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Persona 5 came out in the west six months ago. How do you feel about it now?

Still working on it at 80 hrs. I like it but sometimes the story goes overboard with repeating things that have already been said and there's definitely a lack of subtlety. Everything seems to be spelled out for you.
 

BLCKATK

Member
A truly incredible game even with its flaws. I've been so happy with the entire Persona series as a whole and this is no different. The art style, the battle system and stellar voice acting in both regions makes it a killer jrpg. Even if it could be believed that isn't as good as one of the previous games, the truth of the matter is it's still a fantastic game.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Let me put it this way:

This is a 50+ Hour JRPG that I played twice in a row.


Yeah.
Same. I played new game + right after I finished it. I loved both P3&4 but for me P5 was much better game both in story/character and gameplay.
 
Great game, but in retrospect it definitely shows its development troubles given some of the weird story issues (Haru?) and gameplay quirks.

It also magnified the limitations of the Persona structure, especially in regards to how the dungeons were handled. If/when P6 is made they majorly need to mix up the formula.

Overly ambitious is probably a good word to use to describe P5.
 

kamineko

Does his best thinking in the flying car
About the same. The gameplay refinements make it the most mechanically enjoyable in the series, without question.

However, despite a cool premise, the characters were my least favorite in the entire franchise, and the gay sexual predator joke is like 80s sitcom tier shit. Combined with the disabled screenshot thing, it just felt like Atlus is not yet up to the challenge of a globally significant IP commensurate with the success and stature that fans (like me, like us) have given Persona.

Amazing and disappointing at the same time. Will make my GOTY list, but Atlus needs so do some soul-searching regarding dumb, provincial humor and disabling system-wide features.

Don't regret my "Take Your Heart Edition" though

3 remains my favorite, then 4.
 

Mesoian

Member
Still top 5 of the year. Wish the writing for the overall plot was a little stronger and I feel the attention taken away from the main cast in order to focus on the villains didn't work out as well as they thought it would.

But it was an amazing game. GOTY material to be sure.
 

wrowa

Member
Still working on it at 80 hrs. I like it but sometimes the story goes overboard with repeating things that have already been said and there's definitely a lack of subtlety. Everything seems to be spelled out for you.

Gotta love those text messages that repeat in great detail what’s been said just a minute earlier.
 

traveler

Not Wario
Great game. Not my goty or runner up due to how incredible this year is, but it will definitely make the list.

-Still think the combat needs more depth or variation to support the sheer number of hours you spend with it, but it's a great foundation and the much improved level design kept dungeons engaging.
-I do think they should introduce more mandatory breaks in dungeons in the future- something they only do a couple/handful of times here- both to keep the pacing going strong with some out of dungeon shenanigans breaking it up and to allow higher difficulty players the chance to max out their social links without having to find some exploit to abuse or grind like to complete their dungeons in a single day.
-I think the soundtrack was every bit as good as Persona 4's, in a completely different way. Life Will Change is the get hype track of the generation.
-Story was far more engaging than 4's to me, but the cast not quite as good/fun to hangout with as 4's. They fit 5's narrative better than 4's would have, though, so it's alright in the end. They still need to incorporate character growth from social links into the story itself better, though, and, FFS, can we get 21st century treatment of LGBT folks and women?
-Both the game and narrative drag a bit post palace 6 revelations. I know they want to work in a mythological twist somehow- and the twist itself was pretty cool- but they need to find a more organic way to sync it into the preceding events and really tighten up the concluding arc so the game doesn't feel super drawn out. There were 3 dungeons I assumed were the final dungeon each time I made it to them.
-Re:pacing and above posts- yes! There has to be at least 4+ hours in this game wasted on repeating information in texts/cutscenes/dialogue as well as doubling down on every concept to make sure it's hammered home to even the densest player. There's no need for that at all.

I think it's an improvement over 4, by and large, but there's still plenty of room to improve for the next one. I discovered Persona last year and spent a lot of time playing 4 Golden leading up to 5's release, so this will be the first gap I have to endure and I'm not looking forward to the long wait for P6. Just hope it's worth it at the end.
 
I got it at US launch and I like the game, but I haven't finished it. I think I lost momentum somewhere around 100 hours, in what was the longest palace so far. To be fair, I also had a lot of bigger things going on this summer like getting married and going on honeymoon.

After that I played a few more hours, but haven't been back consistently.
 
I've had it on the shelf for about a month. After about 70 hours of some great moments and some tedious ones, I'm at a point in the game that I'm really not enjoying, which is the
outer space
dungeon.

I'm taking a break from Persona 5 right now and enjoying playing other games now. Maybe when I have a lapse in my schedule with other games, I'll go back to it. However, while I was fully engrossed with Persona 4 the entire way through, which is maybe because it was my first Persona game, I'm feeling very hot and cold about the story, characters and dungeons of Persona 5.
 

