by Stephen DeckAlso available on PlayStation 4
Review was written by Stephen Deck; originally published 02/01/2019 on Teacher by Day, Gamer by Night
I was a HUGE fan of Persona 5 when it hit the PS4 a while back, and I was a HUGE fan of Persona 4: Dancing All Night when I finally joined the #VitaMasterRace. While I enjoyed it, however, I found myself a slightly disappointed with Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight when it hit the Vita alongside Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight. It was good, for sure, but it felt underwhelming next to Dancing All Night. How does Dancing in Starlight stack up?
Fortunately for me, while it doesn’t quite stand up as Dancing All Night’s equal, Dancing in Starlight left me feeling much more satisfied than Dancing in Moonlight did. I largely attribute that to the fact that Persona 5 had a much better soundtrack than Person 3 in my opinion, but truthfully, it’s probably also partly because I knew what I could reasonably expect going in. The relatively minimal content compared to Dancing All Night, rendering it a fairly standard rhythm game just with Persona music, caught me off guard with Dancing in Moonlight. I knew to expect that going into this game, though, so there was less of a risk of disappointment.
As far as actual gameplay goes, it’s exactly what you’d expect – standard Vita rhythm game affair. You use the Triangle, Circle, X, Up, Right (or is it Left? I forget), and Down buttons along with an analog stick (or the touch screen, that works for the scratch as well) to match prompts in time with the song. The responsiveness is great, the tracklist is fantastic, and it’s overall a great time for fans of rhythm games. They don’t really do much to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, but it’s definitely a fun game and a must play for Vita (or PS4) gamers who enjoy rhythm games.
Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight doesn’t really do much to set itself apart from the average rhythm game aside from the use of Persona 5’s FANTASTIC soundtrack, but it really doesn’t have to. It may be a largely standard rhythm game in design, but the execution is absolutely brilliant. I can’t speak for how different or similar the PS4 version is, but the Vita version is fantastic and a definite must play.
