Persona 5: Symphonic Gameplay

Symphonic Gameplay:

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of what's left of my life, I have finally beaten Persona 5.

I am thou, thou art I. Thou has turned a vow into a blood oath. Your ability to enjoy JRPG's is now infinite.   

Full disclosure, I've only ever beaten Persona 4 before getting excited to play 5 but man was it worth my relatively short wait. As a newer fan of the Persona series (as well the Shin Megami Tensei series), my appreciation has come in layered waves of discovery. 

The turned-based combat and general focus of the series tickles the nostalgic center of the genre that first got me to fall in love with video games. Combine that with its sincere effort towards fleshing out a distinct cast of characters and I was hooked. Persona 4 took my breath away and retroactively stands as one the best games I almost missed during my PS2 era. I'm happy to say that I didn't miss the boat on P5. 

I could talk at length about what I loved about P5, and a few things that I think could've been executed better. But today, I just want to talk about something the Persona series has been radically successful with in general.

There's a term coined by John Truby, known as symphonic dialogue. I'll paraphrase it as a constructed scene in which every aspect of the narrative works as a cohesive whole to resonate theme, premise, character growth, plot advancement, world setting, etc weaved in such a way that the audience's experience of the story comes alive. 

Always pay attention in class kids. Unless you're a phantom thief.

It involves a wealth of deliberate crafting to implement but overall, it establishes every aspect of the story within every beat that the narrative has to spare. It's an idea that reinforces itself constantly within its own world.

I believe Persona 5 is an excellent video game analogue of this technique. Everything in the Persona games (mostly 3-5 with some early frameworks in 1 and 2) complements its core mechanics. 

One of the main mechanics is creating social links with interesting characters. Social links increase the relative power of your personas (A Jungian concept in which our heroes create powerful versions of their mental selves to confront hardship and the larger world). These personas in turn, allow you to progress through combat and in some cases, strengthen the bond with their corresponding people. 

Spending time with characters improves your social links but also fleshes out the setting and everyone's relationship to it. In Persona 5, a majority of characters struggle with rebelling against the establishment. In Persona 4, the theme involves false perceptions. Each character will have a miniature arc to reflect this concept (even if some of their structures are predictable). 

The games function along an annual calendar where you live out your days as a high schooler. How you spend your time is crucial to building your social links as well as your social stats. Typically, there are five stats that dictate your ability to interact with the world. As an example, charm in P5 allows one to come off as suave, sweet talk opponents, and even pass dialogue checks with certain characters. Passing these checks open up opportunities for new social links as well ones that were waiting for your stat to improve. 

The Personas you fuse together all have mythical ties to the background lore of the setting while each social link represents a portion of the major arcana (the means through which all is revealed!). These subtle elements can often tease out future events and act as foreshadowing.  

Welcome to the Velvet Room. This guy lives here so get used to him.

The plot paces itself to keep you on your toes and firmly secure your position as one who must keep improving and be aware of your surroundings and opportunities. To say nothing of the depth provided, the mere breath of content overflows. It's not uncommon to have more than one playthrough in order to see it all. Not to mention the variety of endings that can be present depending on your actions. 

And the music! It's fantastic. There's little else I can say besides, go listen to the OST. Rivers in the Desert and Life Will Change are particular favorites.  

Video games still have some growing pains here and there. As a writer, I'm happy to see the industry celebrating this game for what it is: an experience. Even new game plus items serve to make your subsequent playthrough alter based not only on improved knowledge but items that bestow benefits you've already unlocked. 

As amazing as this experience was, I'm tired. It was an exhausting journey that played on so many of my inclinations as a gamer, writer, and waifu lover. 

I chose Ann! Why does every article I write involve me shipping a character...

Not every game involves itself with this degree of symphonic gameplay. There's always that comment about games needing to make some sacrifices to immersion in order better serve the core mechanics. And Persona serves more as a testament to carefully crafted rails for the player to feel empowered rather than touting the boundless sandbox buzz words of today's triple A games.

I personally love it to death. But if every game was Persona, I'd never leave my house. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to figure out how to fix my PSP so I can play Persona 3. There's always FES but I've heard bad things about Mitsuru and spamming Marin Karin. 

- Gabriel A. Franco

Writer, Gamer, Proud member of Huffle N' Stuff