Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 Innocent Sin Coming to PSP in Fall

The one entry in the Persona series never to be released outside of Japan will make its way to North America this fall as Atlus announced today. Shin Megami Tensei Persona 2 Innocent Sin will be available for the PSP system.

In Persona 2, a group of citizens must harness a hidden power dormant within each of them in order to stop a dangerous phenomenon from getting out of control.

Over 12 years in the making, the official localization of Innocent Sin provides patient fans with the other side of the Persona 2 arc, a dark adventure about high school students who find their reality being twisted by rumors, and who must draw on their inner strengths, their Personas, to bring back order. Taking advantage of PSP system’s 16:9 aspect ratio, higher resolution display, superior audio, and increased horsepower, this remastered version of one of the pinnacles of ATLUS’ flagship Shin Megami Tensei franchise delivers the game in style with a sleek new interface, new sidequests in the Climax Theater, and the player’s choice of the fully remixed or original soundtrack.

While the original Persona still exhibited many foundational ties to the core SMT series, Persona 2: Innocent Sin marked the point at which the beloved RPG series found its identity. While retaining core series mechanics like demon negotiation and party-building, Innocent Sin was ultimately defined by its far greater emphasis on character and story over surviving long dungeons, eschewing the tradition of first-person dungeon crawling in favor of a third-person view of the ever-escalating insanity. The story unfolds through lovingly crafted sprite animations and dialogue portraits, which were current series artist Shigenori Soejima’s first contribution to the Persona games, but it’s the characters who shine most, from the memorable villains to the fully fleshed-out main cast to the vast array of people they meet along the way.