Persona 5 ; A Japanese Wonder Game…

Persona 5 is a role-playing video game developed by Atlus . Persona 5 is chronologically the sixth installment in the Persona series, which is part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise. Published by Atlus in Japan and North America and by Deep Silver in Europe and Australia, the game was released first in Japan in September 2016, and worldwide in April 2017. The protagonist has recently moved to Tokyo after an unfair encounter with the law, and now has to live a year in the big city, attending highschool, making new friends and generally trying to just enjoy their life. Fans of the Persona series will be pretty familiar with this formula. Essentially, the game is divided into days. During the week, you attend school and then afterward you’re given the freedom to pursue friendships, hobbies and dungeons. Of course, you don’t get this freedom without first sitting through a lengthy tutorial. Though, where Persona 4’s lengthy introduction was a series of cutscenes, Persona 5 at least allows you to explore a dungeon, or as the game calls it, a ‘Palace’. A Palace is, essentially, the heart of a corrupt adult where their twisted desires have manifested into a tangible location. In this case, my first Palace was the castle of a highschool volleyball teacher. Exploring castles is a classic dungeon crawl, uncovering each floor and fighting the enemies it contains, though you can easily sneak up on enemies to enter into an ambush situation which is in your favour. Remember though – just as easily you can get the advantage, if you’re careless enemies can gain advantage over you. Battles take place in a turn-based environment in which you’re given a wide variety of options. There’s melee attacks, gunshot attacks and Persona attacks. The first two are fairly straightforward and Persona could essentially be called your ‘magic’, which is divided into eight elements. While your party members have set Personas that generally revolve around one element, the protagonist is a rare ‘wild card’ and is able to summon a variety of creatures with amazing designs from all elements to fit the situation. From here, it’s a sort of classic rock-paper-scissors affair where you have to discover the enemies weakness in order to defeat or knock them down. Once knocked down there’s a new set of options displayed to you. Persona 5 has a completely different approach. It looks great not by way of the most detailed, powerful graphics in the world — this is a game that began development on PlayStation 3, and you can kinda tell — but by way of visual design. Like any good RPG, Persona 5 is an information-heavy game, and much of your time is spent flipping through menus or looking at text boxes. But rather than downplay the user interface, Persona 5 blows it up. Every loading screen transition, every end-of-combat info box, every aspect of the game is presented in this bombastic, colorful style that’s just a joy to look at. New Personas are gained from battle through successful Negotiation, and different Persona types are represented through different arcana linked to Confidant links. Personas can in be combined, or “fused,” and further manipulated within the Velvet Room, a realm the protagonist visits as part of his journey through the story where he can also accept side quests. Within the Velvet Room, Personas can be fused with “Guillotine” fusion processes, with the resultant Persona inheriting skills and stats from its parents. The more skills a Persona has, the more are passed on to the fused Persona. How powerful Personas are through fusion depends on how advanced its associated Confidant link is. In addition, Personas can be sacrificed in various ways, also styled after styles of capital punishment: “Hanging” grants a sacrificed Persona’s experience points to another chosen Persona, and “Electric Chair” sacrifices one to create a high-end item. A Persona can also be sent into “Solitary Confinement”, where they undergo intensive training and gain additional skills quicker than normal. The number of days a Persona must remain to gain strength lessens based on its arcana strength.Minor multiplayer elements are incorporated into the game through the “Phantom Thieves Alliance” network. Similar to the “Vox Populi” system from Persona 4 Golden, players can use the in-game SNS app to communicate both with in-game characters and other players via PlayStation Network. Players can send messages to each other about what activities they have performed, in addition to affecting the Alertness meter in the player’s favor and aiding in battle when a party member is taken hostage.Finally in the storyline the protagonist must turn himself in so Shido can be prosecuted, his friends and associates successfully help secure evidence of the protagonist’s innocence in the assault charge, leading to his conviction being overturned. The game ends with the protagonist beginning his journey home alongside his friends. All these factors make it an awesome game that is sure to bound you with endless amount of fun for hours. This game is out for PS 3 and PS 4 consoles so be sure to buy it and play it.