The overlooked brilliance of Persona 5

 Fantasy worlds are almost always set in the past, that's kind of the common thing to do. Some people think that's because of Tolkien's influence, his books were so acclaimed that they left their marks in the writing world.

Whatever the reason, the fact is that most fantasy is set in the past, most but not all. A few daring writers wrote fantasy set in the distant future, like Star Wars, which has technology and science, veering it more towards Science Fiction, but it also has a lot of fantasy elements, mainly The Force and the whole division between the Jedi and Siths. But even more rare than fantasy set in the future, is fantasy set in the present.

Aside from superhero comic books, a lot of writers tend to stay away from contemporary fantasy world for some reason, my personal belief is that with either futuristic or medieval fantasy, it's easier for the reader to immerse themselves in the world, accepting it as an alternate universe, while as with a modern setting, it's harder for them to maintain the suspension of disbelief. 

There is also the challenge of world-building: how would a world that always had magic have evolved different to our world.

Some fantasy set in modern times choose to have the normal world completely unaware that magic exists, having the gods/wizards/whatever just chilling, hiding away in some cave while the muggles kill each other, others may have the protagonist(s) stumble upon an otherworldly source of power (sometimes inadvertently unleashing or discovering an evil that they must stop at the same time). Persona 5 does this last thing.

Now this isn't something exclusive to P5, all of the persona games and a good chunk of all of the Megami Tensei universe are contemporary, but with P5 being the one released more recently, it's easier for us the gamers to immerse in, with all the cellphones, TV, modern society, internet, etc. and all of the bad things that come with them.

Persona 3 had the protagonist play an MMO in his computer during the weekends and use a flip phone to take pictures and text, but that was about it, for people like us living on the age of smartphones and Internet of Things, the everyday life of Makoto Yuuki/Minato Arisato/[insertcanonnamehere] might seem monotonous and boring (and that's basically what being a high school student in the mid-2000s was).

See, in P5, smartphones and the internet aren't just something our main characters have, those things are integral to the plot. Cellphones are used to access the metaverse, where the whole persona fighting is done, text your friends to hang out, discuss things with the team members over in group chat and an anonymous forum on the internet is used to get side missions. You can even buy stuff online from a shady shop ran by none other than President Tanaka himself.

What this means is that the game makes immersion more easy, what kind of teenager isn't constantly texting their friends and browsing the internet? When you want to go somewhere you're not entirely familiar with yet what do you do? Open google maps and check the best routes and stuff to do. What do you do when you hate someone so much you're willing to let a random group of people brainwash them? You doxx them on 4chan... wait no.

Aside from the social life part of the game, smartphones also play a role in the combat part. Igor knew that teenagers use phones a lot so he made the metanav a phone app for convenience, this makes the double life of our heroes as simple as tapping their screens a few times.

An addition as simple as that made, in my opinion, the game a lot more enjoyable and entertaining. Instead of opening a menu to access your maps or schedule, you pull out your phone to fast travel or seeing who's available to hang out. 

Man I really could go for a Big Bang burger right now.