My Life as a Phantom Thief - A Persona Story

Persona 5 is quite possibly my favourite game of all time. It's the quintessential JRPG and one of the most lauded and highly rated. Due to the sheer length of the main storyline, spanning somewhere in between 80-100 hours, the multitude of playthroughs I have embarked on have come at different transitional periods of my life. Gaming is one of my biggest stress relievers in my life, and Persona 5 has helped me during the highs and lows over these periods, such as fitting in and getting situated at University. It helps that I’m a big fan of the franchise as well, having played Persona 4 Golden on the Vita, and excitement constantly building to play the far more accessible console versions of 4 and 3 respectively. This game has really had an empowering effect on me, to the point that I was immersed in it I felt I myself was a phantom thief, ready to change your heart!

The First Playthrough:

Come on a journey with me, casting our minds back to the not so distant past of 2017. For myself, the year was epitomised by my transition away from my GCSE’s and onto A-levels, meaning a new school in a new area. A few of my old schoolmates were with me as well, but largely I was alone in many classes, having to fend for myself socially. I did enjoy school, but often what was on my mind was going home and getting some long awaited ‘gamer time’. Change was all around, as my gaming activities had changed somewhat as well. For most of my life, I was an xbox owner, enjoying the xbox exclusive games like Halo and Gears of War, without considering the PS3 (which I’m informed is the normal route to go). But when the time came for the next generation of consoles, I got the PS4 for my birthday. I was overjoyed, not only with the specialised and improved hardware, but the backlog of playstation came to catch up on. I was aware of Sony’s history of stellar single player games, such as Uncharted, Ratchet and Clank, Metal Gear Solid (the list goes on) and couldn’t wait to dive in. Some of the first games I sought out and bought were Uncharted, Heavy Rain, and Persona 5. However, Persona 5 did not resonate immediately, it saddens me to say. No, I was turned off by how slow the game was at first, thinking it had taken its own tagline “Take your time” a little too literally. You see, the first Palace (or dungeon) of the game acts as a tutorial, with the game holding your hand firmly and refusing to let go for five hours. I can’t exactly remember how it happened, possibly another game caught my eye for a brief period, but I thought Persona deserved another try and I went back. I’m so glad I did. Once out of this initial tutorial, the game opens up and flourishes after the player is given their own autonomy and choice of how to spend their time. Even writing about it now makes me want to slam the laptop closed and start an old save and hop right back in. But I’ll keep going for everyone’s sake. Once the game had finally started, there was no putting it back down again, every night I was on it and squeezing as much time out the evening as was responsible.

Before we proceed, I am not going to divulge anything spoiler heavy in this blog. But I would like to quickly get anyone who may not be so familiar up to speed. So, the Persona series began as an offshoot of the popular games Shin Megami Tensei, another JRPG superstar, but is now five games deep in its own series. The Persona games tackle interesting subject matter in a fantastical way, and do not pull any punches thematically. At its core, it is a turn- based combat mixed in with relationship management and social interaction. The social links (deepening of friendships) technically can be avoided, but increasing your level of friendship with your companions can provide you better advantages in combat, and therefore is not recommended. This is indicative of the entire series also, and a quite effective one at that.

A question you might be asking by now is, how does this make me a phantom thief? That is a very good question. I’ll gladly admit I myself cannot summon a persona of my own, and cannot navigate the world of Mementos to steal the distorted desires of the misguided. What I mean is that my schedule is reminiscent of the protagonist of this game, visiting school during the day, and phantom thief by night. As I mentioned previously, at the time of playing I myself was a student, a similar age to the characters the game follows. The way the game is broken up into two parts, attending classes, taking exams and reading and revising, and then enjoying the dungeon roaming in the evening is what connects with me. This balance of school work and gaming only enhanced my gaming experience, as I had the same amount of free time as the character I was playing. I’m not suggesting I was deluded into thinking I was in the game, only that my experience of play was improved by my relation to the player character. I find that is important in finding a game that you resonate with, something that pulls from your own experiences to affect you in a way that not all games can. Maybe it’s just a silly little comparison I’ve drawn that might not mean much to you, but I find that games, and well any entertainment enterprise, can sometimes unexplainably find a nesting place in our hearts. It doesn't always have to make sense I suppose.

Second Playthrough:

Two years on from my original playthrough, again a lot has changed, apart from my love for the series. I was now at University after my A-levels, with possibly even more time on my hands than before. So, with many of my housemates as interested onlookers, I took advantage of my free time to start my second journey into Persona 5. This playthrough was primarily motivated by earning the remaining trophies I had after my original playthrough. These included maxing out all your friendships with your friends, which is difficult as you have to complete this in one single run through of this game. I actually had a breakdown of every day in the game and which character I could spend the time with to maximise this time, as I didn’t fancy another hundred hours for mistakes I had made. Without bragging too much, I have over 100 platinum trophies, but this one stands out as a massive time sink, as well as impressive on the grounds I just mentioned, and I show it off with pride.

This however did not muddy my experience of the game, on the contrary it actually enhanced it. My friends dropped in and out over the course of the game to enjoy the highlights. The real climax of the game came when I finally earned the platinum trophy. It was during the exam season, and so excessive noise for the only time of the year was frowned upon. Unfortunately, the raw excitement of the platinum trophy was worth a few yelps and bellows. I have many happy fond memories of my university experience and gaming with friends almost every night, and this is one of many. However, I wasn't quite ready to close the door on the game yet.

Third Playthrough:

Persona 5 found me again in 2020, a number of months after the definitive version of Persona 5 was released. Known as Persona 5 Royale, it touts many quality of life improvements, new minigames and pastimes and brand new endgame content. The new palace/dungeon to crawl adds an expansive 20 hours onto the already impressive run time. This new expansive edition had been on my radar for sometime, but with my university work speeding up rapidly, I wasn't able to get it until the next year. This was 2020, and with COVID all we all had was time. Why not fill it with a game that I already knew I loved? As for my experience with this game, I do admit I did make more of an effort to speed through the game, skipping cutscenes and dialogue to reach the new content as fast as possible. I was not disappointed one bit, as the endgame content was some of the best I have ever experienced. I even have a dedicated save file set up specifically to enjoy the final boss of the game. I would love to describe it detail by detail, but I wouldn't want to rob anyone of the joy I felt when playing. It was the event itself, the crescendo of the musical score that had me emotional throughout.

The Final Playthrough:

As of the time of writing, I am embarking on a fourth and final playthrough for this game. A new PS5 version of the game was released a few months earlier this year and I have recently acquired it to play again. I was shocked to see that I had to pay full price for the game, despite already owning both versions of the previous editions on the last gen hardware. This is very atypical of the rest of the corporate gaming landscape, with select playstation games offering a small fee to upgrade to the PS5 version. I think it is awfully greedy, but my love for the series prevailed and I will be diving back in very soon. It doesn't even offer any new content, only improvements on the visuals, and being able to run in a smooth 60 frames per second.

I’d love to hear if any of you guys are reading, thank you for doing that as well, if you have any games you’re incredibly passionate about. I’m a new start up in writing blogs, but you can reach my email at jnyeyourgamingguide@gmail.com to reach out about any ideas you had about the article or even just for a chat. Thanks again for reading!