I’m of the opinion that they could’ve gone a lot further with all of it, but they can’t really fully explore certain topics without stepping on some toes, something I’m not sure Persona was or will ever be ready/willing to do. The ones that stood out for me the most were questioning the real meaning of ‘justice’ and breaking free from the roles that society imposes on you. As far as themes go, I think P5 does a pretty solid job with the ones it chooses to explore. My favorites were probably Haru, Kawakami, Ryuji, Futaba and Ohya. I liked how they offered such a huge deviation from the main narrative while also having some ties to it at the same time. Having only experienced the Social Links from P3, P5’s Confidants were all really enjoyable. Even though I was always mostly focused on keeping up with my Confidants, there’s an insane amount of variety in the activities that you can partake in inside of what is essentially a very small and confined universe. Having 5 unique Social Stats means you’ll always be striving to better yourself, and this is accomplished through sections that are quite fun and interactive. Luckily, P5 has an array of things for you to do, all of which are incredibly compelling. But as much as I love the dungeon crawling half of Persona games, the mundane real life stuff is really what hits the spot for me. While I did become very fond of the puzzles and the action-oriented platforming sequences within the Palaces (special shoutout to Sae, Shido and Kaneshiro’s Palaces), I think having both styles of exploration helped strike an awesome balance in the overall “feel” of the game. Gameplay-wise, exploring a Palace feels like Persona’s attempt at modernizing its classic RPG formula, whereas traveling through Mementos harkens back to the series’ old style of gameplay. The aesthetic element of Persona 5 is such an essential part of its narrative that every polygon on your screen reads as a deliberate decision from a crew of dedicated game designers that yearned to make the most out of their vision for a grand adventure. The setting, the characters, the menus, the stylish UI, all of it. Everything in this game (and I mean EVERYTHING) is absurdly cool. I have never seen a game so disgustingly clean in my entire life. And needless to say, P5 managed to surpass even my most unreasonable expectations for it. Basically, I was in love with Persona 5 way before I even got around to playing it. Waiting for the Nintendo Direct that was rumored to reveal the modern Persona ports was excruciating, but I can still remember my excitement like it was yesterday. Soon after that, I became a member of the “port Persona 5 to the Switch” club. It changed my perspective on the entire JRPG genre and made me appreciate videogames as a storytelling medium on a whole other level. While the original Persona was a bit too hardcore for me, Persona 3 on the other hand was one of the best gaming experiences I had ever had at that point in my life. During the pandemic, I decided to give this series a try after years of being only slightly curious about it. However, it’s really difficult to sum up all of my thoughts and feelings about this game in the limited space that this review section provides for me, so I’ll just type for as long as I can and hopefully I’ll end up with something slightly coherent by the end. 145h 29m PlayedI could probably spend upwards of hundreds of hours trying to write the perfect review that would do Persona 5 the justice I believe it deserves.
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