foxaddict94 - Tumblr blog

foxaddict94 · 7 years

Text

The Phantom Thieves Came and Stole My Heart!

It’s been a while since I wrote a review here on Tumblr... I kinda lost interest in Tumblr for a good while, but I’m back because I want to talk about Persona 5. I have just finished my second run of the game and I feel like a review of this game would be too much to tweet about on Twitter so I thought it’s best to write here. Anyways lets start the review.

So I did a series of blogs reviewing all the Persona games from 1-4 in preparation for Persona 5. The game came out in September 2016 and we had to wait through a series of delays for the localized release of the game. Were the delays worth the wait for the game? I say yes because the game has exceeded all my expectations as I patiently waited for the game. The game was finally released April 4th 2017 world wide and everyone was excited, including me since I have been avoiding spoilers for half a year. I will discuss about those spoilers later in this review so this is your first warning here.

So Persona 5 starts off in a Casino where the protagonist and his friends are pulling a heist. Here you would be confused and ask the following questions: What’s going on? Why am I a thief? Why are the Police after me? Why did that guy turn into a monster? and What’s in the briefcase I’m carrying? All those questions will be answered later in the game. The opening scene ends with your character being caught by the police, interrogated after taking an overdose of truth serum and beaten up by the cops. A prosecutor named Sae Niijima enters the scene and asks you what happened from the very beginning. The whole story of the game from that point on is a flashback.

The flashback starts in April 20XX (yes no exact year but there are some theories when it takes place) with your character arriving in Shibuya searching for Sojiro Sakura who will be his caretaker for a year. Why is your character in Shibuya? You learn that your character was walking down the street in his hometown one night and finds a drunk guy yelling at a woman. Your character tries to play hero and stops the drunk but then he gets sued by the drunk. The result from that confrontation puts your character in probation from his hometown. So you start your new life living in the attic of a cafe that Sojiro works at. You get introduced to Shujin academy and start attending school there. On your first day of school you meet a blonde punk named Ryuji Sakamoto and they wind up at a castle instead of the school. This castle happens to be ruled by a king who has the appearance of the schools volleyball coach who you learn later is a major asshole. While trapped in the castle, your character awakens the power to summon personas summoning Arsene. They escape the castle with the help of a talking cat mascot named Morgana who also uses a persona named Zorro. After they escaped the castle they return to the streets of Shibuya confronted by police thinking they are 2 kids skipping school. They learn they missed half a day of school and your character wants to avoid as much trouble as possible since he is already on probation. Through the days in school you learn that the volleyball coach, Suguru Kamoshida, is an abusive coach who bruises his students with his spikes and sexually harasses the female students. His deeds have gone so far that a girl who he sexually harassed attempted suicide on school grounds. This all results in Ann Takamaki, a girl who happens to be your characters class, join you and Ryuji. Morgana finds our heroes in cat form and tells them that if they steal the treasure that lies in that castle, called a Palace, then Kamoshida will have a change of heart. Ann joins the group after awakening her persona Carmen, Ryuji also awakens his persona, Captain Kidd, before Ann. After the group succeeds in stealing the treasure, Kamoshida arrives school one day confessing all the crimes he did to everyone in a school assembly. The result of that success is the birth of the groups being known as the Phantom Thieves.

