Megami Ibunroku Persona

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This article is about the first game in the Persona franchise, also known as Revelations: Persona. For other things named Persona, see Persona.

Megami Ibunroku Persona is a 1996 role-playing game for the PlayStation, and the first entry in the Persona series. It was developed and published by Atlus and released on September 20th, 1996 in Japan. The game was subsequently released in North America as Revelations: Persona on December 14th of the same year, including significant localization changes. A PC port was released in Japan on March 25th 1999. It was included as one of the games on the PlayStation Classic released on December 3rd 2018, marking its first release in Europe.

A remaster of the game, simply titled Persona, was released for the PlayStation Portable in 2009, featuring a more faithful localization outside of Japan and completely replacing the soundtrack.

Blurb

Japanese

English

In the near future, mankind has conquered dimensional travel but the door we have opened swings both ways. The peaceful city you have grown up in has become a haven for dark creatures from another world— Demons! Now it's up to you and your friends to harness the hidden power within you by entering the fantasy game known as Persona.


You awaken with incredible abilities that you will need to defeat the scores of Demon invaders and cleanse the land of their forces. Converse with them before doing battle to determine your best course of action. Fight them or enlist their aid in your mission. Either way, you are set for the fantasy adventure of a lifetime!

Synopsis

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Gameplay

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Version Differences

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Revelations: Persona

In contrast to the Japanese release, the North American release of Revelations: Persona made numerous changes to the characters and their designs, as well as receiving several omissions to the story.


Most of the members of the main cast received major alterations to their designs, most notably being the protagonist and the character Mark.[2] Each member of the main cast received names that were heavily westernized, with Mark, Elly and Yuki being the only characters to receive little to no alterations.[2]

The setting has also been entirely americanized: for example, the city is renamed "Lunarvale", and the game is now set in the United States.[3] Thus, Yen are now changed to dollars. The sole exceptions being the shoe lockers at the entrance of the high school and the Shinto Shrines.[4] This was done in an effort to make the game more palpable to western audiences, as Atlus USA felt american gamers would not be able to connect with the game due to the heavy Japanese influence present in Megami Ibunroku Persona.[5][6][7]

A large number of demons are completely renamed, in order to avoid controversy.[8]

Notoriously, the Snow Queen Quest was almost entirely discarded, with only remnants of translated information being accessible through the usage of cheats. The majority of the quest still exists within the game's files, but the data is largely untranslated. The engine cannot support Japanese characters, so upon accessing this data, the game cannot process this information properly, and the text is left almost entirely unintelligible.[9]

PSP

Main article: Persona (PSP)

Listings

Characters

Demons

Skills

Items

Equipment

Locations

Development

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Localization

While the Megami Tensei franchise had been going strong since 1987 in Japan, the United States didn't see any title due to their heavy use of religious imagery and taboo topics which could potentially prove controversial. As such, Atlus lacked a flagship RPG title in the west, akin to Konami's Suikoden or Capcom's Breath of Fire.[6] While Jack Bros had been localized in 1995, the lack of any controversial content in Megami Ibunroku Persona meant it could be released in the west, which Atlus USA was interested in doing.[6]

The team responsible for the localization of Megami Ibunroku Persona into Revelations: Persona was pretty small, consisting of only 6 full time employees at Atlus USA.[6] In order to make Revelations: Persona more accessible to western audience, the localization team choose to remove or change almost every reference to Japan and Japanese culture[6]. They set the game in the United States and decided to change character design[2] so they would look more american.[5][6] Plus, due to the american version releasing only 3 months after the japanese release, there was pressure to finish it quickly for the christmas 1996 deadline. The official website for Atlus planned for a November 1996 date[10] but the game finally launched on December 14th of that year. Due to needing to heavily modify the script and sprites, the Snow Queen Quest had to be cut to finish the game on time. However, the data is still accessible on the disk via cheats, though untranslated, and unreadable as the text engine cannot render japanese characters.[9] Philemon's cutscene at the entrance of the dream world in Hypnos' Tower has been fully translated and dubbed.[9]

