This has been a year for firsts for me. My first experience with a Zelda game that fell on it's face. The first time I played a Nier game, which struggled to hold my interest with it's quirkiness. And My first dive into the world of Kingdom Hearts, which wasn't particularly great, not bad, but not great...good enough I guess. So here we are with yet another game in a series I know absolutely NOTHING about except that my friends couldn't stop jizzing themselves over how excited they were for the release. Persona 5, my first dip into another beloved, yet more cult, series.
*sigh* Alright then.
You know something. I love JRPG's. I mean, I used to love them. Back in the days of Final Fantasy 7, and Xenogears, Suikoden, etc. Back when the games always had deep and crazy stories (usually about some form of God murder), and combat mechanics that were always different yet also always managed to feel familiar and fun. Then somewhere along the way, JRPG's sort of lost their way as the strove to be more real-time and flashy with their combat and their graphics. Final Fantasy 13, for example was flashy as shit, and really a beautiful game even today. But the story was just a jumble of spunk running through a sewer grate, which like this metaphor, just didn't make any sense.
As the latest generation roll along I fell out of the JRPG scene because the games just weren't doing the shit they used to be amazing at anymore.
Then Persona 5 happens and I instantly fall in love again. Persona 5 is a JRPG through and through, although I'm not far enough in to know whether it'll hit that God Murder trope, but it's turn-based with a seemingly complex but not really turned based battle system, and a story that....holy fucking shit is it good!
The game plays a lot like watching an anime, a lot of downtime and story bits that in any other game would just fucking annoying and boring as shit. But Persona tells a very adult tale that does wonders for not only building the world around you, but also giving you agency. I'm still very early in the game and am only dealing with the first "villian" of the game so far. But everything the game has done story-wise has gave me motivation to want to see this through. Yet at the same time it isn't so cut and dry as "bad guy evil, kill bad guy" there feels like there is real weight to the characters deciding to deal with this guy. The set up is just so great, I am hooked. I want more, I wanna play more, and see what happens when I finally take this dude down and how the next "villian" comes into play.
Combat itself is also great, like an onion the more you play, the more layered the combat becomes. From using basic attacks, to the incredible depth of trying to strike enemy weakpoints that spark a whole other level of mechanics. From the super attacks, to the "pokemon"-like collection, to simple item gathering. Every battle becomes a choice of what you need to do, not a simple kill it and win mindset. Do I wanna collect this enemy? How do I need to do it? Can I survive getting beat up while I figure out how to knock it down? All of this comes into play and can make even basic battles exciting and intense.
And I haven't even scratched the surface yet!?
Persona 5 has absolutely blown me away, maybe because I went in already a little jaded from the past few games I've played that haven't lived up to their hype for me. Persona definitely presses all of my buttons and if this pace keeps up it will EASILY be TOP runner for my game of the year, a spot that I already thought Horizon had on lock down.
If you haven't picked this game up, and you are even a little interested in a good story-based rpg you need to get Persona 5. I can't review the entire game yet, but I'm telling you this is a title worth getting. There would have to be an incredible fucking shitstorm down the line to tarnish this game for me, and I just don't see that happening.
*sigh* Alright then.
You know something. I love JRPG's. I mean, I used to love them. Back in the days of Final Fantasy 7, and Xenogears, Suikoden, etc. Back when the games always had deep and crazy stories (usually about some form of God murder), and combat mechanics that were always different yet also always managed to feel familiar and fun. Then somewhere along the way, JRPG's sort of lost their way as the strove to be more real-time and flashy with their combat and their graphics. Final Fantasy 13, for example was flashy as shit, and really a beautiful game even today. But the story was just a jumble of spunk running through a sewer grate, which like this metaphor, just didn't make any sense.
As the latest generation roll along I fell out of the JRPG scene because the games just weren't doing the shit they used to be amazing at anymore.
Then Persona 5 happens and I instantly fall in love again. Persona 5 is a JRPG through and through, although I'm not far enough in to know whether it'll hit that God Murder trope, but it's turn-based with a seemingly complex but not really turned based battle system, and a story that....holy fucking shit is it good!
The game plays a lot like watching an anime, a lot of downtime and story bits that in any other game would just fucking annoying and boring as shit. But Persona tells a very adult tale that does wonders for not only building the world around you, but also giving you agency. I'm still very early in the game and am only dealing with the first "villian" of the game so far. But everything the game has done story-wise has gave me motivation to want to see this through. Yet at the same time it isn't so cut and dry as "bad guy evil, kill bad guy" there feels like there is real weight to the characters deciding to deal with this guy. The set up is just so great, I am hooked. I want more, I wanna play more, and see what happens when I finally take this dude down and how the next "villian" comes into play.
Combat itself is also great, like an onion the more you play, the more layered the combat becomes. From using basic attacks, to the incredible depth of trying to strike enemy weakpoints that spark a whole other level of mechanics. From the super attacks, to the "pokemon"-like collection, to simple item gathering. Every battle becomes a choice of what you need to do, not a simple kill it and win mindset. Do I wanna collect this enemy? How do I need to do it? Can I survive getting beat up while I figure out how to knock it down? All of this comes into play and can make even basic battles exciting and intense.
And I haven't even scratched the surface yet!?
Persona 5 has absolutely blown me away, maybe because I went in already a little jaded from the past few games I've played that haven't lived up to their hype for me. Persona definitely presses all of my buttons and if this pace keeps up it will EASILY be TOP runner for my game of the year, a spot that I already thought Horizon had on lock down.
If you haven't picked this game up, and you are even a little interested in a good story-based rpg you need to get Persona 5. I can't review the entire game yet, but I'm telling you this is a title worth getting. There would have to be an incredible fucking shitstorm down the line to tarnish this game for me, and I just don't see that happening.
That was like a decade ago now though so after seeing rave reviews for Persona 5 I decided to give that game a try. And so far I absolutely love it. I had my reservations about the school setting(though that's been a staple of Persona now since P3) and the overly stylized presentation but it's obvious everything in the game is part of a clear vision. The game deals with some very adult themes but with those themes projected on a 'juvenile' setting it actually serves to amplify the story as the characters are still open in their perception and not closed off or jaded which would undermine the central theme(rebellion) of this game. The game is framed absolutely brilliantly. I can't remember being this engaged by a story that hours seem to pass like minutes. The gameplay is also incredibly good and dare I say the finest implementation of turn based combat to date. I know Persona 5 dropped the SMT moniker but I enjoy the P5 system even more than DDS which was my previous favorite.
