Just wanted to say that I think that this is definitely the sound track of the year. The further I've reached in the game the more that's been solidified for me. I actually predict the Gb guys will give it the old "It doesn't hang here" during the game of the year, and cut it for some synth/cyberpunk/abstract/instrumental/indie soundtrack (and that's fine). For real though, the sheer amount of badassness that the ost emotes and the extent in which it amplifies the emotion for what's going on is beautiful. Props to the artists man. I'll be listening to this for a while.

Stumbled over this bit yesterday, and I can't say I'm surprised. This is basically why I listen to songs in languages I don't get. I think it works for most people who speak English too, in the same way. They don't exactly have textbook pronounciation on those vocals(more so in some songs than others, I couldn't tell you what the lyrics for Reach out to the Truth are), so they don't exactly register as English for me except for a few words here and there.

But does it run with this pack?

@redhotchilimist: So are those lyrics videos just interpretations and not official lyrics? I remember thinking some of them I saw felt off, but I assumed that was just Japan not fully grasping the English being used. If they're just best guesses that explains a lot. Those alternate lyrics for Rivers in the Desert definitely feel more natural from a linguistic and theme perspective.

@zeik: Rivers in the Desert is the only lyrics video I've seen yet for P5. I can only assume they're going by ear since they're presenting alternate takes on some of the lines.

I presume they're gonna release official lyrics later in some capacity. I just checked out the official lyrics for Reach out to the Truth, and I have no idea how anyone could interpret those just by hearing it.

Naked truth lies only if you realize

Appearing in nobody's eyes till they sterilize

Stop the guerrilla warfare to keep it fair

Bro change your rage to a smarter greater cause

Another shout out here for "Beneath the Mask". In an already long game, this song effectively bans fast travel just so I can sink deeper into it. Every. Time.

@redhotchilimist: To be fair, the english lyrics in Persona 5 tracks is way more legible than the one in P3 or P4 tracks.

I think it's very telling I've clicked through every video and just been like 'yeeaah.' Persona 5 has a great soundtrack, each dungeon, each off the fly incidental moment that totally didn't need it's own theme, like the exam music.. Just damn.

I love the way this song starts as kind've foreboding and then just busts into a jam.

No doubt. The Engrish in P4 was particularly bad, most of the lyrics are just impossible to discern. The singer for P5 pronounces English words way more clearly than anything from P3 and P4.

Honestly the soundtrack has been my biggest disappointment with the game. There's a lot of it and it's all technically excellent. I just don't feel the soundtrack will have the staying power of the Persona 3, 4, or Q has had with me. This soundtrack won't be on permanent loop in my head past this year. The other soundtracks are much rougher than this one but I feel that what made them unique and interesting. My first impression of this soundtrack was it sounded like it was a perfectly distilled persona soundtrack it is the generic soundtrack of persona. It wasn't a Persona 5 soundtrack but just a Persona soundtrack to me.

In more specifics pretty much none of the out of dungeon and social linking music has even a tenth of the staying power of Persona 3 and 4. That's probably due to a real lack of vocal tracks. Beneath the Mask is great and it's the only vocal track of the bunch. The only dungeon theme that really sticks with me is the Casino's again the lone vocal track in normal dungeon themes.

The battle theme falls way short of Reach out to the truth, both Mass Destruction, Wiping all out, and Both versions Light a Fire Up in the Night. It might have the edge on Time to Make History which was my previous least favorite. Really the "You'll never see it coming" is it's only elevating factor. When I blaze through fights too fast to hear that part the song just has zero impact.

Rivers is the Desert is absolutely phenomenal might be the best boss theme in the series. The end credits song might be the best one of those to date as well. The opening song is better than Golden's but not good enough for me to relaunch the game every time I played it.

P.S. Now that Nier soundtrack though. That's my soundtrack of the year. Certainly biased in that it heavily reminds me of .hack music and I intensely love .hack music. Hear that first could have majorly dulled my enjoyment of this soundtrack.

@ryuku_ryosake: To each their own and all that, but I have to very strongly disagree that it's a "generic Persona soundtrack." The acid jazz influences very distintinctly set a lot of this game's soundtrack apart from any other Persona game. Love it or hate it, the soundtrack was clearly orchestrated to suit this game and only this game. Try to imagine "Life will change" in any other Persona game. It doesn't fit even a little.

This topic went on for two weeks with only this track being mentioned just now is a goddamn crime. It's the coolest, most badass ambient track of the entire franchise!

