American Persona fans were heartbroken when Atlus announced that the PSP port of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment wasn’t going to get an English localization. While it’s regrettable that we won’t be able to play the revamped version of the game, Atlus is at least giving us a decent consolation prize: the original PS1 version of the game will be available on PSN tomorrow.
In case you didn’t know, Persona 2’s story is actually split up into two separate but connected games: Innocent Sin, which focuses on male protagonist Tatsuya Suou, and Eternal Punishment, which stars heroine Maya Amano. Despite starring different main characters, the stories in both games are interconnected and form one single story. Innocent Sin’s PSP port received a full localization from Atlus last year, but the company has declined to bring over Maya’s half of the story over to States, probably due to the decline of the PSP market in the West.
Hardcore Persona fans should still be pretty happy that we’re at least getting the PS1 release of the game: while it’s lacking the new features that fans have come to expect from the PSP ports of the series, and the localization isn’t up to par with modern standards, at least we’ll be able to get some sort of closure on P2’s story line.
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment should be available tomorrow when the PSN Store updates. Neither Sony nor Atlus have listed P2’s price, but if it’s anything like the other PS1 classics available on the service, it should be either $5.99 or $9.99, which is substantially less than what you would pay on eBay for a physical copy of this game.