Atlus announced yesterday via their Atlus Faithful newsletter that there will be a limited reprint of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 Eternal Punishment.  The reprinted copies will be available exclusively at Amazon.com.  Atlus explains that the reprint is to celebrate the upcoming release of Persona 4, as well as to thank fans of the series for their continued support of the series.

Before I begin my rant, I just want to start by confirming that I love Atlus.  I truly do, if it weren’t for them I may have some semblance of a life.  But to me this is a bit of a slap in the face.  I feel like Atlus is capitalizing off of band-wagon-jumpers who are just recently getting into the series.

Atlus basically assumes that people who now like Persona started with number 3.  So their way of rewarding these individuals is by reprinting the previous game.  While on the surface this appears to be a kind gesture, it completely ignores the fact that the release of Persona 2 was originally flawed.

In Japan the game spanned two titles, the first being Persona 2: Innocent Sin, and the second being Persona 2: Eternal Punishment.  In the Western world, only the second of the two, Eternal Punishment, was localized.  The reason Innocent Sin didn’t make it is unclear, but some people speculate it’s due to some homosexual undertones and an appearance by zombie Hitler.

While the games were partially stand-alone, there was a good deal of confusion among Western players.  There were some story connections that could just not be established without the preceding title.  Imagine playing Final Fantasy X-2 without ever knowing FInal Fantasy X existed…  You would never know who Shuyin is supposed to look like, what the hell a Yevon is or why Rikku is afraid of lightning.

If Atlus truly appreciated the support of Persona fans they would remedy Persona 2’s release by bringing us Innocent Sin rather than pretending the title doesn’t exist.  It seems to me like Atlus is trying to profit off of the hype of Persona 3 and 4 by taking advantage of ignorant new-comers to the series.  Perhaps I am just reading too much into it…

Anyway, you can pick up your copy of the game for the Playstation console here.  Just don’t expect it to make a lot of sense until Gemini finishes his translation of Innocent Sin.  I am happy…honest.

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Know Your Video Game History: Persona

Roy atlus, persona, ps 5 comments