Revelations: Persona is a franchise that I personally never expected to see release in North America. The setting, a high school, the subject matter, demons, and more just seemed to be too much for gamers here. I remember reading gaming magazines in the mid 1990’s and seeing that this game was indeed coming. That was an amazing moment for me as I followed the overall mythos closely. This is a subset of the larger Shin Megami Tensei series for those that do not know.

PlayStation was a new playground

One thing that Sony represented well with their fledgling PlayStation was – this is a new playground. PlayStation was not just a prettier Super Nintendo using CD-ROM tech. From early on, gamers saw this with titles such as Twisted Metal and Wipeout.

Still though, I was weary that they would allow games to go this far on their platform.

I was worried for nothing. Sony certainly allowed Atlus to run with their ideas for Revelations: Persona. Fans ate it up as well. According to Gematsu.com, the PSOne Persona game saw over 200,000 units sold in its first week. It would be Persona 5 that finally bested that sales record, in 2016. The second Persona title would not make it over until 2000.

Revelations: Persona is not for everyone

Okay, please note, this is not a game series for just any gamer. You must be cool with a lot of things that may be just too much to “be cool with”. One, there are demons and religious overtures here – not always good. You are also not always on the “good” side of those things.

The story involves a school and high school students – again, something people may not be cool with.

Revelations: Persona also steps out of the norm in other things, not just setting. You can coerce some demons to help you with items via talking with them. Be careful though, if you are dealing with an angry demon it can make the conversation go south quickly.

Battles and interacting with the world

Battles are grid-based affairs that allow moving characters around. You are also given access to a large portion of the city as well as the high school itself.

Dungeons are first person affairs, like what you might expect from a 1980’s RPG. Me personally, I prefer single player dungeon crawlers as extra characters tend to become filing cabinets with names. In Revelations: Persona these extra characters have different abilities and are useful in and out of battle.

If you are fine with religious overtures and demons, then Revelations: Persona might be for you. If you prefer to play on the go, there is a version on the Sony PlayStation Portable that features wide screen and other niceties. For purists, the original PlayStation version is still awesome.

Carl Williams

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