The reason I got a playstation

For years I have researched different games despite not owning any form of gaming console; reading reviews, watching youtube videos, scrolling through discussion after discussion on reddit and comprised a list of games that appealed to me. 90% of those games were Nintendo so I went ahead and got a Nintendo switch. After a full year of lockdown and furlough, I had pretty much played through all the games on my list, more than once, but number 1 on that list kept coming back to me- Persona 5. However, it wasn't available on the switch.

I had to decide was putting the money towards a playstation worth it basically for one game. Two weeks of 24/7 playstation 5 hunting, one stressful amazon delivery, 2.5 hours download time (the woes of not wanting to spend too much on internet!) and 115 hours of persona 5 gaming later- I must say, it definitely was worth it!

I had never played a persona game before and really didn't know what to expect. I discovered I was playing as Joker, a teenager with a troubled past that lead him to Tokyo to live for a year whilst under probation. The game consists of everyday school life such as exams, reading books, getting to know the teachers (some extremely well cough Kawakami and her extremely useful massages), and meeting up with new friends all around the city such as in the arcade, cafe, underground malls and some seedy bars. All these tasks contribute to your knowledge, charm, proficiency, guts, kindness and social links which eventually aid you in the Palaces.

Every month or so you find yourself in a Palace in the metaverse, where you and your new friends become the Phantom Thieves and use powerful creatures called Personas to take down baddies and change the hearts of the Palace owners. Sounds complicated? Well it is, but it all makes more sense thanks to my favourite character Morgana, a strange cat who teaches you how to fight and guides you on your new adventures.

Visual design: I am completely in awe of JRPGS, I appreciate the graphics and realism of games such as The last of us/God of war, but nothing quite steals my heart as much as these quirky, oddly dressed anime characters with hilarious dialogue. The sheer number of Personas and their individual designs are incredible, even if some are slightly questionable. Yes I’m talking about you “Throbbing King of desire”
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Sound design: The music in the game is one area where I may be in the minority, I have read people frequently have found themselves listening to the music post game completion on youtube, but for me it became slightly repetitive. Although I may be prone to saying this more because my boyfriend would text me from the next room saying “are you still playing that game?!” because he recognised the music!

Gameplay: this has to be separated into two parts of the game, daily life and dungeon crawling.

-Daily life: I initially found it quite difficult to fully appreciate the calendar design of the game where most activities took up a whole afternoon or evening and I felt I had wasted precious time. I would read a book to try to increase my knowledge, get half way through, then Morgana would tell me I looked tired and send me to bed. Once I understood the importance of my time I became pretty good at managing it and enjoyed picking and choosing which of my friends to hang out with. It really added a sense of realism to the game.

- Palaces: I absolutely love turn based battle systems, I am useless at first person shooters and fighting games so to be able to battle solely based on strategy is a massive bonus for me. Each baddie you come across has specific weaknesses and abilities which you have to figure out and change your persona to suit. If you want to kill them you can do that, if you want to barter with them for money or an item you can do that to, or the most satisfying is negotiating with them to come over to join your side and use them for future battles.

-Longevity: Over 100 hours on my first run-through says enough, and the fact I am already considering downloading persona 5 Royal to start all over again.

-Fun: YES! One of my all time favourite turn based battle games is fire emblem Three houses, and persona 5 made free time 10x more fun and the ability to explore the palaces instead of just battling gave me a lot more satisfaction.

Overall: 9.3/10, I was very upset when the game ended and it was completely worth the ps5 purchase for a ps4 game, no regrets.

Originally published on 4 May 2021.