I’ve either fallen out of love with 2D platformers, or I should stop expecting greatness from this series.

I was very much looking forward to this game as I previously considered myself a fan of 2D Mario games. Super Mario World is one of my favorite games ever, but I hated the New Super Mario Bros games; so when Mario Wonder was announced I breathed a sigh of relief. “Finally a new 2D Mario with a fresh artstyle and new music!” Then I played the game.

I think I realized something was wrong when I couldn’t find myself playing this game for more than 45 minutes at a time. I would boot up the game excited to play but by the 45 minute mark, the thought of playing any more seemed like torture. I found myself puzzled by this feeling, certainly Mario Wonder does not do anything wrong. The game is gorgeous, the animations are top notch, and the sound design is excellent. So what gives? Then I found out.

Simply put, the game is boring. Yes the game does not do anything overtly wrong, but it also does not do anything really well either, at least from a gameplay perspective. Mario Wonder does not excite, does not thrill, does not challenge, does not ask much of anything from the player. Just by simply picking up a controller you can beat the game. It may sound harsh but I would seriously dissociate for 30 minutes and find myself beating a major world without even realizing what I just did. The game would simply play itself, it just needed my hand on the controller. Even with the later levels and the secret world, I would just brainlessly plug away until all the obstacles were cleared. I think this is where the characters were a missed opportunity. I get that making every character play the same would make it so the level design can be as consistent as possible, but this consistency came at the cost of fun, in my opinion. There are already characters that make the game easier, why not include characters that make the game harder? And this may be the boomer in me talking, but not having Luigi have his waddle jump or Peach have her float is borderline sacrilege to me.

Speaking of the level design, I have serious disagreements with how Mario Wonder was built. Essentially every level has a unique gimmick that plays out and then never returns. This applies to every level for the most part. This can be a unique enemy type, a form of traversal or weird set piece. You will see that gimmick once and then never again. So if you were hoping to have the gimmicks become more fleshed out as the game progresses, well too bad cause does not happen in Mario Wonder. It genuinely feels like a really well curated set of Mario Maker courses that Nintendo selected for you to play. I’m not entirely sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but it feels inappropriate in a mainline 2D Mario game. Why not have the levels tell a narrative instead, building up to the castle of that world? The game already does this at a small capacity with some small dialogue boxes between levels. I do not think it is too much to ask for some narrative/gameplay cohesion.

Last thing I’ll mention are the badges. I think they are a wonderful addition to the game and it was genuinely fun collecting all of them. The problem is that these badges make the game even easier so it just exacerbates the problems I’ve mentioned previously. I do hope these come back in other Mario games as being able to personalize Mario’s moveset sounds like a fantastic idea for the series moving forward. Other than that, the music is okay I guess. No real standouts here either, nothing that made me want to look up songs on Youtube anyway. In the end, Mario Wonder is a perfectly competent and capable platformer with plenty of charm that essentially plays itself to the end. Definitely a good choice for someone’s first video game, but that’s about it.

Persona 5 is a very long game; so buckle up, cause this review is going to be a ride.

I first played Persona 5 in its vanilla form in 2017 when it first came out on PS4. I distinctly remember my play sessions going well over the 6 hour mark at times. I would play into the early morning and going to my classes dead eyed, exhausted, but excited to get back to the game. I was in love with the music, the swaggy presentation, and the characters. I’ve played JRPGs before, but never as grandiose, flashy and so dedicated to being cool the way Persona 5 was. It truly entranced me. There was a time in my life where I seriously considered Persona 5 one of the best games ever made. After the Royal version came out, it was always something I had on my radar, but my life became a million times busier so I never had the time for it. I kinda forgot about it as years went on; instead doing a Persona 4 replay a year ago. However, with the announcement of the Persona 3 Remake, I found myself in the Persona mood and decided to take some time to do a deep dive into P5 again, this time with the Royal content. Unfortunately I did not enjoy the game nearly as much as I did way back. It certainly had high highs, but the lows were very low, and more frequent than the highs. Please bear with me as I try to parse my thoughts on all the major elements of Persona 5.

