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Persona 5 came out in the west six months ago. How do you feel about it now?
- Thread starter Dantis
- Start date
A standout modern JRPG and worthy entry to the series, with some caveats. Feeling it a little less now than I did right after finishing to be honest, while the opposite was the case with P4 over time. The formula is less novel three games in, so diminishing returns and all that. Plus the cast hasn't really stuck with me as much. Still really fuck with the soundtrack though.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Really loved it. I wouldn't mind an extra-content version ala P3 FES.
Good game. But I think it truly exposed the limitations of the current Persona system. You have social links that require 10 levels, but in-between 1 and 10 is a bunch of fluff events of little consequence. You have big dungeons but not the gameplay depth to support them being that large. The battle system is solid and serviceable, but several of the party members are so far ahead of the rest with their unlocks that it can feel unfair. The story had a great premise, but often lacked intrigue and spent too much time on character introductions.
Ultimately a good game... but in desperate need of a cleanup and refocusing.
Ultimately a good game... but in desperate need of a cleanup and refocusing.
Hippopuncher12
Member
Gave up about halfway through I believe? I just couldn't get into it. I will probably return to it at some point and try again however.
Augemitbutter
Member
it was a great ride. i was mesmerized for weeks. needs more hard mode challenges and trophies for them though. maybe next update or next game.
JP VA all the way, finally. it took them long enough.
JP VA all the way, finally. it took them long enough.
Considering that pacing is such a pervasive criticism of the game, it would be interesting to know how people would fix that.
For me, I'd start with three major points:
-Remove all cell phone chats where they restate the last conversation the group had in public. These are bizarre, and utterly frustrating, and happen constantly.
-Remove Haru's chapter. Sorry Haru, I liked you a lot, but at that stage of the story it's too late to be doing 'just another character recruitment episode'. This would take 15 hours off the game, which would make a huge difference.
-Remove Mementos entirely, or relegate it to post-game. There's nothing fun or interesting in the side-quests down there, it's all filler content. It would be appropriate to be in post-game to give people who are finished the game something to do, but when you're trying to progress the story Mementos was a boring, low-effort slog.
For me, I'd start with three major points:
-Remove all cell phone chats where they restate the last conversation the group had in public. These are bizarre, and utterly frustrating, and happen constantly.
-Remove Haru's chapter. Sorry Haru, I liked you a lot, but at that stage of the story it's too late to be doing 'just another character recruitment episode'. This would take 15 hours off the game, which would make a huge difference.
-Remove Mementos entirely, or relegate it to post-game. There's nothing fun or interesting in the side-quests down there, it's all filler content. It would be appropriate to be in post-game to give people who are finished the game something to do, but when you're trying to progress the story Mementos was a boring, low-effort slog.
AzureFlame
Member
10/10 GOAT.
Heckler456
Banned
Still haven't finished it. The same thing happened with Golden actually, where the remaining 20-30 hours of gameplay kinda dragged on for a year or so.
In my case, I preferred Ryuji over Hanamura. That prick is always out of my party as soon as Kanji joins. Same Teddie; people complain about Mona but at least he wasn't annoying as that stupid bear (unless he forces you to sleep. Why does Joker have to obey that cat?)
Ann was boring, I have to admit. Haru the same; she joined too late and the writers didn't decide if she was meant to be the sweet polite girl or secretly wanted to kill all shadows. Personally I would have loved that hidden facet to be expanded more. And Yusuke... well, he wasn't remarkable at all.
Only memorable party members for me were Makoto and Futaba. And of course, Joker. Of the three modern male protagonists, Joker is my favorite.
Also Atlus, why all the female confidants needed to have a romance subplot? Futaba felt out of place, considering they wanted to paint Joker and Futaba having a sibling relationship. And while I love Kawakami, her romance was also out of place.
Like i greatly prefer how the trope in p4 of the characters facing themselves and accepting irreconcilable personal attributes was enacted compared to how the "take revenge on the world and the ppl who built it" thing was enacted, but it might be that the latter is more dear to me and it pretty much fell flat.
Oh, I forgot to mention the battle system.
I was generally pretty into it (again, I never had to care about SP) but by the end I found it draining. Physical crits became the only way to really deal any damage. I much preferred Tokyo Mirage Sessions' combat, which beyond being focused on chaining both physical and magical weaknesses, made me actually use buffs and such in a way that made me feel smart and that I understood the game when I pulled things off.
