Review game Persona 5

Japanese role-playing games have always held a special place in my heart. With warmth I remember our school days when in the evening, had his head in a great JRPG like Star Ocean: The Second Story Tales of Destiny and Final Fantasy VII. But alone against the rest of the games have always been the Persona series. Dark stories of modern Japanese schoolchildren, opposing the ancient demons and their inner fears, charmed and allured, comparing favorably to the already hackneyed stories about the fabulous middle ages. Today I’d like to tell you about the fifth numbered game in this magnificent franchise that is exclusive to the gaming consoles PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. Honestly, I’m even a little uncomfortable from how much I have to tell you about this game, so it is huge and complex.

First game of the series Persona came to light in 1996 as a spin-off of another popular Japanese franchise Shin Megami Tensei. The story it told about a group of high school students from the fictional Japanese city of Mikage-those who witnessed a series of supernatural incidents. Thanks to the extraordinary combination of circumstances the main characters discover their own ability to summon to our world of supernatural entities are “Persons” that are the embodiment of their inner world. Person help their owners to protect native city from invasion of evil demons, and to understand themselves.

The game was so unusual that it was really received well by critics and overnight became a hit. Many called it “a completely different RPG,” and “a real gem of the PlayStation library”. Sales of Revelations: Persona for the first year in Japan alone amounted to nearly 400,000 copies, which for 1996 was just a great result. This was a significant reason for the development of several sequels. Three years later, they released Persona 2: Innocent Sin, and the year after Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, continues the story of the sequel.

Released for the PlayStation 2 game Persona 3 (2006) made a kind of revolution in the series. Radically changed the visual style, over time and now affect gameplay and were introduced to a system of Social Links. She allowed the characters to communicate with each other, strengthening their friendships and thereby increasing their Persons. At some point you could even start a romantic relationship with one or several female characters. The next game is Persona 4 (2008) improved the existing mechanics and once again cemented the series as one of the leaders in the genre.

Fifth under the account the game the main series had to wait a very long time. Since the release of Persona 4 last 8 years. Happy the inhabitants of the Country of the rising Sun are enjoying Persona 5 since the autumn of last year, at a time like the rest of the world had to wait for April 2017. But such is the fate of many Japanese projects, because localization is such a huge and rich dialogues of the game in several languages can be difficult. The Director of the project once again became Katsura Hashino, who led the development of a number of parts of the series, starting with Persona 3, but also has put his hand to the magnificent in my opinion the game Catherine. I think this game was his Swan song, the embodiment of all he ever dreamed of. Sadly, after the release of Persona 5 Director made an official statement on the transfer of the series in the hands of young developers. Himself Hasina plans to do something different with games.

The philosophy of the game series Persona lie the teachings of famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. It was his interpretation of archetypal images, psychological types, the theory of the collective unconscious has allowed Japanese developers Atlus to make a game world is so deep, dark and, at the same time, affecting many urgent problems of modern society. In the third game of the series, the developers even included a short course of lectures, which tells the players about what was greatly influenced by Carl Jung on the development of modern analytical psychology. At the time I listened to this unusual and very informative “Annex” to the game, which has discovered many new.

In the center of the plot for Persona 5 the story of an unnamed young man (let’s call him the Protagonist, as the player chooses the name of the main character) from a small provincial town. Returning home that evening, he tries to protect a woman from adhering to her by a drunken man, but he is a high-ranking official. On false charges in the attack on the person of our hero, expelled from school and transferred to study in Tokyo, where for probation for it undertakes to look after the owner of a small cafe LeBlanc and friend of his family, Sojiro Sakura. Slightest suspicion in violation of the law and the main character will face is a real term, because in Japan, the criminal liability starts from 14 years. The protagonist settles in the attic of the coffee shop and trying to get used to the new situation, because in Tokyo he will spend nearly a year. He rides the subway to his new Academy, is trying diligently to do and not to think about how unfairly managed with it fate.

