If you’re a fan of Japanese RPGs, but somehow not a PlayStation user — which does seem like a contradictory term, admittedly — this week is a big time. Person 5 Royalan enhanced re-release of 2016’s Game of the Year contender, is finally out on non-PlayStation platforms.
At this stage, Persona 5 is six years old. Anyway, this is old news. Even the royal update is three. The game’s elements also didn’t age well — especially some story elements and tone choices that felt very dated and outdated when the game originally released, let alone six years later. But the thing is, it’s still wonderful. Persona 5 remains one of the best and most important Japanese RPGs of the past decade.
Part of the reason behind this is that Persona has taken an interesting path compared to the big-name JRPGs. Its most obvious counterpart is Final Fantasy, where the series acts as the patriarch for the entire genre – which I think makes Dragon Quest the patriarch. Final Fantasy has spent the past decade or so analyzing and trying to emulate the success of Western RPGs like The Witcher, Skyrim, and even Mass Effect, and Persona 5 makes no secret of what it is – a complete , highly traditional anime AF characters – play the game.
It’s hard to know if this attitude was intentional, but it seems that publisher Atlus and developer P-Studio see the Japanese style of their games as an advantage, not a disadvantage, in the West. We saw something similar to the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series from Atlus parent company Sega. It leans towards its Japanese identity, which is particularly strongly expressed in the story and setting of Persona 5, a fantasy adventure, a super-powered high school with a double life in the hustle and bustle of Tokyo’s rat races Raw, flooded with tons of social commentary about the state of modern Japan as it’s an anime cliché.
The coolness of Persona 5 also helps. In a classic decision whose simplicity is so genius that it sparks dizzying confusion as to why no one has done it before, Persona 5 takes a very simple Japanese RPG menu and makes everything become extra. Menu elements slide, click, and twist with regularity, suggesting that artists and UI designers have truly unleashed the wildness they want. But it’s also always carefully threading the needle—every UI element straddles that fine-wire rope between function and style, style and substance, in such a light-hearted way that it’s almost annoying to think about. Why aren’t more menu-heavy games with such slick menus?
In a sense, that’s why Persona 5 is of interest to people outside the JRPG bubble, and what makes it appealing. Just like how many PS1-era players came to Final Fantasy for the CG cutscenes and summon monster animations; even if you’re not the kind of turn-based battle trucker that’s a lot, Persona 5 is packed full of compelling UI and The vibrant acid jazz soundtrack stylizes it so thickly that, in action, it can still feel like an action game.
Best of all, Persona has made everything so well that you have a special recipe. Persona has long been an expert in narrative and character development, fulfilled with a fairly typical group of young adult media cliché archetypes by finding a carefully set balance between the life of a heroic adventurer and the hardships and difficulties of being an adventurer A surprisingly highly personal connection to teenagers in a harsh, busy world. Persona has also always excelled at providing sufficiently deep and customizable character progression and custom levels, as well as challenging boss encounters – things have been a simpler dungeon crawler from the start. When you step back and look at it, the game is full of stuff, a tower of mechanical systems – which contributes to its super long runtime. But it doesn’t feel that long.
As a JRPG nerd willing to embrace less stylish games, I personally still prefer Persona 4’s small-town, Scooby-Doo-esque vibes – but for those who haven’t experienced the series before and those For those who may not be comfortable with the more hardcore, traditional Japanese RPG, Persona 5 is the entry point. It’s now available on three new platforms, and is included in Game Pass for Xbox and PC players.
How are the ports? Well, they seem fine to me. I’ve only played the PC and Xbox versions, but they’re both great – by far the best version of the game. On PC, you can crank games up to 120fps and 4K with relative ease, and the art style is perfect for displaying at higher resolutions. While I haven’t played the Switch version yet, I’ve listened to the folks at RPG Site, who call the Switch version “deserving of serious praise.” Persona 5’s art adapts well to different hardware requirements, which means it’s of good quality.
Regardless, it’s an interesting time for Japanese RPGs. Obviously, Persona 6 is coming, and we don’t know anything about the game – but in my opinion, it does look like the spearhead of the more “traditional” Japanese RPG experience currently known as Persona , Xenoblade Chronicles, and Fire Emblem. Final Fantasy 16 will face a tougher, more wizard-like world focused on the conflict of blood, war, and steel. Even Dragon Quest promises a grittier, more grown-up story in its twelfth entry. That’s fine, it’s all part of progress and growth. Experimentation is good. But Persona is a member of the franchise that keeps many of JRPG’s most esoteric traditions in a bigger budget, bigger scale, bigger scope — and that’s a great thing thing. Now its reach is greater than ever. Even better.