@ryuku_ryosake: Yeah man I have no idea what to tell you because listening to the soundtracks of 3, 4, and 5 back to back for the past week just reminded me about how generic 3's 00's j-rock/electronica soundtrack is apart from Mass Destruction, Iwatodai Station and Joy, and how dull most of 4's dungeon music can be. Last Surprise is the best battle theme IMO.

@zeik: I would say that track from Persona 3 almost feels right at home on the Persona 5 soundtrack just change vocals to match and conversely the Persona 5 tracks could apply to Persona 3. Or maybe the other Persona games just had a wider range of influences compared this game that throws me. The greater cohesion in music styling might make it feel safer to me which gives me that generic feeling. I feel like the other games could have covered the same musical ground in a couple of tracks for a dungeon, season, event, or location. There was a real lack of surprise factor to the music for me in this game.

@zeik: The official 3-disc soundtrack that came out in January has a booklet with lyrics in it. The lyrics videos that were uploaded before that likely only have interpretations, but some have tried fixing their mistakes by adding annotations after the fact. You can see the official lyrics for some of the songs here: http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Persona_5_Original_Soundtrack (Some of the song names and descriptions can be considered as spoilers, so anyone who has yet to finish the game, please don't click that link.)

I hope that Meguro quote doesn't cause people to think that no thought goes into the writing of the lyrics of these songs.

Sure, if you look them up, most of the songs in the original releases of 3 and 4 have some really awkward wording in them. They get the point across and I personally find them really endearing, but they're nonsensical at times like @redhotchilimistpointed out. But ever since Persona 4 Golden the songs have been much more legible.

So, what happened? Simply put, they hired someone that speaks fluent English! Benjamin Franklin (I'm not sure if that's his real name, but god I hope so) took over as lyricist for P4G, and he's been Meguro's go-to guy ever since. And for good reason: He's really fucking good at his job. For funsies, let's do a comparison of some fan favorites. I've marked the lyrics as spoilers, so that this post doesn't wear out folks' scroll wheels too much.

Reach Out To The Truth:

Heaven:

And from 5, here's "Life Will Change," and "The Whims of Fate."

Life Will Change:

The Whims of Fate:

So, this is kind of a funny situation. Meguro's apologizing because the songs are not in English for us, the international folk, but to better the experience of the Japanese audience. When, in fact, I feel like the poignancy of these lyrics adds to the game in a big way, and it's something that was kind of missing from previous numbered entries.

@cettu: Yeah, the actual lyrics are large reason P5's soundtrack stands out imo. I don't often pay attention to lyrics, even when I can understand them, which is why I still enjoyed P3 and P4's soundtracks despite most of it sounding like gibberish, but having well written and comprehensible lyrics does add something to P5 that the others didn't. One of the reason I like Beneath the Mask so much is because the lyrics so perfectly fit the theme of the game.

@ryuku_ryosake: I don't hear it. That track is arguably closer to P5 than most of the soundtrack (barring maybe a few of the rock heavy tracks every Persona and SMT game has to some degree), but it's still pretty distinctly different than what P5 is going for. It's got a jazzy vibe to it, but it's much more sinister and puts you on edge (which is true of a lot of P3) compared to the style of Jazz that P5 is using. I'm trying to think of a scene in P5 where you could naturally fit that track in that wouldn't feel out of place, or simply inferior to the track used in P5 and nothing comes to mind. Conversely, most of P5's tracks would clash considerably with the vibe P3 is going for.

You saying I can thank Benjamin Franklin for NONONONO YESYESYESYES too?

I'm only several dungeons in, but Last Surprise and Life Will Change have been getting a whole lot of play with me.

Last Surprise took some time to really sink in since I finished fights too fast. It wasn't until I read the lyrics and listened to the entire song that I got into it. The "You'll never see it coming" part ending up as my ringtone" and that was partially fueled by the "Moe" meme.

Life Will Change was instantly amazing since the intro. I'm still waiting to see what boss the lyrics apply to.

For a bit of context I'll add that I've been playing Persona music on loop for years. It does wonders for design work and I've literally pulled from Persona 3, FES, P3P, Persona 4, P4G, Persona 4 Arena games, and now Persona 5.

@redhotchilimist: I dunno if you're trying to throw shade, but I think that song's actually really hype!

Anyway, it's got Lotus Juice (the male singer), who usually writes his own lyrics, so I think it's all him.

Speaking of Lotus Juice, there was a pretty fun interview with him a couple of months back: http://www.anime-now.com/entry/2017/02/12/000011 It gives some insight into his past, and his work on the Persona series.