At its core, Persona 5’s main story is about a group of teenagers who all have been wronged by greater society in some fashion; and use their manifested powers to rebel against what they believe to be the forces corrupting said society. They become the Phantom Thieves in order to change Japan for the better. They achieve this by changing the hearts of corrupt authority figures. Starting from a perverted high school teacher and finishing with the would be Prime Minister of Japan. They do this by navigating the metaverse, a world that represents the subconsciousness of society. Along the way they get caught up basking in the popularity of the Phantom Thieves and lose sight of their original goal, before reuniting and coming back stronger than ever. On paper it's a fine enough story. My biggest issue, and the main reason why I can’t engage with the narrative, is because it becomes very disingenuous at the very end. Like I mentioned before, during the third act, the Phantom Thieves choose to change the heart of Masayoshi Shido, the favorite to become the next Prime Minister of Japan, after learning of his corrupt ways. Not only was he using the metaverse to gain political favor, every party member had some deleterious connection to him as well. The protagonist had a personal confrontation with Shido; Shido is also responsible for Wakaba’s and Okumura’s death. The Shunjin academy principal, Madarame, and Kaneshiro were all connected to Shido as well. With all this, it seemed evident that Shido had to go down. And after much effort, struggle and unbelievable ass pulls, they actually do it. The Phantom Thieves managed to change the heart of Shido. They got Shido to admit to all his corruption and crimes in front of the entire country of Japan right before being elected as Prime Minister. Japan is saved! Right? Except, it’s not. The citizens, who all supported Shido, rather than starting to change perspective, embrace a defeatist mentality. The growing sentiment is that nothing matters and there’s no point in trying to change things. In the meantime, Shido’s party was already making moves to put someone else to replace Shido as the new political puppet to maintain power and manipulate the masses. I actually loved this development, because it speaks starkly about a grim reality of our world. No one person is responsible for all the evil in society. Persona 5 knows this because Japan is not saved when Shido is defeated, and it makes a point to recognize that the solution is not as simple as “beating the bad guy”. In that case, if that’s not the answer, what is? Well, if you were expecting a nuanced answer like “it’s the systems in place that keep the elites in power and the common man oppressed” i.e. CAPITALISM, you’re wrong. According to P5, it’s actually a god that forced everyone to become a doomer. Apparently, society is so messed up that people would rather not think and accept their fate than try to achieve their dreams. And it’s this god of control that gives people comfort by essentially removing their ability to think critically. While I certainly empathize with this sentiment, it completely falls apart if you simply ask “why?” Why do people find comfort in not thinking about achieving their dreams and making due with their place in life? Why is it so hard to accomplish your goals in this society in the first place? We come to the same answer, the systems! By pivoting so hard into this ultimately meaningless conflict with Yaldabaoth, Persona 5 betrays whatever good will it built up with its narrative. It became a game with seemingly earnest attempts at criticizing modern Japanese society that ultimately failed to make any strong statements to avoid being too political. It’s sad and frustrating. Doubly frustrating when you realize that at the end of the game, the Phantom Thieves did not even change society much at all. Beating Yaldabaoth did not make Japan better, it simply removed some bad guys.


Beyond the content of the main narrative itself, the pacing is absolutely horrendous. I don’t know why I’m cursed to play these long ass jrpgs with horrible pacing but here we are. Persona 3, 4 and 5 all suffer from bad pacing because the game takes the time to make sure you understand everything about needing to immerse yourself into the game world. They all have complicated plots and gimmicks so there's a little bit of “onboarding” that needs to take place to make sure the player understands. What makes Persona 5 worse than the other games is that it tries to engage with the player as if they have never played a video game before as well. The game has an extended tutorial session right when you boot the game to help introduce players to things like movement, sneaking and the very basics of combat. I have no issue with this usually, and it makes sense that Atlus would make an effort to accommodate all players. This is Atlus’s biggest game after all and will likely pull in a lot of people who are video game/jrpg naive. But there is no way to skip it. Not only that but you actually play through it twice. After that tutorial section where Joker gets arrested, you start over again narratively by having the game start with Joker just moving into Tokyo. I understand what they were going for, but the benefit of starting in media res is that you usually skip the boring slow build up, instead sprinkling it in throughout the action. Persona 5 makes you start in media res, and then goes back to start from the very beginning. This introduction was so sloppy that I dread ever playing this game again from how much it actually drags. Even after, when you're in the game proper, the pacing is still way too slow. Pacing in video games exists in two forms: gameplay and narrative. Gameplay pacing is essentially the onboarding process to make sure you understand the mechanics of the game before it challenges you to see if you have a grasp on them. This is usually done via tutorials or easier challenges that promote player confidence. Narrative pacing is essentially just what it sounds like, how is the main narrative paced. How promptly are the major events presented and how many important scenes are given to the player to engage with. In both these regards, Persona 5 fails.

