Topic: Persona 5

I just ENDURED that point of the game when Atlus thought it was cool to drop 40 minutes (no kidding, I calculated this from the save files times) of exposition to explain a convoluted plan that they clearly believed to be more intelligent than it really is. This is a good game and all but coming from very high expectations and general praise I am disappointed with both the gameplay (very solid...and very trite) AND the story at this point. Persona 3 and 4 never had to work this hard to make sense...and if you have to pause for 40 minutes to explain your story, you aren't probably telling a good one. I am at 135 hours of playtime and will obviously keep on playing till the end, hoping it will win me back.

p.s.
got the Futaba navigation trophy without trying too hard - I was really surprised as I had troubles with the Rise one in P4G.

@Feena If it's the moment I'm thinking of then I disagree. I thought the reveal was played out excellently. I remember it perfectly on my first playthrough, where I just sat there speechless replaying events of the game in my mind. Add to that the presentation and to me that was played out to perfection.
40 minutes is a long time, but to me that isn't that much of an issue. When I'm playing a Persona game I expect a whole lot of a dialogue (P4G beginning). Souls game, I'm expecting to get cheap killed. Assasin's Creed, I'm expecting to climb a viewpoint. It comes with the territory.

As @KratosMD mentioned it's a change of atmosphere. Unpopular opinion here, but I hated Persona 4 Golden- for the time that I invested that was the worst pay off. Especially as I had just gotten off Persona 3, which is one of my favorite games of all time. Persona 5 is much more in line with Persona 3, which is probably the reason why I love it so much.

Finally finished the game last night after almost 3 months of playing nothing else. Obviously enjoyed it to dedicate that much time to it, but can't say at the moment if I prefer P5 or P4 as both have strong points over the other - I'll let my brain work on that one over the next few days. Now to wait patiently for P6 (anyone managed to implement cryostasis yet?)

5 and a half hours in and loving it. I'm so glad to have put it off after playing p4g earlier this year.

I'm more a cat person than dog person so Magellan or whatever it's called is brilliant.
@Fight_Teza_Fight @KratosMD Kratos you liked the friendships and likeable characters from p4g which I remember you typing the characters became like friends to you. I totally see that! Teza you were running through loads of games in the series if I remember correctly prior to p4g and I don't think p4g is best at the end of a run of long games as the exposition and time to get to know the personalities is a real commitment, why a darker grittier game would be more enjoyable.

P5 is dark and gritty, full of people and horribad ones at that. It reminds me of Liverpool and in many ways P4g was an escape to the country, P5 is like playing on my doorstep.

@themcnoisy Morgana.

Glad you're enjoying it. I'm 65 hours in now.

P5 feels utterly contemporary in terms of the themes it explores. I guess I shouldn't be surprised (people will exploit their power to abuse and use others in any society), but it still amazes me how socially relevant this Japanese RPG about anime kids with superpowers is to me as an American in 2017.

Atlus really outdid themselves this time.

@Ralizah ahhh you've changed your avatar, is that a marshmallow?

Totally agree and a great selection of words, it is contemporary and relevant.

@KratosMD I know this may sound crazy, but playing on the Vita is easier for a persona game, I could stick p4g on in bed or have a quick half hour and leave it on stand bye prior to work. I can't do that with p5. So I've had to commit some time. You then get to know the characters

This week is perfect, my home life is more sedate for the next 2 weeks before a holiday abroad so yeah you need to be in the right frame of mind with time to commit.

@themcnoisy Haha I studied in Liverpool so I kind of know where you're coming from. Maybe I shouldn't have played all those games back-to-back, but after coming off P3P I was kind of disappointed by P4G. Everything came to easy. In P3P you had to have max charm and max knowledge for Yukari and Mitsuru to even acknowledge you in school, so when I did finally forge those bonds with those characters they meant something. I also gravitate much more to a darker story so that helped too.

I'm really happy you're enjoying P5. They set the tone real quick. Social outcast looking for a fresh start, but trouble keeps finding you, left to fend for himself in the adult world- it's relatable. That first antagonist left me speechless. How do you start with that!
I'll be interested to find out how you take to the confidants. They are really well written- especially the females . I just couldn't turn them down when the time came...
I spent far too much time in that clinic cough*cough ...

@themcnoisy It's a flower, but everyone seems to think it's a marshmallow.

So I somehow battled my way through the castle in one long long go, then I've got to send a calling card? Grrrr so frustrating.

Key 🗝 points so far;

The dungeons are way better - but still too long
The fighting is classy - but the winning animation goes on too long, the running level up sequence actually looked amazing the first 10 times. Now I've watched it seemingly a million times.
SP conservation is crazy tough in this first dungeon,stopping experimentation. This will obviously open up later in the game but an oversight considering new players won't know what hell is going on.
The idea of hold ups is great - but the card system from p4g is better.
The sneaking is brilliant.
The thief vision is pointless, they should highlight key locations without the need to hold the trigger, I'm spending 80% of my time with that held down.
The locations look amazing - but sign posted terribly, the faculty office took me twenty minutes to find.
Having an idol character in the team off the bat feels a bit stupid. Rather a more realistic female or two would have been a better option to start.
I loved Morgana until it kept saying how great Joker is, I know I can trust you joker, yeah joker, another one for joker etc etc. It's so annoying!

