The Games in Video Games: Persona 1

I've always been facinated with games within games. I always like knowing what a character in the videogame would play themselves. I've choosen Persona 1 because it was a game that got me thinking about this stuff in the frist place.

With that out of the way let's see what Persona 1 has for us.

Only one game shows up in Persona 1 and that game is Groove on Fight. It shows up as an arcade cabinet that you plays in the Sea of Souls.

Groove on Fight is actually a part of fairly long running series in Japan called Power Instinct. Power Instinct is a fighting game series. In the first game you fight your way up to the final boss... a scary old lady! if this sounds familiar it's because it's available as one of the game cartridges in Persona 5.

Kaneko, the demon artist designer for the Shin Megami Tensei (and persona) series, did some of the designs. He drew up Bristol-D the final boss of Groove on Fight. His moves include summoning demons from Shin Megami Tensei. Another notable artist that worked on the serries is Range Murata.

Now what if you want to play Groove on Fight?

The actual game in Persona 1 is likely just Groove on Fight arcade release. Unfortunately it's unlikely you'll find a Japanese arcade machine from the late 90's in Japan much less North America or Europe. the good news is it was ported to the Sega Saturn... in Japan.

As for an approximate English release in the series, the closest for now is the SNES version of Power Instinct. It was released in 1993. I can't tell you how it plays since it doesn't seem to have been ported. A Game Pro review  at the time called in lacking and compared it disfavourably to Fatal Fury.

The Latest release is 豪血寺一族 先祖供養 wich Google tells me is roughly "A memorial service to the ancestors of the Gyohoku family ". It was release in 2009 for Arcades and has had not had a port. It was developed by Noise Factory rather then Atlus. It seemingly plays like Guilty Gear.