Besides the main narrative, character writing plays a huge role in Persona 5, mostly via social links where the main character spends quality time with certain characters in attempts to get close to them. With regards to the social links or confidants, I was going to have a paragraph on all of them but as I started writing them I realized that I could more succinctly criticize them all in one breath. The social links are all relatively well written and fun to go through. Each one is memorable in some capacity and it is fun watching Joker get progressively stronger as the rewards for completing them are amazing this time around. They are definitely the most consistent in quality when compared to P4 and P3. The reason they are all so consistent, however, is because most of the social links tell essentially the same story. Basically, some character is branded as a delinquent by larger society because of unfortunate circumstances. Through meeting Joker, they learn to fight against society’s judgment and decide to make their lives better. However things take a turn for the worse and the character essentially gives up. So Joker and the Phantom Thieves go to the metaverse to fix things. Finally, the character realizes that Joker is a Phantom Thief and possibly falls in love with him. This is the synopsis for Chihaya, Kawakami, Ohya, Hifumi, and Iwai’s confidants. While playing through it you don’t necessarily notice it in the context of so much going on, but thinking back, it is really evident that Atlus did not know how to exactly incorporate the major themes of the game uniquely for every character. Again, not to say that these are bad, but it is a little disappointing when you realize what is going to happen before the social link is done. I do want to make mention of the politician Yoshida’s social link as I believe it is the best confidant in the game. Yoshida is someone that was rightly shunned by society for being a corrupt politician some 20 years ago when he was young. He did serious reflection and growing up, and now is trying to improve Japan by his conviction and morals, not because the Phantom Thieves made it easy for him. In fact, Joker never intervenes on his behalf, Yoshida fights his own battles with his own corrupt party even when the opportunity to become elected again presents itself. I think Yoshida’s confidant and arc represents Persona 5’s core tenet of standing up against society’s branding of you more than anyone else. Another social link I really loved was Mishima’s. I couldn’t stand that character until about half way through his arc when you realize that he is essentially acting the way he is due to the fact that he is incredibly insecure about his relationship with Joker. He understands that he is powerless when compared to the almighty Phantom Thieves, so he acts like a bossy brat as his way of exhibiting control in the relationship. But by some miracle, the Phantom Thieves actually talk down his shadow instead of stealing his heart like they do with every other encounter. While this opens up a whole bunch of questions regarding the nature of shadows, I like that Joker was able to recognize that Mishima was a very insecure teenager who needed validation at the end of the day, rather than some criminal that needed to be pacified with force. Mishima’s arc was one of how insecurity can ruin a relationship and sometimes reminding each other of the intrinsic value friendships can be life saving.

Talking generally about the cast, I would say that I really like them as a whole, but I would not say that they come across as a tight knit group. My favorite thing about P4’s cast was how close everyone was to one another, and how every character had their own unique interactions and in jokes with basically everyone else. Think about Kanji being bros with Teddie, respectful to Yu, annoying to Yosuke, kind to Chie/Yukiko, indifferent to Rise and crushing on Naoto. That does not really apply in P5’s case. Yusuke for example, does not really have much of a relationship with anyone beyond Joker. The same applies to Haru. This problem is exacerbated even further with the new party members Royal added. There are certainly plenty of opportunities for meaningful dialogue that can grow the interpersonal relationships between characters, but instead the game likes to waste time by repeating the same 6-7 sentences about having to get the treasure before the deadline or something bad will happen!!! It is honestly very frustrating and adds to the poor pacing that I was mentioning earlier. Another thing that really bothers me about the whole cast is their character development is basically nonexistent in the main campaign, it is all locked away in their confidants. That’s not really a big deal but it makes it jarring when you see the cast basically act the same way they did back in April when they should have grown as people. It’s doubly frustrating when you find out that the social links are generally really good and help flesh out the characters a lot.

