this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
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It wasn't exactly profound so much as it was a sudden appreciation for just how deep the game had gotten its hooks in me.
The end of Persona 5.
I was sad because it was over, but not just because I liked the game, I've experienced that before with plenty of others. What I felt at the end of that game was something I'd never felt playing a video game before, and that was a sense of loss. I didn't just want to play more of the game, I wanted to spend more time with these characters. I'd gotten so attached to them, and so into the life sim aspect, that when the credits rolled, it felt a little like I lost my friends.
Now granted this was during covid, and I was quarantined alone, having not been able to see my actual friends in months. Burning through Persona 5 became my primary unwinding activity for a few months, and as I got deeper into it, I spent solid days with it. So it's fair to say I was in a very susceptible state of mind to attach myself to some characters.
But even without that, I think that game really hit something special for me that made me temporarily forget these weren't real people, and for a fleeting moment, I felt a profound sadness at their absence
I felt like this after playing Persona 4. Atlus has weird and kinda crappy business practices but their writers are good at least.
Did you play Royal or just vanilla P5? P5 Royal extra content is well worth it IMO.
Both. Prefer Royal for the extra content and some of the QoL changes, but I think I enjoyed the overall gameplay of vanilla better because the difficulty balancing was much better. Royal is way too easy and has no true hard mode.
Yeah you're right, Royal was easy as compared to vanilla. Bi really enjoyed the extra story though!
Persona is definitely one of those games that really hits you when it's over. In part I think it's cause it's just so damn long. You spend a long time getting attached to characters and it being your daily activity. But also, the format of the games is just very relatable. Sure, it's got fantasy elements, but the school and calendar format grounds the game into something more relatable. The game's story is heavily focused on building up friendships.
Plus that fantasy element plays a part. It's what makes the game world something unachievable for the real you. You'll never have the grand, world-saving adventures of the video game. You could make some friends and such, but you'll never bond over saving the world or catching a killer or the likes. The end of games like Persona tend to make me think a lot about that.
I've seen this called "post Harry Potter syndrome" or "post anime syndrome" before. It's very common for a variety of works, but I think the recurring theme is usually that you invest a lot of time into a character driven work where building friendships and some kind of adventure is the key element.