Persona 1 Analysis (Part 3A) - Ultimate Persona Compendium

[@Chelaxim]

The 90s when people didn't want kids to know Japan existed.

[@steelblake]

Michael Lewis Pokemon is prove of that

[@Chelaxim]

mauro banegas I was in Kindergarten and I knew that wasn't a jelly doughnut.

[@CryoJnik]

Nothing beats a Jelly filled doughnut. Unless its a sub sandwich rolling downhill end over end.

[@xblade149]

@onlyhalfgood I think you missed the joke people knew about Japan in the 90s of course. He's talking about how localization of Japanese products dimisses Japanese culture , idea,etc

[@seg162]

japan's scary, yo

[@dumbbitchenergy4223]

Persona 1: Dancing Crazy Night

[@haydencoleman6545]

Dancing Black Night?

[@LizardOfOz69]

MARK CRAZY!!! Will be that game's KING CRAZY!!!

[@Naotosbiggestfan24]

YES! We need it.

[@brennbren]

Persona 1: Dancing in Maki’s Ideal reality while Kandori destroys the real world

[@fixy8848]

Revelation Persona: Dancing New Moon Persona 2 Dance of the Sinners

[@i010001]

13:00 To be fair, "Resolver" is a really good name for a gun

[@rawrdino7046]

Sounds like a pap name from cod zombies

[@gabrieldevoogel6225]

@@rawrdino7046 the Remington New Model Army from buried maybe 🤔

[@chaimafaghet7343]

This is my problem resolver.

[@nessdbest8708]

true

[@deadmemetea8939]

Mark danced crazy.

[@atld1414]

Crazy danced mark

[@tataladdd4251]

dance Marked crazy.

[@spiderdude2099]

MrLolmaster101 literal demons and high school girl faced penis monsters inhabit this world.....and THIS is too much for you?

[@gh0styeyez]

Mark danced crazy

[@man4437]

@MrLolmaster101 Mark danced crazy

[@GoseiSamurai]

I mean, a revolver CAN be a resolver if you want it to be.

[@julio.dealmeidabranconeto5831]

U killed me with that one! Kkk

[@NimhLabs]

I mean, the book Snow Crash has people who listen to "Reason"

[@Christian-gr3gu]

It helped solve all my problems!

[@rawrdino7046]

I mean you not wrong thats how I solve most of them

[@Kaz_Terumi]

I asked Mark to watch my lunch but he started dancing crazy and burned my bread which gave me dread

[@SnicketySlice]

I bet you never saw it coming.

[@LizardOfOz69]

But then I reached out to the truth that the sandwich has been made into history.

[@fakegrant]

Rumors circulated about the sandwich possessing people

[@neveroddoreven6597]

I bet there was a mess, so you had to wipe it all out.

[@silentspirit8923]

By the time it hits you, it's your last surprise.

[@DylantheKnightOwl]

BLACK MARK DANCED CRAZY!... into all of our hearts.

[@Zubatticus]

Everyone loves Mark dances crazy, but they're sleeping on that Black Mark pun. That joke was gold! Great video! I don't think I've seen a localization this clumsy in a while. Did the translators work at 4Kids?

[@SnicketySlice]

You never know, they could be.

[@nobu4932]

Maybe

[@mayborneflower]

Not enough Dan Green. :/

[@DS-tv2fi]

Nah, couldn’t be. The guns are visible.

[@nessdbest8708]

nah, it still gets away with cursing.

[@End3rDJgaming]

The god of destruction Mark danced crazy.

[@reeniko]

Sachiko is so cute, especially as the Velvet Room attendant. Also, Mark, as we all are, danced crazy!

[@Yun_denn]

If they ever make a Persona 1 remaster, they need to make Black Mark a battle costume or something.

[@abisnow1843]

Personal theory - Atlus re-releasing P3 is testing the waters before they re-re-release P1 and P2. And I hope that mark danced crazy remains in THAT remake 😂

[@lemonov3031]

​@@abisnow1843I'll add on to your theory and say that they are at best getting P3P style ports. We can only hope that IS gets fixes from EP.

