[SPOILER: PERSONA 2] Analysis of Persona 2: Innocent Sin's Ending

NOTE: I tried to keep this analysis squarely from the perspective of someone who has only played Innocent Sin. Any plot threads resolved in Eternal Punishment wont be discussed here. I'm thinking of doing something similar to this for that game and how it works with Innocent Sin at a later point.

So I just finished Persona 2: Innocent Sin. I originally played this game a few years ago, but a lot of the more existential points went over my head. I figured it was time to revisit this one with a few more years of experience in game narratives under my belt- to see if I could find anything new. What I found has to be the darkest ending I’ve ever seen in a game.

This is a special case where “dark” doesn’t necessarily mean edgy with a bunch of taboo concepts thrown at your face, no, the darkness to be found here is far more unnerving- because it’s found in the implications of the game’s ending. The game is set in Sumaru City, where for some reason- rumors become reality. This plays into a lot of interesting scenarios, such as: normal buildings becoming labyrinths, characters’ appearances being radically changed, and even Hitler and the Third Reich being resurrected equipped with the Longinus Spear (A weapon said to deal inoperable wounds, and in the Gospel of John, the weapon that killed Jesus Christ). That last one may have been the reason the game took over ten years to come to the west.

Flashforward to the end of the game, the team is fighting the final boss, Nyarlathotep. Yes, that is a reference to H.P. Lovecraft. Nyarlathotep, or the “Crawling Chaos” reveals that he is the force behind all of humanity’s folly: greed, laziness, etc., and the one who made it so that rumors started coming true. Nyarlathotep is defeated and Philemon, an agent of humanity’s strengths and source of wisdom for the team enters the scene. The two basically divulge that the events of the entire game were something of a wager between them. Would Nyarlathotep be able to lead humanity to its end by exploiting the weakness in man, or would they be strong enough to overcome the Crawling Chaos. Honestly, the answer, save for the main characters was pretty much the former. One of your teammates, Maya, who also serves as the team’s brain and love interest for the main protagonist begins to put all of this together when she is suddenly stabbed with the Longinus Spear. For those not privy to video game concepts, characters typically have a way of healing wounds, which explains an unnatural ability to take a shit ton of bullets or even fire to the face. However, as I said earlier, the Longinus Spear‘s wounds- according to myth, cannot be healed no matter what. Also, I should mention that this scene is home to one of the most haunting musical tracks I’ve ever heard in a game.

The rest of the team gathers around a dying Maya, totally in denial- talking about what they’re going to do when this is all over. She shortly dies in the main protgonist- Tatsuya’s arms. Nyarlathotep proceeds to mock Maya’s last words before engulfing the world in fire. He then berates the team one last time for human concepts like love and dreams, saying that those concepts are the reason they failed. Tatsuya leaps at Nyarlathotep- sword drawn, but misses and he escapes. All the strife the team has endured has been for nothing. The bad guy won.

The party desperately asks Philemon if there’s anything they can do to undo the destruction of the world, or at the very least, bring Maya back to life. Philemon laments over the unfortunate fact that according to his and Nyarlathoteps’ wager, he cannot directly interfere, although he offers one grim solution: he can remove the day they all met from time itself. This would work because that day also happens to be the same day that Nyarlathotep’s plan began to come into play. The cost of course, is that the team forgets about each other entirely as according to this revised timeline, they would have never met. The party agrees and they are all sent to a point of time roughly at the very beginning of the game.

This is where the darkest implication of the ending sets in. The party’s memories of one another are totally wiped in this new timeline where they never met. Except Tatsuya. For whatever reason, he was able to retain his memories of his friendsand the events that took place on the “Other Side”. By coincidence, all five of them end up at a train station, blissfully unaware of one another, once again, except for Tatsuya. He accidentally bumps into Maya, who has no recollection of him whatsoever. That has to sting. Not even being remembered by someone with whom, what felt like minutes ago, he shared a requited love.

There’s an excerpt of a poem you see throughout the game.

Worse than alone / Exiled. 
Worse than exiled / Dead. 
Worse than dead / Forgotten

Tatsuya’s not alone, exiled, or dead. It’s much worse than that. He’s been forgotten. He can’t talk to them. He can’t try to make them remember. He can’t even try to build their relationships from the ground up. He has to live with that.