Persona 5
- Persona 5 Area Maps
- Persona 5 Social Stats
- Persona 5 Cooperations
This game is already out in Japan, but I've already heard its pretty good so I couldn't help myself but buy the Japanese version. The US release is on Valentine's in 2017 which is too long of a wait plus it most likely isn't going to include the Japanese voices which is one of the main reasons I want to play this game.
The game blocked recording and screenshots so I can't share any of my own gameplay sadly. I've played a few hours of this game already, but the beginning is slow so I really haven't gotten very far. I am taking my time with it since it is my first Persona game so I don't know how things are done. I have seen lets plays of Persona 4 so I am familiar with the story aspect just not the battling since I didn't care nor did it matter as I am not playing it.
So the setup of this game is you play as a high school boy, who has a bit of a "criminal record". This character I think usually don't have default names you can name them whatever you want. Since I am a fan of his voice actor, I named him after him, Fukuyama Jun. The game shows you that this boy got into an incident where he was helping a woman who is getting harassed by a man. The boy was the only one that got in trouble because he "attacked" and hurt the man. This got him kicked out of his school. He got into another school and is on probation for one year. Since the school is in Tokyo, his parents had sent him to a man who runs a coffee and curry cafe who was nice enough to lend him a room. I say nice but he really isn't that overly friendly. He says he will kick you out if you make trouble. You just have to be a well behaved student for a year, but obviously that is going to be a difficult task. A strange navigation app appears on his phone, and this is whats taking him to this alternate reality.
I will also mention that the story does alternate between past and present. The beginning cutscene is you going on some thief heist, but you get caught because someone has betrayed you. You get interrogated by a prosecutor/detective (I forgot which) who you're telling the whole story to. Like probably any other Persona games, this does have some dark themes, and so far I've seen its on abuse. Definitely going to be an R-rated game.
This game is enjoyable so far. I wasn't sure if I like the comic book like graphical style, but it is unique. Playing it, the style is neat and understandable. There's no volume adjustment in the settings which is strange. The battle is turned base. I'm not sure if I've gotten through the entire battle tutorial yet, but you have a lot of options. You can choose to attack with your persona which takes SP, with your sword (melee weapon), or your gun. Your turn can only do one of these so you can't just shoot with your gun and then use your sword in the same turn. There is also a auto melee battling thing called RUSH as well as an all out attack that requires more than one party member. When you weaken an enemy enough, you have the option to capture it or in this game they become one of your masks or personas. You can only have a few on with you, which is where the option to fuse is available. You can fuse 2 or more personas to make a more stronger persona. I haven't gotten into many battles yet so I don't have much to say about it at the moment. The only thing so far that I find annoying is all the tutorial stuff. There's so much of it.
The music is also really enjoyable. I do like the city feel of the game. I never been to Tokyo, but so far I hear that the game does replicate the city pretty well. I do like cities so I do find the game kind of relaxing. Since I don't live in a city anymore because rent is too expensive, its nice for me to get that city feel back with this game.
This game in Japan cost 8,800 yen which is about $80 which to me is ridiculously expensive. Though I think this is about the normal price for games there. I can't even complain about the prices of games in the US. If you are interested in getting this game in Japanese but don't know how I can tell you how I did it. First you need to make a Japanese Playstation Network account. The method is different depending on whether you make it on PC or on the PS4 so please Google the steps for that. Then you will to buy Japanese Playstation Network gift cards since non-Japanese credit cards won't work. The ones I get are from PlayAsia since you get the code immediately after you pay. The Redeem Code is on the same place in the PS store for US and Japan. Just look for コード near the bottom of the left menu. Then enter the code it should process immediately. Persona 5 is available for digital download, and if you get it now since its recently released, you should see ペルソナ5 on the left menu there already when you go into ゲーム. The checkout process is the same. I do recommend this game, but if you don't know any Japanese I'd advise waiting for the English release. Unless you just want to play around with it and skip the story, and are ok with paying for the game twice.
Update: I have finally finished this game. It took me about 130 hours and I did have to change the mode to Safety in order to finish the game faster. I do find that the hours does kind of justify the price, but I definitely found it to be too long. The story is not bad, and the characters are fun. I know people are not liking Ryuuji, but I do find him enjoyable. It is a shame romancing male characters isn't an option. Overall, I don't really think its worth the nearly $90 I paid for it, but since the US version will have dual audio, I wished I wasn't so impatient and waited.
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