Persona 4 Rated by the ESRB for PS3, PS2 Classic Release Should Follow

When the PlayStation Store updates today in North America, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner – Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army will be released as a PS2 Classic. If you want more Shin Megami Tensei than that, the ESRB has just rated Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 for the PS3, signifying that we’ll be getting a PS2 Classics version of the game very soon.

We’ll have to wait for confirmation of its actual release date, but until then, here’s the full ratings description for the game, which is rated Mature:

This is a role-playing game in which players control a high school student who enters a mystical ‘TV World’, saves lost souls who are trapped on the ‘Midnight Channel’, and establishes bonds with town characters in order to develop ‘Personas’. Personas, which are summoned through the use of tarot cards, are creatures that can perform special offensive and defensive moves to aid during battles against monsters.

Combat is turn-based with numeric values and light effects indicating attack/damage inflicted. Pixilated blood spray is briefly depicted during battles, and colored bloodstains stain some walls and floors.

Some female monsters (female Persona) are depicted with their breasts exposed, while other monsters have phallic-shaped heads and torsos. Other female Personas (e.g., ‘Succubus’) have sexual characteristics that are described in text: ‘They visit sleeping men and have sexual intercourse with them.’ Story elements also make references to alcohol, including a long scene in which the main characters hang out in a club and play ‘drinking games.’ Although alcohol is never consumed, the characters display the telltale signs of intoxication: slurred speech, staggered walking, and red faces. Profanity (e.g., sh*t, a*shole) can be heard in the dialogue.

The ESRB also rated Borderlands 2 for the PlayStation Vita today, giving it an M for Mature, with this as the ratings description:

This is a first-person shooter in which players join rebel forces to take down an oppressive corporation on the fictional planet of Pandora. As players explore open-world environments, they complete missions to gain experience and increase their characters’ skills/abilities. Players use machine guns, sniper rifles, flamethrowers, explosives, and weaponized vehicles to kill human-like characters and hostile aliens in frequent combat. Firefights contain realistic gunfire/explosions; injured enemies scream and emit exaggerated splashes of blood. Various weapons result in dismembered limbs or bloody gibs. Some missions depict intense acts of violence: viewing characters getting electrocuted; shooting a man in the face; killing players’ incinerating a cult member as part of a ritual sacrifice.

The dialogue contains jokes/one-liners that reference sexual material (e.g., “I will hang myself from my own tombstone if in you I can’t put my bone,” “If there’s anything they love more than getting to second base with their sisters, it’s cars,” “Bacon is for sycophants and products of incest.”); during some sequences, players can find and collect adult-themed magazines—though no actual nudity is depicted. One mission requires players to consume three alcoholic beverages from a bar before they can progress. The words “sh*t,” “p*ssies,” and “a*shole” can be heard in the dialogue, in addition to language censored by audible bleeps (e.g., “God-[bleep]-ing-dammit”).

Would you buy Persona 4 on PS3, or did you buy Persona 4 Golden on PS Vita and don’t need it? Let us know in the comments below.

[Source 1, 2]

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