PERSONA 5
Jung-at-heart JRPG series unmasks its true power on PS4
Eyeballing the latest entry in the Shin Megami Tensei series, you’ll believe a graphic novel can come to life. Pause for breath? Impossible. Hit Options, and the protagonist whirls round, menu in tow, slamming his hand into your screen. Crimson swathes, stark monochrome details – it’s an everunfolding pop-up book from the sexiest circle of hell, like a mangaka’s dipped his magnum opus in acid jazz and battered you across the face with it. (And… yep, it turns out that’s your, er, thing.) Persona 5 is holding nothing back. After its essential PS Vita predecessor, it can’t afford to. Persona 4 Golden was many players’ first taste of the series, drawing them into a double life: by day, studying at school, joining clubs and making friends to level up; by night, entering the shadow realm to fight Jungian nightmare manifestations of characters’ real-world problems using ‘Persona’ powers. Relationships built up through charming daily interactions directly affect the moreish dungeon-crawling and deep turn-based combat, and vice versa.
It’s a brilliant conceit. From our hands-on with the English-language version of the new title, however, it’s clear its best self lies in Persona 5. So how is the formula streamlined? Like all things these days, via an app. Put the Midnight Channel’s time- and weather-dependent TV portal to the back of your mind: entering the shadow realm now is a simple matter of whipping out your smartphone, any time,
“IT’S AN UNFOLDING POP-UP BOOK FROM THE SEXIEST CIRCLE OF HELL.”
anywhere. It’s a clever change, seeking to curb the tendency to grind XP in one world over exploring the other. We’re assured that there are more cause-and-effect parallels than ever between the two to keep you and your fellow Phantom Thieves dimension-hopping.
One of those Phantom Thieves is new westerner Ann, and when we bump into her in the metro, humming placid and white below downtown Tokyo’s neon night, it’s obvious she’s got some troubles. Actually, that’s an understatement. No story spoilers here – but things get real dark, real fast.
MIND PALACE
Our girl needs help. School’s become unbearable for her, and other students, thanks to volleyball teacher Kamoshida. It’s time to round up the gang (rebel kid Ryuji and shape-shifting kitty guide Morgana), boot up the app and hurtle over to the other side in search of a solution. We’re dropped into the Palace, which throbs the purple-red of a fresh bruise and is haunted by lumbering suits of armour. Slipping into Stealth mode via o wreaths our protag in smoke. Aiming the camera at handily-placed cover (dungeons are now built bespoke for each boss, rather than the randomly-generated offerings of previous entries), we can creep by in a splatter of black and pink, sneaking up on enemies. q performs a throat-slitting Ambush and we’ve the advantage in our first battle.
We’ve three Shadows to face. Guitar licks unspool at a frantic pace as we cycle through options. Should we unleash our characters’ Personas on the hunt for a specific weakness? Or clobber ’em with a melee attack on e? Nope – we thump 8 to pull out our gun, then move the reticule to fire real-time rounds at foes. But our penchant for peacocking leaves our magazine empty and our health gauge heart nearly shattered. Fortunately, we hit our opponent’s sore spot (Fire-type attacks) on our next turn. Our reward is the chance to Baton Pass, or gift our turn to another player, so we chuck the extra move to Morgana, who’s got the capability to heal us. Time to finish this. A press of w triggers the series-staple All-Out Attack, and we’re briefly convinced we can see the telly melting under the dynamism of the pop art punch-up that ensues. And just when we think we’ve caught our breath, a bloody results screen yoinks it right back as our masked protag runs endlessly through onomatopoeic puffs of XP.
Unshackled from the limits of a handheld, Persona 5 is shockingly, achingly stylish, especially during boss battles. Rose petals flutter from the ceiling as a pink-Speedoed King Kamoshida holds court next to a sickeningly sexualised Valley Girl clone of Ann… and then erupts into a multi-limbed, tonguewaggling horror that’d give Junji Ito night terrors. The sheer power on display here is intoxicating; the depth of strategy needed (and mechanically, provided for) to nix this abomination the merest snifter of the complex challenges to come in the next 100 hours.
As Kamoshida’s castle crumbles and we sprint back to modern-day Tokyo, we can hear something else toppling too: Persona 4: Golden’s reign as PlayStation’s slickest JRPG. Take heart – come April, Persona 5 will be crushing fellow GOTY contenders underfoot. And they’ll probably enjoy it, too.
“GUITAR LICKS UNSPOOL AT A PACE; WE PULL OUT OUR GUN TO FIRE REAL-TIME ROUNDS AT FOES.”