Topic: Persona 5

I played it a second time right after and it didn't seem to take very long skipping all the cut-scenes. It's a much easier platinum than P4G was, too.

@themcnoisy As I've said elsewhere, play the game as you want to and treat trophies as if they didn't exist. Most games will play better by doing that rather than treating them as a developer checklist for how to play the game correctly

From reading your thoughts on both this game and P4G, I'm not convinced this is your type of game, you really like the story segments, but the actual gameplay segments never seem to sit right with you. I was quite happy to play through the palace sections until the game blocked me from going further to maximise my time, but have you considered maybe playing a palace for a safe room or two and then dropping out to spend a few days doing the social aspects? I know you'll miss out on a fair few social days overall, but it might make the entire palace aspect less of a bitter pill to swallow. As the loading screens say, take your time

I kind of disagree with others saying the next palace will be better, the story might be stronger in some palaces than others, but the same fundamental gameplay exists throughout. There are ways to make the game easy (outside of the options), certain personas will trivialise otherwise difficult encounters/bosses for instance, but this won't make the game more fun (for me figuring out what breaks the game is the fun part here). I guess what I'm trying to say is if you really like one part of a game, but then don't like another, equal part of it then is that game worth playing over one you can enjoy from start to finish with little to nothing in it you don't like?

@Dichotomy good point. I just find the dungeons in P5 mind numbingly boring. They are fine, but too long winded. Also Factor in ive had 2 deaths out of nowhere knocking my progress back.

I like jrps, not so much as when I was in my teens with all the time in the world but still its one of my favourite genres.

@themcnoisy I'm not suggesting you stop playing through (at this point I would guess you are pretty much committed to finishing the game), but in five or so years time I do think you might want to think very carefully about investing another 100+ hours in the next Persona title if the combat system remains the same

I do understand where you are coming from though, I would get some fatigue by the last couple of floors of a palace and I think it was actually a good design decision to stop the players from encountering the boss immediately. If you have reached the end of a palace and that fatigue had set in, then I can only imagine that it would take away from the boss encounter if you fought them straight away. Knowing you have x days left before you have to face the boss though means you can spend a little time doing the social aspects of the game before going back to finish the palace. When you do you have that music playing and you generally should feel pumped up to go and face whatever it turns out to be. I guess that is why I'd suggest to take breaks in the main dungeon at regular periods, it is as likely the repetition killing half the game for you. There is no way to complete every social link on your first time through anyway, so I doubt it would have much of an impact on the social side of the game for you anyway.

As an aside, it still doesn't make sense to me how reviewers can play through a game like this in a week or two and give an accurate review, it took me three months and I think my experience would have been far worse than yours had I played it in a reviewer's timescale...

@Dichotomy when all of the big games house 100 hours of content its even tougher!

Tbf I have finished p4g this year which was about 70 hours, yakuza zero about 80-90, ffx hd at around 70 all of which ive enjoyed. The issue I have with P5 is it hasnt reached the heights of any of those games from an overarching narrative imo. This is a personal opinion of course and has made the less enjoyable parts of the game harder to wrestle with. The motivation to push on just isnt the same as p4g. The style is wicked though and its still an easy 8.5/10 for all its faults.

Im now at the casino so when im in the visual novel / general living sections of the game im having more fun and the last in game 20+ days have flown by.

@themcnoisy I want to know what your dungeon crawling plan is. If you're trying to do the palaces in one go, then I wouldn't recommend that, as that would just lead to irritation due to limited SP amounts. I generally recommend going through as much as you can before running low on SP, at least find a couple safe rooms, before leaving.

I never really felt the palaces to be long winded, except maybe the space station and the palace after the casino. I'll just tell you right now, if you were fatigued by the palaces before, you'll hate this- 5 minibosses and 2 major boss fights, with the first major boss coming right after all the minibosses are done. It's the only time I felt actual dungeon fatigue, where I wanted to stop playing.

