The Game of Life

Persona 5 is the fifth title of the series, Persona. The series itself is spun-off from the Shin Megami Tensei JRPG series. While the Persona series was originally released on the PS1 in 1996, it did not begin receiving traction in the west until the release of Persona 3 on the PS2. While maintaining a cult following through the release of Persona 4, the series did not truly shake the foundation of the JRPG genre to its very core until the release of Persona 5.

Take it from someone who has never played a game in the series and has had nothing more than a passing interest in the title. The game’s exposure received massive coverage on the internet. On a personal note, many of my friends were talking about it before I caved into the peer pressure. Once I made the decision to purchase and play the game, I slowly began to realize what I’d gotten myself into.

Story

The story of Persona 5 starts off with your main character – codenamed Joker – committing a heist atop a Casino. He’s masked, drawing guards towards him, and people are watching from the floors as he hops across the chandeliers and rafters. His accomplices are updating him with tips and alerts while he makes his getaway. He’s attacked by monsters, but makes his way through until he crashes through the casino. Cops arrest the young man and take him in, and so begins his interrogation. This interrogation details everything that has happened to him over the past several months, which leads you into into the game’s story.

This isn’t his first crossing with the law. The rebellious youth has been detained for committing an assault against a drunken man. This man attempted to assault a woman on the street, but your main character’s good will overtook his judgement, leading to his arrest. His story begins with serving out his probation while attending school.

Your main character will be staying in the attic of Cafe Leblanc to serve out his probation. The owner has agreed to take him in, warning him constantly that he will be thrown out if he causes trouble or doesn’t attend school regularly. You will begin to truly play the game once you begin attending Shijin Academy. This is the first place where you’ll be making connections to the characters and the story that follows.

Once you meet these characters, events will take place and you will learn who the bad ones are. These people have “Palaces” in a place known as the Metaverse. These are gateways to their hearts that lead to their distorted cognitions and desires. They’ve become bad people who seek to harm others. You and your friends become vigilantes – known as Phantom Thieves – to help put an end to their crimes.

Your link to the Metaverse is a mysterious man named Igor. The protagonist meets him in a dream one night, prior to the start. He believes your “rehabilitation” is key to completing the game. The emphasis of Confidants, whom are your party members and various NPCs, and your Personas, the demons whose power you enlist, is crucial to the rehabilitation.

What I enjoy especially is the dichotomy between modern-day realism and fantasy. You live your life as a high school student in present-day Tokyo. Then you’re also a Phantom Thief who explores Palaces in a different dimension. You fight ancient demons and other creatures of mythos and folklore, armed with new clothes, medieval weapons, and even firearms. Yet at the end of the day, you’re hanging out with your friends and building bonds, both in the real world and in battle. You will find how all of these are connected as you proceed through the game.

The social issues in this game are also worth bringing up. The daily life in high school is pervaded by the bad acts of human beings. A bullying teacher, an artist who uses his own students for profit and plagiarism, and a mafia boss who blackmails students are among the few of many villains you’ll encounter. The side-quests you entail on will include troubled people on a more local scale. Overbearing mothers, school bullies, internet stalkers, animal abusers, and hitmen are among the targets of the Phantom Thieves. It would be hard for any player to not relate to a number of the victims in this game involving similar life struggles.

Art Style

Persona 5’s art style is defined by its unique, modern look. It has an urban style using shadows and silhouettes, with a large use of the colors red and black. It’s defiant in a world of RPGs that tend to have a fantasy thematic. Persona 5’s artwork sends the message about a game that follows the beat of its own drum.

When exploring the city, you’re greeted to large, detailed character portraits while talking. These are accompanied with various emotions, such as surprise, anger, and laughter. You’ll be greeted to stunning poses, cut-ins during critical hits, and stylish victory poses, complete with a background. If you’re at all familiar with the manga and anime, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, you may find more than a few influences drawn from the series.

Visuals

Persona 5 is a well-detailed game that takes place in two realms – the real world and the Metaverse. The real world includes various cities in Japan, to include Shibuya, Akihabara, and various others. You will go to school at Shujin Academy. Sometimes it will be sunny, sometimes it will rain. The mood and atmosphere of each will reflect the weather.

