Once again it is my privilege to finally check out a series I’ve heard loads about over the years, but have never gotten my hands on. The Persona franchise has always sounded like a bit of an odd duck, mixing together pretty traditional turn-based battles on one side with more life sim-style elements on the other… but all with a whole lot of style. It all sounded nice enough, but I was very nervous loading the game up over whether this would be another case of the hype around a series over-selling the actual experience, having it then come crashing down for me once I began playing. Now, having put quite a number of hours into it, I’m here to confirm that the hype is indeed real, and this has been one of the most consistently engaging and interesting RPGs I’ve played in some time, simply doing its own thing and doing it very well.

Now, since I’ve established that I’ve never played any other Persona titles, and certainly not the original incarnation of Persona 3, I’m unable to comment on how this experience compares to its forebears. What I can tell you though is that moreso than a number of Switch 2 exclusive titles I’ve played since the system’s launch, this is one of the first that really felt like it was visually on another level. I have no doubt that it helps that this isn’t an intense action-oriented affair, and having been away from RPGs that have a focus on wild visuals to accompany their spells, but I’ve considered most of the time with the game to be a visual feast. While, in my mind, I may have considered a title being very stylish to be of only moderate value, I will say that when you do it at this level of clear effort, it’s really extraordinary. Everything from the menus, to scene transitions, to even relatively small visual details exude care, planning, and impeccable execution… and they’re worthy of praise.

The thing is, all of that visual horsepower would have meant nothing if the gameplay side of the equation didn’t deliver, and for the most part it’s also a home run. Yes, fundamentally below the hood this doesn’t play terribly differently from its turn-based brethren, but some very smart systems and wonderful quality of life improvements help the game stand out and shine. Who you decide to talk to, befriend, help, and interact with will absolutely have an effect on how you’ll do in battle, and though it took a little while to wrap my head around how that intersects with combining your Personas, there are great incentives to work towards synergies between the combat and social ends of the game. 

Where I think the gameplay truly shines the brightest though is how clearly the game’s design is driven by respecting the player’s time. In combat there are loads of shortcuts and ways to more quickly engage with battles and minimize frustrations. Given how many enemies there are, and that each of them have elemental weaknesses that are critical to exploit, I love the fact that you don’t need to remember them all, and that there are both visual aids and shortcut key presses to make everything go much more smoothly. For me that’s indicative of what feels like a true next-level effort the developers behind this title have thrown into the experience, helping it to not just be a very good one, but a great one.