Persona 5

Persona 5 was the first JRPG I've played in my life and it pretty much changed my thoughts torwards the JRPG genre.

The story is one of my favourites! It's the longest and the most fun story I've ever played! It's over 80 hours and full of plot twists & amazing moments!

Gameplay wise, it's challenging but very addictive! In fact, the whole game is probably the most addictive single player videogame I've ever played! I could play for 5+ hours straight and feel that it wasn't enough!

The combat is turn based and you can control every character from your party. You can use various type of attacks, items, mechanics, powers and Persona attacks while spending HP or SP (stamina) with each one of the characters.

Every ability is different though and applies different effects (Physical/Fire/Ice damage, heal, burn, confuse, damage increase, evasion and many, many more).

By the way, when you stun all the targets, you can use an ultimate attack but you can also have a conversation with the enemies' instead in order to collect them as Personas (like Pokémon) or steal their money!

The mechanics are awesome!

The cast is my absolute favourite in a videogame and the dialogue is great!

The soundtrack is one of the best!

Lastly, during free roam, you can basically do whatever you can do in real life in order to improve your social stats that affect your relationships you make with the other characters and the art style is gorgeous!

However, there are some pacing issues and the freedom feels a little bit limited.

Pros:

+ Incredible story

+ Very addictive gameplay

+ Amazing cast

+ Awesome mechanics

+ A lot of content

+ Gorgeous art style

Cons:

- Lack of enough freedom

- Minor pacing issues

Narrative: 10/10

Gameplay: 10/10

Content: 9/10

Characters: 10/10

Music: 10/10

Art Style: 10/10

Persona 5 is a game full of style and confidence. The Phantom Thieves stole my heart and Persona 5 is one of the best videogames I've ever played!

The only reason why I'm not giving it a 10/10, is because of Persona 5 Royal.

A blend of JRPG and social-simulator, Persona 5 is a strange, but incredibly engaging mishmash. Both aspects of the game are well-built, but switching between the two can sometimes feel jarring. Collecting and fusing new Personas is quite fun, helped by their relevance to history or religion, with Skill Inheritance allowing for a great deal of build diversity.

The narrative is surprisingly captivating, a driving force as to why the game manages to keep you hooked for its entire 110-hour-long campaign. The concept of the Phantom Thieves is great and utilised to decent effect in some of the game's dungeons. The characters, while very simple, are still very likeable. A large, deep-rooted flaw with the plot is the pacing, which leads to you being overwhelmed with story arcs sometimes and itching for more at others.

The soundtrack is exceptional; led by jazzy basslines, with a soulful vocalist in Lyn, as well as a diverse range of instrumentation. Despite having over 100 tracks, very few of them feel wasted.

The graphics are mediocre at best, with the anime cutscenes being a nice break from the animation. But the manga style that coats the games' UI is the true treat for the eyes; bursting with colour and oozing personality.

For someone not too familiar with JRPGs, nor social simulators, Persona 5 was quite a surprise. Led by an intriguing, albeit sluggish, story, with an addicting gameplay loop, attractive visual style, and bouncy soundtrack, this game is quite amazing.

Amazing game. One of the best JRPGs on the PS4. The soundtrack is amazing, the characters are relatable and great, the environments are cool, and the gameplay itself is simply awesome. There's a lot to do. You will easily spend over 80 hours playing this gem. Definitely pick this game up!