I was generally pretty into it (again, I never had to care about SP) but by the end I found it draining. Physical crits became the only way to really deal any damage. I much preferred Tokyo Mirage Sessions' combat, which beyond being focused on chaining both physical and magical weaknesses, made me actually use buffs and such in a way that made me feel smart and that I understood the game when I pulled things off.
These arrogant time-traveling Persona 7 fans need to get over themselves. Go back to your own time, freeloaders.
formasymphonic
Member
I'm gonna warn you that at only 20-hours in. its probably best if you don't spend too much time in a "6-month retrospective" thread. I was literally about to typed a bunch of untagged spoilers and I'm gonna assume some others have/will as well.
stay blind on future events and enjoy the game
Post game isn't a thing in Persona. There is a hard time limit dead line.
Mementos shouldve just been an optional super dungeon. I loved it, but
knowing that the end forces you through it's final floor anyway made it flacid.
Also There is only one point where you're really forced to do mementos for story. 99% of the game it CAN be ignored
Dead End Irony
Member
Still got a lot of love for it. I spent 3/4 of the game thinking 'this is my favorite game ever' and the last 1/4 feeling let down. Ending stretch felt rushed. Music variety was lacking (needed more vocal tracks and boss music).
AgentLampshade
Member
Great game. Cast design and gameplay was top tier and the story was good enough to keep my interest, though due to the more societal (Japan specifically) theme, it didn't quite hit the highs of the more individual focused Persona 4. Hearing people voiced by adults complain about 'rotten adults' took me out of the scene instantly too - the only real localization qualm I have.
I'm disappointed the cast never really got any down time. It was Phantom Thieves all the time, at one point you even get to berate Mishima about it. It's this aspect the game should have borrowed more from Persona 4. I want my school campouts and goofy fun in the school trip hotel. The post palace celebrations were the perfect times for this, but they were as fun as a wet fart.
The music needed more variety. Behind the Mask and Mementos will haunt me 'til my dying day. Also voices. WAY too many unvoiced scenes.
It's not quite my GOTY (Nier takes that spot) but it's up there as my number 2, despite my gripes with it.
I'm disappointed the cast never really got any down time. It was Phantom Thieves all the time, at one point you even get to berate Mishima about it. It's this aspect the game should have borrowed more from Persona 4. I want my school campouts and goofy fun in the school trip hotel. The post palace celebrations were the perfect times for this, but they were as fun as a wet fart.
The music needed more variety. Behind the Mask and Mementos will haunt me 'til my dying day. Also voices. WAY too many unvoiced scenes.
It's not quite my GOTY (Nier takes that spot) but it's up there as my number 2, despite my gripes with it.
ArtificialIntelligence
Member
I'm still waiting for the PC version.... C'mon Atlus !
30 hours in, on the 3rd palace, felt long, stopped dead in my tracks. I'll get back to it soon, I hope. Love the presentation (some of the best I've ever seen), but it's still just Persona, which isn't a bad thing, but I don't think it brings enough new things to the table besides the gorgeous wrapper. And I just don't like the characters as much as I did in P4 and especially P3.
Buddy Mcpuddy
Member
Im 50 hours in and I havent picked it up in months. Its got the usual pacing problems of a Persona game.
What really kills it for me is the fact it isnt on a handheld.
What really kills it for me is the fact it isnt on a handheld.
Dwight Schrute
Member
Absolutely adore it. The culmination of the formula introduced in p3.
Personally, I loved Mementos if only 'cause it fixes something that I actually criticize the main story: The lack of character interaction. Mementos is where a lot of dialog and bicker between the characters happen and they feel like real friends instead of NPCs that only happen to exist when MC is around.
My name is based on the game "Killer7" and is not related to the Persona series in any way.
AgentLampshade
Member
Until you open a door or spot a treasure chest.
Dead End Irony
Member
Let's hope it actually happens and they bring the heat with it. The hope for a "Golden" Persona 5 prevented me from finishing NG+ lol.
Another thing i disliked is that what the p thieves basically do is force ppl to go "oh...i got brainwashed to think i was wrong...my bad..." and, even if not posited explicitly, the idea that all it takes is regime change instead of deep systemic change is pretty embedded into this game. Soured the game a decent amount for me, but it's still at least an 8 to me if p4 was like an 8.5
poodaddy
Member
It went a little too far in the fan service of literal children for my taste. My wife's a huge fan of the series, and as such I always end up purchasing every new entry for her, and even she found the portrayal of that blonde girl to be kind of gross. Game seems like it's made with a ton of love though, that's for sure. If Atlas made a Persona that was focused more on adult characters rather than teenagers and tried to display female characters as more than just tropes, trophies, and fan service then I think I could get into the series.
