An Antiquated RPG
“Revelations: Persona” is an antiquated RPG. Everything about the game, from its’ presentation to its’ game-play belong in a much older era. Similar to most retro RPGs “Revelations: Persona” has no tutorial, has many random encounters and has very few save points. That is to say “Revelations: Persona” has not aged well and should only be experienced by those who purchased it around the time it came out.
For those adventurous enough to still give “Revelations: Persona” a shot, here is what you need to know.
The recurring theme that plagues “Revelations: Persona” is the trial and error game-play. The game never thoroughly explains any mechanic particularly well and unless if you’re reading a walkthrough or have someone played through the game to talk with, you will be absolutely frustrated with this game.
When you enter a weapons or armor store, there is NO MENU that shows who can equip what particular weapon or armor piece and whether equipping that item will increase or decrease your stats. You are pretty much left to buy every weapon or piece of equipment just to figure everything out.
When you go out onto the city, there is a map that shows where all of the important buildings are, but there is NO LEGEND that shows where you are in respect to the map. You are again, pretty much left to figure out where to go from place to place by finding landmarks on the map.
When you are engaged in battle with demons, your characters must be positioned in the correct formation in order to attack. There is NO VISUAL CLUE that tells you where your characters have to be positioned so that they can connect their attacks. Yet again, you have to figure this mechanic out through trial and error.
And my worst experience with “Revelations: Persona” is the hellish dungeons that you will experience. All the dungeons are designed to look like mouse mazes. Unsurprisingly all the dungeons look the same, only with the walls painted with different designs.
As I completed the game, I personally felt that the producers of “Revelations: Persona” deliberately tried to make everything as confusing and annoying as possible for English speakers, especially with the horrible Japanese to English translation. There are many of those “All your base are belong to us” moments of dialog in “Revelations: Persona”.
I would have expected a game of this quality to be made in the 1980’s, but this game was published in 1996! That’s right this game has mechanics older than phenomenal RPGs produced before this game like Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger and even Super Mario RPG.
Overall I DO NOT RECOMMEND any sane person to play the Playstation version of “Revelations: Persona”.
