As I casually
mentioned in my last post about how April Fools Day Rick-Rolled Me –
no I am not apologizing for that pun – I got a review copy of
Persona 5 by the lovely people over at ATLUS. While I am still
working on my review of the game for The Game Fanatics, I even wrote a hot take on the game's opening, I actually found something unusual
about my predicament with this installment.
It didn't...feel
right.
I don't mean the
gameplay or the visuals were off, I'm talking about the delivery
method of the game's challenge: level grinding.
The Persona games
have a lot of grind in them. For the longest time that was its
biggest draw. Dropping into a bunch of similar looking rooms and
corridors and systematically clearing them of enemies and loot. This
is mostly due to a high difficulty curve when it comes to the
battles, so it's always good to just blast through a bunch of
opponents to get yourself stronger.
It's also important
to note that almost all of the Persona games are available on
handhelds. Personas 1 and 2 debuted on the PS1 but came over to the
PSP. Persona 3 got a PS2 release but then got remixed and re-released
on the PSP as P3P: Persona 3 Portable. Even the crown jewel of the
franchise that has a dungeon crawling spin-off, a rhythm dance game
spin-off and two fighting game spin-offs to its name, Persona 4, got
a release on the PlayStation Vita as Persona 4: The Golden.
The reason why these
two items are connected is a concept in media known as abnegation.
Although the textbook definition of the term involves renouncement or
rejection, a refusal to act, it is also been used in popular parlance
to basically veg out. You read a trashy paperback after a long day.
You put on a completely inoffensive TV drama on cable just to have
some noise. Flip on the radio and listen to some generic pop music.
The list goes on. You want to engage in something but are either
mentally or physically exhausted to put your whole into it so you go
for the equivalent of popping bubble wrap.
And in RPG terms,
blasting through hundreds of weak or somewhat challenging encounters
in order to slowly improve your party's stats is just like going to
town on bubble wrap. It's easy, it gives a sense of accomplishment
even if nothing has happened in a narrative sense in the game, and
best of all it's easy to just pick up and put down at any time.
Like say with a
handheld while you're on a commute to work. Or you waiting for a food
order to be prepared.
Which brings me back
to one of the biggest changes to Persona 5: its dungeons. As
mentioned before these levels were originally simple stretches of
rooms and corridors full of treasure and foes, and it was tailor-made
to be ploughed though in a daze. A portable experience can be opted
out of at a moment's notice after all. But the dungeons in Persona 5
are massive well-designed labyrinths of consistent level and
architectural design. Sprawling castles, overbearing banks, the list
goes on. Furthermore there's a greater emphasis on stealth and
infiltration, making the game play closer to Metal Gear Solid than
Final Fantasy.
But the high
difficulty curve and the need to level grind remains.
And here is where
some dissonance is felt. There is basically a dedicated grind zone in
the game referred to as Mementos, a long collection of corridors and
floors full of enemies and loot. But I'm not playing Persona 5 while
on a bus or during a long trip, I'm playing it on my television. A
television where I could be watching Netflix or catching up on shows
people keep recommending to me. If I'm going to play on the TV I'd
want my games to have the feeling of less fluff to them.
Which leads to me
wanting to get to the next dungeon... which becomes a chore because
the game still wants me to level-grind in order to meet its high
expectations of competence.
And contrary to
popular belief, I don't spend all of my time playing video games in
this psuedo-profession. So no, I can't dedicated north of seven hours
to just “git gud” as the chuckleheads would say.
This is absolutely
not a knock against Persona 5, I'm just simply writing to show how
much can be forgiven when it comes to certain level design or even
certain people's experiences in gaming based on something as simple
as platform.
I mean I love Metal
Gear Solid to death but it just doesn't seem right playing it on a
handheld.
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