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Persona Community Thread |OT9| SPOILER TAGS OR DIE

Lunar15

Member
Madarame's victims are actually scattered all over Tokyo. A few of the homeless guys are his students, like the guy sitting somewhere on the station square or the guy who sells you his charms. There's also Nakanohara, but I get what you mean.

Yeah, I noticed this with the homeless people. It's cool, but would have been cooler to see a bit more of. I thought there'd be more students living with Madarame.

This trend definitely continued with 3's boss. I mean, I get why they had to go after someone like that, but there's literally no personal connection at all and it makes
Makoto's
otherwise incredible awakening a bit weaker than the previous cast members. A missed opportunity.
 

Setsu00

Member
Yeah, I noticed this with the homeless people. It's cool, but would have been cooler to see a bit more of. I thought there'd be more students living with Madarame.

This trend definitely continued with 3's boss. I mean, I get why they had to go after someone like that, but there's literally no personal connection at all and it makes
Makoto's
otherwise incredible awakening a bit weaker than the previous cast members. A missed opportunity.

You do get to hear about more of his students once you reenter the Palace with Yusuke in your team. You have to check the cognitive portraits of his students in the beginning segment of Madarame's Palace.

Regarding the third Palace:
Yeah, it's definitely less personal this time. Palace 3 is pretty much my least favorite dungeon in the entire game for that reason so far, but I will remember the music and Makoto's awakening. However, I think it was cool to see how you can actually talk to Kaneshiro's underlings way before his arc starts in Shibuya.
 

Lunar15

Member
Also, I feel like the game really wants to force the word "cognition", but I'm not sure it's the right word to use in a lot of these situations. It's one of the few clunky things about the translation that's remained past the first few hours.

That said, I'm not sure what the better word would be? They keep using it in sentences like "we have to change his cognition", but it's almost like that line should be changed entirely to sound better. Maybe subconscious would work better? Worldview? I dunno, cognition just sounds weird.
 

Sophia

Member
Also, I feel like the game really wants to force the word "cognition", but I'm not sure it's the right word to use in a lot of these situations. It's one of the few clunky things about the translation that's remained past the first few hours.

That said, I'm not sure what the better word would be? They keep using it in sentences like "we have to change his cognition", but it's almost like that line should be changed entirely to sound better. Maybe subconscious would work better? Worldview? I dunno, cognition just sounds weird.

It's weird, a little bit. Because there's a specific word they use in the Japanese version regarding cognitive existences, so I presume they use that word across the Japanese version. They've basically given term to a concept that's been present since Persona 1 and seen all over the place in Persona 2, but never explicitly named.
 

Setsu00

Member
Also, I feel like the game really wants to force the word "cognition", but I'm not sure it's the right word to use in a lot of these situations. It's one of the few clunky things about the translation that's remained past the first few hours.

That said, I'm not sure what the better word would be? They keep using it in sentences like "we have to change his cognition", but it's almost like that line should be changed entirely to sound better. Maybe subconscious would work better? Worldview? I dunno, cognition just sounds weird.

Perception, maybe?
 

Lunar15

Member
It's weird, a little bit. Because there's a specific word they use in the Japanese version regarding cognitive existences, so I presume they use that word across the Japanese version. They've basically given term to a concept that's been present since Persona 1 and seen all over the place in Persona 2, but never explicitly named.

It's just weird because I'm sure it's a concept that existed in previous games, but previous translations handled it better. I feel like the japanese language sometimes revolves around single words that grow to represent a larger concept and are re-used (english does too, but I've noticed this a lot in translations of japanese works). Like, someone saying "aura", but then using "aura" to mean something incredibly specific within that story's world and keeping it in quotations for the rest of the script.

Does that make any sense?
 

Sophia

Member
It's just weird because I'm sure it's a concept that existed in previous games, but previous translations handled it better. I feel like the japanese language sometimes revolves around single words that grow to represent a larger concept and are re-used (english does too, but I've noticed this a lot in translations of japanese works). Like, someone saying "aura", but then using "aura" to mean something incredibly specific within that story's world and keeping it in quotations for the rest of the script.

Does that make any sense?

Well, the difference is that previous games didn't name the phenomenon specifically. So the translations didn't so much "handle it better" so much as they weren't naming it to begin with. I get what you mean tho by it sounding off a few times, although I don't think it's as bad as it could be.
 
Also, I feel like the game really wants to force the word "cognition", but I'm not sure it's the right word to use in a lot of these situations. It's one of the few clunky things about the translation that's remained past the first few hours.

