Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight Critic Reviews

Thankfully, the design is very, very good.

Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight knows its audience within its audience. It's one of the more engaging rhythm games I’ve played to date, even if I wish it was open from the start and had more to do. Like the Phantom Thieves, I have to follow my heart; and it sides with the music.

Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight is a rock solid and super stylish rhythm game. Its jazzy remixes are top notch and its presentation is excellent, resulting in a good-time-title that keeps you coming back for more. Approachable controls and concepts make it easy to learn, but a steep difficulty curve -- perhaps too steep, in some cases -- makes it very hard to master. Put in the practice, though, and you'll be rewarded with an immensely satisfying experience.

While I still don’t know that the world needs dancing games based off of the Persona series, it’s obvious that Atlus could do way worse than Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight. Both games show clear effort in terms of visuals and animations, and if there’s any RPG franchise with soundtracks you’d want to groove to, it’s Persona.

The masterful fusion of jazz, pop, metal, and rock make for a great playlist that feels like a trip through the struggles and triumphs of Persona 5 all over again.

For Persona 5, the love and polish is there in equal amounts, but the somber jazzy style of the original game just doesn’t translate as successfully to a loud and groovy rhythm game experience.

Based on the lore of Persona, the gameplay is intuitive and its difficulty will meet all kinds of players' skill.

Person 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Person 5: Dancing in Starlight are both great rhythm and musical games. Albeit the two lack some aspects from Persona 4. Dancing All Night like an Story mode or even a wider variety of tracks, both titles offer enough of content to please fans of the series and, especially those who love the work of the composer Shoji Meguro.

At their core, both are solid, fun rhythm action games with kickass soundtracks that you can have a great time with, regardless of character knowledge, and despite the games being exact copies of each other. If you like the genre and have that itch, then get on your dancing shoes and enter the Velvet Room. The stage awaits.

Those who simply love music rhythm games and haven’t got much experience with the Persona series, though, should probably just dip their toes in with Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight to test the water. And maybe wait for it to go on sale before they do so. Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight are both very good, but they don’t quite feel like they’re worth their asking price.

Dancing in Starlight is a heedless trip back to the Persona buffet for seconds thirds fourths. You wanted more Persona 5? You got it. Chew the fat. Pretend the calories aren’t empty. Pray you won’t get sick. Somehow, despite the intemperance, I still feel fine.

Its main gameplay mechanic - the actual rhythm gameplay - does get in its own way. But if you’re just wanting to experience more stories and groove to the amazing soundtrack, Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight is definitely a good place to do so.

Despite the gameplay not being the best, the game is charming enough with its music and music videos to still be a fun time.

Those who have already had their hearts taken by Persona 5 will enjoy their time with Dancing in Starlight, but those less familiar with the Phantom Thieves may be disappointed at its small song count and lack of extra content.

Persona 5’s soundtrack helped define its captivating sense of style when it released last year, and Dancing in Starlight is a good celebration of it. The clumsy dancing interface and short tracklist make it fall short as a rhythm game, but some great remixes and fun progression hooks make it a worthwhile way to revisit the look, feel, and sound of one this generation’s most stylish RPGs.

Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight is a rhythm game that is very good but one that should've been released later on so it could've had a more varied soundtrack with better remixes.

As long as a lack of a formal campaign isn’t a total deal breaker, Persona 5 fans should have enough here to enjoy themselves. Enjoy the extra time you’ll get with the Phantom Thieves and try not to think too much about the scrapped story mode.

For an odd spin-off to an RPG series, Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight is very well executed. Its song library is more than a little sparse considering how many of the tracks are remixes, but each song offers its own challenge and is fun once one gets into its groove.

If you're aching to go dancing with your favorite Persona characters, Persona 4: Dancing All Night remains the best choice for now. If you want to listen to Persona 3 or Persona 5 songs instead, opt to borrow these games if possible instead of investing in them for now.

Persona 3 Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight are fantastic ways to explore their respective soundtracks from a new perspective. However, they lack the glue that a story mode brought to the previous game in the series that could have made it feel like a cohesive whole rather than a broad but disparate list of songs and customisations.