The Persona series is the most beloved of the Shin Megami Tensei spinoff branches. It’s a game series that everyone fucking adores, and it’s pretty easy to see why. From all the great waifus to the fun gameplay and god slaying, Persona with it’s now numerous spinoffs of it’s own has become one of the most well loved game series in recent years.

It’s just a fun straightforward turn based RPG that won’t really challenge you too much, but that everyone can enjoy…right?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Persona is one of the most heavily misunderstood and overlooked series of all fucking time. Whenever people talk about it, all semblance of actual discussion is drowned out by best girl arguments. Fuck you. Fuck everyone who only talks about the waifus in Persona.

Because the thing is, if you actually paid attention to the games themselves, you’d realize you’re playing some of the greatest pieces of art ever made.

And what’s funny is that the games are extremely transparent about that and present all their ideas in the most obvious, in your face, almost cartoon-ish way.

To show you fucking peasants the genius of Persona, I’ll talk way too much about Persona 5.

And that of course means I have to start at the very beginning.

From only the opening, Persona 5 establishes it’s jazzy, rebellious aesthetic and it’s extreme reliance on colors, be it for individuality or just to show the contrast between ideologies. And individuality is one of if not the most important theme in the entire game, as the characters constantly struggle with the fact that society and everyone around them has increasingly lost their individuality and have just become fucking sheep and that it makes no sense to the main characters for it to be that way, and they want it to change.

The funny thing about the phantom thieves is that they affect us in the same way they affect the people around them in the game:

Spectacle. Lots and lots of spectacle.

The phantom thieves and Persona 5 are not exactly intellectuals, and they don’t pretend to be. The most important thing about them is that they can touch your heart with their sheer sincerity. How it persuades you in this way is very obvious, everything is turned up to a fucking 11.

Over the top does not give it justice.

The lengths they go to make everything have at least a little bit of charm or personality is fucking admirable and leads to every single emotion being evoked by this game to be on overdrive.

Of the stupidest criticisms this game gets is that it’s villains are just one-note piece of shit characters, and they’re not even wrong. They just missed the point entirely.

The point of the villains in Persona 5 is that they’re concepts. They’re the embodiment of this fucked up thing that society does that goes unnoticed because the world just doesn’t make any sense. And that’s why there’s so much pathos jammed into the phantom thieves themselves, as they’re the outcasts that see how fucked up everything is and only have themselves. THAT’S why it’s so fitting that the villains are portrayed in the most cartoonishly evil and simple ways possible, because that’s how the game truly touches your heart and makes it meaningful. The design of each dungeon on it is also perfectly fitting, taking each concept and again turning up to a fucking 11. Not to mention, they’re also just really fucking unique and colorful and just amazing to look at.

And that’s something that’s shared across this entire fucking game.

The amount of detail is mystifying.

From the loading screens to the menus to the Personas themselves to the Velvet Room (and it’s attendants) to the music to the designs to the results screen to the animations to EVERYTHING.

You can see this from the very beginning too. If you look at the main menu, you’ll notice that every single character has their own distinctive pose and yet are all united at the same time under the color red, and that’s the other main theme of the game: friendship and unity. The thing about the cast of Persona 5 that makes them so endearing to me is that they’re the only thing that makes sense to themselves. In this fucked up world where you can’t tell anyone apart because of how desensitized they all are, the phantom thieves are the only actual people with individuality and they only have themselves.

You can probably see now how the game reinforces this idea with every single design choice, it’s all in service of this greater goal of endearment and friendship.

And yes, I mean every single design choice. This game is filled to the fucking brim with details like this and that’s why it’s message works so well.

That’s not all, the game also reinforces endearment and friendship in more obvious ways with the confidants.

Well, really the time management in general is the important part.

If the game wasn’t already engrossing enough, the time management seals the fucking deal.

It’s pretty obvious that hanging out around people for a long amount of time will get you attached to them, but again Persona 5 turns it up to an 11. Every single social link in this game is at least great, and all of them serve to flesh out the characters while reinforcing the same thing I’ve been repeating for a while now.

And I’m only repeating myself just because everything about this genre and formula lends itself so fucking flawlessly to Persona’s larger message and goal.

If it isn’t already clear as fucking day, this is why Persona is so heartfelt and emotionally resonant. It’s because all of it, every detail is in service of the larger goal or idea no matter how small it is.

The message of individuality in it also works on a bigger scale, seeing as we’re now in an age where every single game is a piece of garbage and they’re all the same homogenized product while Persona 5 is this outcast that’s somehow risen to mainstream success just because of how sincerely it touched everyone’s heart.

That’s just a thing I noticed it’s besides the point honestly.

And yeah, Persona isn’t deep in the same way that Evangelion or Bebop are but it’s still deep in it’s own meaningful way. As one of the greatest men alive once taught me: aesthetic is narrative. And to me, Persona 5 is the peak of that. But that’s not to say the game doesn’t have great writing, it’s really more that the writing is also in service of the aesthetic. The writing in it can be seen as generic or trite but that’d be missing the point for basically everything I just fucking talked about.

You know that line I said about how it uses colors to show contrasting ideologies?

The relationship between Joker and Akechi is perhaps the most interesting, deep thing about Persona 5, and is what leads us to the ultimate point of the game.

Individuality and friendship/unity are the two things I’ve been talking about for the past thousand words, and how they clash is the main thrust of Joker and Akechi’s relationship. Because they both try to achieve the same goal, they both have the same emotional core, but they do it in different ways. This is communicated ingeniously through their designs as Joker has a very uninviting and unapproachable aura to him which is shown through his mostly black outfit. While Akechi is the exact opposite as he’s the comforting, inviting detective prince that everyone loves, which is shown through his white knight-ish appearance. And the true genius of their relationship is obvious once you find out that Akechi is the traitor, because his black mask outfit has pretty much the exact SAME FUCKING COLOR PALETTE AND AESTHETIC AS JOKER’S OUTFIT!

