Persona 5 Tactica.

Original Release: Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Ninendo Swittch, 2023. Version Reviewed: Playstation 5, 2023.


THE PLOT:

After bringing down Minister Shido and defeating the dark god Yaldabaoth, the Phantom Thieves have earned a rest... but they aren't going to get one.

They are in Cafe Leblanc, watching a news report about the disappearance of politician Toshiro Kasukabe, who is favored to become Prime Minister. Suddenly, the group finds itself transported into an Alice in Wonderland-like Kingdom, ruled over by Marie, a wedding-obsessed tyrant. Joker and Morgana manage to escape, thanks to the intervention of rebel leader Erina. However, their friends are captured.

While staging a rescue, they stumble across another prisoner: Toshiro. He's been abducted, but he has no memory of it happening. In fact, there are large gaps in all of his memories. Even as the Phantom Thieves are reunited, they come to realize that Toshiro's past holds the key to their presence in this strange world.

Getting back home will mean keeping him alive - which, given Toshiro's general uselessness, might be easier said than done!

Toshiro is shaken after being transported to an impossible world.

CHARACTERS:

There are more than a few similarities between this title and the Persona Q games that came out for the 3DS. One of the biggest is that the Phantom Thieves are essentially "guest characters" in their own game. The real focus is on the new characters, Toshiro and Erina. They have full character arcs, and both of them gain considerable depth as the story progresses.

By contrast, the Phantom Thieves are basically "present." There are parallels between some of Toshiro's and Erina's issues and problems that some of the Thieves went through during Persona 5, notably Futaba and Haru. But the Phantom Thieves are static characters. They observe the events happening to Toshiro and Erina, they react to those events, and they protect the pair - but in the end, this isn't their story.

Setting up a devastating Triple Threat - this
game's version of the series' All Out Attack.

GAMEPLAY:

The gameplay segments of Tactica represent a very basic tactical RPG. If you've played any Fire Emblem, or Suikoden, or X-Com, the grid-based maps will be entirely familiar. Also, if you've played any of those, the difficulty will seem downright laughable by comparison, even on the hardest setting. I managed to botch parts of the fight with the first Kingdom's boss, with my characters getting literally run over and scattered about the map like ragdolls... and not only was I able to salvage the level, my units didn't even take that much damage! Call this "Baby's First Tactics Game."

There are a few neat curveballs. If your character manages to score a critical hit (easy to set up once you know how), that character gets an additional turn. Exploit it properly, and you can stretch one turn into several offensive actions. Also, once you get a "One More!", you can position your characters in a triangle around enemies and perform an All Out Attack. Yes, all of this makes an easy game even easier... but I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel satisfying to pull off.

There is some difficulty. Not in the main story missions, but optional "Quests" will test your ability to exploit the game's mechanics in bite-sized encounters that have strict conditions for victory. Some of these get repetitive, though, particularly the altogether too many "defeat all enemies in one turn" quests.

Erina plants the flag symbolizing her rebellion as she and
the Phantom Thieves take their fight to the Tyrant, Marie.

THOUGHTS:

Persona 5 Tactica might as well be titled Persona Q: Tactics. Yes, the Etrian Odyssey-inspired mapmaking has been replaced with tactical grid maps. In all other respects, though, this is essentially a Persona Q title. The cast gets whisked into a fantasy world, where they act as protectors for the actual focal characters while traversing four dungeons related to the new arrivals' arcs. There's a base, where character development occurs through optional conversations. All the characters get to equip sub-Personas, just like in the 3DS games. Oh, and it utilizes a Chibi art style.

I will say that I enjoyed it more than the second Persona Q game, though I didn't think it's as creative as the first one. That said, for a current gen game, there's little if anything here that couldn't have been accomplished on the 3DS. The maps are mostly small; even the boss levels have less elaborate maps than some of what was seen in the 3DS Fire Emblem games. It's also quite short. You can blow through the main story and all Quests in about 30 hours.

