By Dan Potts
Who doesn’t want to see Joker and Skull throwing shapes to funky remixes of Persona 5’s amazing soundtrack? Nobody that’s who! Thankfully there’s a groovy game for that in the form of Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight in which you can bust your moves as the famed Phantom Thieves to remixed beats from the game. Just time your button presses and holds to the corresponding prompt on screen and your’e on to a winner.
The game lets you off somewhat with your timing on the lower difficulties but miss on the higher settings and you’ll soon find the crowd not best pleased and a game over will quickly ensue. The easy difficulty is a good place to start but jumping up to normal proves quite tricky, there is a quite a spike in the challenge and it feels like an extra difficulty should be sandwiched between the two.
Don’t let the jump in difficulty deter you though, the game is easy to get to grips with and hitting that sweet combo especially on a higher setting is extremely satisfying. Patience and practice is key with this game and it’s a good job the music is blisteringly brilliant.
The set list boasts some of the best funky remixes to an already stellar soundtrack, who would’ve thought that that tracks such as Last Surprise and The Whims of Fate could be even funkier? There is a great range of music taken from Persona 5’s soundtrack and there is something for everyone, not every track will be to your liking but for the most part it comes down to personal preference.
The visuals themselves are pleasing on the eye, featuring the same graphics and models as Persona 5, the bright colours, detailed locations and dancers parading around the screen make for a great looking game.
Outside of throwing shapes, the narrative is a told a little differently to Persona 4’s Dancing All Night in that there isn’t really a story mode, instead there are small interactions between the cast whenever a character social rank in increased. These small segments give us a little insight into the characters thoughts and feelings but apart from unlocking additional accessories and costumes there isn’t much in the way of a cohesive story. The voice acting is as awesome as always, both in English and Japanese and it’s always nice to listen to the banter between the Phantom Thieves.
Modifiers can be turned on after unlocking them to help shake up the game a little by changing the parameters of the button presses; notes can be made to disappear or speed up, certain notes can be hit automatically, helping with that 100% hit rate and many more, each adding something unique to the gameplay. Depending on which modifier you have activated depends on the penalty given to your final score, either adding to your score or taking some of it away. Some of these are fun and some are not but adds a little variety if your favourite track is starting to become stale.
Each Phantom Thief can be also fully customised whether it be a snazzy new costume, a fancy new hairstyle or cool accessory, there are plenty of options to choose from and for the most part, the costumes look great and gives you something to work towards as you unlock all the costumes and accessories. Wanna see Makoto as a cheerleader with blue hair? You can do that and much much more.
The Final Say
Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight is one of, if not the best rhythm game on the PlayStation 4. The game is outright fun to play, challenging on the the higher difficulties and features an insanely talented list of artists providing the remixes to an already jazzy soundtrack. Gorgeous visuals, plenty of unlockables and addictive gameplay add up to a fantastic addition to the adventures of the Phantom Thieves.
Score: 9/10
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