6/22/2017 - 1:05 AM - GMT+8
By: Seth Legaspi(edited: at June 22,2017: 4:04AM)
Long time no see folks. I finally graduated and is done with my many requirements, thus this pretty late review of the premium 'Take Your Heart Edition' of the landmark heart-changing game of Persona 5. Just in case, I will state this: [DO NOT SCROLL DOWN ANY FURTHER IF YOU DO NOT WANT POSSIBLE SPOILERS]
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| Poster that came with my store pre-order |
This premium edition may be a bit costly,but if you're a big of fan of the franchise, then I fully recommend it. It comes with several amazing goodies after all. It's just unfortunate that it doesn't come with the controller skin that came with the first-release standard edition. The Morgana Plush is just darn cute, cute enough to just make you go to sleep beside it instead of leaving your room to do other things.I feel like a bigger 'huggable' version would be better though. It also comes with a soundtrack cd that contains the essentials for doing heists in style with phantom thief background music, though it doesn't have all the soundtracks.
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| The goodies on my bed |
The art-book mostly contains art designs that shows how the art progressed for each character or poster.
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| Why Makoto? Cause she's best girl |
We also have the very cool iconic bag of Syujin Academy that our protagonist carries Morgana around in.
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| Big enough for a cat to fit in (make sure to declaw it first or something) |
The game doesn't allow screenshots, which sorta makes sense since the game has a lot of major plot stuff that I believe would minimize the meaningful play value of the game if it's released. The fact that it's a game that would usually take around 100 hours to finish adds up to this, since the game is really heavy, story-wise. With this, I will try to review this game through pure text alone.
Different from Persona 3's depressing "death" theme, and Persona 4's "truth" theme; Persona 5 has a "thief" theme. The elements of the game, from the music, their battle clothes, up to what they do made me nostalgic of those Lupin III anime series I watched back when I was a kid (I know, the series is too vulgar to be for pure innocent kids, but hey, I'm not in jail).
What surprised me is that unlike the past 2 persona games, Persona 5 has us deal with shadows in the form of personas, just like how it is in the Shin Megami Tensei games. The main protagonist is also more vocal, and the game literally gives you a lot of ways to respond as the main protagonist, from frequent text messages, to actual story dialogue.
As a persona game, we have its signature social links. Unlike the previous games however, all social links, except for those that automatically increase via story, provide you perks both in-battle, and during "peace-time". Here, I would say you max out the "maid" once you get her, since you'll be able to ask her to make mana regen stuff for you(rare stuff). I will also go ahead and recommend you max the fortune teller too since that one can help you gain social link points with your other social links (literally adds points to social link).
Like Persona 4, you are given the option to romance any of the female social links (From teacher, to doctor, to senpai [Makoto best]). This wide range of romance options has actually given persona 5 the moniker "Waifu Simulator 5". I will recommend the harem end(Makoto still best), just so you can see how bro one of your social links is by literally helping you fix the "misunderstandings" and "stuff" without being asked once they all find out, you even receive chocolate from best bro!
For the dungeon-crawling aspect, we have the Palace and Mementos. The Palace is sorta like the "story-dungeon" that is only accessible during the chapter its related to, providded you haven't stolen the treasure inside yet. Mementos is your Tartarus from Persona 3, but instead of going up, you're going down.
Of course, inside these dungeons, we have the usual fights against monsters, which are "recruitable" personas. Yes, you can gain a new persona by using "Nanoha tactics" on them. Battle is similar to past persona games, but with more picturesque graphics and guns. Yes, guns. I won't go into detail, but like a real phantom thief, you have guns, and guns have their own attack type, but limited ammo. Unlike the previous games, there is no option to scan; the most you can do is test out all your moves for the game to keep track of what works and what doesn't. What replaces scan would be how having that certain persona will tell you all of its weakness and strengths.
The story however, it's what made this game. In fact, by doing a second play-through, most of the time I spent playing is on advancing through the story; and this is with me pressing the x button at times to advance quickly through a part I still remember clearly. It's all about social reform, or personal reform with the case of palaces for certain people. The fact that these palaces that our phantom thieves steal hearts/treasures from are representations of the seven deadly sins shows how such distortions, like a way of thinking that one is the most important person and is thus a king who has the privilege to do unlawful actions, can manifest from the simplest reasons/objects, like a pin one gets for taking part in a conference. It's like a reminder that we must be critical of ourselves and make sure that we aren't too arrogant nor too ignorant, as is with the case of one palace being manifested from believing the things strangers say(yeah the palace owner was a kid who just watched her mom die, so it's sorta excusable she'll immediately believe what strangers say).
For me, the ending seemed kinda forced, but it makes sense with the enemy being some self-proclaimed god, or some senile adult as referred to by our phantom thieves. The final boss somehow affects every person's mind so that they become apathetic and give up on thinking freely, which is sort of realistic because being condemned to be free is hard, isn't it easier to simply stay in a cage and be fed for life? Despite this, our phantom thieves steal this distortion from the masses' heart, a holy grail that grants all our wishes for us without any actions on our part, a treasure that will do everything for us by receiving our freedoms/lives in return (it basically wants everything). It sends that message that despite the despair we may feel about our lives, we must continue forging forward to a better tomorrow(yep, like what politician Shido says, leave everything to me for a happy future - Of course this is a joke, the game ends it with a lesson to never leave your own happiness/future to an object/person alone).
Overall, Persona 5's gameplay, which I will describe as the mix of its story elements and the dungeon-crawling elements, is time-consuming in a meaningful way. The way the character's backgrounds are masterfully mixed in with the game's story and functions that at the end of the game, you will have a good understanding of each character's history (provided you did their social links if they had any of course).
In a way, this is like an ideal mix of visual novel elements and turn-based rpg dungeon crawler. It's simply very immersive with how the Tokyo and dungeon settings are rendered. The music is great, the battles are great, the art is picturesque.
My Rating:
(10/10)
What I liked:
- The Story
- The battles
- The Social Links (Waifu simulator!!!)
- The music
- The new velvet room
- English and Japanese Voice acting were both amazing, the voices really got me immersed
- Makoto Niijima
What I didn't like:
- Not all the scenes were voiced (yeah, might not fit in the disc, heck a patch might have been required and that would be one huge patch)
- A second play-through is having me go through all the subtle "tutorial" cutscenes, I wish there was a way to fast-forward like in visual novels on the pc.
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| Imagine Ryuji's version behind this |
そして、新しいラノベについてつぎポーストします！
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