Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight

Mostly another rhythm game to throw in the pile with a Persona 5 coat of paint thrown on top. There is a unique progression system on offer, flexible to players of all skill levels, refreshing for those just wanting to check out more cute characterisation with P5's still distinct party, but the actual game on top has some interface issues where the readibility of its charts is questionable. Rock Band makes it look easy. Throw in a somewhat light setlist with too many blase remixes of the same songs and you have a terrible value package at full price; were this bundled with P3D, it'd be an easier recommendation. Still, not bad by any means, just a fleeting distraction only worth a discounted price point.

Can't pretend I'm not slightly disappointed by this. The thing that made Persona 4: Dancing All Night [ペルソナ４ ダンシングオールナイト] so special is that it was a true sequel rather than a spin-off, a visual novel masquerading as a rhythm game, and I was really hoping that this would expand on the plot and world of Persona 5 in the same way. It doesn't. It doesn't even try to. I sat down to get stuck into a story and was basically handwaved away by a five minute scene where Caroline and Justine set up a very basic plot - it's all a dream, you're competing against some other group (that'll be the tie-in to Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight [ペルソナ３ ダンシング・ムーンナイト], then), and there's some unspecified treasure on offer. The game is very clear early on that this is all about the gameplay, and the story is only about the sixth or seventh priority for the developers.

But hey, it's good gameplay, with some great music, featuring a bunch of characters that I'm very glad to be spending time with again. What minimal story there is exists in social links, which are unlocked gradually through dancing, and they introduce nothing new to the Persona 5 mythos - they're all reflecting on the events of the main game and on how the characters have grown, both individually and as a collective, but I want to reflect on the events of that game, so I'm absolutely on board with that. And of course, rhythm games tend to live or die based on their soundtracks, and Persona 5's was frequently fantastic; the remixes here mostly aren't quite as good as their original counterparts on the original game's soundtrack, but having spent almost 180 hours listening to that soundtrack while playing the game originally, it's honestly nice just to hear different variations on them; it's got the same kind of appeal as hearing something like Endtroducing...Re-Emagined for me. That said, special mention should be reserved for Yukihiro Fukutomi's lush deep house remix of "The Whims of Fate" and Taku Takahashi's UK garage version of "Last Surprise" - the latter of those is incredibly faithful to the sound of pirate radio in the UK in the late 90s when you consider that Takahashi is twenty years and half the world away from it.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I really enjoyed this, but I also think Persona 5 is the best game of all time and Persona 4: Dancing All Night is one of the most underrated, and I'm not convinced that anybody who doesn't hold those two opinions is going to be as willing to overlook any of the shortcomings here. If you're wondering whether to buy this, the question you should really be asking yourself is this: am I happy at the mere thought of spending more time in this world, with these characters?