As an enthusiast for role-playing games, I unfortunately suffered from a vulnerable spatial orientation—losing directions in 3D games. This weakness prevents me from truly engaging with gameplay, making it difficult to perceive a genuine sense of immersion within a digital environment.
However, there is one exception in my gaming experience: Persona 5 Royal (“P5R”). Despite the game's complex routing, I found myself navigating its sites with an unexpected, intuitive ease that soon induced my first taste of immersion. This anomaly led me to realize that P5R's geographical design is intricate enough to structure the player's experience.
Driven by this realization, I will exemplify with P5R to explore: To what extent do the geographical facets of place—location, locale, and sense of place, as defined by Cresswell (2009, 169)—support Calleja’s player involvement model (2011, 35-50), thereby facilitating the sense of immersion? To address this, I argue that the geographical components of the simulated city of Tokyo – its physical location, social locale, and subjective sense of place – catalyzes users’ transition from contemplative macro-involvement to performative micro-involvement, ultimately, leading to a higher-order state of immersion, as depicted in Calleja’s player involvement model.
Released in 2019 by Atlus, Persona 5 Royal is a Japanese Role-Playing Game (JRPG) set in urban Tokyo. The game focuses on protagonist Ren Amamiya, who lives a high school student’s life while infiltrating surreal dungeons to resolve societal crimes at night. The game is specifically chosen not only due to my personal affection, but also because it serves as a classic representation of the JRPG genre and showcases a "faithful representation of Tokyo". While the game's stylized graphics do not diminish its geographical accuracy, they allow players to feel comfortable navigating its complex streets intuitively, without the constant assistance of a guide or walkthrough.
From jazz clubs to dark palaces, the game’s map consists of multiple interconnected places. Cresswell (2009) decomposes “place” into three parts: location, the absolute "where" defined by specific coordinates; locale, the material setting including tangible buildings and streets; and sense of place, the nebulous emotions and meanings evoked by a site.
My immersive experience was formally characterized by Calleja (2011), who differentiates immersion as "absorption" from immersion as "transportation" while emphasizing the latter as “being present” in another place. Four potential challenges to understanding immersion from a ludic perspective were raised, with a more precise expression of this experience, incorporation, introduced. Calleja regards player involvement as a prerequisite for immersion, generalizing the player involvement model across six dimensions: kinesthetic, spatial, shared, narrative, affective, and ludic involvement. These dimensions are experienced across two phases: pan-gameplay macro-involvement and in-game micro-involvement.
The following sections will first examine how specific elements of “place” within the game environment improves individual dimensions of the player involvement model, with in-game evidence provided. Following this dimension-specific analysis, the paper investigates how the prior examples result in the transformation of detached macro-involvement into internalized micro-involvement, achieving a higher-order state of immersion (or “incorporation”) as conceptualized by Calleja.
Location, the “where” of a place, refers to a synthesis of absolute coordinates and measurable distances (Cresswell 2009). In P5R, location is represented by the projection of the picturesque 3D environment onto 2D planar surfaces – the “map”, continuously exposing players to a doubling sense of spatial perception, forcing them to align the visual cues with abstract coordinates that, thereby, intensifies spatial involvement. Plus, the game’s notorious complex geography incurs a strong demand in fluency of control – it is only when players have fully “digested” the virtual layout that they can effortlessly translate their mental navigation into instantaneous gameplay approaches, cultivating a compelling kinesthetic involvement.
Calleja (2011) defines spatial involvement as the engagement with the spatial qualities of a virtual environment in terms of spatial control, navigation, and exploration. The sophisticated map system in P5R serves as a powerful instance of location, subtly nurturing such spatial involvement. Throughout the game journey, a persistent map interface is provided in the lower-right corner: a monochromatic, circular 2D shape with a red arrow pointing at the character’s absolute current location. As the avatar walks, a trail of red footsteps appears on the map, temporarily revealing movement traces with past trajectories. Despite the game’s multi-layered 3D architecture, the map remains in 2D. Additionally, while using a teleporting system, the game presents locational maps for destination selection instead of any aesthetic imagery.
The above features consistently refreshes players’ perception for location, effectively downgrading the complexities of 3D architecture into an intuitive 2D planar interface. This reduction lowers players’ cost in spatial comprehension, facilitating the construction of their own mental model of the virtual world. To discuss further with Aarseth’s (2001) theory that, in most 3D games, the 'three-dimensional perspective alone is not enough to represent the complexities of the gameworld, and must be supplemented with a more schematic 2D perspective'. By maintaining a pervasive map, the game incurs a doubling of spatial perception: players simultaneously experience “being present in the immersive 3D world” while “seeing themselves from a detached, 2D bird’s-eye view”. This dual-engagement accelerates the internalization of spatial traits with overall spatial involvement.