When you’re not in the real world, you’re in the Metaverse. Each dungeon has its own feel to it, whether it’s a Castle, a Museum, or more. They stand out, oftentimes with brilliant colors. Honestly, how varied each location looks is definitely a stand-out point from start to finish.

If there’s anything that isn’t terribly detailed, it’s the many crowds you see wandering in town. Given how many people are traversing the city, these faceless people are as forgettable as they should be. NPCs themselves are detailed, but it makes for a neat detail you don’t see in other RPGs. Games, like Yakuza, tend to have people around, but not nearly as big in number. Plus, you tend to push past them. In Persona, you just walk through crowds of people.

Persona 5 treats you to some beautiful views. When you’re on the beach, you get a nice sunset. The anime cutscenes are pretty and well-animated as well. You also get different types of areas, like the Sky Tower. It’s a beautifully-lit skyline of Tokyo. Lastly, the Palaces all resonate with various themes and colors. And when you’re engaging a Palace for the last time, the color gains a red tint around the screen. This signifies the danger of your mission, raising the intensity and dire feel of your heist.

Soundtrack

Smooth jazz is all you need to know for half of the soundtrack. It’s calming music, and gets you into a groove. Some of these songs are sung, including, “Beneath the Mask,” which is voiced sometimes depending on the day. Most of the soundtrack is jazzy, including upbeat tunes, like, “Life Will Change,” and the battle theme, “Last Surprise.”

Persona 5 is known for having a defiant, rebellious theme. What’s conventional in most JRPGs doesn’t work the same way in Persona. Epic soundtracks take a backseat over the smooth, catchy music unique to this game. The songs will always fit the mood, and this includes the dungeons, or Palaces.

Once you get further in the game, you’ll be treated to even more epic themes. Some of these include a heavy-hitting electronic theme with a beat and even a hard rock theme to get you geared up for an intense battle. You can always look up this music if you’re interested. But the journey to hearing these tracks – “Rivers in the Desert” and “Our Beginning” – is very much worth the time it takes to get there.

Exploration and Character Interaction

I’m dividing the gameplay into several sections for this review. The reason being is that it plays unlike any other JRPG out there. Where you’ll explore an overworld, or dungeons, and go into battle in most games, Persona is different. Life outside of exploration is school life and what happens after it ends.

The cast of Persona 5 is vivid and colorful. You meet a jock, a model, a school president, and a talking cat, among others. Each has their own personality and build bonds with you in their own way, some distrusting you greatly at first. The NPCs you meet become important people in your life as well. These include a teacher, a young, professional gamer, a psychic, and more. While you can choose to build the bonds with people you relate with, it’s also important to spend time with everyone you can. I’ll touch up on more regarding this subject later.

Daily Life

Each day is summed up as follows – Early Morning, Morning, Afternoon, Lunch, After School, Evening. On school days, anything before After School often involves cutscenes. Occasionally, you’ll be prompted by a teacher to ask a trivia question. This can include anything, from History to Science, and many more subjects. While you’re free to take a guess at the answer, you also have access to the Phantom Network. This will pull up an online screen that shows the chosen answer, selected by most players in the game. While I certainly do not encourage cheating in school, it’s worth doing so in Persona. It will allow you to build up a Social Stat – Knowledge – which I will get to momentarily.

After School is your first playable time of the day. This allows you to hang out with your friends. You can also commit yourself to other activities, such as going to the gym, renting DVDs, watching movies, playing video games, or studying. Shibuya, and the surrounding cities, have tons to explore. There are many shops open that will allow you to buy various things, which include gifts for friends, healing items, weapons, and so forth. There is no time limit to shopping. Only when you do an activity will the time pass.

During the Evening phase, you have less options. At first, you’re restricted to Cafe Leblanc. Later in the game, you’ll be allowed to go out during the evening, accessing multiple events exclusive only during nighttime. On Sundays, you have no school. This allows you to complete any of your two activities. In the case of procuring Lockpicks and other items, however, you will even have more time to do so with all the free time you have.

