far too easy and brainless that it feels as though the game plays itself for most of its run this is my biggest problem with the game as a whole because what you're doing for 70 of the game is dungeon crawling and battling enemies just for reference i decided to pick hard mode for this playthrough because i've heard that this game wasn't that difficult the reason as to why this game isn't difficult mostly boils down to how little damage you receive from enemies and the overall balance of certain skills unless you're actively trying to limit your equipment most enemies won't do enough damage to really worry about unless it's an instant kill move like mudo i mentioned in my persona 1 video that i ended up using the replay button a lot during random encounters because i would nuke them so fast that they didn't have much of a chance to do any damage to me and the same thing happens here as well but now i don't even have to worry about taking damage because it's so incremental once you manage to unlock the fusion spell that buffs up defenses on all allies that's it the game is over right then and there just by applying buffs to your physical and magic defense you pretty much can tank anything that hits you with ease you see how much damage this guy is doing to me currently this is the final boss and i'm taking single digit damage from him which wow speaking of boss battles they're almost all a cakewalk since to a certain fusion spell that you can get relatively early by using any win spell combined with a physical skill sonic punch you gain access to the skill pegasus strike with the power of 120 this bad boy can carry you through almost any boss that doesn't reflect physical if you decide to increase the physical attack of your party with materukaja this skill can deal almost 1 000 damage in a game where the numbers are usually very low the boss fight against joker both phases went down in only a few turns thanks to this skill what happened here sums up the boss fights in a nutshell buff the party set up a healer and spam pegasus strike you'd be surprised at how often this works i kid you not there was a point where i left the game running on auto and didn't change my strategy and i won without breaking a sweat before anyone asks i have not played the ps1 version of innocent sin even though it's a fan translation if i knew beforehand that innocent sin on psp was going to be this brain dead easy why did i pick it exactly the answer is very simple i try my hardest to stay as official as i can on this channel this means playing the copies of the games that i own on official hardware unless it's literally impossible for me to play the game otherwise i stay away from emulation and fan translation innocence sin is no exception and i'm sorry but i'm judging the game based off the version of the game we got in the west maybe the ps1 version doesn't have the battle issues that i have mentioned here so if emulation doesn't bother you it might just be better to check out that version of the game instead anyways when people are usually discussing persona 2 it's not necessarily because of the gameplay where most of the praise lies with innocent sin in particular is the story and the characters it was one of the things i was looking forward to the most when revisiting this game for this video i alluded to this earlier but persona 2's narrative focuses a lot more on the individual party members and their relationships with other people this is very integral to the story that innocent sin is trying to tell and is foreshadowed in its early hours while the story on the surface may seem like a simple save the world type of narrative in the background there's a plot slowly building that's far more personal for our characters so let me just give some context real quick our group's primary focus is stopping a cult called the masked circle that joker is a part of while their goal is unclear at first we eventually learn that the mass circle is planning on fulfilling a prophecy known as the oracle of maya if they succeed with their plan the world will be destroyed and the surviving people that took refuge in samaru city will be guided into a utopian age the stakes are certainly high and this group is not to be messed with they're willing to detonate bombs around the city as well as torch police stations in order to see their goal through to the end while our group seems like a ragtag bunch of individuals there's actually a lot more history between tatsuya lisa akichi and maya than what's first shown remember when we first met yukino and maya at seven sisters high school when maya first summoned her persona tatsuya lisa and ikichi begin to break down crying for some reason as they're reminded of a warm memory akichi describes this feeling as a warm hug from his mother that's not the only strange thing that happens here yukino asks everyone if they've played the persona game like she did back in high school akichi and lisa have different reactions to this question akichi said that he had a dream where he played it when he was younger but lisa seems a lot more uncomfortable with the question she says that she didn't but she looks as though she's guilty about something this is something that happens a few times throughout the first half of the game lisa solo begins to piece the information together and this