What I just wrote was all the first dungeon of the game. I’m not going in full detail about all the other chapters except for the end. I mainly wanted to write that just to show the buildup they made to show how much thought they put into creating corrupt characters in the game. The story goes on with the Phantom Thieves changing the heart of Ichiryusai Madarame, an artist who appears to be completely innocent at first, but actually plagiarizes the work of his pupils. The team recruit one of Madarames pupils, Yusuke Kitagawa after he learned about his masters corrupt nature in art. Yusuke awakens his persona Goemon and they changed the heart of Madarame. The next target was set by Shujins Student Council President, Makoto Niijima, since she’s been suspicious of the protagonist and his friends. Makoto wants them to change the heart of a mobster, after searching for information they learn about Junya Kaneshiro who runs a drug trafficking business with high school students involved. Makoto awakens her persona Johana and joins the Phantom Thieves in order to fight for what justice truly means to her. As the story goes on a student in the main characters class, Yuki Mishima, starts a fan site for the Phantom Thieves after they took down Kamoshida (There’s a legit fan site of this fan site online, it’s phansite.net) . After the Phantom Thieves changed the heart of a person, their fame increases. Due to their fame they received after changing Kaneshiro’s heart, a hacktivist group named MedJed threatens the Phantom Thieves to stop or else they’ll “cleanse” Tokyo. Instead of changing the heart of someone in that group of hacktivists, they change the heart of a girl who isolated herself from society for 2 whole years after her mother died. This girl was Futaba Sakura, adopted daughter under the care of Sojiro Sakura. After they changed her heart, she hacks into MedJed and saves the Phantom Thieves. She then joins the group after awaking her persona Necronomicon. Their next target was a request from... my favorite character in the game... my god I love her... Haru Okumura daughter to Kunizaku Okumura who is the CEO of Okumura foods who runs the equivalent to Burger King in the world of Persona, Big Bang Burger. Her father is a corrupt man who cares for personal gain, Haru requests the Phantom Thieves to change his heart since he put her into marrying an asshole who treats Haru like dirt than the softhearted person that she is. The wedding was mainly so her father can have a political connection in the company. Haru Awakens her persona, Milady and change her fathers heart... until you see his shadow get shot by a mysterious figure after the Phantom Thieves leave the scene. This results in Haru’s father confessing what he did, but then dying live on TV like a public execution. This results in the Phantom Thieves massive drop in fame and they get help from a detective who’s been onto the Phantom Thieves throughout the game, Goro Akechi. He tells them that they should change the heart of Makotos sister, Sae Niijima, the same Sae from the very beginning of the game, to help prove the Phantom Thieves innocent. Goro helps the team with his persona Robin Hood and they venture through what Sae sees a courthouse as a Casino. That’s right, we’re heading back to where the game started! The end results in what you saw from the very opening of the game bringing you back to the interrogation room with Sae.

That’s enough with the story, until I get to the heavy spoiler part. The game has wonderful presentation for it’s anime like story and characters. I love this group so much compared to other groups in the Persona series. Ryuji is an idiot who you’d like to butt heads with while he tries to do something right with his own actions. Ann isn’t bright but she’s caring and wants to learn how to be a strong. Yusuke is interested in finding many inspirations for his next art pieces wherever he goes, but is very bad with managing his money. Makoto is the most organized member of the group, but is tired of following the path others give her and wants to decide her life for herself. Futaba is characterized like a major gamer girl who is a mischievous hacker and is like the little sister character to the protagonist. Haru is an innocent rich girl who loves to garden and dreams of making her own coffee while trying to handle business with Okumura Foods after her father’s passing. Morgana wants to learn the truth behind his origins and teaches the main character how to be a Phantom Thief like a kickass sidekick. Goro is a dedicated detective who is willing to do anything it takes to solving a case.

The gameplay is fantastic, exploring Tokyo with the fast travel button is incredible and easy to use! Exploring town is similar to Persona 3 and 4 where you run around town talking to people and shopping at various stores. Social Links are now Confidants, but still work like Social Links. Confidants are incredibly useful in this game! Each Confidant gives you an ability to give the player a better gameplay experience in the game! Hanging out with your party members improves their combat performance. Outside your party members, the following characters have incredible improvements to gameplay. Yuki Mishima helps you get more experience in battle for both those fighting and on the sidelines. The main characters teacher, Sadayo Kawakami, does her job as a maid to do tasks that waste your characters time in the Cafe. Sojiro Sakura teaches you how to make coffee and curry which heals your party’s SP. The doctor who works at a clinic nearby the cafe, Tae Takemi, sells more healing items and accessories in the clinic. The ex-Yakuza who works at a model gun shop, Munehisa Iwai, helps you customize guns. The politician who wants to make up for his mistakes in the Diet Building, Toranosuke Yoshida, helps the character be better in negotiating with the enemy. A fortune teller who’s part of a cult, Chihaya Mifune, gives fortune telling sessions that tells you what abilities your party members will get in the future. A reporter who likes to drink, Ichiko Ohya, helps write articles about the Phantom Thieves and decreases the threat levels when the player is spotted by the enemy. A kid who’s raised to win everything in life, Shinya Oda, helps improves the main characters skills using a gun from playing a gun video game. A professional Shogi player, Hifumi Togo, gives the main character new strategies to use in battle. The last confidant outside of the party members are the twin Velvet Room attendants Caroline and Justine. Just like Margaret from Persona 4, they want you to create personas with certain skills. After completing each task, they’ll give you a new service to use in the Velvet Room.

