Well, EP wasn't released in Europe and the US version costs fortune on eBay. I couldn't afford it, but I've bought the Japanese version (and even that was quite pricey for me) and used the US version's ISO on my modded PSX. It's a pretty crazy mix, but it was the only way for me to play it
almost legally.
As for that quote - the author is far too snobbish. He had thrown things he likes into the pot just to make it look more intelligent (like that "early 20th century New England horror fiction"). In reality, Persona 2 has a lot of small touches from all kinds of works, but it's mainly about Jungian psychology take on things that Kazuma Kaneko and Cozy Okada experienced in their young days, wrapping it all in the typical SMT box (basically, a shitload of demons+wacky Japanese humour). With all honesty, I must say that the strength of the original Persona games lies not in deep philosophy or folklore, but in the characterization. These games are awesome because they go very deep with their characters. The rest is quite shallow and you shouldn't get so pumped about that quote because it blows things out of proportion.
BTW - this is my last post for some time as I need to handle certain things, like paying my net bills.