Just to preface the review: I’m aware that this might get lost in the sea of reviews currently written for the game, but really, I don’t care. If this helps sway even a single person to get this game, then it’ll be worth it. Plus, after 100 hours of pure joy and entertainment, the very least I can do is add my own voice to the over 14k people who have already voiced their opinion. This game, aside from being a lot of fun, has become one of my favourites of all time. I was reminded of very important life lessons while playing, and that’s not something many games can accomplish.

If you are a fan of JRPGs, or even remotely interested in this game, and want my final verdict without reading everything, here goes, in no uncertain terms:

Get this game.

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Disclaimer before I start: this is spoiler free. Any major plot point mentioned here is already readily available in the steam store page description or trailer - I’m using those as a guide for what’s a spoiler. So don’t worry!

The game store page describes it as “A coming of age story that sets the protagonist and his friends on a journey kickstarted by a chain of serial murders.” I can safely say that is a better description than I will ever be able to come up with. From that, here’s what I can tell you about the story:

- “...by a chain of serial murders”. It’s a murder mystery, and a REALLY good one. The story as a whole is incredible. It offers an extremely good balance of slice of life things and seriousness, and you actually look forward to both of those moments. Sprinkled along the game, you have full on anime cutscenes, which are freaking amazing, and while used sparingly, they were very well employed to build both tense moments and lighthearted moments.

- “A coming of age story...” Now there’s an interesting term. Coming of age for who? Not just the protagonist. And herein lies the magic behind the game, and one of its strongest bases (I honestly cannot overstate this enough): the relationships. Throughout the game you, a new kid in town, meet a vast and amazing cast of characters. Some, you’re going to hate from the get go (sorry Chie; Ai). Some you’ll love (Rise best character and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise). But I guarantee you: throughout the game, even if your opinion on them doesn’t change for better or worse (and there’s a good chance it will), you will notice a change in the characters, mainly because of its Social Link system.

Coming off that point, I have to praise the game even further on one specific aspect: it has one of the best casts of main characters I have ever had the pleasure to see in a game. Your friends feel exactly like that: friends. Despite being fundamentally very different, every person in the group has such an amazing chemistry with each other that everything involving the group feels… natural. There are scenes that will make you cry from laughter, and others that will make your heart race as you see the events unfold on your screen. The characters aren’t perfect either. Quite the contrary: they’re flawed. They’re human, with all the quirks that come with that. One of them, for example, often goes into laughing fits at the weirdest moments - and as a person who often does the same, I couldn’t help but smile and relate to it whenever it happened.

The core gameplay loop can be separated into two bits: dungeons and slice of life stuff. The game works with a calendar system: days go by just like in real life. Every day, you get 2 “slots” to do things - after school/afternoon and evening. Some days, story may occupy one, or both, of those slots. When you have the free time, you have free reign to do whatever you want with your days: you start at school, often answer a question posed by the teacher, and then all bets are off. You can talk to friends (some are only available on certain days), you can engage in various activities like fishing, you can study, heck, you can even go back in dungeons to explore them again. The game continues this way, until things happen and… you are locked into the story sequence that leads you to your next dungeon.

Whenever you unlock a dungeon, you are given a time limit to do it, and can engage it anytime within the limit. The gameplay while dungeon-crawling is… monotonous at best. Coming from persona 5, I was severely disappointed with this aspect of the game. The dungeons are expansive, with multiple floors, but they are also semi procedurally generated, with little to no variation within each one. Every floor consists of corridors with square rooms every once in a while, unless it’s a special floor. Littered throughout the floor, you’ll find enemies - Shadows. A lot of them. Each dungeon took me 2-3 hours (as I’m cursed with the need to explore everything before moving on) and they were not fun. Even the combat, which is good - turn based with a unique element of creating new personas - is not enough to help that front. Eventually I resorted to watching tv shows while I mindlessly took care of the dungeons.

And another important detail: the game takes a while to get going. You’re thrown into the mystery within the first hour, but if I recall correctly, I played for 2 or 3 hours until I was allowed actually do things in the game aside from reading. This is an issue with a lot of JRPGs, and to some people (like myself), it’s not an issue at all, but it’s still worth mentioning. This is a story to be experienced slowly, and not rushed through, and the beginning alone makes that very clear.

The artstyle honestly is one of my favourites, and the game has an incredible soundtrack. Man oh man, the soundtrack. It is one of the strongest I’ve ever seen in a game. I’d put it up there, in my personal rankings, with the likes of nier automata, world ends with you, and of course, Persona 5. At times hauntingly beautiful, and at times downright unnerving, I promise you one thing: you will often catch yourself grasping at your headphones (if you play with them), just appreciating how much bliss is coming through your ears. I honestly can not WAIT to play the rhythm game, because with this amazing soundtrack involved, it’s going to be one hell of an experience. I’d link some videos here so you could hear it for yourself, but… I think you might be better off experiencing it in game.

I do have another very important aspect to mention, which is the importance of this port. From the SMT mainline games to Persona, its spin offs/sequels, Catherine and even other, lesser known series and games, ATLUS has a lot of FANTASTIC games under its wings - all of them on platforms other than the PC. Nobody expected (as far as I’m aware anyway) a Persona game to come to PC, and while this was most likely SEGA’s doing, it really brings me joy to see the game, at the time of writing, with over 14k reviews, and sitting at “Overwhelmingly Positive”. Maybe, just maybe, with how successful this port has been, as well as the Catherine one, we’ll get the other games too. Now that this is on PC… anything is possible.

There is a LOT more to say. My original review was twice as long, at least, before I found out steam had a set number of letters that I could use in a review. If you want to know more, I’m always down to talk. All in all, I truly believe this game is almost a masterpiece. What attracts me most in games is, by far, a good story, and words are not enough to describe how well the game delivers on that front. You’re going to enjoy every bit spent with the crew, and chances are it’ll be one of those bittersweet endings, where you’re happy you experienced the story, but sad that it’s over. I know that’s how it was for me.

Thank you for reading, and if you do jump in... I sincerely hope you enjoy the ride. Words are simply not enough to express how much I did.