Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
The psychological JRPG sequel set in a world where rumors become reality. Features an adult cast navigating a demon-infested city with the power of Personas.
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Story
Eternal Punishment begins when Maya is sent to write a story about the Joker phenomenon: according to rumor, if someone phones their own number, the Joker will kill on request. Going to Seven Sisters, she, Ulala, and Katsuya find the school principal murdered by the Joker. The Joker then attacks them, forcing each of them to summon their Personas. After the Joker knocks them out, Philemon contacts them and warns of a growing danger to the city.
After waking, the three pursue the Joker into the school clock tower, where he attempts to force a student to remember the events of Innocent Sin . They are saved by Tatsuya, who tells Maya to forget about him. After Katsuya is removed from the case by his superior Captain Shimazu, he teams up with Maya and Ulala to find the Joker. They eventually ally with Baofu, who believes that Tatsuya Sudou and his father Tatsuzou are involved with the Joker.
Going to the mental institution where Sudou is held, they discover that Tatsuzou sent Taiwanese Mafia hitmen to kill Sudou. Once confronted, Sudou admits that he is the Joker, and reveals that he is attempting to trigger the reappearance of the Other Side. Pursuing him to the Sky Museum, the party runs into Tatsuya and saves Jun from Sudou after Sudou sets the building on fire. After escaping with the museum's visitors on a blimp, an injured Sudou makes a final attack that damages the blimp before Tatsuya kills him.
When the party regroup, Tatsuya has vanished. Upon their return, the party continues to investigate Tatsuzou's activities, and find that negative feelings are turning other people into new "Jokers", who are in turn being kidnapped by Tatsuzou's agents. The party eventually learn that Tatsuzou and a secret organization he leads, the New World Order, are manipulating Sumaru's government, corporations, and media for his own ends. After this, they hear of two others, Kei and Eriko, investigating the New World Order and their links with the Joker curse and an increasingly prevalent fortune telling craze used to manipulate the spread of rumors: they are involved due to the possible involvement of Kandori, a former enemy of theirs, who is posing as Tatsuzou's secretary.
Depending on the party's actions at this point, either Kei or Eriko will join their party as they go to investigate the holding area for the new Jokers. Upon arriving, they find Eikichi captured by Kandori while looking for a friend. While Kandori attempts to awaken Eikichi's memories of the Other Side, Tatsuya intervenes and enables the party and Eikichi to escape. The group then save Lisa and her girl group from their promoter, another Order member, with help from Tatsuya, who again vanishes afterwards.
Through a friendly informant in the Police, they learn the New World Order's ultimate goal: to raise Sumaru City in the rumor-generated spaceship "Torifune", and trigger the destruction of the Earth's surface by sacred dragons by creating a concentration of Kegare to create a new world free of sin. The only way to stop the plan's fulfillment is defeating the Order. After failing to corner Tatsuzou and puzzled about Tatsuya's motives, the party finally persuade Tatsuya to reveal the truth. During the original confrontation with Nyarlathotep, Maya was killed, prompting the rest of the group (Tatsuya, Lisa, Jun and Eikichi) to reset events.
Tatsuya refused to forget the events of the Other Side, creating a dangerous loophole: if all the other members of the original group could be forced to remember, the Other Side would be brought back into existence, destroying the present reality. After revealing this, Tatsuya is allowed to join the party in place of either Kei or Eriko. After returning to Sumaru proper, the city is raised by Tatsuzou as part of Torifune. Successfully infiltrating Torifune and defeating Tatsuzou and his "god" Gozen, the city returns to the surface, but the party are drawn into the Collective Unconscious by Nyarlathotep.
Making their way into his domain, they discover Nyarlathotep has kidnapped Eikichi, Lisa and Jun in an effort to force their memories of the Other Side into reality. Defeating the Shadow Selves guarding them, the party saves each of them, then confront Nyarlathotep, who mocks Tatsuya for refusing to fulfill his part of Philemon's agreement. After Nyarlathotep is defeated, Tatsuya fulfills his side of the bargain, and after saying his final goodbyes separates his Other Side consciousness from his current self. With the city returned to normal, the party return to their normal lives, with Maya briefly seeing Tatsuya but choosing not to contact him.
Gameplay Systems
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is a role-playing game where the player takes control of a group of characters exploring the fictional city of Sumaru. The camera follows the party from an adjustable angled overhead perspective . The city in general is navigated using an overworld map. A key element to the story and gameplay is the Rumor system: after the characters hear a rumor, they can spread that rumor around the city using certain characters, and those rumors can grant the characters special items or other positive or negative effects.
Battles consist of both story-related boss fights and random encounters with standard enemies. Battles are turn-based, with the player characters and enemies moving around a small battle arena to perform actions. Once the player has laid out their strategy in the battle menu, the characters perform their assigned actions until the battle ends with victory for one side or the player pauses the action to change strategies. Instead of the grid-based battle system from the original Persona , party members and enemy units act in the same phase of a turn, rather than being restricted by their placement on the field.
During battle, players cast spells using an assigned Persona: each spell drains a character's Spell Point meter. Each Persona has different elemental strengths and weaknesses, and different Personas can be used for defense, healing or elemental attacks. While a Persona is originally quite weak, if it is used enough, it will achieve a higher rank, with Rank 8 being the highest possible. As the Persona's rank is raised, that Persona is able to cast more powerful spells.
In addition to individual actions, the player can align characters to trigger a Fusion Spell: when two or more party members use a certain sequence of spells, they will automatically team up to generate a powerful attack or help the party survive in battle. During battles, both characters and Personas earn experience points. The player has the option to activate an Auto-battle option, having combat play out without player interaction. During battle, the player can converse with enemies, though they are restricted to a single set of dialogue options instead of four as in the original Persona .
If the player succeeds in talking with the enemy using the right character, it both causes the enemy to leave the battlefield and gains a spell card (a Tarot card linked to one of the Arcanum or family of Personas), which can be used to create Personas in a location called the Velvet Room. In the Velvet Room, the player can summon a new Persona that belongs to a spell card's particular Persona family group. As a character gains experience levels, more powerful Personas from a spell card's group become available. In addition to pre-set spell cards, the player can also obtain blank skill cards by forming contracts with enemies through the right conversation.
These blank skill cards can be tailored to fit a chosen Persona family.
Media Reviews
About Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is a classic video game released for the PlayStation on January 1, 2000. Developed by Atlus and published by Atlus, this title has become a beloved entry in the retro gaming library.
This wiki entry provides comprehensive information about Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, including release details, gameplay information, and story synopsis. Whether you're looking to revisit a childhood favorite or discover classic games for the first time, Emulator Games Wiki has you covered.
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