Jason From Kotaku
In the wake of Breath of the Wild turning out to be one of the greatest video games ever made, I have some bad news for your time and wallet: Persona 5 might be up there, too.For the past few weeks I’ve been playing an early copy of the fifth Persona, logging around 42 hours with Atlus’s latest gang of rowdy high school students, which means I’m probably not even halfway done yet. Kirk’s in-depth review will be up closer to launch (April 4), but for now, I’ve played enough to at least give you the short version: It’s fantastic.
The game is still a bit of an acquired taste. There are a lot of menus to navigate (though they’re easily among the most beautiful menus I’ve ever seen in a game), and you’ll be spending a lot of time reading dialogue and fighting through very similar battles. But Persona offers a sense of rhythm unlike any other game. It’s weird, yet compelling, and once you get settled into the flow it’s hard to put down. And Persona 5 eases you into that flow better than any game in the series. If it can keep that up for the entire experience, this might be the game to finally make Persona a household name.
There’s an unfuckwithable coolness in the air when I play the opening 20 or so hours of Persona 5. Persona 5 is, in every essence of its carved-out blend of the JRPG and slice-of-life genre, a Persona game; just like its widely adored predecessors Persona 4 and Persona 3. But even more so, it’s a showcase of unmatchable lavish style. As if its developers saw the praise of the pristine design that permeated within Persona 3, Persona 4, and Catherine, and proceeded to say, “Hold my drink,” before cooking up something even more jaw-dropping. The result is a game where just its menus will dazzle you, but it's everything else that takes your breath away.
Persona 5 is also all about style, with transitioning in and out of battle so seamlessly. There’s a certain level of stealth attached to the gameplay, even more so than it has been in the past. Instead of simply walking up behind an enemy and smacking them on the head before it could flail around, the protagonist is given the ability to hide in the shadows in order to get the jump on his opponents. Even when they’re facing the protagonist, so long as they’re not alerted, you’ll have the ability to get four shots in before they can. It’s has turned out to be a far better system than it appeared on paper, especially considering it actually feels much faster and more engaging to get into battle than ever before.
It already feels like there are so many activities available to raise your in game human traits like charm, knowledge, and guts, and I can’t wait to tackle a certain food challenge like the Beef Bowl one in Persona 4. Social links are also back in the form of cooperations. I don’t want to say anything about these because many people play Persona games for the characters and development of said characters but I feel like Atlus has really gone all out story wise. I can’t wait to see where things move.
Previous Persona titles had one flaw that was apparent after I played through the mainline Shin Megami Tensei games and even Etrian Odyssey games: the dungeons in those two games were mediocre. Being procedurally generated resulted in some boring corridors with very little variance throughout. Those are gone and the dungeon design thus far is impeccable. Each one has felt unique with mechanics and with exploration. The atmosphere is sublime in the second dungeon especially.
The PS5 Exists.
