…Val, I’m in a fix.
On the one hand, I kind of want to share Opinions about Persona 5 and Royal, and how they compare to one another and to Persona 4 Golden.
But on the other hand, that feels like an overreach, and a recipe for a really bad review. People reading reviews don’t want to read a bunch of insider jargon and comparing things to other things in the series, they want to know whether or not work is creatively successful and entertaining and why.
And I guess I can admit to myself that part of the reason I wanted to write about it was mostly to talk about it with you. I guess, without wanting to be a creeper or violate any boundaries or anything, I’ve come to think of you as a friend, in the Internet sort of way; someone whose opinion I respect.
What I’m getting at is, would you mind if I talked about it here, or potentially in private messages with you if you would prefer that?
Good question. I'm glad to hear that you respect my opinions; the feeling's mutual.
I'd agree that comparing Persona 4 and 5 with each other and their respective remakes isn't exactly suited to a review.
A comment might be a good place to discuss this, or if you want to go more in-depth, you could start a liveblog comparing the two games, such as how the equivalent parts of the two games measure up against each other.
Well, I don’t know how to make a live blog, so I might comment here and see what you think when I have access to a keyboard. But thank you.
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This Game Stole My Heart
Having played Persona 4 Golden on the PS VITA about a year ago, I came into Persona 5 with high expectations, which the game then proceeded to surpass, improving upon the previous game in several regards.
The story is that of a teenager who, after trying to do the right thing and ending up with a criminal record, is forced to transfer to Shujin Academy, and ends up joining a group of other troubled youths who seek to change corrupt adults by stealing their hearts. What follows is a captivating tale that offers relevant commentary on the abuse of power, what it means to stand up to injustice and how evil often triumphs because good people do nothing.
The Social Links return in this game as the Confidants, and feature the same variety of deep and interesting characters, both from your party and outside it. This time, they offer benefits apart from more powerful Personas- one might increase how much experience you gain, while another might allow you to buy better equipment. It adds a fair bit of depth and incentive to pursue them, even if some Confidants are inevitably more interesting/useful than others.
Like in previous games, you'll have to manage your time well, balancing dungeon exploration and level grinding with advancing your Confidants and developing social parameters that you may need to advance them. Many parameter-increasing activities are minigames that aren't particularly deep, but provide a nice element of interactivity.
The combat system retains the ability to shift between various Personas, which can be customized as they're created and when they level up, allowing for a fair amount of depth and choice. Combat includes many new features, such as the ability to switch your party members mid-battle (which, combined with an unlockable ability to share experience, encourages you to use all of them this time), and the ability to make demands from downed enemies or finish them off. Above all else, there's a great deal of choice involved, which keeps it from being dull, and in-game tutorials help ease you into things without feeling overwhelmed.
Dungeons are longer and more elaborate than in 3 and 4. Instead of a series of randomly generated floors, they include a variety of environments to navigate, various puzzles and other features that keep them interesting. There is a long and randomly generated dungeon, Mementos, an area for sidesquests, level grinding and Persona collection that serves its purposes well.
One annoying part of the game is that a fair amount of the optional contents, such as costumes, various Personas and even the hardest difficulty setting, is DLC. It it can be frustrating that you have to download or potentially pay for some content that was naturally included in previous games.
Ultimately, if you have a Playstation 3 or 4, Persona 5 is one of the best RPGs I've played lately, and thus well worth your time.