[@DylantheKnightOwl]

This was really great man! the level of detail and research you put into this is crazy lol. The "Black Mark on the translation" joke really got me lol. I honestly can't wait to see the Ice Queen route video next. Once again great video man, the level of detail, work, research, editing, and overall quality that goes into this series of videos is always quite inspiring to me, and never ceases to entertain as well!

[@NoahMario]

Guess who? Vishnuu, and welcome back to persona 1.

[@haydengames3v2]

Seeing as Mark carries an axe before the demons showed up, I can assume that he also dances with the thing, maybe twirls it around while kicking his feet in random directions.

[@CountXDracula]

Mark Danced Seductively!

[@naheemquattlebaum2267]

The Mark/Ellen password moment has me dying lmao.

[@zerothefool2399]

I think the reason Philemon said "Hoovinoise" was because of (yet another) mistranslation. See, Hypnos is spelled "ヒュプノス" (hyupunosu) because Japanese is Weird(tm), and the translators (or lack thereof) didn't know that it was supposed to be Greek to Japanese loanwording, so they went with the closest thing they could think of, which can only by typed out as "Hoopinos"

[@serphv6531]

Ah the Snow Queen Quest, even as a little kid in the 90s I always knew something was missing in this game. Not only that FMV, but I also found it very VERY odd that you could not recruit Yuki at all and you never see her again. I remember spending a lot of time looking for her in the school. I also noticed that box in the room that the game boots you out of, and always wondered whats wrong.

[@thetruewisegamer]

Ah lord vishnuu has return to give a gift of this video

[@man4437]

That "black mark" pun was the best shit. Also the "damn Guido" thing was funny as hell

[@tictacterminator]

"You know, Takahisa is real fucking swarthy looking, like an Italian. And if there's one thing Americans understand, it's that Italians are mobsters, and mobsters are bad guys. Why don't we name him Guido?"

[@parkouremaster]

Mark moves his hips with energized emotions

[@mintcey]

"I feel like a game journalist trying to play Persona 5" Big oof

[@breloompauncher5593]

That SGB reference is timeless now, more like the whole playthrough actually.

[@ibilesfighter3.16]

What? Where? Timestamp?

[@breloompauncher5593]

@@ibilesfighter3.16 "Guess who?? Vishnu!!!"

[@ibilesfighter3.16]

@@breloompauncher5593 "and welcome back to persona 1"

[@MARIO1UP2000]

Around 26:29 for those asking for a time stamp

[@costby1105]

For some of the changed names it is a matter of the names being too long for the allotted space in memory where it wasn't a problem with original Japanese which can express the same words in less space. Which may have been what happened with Quetzalcoatl and Nyarlathotep. In Nyarly's case Atlus USA may have been also worried the Lovecraft estate or Chaosium becoming litigious. In order to give more space in table that items, persona and Demon table would require reprogramming on top of potential legal issues on top of the rushed localization.

[@GameMaster-ig8oo]

It's stuff like this that makes me wish they remade persona 1 on PS4 with all content from the PS1 and PSP versions including the mobile content as well as a optional nods to Persona 1 'MERICA edition.

[@stonalisa3729]

Game Master 1 I’m sure someone’s made a rom like this. There are a few sonic 3 rpms that use aspects of every version of sonic 3 and even cut content! Something like this is likely to be done with persona by its fans.

[@GameMaster-ig8oo]

@@stonalisa3729 I hope! I love Sonic 3 Complete! The problem seems that there isn't really active moves to make one yet. Not to mention that a PSP or PS1 ISO is a lot harder to hack then a genesis rom. At that point, it's probably easier to build a Persona 1 remake from the ground up.

