Part 1: Part One: Foreshadowing Ahoy!

Part One: Foreshadowing Ahoy!

...but before we get started, let's get one thing straight:



Buckle your seat belts, folks. Strap yourselves in, slip into something more comfortable, call for a pizza, do whatever you need to do to prepare yourself because we're going for a trip.

For those of you who are new to this series, the Persona games are part of the Megami Tensei, or MegaTen, series of console-style RPGs from Atlus - this is the same series from which we get Digital Devil Saga, Nocturne, and...er...DemiKids. They're fairly unique amongst console RPGs for featuring both a modern-day setting and an absolute mind trip of a story. They're not so unique for being far more popular over in Japan than they are over here, so there's a fair chance that many of you never got to try them.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is technically the third Persona game, following Persona 2: Innocent Sin, which was never released in English. While they're basically two halves of the same story, you don't need to worry about missing much, as nearly all of the loose ends are tied up in Eternal Punishment and there's a fair amount of recap. We're going with this one instead of the first Persona because, quite simply, the translation of that particular title was a hack job and we'd all die of sympathetic embarassment long before the game was through.

Enough of that, though. This story starts, as many do, with a dream and a dreamer:


His sleep is fitful. In his dream, he's in a subway...

...with a young woman reaching out for his hand.

He hears a voice...her voice.

Please...just forget about me...go on without me...
We cut back to the real world, as the dreamer awakens...

...or does he? He stands in front of a shrine...

...that appears to be caught in a raging inferno...

...but, with the blink of an eye, turns out to be completely intact.

We cut to the game engine as an old woman approaches the boy.



I see...You didn't lose anything. You found...your memories.


He turns without a word and walks away.




There is a conference occuring in the conference room, appropriately enough.


The group bows several times to the shrine before them, then proceeds to add in some clapping for good spiritual measure.

The creature in the shrine observes the ritual in silence. We cut to black.

COMING UP NEXT: Less heavy-handed crap as the damn game gets started.