Dungeon crawling in the game is incredible! It’s like I’m playing an Anime version of Sly Cooper without the insane stunts Sly does. You sneak around the dungeon and do sneak attacks on the enemy to engage in battle. If you get spotted then the person who owns the dungeon will become aware of you. If you fill the meter to 100%, you’ll be kicked out of the dungeon. Now to talk about what is the best combat system in any game I have played in my life! The combat is simplified by simple button presses, not going through menus selecting a physical attack or a spell. The only menu you go through is for using items, and the spells a persona has. When you knock down all the enemies with either a critical hit or their weakness, you’ll put them into an interrogation stage. This phase is reminiscent to classic Shin Megami Tensei and Persona 1 and 2 games. You make a deal with the enemy on letting them give you an item, money or become the main characters next persona to use. If it fails the enemy can comeback and attack. Or if you want the battle to be done with, just press the all-out attack button to let everyone in the party attack the fallen enemy. Another nod to Persona 1 in this game is that the characters use guns again! Now they wield physical weapons and guns. Bullets are limited though and you don’t find ammo in dungeons. They reload when you leave the dungeon and return another day.

The music is phenomenal! I never felt like dancing to a song in a game so bad when I play it! Shoji Meguro has done an incredible job implementing jazzy songs into a game about a band of thieves. The battle theme is incredible, I love the guitar riff in the boss theme, the song that plays at night when you return to the cafe is so relaxing. There are so many great songs in the game that I’m pleased to have a CD of the soundtrack from preordering the Take Your Heart Collectors Edition! Seriously, look up the following songs that I love so much: “Last Surprise”, “Life Will Change”, “Blooming Villain”, “Beneath the Mask”, and “Whims of Fate.”

Ok from here on I’ll be discussing spoilers of the last 2 dungeons of the game, you have been warned.

So after the flashback ends, you learn that the traitor of the group was Goro. He planned the Phantom Thieves pull a heist on a certain date and bring cops to that Casino. It turns out he works for a corrupt politician named Masayoshi Shido who happens to be the same guy who sued the main character in his hometown. Shido has been using Goro’s powers to kill people in the Metaverse, the world where people’s Palaces are held, in order to improve his image while he runs for Prime Minister of Japan. Goro was also hired to kill the protagonist after capturing him in the Casino. The Phantom Thieves manage to pull a stunt that makes the main character fake his own death. Futaba hacked into Goro’s phone and triggered him into the Metaverse killing a fake protagonist while the real one sits quietly in the real world with a smirk on his face. After the protagonist returns to the cafe, they all target to change Shidos heart. Shido has been behind many events in the game. Not only did Goro kill people for the election, he also killed Futaba’s mother and hired government officials to read a fabricated suicide note telling Futaba how much her mom hated her and was always in the way of her research of cognitive psience. Shido ordered her killed so he can take her research and use it to his advantage for his campaign. Shido also planned on using the Phantom Thieves fame against themselves by letting Goro kill Haru’s father after they took his Palace’s treasure. While the team explores Shido’s dungeon, they encounter Goro and fight him. Turns out Goro uses another persona, Loki, who brings people into chaos. After the battle, Goro is killed by Shido’s vision of Goro who is a mindless puppet used for killing people. Goro’s backstory turns out that he was abandoned by his parents and Shido was his father, Shido used his son as his own personal assassin for his own political gain. After the thieves change his heart, Shido confesses all of his crimes during his victory in the election. However, his team wishes to defend him by running the government the way he envisions it. After the Phantom Thieves made their comeback, since the news reported about the leader committing suicide through Goro’s attempt on killing the protagonist, the reception from society on the fan site isn’t as big as they expect and Shido isn’t being put on trail from his crimes. The final solution to this issue is to steal the heart of the pubic, which is located at the base of a Palace that’s created by the public as a whole, Mementos. Mementos is like Tartarus from Persona 3 meets the Abandoned Factory/Bomb Shelter from Persona 2. You explore the area and fight enemies from previous dungeons while going deeper and deeper into the abandoned subway tunnels. At the very base of Mementos is a structure known as a Holy Grail that gains power from people in society who believes it is their true meaning of life. I love what they did here with Mementos where it’s the game straight up saying we are prisoners of society. The characters you changed the hearts of through the game are like the ex-cons of society. You learn that the figure behind that Holy Grail is a god who wishes to send the world to ruin by letting humans not think about their paths in life. The biggest twist out of it all was that Igor, the master of the Velvet Room, was that corrupt god the whole time and the attendants, Caroline and Justine, are 2 halves of one attendant named Lavenza. Morgana learns that he’s a Velvet Room attendant as well but was created from the last pieces of hope from humanity before that god took over. The last dungeon is the Phantom Thieves fighting Angels and other demons as they climb their way through a world where reality and Mementos has merged. At the very end they fight that Holy Grail one last time revealing it’s true form, a god of control known as Yaldabaoth. They go through one intense fight against the god where he uses abilities from other bosses against the party and they impress the corrupt god with their power. At the end society learns that the Phantom Thieves are alive and fighting a god and their support for them increases the fan site meter to 100% letting the main character summon the biggest, baddest of all ultimate personas in the series! A being known as a demon lord who defies god to make a fitting end for the Phantom Thieves adventure, Satanael! Sataneal uses his skill, Sinful Shell, on the corrupt god and lands a headshot on him ending his reign on society.

