Persona 1: Revelations - Day 2

All right! One week down for this diary!

For each game this week I'm going to describe the play mechanics of the game for any one who never played them before. I probably should have done this from the start but there was already too much space being taken up by the back story of where in the game i was.

Persona has 4 different play mechanics, Dungeon, Fight, Story, and World. The Dungeon portions plays mostly like a classic dungeon crawler, where you mainly wander around a first person view of very square dungeons and fight random monsters, yet is set in modern times.

Once you find a random monster you go into the Fight mode, which is an isometric view of the battle where you each take turns final fantasy style. You have all the normal fight options like attack (with either a blade weapon or gun), magic (in the form of persona), and items. The unique part is that you can negotiate with the monsters before the fight, if it goes well you can persuade them into giving you a "card" (which you can use to make new persona), or items, or just leave, but if it goes badly they will become stronger or give you status ailments.

When you're not fighting monster or lurking in dungeons you're in Story mode, a single isometric room where you can walk around and talk to people or pick up items. Like the the title suggests, this is where all the dialogue and story portions take place, and each of these rooms are normally linked by the dungeons.

The last, and the least, mode is the World mode that links together the dungeons. This is an awkward minimalistic 3D view where the building are nondescript block and you are represented by a green diamond that should be hovering over a Sim. It's hard to control, moving at only 90 degree angles, and there are random monsters.

On a side note, there is no voice acting in the game except for the CG cut-scenes and random taunts that the characters shout while attacking. One of these taunts each character has is shouting "Persona!" when summoning their persona. The odd thing is that nearly all of them pronounce the -sona part with a soft o sounding like the word sauna, and I always heard it as a hard O like in sonic. After several hundred times it gets annoying!

Ok, now to the library!

At first I thought I was supposed to go to a town library, but it turns out it's the school's library, so I wander all over the school trying to find the library, and of course it's on the top floor. In the library we meet Kain, a very odd looking guy who most likely didn't look so silly before the translators re-did the artwork...

Kain goes on to say that he first learned of all the weirdness from a guy in a mask by the shrine, the same weird CG guy who first talked to the group in the beginning of the game, so we need to check out the shrine to see if he can tell us what to do next. Also in the library is a giant black and red door that has a heartbeat and has been in this dimension since the weirdness started...

After many annoying battles trying to navigate the world map we make it back to the shrine, and are greeted by a butterfly and another stiffly animated CG cut-scene of the guy in the mask. He tells us that Guido (the main bad guy) is on the east end of town and we must stop him before he destroys all realities. The trick is that there is a huge energy wall splinting the town down the middle and the only way through is by the subway witch is guarded by a big demon.

To kill the demon we need to find a Holly Mirror, and then he disappears before saying where to get it. So i figure that some odd item like that would be either in the mall or the museum, both are not too far from the shrine. The mall is closer so we head there first, and along the way we run into some Toilet Kids...

DAMN THEY ARE CHEAP!!

OK... Top floor library -> Talk to Kain -> Go to Shrine -> back on track!

I make it to the mall relatively unharmed (didn't get to level up like last time) only to find out that the mirror isn't there. What I do find is one of the coolest looking armor shops I have ever seen in a game!

Most places just have some shields on the wall or maybe the torso of a suit of armor on a stand, but this place is all class! Full plate metal suits all in display, leather pants and jackets neatly on hangers, shields and helmets on a central island, and even full mannequins decked out in the latest road warrior gear! So after stocking up on protective items I went over to the Velvet Room, the weird extra-dimensional lounge where personas are made.

I had a few more personas made since many of the ones i had currently were maxed out and not very useful. A few close calls and some quick leveling along the way to museum the and the new personas are shaping up nicely. It turns out my second hunch was right and the mirror is in the museum, but before we can pick it up a large bubble with the image of a girl's head appears and begs us not to use the mirror.

The girl may be the one in black, and doesn't want us to stop whatever is she is up to, but it also may be the one in white and it turns out the guy in the mask is tricking us. It could also be some other girl that i can't think of yet, Mary seemed to recognise her...

Well I'll find out next week when i go to the subway!