I'll just expand on my thoughts from
NeoGAF's currently ongoing essential RPGs thread.
These are mostly in comparison to Persona 4. I think the game is far closer to Persona 4 than it is to Persona 3 in most areas.
Persona 5's basic strengths are the same as its immediate predecessors: balance a fantasy Japanese teen life simulation and a dungeon crawler with an engaging party battle system and Shin Megami Tensei demon collection, training, and fusion.
It is hands down a better dungeon crawler than Persona 3 and 4. It has better, more engaging dungeons; the return of demon conversations; social link abilities; a more user friendly fusion system.
It also has a very even cast and very even social links. It lacks the lows of Persona 4 in this regard, even if I also think its highs aren't as high.
I was disappointed by some social links that could've been very special. I'm thinking of Makoto and Ann here.
I also think Haru was largely a non-entity and her being such coupled with the horrible Ryuji/Morgana subplot is the biggest hiccup in the game, in September/October.
Akechi, also, is a failed character. He was interesting as a moral rival. He was exceedingly boring and cliche as handsome "dark" anime rival boy. That story-line was also horribly rushed.
But, generally speaking, the social links, in and outside the cast, were largely decent. There weren't any clunkers on the magnitude of some in P3 and P4 for me.
Also: Makoto was the most "on-the-nose" waifu experience for me among the games. That is largely from her main-game characterization though.
Persona 5 also has a more innately appealing tone and cast of characters to me, even if I feel in actuality Persona 4's cast and setting are better realized. Inaba felt very well realized to me and touched home, as I grew up in a small hick town. The bubbly, dumb "scooby gang" of friends also charmed me far beyond its innate appeal to me. There is probably way too much Junes text, but the friendships just felt much more realized than the relatively sterile text interactions of Persona 5 allowed.
It probably does hew too close to Persona 4 with regards to time management and story layout on the calendar and is a very close sequel in that regard and it does have more noticeable loss of control than that game (i.e. it seems to have balanced its time drains worse or just hid lost days worse), but the story is less frustrating on a player involvement level with the veil of positive story-telling being much stronger. Basically, I think it is very similar to Persona 4 in terms of pacing and structure with some disadvantages and some advantages. In context, Persona 4 was a much more radical sequel to Persona 3 in terms of structure.
In the time of Trump the fight against the furiously corrupt that society seems unwilling to deal with is incredibly cathartic. I was always frustrated with the murder mystery in Persona 4. I felt it had so much promise. I love things like Memories of Murder, for example, which is similarly set in a small town with a confusing string of murders. This was never going to be that, but it should've, and could've been more.
I'm more generous with some with respect to Persona 4's exploration of gender and sexuality. I think a lot of the ground they cover was interesting and surprisingly thoughtful for the time and place it came from. On the other hand, the tendency to flirt with queer and land on straight was too strong. That is both the story of Naoto and Kanji. Also, while I think the general homophobia of the cast, and in particular Yosuke, was fitting for teenagers of the time, the game never directly addressed it. These together paint a picture of a game that wanted to say things but ultimately couldn't commit to doing so and you are left with banally homophobic content.
Persona 4 in general is more problematic in this way: see its treatment of fat people. Persona 5 is more dialed back but still has "gay panic" gags and its treatment of Ann post Kamoshida is suspect.
In general, I feel Persona 5 is the way better polished and tangibly improved dream sequel to Persona 4, but also a fitting end for the current line of Persona, and for that very reason.
Some more detailed thoughts:
On Makoto #1 (Links to a bunch of other posts
)
On Makoto #2
On Ann #1
On Ann #2
On Ann/Futaba/Haru
On Ryuji
On Akechi and the Ending
On the Social Links, in General
Also, it was definitely the game that meant the most to me this year
.