Persona 1 - Setup

To preface with my setup, I played the PSP Version of the game with the Persona Music Restoration Patch, which replaces many of the game’s redone PSP OST with the original PS1 versions. I mean no disrespect to Meguro-san's work on the redone OST, to be clear; it’s very well done, and I listen to Lone Prayer and School Days quite often! I just wanted to experience the original OST for myself as I played the game, to get a stronger feeling for the shift of the series’ musical identity as the games progressed.

I also played with the Encounter Mod, a patch that decreases the PSP version’s infamously high random encounter rate. I was originally hesitant to do so but went ahead with it regardless, and after reaching the end of my first playthrough I’m glad I did. If you plan on playing the game yourself, I’d recommend you do the same. If you want both the Encounter and Music Patches, the Gamebanana page for the music patch conveniently comes with an option that bundles both together in one file. I went with the 4x option, which felt just right to me.

I played the game on Normal mode, because the game said Beginner mode was meant for people who’d never played an RPG before, and Expert mode was too intimidating for my first time. I figured it’d be fine to just play the normal route and do my best with it, and considering how much trouble I ran into, it’s a good thing I picked it! Though in this game, the only difference in the difficulty settings is that Beginner and Expert decreases or increases the damage received from enemies by 20% respectively, so maybe I could’ve managed Expert. (I could not have managed Expert.)

I must also be honest and admit that I used save states. Yes, the cardinal sin when playing an older game. I fully accept that I will be cast out from the annals of Gamer Heaven into the fiery caffeinated depths of Gamer Hell, along with all the people who drop Yoshi into pits and call Link “Zelda.” I only pray that the lord will have mercy on my unclean soul and baptize me in the blood of the righteous.

Okay, with that all established, lets finally move on to the opening!