I’ve had Persona 5 in my library for way over a year now, and playing it has been a long time coming. I was honestly somewhat apprehensive to, I really disliked Persona 4, so even though I’ve heard nothing but great things about Persona 5, I was afraid something similar would occur. My main motivation to playing Persona 5 in the first place was that one of my friends started playing it, and I didn’t want to be spoiled. This entire preamble is to lead up to this; for the past 8 days I have done nothing but play Persona 5. 104 hours total, beginning to end. My perception of time has been fundamentally altered because I was so engrossed and invested into Persona 5, these past 8 days have all blurred together into some amalgamative mass. If it isn’t already obvious by all of this, I absolutely loved my time with Persona 5.
Way before getting into where this game just absolutely works, I love how much style is put into this game. UI, animation, music, everything in this game has this particular style to it that’s addictive. Even when I’m 20, 40, even 60 hours into the game, I hear certain music tracks, or see certain animations, and I get that same level of excitement that I do seeing them for the first time. And in a similar vein, the game’s UI is absolutely stellar. It took a little bit of time getting used to each button being a battle command, instead of having to scroll through a list of actions, but once I got used to it, it really felt great.
I also absolutely love Palaces. They feel like properly planned out and designed dungeons, and I love how they’re able to fully and completely fit the theme they’re going for. I’ll try to avoid comparing Persona 5 with Persona 4 as much as I can, but I want to highlight that I really didn’t like how the main dungeons of Persona 4 were all procedurally generated, it made Palaces such a breath of fresh air. I love the stealth mechanics, being able to hide from enemies and ambush them from the shadows always felt great to do. I would say most palaces are rather good, with only one not being as strong as the others, but that’s mainly because the puzzles in that palace are rather basic. It might be contrarian to what I mention prior, but I also really love Mementos as a dungeon. It is procedurally generated which would make it seem like I would dislike it, but I think it’s the balance between Palaces and Mementos that allows me to actually enjoy Mementos. It’s a dungeon you can take at a sort of piecemeal way, as you’ll be able to slowly gain access to lower parts of Mementos as you progress with the story. You can then alternate between Palaces and Mementos, allowing for a sort of balance between them, which I really appreciate.
I’m also really enamored by the combat system of Persona 5. This is the first MegaTen game I’ve played that doesn’t feature the standard Press Turn system, so it was definitely another thing I had to get used to. Even then, Persona 5’s gameplay system is absolutely masterful. Persona 5 does sort of feature a press turn system, though not in the exact same way. One More functions about the same as a Press Turn, but of course it only activates when downing an enemy. There’s also of course a specific turn order in battle, instead of player and enemy rounds. But going back to One More, it leads into one of my favorite mechanics in the entire game, Baton Pass. Baton Pass works basically as a free switch to an ally to use their action, but you can chain it up to a total of 4 times. Increasing power, recovery, and even lowering the cost of skills if you chain it high enough. It becomes an absolutely addictive system that I love both utilizing, and in a way, abusing.
And this leads me into what I think is what kept me playing all this time. What allowed to sit through and play 104 hours total of this game with only sleep being a break. That of course is none other than the game’s story. Immediately before the game even gets going, it has absolutely one of the best cold opens I’ve seen in a game, and it serves well as a tutorial section too. It sets up so much intrigue that made me want to see more and more of what is going on in the game. As well, the character writing is so good. The main party’s dynamic is really good, and it feels like they’re a proper group of friends. As well the villain of each arc can at times be cartoonishly evil, but I think that exemplifies the world and the themes that Persona 5 is trying to go for. This idea of young rebels fighting against a corrupt society that allows for these cartoonishly evil villains to avoid punishment, and forcing them to realize their actions and live with the understanding of what they’ve done. It’s something immaculate. There’s also just so much else I could talk about here, though I won’t as I don’t really want to spoil anything specific here. The last few arcs of the game are amazing, I love the Royal story content, and the end is absolutely perfect. Persona 5’s story is everything I really hoped it to be, and more.
Goro Akechi
Unlike in Persona 4, where I went only for the Social Links of the main party, I actively engaged with as many social links I possibly could in Persona 5. I’m not going to go into elaborate detail into all of them, that would be the absolute death of me. I would say for a good majority of them, they were really good, and I love how some sort of tie into Mementos and doing Mementos Requests. Its nice that the game opens up a lot of night options to allow you to try to at least get 2 social link rank ups in a day if you plan well. There were definitely some characters I didn’t feel as strong about, but there were few, if any characters I actively disliked. I tried my best to get as many social links done as I can, and I’d estimate I probably got about 90% complete. I completed 18 social links, but I was pretty high in the other ones, ranging between ranks 5-8. I also really like the bonuses that some social links give, some of them are absolutely busted too. One of Ryuji’s bonuses particularly became the perfect level-grinding method. Though it does feel weird examining the mechanical reasons to raise Social Links, it feels good to raise social links not solely because of the mechanical boons, but because I care about these characters.
I’ll say this as well, but I wish I was able to really compare the differences between base Persona 5 and the content exclusive to Royal. While the last major arc of the game (if you unlock it) is Royal exclusive, there’s noticeably differences solely based upon certain characters existing. Maruki and Kasumi are Royal exclusive characters, but they exist through nearly the entire main storyline of base Persona 5. What is it like when those characters aren’t there, what changes? This thought makes me wonder what other changes exist in Royal, and since I don’t have a way of playing the original Persona 5, I have no way of comparing. I should specify I’m not saying this as a negative, it’s more just a thing I’m curious about more than anything.
