Persona 2: Eternal Punishment



Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is the third installment in the Persona series. It is proceeded by Persona 2: Innocent Sin and is succeeded by Persona 3. Maya Amano is the main protagonist and Tatsuzou Sudou is the main antagonist. The New World Order is the villainous faction in this game.

Eternal Punishment is the second in the Persona 2 duology, preceded by Innocent Sin. It follows Maya and her friends in their efforts to stop the New World from destroying the world, and uncovering the plot perpetrated by the Crawling Chaos, Nyarlathotep. It is one of the few Persona games that acts as a direct sequel to a previous game.

Originally titled Persona 2: Punishment in Japan, Eternal Punishment first released on the PlayStation in 2000. Unlike its predecessor, this game initially did release in the United States.

An enhanced port for the PSP was released in 2012. It featured enhanced music tracks and a revamped UI. This version, opposite to the previous game, was not released in the US.

Official Description
''Eternal Punishment focuses on protagonist Maya Amano. Eternal Punishment takes place on "the other side" from Innocent Sin. Rumors are spread about how if you call your cell phone, the JOKER will come and kill whoever you ask it to. Maya Amano is sent to write a story about the JOKER, when she meets him in person. Philemon grants Maya and her friends the ability to summon Personas, an ability that they use to hunt JOKER.''

Summary
Eternal Punishment begins when Maya is sent to write a story about the Joker phenomenon: according to rumor, if someone phones their own number, the Joker will kill on request. Going to Seven Sisters High School, she, Ulala, and Katsuya find the school principal murdered by the Joker. The Joker then attacks them, forcing each of them to summon their Personas. After the Joker knocks them out, Philemon contacts them and warns of a growing danger to the city. After waking, the three pursue the Joker into the school clock tower, where he attempts for force a student to remember the events of Innocent Sin. They are saved by Tatsuya, who tells Maya to forget about him. After Katsuya is removed from the case by his superior Captain Shimazu, he teams up with Maya and Ulala to find the Joker. They eventually ally with Baofu, who believes that Tatsuya Sudou and his father Tatsuzou Sudou are involved with the Joker. Going to the mental institution where Sudou is held, they discover that Tatsuzou sent Taiwanese Mafia hitmen to kill Sudou. Once confronted, Sudou admits that he is the Joker, and reveals that he is attempting to trigger the reappearance of the Other Side. Pursuing him to the Sky Museum, the party runs into Tatsuya and saves Jun from Sudou after Sudou sets the building on fire. After escaping with the museum's visitors on a blimp, an injured Sudou makes a final attack that damages the blimp before Tatsuya kills him. When the party regroup, Tatsuya has vanished.

Upon their return, the party continue to investigate Tatsuzou's activities, and find that negative feelings are turning other people into new "Jokers", who are in turn being kidnapped by Tatsuzou's agents. The party eventually learn that Tatsuzou and a secret organization he leads, the New World Order, are manipulating Sumaru's government, corporations, and media for his own ends. After this, they hear of two others, Kei and Eriko, investigating the New World Order and their links with the Joker curse and an increasingly prevalent fortune telling craze used to manipulate the spread of rumors: they are involved due to the possible involvement of Kandori, a former enemy of theirs, who is posing as Tatsuzou's secretary. Depending on the party's actions at this point, either Kei or Eriko will join their party as they go to investigate the holding area for the new Jokers. Upon arriving, they find Eikichi captured by Kandori while looking for a friend. While Kandori attempts to awaken Eikichi's memories of the Other Side, Tatsuya intervenes and enables the party and Eikichi to escape. The group then save Lisa and her girl group from their promoter, another Order member, with help from Tatsuya, who again vanishes afterwards. Through a friendly informant in the Police, they learn the New World Order's ultimate goal: to raise Sumaru City in the rumor-generated spaceship "Torifune", and trigger the destruction of the Earth's surface by sacred dragons by creating a concentration of Kegare to create a new world free of sin. The only way to stop the plan's fulfillment is defeating the Order.

After failing to corner Tatsuzou and puzzled by Tatsuya's motives, the party finally persuaded Tatsuya to reveal the truth. During the original confrontation with Nyarlathotep, Maya was killed, prompting the rest of the group (Tatsuya, Lisa, Jun and Eikichi) to reset events. Tatsuya refused to forget the events of the Other Side, creating a dangerous loophole: if all the other members of the original group could be forced to remember, the Other Side would be brought back into existence, destroying the present reality. After revealing this, Tatsuya is allowed to join the party in place of either Kei or Eriko. After returning to Sumaru proper, the city is raised by Tatsuzou as part of Torifune. Successfully infiltrating Torifune and defeating Tatsuzou and his "god" Gozen, the city returns to the surface, but the party are drawn into the Collective Unconscious by Nyarlathotep. Making their way into his domain, they discover Nyarlathotep has kidnapped Eikichi, Lisa and Jun in an effort to force their memories of the Other Side into reality. Defeating the Shadow Selves guarding them, the party saves each of them, then confronts Nyarlathotep, who mocks Tatsuya for refusing to fulfill his part of Philemon's agreement.

After Nyarlathotep is defeated, Tatsuya fulfills his side of the promise for Jun, and after saying his final goodbyes, separates himself from his This Side self to return to the Other Side. Soon after the city returns to normal and though many people will never know the truth about what happened, the party returns to their normal lives. The final scene shows Maya about to walk across the street, until she spots This Side's Tatsuya on a motorcycle. Instead of talking to or befriending This Side's Tatsuya, she decides to move on as she walks across the street before Tatsuya drives off. The game ends with Maya smiling as the credits begin to roll.

Cast

 * Maya Amano - Dorothy Fahn
 * Tatsuya Suou - Keith Silverstein
 * Katsuya Suou - Dave Wittenberg
 * Ulala Serizawa - Amanda Winn-Lee
 * Baofu - Richard Epcar
 * Eriko Kirishima - Stephanie Sheh
 * Kei Nanjo - Troy Baker