all culminates when one of the members of the masked circle king leo gives them a message from joker it's at this point where lisa remembers the sin that they committed against joker when everything manages to calm down and the group meets back at the kuzanoha detective agency lisa asks akichi if he remembers playing a game called the masked circle when they were kids at first ekiji thinks that it was all a dream until he slowly begins to piece it together himself tatsuya still doesn't know what's going on so lisa asks him to visit elia shrine and she'll tell him everything about the masked circle and joker buckle up boys because this is where starts to get depressing philemon instructs the group to face their traumatic past by entering mount iwato and finding the reflective pools if they're able to break free from their sins they'll be able to gain the power to face the future without fear during their excursion through mount iwato we learn a lot about the group 10 years prior to the game beginning tatsuya ikichi lisa and another boy part of this group named jun all met at the festival being held at elia shrine they all hit it off well with each other relatively quickly and came up with a game since the kids were all wearing feathermen masks when they first met they came up with a game that whenever they would meet again they would be wearing the same masks the kids called this game the masked circle they spent a lot of their free time hanging out with each other and playing games one day the kids came across an older girl praying at the shrine so she can follow her dreams in the future lisa suggests that if she were to join the mass circle she could be whoever she wanted to right now and not have to worry the rest of the kids took a liking to this girl and gave her the nickname big sis and the five of them would meet frequently to play with each other in fact it's actually because of big sis that the kids played the persona game for the first time it's the reason as to why their older counterparts could awaken to their personas without doing the ritual these good times didn't last forever because one day big sis had to break the news to the kids that should be moving away the following day out of desperation the kids decided to lock big sis in the shrine overnight with the one protesting being tatsuya who ended up getting thrown in alongside her tragedy struck that night when a younger version of king leo set the shrine on fire tatsuya managed to get out and he attempted to protect big sis but ended up getting stabbed by king leo out of desperation tatsuya managed to awaken to his persona and used his magic to severely burn one side of king leo's face the kids believed that they murdered big sis that night because it was their fault she was locked in the shrine when it was burned down there was a bit of hope however because there was no bodies reported on the scene of the accident the damage had been done to the children however they ended up hiding away their masks inside of mount iwato and vowed to never meet again traumatized from the events at first lisa believed that big sis was joker because of king leo's description of what joker under the mask looked like but that theory was shadowing it turns out that the maya that's been with the party throughout the dungeon has actually been a doppelganger created by rumors spread by the masked circle thankfully the real maya arrives just some time to stop joker and the shadow maya from killing the group that's when it's revealed that maya is actually big sis and joker's true identity is the group's childhood friend jon jun begins to have a mental breakdown because he believes that maya died at the hands of tatsuya strangely enough and flees before the group can do anything i'll go into a bit more detail about shadow maya in a bit because i want to save that discussion for when i talk about her character but as of right now the team's objective has changed now that they remember the innocent sin that they committed they're able to forgive not only each other but themselves however june is still out there suffering from false memories and is unable to forgive himself for what happened it's no longer about putting the masked circle to rest for good anymore but now the group has to save jun before it's too late this is the part where the story gets really good the first part of the story is used to help flesh out the main characters rather than develop the plot in any way we're introduced to the antagonist but there was no reason for our characters to go on the journey other than the fact that they were the only ones with the power to stop joker in the mass circle when it's revealed that joker is jun it adds a personal stake to the plot because we know that the characters care about jun since the game spent so much time building up and developing our cast by this point we ourselves end up caring about june's safety because of how much he means to tatsuya and the others we know that jun isn't thinking straight that's told to us directly but there's a more subtle representation of his struggle during your trip through mount iwato you're able to find the featherman masks of kids buried 10 years prior all of them are accounted for lisa's akichis tatsuyas and mayas which the kids hid away after they thought she died the only mask that's