I enjoyed it on its own terms, but I can't deny that it feels... well, small. I think I'd be a lot more forgiving of its limitations if not for one thing: the price point. This looks and plays like a $30 game, but it was released at a full $60. Tactica ended up with soft sales compared to most Persona offshoots, and I strongly suspect the asking price had a lot to do with that.

The story starts out poorly, with clunky dialogue that makes it even harder to adjust to the art style. Futaba gets some particularly bad lines. Yes, she's a techie, a hacker, and a gamer; but in the first part of the story, practically every word she utters is a gaming reference. The main game's Futaba was working through severe issues related to grieving, guilt, and anxiety, but she still did her best to connect with and help her friends. I liked that Futaba. This game's version? Well, not for the first time in a Persona 5 spinoff, she's been flattened into someone I would find unbearable in real life.

Thankfully, the writing improves as the story progresses. The dialogue improves, even if many of the conversations are a bit repetitive. Toshiro and Erina grow from one-dimensional ciphers into genuinely engaging characters. Oh, and it's a Persona game, so it goes without saying that there's a terrific soundtrack, though my personal favorite track ended up coming from the DLC campaign.

Joker teams up with Akechi and Kasumi for
the Repaint Your Heart DLC campaign.

DLC: REPAINT YOUR HEART:

Yes, the game has a DLC campaign - Day One DLC, no less.

Repaint Your Heart is a fully separate story, set during the "Sae's Palace" segment of the original game. The story teams Joker with Akechi and Kasumi as they're drawn into a street artist's nightmare world. It's actually a lot of fun, with both your characters and the enemies having to "paint" areas of the map to gain tactical advantages (Persona: Splatoon!), and it benefits from some excellent voice acting, particularly by veteran voice actress Susanne Blakeslee as the villain.

The story is engaging, and the element of "tactical paint" suits the narrative while improving upon the main game's gameplay. Character interactions are well-written, sometimes more so than in this game's main campaign, with several exchanges playing on the secrets kept by both Akechi and Kasumi. It does feel like a missed opportunity that Yusuke, the artist member of the Phantom Thieves, is completely absent for a story centered around art, but that's really my only complaint about the story.

If it was $10, I'd recommend it without reservation. As with the main game, though, I think it's a bit overpriced. This DLC lists at $19.99, and it lasts all of four hours. Yes, you get some challenge levels after you beat it, and you unlock Akechi and Kasumi for your next playthrough of the main game. But it's hard to see this trifle, enjoyable though it is, as something that's worth the asking price.

The Phantom Thieves find themselves in
a bizarre fantasy world. It must be Tuesday.

OVERALL:

Persona 5 Tactica is too small scale to justify its price. It's a Playstation 5 game that feels like it should be a mobile or handheld title, a sense not helped by it being so strongly reminiscent of the 3DS Persona Q spinoffs.

It is enjoyable, as its DLC campaign. I don't think it's worth full price, but I'm not going to deny that I had fun playing it. Catch it on sale at a decent discount, and I'd say it's worth giving a go. But at its list price, it costs about double what it actually merits.


Overall Rating: 6/10.

Previous Game: Persona 5 Strikers
Next Game: Persona 5 - The Phantom X

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

Persona 5 Strikers.

Aka, Persona 5 Scramble (Japanese title). Original Release: Playstation 4, Nintendo Swittch, 2020. Version Reviewed: Playstation 4, 2020.


THE PLOT:

It's summer vacation, and Joker has returned to Tokyo to reunite with his old friends, the group formerly known as "The Phantom Thieves." With the defeat of both Shido and the God of Control, there's no more need for heroics, and the friends plan to relax and spend the month just enjoying each other's company.

But life intervenes.  A wave of "changes of heart" has left the police suspecting the Phantom Thieves are once again active.  Zenkichi Hasegawa, a police inspector, thinks otherwise. He approaches the group and makes a deal to shield them from arrest - if they can unravel these new incidents and find the real culprit behind them!

