Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight

The Persona series is one that honestly, I have really never been that interested in because of my apprehension towards JRPGs in general. I tend to find that western Roleplaying games are far more accessible to newbies and feature more mature content that basically just more interesting to me. These two games however, are not RPGs and looked like an absolute blast to play so Idecided to pick them up (they also both have easy platinums). The reason I decided to bundle the two together is because frankly, the only differences between the two games are the cast of characters and the track listings. The core dancing gameplay works exactly the same across both titles, making it easy to jump straight to the other one at any time. The dancing works off six buttons inputs that when timed effectively increase a metter that determines whether or not you pass a song. These metters will become more challenging on a higher difiiculties but players like me who just want to enjoy te music will likely spend most of their time on normal. Unfortunatly though, there are very few variations to the genre and the games would likely fall under the wayside if not for the series they are attached. The gameply is still fun and enjoyable when you get a good rhythem going but really its just servicable.

 

I suppose that the main draws of the games are the characters and the music though so the simplistic gameplay wass to be expected. Persona 3’s cast is arguably less known than 5’s given how popular that game became after its release in the west. To me, the best characters to talk to were Misturu and Junpei but you could probably  argue for any of the SEES crew given how likable they all are. The way you interact with the characters though is much more streamlined than how it is done in the RPGs which may annoy some long time fans of the franchise. The games refer to interactions with characters as events and they are usually 2-5 mins of conversation where you can make a few dialogue options that unfortunately change very little. Outside of these features being lackluster though, the games both nail their presentation. 3’s darker tone is perfectly reflected in the stage designs with the Tartarus stages looking particularly bleak and fantastic. The characters move exquisitely even though I do wish the games had more dance moves for the characters to actually do. The track listing though is where Dancing in Moonlight really shines. Tracks likes Burn my Dread and Battle for Everyone’s Souls are excellent and are played exstensivly in my household. Time, Soul Phrase and Wiping All Out are also great tracks that fit the grimmer tone presented in Persona 3 really well. Neither game's plots need to be touched upon because of how little they matter in the grand scheme of things but this certainly doesn’t impede the experience and just playing several of my favourite tracks after completing every event easily made the game a worthwhile buy for me.

Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight as  mentioned before rarely does much to differ from Persona 3’s counterpart. I preferred the character interactions in this game to those in 3 though with my personal highlights coming from events featuring Yusuke, Ryuji and Futaba. The game surprised me by how fascinated I was with the small discussions and that’s why I’d give this game the edge over Dancing in Moonlight. The stage designs in this game also benefit from more varied backdrops that showcase Persona 5's livelier atmosphere. Whether it’s Makoto dancing outside of the bank or Ann dancing inside a Shujin classroom, the game demonstrates the diversity of Persona 5’s environments excellently and I absolutly adored having the characters in their Phantom Thieves costumes as much as possible. I suppose the largest difference between the two games is the overall tone. The swagger and charm of the Phantom Thieves is exuded perfectly across the game’s twenty plus songs and some of these have become sacred to me. I play the game’s title theme  Groovy constantly and others like Price and Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There spend hours in my head because of how much I have listened to them. There are few songs I don't enjoy playing I think that is a testiment to the overall quality of the music in Persona 5.

Overall, I think I prefer Dancing in Starlight over Dancing in Moonlight. There are several grievances I have with DIS such as the decision to completely sexualize all four of the female Phantom Thieves for no reason, but these issues are forgotten about thanks to a funky, jazzy soundtrack of epic proportions that has since become one of my all-time favourite video game soundtracks. Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight in its own right is still great though and I imagine if you are a fan of the series you have probably played both already and absolutely love the pair. So for those looking to find a new niche franchise to dive into, perhaps these titles will help introduce you to an exciting new world like they did for me.

Rating : Dancing in heaven

8/10