Persona 1 is Worth Your Time. 

hey! while you guys are here, check out my other persona retrospectives. i plan to cover 2 and 5 eventually. and here's my patreon too if you wanna support me: www.patreon.com/bubbletea_ persona 4: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tuWZUtmqBBw.htmlsi=2QBCv9m_Hr74WXSJ persona 3: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-J0wniLnpzmw.htmlsi=ehrx52LgY9cWRKIY persona 3 the answer: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SVNQEdfS0qA.htmlsi=5CczDRoI8Ahtp4nD

This sure passed the algorithm check

Imagine a world where persona1 could be played legally in 2023

Persona 1 is pretty nice and I’ve grown to like it more than I did initially. It has a cool foundation and it tackles very interesting plot points that would benefit a ton from a remake to see more nuanced story telling. The big theme that people perceive the world differently, and what they deem ideal is extremely different to what’s true, got me hooked with the parallel Mikage-cho. Now pray that remake hits 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

2:40 - yeah, the original localization really did leave a Black Mark on the series as a whole.

I 100% agree that the manga is NOT a replacement/substitute for this game, and trying to pass it off as such is exactly the same thing as watching a cutscene comp and trying to say that it counts as playing it through. However, that is not to say that the manga is devoid of value; I have read it, and found it to be very quality not only in and of itself but also because of how it fleshed out some story points and characters. Seriously, Naoya is awesome, but if you don’t read the manga then he’ll be left as “Boy with Earring” forever.

a-HA! ACHSUALLY! You can talk to Reiji's mom more than once. For some reason that part of the multiple guides explaining how to unlock him is just a straight up lie that no one ever checks the validity of

Fun P1 psx fact: you can actually make gameplay faster then psp, combat animations are tied to clockspeed so set duckstation to x400%

"people give the honorary veteran status to Persona 2 way more" Honestly people do that with Persona 3

One of the themes that stood out to me during a recent playthrough is how much of an anti-suicide message it puts forward in both storylines, but particularly in the Snow Queen quest.

I hope that if Atlus decides to keep remaking older Persona games 1 is their next project. It deserves to have its flaws worked out so it can stand among its little brothers better.

While P1 main character is more self-inert than any of later protagonists, I honestly don't mind it at all. Because compared to later games, you are not the center of the story. It's Maki's. P4 and P5 are constantly putting you into the spotlight: *You* defeated the main villein, *You* are the leader, *You* are the one who solved the mystery; beacuse without *You* nothing would happened But in P1 you aren't inherently needed to the story (at least in SEBEC route). You are more just a spectator who sometimes guides the real protagonist of the story: Maki. So yes. While P1 MC is more self-insert than others but it works totally fine in this story. Where in something like P5, no matter how hard you try you can't make Joker without personality.

ATLUS needs to put the soundtrack on streaming services.

I remember someone saying once how they wished the awakening theme from P1 had become a mainstay like Aria of the Soul.

persona 1 is- [random encounter] a very good- [random encounter] entry in the- [random encounter] persona franchise. i said i- [R A N D O M E N C O U N T E R]

I remember seeing this game when it first came out and about a month later I took a chance and bought it. I was literally blown away. I mean yeah it had the standard stuff of RPGs but then there were things like negotiating with demons, creating new personas, and it taking place in a modern day high school that was different from anything I had ever experienced. I played the game multiple times and never really got bored with it. Granted with other Megaten games released since then it hasn't aged very well. Frequent battles, not the greatest of translations, and Atlus's lame attempt at Americanizing a clearly Japanese setting (looking at you Black Mark. LMAO) probably won't give this game a whole lot of love. But still even as I love and play Persona 5 and other newer JRPSs, the first Persona will still hold a special place as one of my all time favorite RPGs.