A police inspector approaches the Phantom
Thieves with an offer they can't refuse..,

CHARACTERS:

Spinoffs Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight and Persona Q2 reduced the rich cast to two-dimensional caricatures... Which makes it all the more joyous to see the cast back in form in this sequel. Each of the main characters gets a moment in the spotlight, thanks to a structure which connects each of them with one of the game's mini-bosses. This adds additional depth, even the ones the original game sometimes overlooked. Haru in particular gets more focus than in Persona 5, emerging as a surprisingly strong character. Meanwhile, Ryuji - generally just comedy relief - receives a strong dramatic moment midway through that's in-character while still acting as an effective contrast to his usual antics.

The new characters are also engaging. Zenkichi originally seems to be just a replacement for the earlier game's Akechi: the detective whom the characters are forced to work with to stay out of jail. As the story unfolds, he becomes such a well-developed character that I wouldn't mind seeing him return in another title. Friendly AI Sophia is possibly a bit too anime-tropey for my personal tastes, but she also receives several good moments - and all of the various mini-bosses are three dimensional characters whose pasts are explored by the narrative.

Voice acting is terrific across the board. In the original Persona 5, I didn't much care for Xanthe Huynh's overly-breathy Haru. Either the actress has toned it down or the improved material she's received has boosted her performance, but she's not only good here: She's arguably one of the game's standouts.

One of the game's boss battles. 
Yes, the enemies are still pretty weird...

GAMEPLAY:

Like earlier Persona titles, gameplay is divided into two segments: the real world, and the fantasy world (here known as "the Metaverse"). Real world gameplay is similar to earlier titles. You control Joker, exploring bits of various Japanese cities while listening in on conversations and interacting with your companions and assorted NPCs.

In the fantasy world, however, Persona 5 Strikers is very different. The game is a crossover of sorts with the popular Dynasty Warriors series, and it replaces Persona's usual turn-based combat for real-time "hack-and-slash" battles against large groups of enemies. I'll admit that this made me wary of the game, despite its many good reviews. I'm not fond of hack-and-slash combat; and I had previously been left completely unengaged by Fire Emblem Warriors, a Warriors crossover with another of my favorite series.

Happily, once I adjusted to the hectic pace of combat, I was surprised by how intuitive and enjoyable this game's combat became. Persona battle tactics have been carefully merged with the frenetic Warriors "Musou" style, and the results succeed in feeling like Persona combat that's simply achieved in a different way. The basic rules still apply: You do extra damage for successfully ambushing enemies, but are at a disadvantage if they ambush you. Enemies have weaknesses that you can target and exploit, often resulting in battle-ending "All-Out Attacks." Baton Passes can be done at the press of a directional button. It's all accomplished so artfully that, long before the end, I stopped even thinking of it as being different.

The Phantom Thieves rise again.

THOUGHTS:

Persona 5 Strikers is not just another Persona spinoff. This is no minor side title like the Arena or Persona Dancing games. This is a proper sequel, with a storyline that builds on Persona 5's while taking concepts and characters in new directions.

The story follows the structure of a road trip, with the group traveling in an RV from city to city. The result is a tour of some major Japanese locations, including Tokyo, Sapporo, Okinawa, Kyoto, and Osaka. It's no open world game - You only get to explore a few sections of each city. But those sections are meticulously recreated, as side-by-side photos of the game's locations vs. their real-world counterparts attest.

The "tour of Japan" aspect carries over to the "Jails," this game's dungeons. Each Jail is tied to a specific city, meaning that the fantasy world provides a distorted recreation of those same locations, merged with the Jail's theme. For example, after touring Sapporo's parks and shopping district, you enter its Jail... and go through those same locations, only now reinvented as an ice-covered winter wonderland. The effect is visually striking, and simultaneously eerie and engaging.

Persona 5 already boasted my favorite soundtrack of a series that's become known for its splendid soundtracks. The core songs from the earlier game return at appropriate moments: notably Life Will Change after the sending of Calling Cards and Rivers in the Desert for a key boss fight. Several new tracks have also been commissioned. They are in the same jazz/rock style, and a few of them are every bit as good as the original game's songs.