missing from the count is jon's mask at some point he came back to mount iwato to dig up his mask because unlike the others who tried to bury their sins jon just couldn't forget the sin that he committed persona 2 has a greater focus on building the main character's personalities and i actually think that the game does a pretty good job at developing them further it's still not perfect but i found myself far more interested in the personal struggles of the characters this time around let's run down the list real quick lisa silverman is one of the first characters you mean innocent sin lisa doesn't exactly have a great relationship with her father you see her dad was a big japanophile who moved from this side of the world from america so he could get a citizenship and become the japanese man he always wanted to be lisa is a japanese-born caucasian and because of her appearance this led to people bullying her when she was younger even when she was in high school there were assumptions made that she was fluent in english because of her american heritage much later in the game we come across lisa's shadow in one of the four temples based off the zodiac these shadows aren't the same ones as let's say persona 4 because they're more so doppelgangers that were created when the mass circle sped a rumor that our heroes were actually terrorists that set off bombs around the city before this rumor could come true and force the group into becoming members of the mass circle they spread a counter rumor in hopes to save themselves this plan ended up only working somewhat because while they didn't end up becoming members of the mass circle evil doppelgangers were created to fill in the space these shadow versions of the characters have the same memories of our group but are much more vile and evil thanks to the mass circle's rumor anyway lisa's shadow revealed that lisa's dad wanted her to become the ideal japanese girl this ended up sparking something inside of lisa and she wanted to rebel against her dad's obsession which led her down a dark path she started to experiment with hardcore drugs and would swindle money out of old men but that's not all lisa deep down was very desperate to be noticed by her peers even though she says that she just wanted to be normal her shadow says that's the reason as to why she went after tatsuya to begin with she wanted to have the same status that he did in school lisa doesn't deny any of what her shadow is saying but she's adamant that her feelings for tatsuya are true even if he doesn't return them she knows that she'll never stop loving him and will always be by his side no matter what i actually really like lisa's personality but i think her personal growth is only just okay i really like the idea that she tries so hard to rebel against her father that she's willing to do these terrible things to herself just so she can be her own person it's sad what she does to herself and i like that she owns up to it she regrets those decisions that she made after she's able to accept what happened in mount iwato but i feel as though this aspect of lisa has quickly brushed past and is never mentioned outside of this one instance i feel as though this could have been explored more but i'm not too sure if this would have made the game too dark or not just a little food for thought i think lisa is a pretty good character on her own and works really well when bouncing off of akichi since the two argue about almost everything like they're still children her crush on tatsuya is used for comedic effect a lot but it never got on my nerves they definitely knew when to reel back her character and let her actions speak for herself hiki mishima on the surface seems very arrogant and narcissistic but he actually has a much lower self-esteem than what's first presented when akichi was a child he was best friends with one of the most popular girls at his school despite his shyness and introverted personality this attracted jealousy from his peers and they ended up picking on him because of his weight they taunted him and said that there was no way that his friend miyabi would love him back because he was overweight this caused hikichi to develop an eating disorder in an attempt to lose weight he also wears a metaphorical mask so he can seem much more confident than he actually is akichi's childhood crush miyabi felt immense guilt from the bullying that akichi received so she decided to let herself gain weight in order to make akichi feel less alone but by the time she reconnected with akichi she felt as though she wasn't good enough for him because of the weight she gained akichi was unaware that this was the same girl that he loved since he was a kid and she didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't until akici attempted to rescue her from one of his rivals where he learned the truth that the chubby girl in front of him was his childhood sweetheart miyabi ends up running away before akichi can talk to her and we don't see her again until we find out she's been taken by akishi's shadow to the scorpio temple later in the game it turns out that miyabi turned to using the joker rumor to lose weight and she ended up joining the masked circle in the process shadow akishi proclaims that he's the one who owns miyabi and that it's akichi's fault that miyabi went to an