Being new to SMT, this drives me wild.

http://www.destructoid.com/revelations- … 0547.phtml

Unbelievably cool. Persona 1 is a great RPG that was marred by the fact that it was quite hard at times (merciless enemies, very far between savepoints, etc.) and suffered from early PS1-era loading times, and if they go about the remake in the right way, this will be a nice opportunity for new fans to discover this gem and old fans like me to rediscover it in a less headache-inducing form. The storyline and characters are just as developed and deep as in any of the other Personas with plenty of psychological depth and twists and turns, and P1 just blows every other RPG from that period away in this department (FF who?). I hope there's an English translation that does the game's story justice, though (the original's was quite subpar).

I should warn P3 and P4 players though that there is none of the "social interaction" aspect in the earlier games, they're more straight up RPGs. Although they're more of traditional "on-rail" RPGs, I actually think the older ones had more gripping storylines and compelling characters.

Now Atlus just has to go all the way out and remake the Persona 2s too! Imagine if they combined Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment into one gargantuan game with current-gen graphics... That would easily be the best RPG ever.

I really wish I hadn't missed out on this series, but I was hilt-deep in Breath of Fire 3 and FFVII when they came out, so I feel like such a tosser.

This is really great news, regardless. I don't feel much like putting down $200+ on both Persona 1 and 2 for PSX, and from what I hear, the US missed out big time on Innocent Sin, let us hope for a P2 follow-up like you said, Mr. K.

Man, forget Persona 1.  Atlus is porting Growlanser to the psp as well!!

Guess who's the composer? Guess who's the director? Actually the same person.

Yeah, it seems the omnipresent and indestructible Shoji Meguro will do a new soundtrack for the P1 remake. Don't know if I'm really happy with that... On the one hand, its always good to experience something new, I've already heard the original P1 music a thousand times, and seeing what a great job Meguro did with P4's OST, he might very well come up with something worthwhile. On the other hand, the original P1 soundtrack suited the game's atmosphere and style like a glove and it was better than anything I've heard from Meguro. His style is too focused on rock, while the first Persona games were more techno/pop-ish. It will be a crying shame if new fans miss out on Hidehito Aoki and Kenichi Tsuchiya's brilliant original score, and, as much as I love P4 OST and many of his other works, I just don't think Meguro has it in him to come up with something of comparable quality and style (I'll grant Maken X was close, but that was ten years ago... ). I'm curious to hear it and will keep an open mind, but I have the nagging feeling that I'll end up missing the original score when I'll play the remake.

Son, you must be on some seriously strong crack if you put Growlancer in the same sentence as Persona.

trailer:

http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1221862_1124.html

im also one of those looking more forward to growlanser than P1. its a completely new experience for me + iwadare soundtrack = win!

Getting good vibes, its looking good. Just one thing... Why do they put this on the PSP? What is it with the Japanese fondness of releasing remakes for handheld systems?

I don't know. If he really is composing entirely new soundtrack, I hope it doesn't turn out like the opening. Seriously, P1 is all about this "midnight dancey techno" as I like to call it. Tracks like "Dungeon ~ Police Station", "Dungeon ~ Sebek Above Ground", "Deva Yuga" and "City 1 Post-Disaster" are good examples of it.

I'd really like him to keep the original soundtrack. Maybe arrange his own tracks (Deva Yuga), but leave the rest alone. Please.

Rest assured, this isn't the case. He just rearranges it.

That's a good way to describe it. P1 and P2 had this very unique sound that was dark, mysterious, and evocative at the same time as being groovy, hip and insanely addicting. Its hard to describe, but there's nothing quite like it out there. The newer Persona games have good soundtracks as well, but they're kind of missing the "mysterious" aspect, they feel more like straight-up pop music, and not as unique.

Anyway, after getting over my initial disappointment about there being a new soundtrack, I'm actually cool with it. Whether Meguro rearranges the old one or creates something entirely new, it'll be interesting to hear what he comes up with (and we'll always have the old soundtrack anyways).

Also, Cedille, I noticed you added the bundled-in soundtrack to VGMdb. Do you know if they will announce a separate OST release, or if this is yet another case of "if you want the soundtrack you have to buy the limited edition of the game"?

Not sure. The Famitsu scan my submit was based on had very little info on it, and I actually don't know even what it'll contain to begin with (its rearranged music is a safe bet, though). When Atlus bundled the newer Raidou soundtrack with the game, they were kind enough to declare it was exclusive to the game's first shipment (a truly kind company would release a soundtrack separately, though, but that's another story), and we have to wait for further announcements.

So, Daniel K is getting his wish.

http://gaygamer.net/2009/02/persona_psp … istin.html

More save points and a more accommodating difficulty are among Persona PSP's new features. God, I hope we get this.

Same here. It would be even nicer if they wanted to release it on PSN as a PSN arcade game or whatever the heck its called or else I'll have to finally buy a PSP. It will be nice to see the Snow Queen restored and better translations along with none of the silly character modifications they made with Revelations.

Heres to hoping for a stand alone OST release.

No such luck.

