Of course, like any good JRPG, Persona 5 needs a place to allow you to grind to higher levels by fighting enemies over and over. This is a game changer, as you not only have to make sure you have a Persona with the right element to take down an enemy, but also that you’ve selected party members with skills that can keep the chain going. That gives you the opportunity to chain together multiple passes, adding a new element of strategy to combat. Baton Pass allows you to hand off your turn to another party member after earning an extra battle action by hitting an enemy’s weak point. As combat becomes more challenging and exploiting enemy weaknesses becomes imperative, smartly using the new Baton Pass ability can allow for devastating chains and exponential damage increases that completely turn the tide in battle. The ability to swap between Personas allows you to choose the right element for any given occasion, which becomes important in battles against enemies who are invulnerable to all but one type of attack. Exploiting enemies’ elemental weaknesses is pretty standard fare (ice is weak to fire, etc.), and swapping between multiple Personas to keep up with the ever-changing vulnerabilities of foes you encounter helps keep combat from becoming too repetitive.
Personas themselves also feature a bit of voice acting, which adds a nice extra layer of polish to negotiation during battles. “Enemy designs are varied and colorful, ranging from humanoids that could almost pass as party members to extravagant complicated monsters, and seeing HD versions of enemies like Jack Frost is a treat for those that have been following the franchise for 20 years. An unrepentant drug dealer, for example, reveals an origin that doesn’t necessarily justify his crimes, but fleshes him out into more than just a bad guy caricature. Each character’s motivation for joining you is relatable and unique, and even each palace’s target has believable conviction.
#Persona 5 series#
This series has never shied away from exploring serious subject matter, and here it shines light on abuse by teachers, drug sales, suicide, and a host of other issues that are handled well and are at times extraordinarily moving. While chemistry between the characters never quite reaches the heights of Persona 4’s Scooby Gang vibe, Persona 5’s more cohesive main story does allow each character to shine in individual moments instead, exploring troubled pasts like the loss of a parent to add weight to present day scenarios. Starting each new dungeon is a bit daunting, but solving puzzles and progressing to each new area offers a wonderful sense of accomplishment. While Persona 4 has you run through linear hallways until you reach the top of a dungeon, Persona 5 has branching paths, networks of hidden rooms, doors that require puzzles to open, and even excursions to other parts of the cognitive world outside of the dungeon itself. “Persona 5’s sense of scope is staggering compared to the dungeons in Persona 3 or 4, with palaces easily double or triple the size of those games’ areas.
By day, you’ll attend class, answer quiz questions, and live the life of a typical teenager, but after school you'll see the clever concept of invading the minds of corrupt adults who are up to no good and battling psychological demons in order to change their hearts. In what’s by far the series’ strongest story to date, Persona 5 puts you in the capable shoes of a high school student who spends his evenings saving the world. Persona 5 is the culmination of everything the JRPG series has been building to, with familiar elements dialed up to 11 and some welcome new surprises added into the mix. As we’re introduced to the complex yet approachable turn-based battle system in those opening moments, series fans will recognize not only returning systems from Persona 3 and 4, but also long-absent elements like ranged weapons and negotiation that haven’t been in a Persona game in over a decade, adding more depth and variety to combat. That’s a bold move, and it’s emblematic of the entire experience. In stark contrast to the slow burn of epic-length cutscenes that greet you in previous Persona games, Persona 5 starts its long journey with a bang by throwing you directly into a fast-paced foot chase through a vibrant, stylized Tokyo casino.
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