OG PS1 Persona 1 (JP) will always be my favorite persona game. The darker atmosphere, the ambient soundtrack, the ugly graphics. It has that unpolished jank that doesnt ruin the gameplay, but adds to the charm of it all. Even the busted Revelations version with its goofy American edits is charming, its so silly seeing how the localizers assumed we would want all the japanese stuff removed.

you can actually talk to reiji’s mom a second time if you’re trying to recruit him, the modding community has no idea how this misinformation got spread around so much lol

I have some issues with this video that meguro comment was pretty pretentious, especially when meguro is pretty biased when related to P1, as hes gone on record to say its his least favorite work of his (he only made a small handful of songs on the psx ost) The issue isnt just the music either, its that the dynamic music systems were axed entirely, I really wonder why like, no one who plays P1 or makes videos on it comments on this It isnt just they swapped out the music They just legitimately cut systems that didnt work anymore due to switching the music P1's music originally actually kept going during loading screens, and naturally transitioned into one another, with audio shifting in cutscenes being tied to text box advancement, so audio would say, loop at the start when the zombies attack until you advance the text far enough to go downstairs The psp version also cut basically all area and cutscene sfx due to how tied to the ost it was A good instance of this is battle intros, tesso for reference had a intro that looped before child abuse started up, the intro would loop until you advanced text far enough for maki to comment on how adorable it was, then the music starts up the second tesso fires their machine guns Its a way bigger issue then just them swapping this audio file for this one There were also different ways music would segway Some rooms would like I said continue music into the loading screen and naturally transition, others would actually have the music hold on the last note and draw it out Areas had different sfx and shifting audio based on story progress too Dogs barking and car horns prior to the demon invasion on the world map, the hospital had nurses talking and babys crying, wind and train sounds in the subway Water flowing in the sea of souls, and almost every area had different walking sfx You can also like, make the gameplay faster in psx compared to psp by setting duckstation to x400 clock speed, which doesnt affect encounter rate or cutscenes Only thing it affects is combat animations Doesnt even harm combat animation audio either as that was also tied to clockspeed the auto settings were also actually better in psx Setting repeat repeats the last actions you selected, hitting normal makes everyone normal attack, but selecting this doesnt overwrite your repeat settings In psp selecting attack overwrites repeat entirely Psx if someone dies when combat ends your prompted to reselect where they were on the grid (they get revived with 1 hp) in psp it doesnt do this Psp has a bug that makes the encounter rate 3 times as much as even the psx jp version Menus are also faster in psx

You know, the spell missing vs being blocked thing is such a small detail yet has such huge implications over the course of a couple dozen hours. That's a great observation! This video is great!

The Twilight Town theme kicking in when talking about the SEBEC route is phenomenal

Something a lot of people don't realize is that several themes from the PS1 soundtrack are actually present in the PSP soundtrack, just rearranged.

persona 1 genuinely needs a remaster with some of it's original traits intact

There's actually an anniversary version of the awakening theme that without knowing the context i heard and thought was awesome Its in a set with new versions of 1 song from each game 1-5. It has Maya's theme, remixes of Mass Destruction and Your Affection, then an exrended version of Wake Up Get Up

another day, another day to watch another awesome bubbletea video

Persona 1 is such a weird game, even in the context of MegaTen as a whole. But it sure was pretty ambitious for being the first game in the series.

Not to nitpick but I want to note at 33:53 you say Ayase is snow queen only. She is available in SEBEC and is also one of (imo) the best characters for that route as she has great luck (more items) good contact options, Magician personas and her main weapon is whips (which as far as I know all have status effects on hit). Worst part of her is she misses out on Judement persona but Maki should take over for that anyways I want to note to anyone reading this tho, if you plan to only play each route once for two total persona 1 playthroughs, choose Reiji for SEBEC... even if I don't like playing with him or brown, that way you can experience all party members by not recruiting Nanjo in Snow Queen

Your Megaten videos have really scratched an itch for me. I've recently fallen back into an SMT and Persona obsession and your content is some of the best on youtube!

Yaaaaay. The Persona 1 video!!

I just wish the PSP version had come with the PS1 OST included. The PSP QoL changes with the original soundtrack would've been the best version of P1 but we got the redone OST to appeal to the at the time Persona fanbase who was used to P3 and 4 and they didn't wanna upset that crowd too much.

