The Weekend Hangover: Persona 5

The Weekend Hangover is Too Much Gaming's Monday rumination of the games or game we played over the weekend. Sometimes there is alcohol involved in the hangover we’re nursing, but most other times there’s just too much gaming.

A long weekend is a rare occurrence and I wasn’t going to let it go to waste. But instead of just starting something fresh, I found myself booting up a JRPG that I’ve stopped mid-way. Persona 5 felt like the game I needed to enjoy the break, and to finally cross it off my backlog list. I didn’t lose interest, life just tends to throw random curveballs every now and then.

This is my first Persona game ever. The word on how good this game turned out to be peaked my interest. And since the start of this year, I’ve been slowly chipping away at one of the best JRPGs of this generation. The combat took some time to get used to, but the presentation and art of this game was why I got hooked in the first place. The way they tell this crazy story, to how you navigate the game’s menu screen is unique and inviting. The music...well, have a listen below. It can get you in the mood, no matter where you are in the game.

What remained foreign however, was managing Joker -- and by extension, the rest of the Phantom Thieves -- in the real world. It felt like an interactive version of slice of life anime. The result is that Persona 5 is just as much a time management sim as it is a dungeon crawler. For most Persona fans, this is a tried and true staple of the series and I'm glad I'm not missing out anymore. 

That being said, combat is one place I cannot afford to goof around. It only takes a few poorly played turns for your team to go from fully healed to barely standing. It’s challenging. Just the way I like it. The quality and craftsmanship of Persona 5 do hearken back to the golden age of JRPGs.

It was an age littered with Final Fantasy releases as well as Breath of Fire, Legend of Dragoon, and more classics that pretty much summed my early gaming days. The popularity of the genre and volume of releases aren’t what they used to be but the success of games like Persona 5, Octopath Traveler, and FInal Fantasy XV make me excited for what else the genre might have in store over the next few years.

That being said, gone are the days when I only needed a week or two to burn through a content-heavy JRPG like Persona 5. Boy, do I miss those days. I’m aiming to finish the game before the first wave of third quarter games roll out this year. I think I’ll make it at my current pace, as I've just finished the Egypt-themed palace, and I'm roughly 50 hours in based on my save file.

After I finish Persona 5, I might as well keep going with my current JRPG craze and further lessen my backlog. Evermore awaits my return.

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