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[Dantis]

Just over a year ago, Persona 5 came out in Japan. Six months ago, it came out in the west.

I bought it on the Japanese launch and then bought it again when it came out in English. I don't know Japanese, so I fumbled through it blindly the first time through (80 hours well spent!) in a language I couldn't understand a word of, which was quite an experience.

I am quite a big fan of Persona - possibly too much - and I think my hopes and expectations couldn't really be reached, particularly with the creative direction that the game took. Even so, I really enjoyed it. Even my Japanese run, clumsy as it was, was great fun for me as a fan of the series. But six (or twelve) months later I don't know what I think. Maybe nothing? I really enjoyed playing through it, but the phantom thief stuff was cheesy and too much the focus, the story was often nonsensical, the music was repetitive and the game felt both bloated whilst also too short. I felt like Persona 3 and 4 reshuffled a lot of my opinions on games, particuarly Japanese games and reignited my interest in JRPGs, but Persona 5 was 'just' very good.

When it came out (both times), the opinion of it on GAF was extremely high. People were singing its praises with proclamations from 'best game of all time' to 'the combat is so smooth you can't tell that it's turn based'. Six months on, I wonder if people still feel that way.

So, how do you feel about Persona 5 now, GAF?

 

[NoctisVsStar]

Great game, ost was weak though outside some tracks.

A bit hard to replay due to the long prologue/tutorial.

 

[Bladenic]

It's still a great game. Would type more but eh, it has plenty of issues but remains one of the best JRPGs of the gen despite that.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Still my GotY. Listen to the soundtrack pretty regularly.

 

[Ray Down]

It's very good, still weaker than 4 despite all the improvements 5 made battle wise. and other QOL stuff.

It's cast and story are just weaker imo.

Still better than 3 though.

 

[Kaibutsu]

It might still be my favorite game of the year, warts and all. Looking back at all the great games I've played in 2017 that is the one that stuck with me the most. That being said, I doubt I will ever play it a second time...

 

[RedSwirl]

Sadly I haven't gotten to it yet. Would I even be able to complete it inside this year if I started now? On top of Prey, Death of the Outsider, Lost Legacy, Mario, and Wolfenstein II?

 

[Modest Mauser]

It didn't really have the substance to match its style.

I liked it, though.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Almost certainly my favourite Persona game, and probably GOTY for me at least.

 

[RPGCrazied]

Loved it, save one dungeon. Best 95 hours spent in a long time. Bring on P6.

 

[Danjin44]

Absolutely love it, more than P3 and P4 and If it wasn't for NieR Automata it would be my GOTY.

 

[BashNasty]

Tried pretty hard to get into it for about 10 hours, but in the end it wasn't for me. Awkward dialogue, wonky pacing and the feeling that the game was gonna waste the hell out of my time really put me off it.

 

[bobbychalkers]

Stylish as thee fuck....its a shame that none of the characters have hooked me in yet.

 

[brawly]

P4G is my second favorite game of all time. P5 got dropped 20 hours in.

It improved on P4G in a lot of ways but the characters and story really didn't grab me at all.

 

[Zukkoyaki]

Still my GOTG and one of my absolute favorite games ever. I jam to the OST at least once or twice a week. Can't wait for the spin-offs to start arriving.

 

[Kyrios]

Still my GOTY.

 

[ivanthebearable]

Great game but lots of little (fixable) issues that bring the experience down. The writing wasn’t as interesting to me as the past games in the series and the group dynamic was FAR weaker in this game. Story also started very strong and fell apart a bit towards the end.

Combat was quick and snappy and the dungeon design was great even if a lot of dungeons far overstayed their welcome. Lots of QoL improvements that may make the older games a little harder to go back to.

 

[iavi]

Amazing game that loses some of its luster in its final hours, which is always a problem in recent personas—as slinks begin to finish etc you’re left with a somewhat grindy dungeon crawler

 

[KZXcellent]

My favorite one. It's gameplay makes it really hard to go back to older Personas.

 

[bomblord1]

Great game, ost was weak though outside some tracks.

A bit hard to replay due to the long prologue/tutorial.

Take that back it was my favorite OST from the persona series.

On topic great game and ~90ish hours well spent. The super stylish design, catchy soundtrack, enjoyable battle system (that somehow didn't get old after 90 hours), (mostly) great cast, and interesting novelties absolutely pulled me and kept me hooked form beginning to end.

 

[Johndoey]

I don't think it's particularly good outside of it's art style and maybe the first 4-5 hours. Found it exceptionally dull after a point.

 

[Jeffrey]

Stylish. Cast was fairly forgettable. The confidants were more interesting imo. Story was ok. Music was great.

Just felt like a safe sequel to p4. Just wish there was a bit more... New for the amount of years since p4?

 

[Shadow Broker]

One of my running contenders for game of the year.

Loved it. Will replay soon. Not sure who to romance next though.

 

[delSai]

Huge disappointment to me. I overhyped it way too much, i'm the one to blame here.

 

[CMojicaAce]

It was my first Persona game and I loved it. Would have been my GOTY probably if not for Horizon Zero Dawn.

I've decided to purchase Persona 4 Golden because of it actually! Should be coming in the mail today.

 

[Plague Doctor]

Great game and the first of the franchise I checked out. I'll follow it from now on.

 

[JBwB]

It's still one of my GOATs alongside P4G & The Witcher 3.

 

[neoemonk]

I enjoyed it a lot, although I do feel like the formula that was established in Persona 3 is wearing a little thin.

I don't think the characters were as endearing overall as previous entries in the series.

Spoiler

I could have done without mandatory Mementos.