Kinesthetic involvement, on the other hand, concerns all modes of game control, ranging from the initial learning of actions to the fluency of internalized movement. Calleja argues that the depth of player immersion is indivisibly connected to their mastery of kinesthetic control.
Given the game’s massive control scheme, instead of overwhelming players with significant cognitive load, it sequentially introduces new mechanics within its first pedagogical dungeon—Kamoshida’s Palace. Starting in void, the map coerces players to actively explore the surroundings for “Safe Rooms” that unlock partial locational data. During this “enlightening” the map, new controls are introduced only when contextually necessary, often triggered by special events. Repetitive practices mandatory, P5R ensures that by the time the tutorial Palace is conquered, the complex controls have been mastered.
By prompting players to familiarize with location upon mastering its controls, the game turns conscious efforts into intuitive gameplay. This echoes Blackman’s (2022) argument that virtual worlds are produced or deconstructed in part by users’ practices... not just by the technological interface. Simply providing completed maps would fail to contribute to players’ engagement with locations or any sense of immersion; rather, by transforming spatial navigation into a series of kinesthetic practices, the game ensures that 'location' is not just observed, but internalized, since which players start to 'inhabit' it, thereby transiting into a state of immersion.
Shifting focus from abstract coordinates to the tangible, material setting leads us to the idea of locale. In P5R, the mirrored city of Tokyo displays an uncanny resemblance to its real-world counterpart, preserving not only the looks of the city, but also its genius loci—from Ginza underground plazas to the tranquil neighborhood backstreets. The concrete locale settings provide an invisible societal barrier, contextually restricting character behavior where ludic involvement is strengthened as players are engaged with decision making. Unspoken norms rendered by the locale further rationalized the presence of NPCs, transforming the virtual space into a site of cohabitation as Calleja emphasizes, where shared involvement is evoked by player's interaction with NPCs under a socially authentic context.
Calleja states that in-game actions would lose their meaning if there were no repercussions, emphasizing ludic involvement—players’ engagement with the choices made in game and the consequences brought. Locales function beyond static backgrounds, acting as sites for social interaction where available actions are strictly confined by the atmosphere. A primary example would be Café Le Blanc: built after an actual Italian cafeteria in Sangenjaya, Japan, it comes with a high degree of simulation—from the exterior narrow alleyway to the intimate interior of the bar and booths. The cafe functions as the surrogate dormitory for protagonist Ren Amimaya, where the player may only engage in activities like studying, brewing coffee, or cleaning. Likely, the Shibuya Underground Mall features authentic modeling of shops, signs, and passers-by, where actions are limited to consumption and entertainment.
The repercussion sought under these locales is an enhancement of the avatar's social stats: Knowledge, Guts, Proficiency, Kindness, and Charm. Consequently, each act performed serves as a calculated step towards individual goals. To develop these stats, players must be present at the “appropriate” locale for the “appropriate” action, ensuring every strategic selection is attached to the material settings, thereby deepening ludic involvement through routine practices.
Rather than pursuing self-defined goals ludically, shared involvement shifts players’ awareness outward, focusing on interaction with other agents within the game environment. The elaborate locale setting in Persona 5 Royal rationalizes the presence of non-player characters (“NPCs”), eliciting narratives that foster a stronger sense of cohabitation. While many NPCs contribute little to the central storytelling, they become indispensable in social environments. In Shibuya Station, NPCs that represent the Japanese working class—lost in their phones, rushing through gates, or muttering to themselves—behave non-randomly, but strictly limited by the station as a locale. Such behavior would be considered dissonant under other game scenarios such as palaces or schools, yet they are considered authentic in public transportation.
The subtle but lively manner of these agents aligns with real-world social practices. By incorporating NPCs into the routine behaviors of Tokyo’s public life, the game constructs a "material setting for social relations," as Cresswell depicts, where the "feeling of being with another” is not simply dependent on NPCs, but also on the surrounding locale. Therefore, shared involvement is sped up by the "spatial presence of other agents" and the "potential for interaction" they afford (Calleja 2011). The NPCs’ attachment to societal norms transforms the "mirror city" from a computer simulation into a site of cohabitation—a necessary element in strengthening shared involvement.
Sense of place, the most emotive component of "place," embraces the nebulous meanings and emotions a site evokes. The admirable narrative of P5R succeeds largely through its setting in Tokyo—a "container" entangled with the tensions of power, crime, and justice. This sense of place is rendered through nuanced cultural cues that allow the plot to unfold, cultivating a profound narrative involvement. Furthermore, thanks to the consistent passion and justice-driven themes of Japanese anime culture, this shared sense of place portrayed the games’ vivid, lively characterization, allowing players to relate more easily to the protagonists, while effectively deepening their affective involvement.