[@HybridAngelZero]

Ah yes, my archnemesis and master of dreams, Hooba Noise

[@Beastlango]

The HP love craft name changes were probably on purpose because the estate that owns them was known to sue when used without their consent back then. Dungeons and Dragins had a problem with that and some bands that made songs about them even spelled them differently, like Metallica’s “The Call Of Ktulu”

[@MagillanicaLouM]

It is pretty fascinating how quickly the localization team improved from 1 to 2. Granted they didnt do Innocent Sin back then but still. Makes me wonder if P1 had a more faithful localization from the get-go then 1-2 would have even more love in the West prior to the PSP versions and the series more mainstream prior to P4G

[@SnicketySlice]

Yeah, I think if the game released with the snow queen stuff intact it would have gotten a larger following. It's kind of novel having two completely different campaigns in a game.

[@MagillanicaLouM]

SnicketySlice yeah especially at that point in time. Thankfully it seems Japanese fans were all for it since i believe P1 held the record for most sales before either p4g or p5, iirc

[@sarafontanini7051]

I think what 'MARY' was trying to get with that whole...BIT abotu watching her friends is that she's expressing some mild jealousy while also reminding the real 'MARY' why she should keep living, because they have such wonderful friends in their lives. In watching those friends, wouldn't YOU want to have the sort of life where they're your friends? it could've been a beautiful sentiment about finding meaning and hope in small things...if only the wording was better.

[@skullwolfsteam]

i like how you used sgb's persona 1 footage for the loading screen for the video soon as i heard matts voice i was like is he doing here?

[@rawrdino7046]

I pushed jumped

[@eliseoandrade162]

When he said im talking about..."their soundtracks" brooo i got goosebumbs and almost came in my pants.. ALL tracks in any persona smack so hard

[@gatst7680]

I should really play Persona 1 at this point.

[@IGN_OFFClAL]

Beezleebum caught me off guard, I was in hysterics laughing

[@steelblake]

This vídeo is kinda hard for me as a not english speaker mostly for the gramar and sentence composition because my english only goes so far but sure those were wild times. I mean just a team of 6 people that sounds crazy, especially with that time frame only 2 months. Also in those unintencional racial moment there was that moment where Aki call Black Mark a monkey too in the fight with Tesso. Two things one that intro is perfect to show case the tone that the franchise adquire after the original team left and two Mark Danced Crazy, all night

[@StarsAndSticks]

This series is awesome. Hoping it blows up and gets more attention!

[@SnicketySlice]

Thanks. I should have the second half of part 3 out very soon.

[@rawrdino7046]

Persona 5 kinda did that

[@CrazyAccordionIsteLuna]

They took all the other characters colours and just slapped it on mark

[@elcomemierda2624]

XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

[@alejandrocontreras6362]

@@elcomemierda2624 que rico comer mierda

[@nicktoons125]

I WAS NOT EXPECTING AN SGB CLIP! WHAT!? THAT IS AMAZING! Thank you for including one of my favorite KZbin channels in your amazing video mate!

[@norsewolf98]

Okay but “Resolver” is honestly a badass name for a gun.

[@TheDaphinator]

He really knows how to leave his *Mark* on the dance floor.

[@kfk4441]

13:09 it is called resolver because it forces situations to be resolved

[@neptuneplaneptune3367]

With Cerberus its possible that they looked at the Persona and said "This isnt Cerberus he has only one head."

[@makhyusnimakhyusni401]

Where Persona Dancing Crazy Atlus, i want see Mark danced crazy

[@TheNuclearGeek]

I think a lot of the original language problems stem from the differences between a native English speaker that learned Japanese vs a native Japanese speaker that learned English. As you can see in the naming of the 6 people involved, it is much more likely that it is the later. The reason this is important is because, being native English speakers and being brought up in US culture you have these things ingrained since childhood. Learning a language and learning a culture are very very different and it is much harder and takes much longer to assimilate a good appreciation of the cultural viewpoint. And, back in the 90s, without the internet being a large part of daily life, it was much harder to get exposed to world culture. It was probably just a couple of native Japanese speakers that had only been living in the US for a couple of years, probably. So, cut them some slack.

