Review for Person 3: Dancing in Moonlight. Game for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, the video game was released on 24/05/2018
The JRPG Persona series has now become a worldwide success, especially thanks to the success of the fourth chapter on PlayStation 2 and its many, sometimes exaggerated, spin-offs. The process that brought the series to worldwide success, however, began earlier, with Persona 3, the game that established the formula on which the followers built their fame. ATLUS has shown on several occasions to remember the third chapter, with updated versions and crossovers. However, a type of spin-off was missing to give Persona 3 a treatment equivalent to what was seen with 4, that is, the rhythm game. After Persona 4: Dancing All Night for Playstation Vita, ATLUS tries again to give its flagship series some musical variants, with Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight. The result is much better than the first; Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight is an exceptional rhythm game that can warm the hearts of longtime fans with deliciously nostalgic quotes and dialogue.
The two titles are placed on a practically identical structure, but have different strengths in how this structure is exploited. We have decided to divide the reviews to talk more in detail about the strengths of the titles, but the description of the "gameplay" side will be the same for both titles and will be present in this review.
The structure of the ATLUS title is quite simple, our protagonists find themselves trapped in an eternal night inside the Velvet Room and must compete with mysterious rivals in dance strokes. Narratively, the titles do not take themselves seriously, but they still manage to convey something through the choreography of some songs and the Social mode. The basic gameplay is very classic, the musical notes appear from the center of the screen and scroll towards the key to be pressed to obtain a positive evaluation. To this is added the mechanics of the "Scratch", of the bonus notes that do not bring malus if wrong but allow you to access special choreographies if hit. This gives the game a high risk / high reward system, as obviously the score will be much higher if you hit the Scratches, but this makes the songs much more complex to complete.
The songs present in both titles are relatively few, we are talking about forty tracks, but ATLUS has remedied this with multiple difficulties and optional challenges that can be activated at any time. The playing style of the two rhythm games is extremely fickle, as the player has many modifications available to activate to adapt the gaming experience to what they prefer. It will be possible to enable automatic Scratches, make sure you can hit each note with a key or simply be able to continue your game even where there would normally be a game over. These support modifiers are contrasted by the challenge modifiers, able to make the game extremely difficult, with the possibility of combining different modifiers, reaching heights of crazy difficulty.
The quality of the music tracks is excellent, after all we are talking about remixes of the already exceptional ost of the original JRPG, composed by a master of music: Shoji Meguro. The choreographies instead are shaky, most of them are excellent, with 2 tracks for each title with masterful choreographies; others are lazy. In fact, several songs will not have original choreographies, but will simply be accompanied by the animations of the opening of the various Persona 3 and 5 games. This choice seemed a bit lazy, it is certainly appreciable to have more musical tracks, but we believe it was possible to come up with something more original for them, especially considering that some Persona 3 anime videos have aged pretty badly.
But let's talk about how Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight exploits this structure to communicate a feeling: nostalgia. Anyone who has played the original Persona 3, or its PSP re-release, is aware of its main narrative element: sadness. Persona 3 is a sad game, a game that spasmodically repeats the concept of "Memento Mori". Yet seeing the characters overcome the difficulties of their dual lives inevitably makes you fond of them, paving the way for what remains to this day the best ending of the Persona series (and one of the best of the entire Shin Megami Tensei Saga). Reviewing after many years the protagonists of that bloody, complex odyssey inside the Tartarus, rendered in HD, gives a feeling similar to that which pervades the player about to start Spyro Reignited Trilogy.
Many years have passed, but the characters are exactly as we remember them. Nostalgia, key word of the entire narrative sphere of Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight, is introduced immediately in an intelligent and subtle way, through the improved graphics sector. From here on, ATLUS has simply expanded this feeling within the dialogues between the characters, visible in the Social mode and beyond.
Some choreographies are absolutely quotationistic, with 2 songs in particular that evoke the most special moments of the original Persona 3, revisiting them in musical form. What at first glance may seem like a simple spin-off "to make money", manages to recreate some of the most exciting moments we have experienced in modern gaming. Obviously all of this will not have the same impact outside the Persona 3 fan niche, but even outside of the quotationism the title offers a solid rhythm game with a lot of style and excellent choreography.
Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight is a game designed primarily for fans of the original title. This doesn't mean it's a jumble of mere fanservice though. The title offers an excellent rhythm game with music already known, but no less exceptional. Of course, Persona 3 fans will be able to enjoy more of what Dancing in Moonlight has to offer, as ATLUS has managed to capture the emotions conveyed by their original title, transmuting them into dance.
► Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight is a Music type game developed and published by ATLUS for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, the video game was released on 24/05/2018
