Persona 1, also known as Revelations: Persona or Shin Megami Tensei Persona, is one of the most debated JRPGs on the PlayStation. Often considered a middling experience compared to later entries, this classic Atlus RPG has a reputation for being far from the top 10 best PlayStation RPGs of all time, but is that really true? As 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the Persona series by Atlus, I took a deep dive into Persona 1 to analyze every aspect of the game. From story and gameplay to its connections with the wider Shin Megami Tensei universe, this video explores whether Persona 1 actually has a good story and if it’s worth revisiting today. Turns out, the answer is YES, but you have to dig for it. This video compiles the complete Persona 1 story, pulling from multiple sources including game routes, supplemental materials, and connections to other Shin Megami Tensei titles. The goal is to present the ultimate Persona 1 experience, covering everything you need to understand the full narrative, so if you've always been interested in playing the game but never got around to it, this video could be a good substitute. This includes analysis of both the original PlayStation version and the PSP remake, comparing differences in localization, gameplay, and story presentation going over all the endings and the pros and cons to each release. If you're a fan of later titles like Persona 3, Persona 4, or Persona 5, this retrospective shows where it all began. 0:00 - Intro 3:17 - Shin Megami Tensei If... 7:32 - Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 1:55:20 - The Snow Queen Quest 2:33:14 - Revelations: Persona 2:44:19 - Accessory Media 2:55:52 - Credits --------------------------------------------- Support Johne on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/JohneAwesome Subscribe for more! ► http://bit.ly/SubJohne Discord - https://discord.gg/MbsuYkE52p Follow Me on Social Media ♦ https://twitter.com/JohneAwesome https://www.twitch.tv/johneawesome https://www.instagram.com/johneawesomeig/?hl=en About me - Here on my YouTube channel I strive to make fun and entertaining videos of the games I love to play every single day. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an update. #Persona #Persona1 #ATLUS #rpggames #gamingretrospective
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Hello there! I'm the translator of the manga, Shadow Maze novel, as well as Anomalous Tower Chronicle. I'm here to drop my words of praise because this video is absolutely amazing! You really went the extra mile when making this, and I'm really amazed. I do have some small stuff to mention, but they're all nitpicks really. They haven't actually lowered the enemy's stats for this game, they only did that for Persona 2: Innocent Sin. In fact, they actually BUFFED most demons for the PSP version and only a few problematic ones like Moh Shuvuu and Kuchisake-onna were nerfed. Also, in the fight against Kandori in the manga, you can briefly see Yamaoka's hand accompanied by wings, and the same thing happens in the following fight against Kazuya. The implication is that through his monologue to Kandori, Nanjo completed his character arc and got his Ultimate Persona first out of everyone, but we only see him full on-screen in the fight battle when everyone showcases their Personas. Also fun fact: one of the generic lines when acquiring spell cards in Revelations is "Don't fuse me with weirdos!" so the localizers accidentally made Weirdo the demon a social outcast, lol.
Now the Persona fandom can finally experience Persona 1
If you liked this review let me know what you'd like to see next 🐒
My guys been gone in the trenches only to come back with a movie
"Welcome to the Velvet Room... I'm going to infodump about my latest hypfixation."
I’m beyond excited for this new era of video essays and retrospectives🙏
are my eyes decieving me ......... Is that you......... Johne
That Operation Paperclip joke was top tier humor
A Persona nurse that isn't ready to end up on a list? I didn't think such a character could exist
johne you're the backbone of this fandom, atlus should model their next persona protagonist after you
As we sometimes say in Poland: Dad didn't just come back with a bottle of milk, he came with a whole tank of milk. On a side note, I am a little sad that you didn't mention the weird Japan only PC port, lol.
Persona The Anomalous Tower was truly a life changing experience. Honestly might be the best Persona game
LOVED the added context the Shadow Maze book gives, it makes her appearance in Persona 2 much more poignant knowing she’s pursuing a career as a therapist.
Just one thing about the snow queen route in the US version. It wasn't actually removed, just "dummied out". The entirety of the quest is still in there and can be played through with a gameshark code removing the 1 flag they put in to kick you out of the gym storage room where the mask is. The downside is you get a japanese script shoved through an english font meaning you get a bunch of nonsense with mixed letters/numbers and symbols in every dialogue box. However the text in stores/menus/velvet room and battle screens are still in english. Not the ideal way to play the quest since you miss all the story/dialogue but for years it was the only way to play it.
LET'S GET FUNKY this was a splendid and comprehensive video, Persona is one of my favorite games of all time even with all its flaws and I adore its characters, atmosphere, humor, music, story and all the surrounding material like the books and the drama CDs (which I recommend to anyone reading this comment, you can find them subtitled on YouTube and particularly the first one is absolute...cinema? radio?) You did a fantastic job covering the story and I appreciate you bringing in supplemental info from Shadow Maze. Thanks for pointing out the specifics of what PSP changes as well as I don't really hear a lot of discussion around it besides "music different"...maybe this will be the video to fix Persona's reputation in the fanbase (also thank you so much for featuring my drawing of Mayo! very happy to see that here)
so youve been cooking up a 3 hr banger all this time? it's really my 8 day late birthday present lol lucky me
That Operation Paperclip bit was on point.
3h+ video essay from JohneAwesome wasn’t something I'd expected to see this morning
Really sad there's no other game like quite like persona in theme, scope or even sold. The idea of having 2 pretty much separate routes in the same base game at the same time is something developers wouldn't even dream of doing today.
MAKI SONOMURA IS THE BEST PERSONA CHARACTER CERTIFIED