EXCEPT THEY STILL COMMUNICATE TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CLASHING IDEALS, ONE OF AKECHI’S LONELINESS BECAUSE OF HOW CAUGHT UP AND OBSESSED HE WAS AND ONE OF JOKER’S UNITY WITH HIS FRIENDS, AND HOW HE MANAGED TO RISE ABOVE ALL THE SHIT AKECHI COULDN’T!

AND THAT’S WHY AKECHI IS SO JEALOUS AND RESENTFUL OF JOKER.

BECAUSE HE DIDN’T WANT TO ADMIT THAT THEY WERE THE SAME, ONLY THAT JOKER DIDN’T FUCK UP LIKE HE DID.

That’s really the ultimate point of the game, isn’t it? The clash of individuality and friendship and how Joker’s gang were able to relate to the uninviting, unapproachable black they saw in him because it was the only thing that made sense and the thing that held them together through /everything/, even killing literally God. Akechi didn’t have that though, all he had was his obsession and hatred and it led to his eventual downfall. And that’s the real tragedy of Akechi’s character, ya know?

Pretty much all I just said is the main reason as to why I love Persona 5 so fucking much. Because the idea of friendship is important to me. It’s the only thing in this world that makes sense to me, and the game keeps reinforcing that in the most wholesome of ways in my heart and reminding me that I actually have emotions. And because the presentation of it is resonant with me specifically, and the potency of said presentation obviously helps.

And if that wasn’t a good enough case for how amazing the game is, let’s talk about just how fun it is!

…but that also means we have to talk about the aesthetic again. Because as I’ve repeated so many fucking times now, everything is in service of the aesthetic.

The same goes for the gameplay as all the animations are all filled with personality even in places where you’d think there’d just be nothing, because Persona 5 just goes that extra mile. Like the stealth animations, the running animations and the trails behind you, the actual attack animations, the battle menus, everything about it is Persona 5. And that’s really the best compliment I could ever give it. It’s perfect at being exactly what it wants to be, it accomplishes it so flawlessly that even when the game does fuck up I never really consider it a flaw, I honestly see it as contributing to the overall experience and aesthetic in the long run. Do I think Akechi’s backstory was rushed? Yes. Do I care or do I think the game would have been /that/ much better if it wasn’t? No, because that’s not the point of Persona 5.

But back to gameplay, it’s time to talk about what is to me one of the best, most engaging fusion systems SMT has ever conjured up.

Now I am and always have been a big fan of fusion in Shin Megami Tensei just because of the endless opportunities it granted me. I could and have stayed for hours just testing new shit and getting the best moves in the entire game on people like Mothman (Holy Dance Mothman in Devil Survivor 1 is my guy), making every persona literally invincible in Persona 4 by just putting all the Drain/Repel stuff on one persona, and now in Persona 5 there’s even more opportunities because you can inherit severe skills now, you can do sacrifice fusions and use treasure demons if you’re a pussy, you can use Divine Pillar and Firm Stance on a Persona that already resists everything and just be virtually invincible, the possibilities are ENDLESS. And that’s pretty much why it’s so interesting to me and why it’s one of my favorite things about the series.

And that’s really all I have to say about the gameplay. It’s great. My only complaint with this entire game really is that it’s perhaps too easy? I know it doesn’t really affect the quality at all but it’s worth noting, this is by far the easiest Persona game. I mostly played on Hard for my first playthrough and had no issues whatsoever and then on my second I played it all on Merciless and again, no issues whatsoever. But I don’t think it really matters to this game too much, unlike a game like Dark Souls (masterpiece btw) where the difficulty is in service of the greater goal.

I’ve neglected to talk about the music because everyone knows how amazing it is, and really I’d just be repeating myself so yeah it’s obviously one of the greatest if not the greatest game OST of all time everyone knows by now

But what I think people don’t appreciate about Persona 5, is the structure and progression of the game.

From the genius flash forward sequence that established the over the top-ness to the final boss where everything came together and it was the most beautiful thing in the universe, this game’s buildup is perfect. A lot of people call it slow, they’re retarded. The sheer amount of buildup is perfect for this game because it needs to set up everything for this fucking MASSIVE game. And I mean massive on every scale you can think of. Massive story, massive concepts, massive dungeons, etc.

And without all the buildup at the beginning, do you fucking morons actually think it would be anywhere near as effective? That’s a recurring theme throughout this game, the buildup between every big event, and the eventual payoff. The game does this pretty fucking beautifully and it keeps it engaging not only with how detailed it is but by also upping the stakes each time.

And now I’m finally at the end and all I have left to talk about is the ending.

Please do note that I’m listening to With The Stars And Us as I write this and am crying.

The most beautiful, liberating feeling I’ve ever gotten out of a video game was when I first finished Persona 5. Realizing all my friends I’ve made on this massive, flawless journey are now gone but they’ve just taught me so much and touched my heart so sincerely, was the weirdest mixture of emptiness and happiness and is a feeling I will never forget. If I had to describe it, I would just call it…complete. And honestly, if the simple refrain of “I will follow my heart” doesn’t sum up the game perfectly and simply, I don’t know what does.

It’s about following the only thing that makes sense to you to fight the abyss of distortion that is everything and everyone around you.

——————–End of actual thing——————–

Influences for this thing:

This is pretty much a direct ripoff of anything BestGuyEver and Digibro have ever done. Specifically Gurren Lagann Part 2 and Aesthetic Is Narrative. If you somehow haven’t seen those but are reading this, fuck you.