Number 66: Persona 5
Persona 5 is the most stylish game I’ve ever played. The music, menus, transitions, and animations are all cool as hell. It has a whole 70′s spy/heist vibe that isn’t appealing to me at all. But it works and I am in love with it.
Persona 5 does the same thing the past 2 games in the series have done: puts you in the shoes of a high school transfer student in a new city in Japan. This time, there is a series of accidental deaths in the city, but instead of jumping into a TV or heading into a demon tower in the special secret 25th hour, you use a mysterious app on your phone to enter peoples’ hidden alternate dimensional mind palaces based on their secret misdeeds. Like you do.
The Persona games have always had killer soundtracks, and P5 is no exception. If you told me your game had jazzy j-pop spy music, I’d probably smile and nod politely while mentally giving the game a pass. Also, it’s a Persona soundtrack so you think it’s in another language then as you listen, you gradually realize it’s actually in English. If you're listening to lyrics, it’s all kind of fleeting and insubstantial. If you let the voice be another instrument in the song? Well...I like Persona’s music a whole lot.
As for the game’s style, it’s really second to none. I can show you better than I can tell you.
Styyyyyyyyle
You’re exploring bustling Tokyo, attending classes at Shujin Academy, forming relationships with people, and whupping demons’ asses in weird mind palaces by way of glorious turn-based battle.
For all of the things that Make Persona 5 great, there are some real missed opportunities for sure.
- The game’s plot revolves around changing the hearts of people who have done some bad shit. Some of the people who oppose what you’re doing claim that you’re imposing your own morality and taking a person’s free will away. I wish the game had explored this further, but instead it’s brushed off as “We’re doing the right thing....right?” Not a big deal, just a missed opportunity that might be too deep for a Persona game featuring dick monsters and batting cage minigames.
- The cast just isn’t that likable. I felt really invested in Persona 3′s characters. I felt like I knew who Junpei, Akihiko, Mitsuru, and the others were by the end of that game. In Persona 4 I had a genuinely difficult time deciding whether to pursue a romantic relationship with Chie or Yukiko. I just didn’t feel any warmth toward Persona 5′s cast. They frequently either felt like caricatures (Yosuke, Futaba) more than people, or simply weren’t very likable (Ann, Ryuji). I didn’t hate them, they were just...fine. Some of the side characters had more interesting stories than the main cast.
- For a story that is about rebels on the fringes of society trying to effect change, it’s disappointing that the game mostly ignores sexual orientation as a topic, and fumbles it badly when it does come up. The guys go to the beach to pick up ladies but the only one interested in them is a swishy, over-the-top gay guy. Zoinks! Run away!!!1
- The game dragged on about 20 hours too long (My final clock time was 125 hours). I thought I was at the end a couple of times only to have something else crop up. One fake-out end is cute. More than that is....c’mon.
- The game’s big plot twist asks the player to accept a few too many coincidences and conveniences. It does the Oceans 11 thing of “There was a secret subplot happening in the background that we didn’t let the viewer/player in on until after it all went down.” It felt like it was trying too hard to be clever.
That’s a pretty long list of complaints for one of my favorite games. It’s a testament to how much I love the rest of the package that I hold it in such high regard despite its shortcomings. It’s like a child that I love with all my heart and want to see do better. Besides, it’s got a kitty that turns into a van with kitty ears on it. If that won’t sell you on it, then nothing will.