Its hard to believe that its been 30 years since the very first Persona game was released on the original PlayStation console. Revelations: Persona was developed and published by Atlus and was quite possibly one of the most overlooked JRPG’s of the 90’s. When the first Persona game was released in countries like Japan it fell under the radar due to the popularity of more high profile PS1 games during mid-90’s. Revelations: Persona was overshadowed by seemingly countless high profile PS1 titles of the mid-90’s like Tekken 2, Final Fantasy VII, Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot and Gran Turismo. Revelations: Persona was a very unique JRPG because it was slightly more adult-themed opposed to the kid-friendly RPG’s you saw on the SNES console. The story for Revelations: Persona involved the main characters playing a fortune-telling game granting them the ability to become summoners. The main character along with his friends utilize the ability to summon Personas to battle malevolent supernatural forces.

The story for Revelations: Persona was crazy because it dealt with themes like occult horror, demons and mental illness which added more depth to dark tone the game already had. In terms of being both dark and strange Revelations: Persona kinda felt like Earthbound for adults. Revelations: Persona also had unique features like the first-person free roam mode which felt ahead of its time especially in 1996. The contact system which gave characters the ability to speak to demons and players could also gain spell cards from them through negotiations. Revelations: Persona also featured grid based battles which gave the game its own unique identity compared to other JRPG’s from the 90’s. Revelations: Persona is a game that many feel should have been far more successful in countries like America. However, when the Persona series first started it appealed more to a niche audience opposed to being a mainstream attraction.

The JRPG genre is more popular nowadays than it was during the 90’s and Persona did not become very popular until late-00’s and early-10’s. Revelations: Persona was one of those games that ended up being a cult-classic because of how different and daring it was compared to more mainstream JRPG’s like the Final Fantasy series. Revelations: Persona also had a high replay value because it had four different endings and had a challenging learning curve which became rewarding. As underrated as Revelations: Persona was three decades ago its a game that never got an official remake current generation for a home console. Even though, we got a PSP version of Revelations: Persona back in 2009 fans of the series was mainly focusing on Persona 4 which came out back in 2008.

The American version of Revelations: Persona from ’96 was heavily edited due to the localization controversy and a remake is unlikely to sell more than P3, P4 or even P5. There are some who believe that Revelations: Persona was a game that ended up being a product of its era in relation gaming culture of the mid-90’s. Revelations: Persona looked more experimental than later entries of the series which appeared more modern and polished due to how much the franchise has evolved within the past three decades. Revelations: Persona is considered to be a special game mainly because it represented the birth of a legendary IP in a world that was completely different.