There have been many good JRPG games over the past twenty years especially in the PlayStation library, the Persona series has been one of those franchises that just surprises you in every way when it comes to gameplay, story-telling and making choices that could cause an impact later in the game if you are not too careful.
I didn't know what to expect in Persona 5 after spending a ton of hours on both Persona 3 and 4 in the past, plus a reason why I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who haven't played Persona 5 yet because not only it's released on both the PS3 and PS4; but the PS4 version is a strong welcoming point to newcomers into the JRPG genre. The story is set in Tokyo and follows a silent protagonist after his transfer to the fictional Shujin Academy after being put on probation for an assault of which he was falsely accused. When starting your new life at Shujin Academy and make a few friends this is where the story starts to kick in but after spending the first few hours in you will be shocked and surprised what will happen next, I was not expecting it to be this dramatic at the beginning.
If you are new to series or played past Persona games, Persona 5 is a traditional Role-Playing game you shouldn't have any problems with the battle system if you've played other RPG games before where certain enemies will have weakness or what does more damage to enemies. You can only have up to 4 party members in your team, you can change their tactics during battles if you want to, you can also team up and beat the crap out of enemies if you hit their weakness. You on the other hand can change into different Persona's at any time but a gameplay mechanic that was used in Persona 2 makes a return in Persona 5, once the enemies are weak or low on health you've got the choice to do an All-out attack or try to talk to them to either join you or ask for a rare item or more money. This mechanic is a great idea to use but also you can fuse them to make new Persona's as well.
The dungeons that are added in this time you'll have a deadline in completing them before a certain date but if you don't finish the dungeon it will be game over if you are not too careful. The way the dungeons are set out are more of a stealth tactic you can easily avoid them without being spotted or sneak up from behind and attack them giving you a chance to attack first. But if you don't they'll start chasing you down and attack you but also if the warning meter on the left is 100% full getting spotted by most enemies you'll have to exit the dungeon and would have to start again unless you've found a save point in the dungeon. Outside of the dungeon crawling you'll also be studying if you want to keep your grades up in school and become the most popular person in school. You can take on part-time jobs to gain more money and hear people's problems or hang out with your friends who have their own problems.
The graphics and visuals look even more impressive than ever especially on the PlayStation 4 where the visuals really do shine when it comes to JRPG games. If you've played both Catherine and Persona 4 just shows how far Atlus was went when it comes to developing Persona 5 and having the story set during the present day of Tokyo. Most of the locations like Shibuya Crossing and Shinjuku look almost identical to the real thing when comparing the two when looking at videos and photos unless you've been to Japan for yourself you'll notice the difference. The art style is impressive to look at but also the story setting feels like it has borrowed elements and references from other fictional characters and stories from outlaws and picaresque heroes like Arsène Lupin III, Captain Kidd, Milady, Zorro and Robin Hood. But as I've already mentioned I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who haven't played it yet but you will be surprised how well done the story and setting is all played out.
Like early JRPG games for example like Final Fantasy VII you'll notice the odd text-dialog and translations feel like it doesn't match to the game's story or text-dialog during cutscenes when looking at Persona 5 does have the odd text-translations feel like it doesn't mix in with the localization of the game but it still does a great job keeping the game fresh. Like most JRPG fans like myself may get the odd nostalgia when it comes to translations but luckily it might have already been patched thanks to the updates for Persona 5. Like Final Fantasy VII and Persona 5 just shows how far these odd issues have come when it comes to translation patches.
Once again Shoji Meguro makes a return and pulls off another outstanding soundtrack from battle music to the backstreets, you could easily listen to the soundtrack all day if you wanted to because it's that memorable it'll get stuck to your head. The voice acting is good well done depending on which version you prefer more either English or Japanese voicing but both versions are very well done and fit in well with that character.
The more you spend time in Persona 5 it's harder to put the game down you can easily spend more than 80 - 100 hours on the main story but in the end, it was worth it. Even after finishing the game New Game+ offers more content and stuff carried over from your first-playthrough can be carried over. Overall there's just something special about Persona 5 in general that just makes you want to keep playing and playing but giving you a reminder on how good JRPG games are when looking at the current-generation of gaming this is one of those games that stands out on its own and will be one of those games that many people will be talking about for later years to come.