That said, I'm not sure what the better word would be? They keep using it in sentences like "we have to change his cognition", but it's almost like that line should be changed entirely to sound better. Maybe subconscious would work better? Worldview? I dunno, cognition just sounds weird.

Not sure what y'all are talking about in relation to this, but from your example sentence, yeah that sounds pretty awkward; cognition deals more with awareness and understanding. Maybe "outlook" is what they were going for? But I imagine they wanted a word that sounded more intellectual and conceptual. I might have used something like "psyche".
 

Lynx_7

Member
Man, I decided to listen to P3 and P4's ost today and now I'm feeling super nostalgic. Signs of Love and Heartbeat, Heartbreak
(though I can never quite unhear "heartbeat, heartbeat dick keeps on pounding, heartbreak, heartbreak you tell me koopa")
specially got to me since I haven't heard them in a long time. Why won't Atlus free Golden from the Vita's cold grasp? I really want to play it :(

Save me, Switch.

Maybe I should play one of the other Atlus PS2 titles I haven't touched yet, I really love all their games vibe/atmosphere from that era. Hopefully they'll start another golden age on the PS4.
 

Setsu00

Member
Not sure what y'all are talking about in relation to this, but from your example sentence, yeah that sounds pretty awkward; cognition deals more with awareness and understanding. Maybe "outlook" is what they were going for? But I imagine they wanted a word that sounded more intellectual and conceptual. I might have used something like "psyche".

But awareness and understanding are exactly what is meant in these instances.
 

Lunar15

Member
Eh, it's not that big of a deal. Just an odd thing I noticed and wondered if I was the only one who saw something strange about it.

Overall, I haven't had any issues with the script outside of the opening hours.
 

Sophia

Member
Palace
5
is
kind of tedious so far? I haven't felt that way about any of the other dungeons, which have been fantastic.
 

Dantis

Member
Yeah, I noticed this with the homeless people. It's cool, but would have been cooler to see a bit more of. I thought there'd be more students living with Madarame.

This trend definitely continued with 3's boss. I mean, I get why they had to go after someone like that, but there's literally no personal connection at all and it makes
Makoto's
otherwise incredible awakening a bit weaker than the previous cast members. A missed opportunity.

I know it's reiterating what I've been saying for months now, but I really feel like the second half of the game felt more flat to me in part because it was less personal. I really lost interest in who the targets were and why. They just kind of come and go.

Palace
5
is
kind of tedious so far? I haven't felt that way about any of the other dungeons, which have been fantastic.

It gets better after the first section.

Also that DDS2 style music is tremendous.
 
I'm not particularly far, but one thing I like about the less personal dungeons is that the story structure is different enough to keep me interested. The story of the first dungeon is very personal, but the presentation was straight forward. I think the next dungeons are interesting because of the structure leading up to them. For example,
I liked getting strong-armed by Makoto into investigating Kaneshiro, only to have to bail her out when she went "supercop."
 

Sophia

Member
It gets better after the first section.

Also that DDS2 style music is tremendous.

I hope so.
It's definitely been a downer trying to figure out which guard is which, especially because the save point is so far away from each area, and there's two loading screens in between that cause enemies to respawn. To say nothing of the enemy who is on fire. I ran into them and basically died in one hit. >_>;
 

MudoSkills

Volcano High Alumnus (Cum Laude)
What the heck does black gear do? About to send the calling card for the 4th palace and I've picked up a black dagger, armour and a couple of accessories - which only the MC can equip, and which seem useless.

I've done a few fights wearing it all as the description says something about being transmogrified but it hasn't done anything to either the MC or to the enemies I'm fighting. I wondered if it was a rare status effect like (palace 4 spoilers)
Mot turning party members into rats
?
 
What the heck does black gear do? About to send the calling card for the 4th palace and I've picked up a black dagger, armour and a couple of accessories - which only the MC can equip, and which seem useless.

I've done a few fights wearing it all as the description says something about being transmogrified but it hasn't done anything to either the MC or to the enemies I'm fighting. I wondered if it was a rare status effect like (palace 4 spoilers)
Mot turning party members into rats
?

You can use the electric chair in the velvet room to turn certain personas into gear, you need them for that. Can't remember when it unlocks though.
 

DNAbro

Member
What the heck does black gear do? About to send the calling card for the 4th palace and I've picked up a black dagger, armour and a couple of accessories - which only the MC can equip, and which seem useless.

