By Sam Coles:
You know it’s odd how my video game tastes have evolved
since I have gotten older as well as becoming a writer within industry, if you
were to tell me to play a game like Persona seven years ago I would have
laughed and chugged down a pint of beer and played Call of Duty. Now that I’m
older and more open when it comes to art I’m willing to try out different
games, so to my surprise Persona 5 is rather good and excellent dare I say it.
I just want to give my first impressions, so this is not a full review as I understand
this game to be a really long game so I can’t really give a proper review. I’m
going to summarise my experience of the first 10 hours of the game.
Let’s start off with the story of Persona 5, at first it
starts off normal enough (well in terms of J-RPG standards), where you are
making daring escape as the main character Joker with an upbeat and jazzy
soundtrack (which I will get into later). Where you have oddball characters,
somewhat ham fisted dialogue and a slow introduction with the combat. So far
pretty standard stuff for a J-RPG, but then things take a dark turn with
certain subject matters.
There were many elements that I was not expecting with this
game’s narrative, subjects such as domestic abuse, teachers taking advantage of
vulnerable students and suicide. It’s something I was not expecting, as you
have a talking cat in your party it almost gives Hideo Kojima a run for his
money in terms of tone, but bizarrely it works really well. It’s an interesting
concept of everyone’s inner thoughts or Persona, have their own alternate
reality which makes for a unique narrative. The bright presentation is very
deceptive of its overall tone.
Now let’s talk gameplay and it is pretty interesting, it’s
your standard turn based combat you expect from a J-RPG. However unlike other
games in the genre it’s fast and doesn’t feel like you are waiting forever, it’s
not easy by any means but it is easily accessible to people who have never
played games like these. It is easy to grasp but somewhat hard to master, as you
have to make decisions that sometimes involve not killing your foes let me
explain. Within a few hours of the game you are taught more combat tactics and
one of these is hold up, what this entails is that you can hold up enemies if
you stun them and what you can do is either rob them of money or items, ask for
information, steal their power for your own or just flat murder them in a cold
blooded fashion. It adds a new layer of depth and bits of morality, as it is
more than just “kill the bad guy”.
Moving on from the standard attacks you have the titular Persona
summons, these are tied to each character and stem from their inner personality
such as Skull who has a Pirate who manifests within him and causes absolute
devastation. However the main character code named “Joker” can use multiple
Personas, which make these attacks and summons thematically appropriate to the
game. They aren’t just there for the sake of it, they tie into the narrative
which is great!
The presentation and music of this game is what immediately
stands out, as soon as you boot the game up you are presented with a beautifully
animated introduction with some of the funkiest music I have heard in a video
game. The visuals obviously take ques from Anime, and the cutscenes are well
done coupled with the English dub that is actually good for once in this sort
of game. The music is a mix of funk and orchestral, which make for a good time
throughout where I found myself bopping my head up and down with the beat. The
music overall is a big thumbs up and I recommend looking up the soundtrack,
even if you haven’t played the game.
Overall my time with Persona 5 so far has been excellent, it
manages to balance a goofy and dark tone without it being jarring which is
something I can appreciate. Not only that the combat is easy to grasp, but it
is not easy as some of the enemy encounters can be tough. Plus the excellent
presentation coupled with the funky soundtrack, which had me dancing in my seat
made for an amazing experience so far. I can’t wait to play more!
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