about Game System

system
I'll introduce Persona 2's basic game system and concept here.
Rumor | Cards | Persona | Contact | Magic

Rumors

One of the major theme in Persona 2 is "Rumor". You can control "rumors" and spread them, make them become the "truth" that everyone believes. And whatever people believes in would become the 'reality". Ironic? like real life? Usually you obtain rumor pieces from the street/shop people you talked to (the words will highlight in orange). There're certain people & places that can confirm these rumors for you, so after you collect various rumor pieces from street people, go talk to the following people at once:

1. Toro-san (Big fat guy) at Eikichi's father's Sushi restaurant.
2. Toku-san (Homeless man) in Park
3. Chikari at Peace Dinner
4. Orange iMac at Internet Cafe
5. Fortune-Teller Gypsy

After you have the above 5 people confirm rumors for you, go to Detective Offce and pay the old guy to help you spread the rumors. Then whatever you choose to spread (choose the most appropriate one) will come true.

Usually if it's a rumor regarding weapon/armor stores, choose the "Expensive but high quality" one is the best. Use common sense and don't choose stuffs like "they already sold out" or "poor quality".

Whenever you obtain rumor pieces regarding "rumor demons", go spread rumor of it at once and try to find it at the area they mentioned BEFORE the corresponding event is over.

You can obtain rumor pieces and spread rumors by contacting demons as well. First you'd have to make them happy (green) and sign contracts. Next time if you met them ask for "information", if any orange word rumors appear, choose the "spread rumor" option next time you meet the same type of demons that you contracted with.
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Cards

They're very important items to collect thru-out the game. There are 4 types:

Tarot cards: they're cards used for summoning "Personas." Each demons you meet in battles will have one type of cards. They will give them to you if you "contact" them correctly. There're 21major types of card. The higher level the demons are, the more cards they will give you.
Free Tarot: they're blank cards that you can ask the Devil Painter in Velvet Room to paint it into any tarot class for you. You obtained them from demons (see "contact" to find out how)
Magic Cards: they're magic cards that you can give to your Personas, then your Persona will be able to use that magic. Once it's given, it's gone forever. You can obtain these cards at item box or at end of battles
Material Cards: they're rare items that you obtain from item boxes, battling rare demons, casino or send back the ranked 8 Personas you previously summon. These card allow you to summom rare Personas in Velvet Room.

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Persona

Summon:
They're demons/angels/monsters that you can summon to fight for you. You'd spend your SP everytime summoning them. You can choose its magic or skills to attack. Each Personas belongs to a Tarot card class. You obtain the tarot cards in battle contacting enemies (see below). In every shopping mall, there's a blue door lead to the "Velvet Room". After you have collect enough cards and gain enough levels, you can go there to summon all the ones highlighted in White words. When you check the list of summon-able Personas in Velvet Room, at the bottom it'll display how many cards you need in order to do the summoning. When you make your decision, you can add in the magic cards and incense to raise its ability.

How much level do you need in order to summon Personas?
Your current level plus 5 will be the levels that you can summon. Let's say you're at Level 94 right now, go to Velvet Room and you'd be able to summon the Level 99 Lucifer (Devil).

Free Tarots:
Somtimes the demons will give you "Free Tarot". You can to ask the devil painter in Velvet Room to paint the major 20 tarot cards for you. Note: avoid wasting Free Tarots on ordinary tarot cards that you can simply obtain from contacing demons. They should be saved for special used -- especially the cards that you cannot obtained from demons (Priestess, Empress, Emperor, Hierophant, Justice, Sun).

Compatiability:
After you summon a Persona, you need to equip it on one member. Check if the tarot card class is compatiable with the team member, the SP used will reduce and they'll get to cast earlier. Here's a simple list of best compatiabilities:

Tatsuya: Hangedman, Sun, World
Eikichi: Strength, Hangedman, Death, World
Lisa: Lovers, Hermit, Temperance, Star
Maya: Magcian, Hermit, Temperance, Star, Moon
Yuki: Empress, Strength, Hermit, Temperance, Star
Jun: Magician, Wheel of fortune, Hangedman, World

Return Persona:
You have to keep using the Persona attacks in order to "raise" its rank. There're 8 ranks in total. Once it reached 8th rank, you can choose to "return" it in Velvet Room. Once you return it, it'll give you special items. If you return the Persona WITHOUT raising it to 8th rank, they won't reward you with anything.

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Contact

You can contact with the demons during battles. Each demon has his/her own personality (display on top), you need to choose the correct contact skill in order to make them:

Happy (Green) -- make them happy 3 times and they'll sign contract with you. Next time if you meet the same type of demons, make it happy 3 times again and ask for items, infos, money or spread rumors

Interested (Yellow) -- make them interested 3 times and they'll give you tarot cards.

Fear (blue) --escape

Angry (red) --attack

Once you have already sign contract with a certain Persona, when you make them "interested" in future, they'll give you tarots cards with ADDITIONAL Free Tarots.

You can click up to 3 people at a time to do "contacts", they're the "contact combos" (also display their relationships, the relationships changed from time to time according to the story.) But if the duo or trio is not so compatiable, they will not go on together (such as the "Quarrelling Husband & Wife" Eikichi and Lisa.) Try all types of contacts around! Some contacts-combo only occured if you choose certain options during in the story, some contacts-combo will disappear. It is very important to make contracts with some demons so that you can ask them for rumors and information. Sometimes they'll give you very important "rumors", includnig the ones regarding the strongest Legendary weapon.

During contacting, the devils will ask you questions, general ones or specific questions regarding the contact skills you used. Such as: if you use Lisa's "Love Talk", the devils might ask you "what type of guys you're interested in?" Choose carefully according to their personalities and taste, if they hear what they don't like, they'll be angry.

Here're few examples of what contact skills works what personalities:
Get them "Interested"
Strong & Cheerful: Killer eyes (Tat), Kung Fu (Lisa), Flower Talk (Jun)
Strong & Smart: Photo-snap (Yuki), Parents-talk (Maya)
Short temper & Stupid: Threaten (Eikichi), Interview (Maya)
Arrogant & Smart: Narcissist (Eikichi)
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Magic

Usually each Persona comes with his/her/its own set of magics. However you can add few additional magics to your personas by adding magic card when you summon them in Velvet room. You can obtain various magic cards from battles and item boxes. Note that there're different types of magics:

Elemental: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Ice, Bolt, Heat, Holy and Dark.
Normal skills: don't belong to any element (magic seal, gravity balls)
Attacks that affect Mind or nerves (seduction, sleep, etc.)
Restore & Heal
100% (attack-up, magic-reflect, berserk, escape,etc.)
Sword (Two-slash, Ice-freeze Knife, etc.)
Shoot (Triple down, Instant May rain attack,etc.)
Smash & Hit (Sonic Punch)
Throw (99 needles, etc.)
. Combat (Assualt Type, Body slam, Light atom bomb, etc.)

The magics have various range:
Enemy-1--Single
Enemy-group -- one group/type of demons
Enemy-all -- all enemies
Allied-1 -- Single
Allied-all -- all

Learning Magic and Rumor Magic?
Some magics are "learned". It means that you won't see the magic listed when you summon it from Velvet Room. Those magics might automatically learned if you use the Persona for a very long time frequently. There're rumor magic as well. Sometimes the demons will tell you about certain Personas can use some magics, once you get them confirmed, the new magic will appear on the magic list.

Combos:
There're many combos you can do, from 2 Personas to all 5. You'd first have to "realize" such combos by experience it once first (usually by accident, or if you have guidebook and follow it yourself). After that, you can switch the member's order in order to cast the combos.
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