| abstract
| - Persona 2 is a duology of games released in 1999-2000 as an Urban Fantasy spinoff of the popular JRPG franchise Shin Megami Tensei. It is the second title in the Persona spinoff series developed by Atlus, which continued in 2006 with Persona 3. Innocent Sin (Tsumi) stars loner tough-guy Tatsuya Suou, a Japanese high school student from Sumaru City. A popular rumor going around the city states that if you dial your own cellphone number, a mysterious entity called "Joker" will appear in front of you and then grant you one wish. When Tatsuya and his friends try this, Joker appears and marks them for death, accusing them of committing a terrible crime against him that they can't remember. As the Joker Charm runs out of control and rumours begin to become reality, Tatsuya and his friends must fight to uncover the mystery of why they are being targeted and stop Joker before it's too late. Eternal Punishment (Batsu) stars perky Intrepid Reporter Maya Amano, a Japanese journalist for teen magazine Coolest. A popular rumour going around the city states that if you dial your own cellphone number, a mysterious entity called "JOKER" will appear in front of you and then kill whoever you wish. Maya's investigations into the rumour lead her to be marked for death by JOKER, who accuses her of committing a terrible crime against him on "The Other Side" that she can't remember. As the Joker Curse runs out of control and rumours begin to become reality, Maya and her friends must fight to uncover the mystery of JOKER and "The Other Side" before it's too late. And then there's a boy in a red jacket that Maya swears she has met before... Gameplay-wise, Persona 2 straddles a fence between the previous title and the sequels to follow. The grid-based battles are thrown out, along with the moon phase calendar (later to make a comeback in Persona 3). The Contact system, however, is in full swing. In addition to having four conversation options with enemies (reduced to just one in Eternal Punishment to make it less cumbersome), choosing multiple characters will yield a new contact based on their relationships, which change over time. Though mainly a source of comedy, it would be perfected with Persona 3's Social Links. Persona summoning works much the same way, with Fusion Spells allowing multiple Personas to combine their magic. Also new are "contracts" - when you make an enemy happy, they make a guarantee that they won't hurt you, and can also give you special items. Though the PSX version of Innocent Sin never left Japan, Eternal Punishment was localized and released in North America in 2000. While it isn't necessary to play the first to understand the second, much of the fun of the second comes in spotting the changes between the two continuities. Atlus initially announced no plans in localizing Innocent Sin into English and later elaborated they had planned to release it, but were prevented from doing so over unspecified content issues. A fan translation of this version was released in 2008. Atlus later admitted they were aware of it, but chose to not interfere with it. Innocent Sin was remade for the Playstation Portable with widescreen support, new art, enhanced demon negotiations, and the option to pick between the original and arranged soundtrack. It also slightly censored the more overt Nazi imagery at the end of the game that is widely believed to have prevented the PSX release from leaving Japan. This version of the game was released in North America in September of 2011, and in Europe in November 2011 published by Ghostlight, with Ghostlight planning a late 2011 deluxe release for Europe. It was confirmed that the second part of the game would also be remade and was released in May 17, 2012 in Japan with an extra scenario, so it shouldn't be too long before the rest of the world gets it as well. Not to be confused with a game called Sin and Punishment, which are the Japanese subtitles in order of release.
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