One of the best video games to be released recently this year is “Persona 5” with its great gameplay, story, and much more. Atlus and P Studio created this masterpiece of a video game for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 game systems. Here is my game review after playing this game for more than 200+ hours.
The story evokes so many emotions with a slight misstep
Atlus’ latest game title focuses on the main protagonist, who was blamed wrongly by a corrupt politician and was sent to Tokyo under the supervision of a certain individual. The theme of the game is all about students being manipulated by the corrupt adults and how they would exact their revenge without killing them.
As the story goes on, it gets more complicated with more elements adding into the mix, which makes it have a steady development and makes it more interesting.
The only misstep the game developers took was the part in the ending, which is a bit of a spoiler. All I can say is that it made it easier for players to finish compared to the previous titles in the franchise, which made them work for that better result.
Superb JRPG gameplay with small issues
When it comes to the “Persona” and “Shin Megami Tensei” franchise, Atlus never lets up with their superb Japanese role play gameplay. With “Persona 5,” the gameplay just got refined and got better compared to its predecessors like “Persona 4” and “Persona 3.” The standard jrpg gameplay is still there with attacks, magics, items, and the like and they added other features as well like tag team attacks, group attacks, exploiting weaknesses, and more.
The world exploration of the game is great as well even with the limitations of certain areas and time constraints. Players can stroll through the streets in the morning, afternoon, and in the evening, visit shops and arcades to meet up with other characters or do certain roles, and much more. In a whole, the exploration is quite extensive and does not feel that players are confined to certain areas only, except for certain parts of the story.
One of the notable features of this type of game is its relationship or social interaction with other characters in it, which also gives the protagonist bonuses, power ups, and access to other areas. This is an important feature to manage the results of the interactions could either give the players an advantage in the game or bring a negative attribute to their characters.
The game’s small missteps though are its camera control and the ability to hide behind cover. The camera control is slightly slow, and it will be hard for players who have quick reflexes to get used to because they might depend on it for looking out for enemies. Hiding behind cover looks a bit wonky too, and it needs time to get used to.
Sublime combination of modern day art and 3D graphics
The best way to describe “Persona 5’s” graphics is a combination of modern day art and 3D graphics. Atlus did not waste any resources when it came to designing their game, and everyone loved how it looked after its release. The 3D models are detailed with a lot of animation, and it felt like it was looking at an anime rather than static-looking 3D models like in the previous game titles.
Tokyo was designed perfectly, and the immersion was really good that you would not get bored going back to certain places on the map. While other minor characters are not detailed as the major characters, they are well animated in action.
Jazzy music blends well with battles and environment
The newest thing of this latest iteration of the “Persona” series is the jazzy music, which is perfect for the game. It perfectly blends well with the battles, story scenes, and even the environment whenever the protagonist walks through the streets of Tokyo. It's hip, and it does not drag that would bore players in the long game plays because it makes them bop their head and go with the beat.
The voice acting is quite good as well in both English and Japanese dubs, which is quite rare these days.
The English dub is not that over dramatic in acting, and it just goes well with the characters. I still prefer the Japanese version with its passionate voice acting, while not going over the border.
Replayability is high due to the features every player wants
This video game has a high replayability value as well due to the different features that make players want to play it over and over again. The most notable replayability feature is the new game plus after finishing the game once. They can just load their game saves again and retain certain items, features, and more to have an advantage over the game before their first gameplay.
Players can grind in this game as well with a certain dungeon that lets them fight against enemies to their hearts’ content until they run out of MP or healing items.
The side quests are great to go through as well, and they are not that complicated to solve.
“Persona 5” is one of the best JRPGs to play right now and I am proud to give it a solid 9 out of 10 points. A superb video game to the player with immersive and great gameplay, great jazzy music, perfect voice acting, modern art combined with its 3D graphics, and an emotional story with slight missteps only. I highly recommend fans to purchase their copies and play the game for many hours and playthroughs, and for the guys new to the series, they should play it at least once.
Check out the “Persona 5” Sizzle Trailer here.