[@fearanger1]

"A Black Mark on the translation" Oh. Oooh god that hit like a bloody truck, absolute genius. I could not praise you enough.

[@Slenderquil]

Who could forget the time when one of the strongest personas was called Beezlebum.

[@MastaGambit]

The name Guido Sardenia is actually my favorite thing about Persona 1's translation period. I mean, Black Mark is cool and all, but imagine naming your fucking villain GUIDO SARDENIA. IN THE 90s.

[@Axl794]

26:30 That SGB caught me off guard, I died laughing xD

[@noneofyourbusiness4616]

You say "how could you mess up Cerberus," but there happens to be a 300-issue Canadian comic book series called "Cerebus" which got that name due to the same mistake.

[@dolphun4425]

I am hoping that loading screen audio is from SGB's playthrough of Persona 1 because that would make me laugh harder

[@SnicketySlice]

It is.

[@0menchild]

Tremble in fear for the lord of flies Beezlebum!

[@harrycarson6526]

26:29 IS THAT A SGB PERSONA 1 REFERENCES?!

[@EasilyBoredGamer]

God, hearing that SGB clip takes me back, their lets play was my first exposure to Persona, hell my first experience with SMT in general.

[@MakoTenseii]

Matt's Vishnu is the best

[@megalovania618]

A classic SGB playthrough, imo

[@TheLazyReColor]

That SGB reference with the Vishu loading screen just slapped me across the face holy hell I did not expect that

[@junethefox5834]

(Tbh I wonder what a "Lunarvale'd" version of the future games would be like)

[@Johnnydubois]

I would love to read all your notes and what you researched heheh anyway great work! the amount of mythological and refernces to so many worldy things in this game amazes me. the incompetence or intentional section really makes me want to deep dive into all the characters individually. thanks again for all your work.

[@deviousj5868]

Bring back Blark! Free My mans Blark.

[@starleaf-luna]

fun fact: Reveltions: Persona might be first and only Persona game that got 4Kids translation.

[@davidmaxwell4696]

Persona: Dancing Crazy the unreleased Persona rhythm game

[@TheRockinBR]

I must say, you've done a great job with those Persona 1 videos! Can't wait to see more!

[@felizpanda]

Just to clear things up, the awful line “In watching all of you, wouldn’t you?” is not about changing places with the other Maki to watch over her friends. She’s talking about how she feels seeing her friends fight and grow. The equivalent in the psp version is in the video: “Doesn’t looking at those guys make you feel like nothing is impossible?”

[@RollingBobbyJones]

I don't care what anyone says, US Mark is the best Mark design

[@sonnytapman]

I wasn't ready for Matt, but I got Matt anyways.

[@Slayervein]

I'm happy you added a sgb reference

[@themaid9254]

Black Mark is best Mark

[@SnicketySlice]

Of course!

[@SwoleBenji]

Insane tier of quality, as always.

[@newtonmarques1271]

Gatekeep: mark whats the password Mark: roses are red zombies are blue AND BLACK YALL AND IM BLACK YALL IM BLACKER THAN BLACK AND IM BLACK YALL

[@MetalGamely]

I remember seeing that fmv for the snow queen quest since i wasn't sure where to go. I was so confused and it just stuck with me for so long.

[@mix1947]

I'm confused on why people thought mark's race was the most botched thing in the localization of persona (if it's because of how he looks and acts like a racial stereotype then I can see why). Honestly I didn't, it's probably because atlus USA also did the same thing to all of the asian characters by making them white, like tf why not have a few asians in there?

[@SnicketySlice]

I think it's because with the rest of the characters all they did was change the skin tone very slightly. You could probably do it yourself in photoshop. It's actually hard to notice unless you're directly comparing them like I did in this video. With Mark though they had to redrawn his entire face (I'm assuming they got Kaneko in to do this, I've never been able to confirm). And the game does technically keep Yukino Japanese since her design is the same and she's named Yuki. I'm guessing they just wanted it closer to the population to the US. To be honest, I find black Mark no more offensive than changing Maki's hair extra red, it's just the funniest thing about the localization so I gave it the biggest highlight.