I've done a few fights wearing it all as the description says something about being transmogrified but it hasn't done anything to either the MC or to the enemies I'm fighting. I wondered if it was a rare status effect like (palace 4 spoilers)
Mot turning party members into rats
?

They are for transforming Personas into items. In order to transform a Persona, you need one of those items.
 

DNAbro

Member
Just finished the game around 82 hours, played on Normal. It is easily the best PS4 game

Obviously mechanically
P5 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> every other persona game
(also lets just establish this P4G > 3 in every way)


It is kind of hard to tell how I feel about the story and characters in comparison to P4G. I want to say P5 was less "emotionally resonate" than P4G. I loved Persona 5's characters but I didn't I can't say I'm going to miss them in the same way I was incredibly sad at the end of P4G.

Also I want to mention something specific about the final boss that kind of fell flat in comparison to Persona 3 (other than the music lol) and some the themes of the games
The way that the boss kept introducing the 7 Deadly Sins felt incredibly similar to how Persona 3 had the stages of the 13 arcana. Except it really didn't feel as relevant, nor as epic. When it started occurring I thought "oh yeah the palace owners are based off the Deadly Sins." But the main problem with that is Madarame, Kaneshiro, and Okumura all feel like they are motivated by money and greed. Gluttony is loosely related but, it felt like a weird themeing device that doesn't entirely fit what was presented. Like they also said Futaba's palace was wrath according to the trophy, but when they mention taking her heart it was sloth? Such a weird thing. Also having both vanity and lust, but whatever.

Presentation is obviously better as well. Story maybe. Confidants were great.

Music, I'm going to have to give that one to P4G. They really needed a daily life refresh of the music about halfway through the game.


Yusuke is best boy. Ryuji is great. Morgana >>>>>>>> Teddy. Ann was great. Makoto is great and will probably choose to date her on my 2nd playthrough. Futaba is amazing. Sojiro is up there with Dojima as "awesome video game dads" Why is Haru even here?

Let me date dudes next time. Bring on Persona 6.
 

Sophia

Member
Also I want to mention something specific about the final boss that kind of fell flat in comparison to Persona 3 (other than the music lol) and some the themes of the games
The way that the boss kept introducing the 7 Deadly Sins felt incredibly similar to how Persona 3 had the stages of the 13 arcana. Except it really didn't feel as relevant, nor as epic. When it started occurring I thought "oh yeah the palace owners are based off the Deadly Sins." But the main problem with that is Madarame, Kaneshiro, and Okumura all feel like they are motivated by money and greed. Gluttony is loosely related but, it felt like a weird themeing device that doesn't entirely fit what was presented. Like they also said Futaba's palace was wrath according to the trophy, but when they mention taking her heart it was sloth? Such a weird thing. Also having both vanity and lust, but whatever.

I don't disagree with you here, but to clarify:
Wrath was the Sphinx, Sloth was Futaba.
 
I was annoyed that Mishima (5/20) said
the Phantom Thieves would take care of the bully on his site before even asking me, and the game didn't even give me an option to tell him he screwed up. And then he told the changed heart pupil to meet me in person?? And I don't have any choice about that, either! No wonder they got caught! This group is pretty incompetent at keeping secret identities.
 
The addition of perks for every Social Link is a good one (heck I'd go so far to say it's a great addition - it certainly makes me more willing to spend time with people like Mishina), but man Devil sure drew the short end of the stick, huh. Everything else at least has some utility, but Devil is like,
"here is a thing to help with something that should never ever be an issue for you"

Also I just realized (Assorted Slink spoilers)
the reason I haven't been able to rank up Temperance yet is because I need to rank up Hierophant so I can learn to make curry in the first place. Whoops.

Mementos is dull and I would buy the DLC if it meant I could change the music there.
 
The addition of perks for every Social Link is a good one (heck I'd go so far to say it's a great addition - it certainly makes me more willing to spend time with people like Mishina), but man Devil sure drew the short end of the stick, huh. Everything else at least has some utility, but Devil is like,
"here is a thing to help with something that should never ever be an issue for you"

Also I just realized (Assorted Slink spoilers)
the reason I haven't been able to rank up Temperance yet is because I need to rank up Hierophant so I can learn to make curry in the first place. Whoops.

Mementos is dull and I would buy the DLC if it meant I could change the music there.

Yeah, kind of a shame where the only real benefit is the max-rank Persona.
 

Lunar15

Member
Told you. It's amazingly good.