Focused on the negatives a lot as the story, art design and multiple game systems going on is top drawer.

Geez, I haven't really had too many difficulties so far, but Shadow Okumura is utterly brutal on Hard mode. I've died four times to this same boss so far.

Never struggled this much against a Persona boss on hard mode. This feels like a fight out of Nocturne.

I disagree. The game is teaching you the importance of conserving your resources early on. Which becomes more important the further you go into the game, due to how reliant Persona/SMT games are on hitting enemy weaknesses. At least, until you buy enough SP Regen 3 accessories and never have to worry about the issue again.

And I have to strongly disagree that a card game is better than negotiating with Personas. Demon/Persona negotiation is one of the most unique features of the SMT franchise, and they execute it almost perfectly here. I'll be incredibly disappointed if we go back to some silly mini-game instead of actually talking to the enemies in the next Persona game.

I just finished the game! It was soo long.
I liked it but I didn't LOVE it, it was closer to the kind of satisfaction I'd get playing a remaster of a game I really liked than the wonder of a totally new game - but it's just me starting to get a bit bored of the Persona games formula not a fault per se. I'll still try to get the platinum trophy since I miss just 3 or 4 trophies.

Favourite confidant: Iwai.
Favourite party member: Yusuke

@Ralizah it IS brutal on hard. Tetrakarn on Haru helps with the last part.
@themcnoisy Morgana is so annoying! " You are not thirsty! Do this another time! Sleep!" Grrrr

@Feena Does it? I noticed the last enemy kept going for Haru, but I just kind of assumed from previous experience with other SMT games that if I applied tetrakarn to Haru that the enemy would just target someone else instead. It's too bad I don't have one of those tools that increases the likelihood of a particular party member being targeted.

I guess I'll just buff and debuff a lot to survive that last wave of Big Bang Challenges. Not a fan of Hunger status, but I bet I could use a skill to increase my susceptibility to it when one of those attacks hits me, which would take the danger away from that attack.

I gotta say, if there's one thing I really love about this console generation, it's that at least two of the three major consoles (no idea about Xbone) can go into rest mode at a moment's notice. Granted, the PS4 is a home console, so it's still not safe from power outages like the Switch is, but it's still really nice that I can, say, try to beat a boss, go into rest mode when I go to work because I'm unable to save, come back home, boot the console back up, and pick up where I left off.

@Ralizah Yeah I thought so too...but he just goes for her and takes up the big damage! He goes for her every time he doesn't do the Big Bang Challenge.

The problems with this game are small but enough to put me off playing after 30 hours, most of them are easily resolved which is a shame and it's really at odds with the stylish world they've created. Maybe I'll go back to it one day though.

Morgana's repetitive banging on during battles, the long end of battle screens, the same battle soundtrack over and over again - it's a nice song but hearing 30 seconds of it on repeat over and over every battle for 150 hours is a nightmare, yes this is the case for most turn based RPG's but Persona's really grates. In fact the music in general while good is just played way to often for a game you're spending that much time with.

"I'M A SHAPE SHIFTERRRR" urgh. Nice tune, dont get me wrong, but this game just needed more music.

Edit: Looking at the OST there is like, 80 songs? So why in my memory are there only like 5 haha. Will Power is a great track, though.

I absolutely loved this game. Hoping for a story expansion DLC, but with the way it ended I'm not sure it's gonna happen.

@KratosMD Yes, I can see this happening (new version for the Switch) and I hope if that is the case we get a dlc version of the "expansion" since the times have changed ...

@Feena Thanks for the recommendation to cast tetrakarn on Haru. I just beat him in one go following your suggestion. The boss really does keep targeting her, and the bounced attacks do major damage.

@Kogorn733 I don't want any dlc, else end up with unfinished games aka Every Other Franchise. Stick to your philosophy Altus. Release when it's done.

@kyleforrester87 I love it so far but those annoyances should be looked at, when P6 arrives on the back of P5s success I envisage these things being addressed.

@Ralizah @Feena What did you do for SP? I have no potions and only a can with 20sp in it. Wtf good is that? I've just made some coffee 🍵 with zoro bogeypickers uncle (is he an uncle?) and it mentioned you can restore SP that way, seems a bit of a roundabout way to boost some SP to me.

@themcnoisy I just didn't do the dungeons in 1 hit, when I ran out of SP it was time to leave the dungeon.

Isn't that supposed to be how you play it? :S

Dont think I used any SP items at all actually.

@kyleforrester87 you can do them in one go, you then get more time to boost stats and relationships in the real world. If you attempt a dungeon 4 times say, that's potentially a loss of 15 knowledge points, 6 lockpicks or 3 rank ups for a confidant.

Obviously I'm used to the system from p4g, the systems were convoluted enough, throw this SP scenario in and P5 has become harder to manage. Losing time is a cardinal sin.