[@xblade149]

@@SnicketySlice well here's the thing. U.S. atlus was trying to market to western audiences and they thought changing the setting from Japan to United States would be less confusing and marketable to the audience. And so character designs to match the setting. So I can understand where atlus was coming from, after all its 90s. But luckily we were able get the original persona PSP release .Also as black man myself I never thought mark was offensive. B

[@lawtonaaj]

one specific problem with the way they changed marks appearance at least to me his eyes and lips are designed in a specific way anti black Japanese propaganda depicted black people. its very similar to early generation jinx in pokemon.

[@TemLightKiBlade]

...I watched so much of the Persona let's play the second you put up Vishnu I started to do the line myself before you played it and I almost chocked laughing cause you caught me off guard XD

[@Prophet_Of_Pants]

I love the SGB bit you threw in there!

[@FILEX648]

Mark moved his body freeeelllyyyy, no longer tied down

[@sarafontanini7051]

another possible reason for the Snow Queen route to be removed could be that it was just too seperate from the main story (it has no actual connection to what's going on with the deva system and mary, doesn't quite have the same themes, and the antagonist is purely seperate and supernatural comapred to...whatever's going on wwith the deva system) and it just didn't seem worth localising what is essentially a completely seperate storyline whose absence wouldn't change a whole lot.

[@sakeconmbeju]

Awesome videos mate! The velvet room is a clear David Lynch reference.

[@evilfreak7]

old video but I think it's worth pointing out the technical challenges involved with the names instead of blaming it all on incompetence. character limits are a huge issue in the game localisation process that sometimes still crops up today, "Jack O'" and "C-Tablet" show that they really had very little space to work with. it even crops up in SMT Nocturne's localisation, something I usually see heralded as "more faithful" despite arguably handling the themes and religious subtext even worse than Revelations ever did (but that's another topic). when you have to get your game out in a couple of months while flippin' Final Fantasy 7 is on the horizon, it's hard to justify running to the library and poring through a ton of books just to catch a few demon names that are pretty benign in the end. it's a wonder the game came out at all, I'm glad it did even in a fairly rushed state. surprised you didn't mention the skill names, I think they ended up harming the gameplay. "gravity, magnet, force" and "nuke more, nuke most"... really confusing. great videos overall though, this game deserves the love. really looking forward to the persona 2 coverage.

[@SnicketySlice]

I mentioned the skill names in part 2.

[@SEGABlueSkies]

Another great addition, looking forward to the conclusion. This is probably my favorite video series of yours ever, but I could be biased because I do love the early Persona games so much.

[@Kyoukichi]

13:47 I left an audible "OoOooH" at this joke.

[@MistressLiliana]

Honestly, in the PS1 translation I interpreted it as Ideal Mary saying she saw how Real Mary acted in the real world, being all sad when there were so many people she could hang out with and be friends with, that the Real Mary didn't deserve being the Real one, the Ideal one would be so much better as the Real Mary and is expressing frustration that she can't do that. That's a bit different than what is said in the remake, the original almost makes Ideal Mary sound like a shadow that wants to take over the Real Mary's life.

[@Kaz_Terumi]

I asked Mark to watch my lunch but he started dancing crazy and burned my bread

[@avelinovalencia5134]

Love seeing an SGB clip out of nowhere

[@heehoproductions8590]

Prism by m-flo as intro theme is incredible! Great song

[@mrman6035]

Mark danced crazy! Black Mark 4 life!

[@Leonlonglegs]

So this video got me thinking about how nice it would be if this game got a re-release, in it's entirety just as the ps1 game, localized/translated correctly. P2 got a reprint as a special anniversary for the franchise after all so why not P1? The data is still on those discs too. I just hope we get a fully translated fan patch or something someday..

[@norsewolf98]

I totally wasn't expecting a Super Gaming Bros. reference so that's awesome!

