Atlus will probably remake Persona 1 and 2 one day, according to a new interview with series producer Kazuhisa Wada conducted by Rock Paper Shotgun.
“For me, I think a remaster or remake is some kind of cultural preservation,” Wada said. “As a creator, it’s your duty to take the things you’ve done and make sure they’re not lost, and are still around in the modern day. From that same perspective, Persona 1 and 2 are something we’ll probably eventually do too.”
Persona Revelations was released on the original PlayStation in 1996. It’s actually been lightly reissued before, in 2009 for the PlayStation Portable, and surprisingly, there’s even a 1999 PC port that was never released in the west. While it focuses on a cast of school students, the social links system—arguably the series’ best trick—wasn’t introduced to the series until Persona 3. It’s the Persona game that feels closest to the older Shin Megami Tensei games, since it has first-person blobber-style dungeon exploration, though overworld exploration is conducted via an isometric third-person perspective.
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Persona 2: Innocent Sin released in 1999, also for the original PlayStation. It replaces first-person dungeon crawling with third-person exploration.
Both games are definitely worth saving from obscurity: I wouldn’t necessarily advocate for full-scale remakes, but reissues with a bit of spit and polish would definitely be welcome, especially if, as Wada says, the motive is preservation.
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But I’m once again puzzled why Atlus and Sega haven’t exhumed some of the brilliant PS2-era Shin Megami Tensei games that remain locked to antiquated consoles. We do have a fairly flimsy port of Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne (you need to use a mod to unlock its 30 fps lock) and, confusingly, standalone curio Raidou got a very thorough remake last year; Atlus went as far as revamping its combat, among upgrades.
But where is Digital Devil Saga and its sequel? For anyone who can’t get enough of Atlus’s Press Turn combat system—and I fancy there are a lot of us—these can’t come soon enough. And then there’s the huge, oxygen-stealing elephant in the room: Shin Megami Tensei 4 remains a Nintendo 3DS exclusive. SMT 3 and 5 are both available on PC—and are both great, especially the latter—but this fourth instalment remains in utmost obscurity.
The Persona series is undeniably great, but there’s a surreal sci-fi severity to the Shin Megami Tensei games that I really, really love. And since those PS2 games will probably scrub up better, and faster, than the Persona games, I’m begging Atlus to address their reissues in this order, please:
- Shin Megami Tensei 4
- Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2 (perhaps together)
- Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon
After that, feel free to do what you like, Atlus.