20 Best Video Games Of The Generation (So Far)

12. Persona 5

There's a mark of quality to Persona 5 that you don't realise every other game is lacking, until you play it. Every single part of its presentation, from the high-contrast menus to the seamless transitions between hand-drawn animation and JRPG battling, is just handled exquisitely.

The game itself rolls together a number of gameplay styles, with turn-based dungeon-crawling taking up the majority next to attending school, fostering friendships and exploring Tokyo itself. Story-wise, Persona 5 is an exploration of peoples' innermost thoughts and how they can impact social standing, both in common cultural circles and economic hierarchies. Basically, the 'dungeons' you'll be visiting are constructs created by said peoples' inhibitions and darkest secrets, and to 'cure' them of said negativities, you'll need to infiltrate and remove a specific treasure (think Inception meets Psychonauts and you're almost there).

Living this contrasting life of a student one minute and nightmare-fighter the next filters into how to spend your day, balancing gifts for potential lovers with part-time jobs, buying real-world medicines to buff alternate reality stats and ensuring you're always expanding your social circle along the way. Each one of these actions that would be seen as throwaway time-wasters in other games actively helps the alternate world (brew coffee for alertness, read books for knowledge), creating an addictive loop of character building no matter which realm you're in.

Oh, and the overall amount of content is insane value for money, no matter the price, taking at least 80 hours to get through. Phew!