[@Neroba]

Marck danced so crazy he turned whithe

[@XxStrugglerxX]

And then black again,cuz black Mark it's best Mark.

[@caseb9583]

“You know what this game needs? A token black guy. White American kids will love that” says the Jewish executive when discussing the US distribution rights with Atlus

[@lucaskincanyon7393]

Mark really did dance crazy.

[@AlexBermann]

I can't help but respect the gall the six people in charge of localization had for making all those blatant changes that seem absolutely insane in hindsight. The localization is absolutely horrible, but I can't ignore how completely unnecessary it was. Like: it would have been easier to not make those changes. These were deliberate decisions that took considerable effort an they went through it despite how insane it was. This is likely the most 90's move possible. It does remind me of a German localization of Suikoden. They translated chainmail as literally the institution of sending letters instead as of a kind of armor and they sticked with it. Those things have an unique weird charm to them. Sure, it sucks, but it sucks with a compelling confidence. Basically, while it is bad if you want to take the game seriously, it does have a camp charm to it. An aspect of camp plays into this: while everyone agrees that the localization was bad, I can appreciate that the people involved tried hard and cared. Basically, if it weren't for the gameplay, I would like to experience both versions. In a way, localization is art and I would like to see how they interpreted the original piece artistically, even if it is clunky. After all, merely translating the subject matter is way easier than what they tried.

[@domicraft6341]

My only guess for changing character designs is that they wanted to make it less realistic and more anime to make the US release less dark. This doesn't explain though why characters with already fantasy coloured hair recieved natural looking colours and why one of the characters was made black. Overall I love these kinds of redesigns because it gives the idea to think these versions take place in different realities. But given the other disadvantages this version holds it's probably better to just stick with the more faithful release.

[@Onetruepossum]

Alfred from bat man is anything but a run of the mill butler

[@fighterxaos1]

I am very happy to see this continue

[@PrincessNine]

Okay if anyone is confused. Phil is dubbed over most likely due to how game dubbing works. They rip out the subsequent files, translate/dub them then put them back into the game. They DONT know where its going. Not entirely. The persona series is full of unfinished content dubbed into English. Its not because the dub cut content or because they worked with atlus, just that they just had a handful of content ripped directly from the game regardless if its actually accessible by players.

[@andrewkos5560]

If anyone wants to experience the true anomaly of Revelations' localization, it's being re-released on the PS1 classic.

[@SnicketySlice]

Yeup, I'll have a video up about it shortly.

[@andrewkos5560]

@@SnicketySlice Real heroes don't wear capes

[@daveroberson7386]

Black Mark ain't nobodies fool. LOL, but seriously. I beat all the other aspects of Persona 1 except I could never beat the Ice Queen's stages, not even the first one because there were no save points anywhere, except in the beginning before you even go in the place and then you couldn't leave when you did! Such insanity is why I never beat the Ice Queens place.

[@Patryk128pl]

I danced crazy, when I saw this video in my subscriptions!

[@Patryk128pl]

Also, Atlus make Persona 1 Dancing, so we could see Marks crazy dance plox.

[@SnicketySlice]

yay, my video actually went to people's subscriptions :D

[@Patryk128pl]

As far as I know, KZbin hadn't changed the subscriptions page as they plan to do, effectively changing it into second main page, with an option to switch it back to show videos from subscribed channels, but default one would be the first. Ps. Sorry for my creepy English, I'm much better in understanding than in speaking/writing. xd

[@RigalicReign]

When the six people on your localization team are utterly and truly based, they were truly ahead of their time... Because God knows no one wants to do those jokes anymore

[@tylerrugar3503]

Love these videos really great work

[@RiderWithTheScarf]

By that token, isn't the first translation also kind of racist because it asumes that japanese are white? :D So it technicaly insults everyone in the group, not just Black Mark. XD Localization was a mistake.

[@R3TR0G4M3R1985]

Mark danced CRRRRAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZZYYYYYYYYY