As you hopefully know by this point, another team released an official patch for Persona 2: Eternal Punishment’s PSP version yesterday, fully translating the game, all its menus, and the Tatsuya scenario into English.
https://github.com/sayucchin/P2-EP-PSP/
Myself and the others working on our version were completely blindsided by this, and had no idea it was in the works until it came out, same as everyone else. There was initially a great deal of panic, confusion, and disappointment, especially since one of the team had formerly been helping us out with coding and graphic modifications on our project.
Fortunately, once the smoke cleared, we were reassured that none of our work was used in the final product, which I’ve personally confirmed. The new patch is just modifications to the original Atlus PS1 translation, similarly to what our project had planned, the only key differences being that the graphic formatting and fonts are different, and this version uses honorifics(which I tend to localize or make variations on).
That said, our team was still left demoralized by this sudden announcement, and it’s been decided that without the need or momentum to continue our version, we’ve decided to cancel our in-progress build.
As some of you also sadly know, we’ve been met with no small amount of harassment, insults, and hateful responses. Thankfully, the others on the team haven’t been the public face of the project like I have, so I’ve been largely bearing the brunt of the drama. That said, it personally saddens me to see how the SMT community has degraded into something like this, as someone who’s been playing games and been part of the scene since the mid-90s. Toxicity like this is what contributed to other long-term community members and fan translators like AeonGenesis leaving the SMT scene and avoiding future projects of the like, and now, I can unfortunately understand why.
I hope everyone can take this as an opportunity to leave things in the past and move forward to just enjoy the game and support the series as well as any other fans working on SMT projects without undue harassment or hostility. This is something we do in our spare time, for sheer love of the game, and nothing else. We have never taken donations, and never will. During the course of the Eternal Punishment project, we’ve endured family deaths, a pandemic, and even an ongoing war that personally affected a member of the team.
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is near and dear to me. I picked up my copy of Persona 1 in the late 90s, and Persona 2 at a store in Tampa in the early 00s. It remains one of my favorite RPGs ever, and nothing is liable to change that. Going forward, I plan on enjoying the new release of Persona 2’s translation as a fan, and look forward to whatever else Atlus brings in the future. If the renewed interest leads to Atlus releasing an official remake or re-release of the older Persona games, then that’s even better, and I fully plan to support that as well, and hopefully you’ll do the same.
In closing, just remember to do as Maya does.
P.S.: this is in no way affects the progress of ongoing projects. Devil Summoner is still in the translating/editing phases, as is Fate/Extra CCC. As always, we appreciate the support and patience.
iwakura productions 
I think this was to be expected. Not surprising somehow.
Better watch out before some other team also translates extra ccc and releases it faster than yours. Lol. Thats how stuff should be done.
Thanks for everything guys!
Although I dont condone or support any kind of harassement done by the community, their “outrage” is somewhat justified since they took less than a year to do a full translation, and didn’t tease the community for years with barebone updates and no progress, they just kept quiet about it and kept working insead of hyping people for nothing, I think your team shouldnt hype the translations so much and then go radio silent for months/years (like the DeSu one)
To be fair, it is not a full translation. It is mainly the PSX translation while changing terms to match PSP re-releases of P1 and P2 Innocent Sin with their official English localizations. They did clean the script up in areas though from what I have seen, but nothing major.
Isn’t that what AGTP is also doing though? the only difference is that those guys only took a year to finish it while AG has been doinmg the project for 10 years now.
That sucks. You guys have been working on it for a long time so to see something like this happen to you guys is a real let down. Hopefully the harrassment stops and you will be able to relax a bit….some people really do ruin it for the communities though and it makes it look bad for the rest who are just fans of the series and want to talk about it and enjoy it with other people. No one, no matter what should be harrassing, making fun of, or harming anyone in any way, shape, or form and i don’t care what reasoning they have behind it, it’s never right. You all are doing these projects on your own time and because you want to, you aren’t charging money for it either.
I don’t know the whole story and frankly all i have to go off of is this comment and the previous ones showing off the work you’ve done, but regardless people shouldn’t be bashing you for something that you are doing out of your free time. Heck i’m currently waiting for the CCC translation to come out patiently, but you don’t see me going “hey wheres the patch download? it’s been years now hand it over!” It doesn’t help the process and franklky if i saw comments like that or hurtful ones, it’d probably demotivate me alot to even continue it. Patience goes along way
I look forwards to your next project and hopefully you wont be discouraged from making more due to the whole situation
I’m glad P2:EP got a translation, even if it was by another team, but people should not be talking to you like that, even if you took ages to try and do a translation of the PSP version, you still did it it for free and with the free time you had, I’m still thankful for you trying. Don’t mind the offensive comments, please, people are just dumb. At least the project was original and didn’t take anything from yours, even though I can understand how you feel.
I was incredibly surprised and honestly wondered if there had been a name change until I came here and saw this post. That’s a bummer! I’ve been following the progress of this for years, sorry to hear it won’t be finished.
I’m curious how the translation is compared to what you were working on for the bonus PSP content. And what level of graphic hacking there is in this other translation.
And sorry about the harassment. Even in the comments of this post already, y’all were doing hard work and I appreciated the updates, however infrequent they were. It was fun for me.
You better watch out and keep your guard high before someone pulls a move like this for Fate Extra CCC too lol. People are bound to get tired and they’ll do anything to play certain games in English
I won’t discount the possibility, but given that the translation is 100% done and in the editing process, that would be very silly.
With little information on the progress of the editing we could still be waiting for another year. I’d wish for a formal announcement on the progress since we’ve had no update on it since May.
Any chance you will be willing to work with the other team to at least get some of the improvements and graphics your team was working on so they don’t go to waste?
We’ve discussed the possibility, when the tools go public, yes.
I don’t know how people can play these games, enjoy them, and still not have any capacity for empathy.
I appreciate your efforts, I hope your other projects weather these choosy beggars! Hope your day gets better.
This is kind of childish.
If you’ve been working on this translation for such a long time, then just finish it.
The other team knew that you were working on it and didn’t feel discouraged to work on their version.
There’s always people who can do your work faster and better, if you can’t handle that then I can understand why you feel demoralized.
Notice I said “the team”, not “me”. That means this was a group decision.
Noted. I really hope you all have a good weekend, get rid of stress and come back and have a good pep talk. Maybe find the motivation again to finish your work and realize that this really isn’t a big deal.
I wouldn’t want to continue on a project that’s been done by someone else while ALSO being harassed, even in these very comments. It’s a damn shame.
While it is sorta good to see that some got what they wanted in a way, of course the harassment and insults weren’t necessary, like yeah the wait was long, but with the current issues irl, it was going to affect the pacing in some way. Bummer to know that your version of the translation has been scrapped, and shoot, it might’ve been a better translation.
Aside from that, I am looking forward to the translation of Devil Summoner ‘95 (as I call it to differentiate between the other Devil Summoner titles).
I actually just saw this website for the very first time on my Google news feed. Sadly, it’s this post. Even though I had no idea about a P2 translation, I’m definitely heartbroken. I wish the team success and respect from the community.
Please don’t be like Aeon Genesis and lump an entire community with a few impatient idiots.
Especially since Gideon Zhi himself was (and probably still is) a very toxic person who considered harrassing and asking for updates after more than a year of radio silence the same thing, and treat everyone like shit.
So yeah, don’t be like that. I’m hopeful you won’t though, you’re already doing good by not throwing a tantrum over someone else finishing a project. (Though I understand how morale can take a hit from it).
Lastly, take care not to let that become a source of stress for your other projects. Ignore the impatient fuckers and keep up the good work! I’m sure most people love you for what you do!
