Persona 5's story was really bad. Given that Persona 3 had a better story than Persona 4 which had a better story than Persona 5 I'm beginning to worry that this is a conscious decision on Atlus's part to appeal to a broader (and stupider) audience.
This is very likely the case. After P4 came out, I remember Hashino saying something along the lines of him wanting to improve the gameplay so that the franchise became more accessible for everyone. This is already reflected even in P4 -- which is NOT a bad thing, might I clarify -- when you compare it with P3; P4 is much more narratively simple with just a group of friends trying to solve a mystery (although the plot twist is surprisingly more complex than P3's), as well as being more lighthearted and optimistic, and even when the stakes get similarly higher, in the latter they opt to go through with a more... positive outcome (to name an example, just compare the circumstances that led to Trismegistus's birth in P3 vs how everyone ends up when you correctly complete Heaven in P4). P5 is just a natural evolution of this. That's why I'm not sure Hashino stepping down from developing Persona games is not a good thing -- P3 was
his design, and he really took the Persona franchise into a much more complex setting by incorporing the things OP very astutely pointed out in his post. I have no idea who'll come in to helm P6, but if they just look at what made P6 successful and decide to continue with it... well, things are not looking good for us fans of P3.
What makes Persona 3's story better than 4 or 5?
I know this question wasn't meant for me, so apologies for butting in. That being said: even as someone who vastly prefers P3 over all other SMT games, I can't really say its story is the best one. From a narrative design point of view (just to avoid specifics and prevent spoilers), P4 is more solid and consistent throughout its entire run as it has the benefit of the Investigation Team facing almost everything together as a group with their personal dilemmas sprinkled throughout, which makes it so that if you don't particularly care for one character you rarely ever feel like you have to go through a slog to get to a more interesting part. How could you not love any of P4's characters is beyond me, mind you.
The reason why I rate P3 higher is because it hits deeper and (to me) more interesting points in its story, as it doesn't shy away from hitting you with deaths or negative outcomes to make sure a narrative point his close to your heart. Curiously, it tackles several issues multiple times and sometimes even in one single narrative arc, like inevitable death, loss, monotony, and meaning, but it does so with different characters and you end up getting away with something completely different from each piece of the story that you don't even notice that they're recycling themes at times. P4's themes are less intense, but not less interesting or serious, tackling several kinds of identity issues, heritage, purpose, and so on. Can yo see the thematic differences? Well, that's what makes P3 better to me. There's only so much negative and serious stuff you can talk about before the game becomes a depression-fest, aye? Well, they struck gold with that balance in P3 and you manage to get away with something unique that I have only found replicated to some success in one game ever since (Spiritfarer). Just as an extra comment, multiple indie studios have tried time and time again to tackle issues like this with no luck at all, coming off as pretentious, cringy, or fake. That's Hashino's magic, mate. He made it work once and it'll probably never happen again, because where the fuck do you go from there? Having rebellion as a central theme in P5 was incredibly interesting to me, and they just ended up doing a pretty traditional JRPG story of us vs the world. That's not what rebellion is, and it's certainly not in vein with how P3, P4 (and to an extent even P2) tackled their respective main issues.
Some of the takes in this thread, sound like resetera posts.
Are you here just to drive-by and farm reactions, or to actually discuss something? Because as someone who actually spent some time criticizing this game on Reeee and got bombarded with shite from it, I just don't see it. People over there love this game to death, and they only thing you're really it is the gay stuff (which I don't see anyone mentioning at all). If you're upset about the Ann stuff, well, guess what? Be it a male or female character, throwing all of their development out of the window just for lols is not a good narrative decision, and just helps send the message to more astute players that what you do in the game doesn't really have a lasting impact on the world itself.