It's my GOTY so far and probably my favourite Persona game. A personal classic for sure.
I genuinely didn't have any major gripes with it. Loved the cast and the social life stuff, as I have with every Persona, but now the dungeon crawling gameplay is basically just as interesting as the social sim. That wasn't always the case for me in past Personas.
I genuinely didn't have any major gripes with it. Loved the cast and the social life stuff, as I have with every Persona, but now the dungeon crawling gameplay is basically just as interesting as the social sim. That wasn't always the case for me in past Personas.
XANDER CAGE
Member
Mixed. It's definitely my least favorite of the "nu-Persona" games.
I think ultimately they failed to deliver on the "darker, more serious" story that they promised and many Japanese-speaking fans on Twitter etc were hyping people up about. While the story contains some more explicit elements than the previous games, the tone is still silly enough and the writing still corny enough to just make that stuff feel incongruous and bad. How much of that is the original script's fault and how much is the localization's fault I don't know, but I can only comment on what I experienced.
Ultimately for all its aspirations and insistence that it was going to tackle more serious issues, the plot itself is just straight up stupid, and worse: it treats the audience like idiots by constantly dropping "hints" at twists that may as well have big animated arrows pointed to them. It'll bounce so rapidly between ideals that it's hard to get a read on what the story is actually trying to say; for example,
.
I also just did not enjoy the dungeons after the first two. The bank was a chore, both aesthetically and to play. Futaba's was particularly egregiously un-fun. I barely remember the rest; at that point I was basically pushing forward just to see the ending.
Also this is a minor thing, but: people joke about Morgana not letting you have any fun, but I honestly think that was a big problem. The story is so tightly controlled that a character has to sit there with a goofy grin telling you "nope, it's cutscene time after this dude" and that sucks. It's not that P3 and P4 didn't block you off like this, but personifying it just highlighted it.
I walked away from P5 frustrated with its story and presentation. I still enjoyed it, mind, but I definitely feel it's the lesser out of 3, 4, and 5.
I think ultimately they failed to deliver on the "darker, more serious" story that they promised and many Japanese-speaking fans on Twitter etc were hyping people up about. While the story contains some more explicit elements than the previous games, the tone is still silly enough and the writing still corny enough to just make that stuff feel incongruous and bad. How much of that is the original script's fault and how much is the localization's fault I don't know, but I can only comment on what I experienced.
Ultimately for all its aspirations and insistence that it was going to tackle more serious issues, the plot itself is just straight up stupid, and worse: it treats the audience like idiots by constantly dropping "hints" at twists that may as well have big animated arrows pointed to them. It'll bounce so rapidly between ideals that it's hard to get a read on what the story is actually trying to say; for example,
Kamoshida's objectification of Anne is played deadly seriously, until Ryuji doing the same thing to her is played for laughs - and don't even get me started on Yusuke's introduction, in which being a huge creep is just a big joke I guess, even though that dungeon's whole arc is about an artist exploiting his followers and is Very Serious
I also just did not enjoy the dungeons after the first two. The bank was a chore, both aesthetically and to play. Futaba's was particularly egregiously un-fun. I barely remember the rest; at that point I was basically pushing forward just to see the ending.
Also this is a minor thing, but: people joke about Morgana not letting you have any fun, but I honestly think that was a big problem. The story is so tightly controlled that a character has to sit there with a goofy grin telling you "nope, it's cutscene time after this dude" and that sucks. It's not that P3 and P4 didn't block you off like this, but personifying it just highlighted it.
I walked away from P5 frustrated with its story and presentation. I still enjoyed it, mind, but I definitely feel it's the lesser out of 3, 4, and 5.
The soundtrack is okay. There's some great stuff in there, but for the most part I want someone to forcibly break into Meguro's office and delete his Hammond organ plugins and leave him some guitar pedals
True lol I walked in circles waiting for the dialog to end before opening a chest
Iva Demilcol
Member
VendettaRed07
Member
As great as it is, it isn't Persona 4 or even 3 to me. So even though I rate it really highly, it's hard for me not to be a bit disappointed.