The script intelligently explores significant issues, from the effects of bullying to government corruption. Many of the game's villains are people who actually wanted to do good, or who were themselves victims of abuse or mistreatment, which makes the Phantom Thieves' adversaries more than the usual "Eeeviill" video game bosses. When the Shadow of one such character - a mayor who has been mistreating her staff - falls, she frets, "What kind of monster will... (take my place)?" Given the backstory we've already learned by this point, her cry is not without some justification.

Unfortunately, the series' tendency toward heavy-handedness remains in evidence. I was involved by the story throughout... but I'd be lying if I didn't admit to rolling my eyes at a few of the late-game monologues. Also, some of the series' overused elements are dutifully trotted out again here. Every significant female character seems to be in love with, or at least expresses interest in, Joker. Running gags have a tendency to run out. And yes, the group visits a hot spring for another round of the same allegedly hilarious hijinks that became tired long ago.

For Persona 6, I hope some of these elements are retired. I'd love for at least a couple members of the opposite sex to be romantically uninterested in the protagonist. I'd be very happy if the exploration of moral and sociological issues didn't have to end with After School Special style speeches. And I would be positively delighted if all future Persona games declared a moratorium on sitcom-level misunderstandings at hot springs!

Still, these are minor pet peeves that apply to the series as a whole.  While they are no less annoying in this game than in previous ones, they are also no worse. Like frustrating mini games in Final Fantasy titles, these just seem to be blemishes that must be accepted when picking up a Persona game.

Joker returns, his flair for the dramatic fully intact.

OVERALL:

I approached Persona 5 Strikers with wariness, after being underwhelmed by previous Persona 5 spinoffs and by previous Warriors crossovers. To my delight, it ended up being a full sequel that at all times felt like a proper Persona title, even while using a radically different combat style.

In its way, this is almost as good a game as Persona 5; and I would rate it every bit as much a part of the "core series" as any of the numbered entries.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Game: Persona Q2 - New Cinema Labyrinth
Next Game: Persona 5 Tactica

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth.

Original Release: Nintendo 3DS, 2018. Version Reviewed: Nintendo 3DS, 2018.


THE PLOT:

During the period in which the Phantom Thieves have struck an uneasy alliance with "Detective Prince" Goro Akechi, the group decides to train in Mementos. However, something feels off, and they soon find themselves ejected into a bizarre world dominated by a superhero known as "Kamoshidaman" - who looks exactly like the gym teacher who so badly tormented Ann and Ryushi.

They discover that they are inside a movie, one that is rife with Shadows.  They are able to escape into a movie theater, but are unable to exit to the outside world. There are only two people inside: Nagi, the theater's manager, and Hikari, a painfully shy teen girl who is the only customer. Also present is "Doe," a mysterious creature who shows movies - films that are "wrong," showing stories about giving into authority and conforming to groups regardless of personal beliefs.

To escape this strange place, the Phantom Thieves will need to enter these movies and change them for the better. And as they do so, they learn that they are not the only group that has been brought here...

The Persona casts set out to "fix" a series of bizarre movies.

THE LANGUAGE ISSUE

Persona Q2 was the final 3DS game to receive a physical release in the West. By the time it came out, the 3DS was already effectively a dead system. As such, it's really no surprise that Atlus did not pour money into doing an English dub featuring three full casts made up of some heavily sought-after voice actors. Instead, they subtitled the dialogue while retaining the Japanese audio.

I honestly had no problem with this, and even found some fun in comparing the Japanese and English voices. I'm certainly not going to blame Atlus for refusing to throw a large amount of extra money to dub a large-cast release on an already obsolete system. That said, if you have difficulty with subtitled movies, this game probably won't be for you.

In the movie theater, which acts as the home base and quest hub.

CHARACTERS:

Persona Q2's most interesting character ends up being its most surprising inclusion: the female protagonist from Persona 3 Portable. When she is reunited with the Persona 3 cast, she finds that these familiar faces don't recognize her at all - because they are from the male protagonist's Persona 3. This creates some nice character moments, as she insists on acting cheerful even while privately feeling that she doesn't belong.

