Fandom manifesto: Persona 5

[jazztxt]

Are video game fandom manifestos even a thing? If not then too late, I already wrote this!

Persona 5 is a 2016 urban fantasy video game produced and published by Atlus, a subsidiary of Sega, and based around the series’ standard concept of teenagers juggling their everyday high school life with fighting demons and trying to reform society. Each numbered Persona game, and those of its parent series, Shin Megami Tensei, stand alone narratively with only certain aspects of the lore linking them, so you don't need to play the earlier games for continuity reasons.

Atlus have a tendency to make big games. Big in scope, big in map size, big in the amount of time you have to invest. Half social simulation-style visual novel and half action rpg, an average first time playthrough of Persona 5 generally clocks in at around 100 hours and every hour of that is a journey. It also has style in droves, with wicked cool visuals that extend even to the ingame menus and an incredibly distinctive soundtrack.

Themes up for examination in the game are:

• The nature of justice, and whether vigilantism is acceptable as a moral substitute when the system that led to vigilantism being required is still in place.


• The price of apathy, both on a societal and a personal scale.
  
  
  • Not everyone in the world can be happy anyway, it simply isn't possible, so is it worth keep things as they are and letting a few people suffer under the system if it means that society as whole is largely content, if not happy?
  
  
  • Breaking out of apathy and taking control of your own actions and future is hard, hence why many people either give up along the way or don't bother to start at all. You have to be committed to change, and that commitment doesn't always pay off in ways that you can see. Is it worth it, to you personally?


• Whether a person with power over even just one other person, whether that's from physical power, legal power, or even societal hierarchies of age or position, is ever truly immune to the effects of corruption. Considering the fact that there needs to be a continual conscious effort to prevent corruption from taking root, what can we possibly do to minimise its effects and make sure we'll always be as vigilant?


• Sometimes the world does just suck, and that's okay. Being able to recognise injustice and be angry about it is healthy, and a sign you still have the capacity to care.

I will be referring to characters with western name order (ie, given name first) as that’s how they’re presented in the games. Spoilers abound for the first of eight arcs of the game.

(Box art from the original game and Royal, featuring the cast in their daily life and Phantom Thief attire.)

( So what's it about? )

( Series entries. )

( The Phantom Thieves & co. )

( Okay, cool, but I care about shipping. )

( Picspam time! )

I hope you've enjoyed reading this manifesto as much as I have writing it! Or at least maybe learnt something new! The Persona series recently celebrated its 25th anniversary (with the release of Persona 5, in fact) but before now, the games have always been something of a cult classic in the West. Despite that, I love them with all my heart, and in spite of their many missteps (which do exist, I'm not denying that in my love letter to this game) there's something about the worlds that Atlus creates that draw me back every single time.

Let me know if you have any questions!