I'm replaying Persona 5

I'm not really sure what caused me to do this but I felt like replaying Persona 5. It might be due to the announcement of Persona 4 Revival, but even beforehand, I kinda had the itch. I know I really should play Metaphor Re:Fantazio instead but I opted to go with something more comforting I guess.

For the longest while, this was absolutely one of my favorite games. Prior, I only played Persona 4 Golden once in high school. I liked it a lot but P5 wasn't really on my radar when it was first announced. I remember listening to the then Super Best Friendcast and their excitement for P5 was infectious. I had to pick it up. I was there in 2017 when it launched. I played this hundred hour RPG twice, back to back. I NEVER do that but I liked it that much. I was sad this experience with these characters was over. I felt like doing it all over again. I also played Royal when that came out in 2020. I wasn't going to get it originally but I found myself with a $50 GameStop gift card so I figured why not. That game certainly made quarantine a lot easier. 

Unfortunately, Persona 5 has not had the best time in my head, long term. When I played Royal, the game's writing problems became more apparent, and I found it kinda jarring just how much better the new stuff was compared to the base game. It also doesn't really help how the persona fanbase is very....I'll say volatile. It's a very "I hate the bands you like" kind of energy where there's constant arguing, be it which game is the best, which game is terrible, who's best girl, the problematic writing aspects, thematic interpretations, how the remake fucked up the game, whatever. It's all so tiring. 

To go on a brief tangent, I never paid much attention to the conversation around Persona 3 Reload. I bought it on a whim at a retro game store in Seattle. I never cared for P3 original or FES so I wasn't keen on playing this one. To my surprise I absolutely loved it. It cranked the presentation of the game up to 11 all while maintaining the tonal aspects that made P3 stand out. Apparently it's a divisive remake! Who would've known? 

This kinda brings me to what I'm really liking about my current playthrough of Persona 5. I feel like I've let a lot of outside factors influence my opinion on media negatively and I don't like that at all. I want to be able to look back at Persona 5 and go "yeah that game was awesome" and this playthrough is really getting me back to that point. 

As of writing up this post, I am in mid June in the game. Makoto is about to join the party. It is so fun experiencing this game again. I'm reminded why I like these characters so much. What's funny to me is in my head, Makoto has always been my favorite party member. She has a neat role in the story leading up and I like her as a character. What I didn't remember was just how awful her first impressions are to the player character, and Phantom thieves before joining up. She really sucks! She's stalking Joker and co, belittling them, and just being an overall shitty person. Being reminded of this juxtaposition is super refreshing and it makes me appreciate the character a lot more. 

I have similar thoughts on the other core cast members too. It's so much fun being reminded of why I liked this game so much. Not to mention everything else, the art direction, music, voice performances, you name it. 

I probably will make another post on this game when I finish it up just to wrap my thoughts. This game is really special to me. It came out at an important time in my life when I was in the middle of college and it was really formative. The fact that I'm able to approach this game at a very different point in my life and still appreciate what it does well makes me happy. It's not without its flaws and I'll probably go into those at a later date. 

That said, for now, I'm happy I'm remembering to love Persona 5 again.