Our heroes have saved society from god and are ready to have a Christmas party for the celebration... however... feels attacks... Sae tells the protagonist that they need his help in order to prove Shido guilty from what he has done since the Phantom Thieves are the only one who can prove what the Metaverse is. In order to do that, the main character has to turn himself in which will result him to Juvenile in Solitary Confinement. After receiving the news... to make the scene worse, the girl who you put your character in a relationship texts you for a Christmas Eve date. You spend time with her one last time before going to Juvie. The next day, everyone in the Phantom Thieves is crying and freaking out about how they saved the world and their leader is treated like a criminal in the end. Time flies while the main character is in prison and you see all the Confidants you max out with try to help prove your innocence. At the end, you get released early after Shido confesses that he sued your character for assault that he didn’t do. The protagonist returns home to his friends and they all celebrate the wonderful reunion. The next day is Valentines so you spend with whoever you dated. Then at the very end, once you let the main character say his goodbyes to everyone he met, he takes a trip with the Phantom Thieves on a van to solve issues that are requested on the fan sites forum posts in reality.

This ending, has made me cry more than the ending of Persona 2 Innocent Sin. I cried in a roundabout way from sadness to happiness... I don’t think I’ll ever experience that feeling again after that game. I have enjoyed everything the game brought to use Persona fans, along with cameos to other characters in the Persona series you see on TV like in Persona 3. The DLC costumes are a lot of fun to use since they change the battle theme if you get sick and tired of “Last Surprise,” or just want to goof around with some costumes. The Confidants are really useful if you do a Max Confidant run cause they make you feel insanely powerful at times! After playing this game, it pains me to say this, but it’s true... Persona 5 just took over Persona 2 Innocent Sin as my number 1 favorite Persona game in the series. The ending was entirely better than Innocent Sin’s ending since it was mostly on a sad note while Persona 5 was sadness to happiness. I highly recommend you get this game, even if you are or are not a Persona fan, it’s a wonderful JRPG experience. This game has stolen my heart, and I like it.

That was a lot to write about, I wanted to share how much I enjoyed Persona 5 to everyone as best I can. Now that the review is pretty much done, I bid you all...

GOD I LOVE HARU!

#Persona 5 #Phantom Thieves #ryuji sakamoto #ann takamaki #haru okumura #makoto niijima #morgana #yusuke kitagawa #Futaba Sakura #goro akechi #Atlus #PS4 #PS3

65 notes · View notes