The judgment on Persona 5

Persona 5 represents the state of the art of the JRPG, because it proudly exhibits the traits that have always distinguished the Japanese games but, at the same time, aspires to a universal audience.

With the rise of The Elder Scrolls series in the early XNUMXs and the consequent flowering of Western RPGs, the Eastern supremacy in highly role-playing games has been partially eclipsed. Although a slice of the global audience has always remained faithful to the iconography of titles such as Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, it is likely that others found certain mechanics somewhat indigestible and, at the first sighting of an alternative within the RPG world, they preferred to watch somewhere else.



After years of readjustments and small or large corrections, a Japanese title has arrived that can please everyone.

The judgment on Persona 5

As recently shown by The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the story can be the driving force of an RPG, as long as you are able to establish and nurture a genuine empathy towards the characters. Persona 5 succeeds splendidly in this intent, painting a group made up of very young marginalized people, on the edge of the ruthless Japanese society.

Each of these boys lives with the abuses, prejudices, mistreatments and offenses perpetuated by adults: for example, the protagonist, that is the character we control, gets in trouble for defending a woman from attempted aggression by a man. very powerful. The reward for his honorable gesture is not the best: a year of probation, the exile by parents to a new school in a new neighborhood and the inhuman and senseless distrust that in Japan always accompanies those who, wrongly or right, he has a stain on the record.


From victim to alleged executioner, the roles are easy to reverse in reality because the perspectives and social standards of judgment are severely distorted.


In Persona 5, however, reality isn't the only world that can be explored: it also exists Cognitive Reality, or Metaverse, in which our protagonist is catapulted through an application mysteriously appeared on his mobile. In this cognitive world everything appears exactly as it is perceived by a specific person, who is the bearer of desires or impulses so depraved that they have materialized in a Palace of the Mind. For example, a former Olympian who became a volleyball teacher at the Shujin Academy high school, where our character is sent during the probation period, is used to physically abuse his students and sexually his students: he perceives them as submissives who must repay with condescension. the privilege of playing on his team. In the Metaverse, the school becomes his palace: a theater full of slaves. It is interesting to note how, however degenerate, this vision reflects the authentic state of mind of its creator, who shows himself for what he really is: a bully and a sadist, certainly not a respected professional. I have often been under the impression that the game suggests that the real distortion occurs in reality and not in the Metaverse: in the real world the behavior of the gym teacher is covered up and incorporated into the regular functioning of the school, without anyone intervening. Degeneration is accepted and silently tolerated: no Palace can express such baseness.

Another feature of Persona 5's narrative is the vividness and precision, factual and emotional, with which each situation is portrayed. Furthermore, although the images are never particularly explicit, one has the feeling of witnessing a story told without the omission of the most unpleasant details. I wonder if the social issues described by the game, in a stylized as well as brutally honest way, are known in Japanese society. And, if the answer is yes, how can such a level of self-awareness not give rise to an attempt at improvement?



Let's not digress. Our protagonists, this group of young rebels that is expanding from adventure to adventure, have the opportunity to rectify injustices: by stealing the Treasure, source of distorted desire, kept in the Palace, every criminal can be induced to redeem himself and confess his wrongdoings. . It can have a "change of heart", if we wanted to mechanically translate from the original "change of heart". Exactly as theorized by the film Inception, these Palaces created by the subconscious are armed and hostile: they represent the Dungeons of the game.

The judgment on Persona 5

The combat system is another Persona 5 highlight: the clashes with the Shadows that patrol the Palaces are tactical, fun and satisfying. The system is the turn-based system, which has always been a pillar of the JRPG. Each member of our group, or party, can perform an attack through his Persona: a materialization of the subconscious that appears when the character operates the act of awakening. The awakening coincides with the awareness of the injustices that occur in one's own microcosm and with the birth of the rebellion against them.

Each Person is capable of certain attacks, characterized by a particular nature: for example, fire, wind, ice and so on. During the adventure the player learns to manage the effectiveness of his attacks by exploiting the possible affinities. Moreover, parallel to the raids in the Metaverse, the party members can be attended by carrying out a regular student life in Tokyo: deepening the ties with these characters, through the performance of the most disparate activities, bonuses and moves are unlocked to show off in battle. For example, the baton pass allows you to chain multiple attacks, in case you have managed to inflict a critical hit.


