Atlus has proven that Persona 4 DAN was not a one off, and while SEGA and Atlus seem to have lost the Hatsune Miku license recently, it is clearly not because the company has lost the ability to produce a sublime example of the rhythm game genre.
It´s amazing. I recommend for every fan of the Persona Series. Amazing soundtrack, good gameplay and funny interactions between the characters. Grab it in a promotion if you think the price is too high. The endless collection is in a lot of promotions on PSN.
While I still don’t know that the world needs dancing games based off of the Persona series, it’s obvious that Atlus could do way worse than Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight. Both games show clear effort in terms of visuals and animations, and if there’s any RPG franchise with soundtracks you’d want to groove to, it’s Persona.
If you're aching to go dancing with your favorite Persona characters, Persona 4: Dancing All Night remains the best choice for now. If you want to listen to Persona 3 or Persona 5 songs instead, opt to borrow these games if possible instead of investing in them for now.
Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight is a fun rhythm game that could've been so much more but still manages to be well worth it for Persona 3 fans with some excellent music.
Putting aside the fact that I find it incredibly weird that Dancing in Moonlight and Dancing in Starlight are being sold as two separate, full-priced games (they’re too similar in concept and execution for it to make sense) it’s neat fanservice for those who wish to spend more time with the Tartarus SEES and Phantom Thieves crew. Ultimately, though, I wish that the devs had tried just a little harder to carve out a new and exciting rhythm game, rather than something that fits squarely into established genre norms and coasts by on the charm of its characters.
Taking time out from fighting shadows or stealing hearts, Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight give you a fun way to hang out with your favourite SEES members or Phantom Thieves, while the series' iconic music has lost none of its resonance.
A great game for Persona 3 fans that would like to see old favourite characters resurrected with new beautiful models. The game may not have a great story, but the soundtrack is climatic and the game play have soo many difficulty levels, that not only rhythm game veterans can enjoy it, but also kids.
The songs are great and the core gameplay is solid, but overall P3D and P5D are bare-bones releases in a way that P4D was not. Perhaps because of the backlash from P4D being canon Atlus has given up on trying to incorporate a meaningful solo mode in the Persona rhythm games. There is a lot of irony in the fact that P4D is bundled as an "extra" with P3D & P5D yet is actually the most substantial game of the lot. These are still worth playing for a chance to revisit your favorite characters but I am disappointed overall. Hopefully a Persona 3 remake is released with these assets.
How I rate games:
Game-play, Music/Sound, Graphics & Visuals, Story/World-building, and Characters each get 0-2 points adding up to a score /10. 0 is non-existent or bad, 1 is average or N/A, and 2 is better than average.
Game-play: 1
It is every other rhythm game you have ever played.
Music/Sound: 1
The music is the music from P3 with some additions, however many songs are locked behind a paywall.
Graphics & Visuals: 2
The graphics are flashy with HD models of the characters.
This is probably my least favourite persona spinoff. My reviews for persona 5: dance and persona 3: dance are the same because they are the exact same game just with different soundtracks and swapped out characters.
While the soundtrack is great, that is only because the main series has some of the best video game music of all time. However, most of it is locked behind paywalls.
The gameplay is less than stellar and doesn’t do anything that you can’t find already in another rhythm game. The main selling point of this game is the characters, having many costumes and dances for them. Many of these, however, are also locked behind paywalls.
Buy, rent, watch an LP, or skip? SKIP. This is literally just listening to music you have heard before, watching character dance around, and playing a run of the mill rhythm game. Even without the paywalls this game would be barely passable, but with them this is a firmly bad game.
SummaryChoose from several difficulty levels and dance alongside the members of SEES in a customizable rhythm game experience. Characters can tear up the dance floor with a partner by performing well during a song and entering “Fever” mode; try out some of your favorite character combinations.