Persona [Model SLUS-00339]

Released on October 01, 1996 in the USA.

This American incarnation of Persona had some interesting and often major changes:

* Mark was originally Caucasian, the American artists changed him to African-American. His hat was also changed.

* Beer logos for two major American breweries were in the window of Yin & Yan corner stores. In the American version they were removed.

* Encounter rates were dropped down to about three to five times less than that of the Japanese version. The monsters caused less damage and took more. They also gave much more experience in the American version.

* An entire dungeon (the Snow Queen quest) was removed near the end of the game. This included an entire alternate path in the story, a new ending, several CG cutscenes, a new playable character, and a very sexually explicit demon. Reason cited by the company was time constraints. That would've gone double for players; the dungeon had a sixteen hour stretch between two save points! The Japanese version was also buggy in this "lost dungeon," rearranging party order and making members vanish during combat.

* The game was originally based in Japan, but the translators made an attempt to pass the setting as America. Certain cultural signs (the high school numbering system, standees in the drug stores) mark the setting as distinctly Japanese, however.