The game combines the casts of Personas 3 - 5. The first Persona Q, Shadow of the Labyrinth, did a decent job balancing two casts... but even there the strain showed, with many characters reduced to simply one or two traits. With three full casts to deal with, the sequel has trouble finding anything interesting for most of them to do. Futaba has an effective strand that spans the game's first half, with the painfully shy Hikari reminding her too much of how she was before meeting the Phantom Thieves. Aegis and Akechi get a few decent bits, and Teddie receives just enough prominence to make clear that his Japanese-language voice is even more aggravating than his English-language one. The rest of the supporting characters might as well not be there.

This situation is made worse by a change to the first game's format. In the first Persona Q, the characters interacted with each other through "Strolls," while you got additional bits of interaction and experience through optional side quests. This game eliminates the strolls, moving all its character asides to the quests. A poor decision, as character interactions are now brief and broken up by long stretches of wandering and random encounters.  Also, since these quests are entirely optional, no character arcs build for the Persona casts. As a result, the only substantial character development belongs to Hikari, while the characters actually used to sell the game are left all but entirely static.

Persona 3 Portable's female protagonist meets the Phantom Thieves.

GAMEPLAY:

Core gameplay is identical to the first Persona Q game. The movies the characters enter are dungeons, each designed around a theme: an urban superhero movie, a dinosaur-themed theme park, a sci-fi dystopia, and a brightly colored children's musical. You map each dungeon as you explore, fighting turn-based random encounters and exploiting enemy weaknesses. A boss waits at the bottom of each labyrinth, and you will need to employ careful strategies to defeat each boss.

As with the earlier title, all of this proves addictive. There's something very satisfying about putting the pieces of the maps into place, and the combat is well-designed and enjoyably challenging. Optional side missions give you a chance to level up further, with short explorations of dungeons you've already defeated. The gameplay is generally well-balanced, with bosses providing enough of a challenge to engage without being difficult enough to frustrate... though for masochists, higher difficulty levels are available.

The film-obsessed Hikari watches wide-eyed as
the theater's oppressive movies are made better.

THOUGHTS:

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth makes a strong first impression. The first hour of the game offers up a jaunty opening cutscene and a strong introduction to the basic scenario. The next few hours are also enjoyable, as you figure out (or, if you played the first game, are refreshed on) the mechanics while exploring a first dungeon that is terrific fun. When the heroes finally confront Kamoshidaman, there's even a Persona 5-like Calling Card delivery, complete with the instrumental for Life Will Change. At ten hours in, I fully anticipated delivering a glowing review.

Unfortunately, the spell fades in the subsequent dungeons. The second and third labyrinths do almost nothing to advance the plot, save for hammering some obvious and repetitive themes. They mainly serve to introduce more Persona casts to the increasingly bloated ensemble, while the main story basically stands still.

It isn't until the fourth (of five total) dungeons that the story actually comes into focus. There are some effective scenes once that happens... but by that point, most of my emotional investment had faded, and so even these well-written moments didn't hit as strongly as they should have.

As with the first Persona Q, the story is centered around Q2's original character - Zen and Rei in the earlier game, Hikari in this one. The first game made Zen and Rei playable characters, which increased player connection to them. In this game, Hikari is an NPC (you do act as her once - but even then, it's in entirely scripted encounters), and so we are never as connected to her as we were to Zen and Rei.

Even with regard to gameplay, which is this title's strongest point, it just isn't as good a title as its predecessor. The maps are simpler, with relatively few creative puzzles or curveballs. The final boss is tedious, an otherwise straightforward boss battle but with an aggravating "Retake" move that requires you to periodically redo a turn. This is an utterly pointless bit of business that doesn't make the battle more challenging in any way; it simply makes it take longer.

The Phantom Thieves in "Kamo City,"
their introduction to this bizarre world.

