Persona 5 is an extraordinary game with eye-catching visuals and a heartfelt soundtrack, and it is guaranteed to make you fall in love with it immediately. With its versatile gameplay, which can be adjusted to the player’s pace, Persona 5 gives a sense of relief and a breath of fresh air to the world of gaming as a whole.

The game is ultimately glamorous and keeps its sense of unique style, all while telling a ridiculously abstract story. In it, you spend half your time conducting the day-to-day life of a Japanese high school student named Ren Amamiya and the other half of the time, you spend exploring extra-dimensional dungeons and engaging in turn-based combat against a monster manual’s worth of strange beasts. You form a vigilante group with your friends called the “Phantom Thieves” to correct the corrupted society by stealing the hearts of people who have done wrong. You use your persona to defeat the cognitive versions the people see themselves as.

You win over the people and become

famous for helping others, and they soon begin to rely on your help. It is a thick slice of video game decadence, so sweet with style that I was happy to surrender to it night after night. Was I consuming Persona 5 or was it consuming me? Though if a game grabs my attention this confidently, does it really matter? My very short take on this very long game is, it’s amazing. There’s really nothing quite like it. “The game was a great experience and it was played with a lot of time, and that time had to be used wisely. Whether it be with friends or personal matters. It was mainly about the journey, not the destination.” said fellow classmate, Michael Guerrero (10).

 After the release of Persona 5, Atlus made a whooping 2.4 million dollars with selling 1.7 million copies worldwide and the numbers keep increasing. Why is that? Why are so many people fascinated by this game? Why do people spend hundreds of hours in hopes of completing it? 

 Much of Persona 5 comes down to productive schedule management. It’s more exciting than it sounds. You attend classes by day, then after school you make a choice: do you go to your job at the flower shop or do you head into an alternate dimension and do battle? Or maybe you just want to hangout with one of your friends in an arcade. Which activity will yield the greatest value and which will feel like a waste of time. With each passing day, the game’s calendar moves forward, inexorably pushing you closer to the conclusion. You have a couple hundred days; do with them what you will. I believe this game to be an absolutely must buy. No matter how hard you search, you will never find a game as stylish, as brilliant, as crazy as Persona 5. Persona 5 took nearly 200 hours of my time, which I gladly gave.

Since Persona 5 was so astonishingly successful, why not keep going? Atlus recently announced the sequel to this beautiful game. It will be called Persona 5 Royal. “Since Atlus never disappoints, I can expect another great game.” says BCCHS student, Mariela Aguilar (12). Considering how it will be a sequel, it’s expected for Royal to earn more money than the previous Persona 5 game. It is quite a cash grab and is very tempting not only to veterans, but new fans alike. When the trailer dropped at E3 Expo 2019, fans, including me, were ecstatic. The excitement was overwhelming. Once I completed Person 5, a dark hole began to take place in my heart and there wasn’t much to fill it. I felt devastated after the game came to a close on my TV screen. I was empty inside. So the realization that I will be able to see my favorite Phantom Thieves back in action one more time gave me immense joy. I am thrilled for the sequel and I cannot wait to cruise around the city of Tokyo and steal the hearts of others again. Not much has been said about Royal (besides the trailer), but many fans are forming crazy theories as to what will occur in the new game and even a possible plot to it. Despite it being only 3 minutes, the trailer gives off a good start for fans ready to dive deep and find hidden meanings and possible spoilers behind it. 

Persona 5 Royal looks quite similar to its predecessor but fans are speculating that the game might not be a sequel as they hoped. It almost seems as though it is a re-release just with more features. For example, in the trailer it shows that the game added a whole new city you can go to and a few more characters. Your talking cat is also now a human! Yet, the biggest change in the game is a new party member to the Phantom Thieves, Kasumi Yoshizawa. You and your friends go into the minds of corrupt people in society and change them by stealing their hearts. It is a strenuous job so you have many friends to help you out, seven to be exact, all with different abilities and uniquely designed. Each character is introduced with different scenarios as to why they want to bring justice. It can go from a fallen track star who was abused by his coach to a cat trying to find his human body. They are all exceptional members to the team and each bring a distinctive feel to the game.

But wait, that wasn’t enough? Apparently not to Atlus. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of adding a new member, but I wonder what kind of feeling she will bring to the game. She is one of your classmates and joins your double life as a vigilante. The trailer portrays her almost as a villain, as she claims she is “responsible for crushing their dreams.” Although in another trailer, it is shown that Kasumi is a cheerful, elegant, and friendly person with a perfect life, as she received a scholarship to enter the school. While she expresses admiration towards you and your friends, she greatly rejects the  Phantom Thieves and their existence, as she believes that people should learn how to solve their own problems instead of relying on other people. 

This stems from her own personal issues, having been helped throughout her life. She joins them for her own reasons rather than for the idea of changing the hearts of corrupt adults. She is quite a fascinating character and I am excited to see how she changes the story and everyone around her. Besides Kasumi, another interesting character has found their way to slither into the game. He is the school therapist and a snake! He gives off a weary vibe and it makes me uneasy. I am afraid he is going to ruin the good times spent by the phantom thieves. Obviously this is just my assumption, but I am not a reliable source and most certainly not the best reviewer. Even so, I am ultimately grateful for another opportunity to play such a marvelous game. Whether it be a sequel or a re-release, I guarantee I will still be first in line to purchase a copy regardless.

click here to watch the trailer!