First Frames - Persona 5
“A Year and 92 hours later, I’ve finished Persona 5. And I wish it was longer.”
Back in May, IGN published a list of the top 10 longest video game stories of all time. Most of the games on the list were 70+ hours. And while that list only focused on narrative and driven gameplay (so open-world games were out of the running), the Persona series dominated the list with three entries. Persona 5 sat at the top, with an average gameplay of 101 hours - 4.2 straight days of gaming.
I didn’t know that when I started playing it.
Granted, friends tried to warn me. I told them I was looking to play Persona 5 for the first time and they said it would be “a season” of my life. That dedicating so much time to a game that demands your attention was necessary to really enjoy Persona. And Persona really is a unique series: it’s a life-sim/turn-based JRPG/dungeon crawler with elements from games like Pokémon and Undertale that itself is a spinoff of Shin Megami Tensei. There’s nothing else like it. So, I thought, I had to play it. No matter how long they thought it would take.
A year and 92 hours later, I’ve finished Persona 5. And I wish it was longer.
The Persona series follows a group of high schoolers who can summon supernatural creatures called “Personas” to fight evil. Persona 5 focuses on a nameless protagonist who discovers Palaces, mental worlds created by distorted desires. He and his group of friends, all “outcasts” in their high school, dive into these Palaces and steal the Treasure – the heart of the distortion – to change the heart of the person themselves. Now Phantom Thieves, the targets quickly grow in importance from pervy volleyball coaches to criminal overlords to major politicians, climaxing in a battle against the god of corruption for the heart of the world.
Did that seem like a lot? It would be in any other game, of course, but Persona 5 knows that it has time to burn. With a 90+ hour game, pacing is critical, and P5 keeps a level head all the way through.
The game is divided into two main settings – the real world and the Metaverse – and with it, two styles of gameplay.
In the real world, you go to school and attempt to keep a low profile as a Phantom Thief. While at school, you can spend time with friends (called Confidants) to improve your connection (officially called Ranks) and gain benefits in the Metaverse. You can also improve your different characters’ skills by reading books, buying guns, or calling an escort service that turns out to be your homeroom teacher (who then becomes your Confidant – it’s a weird game sometimes).
But once you have a target whose heart needs changing, it’s time to delve into the Metaverse and enter their Palace. At this point, the game becomes a more classic turn-based JRPG. You fight through battle after battle with Shadows (corrupted hearts) to eventually find and take the Treasure. However, there are some unique elements to the Palace system that keeps each Palace fresh (even when you hit the 6th or 7th Palace late in the game).
“Think of it like Pokémon, if the Pokémon was a giant demon on a toilet. Or a unicorn. Or Mothman.”
The main draw of the system is, of course, the Personas. Each party member has their own Persona with different abilities and stats, acting as a magic system that differentiates each character. But most importantly, you don’t just have one Persona. You can have as many as you like.
Your character’s a Wild Card, which allows him to reason with enemies and convince them to join your side. This gifts you that enemy as a Persona, allowing you to summon them in battle and use their moves. You can also fuse your Personas to create a whole new Persona, with moves from either of the original. And each Persona has certain elemental weaknesses or strengths, allowing for even more strategy.
Think of it like Pokémon, if the Pokémon was a giant demon on a toilet. Or a unicorn. Or Mothman.
You can also leave the Palaces whenever you want. Don’t feel comfortable taking on that big enemy right now? Have to go back and buy better armor? Maybe you want to talk to the child gaming prodigy you befriended that’s helping you improve your gunmanship. You can do that! Instead of throwing you into a Palace and forcing you to do it all in one go, Persona 5 establishes a deadline to steal the Treasure and destroy the Palace. It seems like a simple change, but it goes a long way. It throws agency back into the hands of the player and ensures that resource-draining is less of a concern.