Playing in normal mode, the learning curve related to the combat system guarantees a high level of challenge and, at the same time, a perception of tangible, continuous and satisfying improvement. Alongside the rich and captivating main plot, there are equally fascinating secondary storylines: they are linked to the so-called confidants, or the party mates and other secondary characters. In each of these stories there are ill-concealed criticisms of Japanese society which, combined with the main narrative on the rehabilitation of our protagonist, give the game a sublime thematic cohesion that is matched (and perhaps surpassed) only by the amazing stylistic cohesion.


Outside of the fights in the Metaverse, the game offers the possibility to manage the time available for carrying out activities with the confidants. Time is marked by the passing of days, each divided into morning, afternoon and night, which separate one deadline from the next: each Palace must be completed by a certain date, consistently with the events of the main story. This stratagem requires the player to learn to manage the time at his disposal to deepen the right relationships and thus prepare himself adequately for the battle. Obviously, as the game's motto goes, "Take your Time"(" Take your time "), Persona 5 is not guided by the actual playing time: time passes when you undertake an activity and, therefore, the player can calmly plan their moves, exactly as they do in battle.

The judgment on Persona 5

In terms of duration, Persona 5 offers about a hundred hours of gameplay to be completed neither superficially nor with a particular desire to do everything. As it was said before, the time to invest in activities is limited and involves choices, therefore it is not possible to complete all the side stories offered by the developers. Given the very high quality of the narrative, this can be interpreted as an incentive to replay Persona 5.

of fantastic soundtrack we've already discussed Gameplay Cafe here, so I won't dwell on that except to say that the music perfectly matches the game's art direction and is a delight to the ears.

You have not yet read anything regarding the defects of Persona 5: this is because the undersigned believes that there are none, at least nothing that substantially affects the enjoyment of the title. As highlighted at the beginning of the review, the game, despite having a strong role-playing and Japanese identity, manages to smooth out the historically physiological but indigestible elements of this fascinating sub-genre: you will not find, for example, exhausting casual clashes, as most of the buildings can be explored in stealth mode, avoiding numerous face to face. The developers could have been slightly more generous in distributing the save rooms, the so-called safe rooms, within the dungeons, thus increasing the checkpoints and further minimizing the route to be repeated in case of defeat. However, the strategic decisions taken in the game find full justification in the need to train the player, making him use the rich and complex game mechanics in massive doses.

USEFUL INFO

I played Persona 5 with digital copy purchased on the Playstation Store. I completed the main adventure in about 105 hours. The game was completed with a PS4 Pro connected to a Samsung 40MU6120. Excellent audiovisual rendering. The game was in an English version with subtitles: the dubbing, although of a good standard, is limited to the main conversations.

Duration
  • The main story can be finished in between 80 and 100 hours, depending on the difficulty level chosen and the extra activities that are completed. The total amount of content available gives incentives to replay the title.
Structure
  • Five difficulty levels, selectable immediately, including the "merciless" (merciless) option added as a DLC.
Game Card
  • Game Name: 5 person
  • Release date: April 4 2017
  • Platforms: PlayStation 4
  • Dubbing language: English - Japanese
  • Texts language: English
The judgment on Persona 5

Persona 5 is a highly recommended title for Playstation 4 owners: culturally interesting, stylistically flawless, strategic, beautiful to look at and to listen to and, above all, compelling. The bar for role-playing games, both Japanese and non-Japanese, with a turn-based combat system has been raised.

Review by gmg215
Graphics

Functional graphics to the impeccable artistic style of the game. The result is visually splendid and pleasing, for artistic rather than technical merits.

95">95
SOUNDTRACK AND DOUBLE ROOM

Fantastic music that accompanies the various activities and game environments wonderfully and with great variety.

98
GAMEPLAY

RPG with rich, complex and intelligent mechanics. Extremely strategic turn-based combat system. High level of challenge but the feeling of progression is constant.

94
Total Rating scale
95">95
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