Haven’t played any of the games before Persona 3, but I always enjoy your videos and I’d be so down to watch another hour long video of your thoughts on Persona 2!

Hearing the awakening theme in this video gave me goosebumps……it’s that weird combination of taking me back to a time period I loved, but also revisiting a less desirable version of myself from the same era. Love this game! Great video!

The boss music not starting till you make an input is kinda fire though, that would be sick to do for a surprise boss fight.

It is a shame that Atlus just ignores any Persona(and SMT) game before number 3.

I respect persona 1, but holy philemon game design has come a long way since then.

I played persona one a couple years ago, and even though I’m a kid who has low attention span, I found myself enjoying the battle animations, regardless of how long they were 😅

Man, I felt that with the manga replacing the game, it’s like how people say manga is just the storyboard for the anime.

Actually 4Kids did alter character races in One Piece

Thanks for the intro to persona 1 saw the thumbnail a couple times in my reccomend decided to give it watch finnally and its great looking forward to more content and will watch older stuff while i wait

I love persona 1 I have literally no idea why there isn't a reason I just love it so much

I dunno, I enjoyed persona 1 on PS1 when I played through it last year. Sitting and vibing with it was a lot of fun

I had the opposite experience where I played the PSP version for a few hours and got bored and then tried Revelations and binged it in a few days. I don't think I ever had any issues with the gameplay.

Watched this vid a week ago and it finally got me to go play P1 and P2, almost done with the Sebbec Route and I've been loving it! Hoping to finish all 3 games by P3 reloaded launch

Ps1 persona 1 has a banger soundtrack.

26:50 that's how I felt when the KH compilation made 358/2 Days and re:coded into movies. In fact I've heard lots of new fans and old ones alike say they wish at least Days had been a game because the movie just cuts a bunch of stuff and it's basically no different than a cut scene compilation you can find for free online.

Persona 1 is my 2nd favorite in the series, it didn't need to be over the top to have such a great and simple story that hits you in all the feels, and also have a great cast of characters. Whether its through the games or the Manga i found both options a super enjoyable experience.

PS1 Persona 1 got a KA rating? How? Having no feedback for spells missing or being nulled SUCKS. That's reason alone to not play the PS1 version. Somehow Brown is even harder to take seriously when he name's Brad. 7:40 RATED E FOR EVERYONE! I also love the optional party member gimmick in Persona 1. Imagine a modern Persona game that let you form your own party out of any of the Social Links? 20:21 Happy, peppy music for the girl who tells you to go to hell. 21:21 Several SMT games do this for regular battles, but the modern ones don't do it for bosses. The "just read the manga" argument is probably just people looking for excuses not to play the game. I admit, I used to be someone who was content watching the P4 anime, but then I played the game and enjoyed it much more than I expected. (Now I need to re-watch your P4 video) Man I love old Japanese commercials. They're also obsessed with selling games as "[insert cool novel thing here] RPG", to the point where the Tales Of series has a whole wiki article dedicated to them. ("Discovering the meaning of your birth RPG", "RPG of unwavering convictions", "RPG about enforcing one's 'Justice'"...) 36:05 I hate it when the only hard part of a game is the very end. Or at least, the only part that incentivizes you to actually learn the mechanics. P1 definitely feels like it's throwing a lot of mechanics at the wall and seeing what sticks, but then again that's what a lot of first games do. It's cool to see which mechanics were good enough to get carried forward and innovated on, in this case fusion and weaknesses. It's interesting how Personas being able to learn any skill from items doesn't bother me in later games, but I think it's helped by skill cards themselves being fairly rare and Personas generally not lasting long and you being unable to pass ALL their skills down to their inevitable replacements. I think Persona 1 has the same problem many Fire Emblem games do: when most of the party is optional, it's hard to have them do anything meaningful in the story, leaving the optional characters to feel like extra combat units and not much else. Occasionally you'll get a "Hey, I exist!" line from someone in a story scene but that's about it. There's a few RPGs that do handle optional characters decently well in the story (FF6 and... I guess Mass Effect for a western example) but they're rare. And I've watched to the end. Thanks for making this, great overview of P1 and I look forward to your "Innocent Sin kinda sucks actually" follow-up.

