Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection

As fans of the Persona series we weren't worried when Atlus announced that dancing games were joining the series, in fact, we gladly welcomed the Japanese madness back with open arms. Although we don't understand people who dance at all, the titles themselves have very little to do with actually busting out your best moves. Rather you have to press buttons on the controller at the right time in Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight and Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight, and while doing so you'll succumb to the overwhelming charm of a group of wonderful friends.

The Persona rhythm games are all about expressing oneself through dance. The individual actors use their respective Personas to convey their own feelings to mysterious shadow spectators - all through busting shapes. The two latest titles share a premise, some assets, as well as the gameplay, and each one tells one side of the same story. If you play one of the newer Persona dancing games, the other one does feel a bit redundant - but they are stand-alone experiences made for big-time fans.

They're both very self-explanatory: "notes" shoot from the centre of the screen to the border and we need to tap the six corresponding keys at the right moment on the controller to build up a combo and expand our high-score. Too many mistakes in a short time will eventually sweep us off the stage and performing poorly will lead to restarts as well. Varying note speeds, as well as parallel and double notes, complicate things, but the biggest hurdle is the so-called scratches. Although we can ignore them most of the time, they reward us with extra points and allow the fancy Fever-Time (a literal fireworks display on stage).

Unlike Persona 4: Dancing All Night, in which we prepare for Rise's comeback at the "Love Meets Bonds" festival with Yu Narukami and his friends, while also uncovering an exciting story about the death of a young idol in the Midnight Stage, Atlus was really lazy with their two most recent iterations. They swapped out the fully animated story for simple text sequences styled like a visual novel. That takes away a lot of the general appeal of these games and makes them more niche projects in our eyes - and to see that almost breaks our heart.

In Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, the two guardians Justine and Caroline invite Ren Amamiya (the protagonist of Persona 5) and his Phantom Thieves to the Velvet Room. Because Igor, the patron of this special place, isn't present, they are holding a dance competition with the goal of showing their eloquent sister Elizabeth that they have protected and supported the most extraordinary guest. She does the same in Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight by inviting Makoto Yuki and the other members of the SEES (with two exceptions).

In direct comparison you will notice that the story mode of Persona 4: Dancing All Night has now been replaced with something called "Social". Therein we find over 60 entertaining cutscenes in which we spend time with the different characters of each roster. In order to unlock these narrative snippets, certain challenges have to be met, which are relatively straightforward when playing the main mode. Music notes want to be hit perfectly, there are many costumes to try out, and some smart accessories - you'll quickly lose yourself in the many submenus if you want to be more effective in the least possible amount of time.

Both Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight contain 25 songs each, to be mastered across four difficulty levels. The eight players on each roster (some members are missing, but we won't tell you which ones because that might be a spoiler) have received a mere two or three choreographies per game, but they can appear in other stage performances during fever time as well. On top of that, there are songs with special group appearances, but in both titles, this might only be some slideshow or video montage. And that's it in terms of scope, you won't be busy for more than twelve hours with one of these games.

The third Persona game won't have a huge army of fans in Europe, so it may be harder for this entry to attract new players. Nonetheless, Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight is the lazier overall-package in our opinion, because - although the soundtrack is phenomenally good - the song list feels a bit leaner. Atlus sells some songs twice; Rivers in the Desert, for example, is included a trio of times via three different versions. Ultimately the same can be said in all three rhythm games, as Atlus has opted for multiple remixes. The songs are no longer as melodically broad as they were in Persona 4: Dancing All Night, but if you liked the raw material, you will surely find something that suits your tastes.

Atlus's rhythm games aren't that difficult, but of course, there is a learning curve. The lower difficulty settings solely focus on the basic beat, while we have to take care of every nuance ourselves on "All Night". Different modifications affect the challenge, ranging from varying reaction speeds to wavering notes, up to the point where we eventually have to memorise the entire sequence because we can't see any notes at all. There are also parameters that pardon game errors to some extent while lowering the score.

The short preview snippets of the songs repeat themselves way too quickly, which is more noticeable when adjusting settings, modifications or outfits. Also, the repetitive comments of our friends during a song are terrible, but at least we can turn them off in the options. Anyone who has progressed far enough in the respective social link of people in Persona 3/5 Dancing will be invited into the private rooms of his or her confidants. That's nice, but also very strange because we don't really do anything else while we're in there (this mode is even playable in PSVR). The nasty Velvet Room guardians have also hidden some letters for us to find, but those who don't want to search in every nook and cranny will only miss out on few collectables.

Something we'd have liked to see would have been multiplayer modes, because all three games in Persona Dancing: Endless Night Collection are pure solo adventures. The high-scores of each title are shared online, but you always play by yourself. A second player could have enjoyed the stage performance in peace, something which is absolutely not possible while playing. In fact, the flashy action on the stage is often a little distracting, as some of the backgrounds animations are similar to the colourful UI, which allows certain notes to fly by somewhat unseen in amongst all of the hustle and bustle on screen.

Pressing keys on the controller rhythmically may not reach the level of coolness you get from playing with laser swords that literally cut the beat, but we nevertheless had great fun with Persona's Endless Night Collection. One must admittedly be a hardcore fan of the series to play the games because of their short stories, and the small snippets are largely superficial (which to some extent is due to the characters), wistful, and filled with all sorts of references. So it's a lazy niche title that, despite its weaknesses, could well make fans of the series happy. However, those who don't know anything about Persona will probably not get much out of them.