Persona 5 First-Timer's Primer | Is it for you and Should you Buy it?

PERSONA 5 is about to officially launch soon and, by now, you may have already heard all the hype the game’s been getting. Personally, I’m a huge fan and I’m SUPER hyped with all the feedback. It came to my attention however, that A LOT OF PEOPLE seem to not know what this game is all about.

That’s not surprising, considering that the Persona series had somewhat of a cult following. As time went by however, the Persona titles received more and more mainstream attention and, with Persona 5, that is truer than ever. Various reviews have come out giving the game such high ratings. Most have given 9/10 – 10/10 ratings for the game and it is for that reason, that more and more people are asking “Wait. What the hell is Persona 5 anyway?”. If you’re one of those people who want to find out what this highly acclaimed game is all about and what kind of game is it, we gotchu fam. We’re gonna give you a general primer on the game so you can see whether the game is for you or not.

Here’s a quick look at what’s in store for you in Persona 5:

You can see that Persona 5 is pretty much a JRPG. But let’s further distill that into specifics.

It’s a Student Life Simulator By Day

Yup, you read that right. A huge part of the game is you living your life as a student. You need to go to school, join clubs, take tests, make friends, hang out with said friends, etc. While it may sound weird and tedious, this is actually a really interesting part of the game. It also really immerses you into the world of Persona 5. You get to create bonds with people and boost your knowledge, courage, kindness, and so on.

BUT WHAT’S THE POINT? Not only does it unlock certain events / story elements, some also affect your combat potential. They’re not senseless at all. They all have something to do with the overall game experience which has always been one of the most interesting aspects of Persona for me.

It’s a Dungeon-based JRPG by Night

At night, you travel to “another world” so to speak and this is where the dungeon style JRPG play happens. You go through the dungeon finding treasure and defeating enemies, etc. The dungeon floors are randomly generated (unless they’re story-determined maps – those are set). There’s a stealth element to the dungeon-crawling where you can platform or sneak by your enemies.

When you encounter an enemy, you go into a turn-based battle. It follows the typical JRPG formula mixed with a bit of Pokemon mechanics. In addition to attacking, defending, and using items, you use your Persona (sort of like your Pokemon) to cast spells. If the spell you use hits an elemental weakness of the enemy, your attack becomes super effective. The reverse is also true. Winning battles lets you level, making you stronger and giving you access to stronger Persona.

Persona 5 is Story-Heavy

If you enjoy a good and deep story then PERSONA 5 is the game for you! Persona has been known for great story telling and we highly expect that Persona 5 will not disappoint. For starters, here’s the initial story as taken from the Persona 5 Wikipedia:

After the protagonist defends a woman from being molested by powerful politician Masayoshi Shido, Shido uses his connections to have the protagonist charged with assault and put on probation, resulting in expulsion from his school. The protagonist is sent to Tokyo to stay with family friend Sojiro Sakura and attend Shujin Academy during his year-long probation. After his arrival, he is drawn into the Velvet Room, where Igor warns him that he must “rehabilitate” to avoid forthcoming ruin, and grants him access to a supernatural mobile app that leads the protagonist into the Palace realm. The protagonist meets Morgana, who convinces him to change wicked people’s hearts by stealing their “treasure”—the emotional root of their behavior—from their Palaces. After an initial success against the school’s manipulative volleyball coach and a second brief encounter with Shido, the protagonist and Morgana form the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, stealing corruption from the hearts of adults in an attempt to reform the city.

Given Persona’s track record from its previous installments, I can guarantee you there will be several twists to the story which will make for a really epic adventure in the game. If you’re like me, that’s more than enough reason to check out the game.

The Game is Practically an Anime

If you haven’t noticed by now, the game has HEAVY anime influences. If you enjoy that in a video game, then you’ll REALLY enjoy Persona 5. In addition to that, the art style is simply excellent and there will be a lot of cutscenes that will serve as anime eye candy for you.

The Soundtrack is OH SO GOOD!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcE4-6QGgpc

If there’s anything that I’ve personally loved about the game, it’s that Persona games always have SUCH AN AWESOME SOUNDTRACK! Here’s a sample of the main Persona 5 Theme called “Life Will Change”. Trust me, the rest of the OST is pretty sweet as well 🙂

The Reviews for the Game are Stellar

As earlier mentioned, the game has been receiving a lot of stellar reviews. It’s currently one of the highest rated PS4 games out there. If the perfect / near-perfect reviews for Persona 5 are any indication, this is definitely a must-have game of 2017! Here are some of the review scores the game has at the moment:

There you have it! You should probably have a good idea of whether Persona 5 appeals to you with the things we mentioned above. If it does, Persona 5 comes out TODAY for the Philippines and is officially releasing in the US on April 5, 2017 so we advise you to get right on it and go get yourselves a copy! Check back here at UnGeek for our own review of the game and for other Persona 5 content! Till next time, guys! Keep on gaming! 🙂