Starting with Ryuji and oh my God. Easily the worst party member in the game. He initially was a cool character as I’m a sucker for one brain cell brawlers with a heart of gold. The problem is that Ryuji actually does not have a heart of gold. At least, in the main plot. Ryuji is CONSTANTLY spouting nonsense to the rest of the group, and is always actively detrimental to the Phantom Thieves efforts. The cast has to continuously go out of their way to either shut down or stop Ryuji from himself because otherwise they would all be in big trouble. The worst part is that Ryuji is never aware of how much of a detriment he is to the group and is constantly whining about it. This becomes most evident when Ryuji’s constant berating of Morgana hurts his feelings and causes him to leave the group. Morgana leaving the group is entirely on Ryuji and it’s 100% his fault. And even when Morgana comes back to the crew, Ryuji does not even apologize! It’s a shame because his social link is actually really sweet. It’s how Ryuji tries to remediate his relationship with his track teammates after his temper ruined that relationship. He uses his new confidence gained by his persona to disrupt any other corrupting influences in the track team as well as try to heal old wounds by approaching his teammates with a measured apology. It shows that his temper is not something to be proud off but rather something he should fix and address. It’s just a shame that this sweet, mature Ryuji is nowhere to be found in the main campaign.

Ann is another character who is entirely redeemed by her social link. In the main campaign she essentially only exists to repeat meaningless narrative beats over and over ad nauseam, and to be the source of the game’s most predatory dialogue. For a significant portion of the game, all Ann would do is get mad when other characters made remarks about her body. Which is doubly gross when you realize that her story arc that made her join the phantom thieves in the first place is the fact that she was a victim of sexual harassment. That doesn’t stop Atlus from making jokes about her breasts or her body; or making an entire sequence about having Ann pose naked against her will??? Anyway, her social link is another one that is really sweet. Ann, blames herself for being able to let her bestie Shiho get sexually harassed or worse by Kamoshida, so she takes it upon herself to become “stronger”. What does it mean to be stronger, well her entire social link is trying to figure that out. Ultimately she lands on chasing her passion, modeling, as enthusiastically as she can. Promising Shiho to always be there for her in the future. It’s a relatively simple social link but I think it shows one of Ann’s best traits, which is that she was able to grow mostly by her own willingness to be better, rather than change because of Joker’s intervention.

Makoto is the real main character of Persona 5. The moment she joins the Phantom Thieves, the game revolves entirely around her. And she never does wrong. Her plans are always correct. Her analysis is always perfect. Her theories are always on point. And if there is ever a problem, it is nothing Makoto and Futaba cannot fix. The game leans on her so much it is honestly baffling. Not only that, but she also has the most private time with Joker. It is easy to see why she is such a popular romance pick. The problem is that beyond her perfection, there is no real personality. She is like the mom of the group but without the loving mom part. In the main plot she just exists to direct the team as to what to do and to give the appropriate story dumps when necessary. And her social link is not even about her! It is essentially about how she is too perfect and she needs to mingle with the plebs of the high school, leading her in more trouble than necessary. That might be a more cynical interpretation of the social link, but it does come across that way. Don’t get me wrong, I think her relationship with Eiko helps humanize Makoto and I do believe it is a net plus for her character, but their dynamic is off. Eiko essentially exists to be saved by Makoto, more evidence of Makoto being perfect. By the end of her social link, she does not really grow beyond what she already experienced with her persona awakening, that she should chase what makes her happy instead of what society expects of her. Proportionally she has the least amount of development compared to screentime.

Futaba, similar to Makoto, becomes the Phantom Thieves resident problem solver. There is no issue that Futaba cannot hack her way out of. In fact, the biggest plot twist in the game to have Joker fake his death was entirely carried out by Futaba's super hacking skill. The narrative of Persona 5 is carried so hard by Futaba and Makoto’s respective genius abilities that it is honestly funny. I know a lot of people hated how the dub characterized her dialogue to make her talk in internet 4chan lingo but I honestly loved it. It made the boring exposition dialogues much more fun to go through. Futaba calling Mishima an NPC is likely my favorite line in the entire game. I also like how the main game took a considerable amount of time to help Futaba with her social anxieties. Sure it ended with her in a bikini which is a little unbelievable but this is Persona we are talking about, so these kinds of things have to be graded on a curve. I think her social link is one the best ones in the game as well. Having to go through “main quests” to help her grow out of her anxiety. Ultimately growing to become a person that someone else in worse circumstances can count on, rather than always being the one asking for help. It’s her way of paying it forward and it was genuinely a joy to see her grow into a confident girl that can enjoy a normal life after all the trauma she has endured. Also, if you romance her you’re a mega creep.