And all anything, but gradually he realizes that the Academy is something very bad. Something that close the eyes of the Director and members of the parent Committee. It turns out that the local PE teacher Sugur kamoshida the last Golden Olympic champion in volleyball, terrorizing the Academy, mocking the members of the volleyball team and sexually harassing young girls. The management turns a blind eye to the recurring violations, because Kamoshida copes with its main responsibilities and lead the school volleyball team to win a major national championship. And the fact that his team regularly beaten and humiliated during training – few people are interested.

The main character makes friends with the local bully ryūji Sakamoto, and meets a beautiful blonde Ann Takamaka, owes its unusual appearance to the fact that one-quarter of it is American (among pure-blooded Japanese people don’t date people with blond hair). Despite the fact that Ann works as a fashion model and is the object of adoration of the male half of the students in the Academy, her friends are almost there, and coach Kamoshida using blackmail to persuade her to have sex. Three teenagers trying to resist the tyrant of the school, and this joint struggle firmly unites this small company of outcasts.

Traditionally, the games in the series, the main character during sleep is inside the mysterious “Velvet room.” This is the space enclosed between the conscious and subconscious, the owner of which is a supernatural creature named Igor. Creepy old man with a long nose offers the Protagonist his help in solving his problem, and promises to give that incredible power, which can be used to protect yourself and your friends. In the morning the hero finds on your phone unusual application Metaverse Navigator, that appear on the desktop again and again, even if it is removed. It turns out that this app allows people to travel in the so-called “Metaverse” — another dimension through which you can get into the mind of people and influence their behavior.

Of course, our heroes are immediately sent towards the unknown, to try to change the attitude of the school tyrant to others. It turned out that in the alternate reality coach Kamoshida imagine that the Academy is his personal Royal castle, and its students – only slaves, performs any whim of his monarch. Exploring the recesses of the subconscious trainer, heroes released from prison a strange creature named Morgan, looks like a cat. Morgan explains to them that the success of the mission they need to steal a “treasure” of Kamoshida hidden deep in his heart. Treasure – a certain conditional object, which began with the distortion of the personality of Chamosite. This will return presumptuous of the teacher to sense, and make him publicly repent of his numerous atrocities. It was at this point our hero is born the idea of a group of “Phantom Stealer of hearts” (or simply “Phantoms”), whose main aim will be the suppression of dangerous criminals inside their subconscious for the sake of humanity.

The gameplay, as in the previous part of the game is a Japanese role-playing game crossed with a Dating SIM, and supplemented with small patches in the form of numerous mini-games. The passage of time in the game will seem very unusual to those who had not been familiar with the series: the main character must live in Tokyo less than a year, and for each of the allotted days, he can perform a limited number of actions. That is why you need to plan in advance your plans so that as efficiently as possible to dispose of free time. In the game menu there is even a special calendar that tells the player what events will happen in the next few days, not to forget about them. It is important to remember that if the heroes go into the subconscious of any criminal, they set aside a certain number of days. Do not fit in the set time frame the game ends. Persona 5 is preparing you a first-class expert on time management, whether you like it or not. In mission for the transformation of the villains can freely return from the Metaverse back to reality, to restock items and heal, and the next day again to continue to explore the labyrinths of the subconscious.

Role-playing looks quite traditional for Japanese video games. Going into the Metaverse, our heroes fall into the so-called “palaces” — the distorted inner worlds villains erected in his subconscious. Palaces are counterparts of the traditional dungeons from other RPG series, with the only difference that each of them looks extremely extravagant. For example, from a crime boss selling drugs and making personal profit the aim of all life, the inner world looks like a giant Bank with huge underground vault, but in an older artist-plagiarist who exploit their students, giving their work for their own, the Palace is represented in the form of a picture gallery. Each Palace is divided into zones, each of which contains the so-called “Safe room”, where the player can catch their breath after numerous battles with opponents and keep the progress of passage. Yeah, save only in those places where you are guaranteed safety. A relic of the past, from which many Japanese developers are not yet ready to give up.

