Take Your Heart
April 23, 2018 7:14 PM Subscribe
It's been over one year since the release of Persona 5 (PS3/4) which is the latest installment of Persona series by Atlus. The new setting takes place in modern day Tokyo and incorporates a much darker tone compared to the prior small-town life of Persona 4.
Persona 5 features the story of group of highschool kids and their cat who moonlight as phantom thieves to change society. It's known for it's stylish UI/UX, time management, social links, Japanese highschool life sim, demonic snowmen, catchy soundtrack, fishing mini-games, and problematic plot elements.
Meantime, there's still future Persona 5 works along the pipeline with the dancing spin-off Persona 5: Dancing Starlight and ongoing anime series Persona 5: The Animation. (previously)
Persona 5 features the story of group of highschool kids and their cat who moonlight as phantom thieves to change society. It's known for it's stylish UI/UX, time management, social links, Japanese highschool life sim, demonic snowmen, catchy soundtrack, fishing mini-games, and problematic plot elements.
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Meantime, there's still future Persona 5 works along the pipeline with the dancing spin-off Persona 5: Dancing Starlight and ongoing anime series Persona 5: The Animation. (previously)
I could go on forever about this game, but aside from favourites I like to think about what example in a medium gives me the most joy or are the most edifying examples of why I love a kind of art.
For me it’s The Monitor by Titus Andronicus, the film Upstream Color, Transmetropolitan for comics, and Persona 5 for games.
Keeping an inventory of joy is a good life exercise and P5 is in my Mt Rushmore no question.
posted by StoicRomance at 7:30 PM on April 23, 2018 [3 favorites]
For me it’s The Monitor by Titus Andronicus, the film Upstream Color, Transmetropolitan for comics, and Persona 5 for games.
Keeping an inventory of joy is a good life exercise and P5 is in my Mt Rushmore no question.
posted by StoicRomance at 7:30 PM on April 23, 2018 [3 favorites]
I played through 5 and loved it. Previously played through 3 and 4 and loved them, though basically quit in the final hours for each because the final dungeons/bosses were annoying. It's kind of the same thing in 5 — it sticks around for a bit longer than it should — but what's amazing is that it keeps you playing for like 80 hours straight in the first place without overstaying its welcome.
The amount of style in the game is unreal. The amount of personality packed into the menus especially is astonishing. Great music, some fun characters (some, I say), and an interesting story wrapped around the extremely addictive day-by-day gameplay loop.
There are plenty of criticisms to be made, sure, but there's really nothing like the Persona series and it does what it does with gusto and relish. The only trouble is that they take up SO much time.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 7:37 PM on April 23, 2018 [4 favorites]
The amount of style in the game is unreal. The amount of personality packed into the menus especially is astonishing. Great music, some fun characters (some, I say), and an interesting story wrapped around the extremely addictive day-by-day gameplay loop.
There are plenty of criticisms to be made, sure, but there's really nothing like the Persona series and it does what it does with gusto and relish. The only trouble is that they take up SO much time.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 7:37 PM on April 23, 2018 [4 favorites]
I just want the Persona 3 and 5 dancing games to be localized. Also it'd be great if P5 were available on a portable system. It's a lot easier to play a game for 100+ hours when you're not monopolizing the TV for weeks. I want to replay P5, but that's another few weeks of hogging the PS4 and TV, at least.
posted by asperity at 8:29 PM on April 23, 2018
posted by asperity at 8:29 PM on April 23, 2018
THIS. NEEDS. TO. COME. TO. THE. NINTENDO. SWITCH. PLEASE. GOD. PLEASE. MAKE. THIS. HAPPEN.
posted by Fizz at 8:30 PM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Fizz at 8:30 PM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
The … dancing spinoff???
posted by kenko at 8:59 PM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by kenko at 8:59 PM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
Would settle for the Vita, since I played P3 and P4 on that. Though now that Don't Starve is out for Switch (with Shipwrecked!) my main in-between-visual-novels Vita game has been obsoleted, so the Switch will get more toting-around time.
I keep meaning to play more of SMT 4 Apocalypse but it hasn't got the pull for me that the Persona games do (still fun, though, and there will never ever be a shortage of 3DS games to play.)
I should probably watch the P5 anime. The P4 one was a lot of fun even though I had played the game through twice, with a couple of episodes about the sheer silliness of pursuing the min-maxing warrior therapist lifestyle. (Which is basically what Persona is all about.)
posted by asperity at 9:00 PM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
I keep meaning to play more of SMT 4 Apocalypse but it hasn't got the pull for me that the Persona games do (still fun, though, and there will never ever be a shortage of 3DS games to play.)