OVERALL:

Persona Q2 disappointed me, which may be why I'm focusing so much on the negatives. Let me emphasize, then, that this remains an enjoyable game overall, with engaging combat and mapmaking mechanics. But after an excellent first Act, the story stalls for much of the running time - likely in part because it's overburdened by cramming in the full casts of all three "modern" Persona games.

This is not a bad game. But even the things it does well were done better by the previous Persona Q, which is also more widely available. Given that, for all but die hard completists I would recommend playing Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, and giving New Cinema Labyrinth a pass.


Overall Rating: 5/10.

Previous Game: Persona 5 - Dancing in Starlight
Next Game: Persona 5 Strikers

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

Persona 5.

Original Release: Playstation 3, Playstation 4, 2016. Version Reviewed: Playstation 4 "Royal" Version, 2019.


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!

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.

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.

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).

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.

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

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

Original Release: Playstation, 2000. Version Reviewed: Playstation, 2000.

THE PLOT:

Maya Amano is suffering from a serious case of deja vu. Ever since her chance encounter with high school senior Tatsuya Suou, she has been unable to shake the sense that she should know him - even though he's a complete stranger to her.

A story about a mysterious being called "the Joker," who will kill on request for anyone who dials their own phone number, brings Maya to Tatsuya's school. She and her friend Ulala corner the Joker in the school's clock tower, along with police detective Katsuya Suou - Tatsuya's older brother. The killer easily overpowers them, however, and they survive only because of the intervention of Tatsuya, who seems far more powerful than should be possible, and who knows far too much.

When Katsuya is removed from the case, the three continue their investigation with the help of some reluctant allies: Baofu, an extortionist with links to organized crime; Nate, the young heir to the Nanjo group, who has a personal connection with the forces supporting Joker; and Ellen, a model with surprising knowledge of rumors, fortunes, and Personas. Arrayed against them is The New World Order, a group of criminals, politicians, and members of the elite who believe they can usher in a utopia - at the cost of ending the world!


CHARACTERS:

This is a direct sequel and counterpart to Persona 2: Innocent Sin, so it should be no surprise that the characters from that game reappear here. Maya is now the player character and Tatsuya a supporting character. Ironically, this flattens Maya's personality, which is a pity as she was arguably the strongest character in the previous game. Tatsuya fares much better; as the one person who remembers the events of Innocent Sin, he is burdened with a secret that must never be shared, which leaves him actively avoiding his former friends while also attempting to protect them by discouraging their investigation.

This is the only Persona game with adults as the main characters. This allows for some interesting dynamics that would be difficult to replicate with high school students. Katsuya and Baofu form an engaging double act. The dutiful cop and the shady criminal initially despise each other, to the point where they sometimes seem ready to come to blows, but they (of course) gradually develop mutual respect and understanding. Katsuya worries about his younger brother, particularly given his recently changed behavior. Meanwhile, Ulala has projected her own insecurities onto her friend, resulting in a seething envy of Maya's beauty and success. As with Innocent Sin, I will say simply that this is an altogether more complex layer of characterization than you would expect in a 20-year-old PS1 game.

An early enemy provides hints to a forgotten past...

THE CHOICE:

Eternal Punishment has stronger links to the original game than Innocent Sin had, with the first game's Nanjo (Nate in this version) and Elly (Ellen) getting major supporting roles. Early in the game, you will receive a choice to create a rumor regarding a meeting with either a man or a woman. Depending on your choice, one of these two will join the party for roughly half the game.

I strongly recommend saving right before making this choice. After saving, select the female option to play through Ellen's first dungeon. You would be doing yourself a grave disservice by missing out on this dungeon, which is the most narratively interesting one of all three PS1 games, and which also stands as a pretty good short story in its own right. After that dungeon is complete, I would recommend re-loading and selecting the male option, then playing the rest of the game through from there. Everything after the first dungeon in each path is roughly the same... but Nate's links to the New World Order mean that his path offers a lot of little story-related details that bring the plot more fully to life.


