Ok, I watched quite a bit of the Endurance Run, because I'm thinking of buying this game for my 12 yo niece, who is a huge fan of PS2 RPGs like Kingdom Hearts and FF X. 
 
I was just about to buy it when I saw the M rating.  
 
Having watched about 10 hours of the game, I saw nothing M. What is objectionable about this game exactly? 

Supernatural Murder
Mild Cursing
The Occult
?

You enter distance < 1m with a girl.

You summon SATAN.

 
You can summon a giant cock.

This is a role-playing game in which players control a high school student who enters a mystical 'TV World, ' saves lost souls who are trapped on the 'Midnight Channel,' and establishes bonds with town characters in order to develop 'Personas.' Personas, which are summoned through the use of tarot cards, are creatures that can perform special offensive and defensive moves to aid during battles against monsters. Combat is turn-based with numeric values and light effects indicating attack/damage inflicted. Pixilated blood spray is briefly depicted during battles, and colored bloodstains stain some walls and floors. Some female monsters (female Persona) are depicted with their breasts exposed, while other monsters have phallic-shaped heads and torsos. Other female Personas (e.g., "Succubus") have sexual characteristics that are described in text: "They visit sleeping men and have sexual intercourse with them." Story elements also make references to alcohol, including a long scene in which the main characters hang out in a club and play 'drinking games.' Although alcohol is never consumed, the characters display the telltale signs of intoxication: slurred speech, staggered walking, and red faces. Profanity (e.g., sh*t, a*shole) can be heard in the dialogue.

There's a scene where a teacher was supposedly about to have sex with some students. 
 
There are also other sexual innuendos throughout the game.

There's a dick demon.

References to Homosexuality, Bare Tits (on personas only ofcourse), Dick's or Dick Shaped Personas, it's implied you get physical with the nurse (not sure if you have to pick the right choices or it'll just happen), Demons, Cursing, dead people...
 
 there's quite a few things that are aren't exactly what you'd find in a Final Fantasy game, it gets it's hands dirty from time to time, but it's pretty good.

The full frontal nudity unlockables for all the characters.

Death.  A bunch of it.

Americans are prudes. That's all.
 
If you didn't see anything objectionable in the Endurance Run, then don't worry about it. It's rated M because some people would flip out because a game makes references to alcohol or other such crap like that.

" Americans are prudes. That's all.  If you didn't see anything objectionable in the Endurance Run, then don't worry about it. It's rated M because some people would flip out because a game makes references to alcohol or other such crap like that. "

" @KuwabaraTheMan said:

" Americans are prudes. That's all.  If you didn't see anything objectionable in the Endurance Run, then don't worry about it. It's rated M because some people would flip out because a game makes references to alcohol or other such crap like that. "

Supposed American prudishness has nothing to do with it.  The game was rated similarly in other territories. "

" They should make a Persona game where you can actually get laid... "

" They should make a Persona game where you can actually get laid... "

" @KuwabaraTheMan said:

" Americans are prudes. That's all.  If you didn't see anything objectionable in the Endurance Run, then don't worry about it. It's rated M because some people would flip out because a game makes references to alcohol or other such crap like that. "

Supposed American prudishness has nothing to do with it.  The game was rated similarly in other territories. "

" @Whisperkill said:

" They should make a Persona game where you can actually get laid... "

Why? To console the player for not getting laid in real life? "

" @RsistncE said:

" @Whisperkill said:

" They should make a Persona game where you can actually get laid... "

Why? To console the player for not getting laid in real life? "

No, because its realistic... why make a game that is half dating sim if there is no end goal. It's frustrating "

" @Whisperkill said:

" They should make a Persona game where you can actually get laid... "

They already did. "

" @KuwabaraTheMan said:

" Americans are prudes. That's all.  If you didn't see anything objectionable in the Endurance Run, then don't worry about it. It's rated M because some people would flip out because a game makes references to alcohol or other such crap like that. "

Supposed American prudishness has nothing to do with it.  The game was rated similarly in other territories. "

" @Hailinel said:

" @KuwabaraTheMan said:

" Americans are prudes. That's all.  If you didn't see anything objectionable in the Endurance Run, then don't worry about it. It's rated M because some people would flip out because a game makes references to alcohol or other such crap like that. "

Supposed American prudishness has nothing to do with it.  The game was rated similarly in other territories. "

No it wasn't.  Its only M in the US.  Its 16+ in Europe and similar in Japan.  The big issues for the US are likely the implied underage drinking, the cursing, the strip joint dungeon(no actual stripers) and well Kanj and the bathouse dungeon.  Watch part 35 on to get a feeling of the bathhouse. "

There are quite a few uses of "shit" and "bitches", which I guess qualifies as "Strong Language" 

One of the dungeons is a strip club, and another is a gay bathhouse. And there is a scene where your teacher wants you to have sex with her.

Yoskue almost pees his pants. I wouldn't want my child to play such a reckless game that could damage their young mind.

As a side note, I actually got carded at GameStop when I bought Persona 4.  In contrast, I went to the same place for Modern Warfare 2 and didn't get carded.  
 
I wonder what they were thinking?  "Oh man, this has a bunch of anime kids on it in a happy bright yellow box, we had better ask for ID!" vs. "Eh, he'll just be going to war in a realistic setting shooting civilians, no biggy." 
 