extreme measure to lose the weight she gained ekichi manages to defeat his shadow and rescue miyabi she tells her that he doesn't care about the way she gained because he loved her for who she really was and not what she looked like this is a really sweet moment between these two and it shows how mature kichi actually is deep down a big worry i had with akichi was that he was going to be nothing but a comic relief character while he is used to provide humor in his actions and banter with lisa he is much more than just the funny one hell his relationship with lisa is actually developed and expanded on past the two bickering a lot something that the two have in common is that they both have issues with their fathers akishi's father treats his son like an extension of himself rather than his own person and kichi's dad wants akichu to take up the family business when he's older and wants him to be a hyper masculine japanese man like himself akichi is afraid of his own father because of past emotional mistreatment so akichi dresses and acts completely different to who he actually is so it's no surprise that akichi can relate to lisa in that regard and both of them try their hardest to break away from the expectations of their fathers even though the two argue we do see that akichi does care about lisa and her safety when she could potentially be in danger for me personally akishi is one of my favorite characters in the game for both his personality and the struggle he goes through and eventually overcomes there's honestly not much to say about maya mano outside of the burning shrine incident from 10 years ago maya is one of those characters that doesn't change a whole lot throughout the story but we do see a lot of her and her personality maya's most recognized trait is her super positive attitude and unwavering optimism despite the fact that tatsuya is the protagonist of the game maya takes a lot of charge within the group and acts as a bit of a leader in some scenarios not all is perfect with maya however because of the elia shrine incident maya has developed pyrophobia that sometimes gets the better of her this doesn't come up too often because maya overcomes this fear in order to help save the children at the aerospace museum this is more so used to hint that maya is supposed to be big cis before the reveal happens maya does show moments of weakness to keep her from feeling bland such as near the end of the game where she breaks down after reliving the final memory with her father let me make this clear just because maya doesn't get a whole lot of development that doesn't make her a bad character because she's still a realized character she has flaws and moments of weakness but at the end of the day she still tries to stay optimist to keep a team morale up but i have the same problem here as i did with lisa because there could have been a lot more done with her other than just her involvement in the main plot something i do legitimately find disappointing is the way her shadow was handled before mount iwato maya is missing from the group and her shadow rejoins in order to spy on them throughout the dungeon shadow maya chimes in with her own views and challenges the opinions of the other members as the player you're pretty much able to tell right away that something is wrong with her because her portrait is different from the regular maya also her personality is the exact opposite of the real maya this one is far more cruel and thinks that words like i'm sorry mean nothing due to how people are supposed to be instantly forgiven because someone apologized for their actions this is the only time we get to see shadow maya because she's killed after her boss fight by the real maya i just think it's kinda lame that this is the most underutilized shadow character because giving us a glimpse at maya's ugly side is such a good idea that sadly used far too early yukino is a returning character from the original persona and is a party member for most of the game there are actually a lot of cameos from other persona 1 characters in this game some of them you have to dig a little deep to find but yukino is the most prominent one much like in persona 1 yukino is a tough as nails girl who isn't afraid to get her hands dirty yukino's experiences in persona 1 are referenced a couple of times in innocent sin when exploring mount iwato she's disappointed to hear that there's another sad story connected to masks in reference to the first game snow queen quest yukino was designed to be a temporary party member this results in her not exactly having a lot to do in the story or much character expansion if you enjoyed her in persona 1 she's essentially the same as in that game but this time a bit more mature and with a really cool design they tried to build a relationship with herself and a member of the math circle named anna anna was a troubled high school student who eventually dropped out of the school completely and joined the mass circles one of their top members this girl reminds yuki no a lot about herself while she was still a punk she wants to use the lessons that her old teacher miss sayako taught her back in school to hopefully save this girl from a life of crime depending on certain actions made in the story this little side pluck can either have a satisfying conclusion or you can this