First 18 Minutes of Persona 5

The one near universal complain with Persona 4 was that the opening was a bit slow, taking nearly three full hours to get moving at a steady pace. It seemed Atlus took this to heart as the first thing you do in this new installment is go through a mini-dungeon before, assumedly, going back to the beginning. I don’t have much of an issue with that but i do think its an odd choice for games as they tend to also have you playing with early game equipment that wont be what you’re using when you get to that point chronologically. Not a big deal, but that kind of thing always break immersion a little for me. Other than that one incredibly small grip i could just sit here and go “HOLYSHITHOLYSHITPERSONA5HOLYSHITHOLYSHIT” and give you a pretty good look at what’s going through my mind right now, but i’ll try and be a little more constructive.

The new combat system looks freaking sweet: by mapping each command to a button instead of just having a command list i can see fights feeling more interactive and dynamic while still keeping to the franchises turn based roots.  Also, the animated cutscenes look simply beautiful. The animation work for these games have always been pretty great, but this is the best they’ve looked and i’m stoked to see more. My only complaint with the video was the lack of English subtitles, but i’m sure someone will come along any day now and add them like they did with the previous promotional material for the game. Even if they don’t, thins is already going to be a birthday present to myself when it’s released this February, so i’ll know what’s going on soon enough.