But the palaces are no longer randomly generated dungeons, collected from the same straight featureless corridors and rooms. Now every Palace is truly unique, it consists of numerous levels, contains a lot of secrets and has an individual design. From time to time on your way you will meet puzzles. Very impressed with my puzzle, when the team of heroes had to get a look inside the living paintings in an art gallery. Once inside the works of artists that had to find the correct path, thus breaking a seemingly dead-end room. Palaces, as I have said, represent the souls of particularly dangerous criminals or people with incredibly powerful distortion of the inner world. But then there is the collective unconscious, and it’s in the game represented almost a bottomless dungeon called Mementos, very similar to the Tokyo subway. Here it is just randomly generated, as in previous games in the series. Team Phantom thieves of hearts down “Mementos” in order to deal with petty criminals, to catch a rare treasure, or simply to bulk up. To move around this dungeon on the minibus, which can turn Morgana (just like the cat bus from the animated film “My neighbor Totoro”).

The game has elements of stealth mechanics. Every Palace has its own “Degree of anxiety”. As soon as the enemy sees you, he raises the alarm and the counter is incremented by 10%. As soon as the counter will reach 100% — you will automatically be thrown out of the Metaverse in the ordinary world, thus you will waste a whole day wasted. If you do not get caught by the enemy, the anxiety gradually decreases, just like in Metal Gear Solid. But the best tactic is attack enemies from behind a corner or from behind. Thus you discourage them and get the chance of first strike in battle. If the enemy attacks you first — to be trouble. You risk being attacked out of turn, which will negatively affect your health. Enemies can jump from the hills and around the back with ventilation ducts. At home, the main character could make for various ancillary items, allowing for time to become invisible to enemies or to reduce the level of anxiety. The manufacture of such items is time-consuming, but in the end compensated in the case. Also the main character has the ability “Third eye” that allows him to see hidden passages and important objects in both worlds, which is a very useful skill.

The combat system of the game, which is hardly surprising based on the Persona – incarnation of the personality of the person escaping from it outwards in the form of a powerful creature. Each of the main characters sooner or later comes the tipping point when they realize that they actually suppress a large part of emotion, and that’s when the light appears and their alter-ego Persona. Every person is pumped in parallel with its owner, gaining new combat skills, passive perks and magic spells. Do People have a fixed number of cells under the skills, so when they all get filled, you will have to choose which skill should be removed to put in a new one. When visiting the “Velvet room” you will be able to mix People together, getting a brand-new creatures, while some of the skills of the “parents” of your choice will be inherited by the hybrid.

Palaces Metaverse protected “Shadows” — creatures of negative human emotions. Shadows, in fact, are the antithesis of the People and represent all cruel, inhuman and disgusting that only can be found in the subconscious. At a certain point in the game the main character can engage shadow in the negotiations, thereby luring her to his side and turning to your personal Person. If one Person in the collection you don’t need, you can simply dilute the shadow of the money or valuable object. A Shadow willing to dialogue — they directly do not feed bread, only let me chat about life. They evaluate your position in life, trying to understand how you are intelligent and brave man, before agreeing to stand by your side. It should be borne in mind that if the level of Shade above the level of the protagonist – to enter into an Alliance will not work. This unique mechanic first appeared in the very first game of the series in 1996.

During turn-based battle, each team member can attack the Shadows with a cold weapon, to shoot his firearms (cartridges run out quickly and were completed only after his return to reality) use items to get in a defensive stance or to call the Person using one of her magical skills. Each enemy has certain strengths and weaknesses. For example, it may not be resistant to cold but vulnerable to radiation (Yes, in this game there is an element of “radiation”). Using radioactive attack, you can knock an enemy down, thereby having the opportunity to strike a second blow, pass the right turn to another character or to attack the enemy from all the characters, which ensures the highest damage. However, it is the second weakness of the enemy you can engage him in negotiations. At any time battle with a special command to open the screen where is displayed the weaknesses you face monsters, provided that you have already found them. To make, facing magical attacks Persons would also receive a Weak inscription that tells that this magic is particularly effective against a specific enemy.

