After four years, I’ve finally finished Persona 5. There’s a lot to unpack there—it’s game that’s notoriously long by design; but also, most of that time was spent away from the game. I can finally say that I’ve closed this one book; and as a result, I’m excited to pick up a few more.

Persona 5 was, no exaggeration, my life in January of 2018. That wasn’t my hottest moment in life—it was my junior year of college, and I was feeling incredibly low and depressed for a number of reasons that I can barely remember. In poetic fashion, Persona has become my life again in January of 2022, during a time which I can also comfortably say is not my hottest.

At the start of winter break, I had just spent most of my internship stipend on a PS4, along with Persona 5 and Horizon Zero Dawn, as a Christmas present to myself. Over the next three weeks, from the initial casino escape sequence to the next few dungeons, I spent hours upon hours devouring Persona.

And damn it, was it a ride. Something about the game was so special to me in that time. It might have been the friendships I formed with its characters, or the liveliness of the world, or my simple routine of getting up every morning and choosing how I’d spend the day.

When the penultimate dungeon rolled around, school was starting up again, and so I put the game down, hoping to return soon. But because of a busy school schedule, I never found the time to pick it back up. As time passed, I began resigning my desire to continue the game, in the fear that I’d just feel confused and detached from the story and characters that I’d once felt so deeply connected to. I even lent my copy to my cousin, who finished it over one summer.

Since the pandemic pushed a hard reset button on life, I’ve reinvigorated my love for my PS4, and am happily trying new games that I missed from that generation, such as Nier: Automata, The Last of Us Part II, Dark Souls, and Yakuza 0. But Persona always sat on my shelf, like an unfinished book that I had already accepted into the archives of memory.

Then came last Christmas, when Persona finally resurfaced in my consciousness. I saw Persona 5 Royal on sale on the PS store and scooped it up like a total fool. Then I thought “screw it” and popped the Persona 5 disc into my PS4 for the first time in four years.

And despite the time gap, it felt so familiar and magical all the same.

I loved relearning the game mechanics in the few hours I played. I also loved diving back into the stylish and expressive world. Quite a few story beats were very rusty, but other than that, I felt right at home again.

I also fell in love with the characters all over again. Even those whom I was less fond of, like Futaba and Haru, grew on me so much more. But even more than that, being with the Phantom Thieves once more made me feel belonged, as if they were dear old friends ready to share warmth, authenticity, and bravery through and through. That feeling of being accepted is something so powerful and magical that I can never put into words.

As silly and embarrassing as it is to say that a video game provided me with a sense of kinship, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t, particularly in a time where I feel so devastatingly isolated in life. Perhaps it’s appropriate that I close out my year with this old gem.

I’ll be publishing my final review within the next week. It’s been too long.