I'm guessing it says there won't be a stand-alone OST release, but could we have a translation of the quote anyway?

EDIT: According to Yahoo! Babelfish: "* There is no schedule where in the future sound track CD is sold as a single unit." Well, I guess that's that.

I cheated and used Google Translate, which gives:

※ Soundtrack CD will not be released alone.

Knowing Atlus, I'd say that a U.S. release with a proper localization is more likely than not.

Even garbled Babelfish translations can be accurate at times.
Whaddaya know?

My friend tried using it to send me a text for saying I "was nuts", but the message literally said I was a "low-watt bulb". f--- you, Babelfish.

The official site has been updated with two samples.

http://persona.atlusnet.jp/special/sound.html

Well, the Atlus newsletter confirms it.

Between this and the recent fan translation patch for Innocent Sin, all of the Persona games will more or less have been properly translated into English.

Now I have to get a PSP

Alright, just finished the Snow Queen Scenario and the extra floors of Devil's Mountain for the first time. I'm not in the mood to do a big write-up thingy on P1 PSP, but I just wanted to say that this remake rocks, hard. The original P1 was a fantastic game, and they did everything right with this conversion: they kept all the good parts unmodified and threw out/changed the bad parts. Everything that was half-assed in the original (the loading times, the city map, the CG movies, etc.) just flows so smooth with the rest of the game, its almost difficult to tell that this is a slightly upgraded version of a 13 years old game and not something developed from scratch in 2009. The new translation is - needless to say! - infinitely superior to the garbled, bastardized mess that the original English PS1 version was. A lot more of the game's twisted humour comes out now, I especially LMAO'd countless times during demon conversations... so funny and whacked-out.

This being the first time I've played P1 in many, many years, its interesting to compare it to the "newer" style of P3 and P4. Although there are a lot of differences, the core feeling and philosophy is the same, and the main discrepancy that struck me is that P1 is a lot less "wordy" than the new PS2 installments. This marks it as an older game, but personally, I slightly prefer it to P4's many long hours of conversation, it has a strong and lasting ability to impress upon the player the depth and width of the characters without overdoing it, it accomplishes the same with less. The story, the atmosphere, and the setting is still fresh, original, and completely off the beaten track, and overall I prefer it over the newer games (though Persona 2 still owns all of them).

Oh, the music? I've completely warmed up to it now, I love it! My only gripe is that some of my favourites from the original were axed (why was the Mikage Police Station theme replaced with one of the SEBEC Building songs? Where are all the awesome character themes? It makes me so maaaaaaad!). But what's here is awesome and strikes the perfect, very rare balance between rearranging classic themes and injecting a new flavour. Its obvious in many tracks that Meguro wanted to bring the music in line with the "poppier" sound of the new Persona games, and he really succeeds, in my opinion he's gotten even better at it that in the last few installments and this stuff even bests the Persona 4 OST (which itself was great). In fact, after a few months of listening and consideration, I'm actually ready to be so bold and audacious as to say that, in my opinion, this is Meguro's best soundtrack yet (I'm not counting the original P1 OST here, since the bulk of that was done by other composers). Definitely my pick for VGM OST of 2009 (although I haven't heard Persona 3 Portable or Silent Hill: Shattered Memories yet...). So ironic that this got a promo-only release while the completely atrocious SMT - Strange Journey OST (sorry Eirikr, but it just plain sucks monkey-balls ) got an official release.

It has become my Christmas tradition to fire up a iteration of Persona, so yesterday I started Persona PSP. I like what I've seen so far.

BUT.....

The new music kind of ruins the atmosphere, in my opinion. A good comparison: the school music after the first visit to hospital. In the remake they retain the light-hearted theme ("School Days"), yet in the original the change from the poppy original to a far more gloomier version amplified the difference between the old and the new world. I don't know, the original had a dark atmosphere which is lacking in this one.

I do think that the new battle theme is superior to the original.

Everything else is smoother and faster, which is a good thing in my book.

On the soundtrack itself: I think it's the weakest release from Meguro this year, but it's pretty much on the same level with Persona 4 for me (which I've kind of distanced from except for "The Almighty" and "Mist"). But it's a bit difficult to explain. When I haven't given a full-blown listen to the original for a while, like now, I like a lot what I hear from Persona PSP. But when I put the original stuff on, it strikes me HOW MUCH better it is.

But even if there's negativity flowing from my words, I still think the music and the game are great. Even if it's bad by standards (which it is not, I'm just trying to make a point) of Megami Tensei, it's still a great game. The same's with Meguro: even his worst works are a godsend for me.

Awww, thanks for the shout-out DK. (But even after listening to this "crap" for about 120 hours in-game plus around 6,000 scrobbles of the OST, you know I'll be right there to stare you back down in the opposite direction.)

I also passed on P1PSP because SJ's release was so close and I was frothing to play that instead, so P1 will probably be on my to-do list next year.

By the way, I just got an awesome dialogue with one of the demons.

"Lawful guys should stay home and play Atlus games. I hear they're awesome. Put this toward your purchase."

And then he hits me. Damn.