Persona 5 deeply complex and deeply rewarding
WESTERN RPG’s have, in some part, taught us that the typical RPG experience is set in vast, high-fantasy worlds such as those brought to life in The Elder Scrolls and The Witcher. For anyone feeling fatigued at the thought of slogging through another 80hour fantasy epic, perhaps turn your attention towards Japanese RPG’s, or the newly-released Persona 5, to be specific.
Like its predecessors, Persona 5 is part social simulator, part dungeon crawler. By day, you experience life as a high school student - taking classes, visiting cafes, hanging out with friends etc. By night, you assume another persona, taking on the guise of the leader of the Phantom Thieves, a troupe of idealistic teenagers that infiltrate a parallel reality known as the Metaverse. The job of the Phantom Thieves is to find and steal Treasures from locations known as Palaces, which are themselves manifestations of the corrupted hearts of adults.
It’s a very typically Japanese concept - the innocence of youth coupled with matter-of-fact reasoning that leads to an odds-defying reformation of society. It may be typical, but it is an incredibly engaging ride from start to finish. It is also in the Metaverse that you will meet the Personas themselves - representations of people’s personalities manifesting as angels, demons or monsters of all shapes and sizes. Physical moves can be used to chip away at health points incrementally, but exploiting an elemental weakness elevates battles from turnbased slapsies to a flurry of crushing combos.
Persona 5’s combat draws inspiration from all the best elements of previous Persona games and is absolutely riveting as a result. While simply walking around and taking in Persona 5’s version of Tokyo is often breathtaking and always rewarding, you will always have your eye on the deadline by which you must steal Treasures. As such, it is up to the player to priotitise after-school and weekend activities. Attributes such as Knowledge, Charm, Proficiency, and Guts can be improved by studying, working in part-time jobs, crafting tools, or watching DVDs. In turn, these enable you to build deeper bonds with other characters to strengthen yourself and your cause.
Persona 5 is a deeply complex and deeply rewarding game. Surely, it is the best JRPG released in the past 5 years and ranks among the best from the past decade. If you are weary of the horse and sword, perhaps Persona 5 can convince you to take a jaunt into the wacky world of JRPG’s.