Really glad I held off on listening to it. From Palace 2 onward, all the music has been fresh for me.

Price was also great, but Days When My Mother Was There is a whole new level. It's classic santana-jammin Meguro from DDS1.

As a side note: I would have swapped the exam theme (Life Goes On) with the daytime walking around theme (Tokyo Daylight).
 

Dantis

Member
Really glad I held off on listening to it. From Palace 2 onward, all the music has been fresh for me.

Price was also great, but Days When My Mother Was There is a whole new level. It's classic santana-jammin Meguro from DDS1.

As a side note: I would have swapped the exam theme (Life Goes On) with the daytime walking around theme (Tokyo Daylight).

I actually posted in here a few months ago that Life Goes On is P5's secret best track, haha.

Specialist was similarly excellent.

As a very cool aside that I've been waiting to tell everyone: Ryota Koduka's remix of Sunset Bridge busts into The Days When My Mother Was There halfway through, and I love it.
 
Does the story get better after the 2nd palace? Right now I feel a bit ambivalent about what's going on. The palace is cool, but I don't feel very invested in the story. 2nd palace story discussion:
Even the characters (aside from Ryuji) are having doubts. Finally they hear about someone who committed suicide, and that's enough for Ann, but the game doesn't even introduce this character. So there's little emotional weight for me the player. Sure this artist is bad, but I feel like I'm going through the motions. Which is not how I felt with P3. Hopefully this gets better...
 

Lunar15

Member
Does the story get better after the 2nd palace? Right now I feel a bit ambivalent about what's going on. The palace is cool, but I don't feel very invested in the story. 2nd palace story discussion:
Even the characters (aside from Ryuji) are having doubts. Finally they hear about someone who committed suicide, and that's enough for Ann, but the game doesn't even introduce this character. So there's little emotional weight for me the player. Sure this artist is bad, but I feel like I'm going through the motions. Which is not how I felt with P3. Hopefully this gets better...

Palace 3 is worse in this regard, but palace 4 is pretty interesting.

I couldn't get invested in P3 until neat the end. If there was ever a game about going through the motions, it's that one. P5 starts tremendously strong but then is a bit of a roller coaster of investment, at least as far as I've played. It helps that I am a gigantic fan of the thief angle, no matter how corny it gets.
 

Dantis

Member
The first half of P5 is the best.

The second half is definitely a YMMV situation. A lot of people seem to be loving it though.
 
Palace 3 is worse in this regard, but palace 4 is pretty interesting.

I couldn't get invested in P3 until neat the end. If there was ever a game about going through the motions, it's that one. P5 starts tremendously strong but then is a bit of a roller coaster of investment, at least as far as I've played. It helps that I am a gigantic fan of the thief angle, no matter how corny it gets.

I was invested in P3 from pretty much the start, all the way through. Even though it had some corny stuff, I got really attached to the characters, and I enjoyed the SMT-esque metaphysical narrative. It was smart, but also had a warmth to it.

I guess I'm just surprised about P5 because the first palace started so strong, and there was a heavy personal investment for the characters. At least the palaces are fun; hopefully the story will get more impactful again later.
 

Lusankya

Member
The first half of P5 is the best.

The second half is definitely a YMMV situation. A lot of people seem to be loving it though.

I really like the beginning, then it becomes a little slow with palace 2 and 3, even though I love Yusuke and Makoto as new additions to your team. With palace 4 it picks up the pace and for me delivered until the very end.

The worst thing about palace 3 is how it's neither relevant to the main plot nor has a personal connection to Makoto.
 

DNAbro

Member
As far as story goes in what is connected to the Palaces

1 > 7 > 4 > 6 > 2 > 3 > 5


Gameplay wise
6 > 4 > 2 > 1 > 7 > 3 >>>>> 5

Mind you, I still liked Palace 5 but I also got extremely lucky and got every puzzle on my first try,
even guessing which bosses for the first part

The whole entire palace 5 is weak due to motivations surrounding it and how
Haru
adds very very little to group dynamic, though it was necessary to set up later things.

I actually posted in here a few months ago that Life Goes On is P5's secret best track, haha.

Specialist was similarly excellent.

As a very cool aside that I've been waiting to tell everyone: Ryota Koduka's remix of Sunset Bridge busts into The Days When My Mother Was There halfway through, and I love it.

This is the first Persona game I've played where a ton of official remixes weren't available at immediately after playing. I want P5DAN or whatever to come out so I get more P5 music. Or just please announce a Reincarnation album.
 
