26 Years Ago Today, Atlus Released One of the Rarest Video Games in History: 'Persona 2: Eternal Punishment'

June 29, 2026 - 18:50

It has officially been 26 years since Atlus released a sequel that would go down in video game history as one of the most collectible games ever made. Persona 2: Eternal Punishment hit store shelves in North America on December 20, 1999, and its scarcity has only grown with time. Unlike its predecessor, Innocent Sin, which never officially left Japan, Eternal Punishment did make it overseas, but in very limited quantities. This was the first Persona game to feature a female protagonist, Maya Amano, a journalist trying to uncover the truth behind a series of strange rumors that start coming to life.

The game's rarity comes from a combination of factors. Atlus was still a niche publisher at the time, and the PlayStation library was already flooded with RPGs. Retailers ordered few copies, and many ended up in discount bins or were simply thrown away. Today, a complete copy in good condition can easily sell for several hundred dollars, with sealed copies fetching over a thousand. The game also holds a unique place in the series' history because of its dark, mature story and its turn-based combat system that relied on "rumor magic," where player beliefs literally shaped the battlefield. While the Persona series has since exploded in popularity with modern hits like Persona 5, Eternal Punishment remains a quiet, expensive relic of a time when Atlus took big risks on strange, ambitious stories. For collectors, it is the holy grail of the franchise.