I should probably watch the P5 anime. The P4 one was a lot of fun even though I had played the game through twice, with a couple of episodes about the sheer silliness of pursuing the min-maxing warrior therapist lifestyle. (Which is basically what Persona is all about.)
posted by asperity at 9:00 PM on April 23, 2018 [2 favorites]
Is this the game that blocks the screenshot/video sharing features of the PS4? I remember being interested in it because of its visual style then hearing absolutely nothing about it when it came out.
posted by egypturnash at 10:09 PM on April 23, 2018
posted by egypturnash at 10:09 PM on April 23, 2018
Yeah, P5 has screenshots and sharing disabled for pretty much the entire game, except for maybe the intro sequence? I can kind of get why the devs would make that choice, because P5 is very heavily story-driven and maybe they're afraid people will just watch the game instead of buying it, but it also feels like the devs are really out of touch. (Also, a huge raspberry to Sony for even letting devs disable screenshots/capture/sharing in-game in the first place...)
posted by xedrik at 10:27 PM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by xedrik at 10:27 PM on April 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
> Fizz:
"THIS. NEEDS. TO. COME. TO. THE.NINTENDO. SWITCH PC. PLEASE. GOD. PLEASE. MAKE. THIS. HAPPEN."
FTFY.
posted by Samizdata at 10:52 PM on April 23, 2018
"THIS. NEEDS. TO. COME. TO. THE.
FTFY.
posted by Samizdata at 10:52 PM on April 23, 2018
posted by Bangaioh at 4:44 AM on April 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
So, I haven't gotten to play 5 yet. Where is it on the spectrum between P4 and like Digital Devil Saga?
Never played DDS but 5 is just Persona 4 with several quality of life improvements in the menus and such.
Enemies are now demons instead of tables so no more shuffle time at the end of battles, you gain personas by recruiting. Negotiation is back but it's not random like in Nocturne.
Plot dungeons are actual levels now with a basic stealth mechanic for surprising enemies. The Tartarus equivalent is randomly generated like in 3 and still really boring.
Social Links are apparently possible to max out or nearly so in a first playthrough.
posted by Bangaioh at 5:06 AM on April 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
Never played DDS but 5 is just Persona 4 with several quality of life improvements in the menus and such.
Enemies are now demons instead of tables so no more shuffle time at the end of battles, you gain personas by recruiting. Negotiation is back but it's not random like in Nocturne.
Plot dungeons are actual levels now with a basic stealth mechanic for surprising enemies. The Tartarus equivalent is randomly generated like in 3 and still really boring.
Social Links are apparently possible to max out or nearly so in a first playthrough.
posted by Bangaioh at 5:06 AM on April 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
> Social Links are apparently possible to max out or nearly so in a first playthrough.
Probably for the best. Every time I get the urge to replay a persona game, I usually get through the opening dialogue before I remember the weeks I'd already sunk into this game, and the urge goes away.
Which is not to say that I don't love these games, I do. I was seriously considering renting a PS3/4 to stream to a vita just for P5.
posted by Kikujiro's Summer at 7:16 AM on April 24, 2018
Probably for the best. Every time I get the urge to replay a persona game, I usually get through the opening dialogue before I remember the weeks I'd already sunk into this game, and the urge goes away.
Which is not to say that I don't love these games, I do. I was seriously considering renting a PS3/4 to stream to a vita just for P5.
posted by Kikujiro's Summer at 7:16 AM on April 24, 2018
I have 100+ hours in this game and I'm nowhere near beating it. It's super good, but as the real life calendar days eclipsed the in game calendar days, I... despaired. Someday. After God of War... and the Witcher 3... and... maybe in my retirement.
It's a good game and very stylish. The combat is interesting and all about stunning enemies to get an extra turn. Hit their weakness, get an extra turn, slap your friend a high five to tag them in and do it for some other enemy. When they all go down DO SUPER ANIMU STUFF. Profit.
Maybe I'll start it up again tonight...!
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 10:44 AM on April 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
It's a good game and very stylish. The combat is interesting and all about stunning enemies to get an extra turn. Hit their weakness, get an extra turn, slap your friend a high five to tag them in and do it for some other enemy. When they all go down DO SUPER ANIMU STUFF. Profit.
Maybe I'll start it up again tonight...!
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 10:44 AM on April 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
The social aspect of Persona 4: Golden is the part that I enjoyed most, the rest was standard pokemon-esque card/demon/battles. In many ways I think Persona sort of set up a the gold standard for this part of the JRPG genre. This social side of the game has crept into other series, looking at you Fire Emblem: Awakening. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoy these parts of the game quite a bit, it breaks up the action and develops the story and I'm a gamer that enjoys a good story.
posted by Fizz at 12:02 PM on April 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 12:02 PM on April 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
slap your friend a high five to tag them in
This might be my favorite innovation from P5. It should always have been a high-five, always. Except that P3 and P4 were more friendships-resulting-from-circumstances than the other way around. I love that the P5 gang seem to like each other more than simply putting up with each other.
posted by asperity at 12:22 PM on April 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
This might be my favorite innovation from P5. It should always have been a high-five, always. Except that P3 and P4 were more friendships-resulting-from-circumstances than the other way around. I love that the P5 gang seem to like each other more than simply putting up with each other.
posted by asperity at 12:22 PM on April 24, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by FatherDagon at 12:36 PM on April 24, 2018 [2 favorites]
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posted by pan at 7:28 PM on April 23, 2018