I literally bought EP PSP because I knew you guys were doing a translation. Someone else says “FiRSt!!11!!oneone” and you guys cancel? Also, all the rest of us went through the pandemic as well. Family deaths happened to other people too.
This pisses me off so much that I’m finally commenting on a page like this for the first time.
Either finish the build or don’t, but don’t whine because someone did a slipshod job faster than you. Who knows? Your translation was probably better than theirs. Congratulations, you’ve lost every ounce of respect I could have had for you.
Judging by this comment, you didn’t even have a full ounce of respect to lose in the first place. “Boo hoo, someone didn’t work their ass off and give me the free thing I wanted.”
Your experiences with the pandemic or anything else in life are not the same exact experiences as someone else, even if they’re similar. It’s pointless to compare like you did.
“The new patch is just modifications to the original Atlus PS1 translation, similarly to what our project had planned, the only key differences being that the graphic formatting and fonts are different, and this version uses honorifics.”
It sounds to me like the differences would have been pretty minor.
Except they weren’t whining “because someone did a slipshod job faster than you”. Very weird to conclude when they say “plan on enjoying the new release of Persona 2’s translation as a fan”.
I just seen this in my google feed today while it’s gotta feel crappy I hope you’re team doesn’t get too demoralized. I just started following you guys about a month ago and when I saw the news I originally thought it was yours. Either way I’m happy to see that you’re still enjoying working on your other projects!
The fact that people are harassing you all and the fact that you had to bear the brunt of so much vitriol not only saddens me, it pisses me off. Development of a game, let alone a patch that would make the game easier to access by others, takes a big time/mental energy commitment that should be appreciated. The thought alone is what counts, and from the bottom of my soul THANK YOU for having the thought to even make such a patch, let alone roll initiative and go for it.
I only started following a while ago and have been mostly a lurker but this is heartbreaking. Every community has idiots who don’t understand the work that is put into these projects. Know that a lot more people support the team then the few who whine. Like why are they complaining about this, why are they harassing you? You guys are doing it for FREE, in your FREE time. There is no obligation, you guys can do whatever you want, if you drop a project mid way no one should questioned it. I’m annoyed at those who are expecting everything to be done for them, thinking that they are entitled to the hard work without contributing anything. Unless you haters have done anything for team, don’t complain, these are their projects not yours. I want to thank you and the team for everything!
At the end of the day, it’s your free time. If you no longer want to do it, it’s your choice. The reasoning is what I found weird.
Comparing it to preparing to run a marathon:
Do you do it for yourself? Then why hear the negative comments by people.
If someones finishes before you, do you stop or keep going?
Perhaps, with the time this was taking, the project was no longer a positive experience. I’m guessing it wasn’t an easy choice, but always put your mental health first… after all this is not supposed to feel like work.
I am genuinely amazed by all of the hard work that you guys have put into this project, and it feels totally surreal to finally play my favourite game on the psp! So thank you all so much, and remember to let’s positive thinking 😛
I don’t understand why so much peoples are asshole to you guys man! You guys doing this for free not like them paying you or somethings Jesus yall should grow up! No wonder there a lot of translating projects canceled because of those jerk!
Sorry about the drama and obliviousness to your side of the situation. For what it’s worth, I’m grateful you guys are taking your free time to bring little treasures like this to the rest of the world. Keep on keeping on.
and this version uses honorifics(which I tend to localize or make variations on).
>(which I tend to localize or make variations on).
>tend to localize or make variations on
What? What kind of bullshit is this? So you know better than original creators which honorifics should be used by characters? Or I misunderstood something?
It’s called localization, everyone does it differently. Most major releases adapt or remove them.
“Its ok because everyone does it!”
Lol
Lmao even
It’s a commom localization method. Every Megaten game outside of Persona removes honorifics from localization and some prefer it that way.
Don’t be so condescending that there are some that prefer to localize without honorifics.
