Persona 5

Quantity certainly does not equate to Quality. But videogames are one of the most expensive hobbies to have; so I can see the consumer’s argument of getting a “bang for your buck”. Game developers and publishers know this and, sometimes, the final product loses some quality due to the diluting of the core gameplay loop with repetitive and meaningless modes and activities.

I played Persona 5 for 133 hours and 8 minutes. That’s definitely a “bang”. For 60 euros, there aren’t a lot of audiovisual products that give that amount of content to the consumer. Yet, what stood out the most from this experience was how Persona manages to keep itself fresh and varied throughout the hours. When staleness starts to naturally creep in… BANG! Some immaculately-written character is introduced, or a new meaningful side activity is unlocked.

I had never played a Persona game; still, I can confidently say that Atlus and Katsura Hashino delivered a masterpiece that kills a lot of Role-playing design sacred cows.

Ok, the breaking of preconceived design structures was not the first aspect to stand out about this game (but, you notice that pretty early). The First thing is its looks and sound. What a stylish piece! The anime-look is not a convention; is an identity that oozes from the screen with such bravado that one is instantly engulfed in its rules. This artistic confidence helps a lot in establishing connections with the different characters and, by so, with the meta-narrative. A smart use of primary and secondary colors, coupled with aggressive lines in the geometry, rapidly tell you how’s it going to be: Are you in for this cool as hell train ride? And if you are still on the fence, listen to this groovy jazz-rock and tell me if you don’t want to go on an adventure with these cats.

After that audiovisual feast, rapidly comes the realization that you are in the presence of a very coherent game. You are introduced to the main mechanics and systems early on, and it is easy to notice that Persona 5 molds its action and pace in tandem with the effects and spectacle being presented on screen, either during the moment-to-moment combat or the activities’ loop you can do in the world.

Each encounter is gratifying for several reasons. First, enemy design; they are called “shadows” but they couldn’t be more different than what we commonly conceive as a shadow. They are colorful, vibrant and varied. Varied indeed, since many of their designs are rebellious takes on creatures from our histories and mythologies. One of my favorites is Mara, from Buddhism, which is depicted as a gigantic green phallic creature, with tentacles, riding a side-cart with blades in front.

Secondly, the rhythm of the battles perfectly transmits all that previously mentioned edginess. You soon realize that instead of brute-forcing yourself to victory, by just being a “level” above your opponent, you should test different attack elements on a foe until you find its weakness and from that point on just exploit that. The game, being turn-based and menu driven, has some ingenious user-interface mechanics that change the typical pace of turn-based combat into a fast and stylish action, without losing its strategic core. For example, after testing your arsenal with a type of enemy and discovering its weakness, the next time you face that same type, you just have to press one button, instead of navigating menus, and your character will automatically suggest the best option, based on your previous research. If you hit its weakness, a stagger state occurs and you get an additional turn with that character and you get to choose to either exploit that weakness once again or “Baton Pass” to a comrade that may also exploit another weakness of that or another enemy on screen. When all are staggered, you get an additional “All-out” attack that uses all your team for an immense damage attack or a finisher. Over-levelled enemies that used be a grind in other RPGs, can end up as quick battles. There is a catch though: your characters are also susceptible to this “weakness-memory” system, which can lead to rapid Game Overs if you don’t maintain your wits throughout that fast-paced dance.

Also, for people who get bored with menu-centric controls in this genre of games, I would like to reassure that you will never grow tired of the looks and snappiness of this user-interface.

Another essential component of Persona 5 and its fight against staleness, dilution and repetitiveness in long-form RPGs, is its gameplay loop.

The game works essentially on a timer. Contrary to the majority of RPGs you don’t have complete freedom to tackle your main and side objectives when you want. If you are like me and hate time-attacks, timed levels or any other variation of that type of gaming, in conjunction with loving the element of open-ended storytelling of RPGs, you will adore Persona 5. What?! Yup, it works. It works great! And I would like to see this structuring implemented in many more RPGs.

The premise is that the character you role-play is on probation for a year. And throughout that calendar year you will make ~2 choices each day (for afternoon and evening). You have ~4 main activities you can spend your limited time on: Story dungeon, Interact with other characters and raise the level of your “social link”, Interact with places and businesses in Tokyo to raise your own “social stats”, and Side dungeons to get even stronger for future main battles. All these activities are somewhat mutually exclusive; so, you have to know how to prioritize, always having in mind that if you don’t complete the currently active Story dungeon within the time narratively-allotted to it, Game Over occurs.

There is a consequence to all these planning and mental gymnastics: even the smallest side-activity is meaningful. Not only are you trading limited time for stats-increase, but also you can’t buffer past mistakes by spending extra time, like in other RPGs. The role you are playing feels more like real life and less like a game, because it’s a “non-pause” character evolution to you and the ones around you.

Is it too overwhelming for people who buy and play videogames for escapism and, precisely, don’t want to think about the realisms of scheduling and decision-making in a world with resources’ scarcity? I don’t know. To each its own. But, in defense of Persona 5, you can’t fight in real life a “gigantic green phallic creature, with tentacles, riding a side-cart with blades in front” by summoning your inner persona, represented by Captain Kidd, the legendary Scottish corsair, or Johanna, the first and only woman-Pope.

If all these stylistic choices don’t appeal to you, either because you don’t like anime or fantasy, I have one last proposal: adult, strong and nuanced socio-political writing.

All the stylish effects, redesigned mythological creatures and on-the-clock action and choices all fill-in an impressive (100+ hours) canvas where important political issues are painted and discussed. You will have conversations with your Confidants where topics like sexual harassment, work-force exploitation and money laundering are addressed with care. As well as, an active role in a narrative that questions the player what is the meaning of social reform and the best way to achieve it, with cleverly implemented twists to make you go deeper than the typical notions of “good” and “bad”, and think about human nature and the philosophical conflicts that arise from that core.

There is much more to say about Persona 5. At the same time, there isn’t. You will probably come for the looks and music. You will continue playing because the systems are so refreshing. And you will be sad that it ended because of the characters and the stories.