Stats

It is imperative that you focus on building your Confidants and your Social Stats. Your social stats come in the following: Knowledge, Guts, Proficiency, Charm, and Kindness. These will affect how other NPCs will relate to you. Anyone you form a new bond with, you begin increasing rank. This can be upgraded 10 times. Story progression may be halted until you build more rank in a social stat. This may be upgraded from committing to an activity. For instance, you can build various stats by watching a movie or renting a DVD, or doing something specific. Eating a giant hamburger will build your Guts, while studying in the Library increases your Knowledge.

The days move continuously. You’ll eventually reach a plot point where you must confront an evil person and enter their Palace. This will trigger a “countdown” to when the deadline is to finish their Palace. The deadline is usually a three week window, giving you time to clear other quests. Note that there are no “side-quests” in this game. What you do during each part of the day counts as story progression, which includes the bonds you build with Confidants. Note that your party members will nag you about going to the Palace. There’s no reason not to early on, and that matter will be touched on shortly.

Many of the bonds you build involve their own story paths. They involve an internal struggle with the character you’re talking to. They might invite you out on a restaurant date or even a trip to another part of Tokyo. However, there comes a time when they begin to reveal more and more to you. While the words you choose impact how quickly the relationship grows, it will ultimately take one path. You can boost these affections through the use of gifts. But when they begin to near the middle or end, you will need social stats boosted, or perhaps even tackle a target in Mementos. Once you confront that being, your relationship can be maxed out with them. In addition, you’ll get new battle skills to use.

It is imperative you build your Confidant ranks with everyone available. You can date someone you max your rank out with, allowing some interesting scenes. More importantly, these characters will help you out in battle. This can be anything from an extra attack, protection from an attack, accessing discounts to items, or even new tactics, like switching out party members. The entire point of the Confidant system is built around the battle system of the game. Don’t fret if you can’t max them all out your first time through, either. The New Game+ is there for you. But for what you can do the first time playing, you will quickly find that the benefits of building up your Confidants is more important than any other side-activity you can do.

Battle System

Persona 5’s battle system isn’t too different from a JRPG. You have Attack, Persona (Magic), and Gun skills. Your Persona skills come from the spirit you’ve formed a pact with, allowing multiple elementals, as well as strong physical attacks. Magic attacks cost SP, while all your physical attacks cost HP. Be wise as to which ones you use. Gun attacks are mainly there to build some damage, but can also be used to knock down an enemy every so often. Gunshots are also included as an elemental attack.

The key purpose of your elements is to expose an enemy’s weakness. If you hit its weak point, it will enter a stunned state. If you knock all enemies down, you will trigger a Hold Up. This will cause the party members to aim their guns at the enemy, and it will beg for its life. You can either ask for an item, money, or kill it. Using an All-Out Attack, your party will band together and inflict massive damage on your opponent.

However, there is one more, important option. Your main character has the ability to bond with the Shadows he encounters. If you answer their question correctly twice, they will join you. Whereas the other party members can only use one Persona, your main character can use several at a time. They will give him access to special abilities. If your ice user isn’t in play, you may have ice in your main character’s lineup. He can also gain access to the rarer elementals, which aren’t available early on in the game. This will give you a massive advantage against enemies.

Remember, if a boss does not have a weakness element, don’t feel discouraged! The main stats include Attack and Defense, so there is no Magic Attack or Magic Defense (Resistance) in this game. Use the abilities you have to buff and nerf stats when needed.

Palaces

The dungeons in this game are what you might expect from other RPGs. However, they’re a bit more interactable. You can climb surfaces, explore ventilation shafts and more. Oftentimes, other JRPG dungeons consist only of running around an area with limited interactivity. This design feature builds a connect with a player that it’s more than just an ordinary dungeon. You solve puzzles and forge paths using what you have around you. The interactivity stands out in a way that almost reminds me of a Mario RPG. You’re getting the jump on your enemies with a first-strike.