JCX

Member
Still my game of the year.

The fourth palace touched me emotionally more than any other game has.
 
shitload better than P3, but doesnt quite reach the highs of P4 despite the much more fluid gameplay and excellent dungeon design.

Probably game of the year, but having a hard time deciding with Nier Automata in the mix.
 

fbutron

Member
Fantástic game still playing it (on the seven castle) the only slow part was the summer time

GOTY for me, will I still waiting for GT Sport ¡!
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
Pretty disappointing. Played for about ~50 hours and dropped it and never returned.

Characters and plot were just not very good at all and became very tiring. Certain gameplay changes, specifically your free time or lack there of, felt quite bad and regressive. It was a beautiful game, with an interesting premise and solid gameplay mechanics that just didn't do anything interesting or worthwhile with it.
 

Pilgrimzero

Member
Got passed the first castle. Found it slow and linear, but fun. If I had more time (or if it was mobile) I’d probably still be playing it. As is I just don’t have the time to put toward such a game.

Traded it in towards Mario Rabbids.
 

Clockwork5

Member
I'm about 20 hours in and I'm really enjoying it.

I'm not a super fan of the Persona series or anything but I've enjoyed 5 as much as any of the others. Expecting myself to be ready for it to be over about the time it begins to wind up.
 

darknil

Member
Great game, one of my GOTYs, I listen to the OST frequently.

I'm just sour that I don't have any screenshots of my playthrough, I like to check even the trophy screenshots on games from time to time but Atlus just made a mess on that front.
 

zulux21

Member
Still leading for my GOTY followed behind by Horizon.

Horizon still has the DLC next month to try to make a push, but it's quite a ways behind.
 

BouncyFrag

Member
Loved it. It got me into the Persona games and jrpgs in general causing me to get a Vita which is now one of my favorite gaming platforms. No Persona 5 and I'd probably never end up doing that.

The game got long at the end but the payoff was worth it.
 

Euphony

Banned
I loved playing through it even if I felt that it dragged on a bit too much near the end. Despite all the improved gameplay and streamlining though I still prefer Persona 3 and 4, partly due to the lack of a satisfying conclusion in 5.
 

Hindl

Member
It's got some problems, especially in the back end, but it's still a fantastic game and deserving of the praise
 
It’s not bad, but it doesn’t reach the hights of Persona 4 Golden.
It feels like it needs more content while being too long which is an odd feeling.
There’s too much “dungeon” and not enough social links making the game fall flat.
Maybe if it was shorter I’d appreciate it more, but it’s way too demanding for the little I got out of my first playthrough.
There’s so much put into multiple playthroughs that making the game 100 hours long is nuts.

Dungeons themselves are both an upgrade and a downgrade. They’re visually more appealing and have actual design put into them, but none of that is any good. Dungeon crawling overstays its welcome fast.

Also find some sexualizing high schoolers to be troubling.
Hope Persona 6 can change to early college life which should achieve the same effect (guy moving out of their home town and meeting new people) while not being so gross (old teachers dating children)
 
It was mechanically better and nicer looking than 4, but weaker in the story and character department. Every party member in P4 was enjoyable (even Teddie, don't @ me), while I only really found myself liking Makoto and I guess Futaba in P5. I appreciate that it tried to deal with more serious and bigger themes, but it swung and missed on a couple of parts.

Still a great game, but now I just want a P4G remake in the P5 engine.

If this were any other year, it'd be in my Top 5 games of the year. Now it will probably end up in the bottom half of my Top 10, if at all.
 

edgefusion

Member
I bought it a few days ago and am making my way through it now. Overall I prefer P3/4 but they do some cool stuff with the gameplay and the story is intriguing conceptually.

Having said that, the gay predator stuff is absolutely repugnant and if'd known about it before I bought the game I never would have. Vile, shameful, medieval thinking. A game that is so blatant with its homophobia shouldn't be anyone's GOTY imo, it doesn't deserve that title.
 
GOTY

It ain't perfect, but I can forgive a few (mostly storytelling) flaws in a linear, constantly forward-moving 80+ hour game. Greatest UI and style I've ever seen. Music is ace. Progression comes from everywhere like woah. So many game mechanics (ambushes, hold ups) and palace environments playing into the thief theme is brilliant. Few other games are so thematically cohesive and badass. Combat is snappy and satisfying. Atlus somehow turned JRPG bosses into setpiece moments. Was super depressed when it ended.

PERSOOONA
 

Hillock

Neo Member
I loved P4 but P5 just blew it out the water for me personally.
I can definitely understand people's criticisms of P5; the prologue is far too long and some of the story beats are stretched too.