Speaking of creeps, Yusuke at first glance is a nothing character except for the occasional joke here and there. But he honestly has one of the most nuanced social links in the game. After finding out that his master has been plagiarizing other pupil’s works on top of his own for monetary gain, Yusuke was quick to disregard him as a negative presence in his life. However, his social link seems to show that he continues to have affection for him. He can’t bear to call him a complete negative in his life despite the toxicity of their relationship. He still calls him master, and the kindness that Madarame showed to him was genuine in his mind. This tears at his heart. And when he finds himself at the whim of public opinion with his art, struggling to find something that the audience and fellow art critics would enjoy, he can’t help but relate to Madarame more. He ultimately finds out that just like the art he creates, the justification for creating art does not have be black or white. There is a unique flavor of art in finding balance between monetary gain, public attention and artistic expression. I just wished this level of nuance and sophistication was applied to the rest of the game.

A lot has been said about Haru and how she is a nonentity because of her late joining. Well I do agree she is essentially a nonentity, she is also one of the biggest missed opportunities of the game. Haru awakes to her persona power by herself and is able to traverse the metaverse without help of the Phantom Thieves. Also, at this point in the game, public perception of the Phantom Thieves was trending towards the negative. There should realistically be no reason why Haru should trust the phantom thieves. So when her father dies, Haru should be extremely suspicious of the Phantom Thieves. But instead, she just takes a few days to herself and decides to trust them completely. This ruined her character for me. How can someone so smart be so naive? Nonetheless, her social link is honestly really heartwarming. It reminds me of a Persona 4 social link where it is more about how the character “feels” about their development rather than the development itself. With her father dead, she is now the heir of Okumura foods and would rather go back to being a quaint coffee shop rather than a mega corporation with chains everywhere. Haru is just a child and has been coddled her whole life so she is not used to advocating for herself, especially on such a large scale. However, in a strange wholesome twist, the board of directors for the company are all for it and appreciate the new direction Okumura foods is going to take. It’s a little unbelievable, but it’s sweet and I liked it. Best girl btw.

There is honestly not much to say about Akechi, despite him being such a popular character. Akechi is written to be a parallel and an opposite to Joker. Both are lonely kids with no parents and essentially blank slates. But whereas Joker fought against his branding by society, rebelling against his label; Akechi did everything in his power to fulfill society’s expectation of him. Akechi took on the role of the ace detective to be beloved by society and by others, most pressingly his father who abandoned him. But where Joker found genuine connection despite being a rebel, Akechi could not. This drives Akechi mad with jealousy, leading to their rivalry. Akechi learns from Joker that being true to yourself is the key to forming real connections, not just fitting yourself to society like a slave. The problem with this is that behind the ace detective facade that Akechi built up, is a completely insufferable person. Akechi’s true personality is ruthless, inpatient, rude and malicious. I don’t know how anyone can find someone like him likable enough to form a relationship with, let alone a friendship. This is one of the things that Royal did that actually made the experience worse. By bringing Akechi back, you reveal his true personality and you realize that he’s just a massive piece of shit not worth engaging with at all. When he dies in base Persona 5 you at least get the feeling that he was remorseful about his actions. Royal took that all away.

Kasumi is a weird one. More than anyone, Royal makes certain that Kasumi is included in all sorts of exclusive scenes with Joker so you don’t forget about her. The game also makes it insanely obvious that she has a crush on youpretty soon, which is different from the other girls in the game, so that sticks out in your mind. Throughout base Persona 5, you see Kasumi as this confident, preppy, outgoing student who does no wrong and is trying her absolute hardest to meet the expectations the school has placed on her. It is not until the Royal content where you realize that Kasumi is not who she says she is. Kasumi is actually Sumire, her twin sister. The real Kasumi died trying to save Sumire from a car accident. Sumire, having always dealt with an inferiority complex given the fact that Kasumi has always been more talented than her, as well as wracked with the guilt of the world losing the “better” sister, decides to take over Kasumi’s identity. Her guilt is so much that she decides to surrender herself to Maruki’s cognitive world, so her suffering can be forgotten. We rescue her from herself and through our actions we show her that there is value in growing through pain. We show her that there is beauty in becoming a better person through hardship as opposed to forgetting all the suffering. Sumire realizes that forgetting her suffering would be akin to forgetting Kasumi’s sacrifice. She decides that it is better to strive towards something meaningful with the life that was gifted to her as opposed to forgetting it all. It’s funny cause she says the exact same thing about the Phantom Thieves during one of her social links. She mentions that while she is not opposed to the Phantom Thieves' actions, she finds it disheartening that they are stealing the opportunity for those people to redeem themselves through their own will. Funny how she was not able to apply that to herself when her turn came.

