Game Design Assignment: Persona 5

Level Analysis by: Alaura Liappis

The next assignment in Game Design class requires us to breakdown the mechanics of a game we have  played and analyze how it utilizes exploration as a key component of game play, as well as how it combines with gating mechanics. I decided to look at a dungeon from the game Persona 5, a RPG game developed by Atlus for the PlayStation 4.

What is the Core Mechanic?

 The players main goal is throughout the school year, you awaken other students powers and become the "Phantom Thieves of Hearts" and explore the supernatural Metaverse realm to steal ill intent from hearts of corrupted adults. These adults are usually criminals ranging from teachers who physically abuse their students to eventually to a corrupt politician who becomes prime minister of Japan. I would say think of it like a complicated episode of Scooby Doo: a bunch of highschoolers are trying to solve a problem due to a adult and is trying to reveal and change their "hearts" in the process.  Persona 5 is in a three dimensional environmental space allowing the player to freely roam and explore, combined with both 2D and 3D artwork and sprites. Although their are different areas of the city to explore, it isn't a very open world as it may seem and has very closed off spaces.

 

However, you only have a certain amount of in game time usually only 2 or 3 weeks roughly. Time is limited in this game so you can't procrastinate. Even if the loading screen tells you to "Take your time." It is lying. Think of this time element almost like Majora's Mask from Legend of Zelda or even the Sims. Since you are a student, you have to study and take exams that actually do have questions. But you also have to make equipment and upgrade your social stats or create items to help in fights. This can make time management be very important and a useful skill until the end of the game. Since you can't do everything you want to do in a single playthrough of the game.

In Persona 5, the amount of things you can do is limitless. You do a variety of things from cooking/crafting/fishing/bathing/playing mini games. Other than being forced to take exams, or finding the right place to get a job at. The most important would be character interactions, and Social Link. The more you explore the story, like spending time with other NPCS, you can get more power and mechanics that can become unlocked that you didn't have before for fighting, or special story scenes that are unlocked with that specific character. Also, the overall "scoreboard" of the game would be people believing in you, and the hope you give to the people in the city in believing in your cause.

Getting more into actual gameplay, the players are a thief so the game should be played stealthily. You sneak behind the enemies, rip off their masks and surprise attack them. Should the enemy see you first, they get first move and can corner your whole team. As far as abilities and moves... think of Personas like Pokemon. They are cooler looking, I promise. And they have the same basic idea with types. (fire/water/ice/electricity/light/dark) And you can Critical Strike in this game, which is purely chance. This part of the game is also really reminiscent of old Final Fantasy turn based combat. It's just got so many combined elements to it. As far as the rules of the game goes, basically you can spend your time however you want. But there is always better ways of gaining experience or stats. It's linear game play towards endgame although you are in for quite a wild ride since they're different endings to this game.

You don't need much skill to beat Persona 5, (Sorry! I'm not that good at the game.) Just like with most linear games it can't be that difficult to beat the game. But there are different modes to the game safe/easy/medium/hard/lunatic to choose from. If you are good at time management this is definitely the game for you. Or if you like games like the Last of Us or Kingdom Hearts. 

Gating Mechanics

How do the gating mechanisms affect the level layout?

The dungeon I decided to do is the Casino, which in order to continue in the dungeon you have to gain a certain amount of coins to buy memberships through mini games. Little do you know, the Casino is already not in your favor. The Casino is rigged to win against the player. In order to fix this the player must rig it towards their favor. You cannot progress unless you go up the elevator (by gaining the memberships) eventually leading to the last boss. I'm pretty sure this is referencing the old Sonic DX Casino Level. So I'm glad that they added it in.

What kind of positive and negative feedback is given to the player?How much is left to the player to figure out on his own vs. how much is handed to him?

It definitely takes some exploring to figure out what to do, it took me a few minutes to figure out that it will never be in my favor most of the time, and eventually you find a vent that leads to the backroom where you can see the enemies rigging the games. This game does not hold your hand, and your teammates will usually give you positive feedback when something went right.

How is the story integrated (if any)?

This dungeon/level is crucial to the story, it's not only the tutorial but it's also where the game technically starts. It's not the first dungeon, but it's where the game starts and the gameplay begins. The game decided to start in the future, and eventually it builded up to this singular dungeon. It's not only where the game meets it's halfway point but when everything starts making sense and the climax of the game's story.