But still, top 3 of the year for me along with Zelda and Nier for me. It's been a great year for gaming and Persona still stands out.
 
p5 was mechanically, aesthetically, and musically exceptional, but overlong. Characters did not gel the way they did in p4. I would kill for an 8-4 localization
 

Zalman

Member
My second favorite game this year after Zelda. I still listen to the soundtrack regularly.

I will say it didn't hit me the same way as P4G did. That game remains my favorite in the series. That said, I did appreciate many of the improvements P5 made. It definitely got long in the tooth by the end though.
 
Loved it. Better than 4 despite that game's existence somehow hampering the enjoyment of 5 for many here. Probably my game of the year.

That said, it certainly isn't perfect. The section of the game around Palace 5 is pretty damn weak. I really wish there was a bit less Phantom Thieves talk 24/7 and a bit more teens being teens. Oh well. Looking forward to an eventual second playthrough where I think I will enjoy it more without the pressure.

At the very least Persona continues to be a series JRPG developers should be taking further influences from, if not developers in general. Persona Team is so good shaping all aspects of their game around its theme and the way P5's mechanics influences daily life and vice versa is so smart.
 
GOTY easily. Possibly even GOTG.

An absolutely unbelievable experience. I still vividly remember the final day in game and the utter feeling of heartbreak of knowing the game was coming to an end. That to me is something that transcends from being just a video game.
 
Working on it at 40 hours, but as a game, I like it far more than I liked Persona 4 (which I dropped in the 2nd dungeon), and it's a generally great game with a heck of a lot of style. However, the story so far kind of peaked at the very first act, and hasn't quite reached those same heights in the rest of the time that I've played it.
 

dcassell

Banned
First 50 hours: 7/10

Last 40 hours: 10/10

I played the first 5/8 over the course of several months, and the second I hit a certain point, I sped through the rest in a week. Loved it. Soundtrack wasn't as good as 3 or 4 though.
 
Still haven't played it, still want to play it.

It's great to hear so many people still feeling good about it. I'm a little disappointed to hear some claims that it's not as good as P4 though. I loved P4.

I'm kind of holding out for a P5: Golden version that fixes a few of its issues. If that never comes though, I'll play the base game eventually.
 
The best Persona game by a pretty large margin. The gameplay and level design is the best its ever been, the game looks gorgeous, has a great soundtrack, and just feels good to play all around. Biggest weaknesses were the spotty translation and the story pacing being too slow and plodding, but those didn't mar the awesome gameplay experience.
 
Persona 3 and (especially) 4 themes are universal.

Persona 5 themes aren't. Much of the issues brought by the game are, if not exclusive, much more prominent in Japanese culture than in the West.

Which doesn't mean the game is bad. It probably is the best out of the Hashino games (P3 to 5) overall, but it's the most Japanese too.

Hearing a friend of mine that took part in an student exchange program in Japan and lived there for a year talking about her experience showed me how on point the game was in a lot of stuff that felt quite unbelievable at first.

Yeah, many people really underestimate how much this game is about Japan. Both in the import OT and in the Spoiler thread many people came in saying some villains and situations weren't as believable as the first arc, but the reality is that even the story of some of your SLs in the game has appeared on newspapers in Japan in recent years.
 

Griss

Member
It was a huge disappointment after Persona 4.

The story was poor after a strong beginning. This weakness was mostly due to the episodic nature of the game, but the villains were appalling and the ending was typical JRPG abstract rubbish. There was a lack of character development, and most importantly a strange lack of the strong group dynamics that had been present in Persona 4. The entire calendar system felt more restrictive than ever, and really felt like a mechanic without a reason in this game. Each episode had a blatantly stupid reason for implementing the deadline and it wasn't like you actually spent that much time at school in this one. As for soul links, they hadn't progressed in complexity or function at all since P4 which was disappointing. It's past time to wrap those side stories into the main story in some way to make them meaningful.

The game was poorly paced - especially in terms of dungeon length and having to leave and go back to each one for story reasons. Adding the randomly generated dungeon on top of that was a huge mistake, and just padded the game beyond reasonable limits.

The characters weren't particularly interesting or likeable, and having a mute MC continues to absolutely gut the emotional weight of the story and the readability of the dialogue. Part of the problem here was that the localisation fell way short of what you'd expect from an AAA title - in particular the group chats on the phones were awful, never felt real and dragged on forever. Contrast to Tokyo Mirage Sessions where the same idea is executed to perfection. In P5 none of the dialogue, written or spoken flowed at all. It was a shame.

The gameplay was typical press turn SMT stuff - which is to say it was only of any interest during boss battles. I'm not a fan of that system at all.

Ultimately, I felt like I wasted my time.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Great JRPG, but it's not gonna be the sea change game I think many thought it might be.

It's still the best JRPG this generation though.
 
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