up and not only kill anna but also yukino can you take a guess which ending to the story i got alright so throughout the game you're giving these choices to either the characters handle situations on their own or help them out by letting the characters sort out their own problems you're showing them that you have faith in the team so by the time you finish mount ewito philemon rewards your team with the evolved versions of their starting personas called prime persona everyone except yukino that is not too long after that there's a very similar moment to the rest of these choices except it involves yukino the person that she loved is killed in action and you have the choice to leave yukino behind so you can explore the caracol without her or you can force it to go along with you because i thought this was following the same trend as the other choices i made prior i decided to leave her behind so she can have time to sort this stuff out our own apparently this was the wrong decision because you later come across shadow yukino and anna this battle ends with shadow yukino jumping into the sea of unconsciousness with anna and we never see her again the real yukino is left as a brain dead husk of her former self which is such a depressing fate for this character i don't know something about this just doesn't seem right to me i just dislike how this is the only choice where the correct answer is to force the character to do something instead of having faith in them like the rest it's inconsistent with the rest of the choices now this is going to be a bit interesting because i actually want to talk about tatsuya's character real quick because unlike other persona protagonists tatsuya is one of the few that actually has a character of his own while playing as him sure he's still a mute but tatsuya is more than just someone to insert yourself into when tatsuya was a kid he not only spent a lot of time with his friends playing the mass circle but he ended up spending a lot of time with jun personally the two of them became inseparable to the point where they exchanged gifts that their fathers gave to them jin gave tatsuya the silver zippo lighter that he's seen carrying throughout the game after the elias shrine incident tatsuya began to distance himself away from people and just all around became a loner miss psycho from persona 1 is his school's guidance counselor and she describes him as very distant and looks like that he's always in a lot of emotional pain i personally believe that tatsuya never fully forgot about his past sin because he still carries around the zippo lighter that jun gave to him along with the memories associated with it so he at the very least remembers jun from his childhood one of my favorite moments from tatsuya happens just before the group fights joker again tatsu takes out jun's lighter before facing him with a look of determination without saying a word we understand how tatsuya feels in this situation how desperate he is to save his friend there's a lot of moments where he can tell how tatsuya's feeling just based on his portraits without him saying a single word you can see the kind of person tatsuya is now i'm not gonna say tatsuya is a super developed character in innocent sin but there's a lot more effort to make him a more interesting sign of protagonist than even the modern persona games do because outside of joker from persona 5 i can't really tell you anything about makoto or narakami that isn't from supplementary material and not to say much about eternal punishment yet but tatsuya's character only gets better from here finally there's jun who acts as a replacement for yukino after we defeat his joker alter ego this happens pretty far into the game and most of june's development is tied to the end game plot so let's start where we left off real quick there was a book that was written by king leo and a man named akinare kashihara called the in the catch which not only contained the oracle of maya prophecy but also a prophecy that dictated that there was a surviving group of nazis from world war ii hiding away in antarctica rebuilding their ranks dubbed the last battalion the context of this book were actually completely false that was until samuru's city's mysterious power turned those rumors into reality so not too long after the group finishes up their business in mount iwato the last battalion finally starts their war against the mass circle in order to gain control of zabalba once it rises tatsuya lisa akichi and maya quickly make their way to the bottom of the caracal in order to stop joker from raising jabalba but he's not alone because also at the core is the leader of the last battalion uh demonetization anyways zhiva turns out to be a mayan spaceship that has been hidden under samaru city for centuries which carries the city all the way up to the earth's atmosphere jetpack hitler manages to steal the heaven crystal skull and escapes leaving our heroes to battle joker they manage to save jon but suddenly his father arrives and expresses his disappointment in his son stealing away his persona afterwards alright so this is a lot to take in so i'm going to break it down jun's dad is actually the same akinari kashihara that helps write the inla catch but the man standing before us here is not actually june's father but an impostor and the