I don’t think most people pick up Persona 5, a JRPG that can take you over 100 hours for a playthrough, expecting to come away with a deeper appreciation for the mundane parts of life. If you’re like me, you play for the *actually well-crafted* turn-based gameplay, fusing a variety of Personas, and grinding through Mementos like there’s no tomorrow. It is incredibly satisfying to send out a calling card and take down a corrupted boss at the end of a Palace. However, once that boss is defeated, the game forces you back into a role we all face in our own lives: the quiet and mundane.
The Enjoyment of Time
In Persona 5, you are governed by a strict calendar formula. Every time a new objective arises, you encounter a person fighting their own inner demons. As a Phantom Thief, you enter their Palace to handle the threat, but once the work is done, you simply have to wait days on end to see if the subject actually has a “change of heart.” Some players rush to finish the Palace immediately, while others wait until the last minute. Either way, if you let those days in-game slide by, you lose two things: the enjoyment of the time itself and the opportunity to grow your own character.
I am lucky enough to live in Las Vegas, and this game started making me look at my city a little differently. On the Strip or off it, there are so many options for how to spend your time. One person might spend an evening at the gym helping themselves get healthier, while others might go out to a nightclub and party their night away. Nothing is wrong with either one, but each furthers a different part of yourself. Yet, it’s so easy to let the days pass without valuing them for what they are worth. We often look at a day as just one giant block of time dedicated to work or school. And by the time we get home, we’re often too exhausted to do anything but scroll through our phones in the dark.
The Main Theme of Persona 5
The game’s main theme quite literally tells us: “If you hold on, life won’t change.” I’ve started taking that more literally than most. In Persona 5, if you don’t take small, consistent steps to advance your social links and your stats, you remain stagnant. This can actually hold you back from progressing in the game. I learned this the hard way during my first playthrough when I focused entirely on hanging out with friends but ignored my social stats. When I eventually needed “Guts” to handle a specific situation or dialogue option, that option was closed to me because I hadn’t put in the work.
Life is the same way. You can’t handle the bigger threats if you haven’t nurtured the different aspects of your character. Persona 5 encourages you to treat your time as a currency. Since playing, I’ve started asking myself: when I finish a shift at work, what is my afternoon for? What is my evening for? If I don’t intentionally take time to enjoy a hobby, go to the gym, or see a friend, I miss out on further myself in some way.
Shifting Perspective
This shift in perspective has done wonders for my mental health. It turns the “boring” parts of life into spaces where I can remind myself that I’m contributing to something bigger. I used to dread my hour-long bus commute to my university. Now, having been graduated for over a year, I actually find myself missing that time. I’ve begun to enjoy long bus commutes across town because I can bring a book with me and enjoy the time for what it’s worth. In the game, you only have a few specific moments to read on the train to increase your stats. In reality, we have even more information at our fingertips, yet we often don’t try to enjoy it.
It’s about looking at your environment intentionally. Friday nights in Vegas, you have the option to visit local jazz clubs, hit the gym, or rest at home. Look at these as “slots” rather than just a blur of time. You’ll avoid feeling FOMO about wasting an evening. The game gives you a platter full of options for what to do with your time. But you have to be the one to decide how you’ll use it. Whether you’re hanging out with Ryuji and Futaba because they’re your favorites, or choosing to further their confidant for how their skills will help you in the next battle, you are making a choice to progress your experience.
The Day-to-Day
This doesn’t mean you need to treat your life like a rigid Google Calendar, it’s simply about awareness. While we might not be fighting demons in another dimension, the solution to burnout and feeling stagnant in life is to take full advantage of the day-to-day. We are often surrounded by “third spaces” like coffee shops, gyms, and libraries. But so many people ignore that they have the chance to use these every day.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, we have to decide what will make our lives feel complete. On a social, emotional, and physical level. After all, if you just hold on, life won’t change, right?
