Persona 5 Review: Schoolgirl-Waifu-Anime-Don't-Forget-About-Your-Exams-Also-Demons-Born-From-Man's-Darkest-Desires-Simulator

Persona 5 Review: Schoolgirl-Waifu-Anime-Don't-Forget-About-Your-Exams-Also-Demons-Born-From-Man's-Darkest-Desires-Simulator 

Title: Persona 5 

Release: April 4th 2017 (September 2016 in Japan) 

Platforms: Playstation 3, Playstation 4 

Number of times I will mention Atlus trying to screw streamers and Youtubers: 1 

I debated what to title this review, it was either the one chosen or something implying that Person 5 had become the Dark Souls of JRPGs. In the end I decided the to go with the current one; I feel it's much more representative of the actual game- because contrary to belief- not every popular game is Dark Souls.  

2017 seems to be the year of enjoying games that I never thought I would enjoy, first came Final Fantasy XV (a game that I am still going back to every-so-often, mostly just for the DLC). XCOM 2 was the another game that I didn't expect to like- especially since I really did not like Enemy Unknown- yet I've had countless hours of fun with it. The latest game I've discovered that I am really taken by is Shadowrun: Returns. The point I'm trying to make is that it turns out I like turn-based games (I know FFXV isn't turn-based, much to many peoples dismay, but shush). Persona 5 is the first ever Persona game I've played; though for some reason as soon as I saw the intro I can swear I played a Persona game on the DS when I was younger, that's a Nintendo DS; I'm still not comparing anything to Dark Souls, Though I can't find any Persona games on DS. There are Shin Megami games on DS but that’s not what I remember (Shin Megami Tensei, is the original series that Persona is a spin-off of).  

Presentation 

The most obvious thing about the game is that it looks great, the visuals in game and in cutscenes are beautiful. In terms of cutscenes you have two different types: one is the in-game cutscene where it looks just like the normal game, you just don't have any control over the characters and don't normally get any dialogue options, the second is an anime cutscene; the anime cutscenes are few in numbers compared to the in-game cutscenes, the switch between that happens when it goes from in-game to anime is honestly pretty jarring, because of the characters being 3D then suddenly being 2D for a minute or so then being 3D again. But, hey, somehow it still isn’t as jarring to me as Wolfenstein The New Order's change to cutscenes.  

Anyone who’s played a Persona game will know the music is s major factor in the games, not only is it funky shit; also makes everything you do have this weird rhythmic feel to it. Though, Persona is at least a hundred hours long- and it has, for the majority of battle, the same battle theme; that coupled with the fact that battles, like many JRPGs, are a large part of the game; you can get very sick of a lot of the songs. Oh, whilst we’re on the subject of annoying ass shit: can my stupid cat shut up and let me go out and stop trying to run my life? Whatever you think, that was definitely related to the game, I promise. Overall the whole look and style of the game is incredible and even though it’s not a graphical power house it is still beautiful. Even the designs of the people and monsters look great (here’s a trick: you can tell who’s going to be important to the story because they will very noticeably stand out from everyone else). The monsters are all very interesting albeit usually quite sexual, however the main theme of the game is the human desire so it does make sense; kind of like Silent Hill 2. Though, now I think about it, why does that one female party member in the skin tight cat suit have to stick her ass right in the air when she gets hit by her weakness and gets knocked on her ass? Maybe I’m just thinking about it too much; maybe.  

Gameplay  

Persona 5 is a turn-based JRPG.  

I kinda felt like just leaving this section at that one line. Don’t worry I’ll go a bit deeper.  

The basics of the game are, at the base, the same as most turn-based games. Your party gets a turn then the enemy party gets a turn and it keeps going until someone’s dead. Everyone has a melee attack, a gun attack, and a Persona (they’re like certain people’s rebellious spirit) they have different abilities. This is where Persona starts to differ, everyone has strengths and weaknesses and if you hit that weakness you can knock them down and you get another attack this is when you realize the combat is less about dealing as much damage as possible with attacks, instead it’s about quickly finding the others weakness before they find yours; if you get everyone on their ass you can either do an 'all out attack' that deals MASSIVE DAMAGE. Or you can talk to them… Yeah, talk. You can request an item, steal their lunch money or ask them to join you. Your character, the game call you Joker however I named my character: Geralt ★ Vindrbur, can hold multiple Personas, an ability only you can posses because you’re the chosen one who will lead the world from the coming ruin, this is where the other mechanic of the game shows that this is; Persona Pokémon, Persokémon if you will. In terms of combat, the one major complaint I have is that if Geralt ★ Vindrbur, Joker, dies then it’s a game over. Instantly. This wouldn’t be such a big problem if the game didn’t have so many instant kills, or if the game would even explain anything. This game, I found, assumes that you already know a lot about how to play Shin Megami Tensei games, because the basics of this are very similar to the other games- like Final Fantasy, the game really does not like explaining things and when it does it’s usually just a text dump on the screen. The other part of Persona is the school life where you have to go to, take exams, make friends, further your skills, get a job and find a relationship. It really does a unique blend of gameplay that probably shouldn’t work together, but, if you’re someone who likes to complete a game 100%, then Persona will probably drive you completely insane. There’s so much to do in a single playthrough that I don’t it’s actually possible to do everything in a single playthrough.  

Story 

The story is as follows: you play as Geralt ★ Vindrbur, or whatever terrible name you choose, he used to live in just some town then he ran into some dude assaulting some lady then the dude sued you and then you have to move to the city for your probation, the opposite of the other Persona games because they usually have you going to a small town and everyone wants to be friends with the new kid; in Persona 5 everyone hates you. You then meet different colourful characters that who become your party and learn more about them as you try to bone them, the women at least you can’t actually bone down on the lads; I totally wanted to go with Yusuke… Oh Matt Mercer. Eventually, you find your way into a palace (a place where someone’s desires have become so distorted that they have a treasure and if you steal it they’ll be all nice and huggable). That’s basically the main part of the game that really progressing the story. Each palace gives you a deadline, I have no actual idea what happens if you don’t do it in time because I’m so great, I do know if you lose to the final boss of a palace you can go back one week. My biggest complaint about the entire game is that after a hundred hours, the game feels like it's ending at least three different times and when the game is actually ending it just kept going on for a bit too long for me, I really wanted to finish the game but the game wanted to repeat the same thing over and over, the actual ending was pretty good.  

When it comes to JRPGs I finish one and can’t play another for a few months, they’re just so long and you have to be completely committed to even get close to the end. I think Persona 5 is completely worth the hundred plus hours of your life, even after I finished it I was thinking about it; shit, I even want to go back and go into new game plus. I haven’t, I might. Not any time soon, I got other games to play. The game is great even if you can’t bone Yusuke.  

Edit: one part I forgot to mention is that you often get dialogue options but they never actually feel like they amount or even change anything, I actually started looking at the options and listening to the characters responses and thinming, 'would that reply fit with all the other options?' For the most part, yes, they would. Also, the character Joker does actually have a voice actor, sometimes, it was weird. I give characters who don't have a voice their own voices when I red their dialogue yet I was constantly pit of with his semi occasional voice acting. Either all his lines should be voiced or none, I think that applies to all characters.

That is all, I just forgot to add this part when I was actually writing the review, I'll go back to reading now. 

Yusuke/10  

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