main villain of the game nyarlathotep chun's father died many years ago because he fell into the clock tower at seven sisters high nyarlathotep took the form of june's dad in order to manipulate him to accomplish his goal of destroying the world what he ended up doing was rewriting jun's memories in order to convince him that maya was killed by tatsuya at the elias shrine this is what caused him to become the joker and nyarlathotep gives jun the power of the persona to help accomplish his goal this obviously scars june psychologically because during the final dungeon of the game there's a few points where he's on the verge of a mental breakdown because he's not sure which of his memories are real anymore jun must have drew the short straw in life because god damn this kid does not get a break it's heavily implied that jun's mother neglected jun as a child and his parents were always arguing with each other at home it's the reason as to why jun spent a lot of time at the elias shrine he wanted to run away from his terrible home life jun eventually grew to hate his family even denying that akinari was his father when he came to bring jin home one day but outside of his involvement with the story i think jun is a pretty decent character from a personality standpoint he's very caring as highly protective of his friends especially tatsuya but sadly jun doesn't get a lot of time to shine in this story because you get him so close to the end of it a lot of jun's story is explained through flashbacks because he's not in the party for a very long time his involvement in the story is really good and he's very integral character to the plot but his personality outside of the story isn't quite explored that much in my opinion since the oracle of maya has almost been fulfilled the group makes a mad dash to the center of jabalba so they can stop the fuhrer and neurolethotep before the grand cross begins and can i just say that i absolutely hate the final dungeon of this game it's grueling for two reasons reason number one it's a really damn long dungeon consisting of nine floors of twisting and turning corridors that make you feel like a rat in the maze reason number two the encounter rate is devilishly high here in this dungeon for some reason i didn't feel the need to talk about the encounter right earlier because i actually don't think it's that bad for a good majority in the game in fact there are a few points where the astoma skill actually works well because the encounters are usually around your level if you've been battling in every dungeon for some reason zibabla just has far more encounters than any other dungeon in this game and you can't get away with using a snoma because enemies can be up to 10 levels above your party so your entire time in zibaba will end up looking like this for a few hours the group ends up reaching the center of jabalba where they come across the fear and promptly knock him down with ease but it turns out that the fear was actually nyarlathotep and he reveals that the center of jabalba is actually the collective unconsciousness people are born here and in their death they return to the same place nyarlathotep turns into an amalgamation of everyone's father for one final battle despite his overwhelming power the group manages to pull through and defeat the crawling chaos afterwards philemon arrives and is oddly calm about what's going on the truth is philemon and nyarlathotep orchestrated this entire plot you see the two of them made a bet based on mankind's potential nyarlathotep would be the negative force that mankind would need to battle in order to prove their worth while philemon is the positive force that mankind needs in order to gain the strength to continue fighting the only catch is philemon is not allowed to directly help mankind and is only able to offer guidance so they can figure out the future for themselves nyarlathotep is the reason as to why maki's mind was connected to the deva system in persona 1 and why rumors in samurai city are coming true in this game narlethytep someone's misidea with the spear of destiny in order to stab maya in the stomach this is the same spear that pierced the side of christ in the bible which caused him to bleed endlessly because the story was passed down for over 2 thousand years because of rumors the spear works against maya in the same way the group is unable to stop maya from bleeding out and with the final piece of the oracle fulfilled the world comes to an end the grand cross stops rotation of the planet destroying everything except samurai city because it was protected by shababa our heroes actually lost but there is a solution philmon offers to erase the day that the kids first met by giving up their memories together a new timeline will be born that won't lead to the destruction of the earth with this being the only option the group vows to meet again in the new timeline and show neolithotep the true power of mankind and with that a new timeline is born the game opens up at seven sisters high school with our main protagonist tatsuyasuo fixing up his motorcycle we get a glimpse of what this new timeline looks like just like what philemon proposed no one remembers each other and they all live happy lives jun in particular has a much better relationship with his mother and he wants to become a teacher