Narrative as a primary feature, the narrative involvement directly impacts players’ overall experience. The sense of Tokyo brings a necessary logical foundation for the unfolding of the story plot. For instance, by introducing the player as a newcomer, the game propagates a sense of alienation and the feeling of being "small in the grand scheme of things." Later on, this sense unpacks narratives on loneliness and the acceptable occurrence of systemic crimes. Similarly, the game’s palaces are rendered with a dark, eerie tone to arouse an unsettled atmosphere. This stands in stark contrast to the "everydayness" of Tokyo. Such sinister elements validate the dungeons as appropriate sites for confronting the "distorted mental projection" of antagonists, ensuring that the supernatural realm feels narratively "just right."
Through this example, we observe that the sense of place is constructed with multiple facets—including language, nonverbal codes, humor, story pacing, and ethnic types—which Iwabuchi (2002) defines as "cultural proximity". Unlike many Japanese entertainment products that historically sought to erase their "cultural odor," P5R embraces its ontological identity as a JRPG by saturating its virtual Tokyo with these precise cultural codes. In P5R, this "cultural odor" supports narrative involvement, enabling players to accept the story's underlying logic with ease. Through the fortified sense of place, the unfolding narrative becomes inherently persuasive, granting players an immersive experience with the internalized reality.
On top of that, one of the most profound, immersive consequences the game left to me is an inability to remain indifferent; instead, I found myself flooded by the characters' emotions—laughing when they laughed and raging when they raged. For instance, Shujin Academy promotes such an authentic high-school atmosphere that I detested the bullies, empathized with the victims, and felt every beat of the drama as if it were personal. Beyond the screen, this spatial affection extends into the real world, manifesting in the phenomenon of "Seichi Junrei": fans frequently travel to Tokyo to visit the exact real-world references of the game. These players are driven by a genuine affection for the characters, seeking to recapture the virtual life they once lived. For the enthusiasts, visiting the physical origins of the game’s geography provides a spiritual satisfaction by merely being at the site and experiencing its sense of place .
Koichi Iwabuchi (2002) interprets this affection as "intensive sympathy," where modern youth develop deep emotional ties to Japanese cultural signifiers. In P5R, the sense of place is so powerfully constructed that every element serves to reinforce the game’s specific cultural ideology. Because the game’s sense of place shapes the player’s cognition, they synthesize their identity within protagonist Ren Amamiya. Players intuitively look through Ren’s eyes, hate those he detests and cherish those he loves, ultimately achieving a state of immersion where they truly feel as though they are high-school students confronting the systemic crimes of a real-world metropolis.
In a word, the geography of Persona 5 Royal serves as the essence for the player’s journey from spectator to resident. Immediately after entering the virtual worlds of P5R, players are exposed to the place’s material environment that establishes their anticipation to rational conducts, where macro-involvement is constituted. During this phase, macro-involvement includes the player's strategic planning of shifting locations. While the locale of the "mirror city" reinforces this involvement by displaying a tangible setting that renders social expectations, a holistic sense of place begins to coalesce during this macro phase. Before any formal plots unfold, the metropolis’ "cultural odor" and aesthetic atmosphere paves players’ understanding of the game's ideologies. In this sense, macro-involvement acts as a geographical factor where the player’s detached analytical gameplay—navigating through location, locale, and sense of place—prepares for the subsequent step into micro-involvement.
The diminishing sensation of place marks the transition from macro to micro-involvement. It is precisely because players have mastered places at the macro level that they end up in an "effortless play" at the micro level, resulting in the fading of navigation systems such as maps. Within this micro-phase, the location has become a path to be felt with players’ fluent control techniques; as they traverse around the locale, the material settings have turned into a "lived-in" environment; finally a shift to the sense of place is felt so that players "incorporates" the game world, effectively "residing" as a character of the society. This corresponds to what Calleja (2011) depicts as a state of immersion, more precisely, incorporation, where the doubling of spatial perception diminishes.
Bibliography
Aarseth, Espen. 2026. “Allegories of Space. The Question of Spatiality in Computer Games.” Cybertext Yearbook. January 2026. https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-202406204857.
Blackman, Tyler. 2022. “Virtual Reality and Videogames: Immersion, Presence, and the Performative Spatiality of ‘Being There’ in Virtual Worlds.” Social & Cultural Geography 25 (3): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2022.2157041.
Calleja, Gordon. 2011. In-Game : From Immersion to Incorporation. Cambridge, Ma ; London: Mit Press.
Cresswell, T. 2009. “Place.” International Encyclopedia of Human Geography 8: 169–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-008044910-4.00310-2.
Kōichi Iwabuchi. 2002. Recentering Globalization Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism. Durham [U, A.] Duke Univ. Press.
Ludography
Atlus. Persona 5 Royal. Sega. PC (Steam version). 2022.