History VideoGame / Persona2

** [[spoiler:Captain Shimazu]] is flanked by four soldiers. They're arguably more dangerous than him.

** In the end of ''Innocent Sin'', everyone gets their pasts rewritten at the end so that that the adventure never happened, manifesting in ''Eternal Punishment'' as BagOfSpilling. Tatsuya retained his memory, however, so he starts off at Level 50 with his Ultimate Persona.

** Just ''getting'' a FOOL card is a chore, as it requires you to use a contact that elicits an eager response with demons who have a Fool personality, and then answer it's questions to swing back between an anger and an eager response three times in a row, and even then, it's a matter of luck on whether it asks the full series of question that will allow you to get the card at all. It takes an emulator and save-states just to make that a colossal pain in the ass.

** The very first boss you fight is a trio of EarlyBirdCameo {{Mook}}s, of which one can heal its teammates. The boss is meant to teach you how to strategize and use fusion spells, as the only way not to have the fight draw out (excluding grinding yourself silly) is to [[CombinationAttack use a fusion spell]] on the [[ShootTheMedicFirst healer]].

* PublicDomainCanonWelding: The UpdatedRerelease of ''Eternal Punishment'' reveals that it's not just Creator/HPLovecraft's {{Eldritch Abomination}}s that are in fact real (which they are, considering [[spoiler:the BigBad for this game and the previous ones is none other than Nyarlathotep]], but the Franchise/CthulhuMythos happened. The extra scenario features mentions of the Dreamlands, a cameo from Randolph Carter (a recurring protagonist in Lovecraft's work), an opportunity to [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu to actually punch Cthulhu]], and more. However, later games in the series do not use these elements at all, except for a rare ShoutOut.

*** ''Master of 18'' by [[spoiler:the Great Father]].

** [[spoiler:Ginji Sasaki]] is an [[DishingOutDirt Earth user]] in both games and he can heal... and that's where the similarity ends. In ''IS'', he's fought alone, deals ailments and has a hand-canon of a gun. In ''EP'', he loses the gun, becomes a FlunkyBoss, and takes advantage of his minions' SuicideAttack to damage your party and deal ailments, while he keeps reviving them. And he ''also'' has ''Old Maid''.

*** He pulls this stunt again in ''IS'' with [[spoiler:Joker]], but this time he ditches the ailments and goes for persistent damage that you cannot defend against. And he has no weaknesses, unlike above.

** Summon Spirits in ''IS'' could fuse with any elemental spell to create pretty powerful Fusion Spells. In ''EP'', Summon Spirits can now only do this with Rumor Spells, meaning you have to equip specific Personae to use them, and beforehand you have to spread the rumor that the spell exists, and a separate rumor that it can fuse with Summon Spirits.

* ApologeticAttacker: Some of Maya's battle quotes count as apologetic, such as "I'm sorry..." as a victory quote. Tatsuya and Jun also use this line. The Metal Trio in Eternal Punishment also apologise as they attack you.

* FatalFlaw: The ultimate weapons in Eternal Punishment can be made more powerful or change their properties based on rumors. Sadly, if you piss off a demon during negotiations, they can spread a rumor after the battle to sap the strength out of it.

** Bonus contacts and conversations in Eternal Punishment such as 100 stories, songs of a baseball fan, flamenco de la passion, etc. Only available by speaking to your party members at a specific time and place while on the world map or in a dungeon (for 100 stories). Missed the timing to grab it? New Game+.

** Eternal Punishment also has a number of major arcana personas that can only be obtained by mutating other specific personas. In one case (Lugh), you need to hear a rumor from a specific demon after summoning the pre-requisite persona, in three others (Pallas Athena, Michael and Mot) the only hint is that they were available in Innocent Sin, but are missing in Eternal Punishment, and the last one (Shokuin), there's just no hint at all. And, of course, no hints as to ''which'' personas must mutate (except in Lugh's case), nor is there any guarantee they will mutate into the persona you need, since the chance is only 12,5%.

** In Eternal Punishment [[spoiler:Kandori]] seems to be filling this role. Part and parcel of his role is to simply give Tatsuya a glorified calling card.

** America had this worse for a while since ''Innocent Sin'' was only released in Japan, making ''Eternal Punishment'' harder to follow. Fortunately ''Innocent Sin'' was finally released on the PSP in the U.S.
*** Debatable. One of the plot points of Eternal Punishment is finding out who Déjà Vu boy is; and that mystery, while crucial to the characters is lost on the player IF they played Innocent Sin. Fortunately for Americans, the Mt.Iwato flashback scenes do give the player enough of a gist to understand the plot of the past game.

* ItemCrafting: Crafting stuff at Padparcha isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. Most of the materials are either won at the casino or returning multiple Rank 8 persona to get the items. However, the pros significantly outweigh the cons. Take the Hihi-Irokane armor in Eternal Punishment for example. 67 defense, 50 special defense and a hell of a boost to evasion make the armor well worth hours at the casino.

** In ''Eternal Punishment'', one third through the game you are asked to spread a rumor that the person investigating the NewWorldOrder is either a man or a woman. Spreading the rumour it's a woman results in Eriko's route, which takes you through the Sumaru TV station, and results in boss fights against her Stalker ([[spoiler:actually a Shikigami]]), Wang Long Chizuru's puppet, and in the Underwater Ruins, Wang Long Chizuru herself. However, if you spread the rumor it's a man, you go to Nanjo's route, and the game takes you through the sewers and the secret laboratory, where you fight several Red Berret Mini-bosses, and [[spoiler:Demonized Sugimoto]]. The Underwater Ruins boss is also replaced with [[spoiler:Takahisa Kandori and four X-2 mechs]].

* AmnesiacDissonance: Thanks to your [[NiceJobBreakingItHero efforts]] during the EX Dungeon, Tatsuya Sudou, who's been pretty damn respectable without his memory, gets it back and promptly goes back to his old self. [[ButThouMust Not that you actually had a choice.]]

* OnlyTheLeadsGetADownerEnding: [[spoiler:The Persona 2 duology ends with the heroes having saved the world in the Eternal Punishment timeline after the heroes of the Innocent Sin world failed to do so, but Tatsuya has to return to the doomed Innocent Sin timeline to prevent a repeat of said bad ending.]]