Palaces are also supposed to be cleared within the allotted time available, as mentioned earlier. This means tracking down whatever Save Rooms you can. You can use these to exit a Palace and quick travel to them the next day that you go back. Dungeons are often quite huge, taking roughly 2-3 hours to complete overall. You also have limited healing and SP items, due to their cost and rarity, respectively. This encourages the player to rest up and heal and return for the next day’s battle. You’re progressively chucking away at the Palace, one step at a time, as opposed to making it one big trek. However, if you are prepared enough, the game will not stop you from finishing it in 1-2 tries if you’re looking to end it early. This will allow you more time to build bonds with Confidants.

Note that the game’s difficulty is balanced around the strength of enemies in this game. It’s not about normal, random encounters and weak enemies. Rather, many of these Shadows are quite strong. As Phantom Thieves, you will need to use stealth and wit to get through them. This includes stealth mechanics, such as hiding behind walls, and escaping whenever you’re caught by one of the Shadows. If you’re attacked, an Ambush will occur, where enemies surround your party and attack them one-by-one. If you attack a Shadow head on and get the first hit, the turns will be based around the speed of both party members and enemies. However, should you ambush an enemy from behind, you get the first turn for your entire party. As many of these Shadows hit hard, this is encouraged throughout the game. It’s stealth mechanics, puzzle solving, and strategic battling all in one.

There’s also an area, called Mementos, which counts as a dungeon in itself. You will be using this area to explore a deep, underground cavern. This area is crucial for completing Confidant quests, by taking requests to defeat the Shadow of those requested to have a change of heart. Getting through Mementos bit-by-bit is crucial, as you will need to clear it by the end of the game.

Length

110 hours is what I clocked in when I finished the story the first time. Keep in mind that side-quests are what move the game’s clock along. The timeframe may vary from player-to-player by maybe a few hours. Persona 5, is without question, the longest game I have ever played in my life. Previously, the longest game’s storyline I played was Tales of Berseria, which I clocked in at over 90 hours to finish.

Many games tend to overstay their welcome. Sometimes a short-and-sweet title is the way to go, as it delivers a core experience without ruining the fun. Persona 5 is different. The entire game – your story, the Confidants, Palaces, Mementos, Social Stats – all act as one cohesive unit. Everything in the game is placed together without feeling tacked on. The story elements all focus on important features, not dancing around unnecessary text. There is a healthy abundance of cutscenes, but it is a story-heavy game. Most cutscenes in the game are fully voiced and progress automatically. Given the nature of the title, there is no rush to get into the next Palace.

Given the amount of time I spent with the game, I didn’t see any common JRPG design issues. I didn’t feel the need to breeze through everything, I found the story to flow well, there is plenty of gameplay in the lengthy dungeons, and it feels incredibly rewarding to build stats and confidant bonds. The final dungeon also keeps you engaged. It seems all but common for players to get to the final dungeon of a JRPG and not play it for a long time. Persona 5 keeps the player engaged with a strong story, which revolves around social issues and the supernatural. Real-world issues that the player can relate to helps keep them engaged.

Final Thoughts

In terms of story, some of the best games I have ever played include the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Zero Escape series. If you are fond of Visual Novels, you will certainly be fond of the story emphasis in this title. If you’re a fan of JRPGs, such as Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, or Tales, you will certainly like this title. While its battle system takes after a traditional method, the interactibility between your Personas and Confidants makes it satisfying. Moreover, the stylish flair of this game, between All-Out Attacks and the dialogue of your lifelike Shadows-turned-Personas, will keep you interested in each battle. Not to mention the smooth, jazzy battle music will shortly keep you grooving for a good while.

Persona 5 is a masterpiece. It is quite literally the greatest JRPG I have played in my entire life. It’s pieced together well-enough that I never had any issues with pacing, difficulty, bothersome cliches, or poor writing. It stands out on all fronts, to include one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard in a game. If you’re interested in a story that involves defiance against paradigms and taking a stand against order, this is completely for you. There is certainly a character you will bond with and a plot that will leave your jaw hanging or tears running down your face.

This is my first time playing a Persona title. As such, I’m stuck between hoping to play another and wondering if it’s possible to ever make a game this great again.

Overall Score – 10/10