The lesson here – this is what you get when you only tease and not release the product, even unfinished. Back in time i remember digimon adventure translation for psp which was released in parts when team made new portions of translation for a game, no longtime polishing or teasing around, portion of work done – release done, people play, everyone happy, no one need teasing BS on youtube, just translation patches posted is what gets community warm and kind. Otherwise it’s just making hype around your team and your person, nothing else, which makes people to get toxic towards you eventually.
This is not surprising and it should have happened sooner. Should have just dropped the project in the first place instead of sitting on it for almost a decade.
Thank you very much for the translation, I’ve been waiting for this for a long time
I hope you guys can release a version without the honorifics, I was never fond of them… even less when they go full Japanese and keep stuff like “onee-chan”.
I’m glad someone else did it, you were just taking too long
Hello, my name is Leo, and I had this website in my bookmarks for a while, checking every now and then to see how P2EP process was going, and I’m sad to read this because I know how much time passed for you making the translation, and something I didn’t give a thought is that Persona fandom is toxic af, I didn’t think in hate comments and harassment that you had to deal with for not publishing the translation fast enough, it baffles me, but anyways, not everyone is like that. I can understand it to a certain degree since I translated P3P to Spanish all by myself (of course, before the official port was announced), and the process was very tedious and long so I can only imagine what how you should have felt seeing someone else finish it before you, good to know that at least they didn’t rob anything from your hard work.
Having said that, I wanted to carry on your legacy, I was wondering if you could help me out translating P2IS and by proxy P2EP for PSP, I have been trying to find a way to do it for no less than 1 year! But programming and reverse engineering and all that stuff is not my forte, I’m more of a quick thinker and problem solver, but I can’t find a way to do it, and no one from the team that published “that” EP translation helped me out, so I was wondering, maybe all your work wasn’t in vain, maybe you could help me out to realize my dream (I know it sounds weird but, it really is a very dear goal of mine) of translating P2, I did all the P3P translation by myself, no help, so I’m a quick learner and have some experience, I wouldn’t be a burden! So if you want to, or even if you don’t want to, please reach out answering to this comment or email me at leobolivar321@gmail.com, I use wordpress quite often because my translation is posted here as well, so I won’t miss it.
Thanks and have a great day, please reach out!
You almost act like the other team had no right releasing their project or they had to inform you first and ask for your permission even though it uses no code or work of yours, that to me sounds very selfish and entitled, no wonder some people insulted you. You teased us all for a decade for something that never came and then you get mad when someone finally does it 🤷♂️ and instead of finishing your supposed work you drop it? c’mon! in cases like these is exactly when you release your work and show everyone how much effort you put in and how much better it is than the competition (make the haters shut up) as a fan translator myself I know very well that one doesn’t drop or cancel their hard work so easily (unless that work wasn’t very good or there wasn’t much done to be begin with), this whole snowflake mentality of “Oh no randoms are insulting me on the Internet I’m gonna go cry in the corner and cancel everything I promised and have worked hard on for years” is something I will never understand, it’s the Internet, there’s toxic people everywhere and in every fandom, it’s a fact get over it, expecting everyone to be nice to you is just silly, learn to not let it affect you and pay no attention and carry on. If anything behavior like this just makes people hate you more, even the ones that once liked you or respected you.
Either way just like most people I’m glad someone finally did something with P2 EP PSP, by the looks of it I’ve got the feeling that you guys were gonna make us wait another 10 years to “finish” this (or just outright cancel it at any point for whatever reason, attracting an even bigger and more toxic kind of hate toward you than any you’ve got for this), they did what had to be done, kudos to them. I hope you guys get over this and just finish and release your work and learn from the other team, to never tease or make lots of noise if you can’t back it up with actual builds, that’s why most teams don’t do that these days, you only talk about a project publicly once you have something close to being finished or released because people are impatient and entitled and if you don’t deliver they’re gonna get bitter and angry sooner or later which leads to harassment and demoralization.