THE PLOT:
After being falsely accused of assault, a young man transfers to Tokyo's Shujin Academy for his year-long probation. He is instantly regarded as a troublemaker by the adults at his new school, and is warned by his wary guardian that he is exactly one problem away from being sent to juvenile detention.
After he discovers a new app on his phone, he is transported to an alternate reality: the cognitive "Palace" of volleyball coach Kamoshida, a former gold medalist who is physically and sexually abusing students. There, he and his new friend Ryuji meet Morgana - a strange being who appears to be a talking cat. Morgana informs them that they have the power to change the evil teacher's heart if they can battle their way through this cognitive world to the "treasure" that has corrupted his worldview.
With help from Ann, a student being pressured and harassed by Kamoshida, they succeed in this mission. But after seeing that their strange power can result in changes to corrupt adults, they decide to pursue other targets as "The Phantom Thieves" - attracting the attention of the authorities in the process!
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| Igor welcomes a new guest to the Velvet Room... |
CHARACTERS:
As far back as the first game, the Persona series has benefited from likeable protagonists. Each new entry introduces a new set of characters whom you just plain enjoy spending time with. Persona 5 is no exception, with an ensemble of characters who slowly evolve from anime tropes into full-blooded human beings. This time, I ended up liking all the party members. Even the talking cat/mascot character, Morgana, manages to avoid being either overly cutesy or creepy (traps that rather firmly ensnared Persona 4's Teddie). The main character is perhaps a bit too much of a blank slate for my tastes, but the rest of the group makes up for it.
My pick for the game's strongest character, at least in the updated Persona 5 Royal, would be "Detective Prince" Goro Akechi, who is essentially this game's answer to Persona 4's popular Naoto, but with a couple twists thrown into the mix. Akechi suspects the main group from early on, and finds excuses to insinuate himself ever further into the protagonist's life. As we get to know him through his Social Link, however, he turns out to be very different than he first appears. Particularly strong is the scene in which he reveals his actual feelings in a well-written encounter which is superbly played by English language voice actor Robbie Daymond; in the space of one scene, all preconceptions about the character are upended. It should be noted, however, that much of Akechi's best material was apparently added for Royal, and that he was noticeably less well-received in the game's initial version.
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| The game's first real boss battle. Yes, this series is just as weird as ever. |
GAMEPLAY:
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Persona 3 reinvented the series' format by splitting players' time between daily life, focused heavily on developing relationships with other characters, and dungeon crawling. Persona 4 refined this split, expanding daytime activities and making the dungeon crawling more varied and enjoyable.
Persona 5 moves even further with those improvements. The dungeons are now "Palaces," reflecting the mental state of each target. A corrupt painter's Palace, for example, is an art museum; a jaded prosecutor's, a rigged casino in which the only thing that matters is winning. Oh, and the demon negotiation that was a major part of the Playstation 1 Persona games? It's back, and I couldn't be happier about that.
If I have one quibble with the game play, it's the difficulty. Unfortunately, one area in which the PS1 titles have outstripped all of the modern Personas has been in difficulty balance, with the early games being neither too easy nor too hard; the modern Persona games have either been frustrating and arbitrary or ridiculously easy. Persona 5 actually made me double-check that I wasn't accidentally playing on "Easy" mode! Only two boss battles provide a real challenge: one around the game's midpoint, one at the very end of Royal's new content. Both of these were added for Royal, and they actually seem too difficult... mainly because their difficulty is so out-of-whack with the rest of the game! One hopes they manage to balance it out a bit better come the next installment.
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| The second Palace: a corrupt artist's private museum. |
THOUGHTS:
Persona 5 is a gorgeously designed, highly immersive experience. Save for the Persona series' usual "on rails" beginning (which is itself less tedious than the opening hours of its two predecessors), the entire package is designed to draw you into the game's world and make you want to keep playing to just one more save point, or one more social link, or...