One day when he was back in the States, however, he got a call from a friend who told him Shoji Meguro–a composer at game developer ATLUS–was looking for a rapper who could perform in English. However, Lotus Juice didn’t accept the job right away. His response to the call? “Give me the beat.”

“I gotta listen to the song first; I can’t just get paid and write to it. I don’t work like that,” he told me, “He sent me the beat and it was amazing. I was like, ‘This is game music?’ It was hard to believe.”

The song in question that Lotus Juice had been sent was “Mass Destruction.” It became the first job the musician had ever done as a paid recording artist.

Not only did he create tunes for the game, but he also helped liven up the fanbase with live Persona concerts.

Oh, and yeah, in case somebody didn't know, live Persona concerts are really a thing. And what a thing!

God I wish I could go sometime.

The next one's gonna be in August: http://personacentral.com/large-scale-persona-live-event-announced-august-2-2017/

@cettu: I love Ying Yang! Just looking for an excuse to post it really. Thanks for the interview, I can't believe he's been going through that game 8 times.

I've got to say I find the lyrics distracting in P5 in a way they weren't in 3 and 4. I'm not sure if it's the mix, the singer's voice or the fact that they are more coherent but still aren't very good, but something doesn't click with me. I still think Life Will Change and Rivers in the Desert are standout tracks, I just wish the lyrics didn't bug me.

And to share a really unpopular opinion: I don't like Beneath the Mask. It's an awfully slow-tempo, low-energy song for something that feels like the most used track in the game and I got tired of it very quickly. If they had kept that for rainy day theme and had something more peppy the rest of the days it would be fine, but as is I found myself wish the game had an Change of Seasons equivalent.

@thewildcard: that track is good. The random french "lyrics" inserted in the middle fit persona 3 perfectly. I agree Persona 5 could've used a stronger daytime track. Tokyo by daylight is strong but it's not as good as Change of Seasons or Your Affection. That being said, the rest of the soundtrack is exceptional and Behind the Mask definitely makes up for the lack of incredible daytime track.

@thewildcard: Change of Seasons was a daytime theme, wasn't it? I don't know why you're comparing it to P5's nightime theme. Both P3 and P4 had relatively chill nighttime tracks too.

@zeik: That's true, maybe I remember it being used more often than it was; or maybe I should have compared Mask to the P3 dorm music. Or I just heard it so much I group it in the "after school" category!

@thewildcard: Night time is a chill low-energy time though? The song fits.

I think that's one of the best songs in the game.

Hey I just want to say in January of 2015, I had the absolute pleasure of seeing Shihoko Hirata (P4 vocalist,) Yumi Kawamura, and Lotus Juice (P3 vocalists) live singing persona songs in Arizona. It was their first time performing in America...and it was at a little anime con in Arizona.

I drove 14 hours to go see them. Best weekend of my life. They performed all the hits. It was incredible. I'd go see Lynn in a heartbeat if she and Shoji Meguro came to perform persona 5 songs in america.

Just driving by to say the sixth palace music riiiiiips. I'm gonna blast this shit in my car

Whims of Fate

I'll give you the cheating answer of you could probably slot it anywhere in little slice of Persona 3 that is Mementos fairly fine. But seriously Mementos feels like a huge missed opportunity for the soundtrack. The Mementos theme is probably the weakest track in the whole game and is also just about one of the ones you hear the most of. It does it basic task of give a completely different vibe from the rest of like it should. As Mementos is basically a completely different game running parallel to your Phantom Thieving and I really found the the battle theme to completely clash with it. Last Surprise makes sense for a cool calm heist but Mementos is half a suspenseful trip into the unknown and a smash and grab. A second battle theme for Mementos would have been great.

@ryuku_ryosake: I'll give you that the Mementos theme is pretty forgettable, but given its strong similarities to Tartarus it's largely what I expected.

I wouldn't say no to a Mementos exclusive battle theme, but that's kinda wishful thinking, given how few JRPGs ever include multiple normal battle themes. And hey, there's always the costume DLC with their extra themes if you really want to mix things up. Given Mementos relative disconnect from the story I find it a good place to mess around with that stuff.

The Catherine DLC makes for a decent Mementos theme imo.

This ended up being my favorite song in the game:

Also (kinda minor spoilers?) playing the instrumental version during the first phase and lyrics version for the second was amazing.

I had to buy the soundtrack for this game. It's just so damn good.