Gamespot's full of shit, which is less and less surprising, lately. The complaints are valid if you're expecting a remake, but this isn't a remake and was never marketed as one. It's a port with some extra stuff, and for me that extra stuff is making all the difference. I think the gameplay and premise hold up fine in today's gaming. Ultimately what killed the original for me years ago is what killed it for me when I ripped it to my PSP some months back: the horrendous translation, the horrendous localization, the fact that they tried to Americanize
everything (even going so far as to make one dude black), and the lousy graphics. It's crazy how much has been fixed. The graphics are mostly the same in terms of what you see during raw gameplay, but there are a lot of little niceties tossed around that help sharpen the edge of what was a very dull blade indeed. There's a bunch of new music too, which is awesome, especially if you discovered the series because of
Persona 3 and
4. The new movies are quite gorgeous, too, and a lot more numerous than I was expecting. English voiceovers, but I guess you can't have everything, and the quality is around the level of what we got in the newer games.
The best review I've found thus far is
from 4colorrebellion. More or less sums it up for me. It's definitely the kind of thing you'll either love or despise, but you shouldn't sell it short regardless. Ultimately, this is quite a game, and being able to take it anywhere with you is pretty flipping sweet.