So yes, as a game, Persona 5 is absolutely addictive. It is also unabashedly political. The main character is socially stigmatized by his unjust conviction, just the first of many broadsides the game aims at Japan's legal and political systems. The first villain is gym teacher/former Olympian Kamoshida, who is physically and sexually harassing students; the school's administration is aware, but is silently complicit because the man's profile boosts the school's athletics program. This is the game's most emotionally effective arc, because Kamoshida feels largely believable in his style of evil... and impression chillingly reinforced when a bit of research shows that he was based on Hajime Komura, a real-life coach whose abuse led to a pupil's suicide.
The game's ultimate villain is corrupt politician Masyoshi Shido, a career politican who sabotages the current government to advance his ambitions of becoming Prime Minister. Some US gamers became either upset or delighted when they decided the game was bashing Donald Trump. It almost certainly wasn't; Shido bears no resemblance to Trump in either speech patterns or background, and all the rest of the game's targets are entirely specific to Japan. Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe - at the time of the game's release, in his third term in office - seems by far the most likely model for Shido.
Tackling such material does result in a story that isn't nearly as light-hearted as Persona 4. Even so, the game retains a considerable sense of charm and humor, and never approaches the darkness of parts of Persona 3, let alone that of the PS1 entries.
The game's weakest aspect is the overall conspiracy theory surrounding Shido. By the end of the main narrative, Persona 5 has made Shido responsible for more or less everything we've seen, attempting to connect him to all the various sub-villains. It breaks the game's internal credibility, and I would have preferred more of those secondary villains to have simply been abusing the system all on their own. Still, it ends with a pair of pretty decent boss fights and a nice overall wrap-up, leaving me with few serious complaints about the base game.
Oh, and the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic, to the point that I find myself seriously considering purchasing a video game soundtrack. The jazz/rock hybrid proves a perfect complement to both gameplay and visual style, with track ranging from stirring and exciting (Life Will Change) to mournful (Throw Away Your Mask).
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| Whisked from the streets of Tokyo to a literal Palace! |
ROYAL ADDITIONS
Persona 5 Royal was the enhanced 2019 re-release of Persona 5. Basically, it's this game's Persona 3 FES or Persona 4 Golden: an enhanced experience with a boatload of additional content.
Royal is the only edition I've played. Still, based on what I have read, most of the new content helps the game. Dungeons have been streamlined. The Batman-like grappling hook, which is frequently used to advance in Royal's dungeons, was evidently not part of the original release - and given how enjoyable and generally cool it is to use, that hook may in itself justify Royal's existence. A genuinely difficult boss battle was added to one dungeon, and Akechi's character was reinvented by restructuring and expanding his social link.
The most significant additions are two characters: School psychologist Maruki and honor's student/gymnast Kasumi. Their Social Links are basically required if you want to unlock the all-new "third semester," but this should not be seen as drudge work. Both characters are engaging, and I looked forward to my character's conversations with them.
My reaction is more mixed when it comes to the extra semester. It offers up an interesting story in itself, but by the time I was infiltrating the (very long) final palace, I couldn't quite suppress the sense that the game was insisting on continuing after the story had ended. In my opinion, this extra material (which is, in itself, quite good) would have benefited by being presented as a sequel campaign, much like Persona 3's The Answer was. By bolting it onto the main game, it just felt like extra innings.
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| The Phantom Thieves prepare for another infiltration. |
OVERALL:
Persona 5 is yet another excellent entry in what has emerged as one of my favorite video game franchises. Given the capabilities of the Playstation 4 versus the Playstation 2 (the original home of Persona 3 and 4), it's no surprise that this is the most visually stylish entry to date; and for most of its 120+ hours, it is thoroughly addictive.
If pressed, I don't think it's quite as good as Persona 4, let alone the Persona 2 duology. There are a few story issues, with the conspiracy plot stretching a bit too thin, and I feel that a few of Royal's additions extended the narrative past its natural end point. Even so, Persona 5 is great fun, and all signs point to this 25 year old franchise still having a lot of life left in it.
Overall Rating: 8/10.
Previous Game: Persona 4 - Dancing All Night
Next Game: Persona 5 - Dancing in Starlight
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