Review by: Jason McMaster

Fans of Atlus’s unique and engaging Persona series can now take their obsession on the go, thanks to Shin Megami Tensei: Persona for the PSP. In this updated re-release of 1996’s Revelations: Persona, the popular franchise’s first game, our high school hero and his friends find themselves trapped in their hometown, which is being steadily overrun by demons and zombies. What’s a group of teenagers to do? Why, fight the local evil corporation with powerful spirit allies, of course!

The story begins with the protagonist and his friends hanging out in an empty classroom at their high school, St. Hermelin. After a quick conversation that introduces the main characters, the group decides to play the new ritualistic “Persona” game that has been the subject of many school rumors. Four people stand in the corners of the classroom and, after each calling out “Persona, come to me,” walk clockwise to the next corner, with the intention of summoning a ghost. Kind of like playing “Bloody Mary,” only more boring. Just as the kids decide that the rumor is nothing more than a lame myth, a mysterious little girl appears in the middle of the room, calling for help. The friends only have a moment to stare in shock before being knocked unconscious by a sudden electrical charge.

The protagonist finds himself dreaming of a strange masked man in a white suit. The man asks his name (which the player inputs), then informs him that he has been granted the power to call helpful guardian spirits from the depths of his own soul – the power of Persona.

The students come to the high school’s infirmary, where the nurse and a teacher instruct them to head to the hospital for a checkup and to visit sick classmate, Maki, who has been hospitalized for over a year. Maki is excited to see her friends, until she suddenly cries out in pain and collapses. Doctors rush her to the ICU, and just as Maki disappears into the room, an earthquake shakes the hospital and leaves the group of students reeling. It seems that the hospital’s ordinary hallways have suddenly been replaced by a twisting labyrinth. Suddenly, the dead have sprung to life and the kids are being attacked by weird demons!. Things are looking dire, when suddenly the protagonist is surprised by a large spirit hovering over his head, which attacks and makes short work of the encroaching enemies.