I have spent far too much time searching for games that scratch the same itch as Persona. All too often, I stumble across something that feels as if it might deliver the same compelling combination of life sim and turn-based RPG gameplay, but rarely does it turn out to be quite as good. It is a shame, as there’s a lot of potential for Persona-likes, yet it would seem that not enough people care as much as I do. This untapped potential is evidenced by the few games I’ve found that do manage to deliver the Persona gameplay pairing that I’ve been searching for, one of which is, naturally, the topic of today’s conversation.
You’d likely scoff at me were I to tell you that one of the very best games like Persona is a Marvel title, but it is undeniably true. This title, which fuses the life sim component of Persona with the excellent turn-based tactical combat of XCOM, is a triumph in game design, storytelling, and adaptation that I wish more people would play. Sadly, despite being a must-play game for both Marvel fans and those simply on the hunt for their next Persona-esque title, Marvel’s Midnight Suns remains a somewhat underrated title that is long overdue its well-deserved flowers.
You’d be forgiven for not realizing that Marvel’s Midnight Suns has a social sim element that plays a rather predominant role throughout its lengthy runtime. Between the action-packed missions, players will retreat to the Abbey, the homebase of the titular band of misfits and iconic characters, where they can get to know their teammates a little better. It’s ostensibly Midnight Sun’s hub area, a space in which players can interact with the assorted characters they’ve unlocked and engage with the friendship mechanic by participating in hangouts. Fans of Persona will be all too familiar with this setup, as it has been a major component of the series since the third entry.
I’ve heard criticisms of this facet of Marvel’s Midnight Suns’ design, especially as it veers slightly into the absurd, at least by comic book standards, as players host book clubs and have intimate conversations with characters they’ve never seen in such inherently cozy and emotional contexts. It humanizes these characters in a way that those only accustomed to the MCU would feel is perhaps at odds with the general concept of superheroes. However, I found it to be the most compelling aspect of Marvel’s Midnight Suns, and, in fact, that this social-sim-focused strategy game that isn’t quite as packed with the flashy antics of its PlayStation-published counterpart, has ended up being one of the best Marvel games ever made.
Of course, for those who are less interested in simply spending time with their favorite obscure and not-so-obscure supernatural Marvel characters, there is the card-focused turn-based action to indulge in. This takes Firaxis’ trademark approach to tactics and consequences seen in its legendarily good XCOM series, and adds a card-based twist to proceedings, giving each character a unique playstyle that better suits their attributes and skillsets from the comics. It ends up being a rather ingenious adaptation of the nuanced powers of a plethora of heroes in a way that a traditional real-time model simply wouldn’t cater to, given the game’s limited budget.
All of this is connected by a phenomenal narrative that perfectly showcases the developer’s passion for and understanding of the characters involved and the respective comics they come from. Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a novel twist on an expected formula and illustrates the variety that superhero games are capable of. It is a shame then that Marvel’s Midnight Suns, despite all of its many great qualities and innovations, has ended up one of the most underrated superhero games available, especially when we need games like it more than ever.
It is seemingly a strange time for superhero video games, a genre that feels as if it should be as successful as its movie counterpart once was, but has apparently faltered at almost every step. While the Marvel’s Spider-Man games have proven to be extremely financially lucrative, and the upcoming Marvel’s Wolverine will likely similarly perform well, their contemporaries have been unsuccessful in their attempts at replicating the same success. Marvel’s Midnight Suns was considered a commercial failure, and thus it looks like it is destined to be yet another great video game that deserves a sequel, but will almost certainly never get one.
Square Enix branded Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy a flop financially, and unsurprisingly, the extremely underrated Marvel’s Avengers and disastrous Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which both attempted to deliver a live service experience at a time when no one wanted live service games, failed. There are several more Marvel and DC-focused games on the horizon, but I fear that beyond those, more and more of them will attempt to ape the success and stylings of Marvel’s Spider-Man, as it has proven to be the outlier among its peers. That would be a shame, as Marvel’s Midnight Suns is only as good and interesting as it ended up being as a direct result of its unique spin on a familiar genre and story.
It remains to be seen how the genre evolves or potentially even collapses in on itself in the coming years. However, despite their relative failures at launch, I do think that there’s an interest in and desire for more games like Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Not everything needs to be a glossy, high-budget, action-packed adventure. The comics wouldn’t even exclusively reflect that, as some of the best issues from DC and Marvel’s most iconic characters are the explorations of their human side. The occasional twist on beloved characters and gameplay design philosophies should be encouraged, and I fear that the failure of games like Marvel’s Midnight Suns will only result in the homogenization of the genre and the death of anything even remotely original, much like what happened with the MCU and DCEU.
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