I wouldn't recommend getting all the confidants in one go either, as you'll need your stats to be good to proceed in most of them (e.g. Makoto needs max Charm to get past rank 5), so just try to get as far as you can, and do a NG+ for the rest. I only got 3 maxed confidants in my first playthrough (Ryuji, Haru, and Mishima, I don't count Igor, Morgana, Akechi or Sae as they're done through the story). No shame if you can't do it.

I agree with everything. I found p5 the visual novel much more appealing than persona 5 the rpg. And the best story bits are yet to come The casino is also a very nice Palace, so enjoy!

@DerMeister ive bought sp adhesives from the back street doctor

Ive already maxed ryugi, ann and mishima. Im gonna try to max futuba as her buffs upto level 6 are coming in useful like mapping mementos and coming in with sp/defence boosts. And hopefully I will have enough time to fully level the doc and the journalist (both lvl 7 with mementos done) Ive also realised the first 2 levels on every confidant goes up straight away when you spend time with them so you dont need to spend extra time mincing around. So everyone is at level 2 at least lol.

Im quite far into the casino, I have just entered the section with the dice games so its prolly too late to go for off the track trophies now, possibly too late to read all the books or play all the games, maybe even to far to max my social stats!

@Feena the casino is better than the ufo and I know why. You have a slight maze and platform element in getting around without the stupid guessing game puzzles in the way. Some semi tough battles keeping you on your toes and the save rooms are always close by. Theres no guess work in what your trying to do which is the main bonus so you make fast progress once you figure out which way to go.

The boss of this palace is also a bigger motivation to beat as theres a 60hour hatred bubbling away.

I thought the dungeons in Persona 5 were largely well done, but there's a couple of them that I found really irritating. Thinking about it, I don't think it's because the dungeons are bad, but because I wanted to know what was happening in the story more than I wanted to fight things.

It's a lot more straight-forward the second time through, though. You can blitz every dungeon in one go thanks to the carry over from the first run, giving you loads more time to max social links and whatnot.

@themcnoisy I agree that P4G is the better game, or at least the better story. Generally the characters feel more real and memorable than most of the ones from P5 imo and the general lack of social commentary stamped throughout the game is also a huge bonus. On the other hand though, the procedurally generated dungeons in P4G are not a patch on the hand crafted ones in P5 and P5's combat is a bit better too, but if you never got on with it in P4G it isn't different enough here to warrant too much attention.

Don't know if you've been leveling up the Sisters, but it is worth doing if you haven't and it has the bonus of not costing you any in-game time. Using them at max rank you can create some very powerful personas that should make the rest of your palace runs a cinch (you can level them up without leaving the palace by teleporting to the entrance from a safe room and entering the velvet room). When you complete a task for them just exit back to your cell and talk to them again to advance the social link.

I have a hard time understanding how people can prefer Persona 4's tropey cast and paper thin, Scooby Doo-esque plot to Persona 5's well-paced, socially conscious, and viciously satirical super hero narrative, but whatever.

I will admit that nothing in Persona 5 was as shocking as Nanako's supposed death and the revenge-fueled choice you have to talk the characters out of, and Persona 4 definitely did the school life aspect of the series the best.

But in terms of plot, gameplay, dungeon design, overall character development, and music, Persona 5 is leagues ahead of any other game in the series.

@Ralizah I can live with that, but to me P5 has unlikeable introductory characters in Ryugi and Anne. Morgana becomes annoying and theres a real point in the story were I felt the protaganists motivation for being a phantom thief was verging on the reasons he was stopping others. Compare that to your time with Nanako (heart breaking), Dojima (the dudes a real person in my head), kanji (best comedy character ever imo) and the initial stories of Yosuke being guilty for Junes and its effect on the town, and Yukikos tough time in her parents family business and it gives the location a bigger sense of place. Like its the people around you shaping its destiny. Rather than the cast of P5 just being small cogs within a big city.

