To any new P5 runners, it's important to know what the standards are and who you're up against. While reading this, just imagine AverageTrey or RWhiteGoose is narrating it.
Persona 5, the recent, critically acclaimed JRPG for the PS4 (it's also for the PS3, but the PS4 version is the better one to run) is an ordeal. Requiring an entire waking day to run and generally being a difficult game where a few wrong moves can end a run, it's attracted some very special speedrunners to it. Players with passion and commitment. Players who go the distance and may never reach the top.
Our first player is Neviutz from Germany. A consistently top-ranked player who is also behind most of the routing for this game and even the rules. It is because of him that True End Hard is even the main category. He was the first to complete a run and back then it wasn't even sub 20. He is the only player to use the Japanese version (there aren't even any Japanese players at the time of writing) and he uses it for everything: routing, runs, and even special challenges. Since then, his routing brought the time down by a few hours and even brought up the possibility of a sub 16 hour run. Of course, it helps that SSDs, which weren't available back then, improve the loading by quite a bit.
The next player is Liv from England. Initially, she was nothing special. Her first run was over 24 hours! However, she later became the first player to, for a brief time, nab the record from Neviutz while he was struggling with a new route, and by that extension, the first player to get the record on a non-Japanese version of the game. She has lately been an infrequent and hibernating player who still doesn't have a sub 18 (at the time of writing) but there's no telling if she will or won't be able to nab the record while the getting's good.
The next player is DarkKefka from the USA. The only player to use the NTSC-U version, DK doesn't have as much methodology as Neviutz does. Just go fast and get the run done like running a marathon. Despite never having the record yet, he certainly has potential, with each PB putting him at second with the gaps between him and the WR holder growing thinner with each PB. One major problem is the lack of an SSD. In his first run, he didn't plan out eating properly and easily lost his cool whenever things weren't going his way, but with every PB he has learned to keep himself and the game under as much control as he can manage. Just a hardware upgrade, a new route, and another run or two could see him finally rise to the top. DK exclusively runs Persona games, so he's used to the challenges the series offers.
The last player of note is Romulostx from Brazil. After a European vacation, he came home with a PS4 and his only game on the console, P5. Previously only a Zelda runner (and experience in running games from the NTSC-U, PAL, and NTSC-J regions), his hand at a much longer game on a non-Nintendo console in a different series is going better than you might think. The third player to get sub 18 in the main category, Romulostx has that South American dedication about him. Will his adaptability win out?
And that's it for now. Will there be new competition and will they threaten to dethrone Neviutz? Keep yourself updated on P5 speedrunning history in the making!