It feels weird being done with Persona 5. Yet again, I must reiterate, I have done nothing but play this game for the past 8 days. I really do feel like for me, Persona 5 is an unforgettable experience, not only because of the game itself, but because of the environmental circumstances around me that not only brought me to play the game, but while I was playing the game as well. I don’t know if I can bring myself to replay the game anytime soon, it was over 100 hours long after all, but maybe a few years from now I’ll revisit it. I’m glad to have played a Persona game I ended up absolutely loving.
Way before getting into where this game just absolutely works, I love how much style is put into this game. UI, animation, music, everything in this game has this particular style to it that’s addictive. Even when I’m 20, 40, even 60 hours into the game, I hear certain music tracks, or see certain animations, and I get that same level of excitement that I do seeing them for the first time. And in a similar vein, the game’s UI is absolutely stellar. It took a little bit of time getting used to each button being a battle command, instead of having to scroll through a list of actions, but once I got used to it, it really felt great.
I also absolutely love Palaces. They feel like properly planned out and designed dungeons, and I love how they’re able to fully and completely fit the theme they’re going for. I’ll try to avoid comparing Persona 5 with Persona 4 as much as I can, but I want to highlight that I really didn’t like how the main dungeons of Persona 4 were all procedurally generated, it made Palaces such a breath of fresh air. I love the stealth mechanics, being able to hide from enemies and ambush them from the shadows always felt great to do. I would say most palaces are rather good, with only one not being as strong as the others, but that’s mainly because the puzzles in that palace are rather basic. It might be contrarian to what I mention prior, but I also really love Mementos as a dungeon. It is procedurally generated which would make it seem like I would dislike it, but I think it’s the balance between Palaces and Mementos that allows me to actually enjoy Mementos. It’s a dungeon you can take at a sort of piecemeal way, as you’ll be able to slowly gain access to lower parts of Mementos as you progress with the story. You can then alternate between Palaces and Mementos, allowing for a sort of balance between them, which I really appreciate.
I’m also really enamored by the combat system of Persona 5. This is the first MegaTen game I’ve played that doesn’t feature the standard Press Turn system, so it was definitely another thing I had to get used to. Even then, Persona 5’s gameplay system is absolutely masterful. Persona 5 does sort of feature a press turn system, though not in the exact same way. One More functions about the same as a Press Turn, but of course it only activates when downing an enemy. There’s also of course a specific turn order in battle, instead of player and enemy rounds. But going back to One More, it leads into one of my favorite mechanics in the entire game, Baton Pass. Baton Pass works basically as a free switch to an ally to use their action, but you can chain it up to a total of 4 times. Increasing power, recovery, and even lowering the cost of skills if you chain it high enough. It becomes an absolutely addictive system that I love both utilizing, and in a way, abusing.
And this leads me into what I think is what kept me playing all this time. What allowed to sit through and play 104 hours total of this game with only sleep being a break. That of course is none other than the game’s story. Immediately before the game even gets going, it has absolutely one of the best cold opens I’ve seen in a game, and it serves well as a tutorial section too. It sets up so much intrigue that made me want to see more and more of what is going on in the game. As well, the character writing is so good. The main party’s dynamic is really good, and it feels like they’re a proper group of friends. As well the villain of each arc can at times be cartoonishly evil, but I think that exemplifies the world and the themes that Persona 5 is trying to go for. This idea of young rebels fighting against a corrupt society that allows for these cartoonishly evil villains to avoid punishment, and forcing them to realize their actions and live with the understanding of what they’ve done. It’s something immaculate. There’s also just so much else I could talk about here, though I won’t as I don’t really want to spoil anything specific here. The last few arcs of the game are amazing, I love the Royal story content, and the end is absolutely perfect. Persona 5’s story is everything I really hoped it to be, and more.
Goro Akechi
Unlike in Persona 4, where I went only for the Social Links of the main party, I actively engaged with as many social links I possibly could in Persona 5. I’m not going to go into elaborate detail into all of them, that would be the absolute death of me. I would say for a good majority of them, they were really good, and I love how some sort of tie into Mementos and doing Mementos Requests. Its nice that the game opens up a lot of night options to allow you to try to at least get 2 social link rank ups in a day if you plan well. There were definitely some characters I didn’t feel as strong about, but there were few, if any characters I actively disliked. I tried my best to get as many social links done as I can, and I’d estimate I probably got about 90% complete. I completed 18 social links, but I was pretty high in the other ones, ranging between ranks 5-8. I also really like the bonuses that some social links give, some of them are absolutely busted too. One of Ryuji’s bonuses particularly became the perfect level-grinding method. Though it does feel weird examining the mechanical reasons to raise Social Links, it feels good to raise social links not solely because of the mechanical boons, but because I care about these characters.
I’ll say this as well, but I wish I was able to really compare the differences between base Persona 5 and the content exclusive to Royal. While the last major arc of the game (if you unlock it) is Royal exclusive, there’s noticeably differences solely based upon certain characters existing. Maruki and Kasumi are Royal exclusive characters, but they exist through nearly the entire main storyline of base Persona 5. What is it like when those characters aren’t there, what changes? This thought makes me wonder what other changes exist in Royal, and since I don’t have a way of playing the original Persona 5, I have no way of comparing. I should specify I’m not saying this as a negative, it’s more just a thing I’m curious about more than anything.
It feels weird being done with Persona 5. Yet again, I must reiterate, I have done nothing but play this game for the past 8 days. I really do feel like for me, Persona 5 is an unforgettable experience, not only because of the game itself, but because of the environmental circumstances around me that not only brought me to play the game, but while I was playing the game as well. I don’t know if I can bring myself to replay the game anytime soon, it was over 100 hours long after all, but maybe a few years from now I’ll revisit it. I’m glad to have played a Persona game I ended up absolutely loving.