(also known as Megami Ibunroku Persona in Japan) is a 1996 role-playing video game developed and published by Atlus. It is the first entry in the Persona series, itself a subseries of the Megami Tensei franchise, and the first role-playing entry in the series to be released in the west. Originally released for the PlayStation in 1996 in Japan and North America, the title was ported to Microsoft Windows in 1999. A port to the PlayStation Portable, retitled Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, was released in North America and Japan in 2009, and the following year in Europe. This port featured new cutscenes and a reworked English localization that was more faithful to the original Japanese release, as the original 1996 North American localization was heavily criticized for its unfaithfulness to the original Japanese version.

The story focuses on a group of high school students as they are confronted by a series of supernatural incidents. After playing a fortune-telling game, the group gains the ability to summon Personas. Using this power under the guidance of Philemon, a benevolent being representing humanity's subconscious, the group faces off against multiple forces that threaten the world. Gameplay revolves around the characters navigating environments around their town and fighting enemies using their Personas. During the game, the player can create new Personas for battle using spell cards gained in battle or by talking with enemies.

Persona began development after the release of Shin Megami Tensei If..., with the idea of creating a subseries around the positively received high school setting of If.... Multiple staff members from previous Megami Tensei titles were involved in development, including character designer Kazuma Kaneko, and director Kouji Okada. Multiple aspects of the story, including Personas and the character Philemon, were taken from Jungian psychology, while Kaneko's character designs were based on both staff members, and celebrities and fictional characters of the time. Reception to the game has generally been positive, with most praising its approach to the genre, while its navigation and localization were criticized. Its PSP port shared most points of praise with the original, along with the improved localization, but also drew negative comments for its by-then dated mechanics and graphics.

Gameplay

left|thumb|250px|Screenshot of combat in Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, showing one of the main characters summoning a Persona in battle

Revelations: Persona is a role-playing video game in which the player takes control of a group of high school students. A mixture of navigation styles are used: navigation around the students' hometown is done using an overhead view, navigation of standard environments such as outside areas and story locations use an angled third-person view, and dungeons along with most other buildings are navigated in first-person. An icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen displays a lunar phase: this display shows the passage of in-game time, and its status determines the activity patterns and moods of enemy demons. The title Megami Ibunroku was designed to show the title's status as a spin-off directly related to the Megami Tensei series, although it was removed for later Persona titles.

The PlayStation Portable version was directed by Shoji Meguro, the original game's composer. It was Meguro's first project as a director. It was decided to remake the original Persona as a large number of new fans had been brought to the series by Persona 3 and Persona 4, so Atlus decided to give them easier access to the beginning of the series.

|GamePro = 4.5/5 (PS)

|NGen=3/5 (PS)

|rev3 = Play (US)

|rev3Score = 8.5/10 (PSP) Jeff Walker, writing a retrospective review of the game for RPGamer, generally shared points of praise and criticism with Gerstmann, summing the game up as "a sure winner".

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In recent years, the North American version of Revelations Persona has become a collectors item due to its initial poor sales and the popularity of the Persona and Shin Megami Tensei series today globally. This combined with Atlus usually known for producing low prints of games both in North America, have led Revelations Persona to become one of the most expensive and rarest games for the Sony PlayStation in North America.

  • Official website (archived)