Reception

Megami Ibunroku Persona sold 201 147 copies during its first week, making it the best first week for a Persona game until Persona 5.[11] The game sold 391 556 copies by December 29th 1996, and 409 491 copies by July 6th 1997,[12] it was the best selling Persona game until Persona 5.[13] Meanwhile, Revelations Persona had sold 37 947 copies by January 2003, one of the lowest sales number for any mainline entry.[14]

Famitsu awarded Megami Ibunroku Persona a score of 32/40.[15] Revelations: Persona scored a 78 on Metacritic based on 6 reviews, as well as an 80% on gamerankings based on 8 reviews, indicating a "Generally Favorable" opinion.[16][17] Reimer of GameInformer gave the game an 8.75/10, calling it "the best PlayStation RPG available".[18] Jeff Gertsman for GameSpot gave Revelations: Persona a 7.3/10 and qualified the game as a "sleeper hit", praising the unique setting and story, as well as being able to speak to enemies, but criticized the dialogue, calling it "insane" and saying it "makes no sense".[19] IGN called it an "RPG masterpiece", saying it's "the perfect title for any RPG fan who craves something different".[20]

Nomenclature

Names in Other Languages
Language Name Meaning
English Revelations: Persona
Japanese 女神異聞録ペルソナ Alternate Goddess Tale: Persona

Gallery

References

  1. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20030418152635/www.theonionring.com/01-2003-TRSTS.html
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 https://tcrf.net/Revelations:_Persona#Characters
  3. ↑ https://www.destructoid.com/anime-expo-08-atlus-shin-megami-tensei-panel/
  4. ↑ https://tcrf.net/Revelations:_Persona#Other_Changes
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 https://www.destructoid.com/anime-expo-08-atlus-shin-megami-tensei-panel/
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 https://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2013/09/17/perfecting-persona-how-atlus-usa-bloomed.aspx
  7. ↑ "Interview: Atlus Talks Translating Shin Megami Tensei: Persona for PSP". Archieved here.
  8. ↑ https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2015/08/07/examining-the-localization-of-persona/
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 https://tcrf.net/Revelations:_Persona#Snow_Queen_Quest_Localization
  10. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/19961029122616/http://atlus.com/about.html
  11. ↑ http://gematsu.com/2016/09/media-create-sales-91216-91816
  12. ↑ https://sites.google.com/site/gamedatalibrary/game-search?pli=1
  13. ↑ https://personacentral.com/persona-seroes-sales-graphic-2020/
  14. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20030418152635/www.theonionring.com/01-2003-TRSTS.html
  15. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150102225223/http://www.famitsu.com/cominy/?m=pc&a=page_h_title&title_id=563
  16. ↑ https://www.metacritic.com/game/persona-revelation-series/critic-reviews/?platform=playstation
  17. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150516193712/http://www.gamerankings.com/ps/198277-persona/index.html
  18. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20010116005800/http://gameinformer.com/reviews/review_detail.cfm?ITEM_ID=3772
  19. ↑ https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/persona-review/1900-2548899/
  20. ↑ https://www.ign.com/articles/1997/10/21/persona


Persona series
Mainline Games Megami Ibunroku Persona (PSP) • Persona 2: Innocent Sin • Persona 2: Eternal Punishment • Persona 3 (FES, Portable, Reload) • Persona 4 (Golden) • Persona 5 (Royal)
Spin-off Games Persona 4 Arena • Persona 4 Arena Ultimax • Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth • Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth • Persona 4: Dancing All Night • Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight • Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight • Persona 5 Strikers • Persona 5: The Phantom X • Persona 5 Tactica
TV Series Trinity Soul • Persona 4 The Animation • Persona 4 The Golden Animation • Persona 5 The Animation: The Day Breakers • Persona 5 The Animation
Movies Persona 4 The Animation: The Factor of Hope • Persona 3 The Movie: Spring of Birth • Midsummer Knight's Dream • Falling Down • Winter of Rebirth
Manga Megami Ibunroku Persona • Persona: Tsumi to Batsu • Persona 3 • Persona 4 • Persona x Detective Naoto • Persona 4 Arena • Persona 4: The Magician • Persona 4 Arena Ultimax • Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth: Roundabout • Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth Side:P3 • Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth Side:P4 • Persona 5 • Persona 5: Mementos Mission
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