Great consistency, huh? 

The game has the main bad guy try and rape two women (one of them a teenager). I think that qualifys for an M.

" There are quite a few uses of "shit" and "bitches", which I guess qualifies as "Strong Language" 
"

To be clear, according to the back of the game case, the ESRB descriptors used to identify why the game is rated M are:
 
Alcohol Reference - Several characters in the game are seen visibly drunk.
Animated Blood - The characters don't bleed in combat, but there is blood visible in the game.
Language - As previously mentioned, words like "shit," "bitches," "damn," and so on.
Partial nudity - No one is ever fully nude, but there is a scene in a bathhouse with girls that are dressed only in towels.
Sexual Themes - Discussion of homosexuality and other sex-related dialogue, though no on-screen sex occurs.
Violence - Yep.

" Violence - Yep. "

" @Hailinel said:

" Violence - Yep. "

Hahaha, if that's an actual ESRB quote I will laugh so hard "

" @RsistncE said:

" @Whisperkill said:

" They should make a Persona game where you can actually get laid... "

Why? To console the player for not getting laid in real life? "

No, because its realistic... why make a game that is half dating sim if there is no end goal. It's frustrating "

To be honest to american rating system to me feels way too rigid, do you not have anything in between T and M? i mean pal has 3 all the way up to a strict 18, makes it easier for the consumer to judge its suitability.

Lots of murder, dealings with the occult, not to mention a lot of suggestive themes dealing with everything from pedophilia to homosexuality.  Not saying Persona is an immoral game or anything, quite the contrary, but I think it's not the best idea getting it for a 12 year old.

" @KuwabaraTheMan said:

" Americans are prudes. That's all.  If you didn't see anything objectionable in the Endurance Run, then don't worry about it. It's rated M because some people would flip out because a game makes references to alcohol or other such crap like that. "

Supposed American prudishness has nothing to do with it.  The game was rated similarly in other territories. "

" "bitches" "

"mature" themes

Amazing! Before seeing this topic, I had always assumed that this game was rated teen, and never even noticed the rating!
Quite silly IMO, the themes may deal with important issues but there is nothing so deep or intraspective that would make me
judge it other than T for teen.
 
Side Note: My god, I had this game for a year and I hadn't even noticed the rating :-\

" @Bertmasta said:

" To be honest to american rating system to me feels way too rigid, do you not have anything in between T and M? i mean pal has 3 all the way up to a strict 18, makes it easier for the consumer to judge its suitability. "

Nope; they added E10+ a couple years back, and it's odd that there's a 17+ rating (M) and an 18+ rating (AO), and that the latter is something retailers and publishers are scared to think about. "

" @gakon5 said:

" @Bertmasta said:

" To be honest to american rating system to me feels way too rigid, do you not have anything in between T and M? i mean pal has 3 all the way up to a strict 18, makes it easier for the consumer to judge its suitability. "

Nope; they added E10+ a couple years back, and it's odd that there's a 17+ rating (M) and an 18+ rating (AO), and that the latter is something retailers and publishers are scared to think about. "

It's especially weird for me as I thought that any nudity made a game automatically Ao, but The Saboteur and Dante's inferno are recent examples that prove that wrong...  What exactly would make a game Ao these days?  Graphic intercourse? "

" @Hailinel said:

" @KuwabaraTheMan said:

" Americans are prudes. That's all.  If you didn't see anything objectionable in the Endurance Run, then don't worry about it. It's rated M because some people would flip out because a game makes references to alcohol or other such crap like that. "

Supposed American prudishness has nothing to do with it.  The game was rated similarly in other territories. "

No? Only in America would you get such a high rating just because of things that vaguely resemble human reproductive organs.  Germany is notorious for high ratings, and P4 is rated "12" here. "

I'd actually say that it isn't really appropriate for a twelve year old girl, namely because of its slightly-more adult themes, namely in Rise's dungeon. It also has a bunch of sexual references, and a slightly-scary theme of murder and death. I just don't really know if a twelve year old girl used to the brighter worlds of Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy. 
Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy never get to the point of realism and bleakness that both Persona 3 and 4 get to, so I'd say you shouldn't get it for your niece. 
However, if you're still interested in getting her a good PS2 JRPG, buy her Dragon Quest VIII.

" To be honest to american rating system to me feels way too rigid, do you not have anything in between T and M? i mean pal has 3 all the way up to a strict 18, makes it easier for the consumer to judge its suitability. "

" @Hailinel: Hm, didn't know about another Indigo Prophecy version... interesting.  But I'm not sure what graphic violence would make a game go from M to Ao anymore...  I guess one example I can think of is the "pulling off testicles with a pincer" kill method in Manhunt 2 that would have made it an Ao game so it got removed.  But really, there's so much violence in some games today that that's one of the rare violent scenes in a video game that I can think of that could make the rating go 18+. "

" It's really hard for me to decipher, as well.  Very few noteworthy games are released with AO PC versions, and Manhunt 2 (the most noteworthy of them all) had its rating affected at least in part by the huge prerelease controversy that surrounded it (back when Jack Thompson's name was still considered at least minutely legitimate in the mainstream media). "