GAMEPLAY:

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment makes heavy use of the assets from Innocent Sin. The settings are the same, most of the dungeon maps are the same (with plot events deliberately echoing similar ones from the previous game). For whatever reason, the PSP version of Eternal Punishment was never released outside of Japan, leaving me to play the PS1 version of Eternal Punishment. This leads to slightly fuzzier visuals and clunkier in-game menus; but once I adjusted to those, the gameplay itself was effectively identical - plot and characterization advanced mainly in conversations held in quest hubs, shops, and rooms; the rest being dungeon crawling to plot objectives/bosses, with random battles along the way.

Difficulty is definitely higher than in Innocent Sin - I suspect the PSP version of Innocent Sin balanced the difficulty curve of the original. Still, though it's a reasonably hard game in places, it has very few sudden difficulty spikes. Most roadblocks are best solved not by grinding, but by visiting The Velvet Room and fusing higher-level Personas. In short, combat strategy ends up counting for more than mindless grinding does, which I greatly appreciated.

A late-game enemy is a reflection of the past.

THOUGHTS:

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is by far the best of the PS1 Persona series. It will not surpise me if I end up ranking it as the best of the series, period. It is a retro game - Modern gamers approaching it will have to adjust to less detailed visuals and clunkier mechanics than modern games offer. Within that limitation, however, it is enormously involving, challenging in a way that doesn't involve endless grinding or cheap luck-based mechanics, and ultimately rewards the gamer's patience with both a fine game and a fine story.

It does strike me as odd that, for a very long time, this was the only Persona 2 available in the West. I can only imagine how odd it must have been to play a game that was so clearly the second half of an extended story. Thankfully, the localization here did not repeat the mistakes of the initial Persona translation - The action definitely takes place in Japan, and all references to Innocent Sin are retained (including a few full flashbacks). But it's very clearly the second half of the story - It's by far the better half, but it unquestionably assumes that you've already played the earlier title.

That said, all I have left to offer are superlatives. The Nate/Ellen choice offers intrinsic replay value, as each path offers not only a unique dungeon but significant amounts of unique dialogue. The story itself is well-presented, mysteries building throughout roughly 50 hours of game time. The main characters are all flawed in their own ways, but are ultimately likable people, and the climax carries a startling amount of emotional weight... particularly if you make choices that allow certain characters to recall the events of Innocent Sin, which results in a poignant epilogue.

Don't get me wrong - This is an old game, and it looks and plays like one. If you're able to accept that, though, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment brushes very close to being a masterpiece in its own right... and if you take it together with its predecessor, it actually strengthens Innocent Sin in retrospect.

I flat-out loved this. Given how cheap it is to download from the Playstation Store, there's no question that it offers retro gamers good value for their money.


Overall Rating: 10/10.

Previous Game: Persona 2 - Innocent Sin
Next Game: Persona 3

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads

Persona 2: Innocent Sin.

Original Release: Playstation, 1999. Version Reviewed: PSP, 2011.

THE PLOT:

In the city of Sumaru, rumors are becoming reality. When high school students Tatsuya, Lisa, and Eikichi are targeted by the Joker, a mysterious being who grants wishes, they team up to uncover his identity. They are joined by Maya, a young journalist, and her assistant Yukino, who experienced a similar brush with the supernatural a few years previously.

They soon discover that a cult known as The Masked Circle is working with Joker, using crystal skulls to gather energy to bring rumors to life - even the most outlandish and apocalyptic of rumors. As Tatsuya and his friends follow Joker's trail to the caverns beneath a shrine, they find themselves coming face to face not only with the dark powers of the present, but also with the forgotten secrets of their own past - and the "sin" Joker condemns them for!


CHARACTERS:

Of the three Persona games made for the original Playstation, Persona 2: Innocent Sin has by far the best fleshed out and most likable main characters. Eikichi is the would-be rocker with a shady reputation, but he uses his status to protect the weaker students at his school and to keep bullies in check. The outwardly confident Lisa is secretly insecure, her Anglo ancestry having left her a perpetual outsider in the only society she's ever known. Maya's relentless positivity has a vaguely manic edge to it. Even the player character, Tatsuya, gets reasonable characterization, with it clear that he's a loner largely by choice and that he's troubled by pieces of a past he can't quite remember.