The narrative choices really brought it down for me. The lack of a strong over arching "mystery" that is consistently present throughout the game made me feel like I wasn't doing anything interesting for large blocks of time.
What sucks is that they HAD all the elements in places for an interesting mystery like the previous games, but they just don't focus on it at all or the elements are severely downplayd.
The popularity of the phantom theives wasn't interesting. Like, I just don't care what people are saying about them on social media. And that bleeds throughout the entire game too.
ALmost every random person you talk to in it says something generic and boring about the phatom thieves. It's all anyone talks about and it was such a drag. I felt like in the previous personas talking to people and exploring was more interesting because you never quite knew what you would stumble upon. Instead what we get is random NPC saying some variation of "The phantom thieves... Do you know them! Wow! are they heroes?... or are they villains!!?!?" 5000 times
I really hope we get a FES version that changes the narrative up a bit if that's even possible. Or at least the next game, whenever that does come out realizes the mistakes they made with this one.
The narrative choices really brought it down for me. The lack of a strong over arching "mystery" that is consistently present throughout the game made me feel like I wasn't doing anything interesting for large blocks of time.
What sucks is that they HAD all the elements in places for an interesting mystery like the previous games, but they just don't focus on it at all or the elements are severely downplayd.
The popularity of the phantom theives wasn't interesting. Like, I just don't care what people are saying about them on social media. And that bleeds throughout the entire game too.
ALmost every random person you talk to in it says something generic and boring about the phatom thieves. It's all anyone talks about and it was such a drag. I felt like in the previous personas talking to people and exploring was more interesting because you never quite knew what you would stumble upon. Instead what we get is random NPC saying some variation of "The phantom thieves... Do you know them! Wow! are they heroes?... or are they villains!!?!?" 5000 times
I really hope we get a FES version that changes the narrative up a bit if that's even possible. Or at least the next game, whenever that does come out realizes the mistakes they made with this one.
ClearMetal
Member
Love it. My GOTY so far. I've been wanting to do a NG+ playthrough for a while now, but I managed to resist the temptation so I can start it tomorrow, on its six month anniversary. Hype level isn't as big as it was before the original release, of course, but I've really been looking forward to it.
The game is not without its faults, of course. The gameplay is top-notch, even if the dungeons can still drag on a bit. The writing was questionable at times. I have a high tolerance for fanservice and anime tropes, but Yuzuke's introduction could've been handled a lot better given everything that happened to Ann and the other characters just prior. September as a whole also felt weak, which is especially noticeable because August and, later, November were absolutely fantastic.
I would say P4 is still my favorite, but that could be because I spent so many hours in Inaba and with the main characters by now that I legitimately regard the setting as, well, sort of a second home by now. As corny as that may sound.
P3, in comparison, is the best game I never want to play again. It was great, but near the end the atmosphere and story of the game started to weigh on me. The ending was the final nail in the coffin in that regard. It's a great game and I liked it, but I don't know if I enjoyed it. If that makes sense.
As this point, I would rate the games like this:
4 => 5 >> 3
The game is not without its faults, of course. The gameplay is top-notch, even if the dungeons can still drag on a bit. The writing was questionable at times. I have a high tolerance for fanservice and anime tropes, but Yuzuke's introduction could've been handled a lot better given everything that happened to Ann and the other characters just prior. September as a whole also felt weak, which is especially noticeable because August and, later, November were absolutely fantastic.
I would say P4 is still my favorite, but that could be because I spent so many hours in Inaba and with the main characters by now that I legitimately regard the setting as, well, sort of a second home by now. As corny as that may sound.
P3, in comparison, is the best game I never want to play again. It was great, but near the end the atmosphere and story of the game started to weigh on me. The ending was the final nail in the coffin in that regard. It's a great game and I liked it, but I don't know if I enjoyed it. If that makes sense.
As this point, I would rate the games like this:
4 => 5 >> 3
StriKeVillain
Banned
Im around 80 hours in and its my GOTY.
Im probably a bit biased because I visited Tokyo for the first time in the middle of my playthrough but damn if the game doesnt resonate deeply with me.
Im probably a bit biased because I visited Tokyo for the first time in the middle of my playthrough but damn if the game doesnt resonate deeply with me.
I find it disappointing that not even that long after the game came out, people were already very much anticipating one to come along and solve mostly everything.
The Last Wizard
Member
I enjoyed it but Im indifferent now. It took way too long to release and the pacing was horrible after Futabas dungeon.