Let alone the Shadow and Persona in the game is simply beautiful. Developers many years to draw inspiration from the mythology and legends of different peoples of the world, so you’ll meet a huge number of various demons, deities, and even heroes of urban legends from Egypt, Scandinavia, Japan, UK and other countries. Here next to the famous Zorro and Robin hood to meet Shiva and Odin. There are extremely colorful personality like Hell biker (a blatant reference to “Ghost rider”) or Cat-Shogun named Mao. Each of these characters have a small biography, which is interesting to read just for your own education. Periodically in the game are frankly ridiculous and even causing monsters, that would take at tempter demon Mara of Buddhist myths, which resembles the male sexual organ, dissecting the chariot. The developers have tried does not constrain their imagination and they have every right to do, because the game is equipped with a label “18+”. Adult themes in the game really is affected all the time: it’s all kinds of crime, murder, trafficking, sexual violence, corrupt politics, manipulation of public opinion through the media, and more. But do not think that the game is over this is getting depressing – not at all, she’s perfectly able to entertain an adult thinking person and teach him many new things.

On weekdays, the main character learns at the Academy, and after graduation he has free time, which can be disposed of at its discretion. Of course, you can go into the Metaverse and try to deal with another crime boss, and you can instead go with friends to a cafe and feed your belly with delicious burgers, sushi or noodles “ramen”. You can also go to the arcade room, fishing, play baseball, have yourself a Grand shopping tour, relax in the public bath, or just to go to the cinema on a new film. But you can do to get a part time job in some diner or a night in a bar to earn some money. All these activities give you some benefit. The main character in addition to the basic combat options there are several social characteristics. This “Knowledge”, “Charisma”, “Kindness”, “Courage” and “Skill”. In battle, these characteristics you are unlikely to be useful, but it will help to establish relationships with some characters in the game, which subsequently will greatly help you in passing “labyrinths of reason”. To increase knowledge you have to study hard in school and frequently stay after class in the school library, and on the kindness affects the attitude and how often you care for your potted plant. Every social setting in the course of the game you can pump up to a maximum of five points.

Initially, the map of Tokyo, which moves the protagonist of the game, limited to two districts and the Academy where he is studying. But as the game progresses you will unlock new locations where you can find more fun or just hang out with my friends. You will be able to visit the legendary Shinjuku and Shibuya, to visit the dream of all geeks – the Akihabara electric town, to climb the Tokyo tower, visit a real Japanese beach, sample the delicacies in the most famous eateries of the city and even visit an ancient temple. Many of the real streets and alleyways of Tokyo, has been lovingly transferred into the game by artists Atlus so well that sometimes their photos can not be distinguished. Rasplachivayutsya new location automatically or with the development of the main story, or after you read a tourist brochure for visitors to the city, bought in one of the bookstores. Yes, reading books in this game you will be rewarded not only with extra points of knowledge, but also new locations. At a garage sale, the main character can buy an old CRT TV, a DVD player, a broken laptop (which can then be repaired with the right tools and parts) and even the dusty gaming console cartridges. Explore the world of Persona 5 very interesting, even after dozens of hours of gameplay he continues to surprise you with new discoveries.

The Persona series always liked his pouzitelnosti. As I mentioned above, developers are constantly teach their players something, reveal new facets of quite familiar things. Persona 5 is no exception to this rule. The school teachers will ask you tricky questions on the topic of their subjects, and distant from them. Here’s an example: “why do you think soccer balls have the familiar black and white coloring?”. I answer this question do not know. It turned out that this was done then the ball was colorful and contrast, and it is clearly visible on the screens old black-and-white TVs. On the table in a cafe LeBlanc in some days of the month can you find a magazine for baristas, which regularly publish crosswords exclusively about coffee. It seems that after this game, I know about coffee everything. But this is only the tip of the iceberg, because every few months the Academy will host exams and you will have to answer a series of questions based (but not duplicate!) already you have studied the topics. Actually all this is very interesting and unusual. Another video game series in the world today simply does not exist.