7:14 "Roses are red, zombies are blue, but my face is white, so you know I'm true" This line WTF, I'm wheezing xD

33:53 Ayase is actually available in the Sebec route as well. In fact, she's forced into your group if you don't have a 5th member and screwed up getting Reiji. Oh, never mind, you mentioned that later on in the video. I essentially did what you did. Played the PSP version. It was fine. I give it a solid 7/10. I did both scenarios, Sebec and Snow Queen. Snow Queen was the best of the two. I think because you actually spend so much time in the school getting to know both your classmates and the antagonists. Whereas with Sebec, Maki is the focus and Kandori is hardly present. The Snow Queen is ever present and the threat is eternal night, along with everything being frozen and your teacher being under her control. It just does everything better.

This was a really, really awesome video! It gets several thumbs up from me.

Regarding the manga, I haven't read it fully, but I did read a good chunk of it (there's some translator retranslating the manga to not be painful to read unlike older translations so I'm waiting for updates) and imo (having playing P1 PSP a year before reading the manga), the manga is actually more of a supplementary story, it doesn't replace, but rather elevate the game, it adds more character and dialogue as well as interactions and even events that straight up couldn't happen in the game. It works nicely to build up characters as well as work as some nice fan service

Still have to say that the PSP dropped the ball a bit for me. Not saying it's worse then the psx NA release, but it was their chance to bring the JP version (the hands down better version) to the younger generations and old fans alike. The change of the soundtrack hurts me deeply as so many tracks are just up and gone, replaced with generic themes. When a good portion of how you can connect with the characters is their theme due to first impressions, it hurts the experience imo. It feels like they just wanted to paint over the past with the new style rather then proudly displaying where they have been and have moved to when it comes to presentation in both music and some visuals.

Persona 1 is honestly art to me and tied with 2 duology as some of my favorite video games of all time. P1 is definitely not appreciated enough. Im definitely team ps1 but wait for the fan patch. Also i love the slower speed of p1 psx

I remember borrowing this game from a friend, and played it in one playthrough; I played it all night. I was struck by its new take on the RPG formula. Now, this game looks like nothing, but back then, not many games had the RPG, but you're in modern day school. At the time, I had never played the OG SMT games, or Earthbound, so all this was refreshing to me. But I still agree with you assessment of the game.

Ty I will be sleeping while listening to this 😌

persona 1 is the reason of why i decided to study japanese. I found this game quite pleasant althought I recognise it is very slow expecially in the ps1 version. I also bought the japanese version of the ps1, and I can say this is the best way to play it, without any compromise with the bmg or bad localization. Here on youtube I published the series (still incomplete) of the game on its original japanese edition and I can say It is quite enjoyable despite all.

Great video. I agree on the idea that an older cast isn't really as interesting as the fandom may suggest. A character's quality shouldn't be determined by their age. I also agree that the older games aren't as well written as their fans suggest, especially Innocent Sin. It seems like people focus on the fact that the characters gain their Personas through the story rather than the actual story and characters themselves, which are lacking compared to other games. All in all, thanks for the video Persona Marsh.

I'm not spoiled on P3 yet and I'm really excited to play P3R, P5R was a monumental change to my live, it helped me in a time where i had lost my home and my job for a time, I still listen to the soundtrack today, it's going to be a sad day when people forget about that masterpiece

Persona 1 is probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite in the series behind the 2 duology. I love the older trilogy a lot, so thanks for the video 😊

PERSONA 1 IS A FUCKING CERTIFIED HOOD CLASSIC AND NO ONE CAN TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME💯💯💯

Persona 1 will always be worth your time it's a timeless classic

Bubble tea being impatient Wow who could've seen that coming

Killing it as always always ❤

I get your critique of revelations, it didnt age well, but it was great back in the 90s. There was nothing like it back then if you were disappointed with Final Fantasy.

