Why I Am Looking Forward to Persona 5 More Than Any Other Game This Year
Persona 5 is set to be released outside of Japan on April 4th- and I am more excited than I have ever been for a game release.
What is the magic behind JRPGs? I honestly cannot even begin to answer that question. Not only because there is a myriad of possible arguments and reasons, but also because I am certainly not the right person to do so. I have played a few of them in my life (most notably various parts of the Final Fantasy franchise) but I am by no means an expert or even a big fan. I never experienced a lot of “classics” as my home console career started rather late with a PS2. There is however one particular series that absolutely caught me with its uniqueness ever since our first contact- Persona.
As part of the big Shin Megami Tensei brand that is mostly developed and published by Atlus, Persona should be known to anyone who is into Japanese gaming culture. Albeit not to me. In fact I was absolutely oblivious to its existence until I stumbled upon a review for the PS Vita remake of the fourth installment, Persona 4 Golden, in a German magazine in early 2013. I was amazed just by reading it.
I had preordered my PS Vita in hopes of playing cult classics like Loco Roco, Japanese gems like Phantasy Star Portable and of course the ever present Monster Hunter series, and was obviously bitterly disappointed with the lack of pretty much any of these. I just wanted anything really worth playing so I figured it could not hurt to try this game that got so overwhelmingly positive reviews- and boy was I right.
What made P4G so special at that time? As I mentioned, I am not too knowledgeable about the nuances of Japanese gaming culture. I had no experience whatsoever with any games including a social life simulation part combined with other layers of gameplay and I had no real idea what to expect. It just sounded like a nice mixture of genres; fight in dungeons a bit, go to school and experience daily life when you are tired of that, and advance the main story every now and then. Well, that is pretty much what Persona gave me. But it was also so much more than that.
I bought my copy of the game on a Monday- I was still at school so I had plenty of free time. I finished the game in the same week on Friday, with a playtime of a whopping 50.5 hours. I played just about ten hours every day, for five days straight. And I did not stop there; I played the game three more times, each other run taking me well above 60 hours, totaling roughly 245 hours at this point. I was stunned, I was in love, I had never experienced anything like this. Persona 4 Golden was my new favourite game and remains there to this day.
The game just felt near perfect. The originally described mixture of different elements just worked even better than I imagined. There was always something I was engaged on, doing anything never felt like a chore because I could just switch over to a different activity until I got bored of that. I have no problem with grinding so maybe I spent a few hours more in the dungeons than the average player might, but it was always less than half of the game. Just going through the daily life of the main character was innately fascinating to me; at this point in my life I did not have much social contacts and the genuineness of the friendships built between the characters in the game let me experience feelings I was very disconnected from in real life.
I love all the characters. Each and every character you interact with has a unique feel; the word “forgettable” does not seem to exist for the developers. Not only the main characters who I quickly grew very attached to but also all the side characters felt genuine and likeable. Well, not everyone was a good guy, but there was a relatable side even to the villains. The concept of strengthening your social links, increasing their levels and unlocking powers that way sounds very game-like, static and boring but while playing it never felt that way. Most of these moments were genuine and heartfelt, leaving a lasting impression forever.
Although I played through the game four times I did not unlock everything. I never maxed out every social link or completed all side quests, I never even defeated one special hidden boss. That is because I was never obsessed with completing games, I rarely even finish them more than one or two times. With Persona 4, I just wanted to relive and experience all those moments and feelings that it gave me over and over again. I chose different romantic interests every time and each one gave more depth and made me feel even more attached to the characters that I absolutely adored already. I do not think there is a game out there that gave me more positive emotions than Persona 4, and for that reason it will always be one of my favourites of all time.
At this point I moved away from the original question quite a bit but it just seems so important to understand what made its predecessor so special to explain why I am so excited for Persona 5 this year. It has been four years since its PS Vita release and I still play it occasionally, just waiting for new material to feed my desire for a dungeon crawling JRPG with a beautiful story about friendship and some of the most beloved characters I have ever come across. I bought a Playstation 4 just so I would be able to experience this again.
Will Persona 5 even be able to come close to that feeling? There have been examples of amazing game experiences that just fell flat when trying to emulate and build on the feeling of their predecessors. Assassin’s Creed 2 was a stunning game and I enjoyed every minute of it- but I gave up on Brotherhood not even a few hours in, bored to death. Similar concept, but the thrill of the new, the excitement was just gone. Batman: Arkham City, by no means a bad or anything else than an outstanding game, was never able to recapture the magic of Arkham Asylum for me. So why am I so convinced that Persona 5 will be different?
I found my answer actually not by looking at the upcoming title itself; in fact I consciously chose to avoid all and any information about the game that I plan on preordering in the most expensive edition that is available in Europe (if I can find a shop where it is not sold out yet, that is). Just today I learned it received outstanding reviews in Japan when I was researching for this story I am writing right now. All of this certainly adds to my excitement but the most important thing for me is to know nothing at all so I can just start playing and let the game itself amaze me just like Persona 4 did.
No, instead I took a look back. When I was more or less done with P4G I wondered what to do next. I did not own a PS2 anymore where many of the original games were released on so I tried a few clones to satisfy the itch but not much came out of it. My saving grace was the PS Store of the PS Vita, where the PSP remakes of Persona 2 and 3 were available. So I got them on a sale and I started playing.
At first it was a bit like I feared it would be; it did feel like I was just doing the same old thing but worse, so I stopped. After a few months I tried again and when Persona 3 Portable slowly started to get rolling I could feel myself getting hooked again. All parts were there, some slightly different, some still exactly the same. It was a reasonable evolution from one installment of a series to the next and even by today’s standards P3 is still a formidable game. The biggest upside was probably that I was allowed to play as a girl which was not possible in Persona 4- it was something I always liked to do but recently it became increasingly important for my sense of self-expression.
It took me about 82 hours to finish the game once, and when I was done I could feel a similar attachment to the characters and the story as I did when I played P4G for the first time. The atmosphere was different, it had more of an occult feel to it, and the characters were maybe a bit more lacking in depth and the writing was not just as good, but the experience was still incredible. I have not played the game again yet as the ending seriously left me a bit heartbroken but I might do so in the future; it definitely deserves it. It was then that I knew each individual title of the series had the potential to fascinate me with its magical ways of overwhelming me with emotion.
Right now I am still in the process of playing Persona 2 and I do not know if I will finish it; it honestly feels a bit slow and old and the mechanics are a lot more different from the newer titles. But that does not change the fact that I already met genuine and vivid characters which might just end up fascinating me as much as all the Persona characters did if I just kept playing. Like all of the titles did. Like Persona 4 did more than any other game when I first played it. And all of this is important to the question why I think that Persona 5 will still absolutely blow me away.
It is the sequel to my most beloved game of the last three console generations. It will have all new characters taking on their very own version of the dangers and mysteries of the series’ vast universe. It will feature the ever engaging mix between battle and every day life with heavy focus on its different authentic characters and it promises to give us more emotional moments, moments of genuine friendships, more moments of overcoming our biggest obstacles and more moments of pure joy that might leave lasting impressions.
And that is exactly why Persona 5 will be my most important game of this year- maybe even of this whole generation. It has the potential to take everything that made the other titles great and build upon it, with great gameplay, amazing characters and a beautiful story combined into an experience that makes me feel emotions in a way no other video game ever could.