@themcnoisy Eh.
Sojiro > Dojima
Morgana > Teddy
Futaba > Nanako (although, as I said, I do think that one part of Nanako's storyline was fantastic)

I liked Anne and Ryuji, although I'll admit that, even if he was kind of a one-joke character, Kanji was definitely funnier than either of them. But, then again, Persona 5 isn't as focused on being humorous, and I thought they were better characters overall.

I will say, though, that one scene in Persona 4 Golden where Yosuke accidentally calls Hanako is probably the funniest moment in any video game ever. I get it, she's a walking fat joke, but the way they played the scene was brilliant: the tense music that plays, which is usually only reserved for serious scenes; the smug way Hanako thinks Yosuke is hitting on her; Yosuke's despair when she breaks his scooter; it's all perfect.

Oh, forgot to mention, Persona 5's environments are also much larger and more interesting to explore, versus Persona 4 and its... one street.

@Ralizah Dojima is a much deeper character than that, hes always on the verge of flipping out due to stress. Your place in the house mid way through really comes into question and you genuinely feel youve let him down and brought danger to his family. Sojiro although initially tough actually gives you a free pass when he finds out about the thieves. He may as well have said 'Oh well thats nice dont get caught ya little wippersnapper'. I also loved the humour of 4.

That said it is my opinion and I think Dojima, Nanako, Kanji, Yosuke and Chie are more like my immediate family and friends than Ryugi, Sojiro, futuba and Anne so that does play a part. Im selling P5 short as its still an amazing story and I havent witnessed the inevitable twist yet so take my comments with a pinch of salt. Im also playing p5 at the wrong time due to work (i beat p4g in the winter when its quieter) and I should have bested a shorter action game this summer.

@themcnoisy Hmm. I won't talk about Sojiro too much, but I will say I feel like his story is more well-integrated into the main plot. Also, consider that he only looks the other way with regard to your activities because you've saved his daughter from a life-time of misery. I also like how he gradually warms up to the main character throughout the game.

The main twist in Persona 5 isn't really set-up to be shocking or anything: it's how that twist is developed that impressed me. There's also a story development near the true ending that was depressing but insanely interesting.

I will also mention that I found Adachi to be a terrible villain in Persona 4. Granted, it was a decent enough twist, but I never got a sense of why he was behaving the way he was. The villains in Persona 5 are more well-written, in my opinion.

I just read the plot on Wikipedia coz I'll never get round to finishing it. I feel so much lighter now lol.

So yeah having much more fun in the casino palace. Ive had a few good fights and I know im on the verge of the story catching up with itself which is very exciting.

I visited game faqs for a quick glance at how to fuse the twins confidant personas as @Dichotomy mentioned earlier. I ended up looking on the boards quickly and the 5th palace is regularly voted the worst palace and there are multiple threads of people struggling to play through that late middle stretch of the game. Usually for the same reasons I stated in a post a few days ago. Obviously its difficult to separate the real comments from the chaff on gamefaqs but its pretty much in line with what I was thinking.

@themcnoisy yeah I think the 5th is clearly the worst. I think it's the only one I really disliked, although I felt one other one started to drag on long.

It's amazing the casino music doesn't get old since the background music has vocals. I still get it stuck in my head though even though I haven't played the game since like late April.

I think there's two palaces in the middle of the game that really started to drag for me. Four and five, perhaps. I think it's because they're the most confusing and puzzle-y. There's palaces later that are longer, but they're more straight forward, and so I didn't find them as annoying. I do prefer the palace system to the randomly generated dungeons of previous games, but mazes are like my least favourite thing ever apart from bananas and Ed Sheeran, and running around not knowing where I was going in some of the palaces was pretty much the only thing I didn't like about Persona 5, looking back.

The second play is actually miles more rewarding than the first because you can pretty much blitz every palace in one go. The rest of the time is spent with social links and mopping up other side activities which are a lot more fun.