The system of “Social links” allows the main character to bond with the other characters. The degree of closeness is measured on a scale from 1 to 10. Relationships can be built not only with the members of the group “the Phantoms”, and with various NPCs you encountered on the streets of Tokyo. And every new introduction in this game is very important. Regularly spending time with friends, carefully listening to them and supporting in difficult times, the main character learns better friends and, most importantly, learning new tricks. The elderly politician, who plays in the evenings on one of the areas of Tokyo, tells the Protagonist that 20 years ago he was expelled from Parliament, accusing him of corruption. Since then, he became a different person, changed his views on many things, and is now ready to serve the society with full dedication. Developing a social relationship with him, the main character learned the basics of public speaking skills, thus be able to more effectively negotiate with the demons in the Metaverse, getting the maximum benefit from each conversation. The owner of a private clinic will offer the protagonist to take part in clinical trials of its new vaccine. She will sell you useful in combat drugs at half price.

I previously mentioned that Persona 5 among other things is also a Dating SIM. At some point your relationship with the opposite sex, you can join with them in a romantic relationship. No, don’t think anything like that. In this game there is no explicit sex scenes like in Mass Effect or The Witcher 3. All very romantic and kind, much heat of the soul. You are free to twist stories like the Schoolgirls of the Academy and with friends girls and even grown women. For example, you can fall in love with a young teacher, a journalist, an alcoholic or a doctor of a private clinic. This will unlock a number of very funny romantic scenes that are worth to see. In parallel, it is possible to twist an affair with several girls, but nothing good is you do not promise, as at some point in the game they can about each other to learn and you throw a tantrum. Don’t forget to give to my choice of the most appropriate interest gifts. The journalist will be delighted if you give her a new digital camera, and fashion model Anne, nobody sees, loves cracking various sweets.

The developers have integrated into Persona 5 cloud. When you save your walkthrough in a separate slot internal memory of the console, you can duplicate the file in the cloud storage company Atlus, where it will be kept even if your console suddenly breaks and it is impossible to extract the data. Also, during the fights against the demons can happen unexpectedly dangerous situation. In this case, you can request the support of other real players. By their aid it is possible to use not too often, so much for this freebie don’t count and learn to stand up for yourself. But the existence of such opportunities is nice. Something similar we saw in the re-release of the previous game Persona 4 Golden for the PlayStation Vita handheld console. Another useful feature is the ability to view statistics of behavior of other players. Just pressing the touchpad on the DualShock 4 controller, you’ll see what was involved in this same day the other owners of the game.

Graphically, Persona 5 looks great. No, it’s not ultra-realistic project, but just terribly stylish game in a purely Japanese style. All very bright, juicy, beautiful and filled with detail. And the word “style” in the description of Persona 5 I want to use it constantly. Designer Naoya Maeda together with artists Masayoshi Suto and Shigenori Soejima did such a Herculean job. Everything in the game is so brilliantly executed, that complaints about the graphic component does not occur absolutely no. And the project looks equally impressive as the PS4 and console of the previous generation PS3. But most of all I, for some reason, impressed with the game interface. He is incredibly striking, animated, and even in his own living. I’m used to in a JRPG after battle-we show text statistics about the experience, the money earned levels and new skills. But even this routine the creators of the Persona 5 turned into a celebration of style! The main hero after the battle running across the screen, something somewhere explodes, babakhan, everywhere, special effects, holiday atmosphere, and under the guise of misleading you useful information. And only such animated cutscenes after defeating the enemies there are several pieces. Every menu in the game is made with incredible love. Drawn character portraits during dialogues are striking detail. And complete the picture of wonderful animated videos created by artists from the famous Studio Production I. G. that gave us such masterpieces like Ghost in the Shell, Jin-Roh, Blood: The Last Vampire and others.