33:53 - ayase can be selected in sebec too

I enjoy Persona 1 more than I enjoy 5 and sometimes more than 3. It just has such a specific vibe that I just haven't been able to find in any other game. I love the cast and the story a lot. I still prefer Persona 2 and 4 over it but P1 is amazing.

There are enemy attacks in FF7 that last way longer than the stuff you see in P1.

Say what anyone will about the PSP soundtrack (I also love Bloody Destiny and School Days is annoyingly earwormy) but Kama Palace's theme is one of the best songs in any franchise. I just wish the loop wasn't so short.

the og Persona 1 has the best soundtrack in any of the Persona games (the psp ost is waaaaay worse). Great history too, i think it is underrated

I played this on my Vita, but I never finished it because I got stuck in a dungeon where I only had protagonist and Maki and I would keep getting wiped in random encounters

Tricks to Persona 1 is just use……gun….all the time.

DAMN that Ryuji awakening scene goes hard with the P1 ost. (I'm still partial to Will Power once the persona actually comes forth though haha). Ngl same about going around saying "I played all the games" when some of them you experienced via an adaptation (manga, movie, etc.). Just disingenuous imo. Nothing wrong with actually doing that, but don't go around saying you *played* them all. Each medium is so different and the experience can't be equated across them. Had to skip some of the SQQ stuff since ya know I'm not done with that yet haha. But great stuff!~ 1+ hour P1 video LFG

I loved p1 and 2. I played the psp remake. 3 was my first though also on the psp and I think you could guess my favorite based on that

The P1 PSP soundtrack is actually my favorite Persona soundtracks as a whole. I feel like people hear School Days and immediately assume that the tone was entirely broken, rather than just that Shoji aptly decided to have a little levity in the one part of the game where there's room for it. It's not like the PSX soundtrack isn't also tonally jarring. That's part of the character of the game. And a lot of the non-vocal tracks take heavy inspiration from their counterparts in the original game anyway.

I got my first PSP to play this game, and God it was a banger, the game looked mysterious, and the combat imo was amazing

P1:snow queen honestly is the same vibes as the Akira ruote in SMT IF gievn they are so closely tied this makes sense lol

I find Persona to be a very unique and special game, especially for its time. While there is plenty to criticize, it charmed me with its atmosphere and concepts to the point where I enjoyed my time with it a lot. It's certainly aged, and even in its age held some issues, but it will always have special place in my heart.

I just downloaded this to my Vita TV I wanted to play it so I could play the original that started it all 😮

I really enjoy the later group, but I would love to see the earlier games get a remake. I recently finished the main story of Soul Hackers, and it's so interesting to see the difference in gameplay.

I played through P1 PSP this year and it was a lot of fun, I loved the story and characters, Maki rules and is definitely the winner in terms of writing, but probably the biggest takeaway I had is that Dream of Butterfly somehow managed to usurp Pursuing My True Self as my favourite persona opening. Rest of the game is a banger but holy shit that opening

I love the dark story and atmosphere of Persona 1, and the characters, but not the biggest fan of the combat system though. Would love to see it and SMT 2 remade by Atlus.

I'll watch this later but I enjoyed my time with Persona 1. It's different to modern Persona in combat and gameplay but I didn't dislike that and it offered an experience that I couldn't have with those modern games. It's like experiencing Persona all over again and that's all I could ask for.

Hearing Mystic Quest music at 27:03 just made my day! *edit* Side note, Persona 1 on the vita was the first persona game I ever tried. It was after trying Mind 0 and developing and interest in 1st person dungeon crawlers and the cheap digital price that got me to pick it up. (Though never beat it) The next persona game I tried was 5 Royal, then I went to Soul Hackers (3DS, which I'm currently playing) and I have to say I really like the earlier games in these franchises. To be honest, they are 'almost' more appealing than the modern games in the series. My new goal is to play as many of the persona and smt games as I can from the origins onward. Videos like these help keep that interest/drive/desire alive.