Much of the story, particularly in the first (better) half, revolves around these characters and their memories. Their interactions are often funny and charming, and I became attached to them even when the plot occasionally lost me. Never mind how impressive the character work is for a retro game - These characters stand up well against many in modern titles!

Tatsuya and friend battle demons - when they aren't chatting with them...

GAMEPLAY:

Gameplay is similar to the first Persona. Story and characterization is advanced in shops, rooms, and houses in which you, as Tatsuya, are able to talk with both your party members and any NPCs that might be in the area. Generally, it's worth visiting each available place between dungeons, as story advancement leads to new dialogue options. Navigation has also been greatly improved, wuth it vastly easily to go to your desired setting. 

The bulk of the gameplay is, once again, dungeon crawling and leveling up through random encounters. The dungeon crawling is no longer first person. You now are above and behind Tatsuya as you guide him through dungeons, which makes it easier to keep track of where you are. Combat is a mix of random encounters and demon negotiation. Combat is adequate turn-based, and the addition of an "auto-battle" makes encounters less cumbersome. Negotiation has been adjusted and feels much less arbitrary than in its predecessor.

Difficulty is much lower than the first game. I'd argue that a lot of the combat is too easy; save for boss fights, in most encounters you'd be fine to just activate the auto-battle and walk away.  On the plus side, deliberate grinding is largely unnecessary - You'll level up enough moving through the dungeons that you should have no problem holding your own against the enemy bosses.

Believe it or not, this sort of makes sense in context.

THOUGHTS:

Persona 2: Innocent Sin features many improvements over the original game. Visually, there's more detail in every setting your characters visit, and the dungeons are more varied. It's clearly an archive game. Unlike the original, though, it's reasonably visually appealing, showing evidence of the time, care, and skill put into its production.

The main characters all feel like fully-formed human beings, ones that the player will come to like and enjoy spending time with. The plot's setup is intriguing, as the characters' repressed memories gradually surface during their pursuit of Joker. As much as I really do like the first Persona, for all of its intermittent clunkiness, I found myself quickly agreeing with the conventional wisdom that the second game improved upon it in every respect.

I would stand by that assessment for the first two-thirds of the game. As long as the story centers around the characters, their pasts, and the Joker curse, Innocent Sin is excellent. These threads, however, are mostly resolved around the two-thirds mark - and the final third is far the weaker for it.

The story gets increasingly outlandish in its late going, but there are plot mechanics that justify this. Even the infamous inclusion of Hitler as a boss enemy in the later stages is just about reasonable given certain plot turns. But while the earlier parts of the game were well-paced with steady and gradual revelations, the final part becomes aimless and attenuated, with long stretches of dungeon crawling leading to only the most minor of plot advancement.

In short: Innocent Sin's story absolutely had me... and then it lost me. A well-judged final dungeon and a genuinely surprising resolution offset some of the late game issues, but I can't help but think that a more streamlined version of the final Act would have been preferable.

The PSP version, which is the only version available in the West, has an added "Theater" mode, allowing players to play through three Visual Novel-style stories featuring the characters. Two of these are just two halves of the same story, while the third's overreliance on pitfalls as a mechanism becomes frustrating. Still, this is a fun addition - Particularly since the characters are so appealing that it's nice to just spend more time with them.

An earlier draft of this review gave Innocent Sin a "6," the same score I awarded to the first game. However, on replay, I think the strength of the first two thirds combines with a very effective ending to justify a slightly higher score. But if the final third was as strong as the rest, then I would be awarding at least an "8" and probably a "9" - because I found this to be excellent right up until it, abruptly, wasn't.


Overall Rating: 7/10.

Previous Game: Shin Megami Tensei - Persona

Next Game: Persona 2 - Eternal Punishment

Review Index

To receive new review updates, follow me:

On BlueSky:

Follow @RandomMusings09 on BlueSky

On Threads:

Follow@randommusings09 on Threads