I really like the beginning, then it becomes a little slow with palace 2 and 3, even though I love...

Uh...maybe everyone else already knew about those party additions, but that was a kind of a spoiler for me. :/

edit: Not blaming you, I know the OT lists the entire party, I had to scroll past that quickly. And I just saw even the manual lists the entire party -- I don't know why Atlus would want to spoil those surprises.
 

Lusankya

Member
Uh...maybe everyone else already knew about those party additions, but that was a kind of a spoiler for me. :/
edit: Not blaming you per se, I know the OT lists the entire party, I had to scroll past that quickly.


It's also in accordance with the rules of this community thread so I didn't think anything about that.

Also how exactly is that even a spoiler? When you don't know anything about the game then I fail to see how names without pictures are spoilers? Although the game doesn't even try to hide them as they're all depicted on the box art and the image when you start the game.

Edit: Atlus isn't trying to spoil anything. The party characters simply are not surprises. Trust me, when you first meet Yusuke you will know immediately that he's your next new party member. I mean you already learned the drill with Ann and Ryuji.
 
It's also in accordance with the rules of this community thread so I didn't think anything about that.

Also how exactly is that even a spoiler? When you don't know anything about the game then I fail to see how names without pictures are spoilers? Although the game doesn't even try to hide them as they're all depicted on the box art and the image when you start the game.

Edit: Atlus isn't trying to spoil anything. The party characters simply are not surprises. Trust me, when you first meet Yusuke you will know immediately that he's your next new party member. I mean you already learned the drill with Ann and Ryuji.

I've met both of those characters where I'm at in the game and didn't think either one would turn out to be a party member, although I suspected Yusuke would simply because I could tell that was Matt Mercer's voice right away and knew he voiced one of the party.

Seeing who joins the party is a nice surprise for me, as it was in P3. If you don't think so that's fine, but it is for me. I think I should probably just stay out of all Persona threads until I'm done with the game though, as I seem to have different spoiler standards than others.
 

Lunar15

Member
I really like the portraits of your Confidants in the menu. Having them back to back with Joker is a nice touch. The art for those portraits is real nice too.
 
I've met both of those characters where I'm at in the game and didn't think either one would turn out to be a party member, although I suspected Yusuke would simply because I could tell that was Matt Mercer's voice right away and knew he voiced one of the party.

Seeing who joins the party is a nice surprise for me, as it was in P3. If you don't think so that's fine, but it is for me. I think I should probably just stay out of all Persona threads until I'm done with the game though, as I seem to have different spoiler standards than others.
They're fair game considering they have been openly shown to be members during prerelease, but specifying what point in the game you get them should probably be spoilered tbh.
 
Every dungeon does a lot for me on an aesthetic and atmospheric level but it's hard for me to explain it...

It felt nice to see
Isis, Thoth, and Anubis
in the fourth palace.

Also that DDS2 style music is tremendous.

I thought this too! It reminded me of the factory.

Palace 4's theme is so good, it already sounds like its own reincarnation version.

Definitely my favorite track.
 

Lunar15

Member
As I said in the main thread, Palace 4 is basically doing what P4's dungeons tried to do but didn't have the budget for. It's taking the narrative and implementing it directly into the dungeon design.

Also, one thing I like about P5 is that, while there's no overarching mythology like with 3 and 4, the fact that there's SMT demons means that each dungeon itself can have a specific mythology that ties to the narrative.
 

Plasma

Banned
The first half of P5 is the best.

The second half is definitely a YMMV situation. A lot of people seem to be loving it though.

It's kind of crazy because the game took me 87 hours to complete but I wish it was a bit longer I'm not a fan of the end where it
skips ahead a bunch of time. I know Persona 4 did this as well but it's something they addressed for Golden filling in some of those gaps. I just don't like how they say they're going to give you a whole year and then cut it short by a few months.
 

jzbluz

Member
I really wish I hadn't spoiled myself silly when the JP version leaked and then read a bunch of different opinions since now I can't take the game seriously. But I really do like the characters even though Ryuji borders on being tstl.

It's kind of crazy because the game took me 87 hours to complete but I wish it was a bit longer I'm not a fan of the end where it
skips ahead a bunch of time. I know Persona 4 did this as well but it's something they addressed for Golden filling in some of those gaps. I just don't like how they say they're going to give you a whole year and then cut it short by a few months.

They have to leave something for the eventual rerelease.
 
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