Morgana can be easy to hate. You are with Morgana literally the whole game and he is essentially a lore dump, an exposition source and a tutorial all in one. The memes about bedtime stuff more than speak for themselves. However, if you are able to look behind all that nonsense, you will find that Morgana is one of more sensitive characters in the game. It is apparent that Morgana will likely never be a human, despite his desire to do so, and he knows this. This becomes a source of insecurity for him; because if he cannot be human, he can only be valuable to others as long as he is useful as a phantom thief. This insecurity continues to grow as the Phantom Thieves become stronger and Futaba starts having more knowledge about the metaverse. Culminating in Morgana leaving because Ryuji teases him too much about his ability as a phantom thief. However, we show Morgana that his value is not in being knowledgeable about the metaverse, or being able to transform into a car, but rather in being a friend to everyone. It's a sweet little arc that I really enjoy, especially when you consider that Morgana was made by Igor as a representation of the human spirit. And because he is a representation of the human spirit, his feelings are untainted by logical thought, kinda like a child. His crush for Ann is romantic and cute, he dreams of being her knight. His jealousy is easily provoked but fleeting, and his temper tantrums are real. I really grew to like Morgana a lot during this playthrough, a lot more than I realized. I dare say he might be my favorite character and I do not know how to feel about it.

I won’t be as detailed with the antagonists as I was with the main cast because honestly there is not much to say. I agree with the general consensus of Kamoshida being the best one. Kamoshida works so well to engage the player because he has personal beef with every party member at that point. Kamoshida personally sexually harassed Ann, broke Ryuji’s leg and is trying to get Joker expelled. He is also making the lives of Mishima and Shiho living hells through his actions. His presence is oppressive and you can feel it across the whole school. Kamoshida leading Shiho to attempt suicide just doubles down on just how horrible this dude is. Compared to him, no one else comes close. Yes Madarame, Kaneshiro and Okumura are all horrible people as well, but the extent of their horribleness was limited to one person usually. Not to say they are not good antagonists as they do serve the greater plot well, but comparatively they are weaker than what came before. With Shido, I do love how every character’s life has been made worse by his actions. He arrested Joker, worked with Kamoshida, Madarame, Kaneshiro and Okumura; and killed Futaba’s mom. He is also Akechi’s father and the source of his search for acceptance. It’s just a shame that his encounter and battle ultimately did not lead to anything as the game turned around and tried to pivot towards Yaldabaoth. Shido was built up well, but his defeat served no emotional or narrative purpose.

Maruki is an interesting case however. Maruki is an antagonist in the narrative sense, but he is not a criminal or some horrible person. Rather, his antagonism comes from a different world view. He believes that suffering has no place in life, and if given the chance to erase it, he would. Well Maruki was actually given this power, after seeing how much his finance was suffering from her parents death. Maruki took this to mean that it was his responsibility to remove suffering from the whole world. He spent years researching a way to do so and he ultimately developed a cognitive world where all suffering is gone. Futaba has her mom back, Haru has her dad back, Morgana is a human, and so on. While it all sounds fine and dandy, Joker fights against that world. As I mentioned in the Kasumi section, suffering is an intrinsic part of life, and there is value behind the pain. It’s how we grow, how we become better, how we learn. Joker sees this and refutes Maruki’s reality. It’s honestly a pretty interesting twist for the game to take so late and I think it better serves the larger psychological themes of the series as a whole. As for Maruki himself, it's hard not to like him. As a therapist he goes out of his way to talk to every party member to help them go through their own baggage. With his social link you can tell that he is truly a selfless person and that he truly believes in his cause. He genuinely considers his way to be the path for happiness. He does come across as someone with a little bit of a savior complex, but it is ultimately well merited.