I think that for persona 1 and other games, its not just the systems and graphics that are "for its time" but some of the clishes and what you could get away with. Having a flatter cast like persona 1 did would not fly in current gaming, but back then since the story was good, and a few characters had some depth\interest it was on par of the time. This makes me really want a remake for the game, since there is a lot of good still, it can be tuned\expand more to be a better experience. Lets also be real for a second and admit that a lot of people who hate persona 1 have not played the game and that is fine. Majority of persona fans probably only played 4 and 5, with some that have played 3-5. I would love to see persona 1 get a remake so that more can experience it, as well as a better version that may fix problems.

i think what really added to the frustratingly slow paces of the original psx version of Persona, is the loading screens. Like, I don't blame them, it's understandable considering the hardware of the era. But you go around, you have to wait for the battle transition, then for the relatively long loading screen, and then for the characters to get into position. I really tried to enjoy the psx version but, honestly its ridiculously difficult to do so when half the game is spent in inaction. Do want to give the PSP rerelease a go though.

Watching this while I grind to level 100 in Destiny Islands, I was caught a little off-guard by the youtube video I'm watching suddenly effectively matching the larger window to the side. Now granted, I'm not facing all three of them at once (you can farm exp faster from just Tidus) but it was still a great moment. Thanks!

Music at 46:34 ...? It sounds so familiar, like pokemon or kingdom hearts and I cant place it

haven't watch this yet but know i'm gonna love it!

Persona 1 needs more love for sure it has its flaws but i still love the vibe of it and atmosphere. I wish atlus would do more with it just at least re release the psp remaster if anything at least it has some good music. Great video man

I saw some people below me making the point that P1 (imo) has the weakest plot of the mainline series due to things like budget, technological limitations, and generally not knowing all of the mechanics of the series fully yet. But, good god, the P1 manga single handily changed my opinion on Naoya and the P1 cast as a whole, changing him into my second favorite of the protagonists. I have never related more to a story about guilt and the things we do to avoid it more than I have to P1 and P2’s stories, and P1’s manga does a lot of that heavy lifting. It’s definitely not a replacement for a good story in terms of the game itself (I mean Xenogears was out here making a damn space opera on PSX hardware, what’s Altus’ excuse?), but if they finally stop dragging their feet on making remakes for 1 and the 2 duology, then the manga should be the basis for the character development going forward.

Revelations Persona was my introduction to the Megami Tensei franchise and it was a pretty good RPG in the PS1 era.

Persona 1 is always a weird subject, either PSX or PSP, but the atmosphere and tones of the game always intrigue me

Speaking as someone who read the manga, I believe a lot of your complaints about the characters are addressed there in that most of them have at least a bit more to do (except Ayase and Yukino, who both are pretty shafted, and Snow Queen is kinda rushed through), and a lot of them like Kandori, Masao, and Nanjo are a lot more fleshed out. The protagonist also has a really cool arc that definitely influenced Persona 5 Royal, and by having most of the party members travel together, there are more group dynamics at play. If I had to guess, the reason a lot of people recommend the manga is because of the improvements on story and characterization, but you are right that the experience as a game is still important to acknowledge as a game first, because without the game, the manga wouldn't even exist. I think, also, because Persona 1 is such an old RPG, it came at a time where storytelling on the level of Persona 2 onward was a bit less common? Like obviously you had amazing SNES and PS1 RPGs, for instance, but being the first Persona game, there wasn't a series identity just yet.

Cool video. How should I play Persona 1 in a single playthrough though? Which path should I play before playing Persona 2

I bought Persona 1 on PSP, and despite the excessive random encounters and some difficulty spikes...I'm actually enjoying it more than I thought and it's more of a favorite over 5/ (royal),4 Golden and even 3 at times. I'm near the end...

P1 is worth playing but it needs a remake

Mark danced crazy!

I actually didn't enjoy P1 first but I still finished it, after a year or months I gave it another try for and I enjoyed it so much. Then after that gave try the other route but don't finished it cause I started P2 Lmao. Overall great experience.

great video!

Worth staying up