A review of Persona 5 Switch that will alter your life
Our Verdict
Person 5 Royal is a wonderfully immersive and iconic JRPG, featuring striking, stylised visuals, fast-paced, turn-based combat, and a unique world full of captivating characters and stunning stories. Though the Switch somewhat stumbles with downscaled visual performance, it provides an otherwise smooth experience, and the novelty of being able to take the Phantom Thieves on the go is certainly a plus. Long live the phantom thieves!
By now, you've probably heard about Persona 5. Released in September 2016 in Japan for the Playstation 3 and Playstation 4, Atlus' highly stylized JRPG made its international debut in April 2017. The fifth installment of the hugely successful Persona series was a great hit, winning praise for its intricate world-building, chic UI, funky soundtrack, thrilling gameplay, and captivating characters.
To start, let me mention that I adore Persona 5. I bought a copy of the PS4 game as soon as it was released, and since then, I've made it a routine to play it every few months, particularly in the fall, to reconnect myself with this really unique experience. I get a feeling of familiarity and comfort unlike any other when I hear Beneath the Mask playing or go to Cafe Leblanc to have curry with Sojiro. I was thus eager to get my hands on the Switch version of Persona 5 Royal so I could give it a go before the final edition launches on other platforms this autumn.
If you haven't played Persona 5, it puts you in the role of a transfer student who, after being put on probation for acting morally, is beginning a new life at Shujin Academy. He sets out to start over, attempting to settle into his new residence above Sojiro's little coffee shop, taking the train to school, and taking on odd jobs to augment his income.
But your character finds out he can influence people's hearts, and the world is full with fairly unsavory characters. He creates an organization known as the Phantom Thieves with an ever-expanding gang of outcasts. They break into the corrupt and evil's metaphysical mind palaces, pulling off spectacular heists and battling through a maze of creatures to force the bad ones to alter their ways. Similar to vigilante mental warfare, perhaps?
Persona 5 is a strange idea, and I've always had trouble putting it into words, but the game does an amazing job of drawing you into its world and encouraging you to accept its strange and absurd ways. The story is conveyed via a combination of 2D video and spoken and unvoiced visual novel dialogue that is vividly animated in an anime-style.
You get a deep grasp of Persona 5's beautifully designed universe by piecing together the tales of the villains, confidants, and other characters. Although many of the game's aspects are quite obvious, everything fits together flawlessly by the end.
The main focus of the gameplay is striking a balance between the real world and the Metaverse. You're simply a typical high school student in the real world, but you have a significant secret to conceal. You go to school, take tests, study at coffee shops and libraries, work a part-time job, hang out with pals, and explore Tokyo's streets.
Explore the expansive palaces (the Metaverse's equivalent of dungeons) connected to your current target, each with a distinct theme, and try to figure out the symbolic object of the target's aspirations in order to bring them to light. Additionally, you may go to Mementos, a multi-layered, randomly created dungeon where you can complete tasks from NPCs that you've acquired via trusted connections.
Enemy Shadows, or "physical manifestations of suppressed psyches," abound in the Metaverse. Mythological and religious characters are represented by shadows, and their diverse array of patterns never ceases to astound. You are free to move throughout Mementos and the palaces, and when you fight, you are sent to a different arena. Turn-based combat gives you the ability to pick an action every time one of your party members takes a turn.
You may use your weapon to fight, call upon your strong Persona, use an item, or pass the grenade to the next member of the party. Every member of the group has a distinct Persona that you may eventually combine and enhance, and every adversary has certain advantages and disadvantages that you can exploit.
Even though the action is turn-based, it always seems fast and fluid, with powerful attacks that give you a real sense of power. But that doesn't imply it's simple. Every palace requires completion by a certain in-game date, and it takes a whole night to visit one every time you want to do so.
Trying to finish a palace in a single night is the most cost-effective method to guarantee you have enough time to improve your qualities and strengthen your bonds with all of your confidants, but you don't regain HP or SP while inside. This gives the game a distinct challenge as you try to balance your obligations in the real world and the Metaverse. As the difficulty level rises, time management skills become more crucial.
Apart from its captivating story, eye-catching graphics, and engaging gameplay, Persona 5's music design is just amazing. The music really sets the mood for the whole experience, from the bright, electrifying sound of Life Will Change as you step into the battlefield to the subdued, jazzy background music that is blended with the pattering rain as you stroll through the streets of Tokyo on a calm evening. In fact, despite completely not fitting in with the other indie emo bands, Beneath the Mask was on my Spotify most played list for two years running. I really do adore it to that extent.
The additional confidants and material from Persona 5 Royal are included in the definitive version, which expands the experience even further with new tales and characters you get to know. It also includes more than 40 previously published DLC items, such as outfits and soundtracks, which are completely superfluous but nevertheless a lot of fun for fans of the original game.
The game's Switch functionality is a little bit of a mixed bag. The recognizable user interface (UI) is precisely proportioned for both docked and portable modes, and it remains as colorful and crisp as ever. A few buttons (menu, settings, save, etc.) provide access to all the necessary information, and the main typeface is readable, consistent, and simple to read.
The resolution is one area where the graphics falter a little. To provide a smoother experience on Switch compared to PC and other consoles, it is only natural that the visuals would be downscaled. Nonetheless, anyone who have previously played it will note that the graphics become more muddy when seen on a larger screen.
On older displays and in portable mode, this is significantly less of an issue. Also, being able to play the game on the move may make the graphics downsizing worthwhile. The ability to play and cuddle up in bed on chilly evenings with a cup of tea makes me very happy.
The fact that there was almost no latency, stuttering, or crashes for me is another plus. Playing at a steady 30 frames per second, the OLED Switch actually outperforms the PS4 in terms of load times. Additionally, the layout seems natural to use and is simple to get used to, and the controls are quick and responsive.
All things considered, I really like Persona 5, and I'm thrilled to see the ultimate version of Persona 5 Royal available on Switch. With the added benefit of being playable anywhere, at any time, the original's incredible playability and technical prowess remain intact, despite a noticeable decline in visual appeal on this platform.
Don't hesitate any longer if you haven't played Persona 5 before and are thinking about taking a look at its bizarre, jazzy universe. You may play Persona 5 Royal on Switch or any other device. Even if you've played it before, the Switch edition lets you experience something new and transports you back to the magic no matter where you are. Now is the moment to remove the mask once again. The fact that Persona 5 is an amazing game will not change, even if life will.