Since I’m already mentioning Maruki, I might as well talk about the Royal content. I do believe it is a net positive to the Persona 5 experience, but not by much. The added palace is genuinely fantastic and the best palace in the game. Maruki serves as a fantastic boss fight and antagonist. The added focus on the nature and value of suffering is more in line with the psychological roots of the series which I appreciate. However, just like the base game, it is paced horribly. Keep in mind, you are 100 hours into Persona 5 by the time you reach the Royal content. Having the game slow down to a crawl while you go day by day convincing the party members to give up Maruki’s cognitive world is honestly asking too much by this point in the game. Not only that but it ruins Akechi as it turns his death into a joke, essentially delegitimizing his feelings right before his passing. The narrative itself is very strong as it is character focused on Kasumi and Maurki, as opposed to event focused like the base game. Ultimately I would say it is worth playing but it is not perfect. The best thing Royal does to be honest are the addition of the jazz club and the small tweaks to make mementos more tolerable.

With all this bashing of the writing you would think I hate the game, but I do not. And that is because the gameplay is so fantastic. The battle system is likely the best turn based battle system Atlus has made, next to press turn. Hitting an enemy weakness for a one more action was a good base, but the addition of baton passes, showtimes, and switching party members on the fly made playing Persona 5 addicting. The addition of technicals as a status element and the changes to curse and bless elements were also changes that elevated the gameplay experience. Demon negotiation is the best it has ever been and should be a staple for every Persona game from now on. The dungeons themselves were also well paced and fun to explore, with Maruki’s being the crowning achievement. It is just a shame that Persona 5 does not really challenge the player much. You get granted so many tools to succeed that it is hard to not become an unstoppable killing machine. Between all the DLC personas, the buff you get from social links, the itemization, and the new ways to get knock downs, Persona 5 becomes something of a cake walk, even on the highest difficulty. It’s not a big deal but I wish I could engage with the systems more than what the game currently asks of me. Other than palaces, you also get to explore Mementos which is essentially a large dungeon with multiple sections similar to Tartarus in P3. It’s pretty brainless, but I appreciate a simple way to grind and collect personas you might have missed. Royal added experience multipliers which just breaks the game even further in your favor. Given how easy the game is I can genuinely make an argument for Persona 5 Royal being someone’s first JRPG. Beyond the combat portion, the social sim portion is also pretty well designed. There are plenty of ways to increase your social stats which is a good thing because you are definitely going to need to increase them as much as possible. Social links this time around have pretty significant social stat requirements, much more than the previous games. I don’t think it’s possible to max rank every confidant on your first playthrough blind, but you definitely have more than enough time to do every party member and Maruki.

Last thing I’ll mention are the aesthetics. Persona 5 is obviously very gorgeous and the artstyle is generation-defining. I still haven’t seen a game so committed to being cool the way Persona 5 is, even now after all these years. The menus, the menu transitions, the title screens, the loading screens, every little minute detail has been tailored to build a red and black canvas of suave and debonair swag. The music is fantastic as well, but that needs no mention. Shoji Meguro is one of the greatest composers of all time and this soundtrack just builds to his repertoire. The acid jazz, the silky keys, the rebellious violins, Lyn’s smooth voice, it all builds into an ensemble of cool calm and collected. Beneath the Mask is one the best songs in the entire series, and Futaba’s palace theme goes unbelievably hard. But it’s Life Will Change which I believe best represents the game. Despite all its flaws, I can’t bring myself to hate the game. There is something about the charm, aesthetic and characters that are still with me despite it all. It is absolutely a game that is greater than the sum of its parts.

It's incredible how good this game is.

Final Fantasy 3 doubles down on the goofy, tropey and whimsical adventuring of FF1 while expanding the scope to make it seem like a true sequel. In spirit and execution, FF3 is the actual sequel to FF1.