Love the soundtrack, and a good portion of the social links. I haven't gone back to it since I finished it, but that has a lot to do with how crazy 2017 in gaming has been. The Switch is taking up a lot of my time personally. I'd like to do a max social link run at some point in the future, but there are so many new games to play it's hard to imagine when I will have the time.

I think it was a solid entry. Mechanically it was the strongest, but I still place 3 and 4 ahead of it. Still one of my favorite games in a long time.

 

[WickedLaharl]

Great game. far better than the overrated Persona 4.

 

[paolo11]

GOtY for me this year

 

[LiK]

Still was an A+ experience.

 

[DJ_Lae]

I really liked it. Sure, some of the characters are a bit bland and the story isn't always paced well, but there are some great moments in there, the music is great, and it's more fun to play than the older Persona games (especially in dungeon design, even if that aspect peaked early on).

 

[Hydrus]

I bought it day 1 and put in over 100 hours into it and still haven't beat it. I'm pretty damn disappointed by it. It's been pretty boring. Haven't found the energy to beat it yet.

 

[Pennywise]

GOTY and among the candidates of GOTG.
Got some really tough competition though.

Great additions, great gameplay refinements after 4 and just spot on.

 

[Good Guy Gone Bad]

I feel like P5 was very underwhelming for me after I thoroughly enjoyed P4. Stylistically it was very well done but outside of that the whole thing sort of fell apart. The story wasn't really intriguing at all and the immense hand holding that seemingly went on forever sucked out any enjoyment that I could have possibly received from this game. Dropped it after I completed maybe 20 or 30 hours and never looked back.

 

[raven777]

Overall I prefer P4 over P5, but P5 is still an amazing game. There are some aspects where I prefer P5 over P4 (dungeon music, few boss music, overall dungeon design, overall style) But character and story was not as good as P4 for me.

 

[Kuni]

Just completed it last week actually. I really enjoyed it, deffo a worthy successor in the franchise.

I paused playing it for a bit around 80 hours in feeling a little burnt out. It's too padded in places, such as the dungeons being a bit too long and so on. Also the story was a little predictable in places.

But I came back to it and glad I did. It certainly met my high expectations overall. Great JRPG for folk into them.

 

[NotLiquid]

It was exactly the game I expected it to be. For better and for worse.

I feel like P6 needs to be a sea change. Waiting so many years to get a game that was ostensibly P4 but with more style/QoL changes meant the game rarely ever surprised me, and I've already had my fill of P4 after how much Atlus shoved it down our throats for the last few years. P5 was good but I'm not sure it was "7 years of waiting" good. I enjoyed it but it didn't wow me. Everything felt like I'd seen it before, from the way it plays to the way it's written.

That and in retrospect a lot of the dungeons were terrible even if not randomly generated for once. It doesn't help that the game drags an incredible amount in the second half of the game, more so than any other Persona game.

 

[Iva Demilcol]

It was my game of the year last year when I played it and it is my game of the year so far.

Visuals are amazing
Music is wonderful
Loved the characters (Except Futaba)
Gameplay is a refinement of the Persona formula, which is nice
The attention to detail is sick... like there are small animations, change of character portraits, etc. that most games don't bother to do.
The story resonated a lot with me.

It is the best game I've played this gen. There's nothing else to add.

 

[SuperBanana]

I loved it for the first 40 hours but I burned out on it. It's sooo long.

 

[Ryan_MSF]

Easiest GOTY decision i've ever had to make.

Thought the story, characters, soundtrack and visuals were just superb, and one of the only games whereby I immediately loaded up NG+ straight after finishing the game. 250 hours was my final save time, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I only really jumped into the Persona series this year, and it's officially taken over as my favourite JRPG series to date.

Persona 5 is a masterpiece.

 

[pablito]

I think it failed to capitalize on some moments, and Haru was introduced too late. However it's still so good that it maintains it's GOTY status for me.

 

[SkylineRKR]

GOTY candidate for me, game does drag at certain points but the highs are high.

 

[Maligna]

P4 was in my top three games of all time, but this one didn't grab me and I don't know why.

I stopped about 5 hours in.

 

[Gamesgbkiller]

I feel ..nothing.

I was so excited to play it but I couldn't get the chance.

 

[Makonero]

I liked it. First Persona game that I finished, which says something for the QoL improvements. The characters were fun and the plot was okay. My biggest issue was the pacing. It felt incredibly padded out and by the third-to-last dungeon I was ready for it to end. Those damn rat segments! I also feel like the villains were never as good as the first one (the gym teacher/coach).

Overall, I liked Tokyo Mirage Sessions better in pretty much every way. But Persona 5 was still a good game.

 

[Drkirby]

Solid 8/10 game. Could have likely been streamlined a tad to make it quicker to play through (Daily life stuff actually takes a shitload of time), but was enjoyable and had a few really solid songs. Entire end part was kinda odd and out of nowhere though, they build up towards a villain for 90% of the game, you defeat him, and a new relatively unrelated guy shows up. I felt they should have made the link between the two stronger, so it would feel like the entire game was building towards a single conclusion, and not two different stories ending.

 

[Ultimadrago]

Persona 5 is still the best Persona title so far. The last stretch and dungeon were pretty weak though (barring the final encounter and scenes that were fine).

The character designs/cast/Combat/Fusion mechanics are the strongest they've been yet. I still would like improvements in the Social Link quality across the board. They are still very inconsistent in that regard.

 

[neoemonk]

Another thing I really enjoyed about the game were the callbacks to SMT proper, both in gameplay and music.

 

[Strangelove77]

Still my GOTY and I doubt it'll change. Horizon is the only thing that came close.