much like his dad the game ends with tatsuya and maya accidentally bumping into the train station sparking a bit of deja vu inside of maya there's a lot to take in with this last portion of innocent sin and this ending leaves a lot to be desired because the questions that this ending gives the player are answered in eternal punishment i think that the biggest flaw with the last few hours of innocence is just how much the game throws at you story wise it can be hard to keep up with it at points unless you've been following everything that's been told to you and you talk to npcs around the city it can honestly start to feel very confusing the biggest thing to take away from descending is that the group was willing to sacrifice their memories for each other for the greater good they're optimistic about meeting each other again in this new timeline but it isn't guaranteed that they will even just by bumping into each other at the train station could result in nothing happening but that's for eternal punishment to hopefully answer in the context of innocent sin it's a really sad ending it feels as though our characters are just destined to no longer be together ultimately philemon is just as responsible as nyarlathotep with the destruction of the world because of their experiment so his author of creating a new timeline isn't exactly as kind as he wants it to seem because it's partially his fault i haven't finished eternal punishment yet so hopefully my questions will be answered and that's the end of persona 2 innocent sin overall this is a very good story that's sadly really hampered by its borderline brainless gameplay as a reminder i'm referring to the psp version of the game when i'm saying this this game is primarily remembered because of its narrative and characters not necessarily because of its gameplay and i can totally see why after playing through this game again myself the best part about innocent sin is its story but that's not the entire package in order to experience those characters and interesting plot threads you're gonna have to experience the gameplay side of innocence in while the general mechanics are fine the game just never takes full advantage of them in battle because there's no need to use those mechanics i hate complaining that a game is too easy but this is just one of those cases where it's borderline boring so you might just be better off playing the ps1 fan translated version of the game if you want to experience innocence in because hopefully the difficulty issues aren't present in that version of the game and from what i've played of eternal punishment so far i can already tell you i won't be repeating the same criticisms the actual story can be very complicated at times there was a lot of stuff that i had to leave out of this video for the sake of getting to the important parts but at the end of the day anderson since story was really good there's a reason as to why people would consider it the best in the franchise i personally wouldn't go that far but i like it more than let's just say persona 3's narrative i can cautiously recommend innocence in on the psp if you're willing to look past the gameplay flaws but this game was certainly a step in the right direction for the franchise and a massive improvement over the original game next time we're going to be venturing back into uncharted territory with the only game in the persona franchise i have yet to finish at this point so join me in part 2 of this review when i cover persona 2 eternal punishment for the ps1 hey everyone thanks for watching i'd like to give a special thanks to all my patrons whose names are on screen now i know it took a while for this one to come out but the way for the eternal punishment video won't be nearly as long since i've already recorded around 10 hours of that game at the time of this recording i'd also like to give a special thanks to that boy aqua for helping me out with my videos he makes video essays as well and he just released his video on the original infamous game not too long ago it's a really good video and you should all check it out if you like my content you'll certainly like his if you want to keep up to date with my videos please follow my twitter at nam's compendium also if you've liked what you've seen maybe consider checking out my patreon for early video access and a special discord role thank you so much for watching and take care [Music]

Channel: Nam’s Compendium

Views: 116,259

Rating: 4.951992 out of 5

Keywords: Persona 2 Review, Persona 2 Innocent Sin Review, Persona 2 Innocent Sin Review Sins of our Past, Persona 2 Sins of out Past, Persona 2 Analysis, Persona 2 Critique, Nam12399 Persona, Nam12399 Persona 2, Nam12399 Persona 3, Nam12399 Persona 4, Nams compendium persona, nam's compendium persona 2, Persona 2 Innocent Sin Analysis

Id: nr-JQ5YRE8Y

Length: 45min 24sec (2724 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 28 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/hate434]

I’d love a reimagining of this game to match the newer entries in the series in terms of gameplay and aesthetics. I think younger audiences need to experience these games in the best way possible and while I really enjoy the series I have the clarity to see that these games age very badly and become frustrating to play for newcomers of the series.