This game's biggest claim to fame is the job system. FF1's job system was something you picked at the very beginning of the game and stayed with you the whole adventure, with an upgrade towards the end. Final Fantasy 3 has jobs that are unlocked serially throughout the game, and you are allowed to change your character's jobs whenever you like. Anyone who has read my older reviews knows that I am a sucker for job systems, so I had no problem just eating this up. Surprisingly enough, the execution of the job system here was actually not bad for a first attempt. The game starts off by providing you with the jobs that were available in FF1, which immediately incentives you to pick the same party you would have picked in FF1, likely a Warrior/Monk/White Mage/Black Mage. From there, as more jobs are unlocked, you'll soon notice that the newer jobs are sidegrades or even upgrades to previously unlocked jobs. Meaning that you can, in essence, keep the same party composition for most of the game and succeed with no issues. This all culminates in the ultimate jobs which everyone in your party is likely going to be. While I certainly don't mind the linearity of the job progression like this, there is something to be said about the fact that most jobs are essentially a physical dps, a magic dps and a healer with varying degrees of proficiency.

I would call the lack of job variety a real negative if FF3 did not mitigate that through its encounter design. Something really awesome that this game does is that it sets up its fights with certain conditions that can only be accomplished with specific party comps. An early game example of this the giant rat boss fight. This fight comes at the end of a dungeon where you have to be mini, a status effect where your strength and defense stats are reduced to 1. The giant rat (which is actually normal sized) can absolutely maul your party while you do no damage to it if you are unprepared. The solution is to change your entire party to mages to use their spells on it to do damage and provide a constant source of healing. Another classic example is the Garuda boss fight; where you need to be a dragoon and jump out of the way before he wipes your party with a powerful spell. I know this puzzle like approach to bosses will frustrate some players, but I couldn't help but love it. Later Final Fantasy games would provide more flexibility in its challenges, allowing for more party comps as jobs become more multifaceted, but I can't help but love the simplicity of this design. It could be from the novelty of it all, but I wish we could get more games that approach its encounters in such a way.

Something else I want to bring mention is how amazing the sense of the scale is. You start the game in a continent that is roughly similar in size to the overworld in FF1. However, about a third of the way through, you realize that the starting continent is only a small piece of a much larger world. And then you come to the shocking realization that most of that world was actually flooded when the crystal's light faded. The mix of awe, dread, and melancholy that came over me, flying over this vast ocean that was once populated with life will always stick with me. The accompanying track, The Boundless Ocean, does such an amazing job of carrying those emotions forward to the surface. I was floored when I first came across it, I can't even imagine how some kid back in 1990 would have felt. The fact that this was the same game series that made FF1 only 3 years prior is mind boggling to me.

Beyond the grandiose things, FF3 has a lot of little fixes and changes compared to the last 2 games that make playing the game so much more enjoyable. First of all, the encounter rate is so much better. You can actually explore a lot of the world and a fair amount of the dungeons before being subjected to a fight. You actually do a lot of exploring on airships, meaning that this is the game with the least number of mandatory encounters when compared to FF1 and FF2. The actual encounter themselves are the best here too. FF1 random mods were too easily, FF2 mobs were so hard I just run away from everything; FF3 got it just right. Not too easy, but also not too hard. Dungeons are also much better, not the traps on traps on traps like FF2 and not the big empty rooms of FF1. All together, these optimizations make FF3 incredibly enjoyable to actually play moment to moment and a very rewarding game experience.

Last thing I want to mention, the music. My god. Words cannot even begin to describe. FF3 is generally among the lesser-known games in the franchise so my exposure to its music was minimal. Listening to all the tracks here for the first time was such an experience. It's goofy, lighthearted, melancholy, nostalgic, and exhilarating all in one. The beautiful mysticism of The Ancient's theme, the timelessness of Aria's theme, the quiet serenity of Amur, the hilarity of the 4 fake warriors of light, the previously mentioned Boundless Ocean. And the final theme, Everlasting World, a quiet, intimate, merciful piece that celebrates the beauty of life as it comes, in its little moments. Then to transition into bombastic, celebratory piece of resounding victory; to only to finish with the prelude, that iconic melody synonymous with Final Fantasy. Everlasting World is a goodbye to FF3, but with the hindsight of 30 years, it's also a goodbye to NES Final Fantasy. Starting with the next game, FF will transition into something more cinematic, character driven and dramatic. Beautiful in its own right, but very much different from the charm these 3 NES games have.

I think it's safe to say that Final Fantasy 3 is far and away my favorite NES Final Fantasy and a strong contender for top 5 FF. It's paced immaculately, designed confidently and plays like a dream. The music is transcendent, and the game experience is top notch. The game is fantastic and truly great. It's crime that it took this long for it to finally leave Japan, but oh so worth the wait. PLAY THIS GAME.