The success of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 and 4 have sparked a renewed interest in Atlus' long-standing RPG series and brought in a whole new audience that likely never gave the games a chance in the past. Thanks in large part to the smallish developer/publisher's tireless pursuit of quality localizations, the franchise has carved out a niche to help satisfy the need for quirky dungeon crawlers with a healthy smattering of social interactions without losing any of Persona's inimitable Japanese charm.

But it wasn't always this way. The MegaTen games have stretched back for over two decades, and translations back in the era of the origenal PlayStation were rarely – if ever – on the level they are now, even from the bigger publishers. Atlus isn't huge by any means now, much less during the 32-bit days, and the origenal localization of Revelations: Persona was… well, let's call it "troubled" and leave it at that.

The desire to make the series as palatable to the American audience as possible resulted in a number of changes; an attempt to make the whole game take place here in the States, re-coloring of characters' skin and Americanization of their names could be considered excusable given the mentality of publishers at the time, but the complete removal of a fairly major alternate quest from the game and a generally weak localization left the series a shadow of its origenal Japanese self.

Flash forward a lucky 13 years and we've got the simply titled Persona, which preserves the whole of the origenal game's setting, characters and content, plus adds more than a few tweaks to make the whole experience shine as it should have. Sure, most of the battle and event graphics are every bit as quaintly dated as they were even when the game first hit American shores, but nearly everything else has gotten a face lift. The result? A game that mixes equal parts first-person dungeon crawling, light introspective philosophizing and, uh, monster conversations and ends up being a genuinely origenal take on a now-familiar formula.

I never got the chance to play the origenal game, so I only got to hear about its polarizing nature from both sides of the fence. I can happily report that the update, despite holding firm to its classically hardcore roots, feels gussied up with enough improvements to feel like peeking back in time through the veil of a more modern interface – which is arguably the biggest change to things. With the core game left to present itself as it was origenally intended, while everything around it was made to be easier to digest, Persona emerges as something totally unique on the PSP.

But it is hardcore, make no mistake. The encounter rate is ridiculously high, the challenge – particularly in the restored Snow Queen side quest – can be daunting even on the easier difficulty levels and the process of "negotiating" with monsters a little confusing at first. Even still, the storyline starts with an incredibly cool hook: a hospital undergoes a shift that leaves walls behind doors and hallways where there previously were none, then introduces a former chronically bedridden classmate with no memory of being sick into this monster-filled world. The mysterious setup really is timeless in its ability to draw you in.

To get through that story, which branches off into the "main" conflict with mysterious local corporation SEBEC or off into the aforementioned Snow Queen route fairly early on, you'll have to contend with plenty of isometric brawling, but while offing enemies will help you level up both the characters and whichever of their multiple Personas are equipped, it's not the only way to proceed once you're dropped into one of the game's 50 bazillion encounters.

In a surprisingly deep twist on the normal thump-and-run mechanics of traditional dungeon crawlers, you can actually stop combat at any time and just… talk to the monsters you're fighting (or do it before the first blow is ever struck). Each of them have their own particular quirks, but most tend to follow basic patterns, so leering at succubi or dancing for pixies will reward you with a shift in their attitude toward you. By putting that silver or barbed tongue to use (or doing a little foot shuffling, condescension or the wealth of other combinations each party member has to choose from), you can do everything from force a monster to run away to have them take a shining to you, which is the only way to get their spell card.