Persona 3&5 Dancing Preview

After the success of Persona 4: Dancing All Night, it was almost inevitable that there would be a follow-up to the game, with others from the core franchise being brought in. So, it didn’t surprise many when Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight were announced. I had the privilege of spending time with the games recently at Sega’s very own offices, but what did I think at this early stage?

The idea of bringing together the rhythm action genre and the Persona games was always going to be a dream match for me. I love the genre for its sheer campness and addictive nature, and I love the aesthetics of the Persona franchise. It stands to reason then that, by default, I would likely enjoy these two games.

From the demo I played, I couldn’t tell you what arbitrarily silly cause that these characters are to be found inexplicably dancing with one another other than “it was a dream”; but in terms of story you could find segments of narrative in the Social Mode, which contains small segments between characters of the game, fleshing them out somewhat and explaining their motivations.

These segments play out in a visual novel style, with the player making certain dialogue choices for the player character, and will grant bonuses to use in the main game upon completion such as customisation items for the character whose Social Mode segment you were viewing. As these segments unlock through gameplay, make sure you keep checking back on this mode from time to time.

The majority of the gameplay is simply pressing buttons in time to the music, but this does not mean that the game is at all simple to play. The gameplay has a ring in the centre of the screen that has six icons around it that correspond to which button needs to be pressed when the stars line up with them. This sounds easy, but timing is crucial, and too many missed notes will result in you failing the track.

On top of this, other notes are required to succeed, with Unison, hold, and double notes rounding off the basic functions of the gameplay and the only other beats you have to land. Double and hold notes are pretty self explanatory, involving either tapping a button twice or holding it, and Unison notes are pressing two buttons.

Finally, there’s the Scratch notes, which appear as a multicoloured circle travelling outwards to hit all icons simultaneously instead of a single star, which are activated by flicking the analog sticks. If you miss these you won’t fail the track unlike the other notes, they only really serve to push up your score, but are immensely satisfying to hit every time, they’re just a little more risky.

The Persona Dancing games are absolutely stunning, with flashy visuals matching those of the games they are from (which looks especially good in the Persona 5 black, white and red aesthetic). The character models are all beautiful, and I adore all of the redesigns of the characters in terms of their outfits and overall design. They’re still very much themselves, but with subtle changes (Akihiko, surprising no one, is my favourite).

Most of the game is played out as either solo character or pairs dancing to a song, but occasionally there are full on music video style tracks to play that involve a group altogether. These songs are an absolute treat for the eyes and, aside from making hitting those notes a little harder to see, truly show this game and concept off at its best.

But, the main focus of the game (obviously) is the music, which is as fantastically camp as you would expect. The music from the Persona games is incredible anyway, so it works perfectly in a rhythm action game, but the remixes of these songs are where the best moments of tracks come from. In fact, I would go as far as to say that I genuinely want a copy of the OST from these games, for sure (come on Sega/Atlus).

Without sitting down to enjoy this game in full, I can’t say for certain, but Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight both seem to be incredible titles. The level of content, fantastically boppy soundtrack, and sometimes challenging beats give me a lot of excitement for the recently announced Endless Night Collection. December 4th cannot come quickly enough.

These titles were played at a press day with Sega/Atlus, and so were only preview builds of the games, for more coverage of the Persona Dancing titles, keep an eye here on Rice Digital.