The deadline system also further reinforces a major theme of the game: time management. On school days, you can only do one or two things before its time for bed. That sounds manageable, but the amount of options Persona 5 gives you for activities are endless. Besides spending time with Confidants, you can watch movies, read books, play games, go batting, go to the Bathhouse, train, build tools, or go into Mementos, which is like a smaller, floored version of a Palace. And each and every activity has mechanical bonuses, so you’re constantly planning days out in advance to ensure you can do everything you want to do before the Palace deadline. It holds the same draw and thrill of games like Stardew Valley, where calendar skills reign supreme.
"nothing felt like a waste of time. and with a game this massive, that’s quite a feat.”
I was intimidated at first with the sheer scale and scope of the game, but as I got into a rhythm it almost became second nature. I was cruising through days, enjoying each scene I was gifted when hanging out with a friend or going somewhere new. I would often finish Palaces days ahead of schedule, giving me weeks to explore or relax. It was satisfying to cross things off my mental to-do list; when I didn’t manage it all I made a note to do those things later. Nothing felt like a waste of time. And with a game this massive, that’s quite the feat.
It would be cruel of me to discuss my time playing Persona 5 without mentioning the remarkable creativity bursting from its every seam.
The voice acting is some of the best voice acting I’ve had the pleasure of seeing in a game. Of course, that’s bound to happen when your cast includes VA titans like Matt Mercer, Robbie Daymond, Xander Mobus, Cassandra Lee Morris, and Keith Silverstein. The writing only bolsters the performances, capturing (for the most part) the voice of real teenagers in all their weirdness and quirks. My personal favorites were characters like Yusuke, who is just the weirdest art kid on the planet Earth, and Futaba, who’s lines of dialogue appear to be ripped straight from Discord or gaming Reddit. It’s strange, and funny, and altogether enjoyable to witness.
Before I played the game, I was told by a close friend that the soundtrack was the best he’d ever heard in a video game. After playing, I can see where he’s coming from. Composer Shoji Meguro captures a remarkable sound that’s part-pop, part-jazzy funk, and all gold. I was terrified I would get sick of hearing the same battle music for hours and hours, but there was something so satisfying about those opening bars that I loved it every time.
The art style is unmistakably and unapologetically anime. Of course, this is developer Atlus’ bread and butter, and they’re in top form here with stylized shadows, gorgeous pops of color, and animated cutscenes that feel like a TV show in and of themselves. It’s stylish and sharp and has never looked better than on the PS5.
“It’s stylish and sharp and has never looked better than on the ps5.
I’ve spent the past 1200 words singing the praises of Persona 5. And I believe everything I’ve said. It was one of the most fun RPGs I’ve played in a long time. I’ve never felt more connected to a cast of characters in a game than I did during the final cutscene (I was holding back tears as they completed their final mission and disbanded the Phantom Thieves). I even said I wish it was longer than the 92 hours it took me to beat it. And this shocked me.
Because I hate long games.
My shelf is filled to the brim with a backlog of open-world classics. Red Dead Redemption 2 and Witcher 3 share a thick coat of dust next to Fallout 4 and Elder Scrolls: Morrowwind. Huge, sprawling games with hours of content intimidate me, and I’ll always take a polished 8-hour experience over 100 hours of gameplay any day. So when I started Persona 5 and, out of curiosity, looked up how long it would take to beat, I nearly passed out.
I really considered stopping. I was only five or six hours in, and there were tons of other games ready to play that would take a quarter of the time. I didn’t want to spend the next six months of my life playing the same game. It didn’t matter how good people said it was. But I decided to stick it out a little bit longer, just to see. I would give it one chance.
And then I gave it two chances. And three, and four, and five, and suddenly it was the final Palace and it had been a year. The time flew. I enjoyed every single second, regardless of my predisposition for shorter games.
Others agree. Persona 5 was released to universal acclaim and numerous perfect scores from major gaming outlets. It’s considered the game that brought the Persona series into mainstream gaming. It’s protagonist, Joker, was the first DLC character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
So while I still dislike long games, and I’ll forever maintain that stance…Persona 5 is an exception. It’s a one-of-a-kind, remarkable achievement in gaming that defines what an RPG should be, and I would play it again in a heartbeat.
…But maybe I’ll wait on that. A year is a long time, after all.