In Persona 5 is a great sense of humor. Bright and emotional dialogues between the characters will make you smile and some comic scenes will amuse even the most callous of players. But the imagination of developers does not end there. Movies and television series, shown in theaters and available for rental DVD parody existing works like “Saw”, “Beverly hills”, “the x-files,” “Mission impossible,” “Slumdog Millionaire”, “Back to the future” and many others. While their names are heavily distorted, warped plots and the characters are renamed, making them as comical. Vulgar jokes in the game, though there are from time to time, but they are harmless and do not overstep the boundaries of reason. Personally I was very amused attitude of developers towards sexual minorities. In the red light district you may come across two gay men who are openly ridiculed in the plot. But ridiculed so, you know, non-aggressive, good-naturedly. Many Western media immediately criticized the game for a similar attitude to people with nonconventional orientation, but personally I was very amused. Too tolerant the world has become in recent years. Wherever you spit, somebody’s feelings will offend. The guys from Atlus is not afraid of anybody and who did not SAG, and this, in my opinion, does them credit.

The duration of the game is just incredible. It was released in early April, and I took her by the beginning of may. The passage took me about 110 hours, and I had to play Persona 5 almost every day for several hours in a row during the month. It was just a wonderful time, but do not think that the game has no flaws. They are. For example, at times I was very irritated that the game was intercepted by my office and for several days was not allowed to make decisions for themselves. It was pity that due to such situation, I missed the opportunity to bring to the rental was taken from that DVD with the movie or couldn’t solve the weekly crossword puzzle just because my character “in the plot” was very tired and had to go to sleep. And so for several days. However, this is mere detail, if you oppose them a huge list of pros for Persona 5.

The music for Persona 5 was written by composer Shoji Meguro, over twenty years creating music for this and several other series of the company Atlus. Vocals in English recorded by South Korean singer Lyn. The soundtrack combines jazz, soul, rock, hip-hop, electronica and several other genres. Music has as many as 110 different tracks, though that’s a large part of game time you will hear only a few of them, making an hour as the 50th games, they will begin to bother you. This, unfortunately, is the inevitability with which sooner or later faces any project with such a huge duration. The quality of the soundtrack, fortunately, does not cause problems. However, I didn’t have any complaints about the voice acting. Despite the fact that you can turn on the original Japanese sound, I decided to go through the game with English voice acting and have not regretted. American actors worked very hard and coped with the task perfectly!

Pros:

  • Entangled adult storyline with many unexpected twists.
  • Well written characters that quickly become attached.
  • The opportunity to twist novels with the fair sex.
  • The game covers a range of topical issues and raises serious questions.
  • Great combat system, full of various mechanics and nuances.
  • Gorgeous Person that came from mythology and legends from different countries of the world.
  • Bright attractive graphics and just the incredibly cool interface.
  • The game is not only entertaining, but also instructive in many ways.
  • Persona 5 is an excellent guide to modern Japanese culture.
  • Lots of interesting mini-games that the player can entertain themselves.
  • Interesting boss battles, each of which not like the previous one.
  • The game has great humor that is not sinking into dullness or vulgarity.
  • Great soundtrack and voice acting of the characters in two languages.
  • Cleverly integrated into the game’s cloud technology.

Cons:

  • Sometimes the game shamelessly and permanently captures you control.
  • Repetitive music after ten hours still bored.
  • Sometimes I was sorry that the game has no auto save.

Persona 5 – a wonderful gift to fans of the series to its 20th anniversary. If you are still not familiar with this universe, this game provides an excellent opportunity to join it. The story grabs from the first minute and keeps the tension until the very end, periodically giving such “twists” that you come to the indescribable delight. The characters are written so brilliantly that the player quickly with them moving closer and literally fell in love with their inner world. Great combat system, a huge number of unique Persons, perfectly crafted unique dungeons, lots of puzzles and mini-games, good humor and a sea of teenage romance – all to dissolve in Persona 5 in the tens and hundreds of hours. I put the game 9 points out of 10 , and mentally prepare yourself for the fact that the continuation of this wonderful series will have to wait another few years.

Review game Persona 5
Sergey Grey


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