2017 was a stacked year for game releases:The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,Horizon Forbidden West,Cuphead,Nier: Automata,PUBG,Uncharted: The Lost Legacy,Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice,Sonic Mania,Hollow Knight, and many, many more. Of course, in comparsion, JRPGs are a niche genre next to the open-world action/adventure games and other popular genres that dominated “Game of the Year” discussion in 2017. However, in spite of this, many different media outlets and content creators consistently had one JRPG in contention for GOTY awards:Persona 5, the latest entry in Atlus' now incredibly popular JRPG series.
Five years on,Persona 5has very quickly become Atlus' most popular JRPG of all time, ironic sinceShin Megami Tenseiwas where the series itself began. Arguably thePersonaseries had cemented itself as its own franchise withPersona 3, butPersona 5was the first game to drop theSMTnaming convention entirely. Atlus then systematically proved why thePersonaseries had its own legs to stand on, withPersona 5succeeding the already impressive sales and escalating accomplishment ofPersona 4previous.On the fifth anniversary, bothPersona 5andPersona 5 Royalhave quickly become one of the best JRPGs of all time, for good reason.
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Persona 5 Was A Subtle Star Among Hits Back In 2017
Persona 5became a subtle star when it released back in 2017, as it was a big year for games in general. However, for JRPG fans who jumped into the over-100-hour game at launch, they knew how special Atlus' latest JRPG release truly was.Persona 5had every aspect of a great JRPG in one complete package: An engaging and world-spanning adventure, a lovable cast of distinct and complex party members, tons of mechanical complexity and potential min-maxing, all alongside the unique dichotomy of dungeon crawling and social simulator thatPersonafans know and love. Arguably this is whymostPersonagames are great, butPersona 5is special.
Prior to the fifth entry,Personawas still largely a niche JRPG series, even for JRPG fans. Compared to heavy hitters likeFinal Fantasy,Dragon Quest,Pokemon, and various other franchises,Personagames were comparatively far less mainstream, even whenPersona 3onward caused an escalating surge in popularity for the series. The reason whyPersona 5was such a success was, besides all of the major features and changes present in the game, the accessibility was improved immensely.Persona 5’s gameplay and progression allowed for a ton of variety that allowed players to experience the game in their own way, however they want to.
Why Persona 5 Is One Of The Best JRPGs Of All Time
At its core, the fundamental setup inPersona 5is no different from previous recent entries in the series: A teenager is brought to an environment they’re not familiar with, forced to integrate among other young adults, all while coping with supernatural manifestations of psyche that lead them on a fantastical adventure. Joker’s transformation into the confident leader of the Phantom Thieves takes place gradually, built up by the meaningful character development of his friends and allies around him. The best part about it all, is players have the freedom to imprint their own emotions on toJoker as a silent protagonist, even ifPersona 5is not the best examplecompared to other JRPGs.
From there, the full experience ofPersona 5begins to unravel duringthe beginning “palaces,” the namePersona 5allocates to the dungeonsthroughout the story. Players are exploring the worlds created by the minds of the corrupted; worlds manifested from people’s negative trauma or psyche, either purposefully or incidentally. That’s where the usualPersonagameplay balance of dungeons vs. social simulator comes in. This gameplay see-saw where players get to know their party members and secondary characters, along with the usual experience progression and gathering of Personas, is refined and perfected inPersona 5more than any other entry thus far.
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The Phantom Thieves Became Iconic For Persona And Atlus
Arriving in Tokyo for the first time, getting to know the trauma of Shujin students alongside Ryuji, Morgana, and Ann, meeting Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba, Haru, and Akechi while increasing the Phantom Thieves' reach, all the while contending with escalating villains in Japanese society,all contributes to the emotional journey inPersona 5. The picaresque-inspired adventure inspired iconic characters, a compelling and engrossing story that’s worth the 100+ hours it takes to beat, and has quickly cemented itself as one of the best JRPGs of all time. Five years after its initial release, many fans of the game still wish they could play through the game fresh just one more time.
WhilePersona 5 Royalmay be the definitive experience for the game, it wouldn’t exist withoutPersona 5’s incredible foundation. Given that it’s a special year forPersonain general, andAtlus will be kicking offPersona’s 25th anniversary celebration this month, theoretically the game’s fifth anniversary would not be a coincidence. Perhaps somethingPersona 5-related will be announced by Sega and Atlus soon, albeit the developer didn’t announce anything forPersona 3’s 15th anniversary, so September’s announcement could be anything. Still, it’d be nice to hear from the Phantom Thieves just one more time, even if it’s another spin-off.
Persona 5is available now on PS4 and PS5.
