Topic: Persona 5

Guys, can someone tell me what do you exactly do in this game and what's the appeal to it? I have seen some videos and it seems like you are controlling a high school Japanese student. So why would that be fun to play? I'm genuinely asking as I have never played any Persona game before.

@NecuVise Because it has amazing story and characters with some pretty good turn-based combat. The art design also absolutely stunning; it stylish and does so almost perfectly with a soundtrack to match. It gets your emotions going on the main story and everyone’s sub stories which in turn make the main story more compelling because your more invested in the characters. It’s very well done. You also choose what you say in conversations, and some of the choices can help further the relationships (Not all though, there are a lot of flavor options, but they really help you feel involved and like their your friends as the main character, instead of say Nathan Drake’s friends.) The characters are probably the biggest part of the game.
The places you go into are also very well designed (the other world, what’s inside someone’s heart when you go to steal it), telling the story because they’re all symbolic of how the person views things. It’d give it a solid 9/10 (I want to give it a 10/10, but a few things about the combat, as good as it is, drive me nuts.)

@Jaz007 thanks for your reply, it helps. It it wasn't for its length I would probably look into playing it but I'll have to delegate it to some future times.

@NecuVise As much as I love them, the Persona games as a whole are probably an acquired taste and especially appeal to a certain type of gamer. Like has been said, the combat is turn based with a focus on using your different personas (or summons, so to speak) to your advantage, to attack enemy weakness. The games have multiple difficulty settings and the easiest setting is basically a cake walk if you just want to breeze through and experience the story like a visual novel. You see, the dungeon crawling and combat is only half of the experience. The social simulation, relationship building, and story are the more enjoyable for me personally. I’ve played Persona 3 and 4G and am currently working through 5. Any of them are decent places to start, as they follow similar recipes. As long as the games are (usually around 100 hours), I tend to play them over long periods of time, taking breaks to do other shorter games in between. I’ve found them no less enjoyable that way.
So in a nutshell, if you like a fairly long involved but excellent story, social sims, turn based combat, and RPG character building, then you will likely enjoy these games. Persona 5 is probably the most polished, but I actually liked P3 and P4G stories a little bit more.

@Th3solution thanks for your reply. I'm not ready now for 100+ games, as for even half of that I have a strong debate with myself should I dedicate myself to it at this moment. Some of those mentioned I like, some of it depends on its execution. So maybe some day I'll play it

I finished Persona 5. It’s the best game I’ve ever played, absolutely incredible. It has such amazing artistic depth to the story - and it’s the best and most engaging story I’ve ever seen too. It’s cast of characters is just plain fantastic. I felt so connected to the core group by the end. They really felt like friends. The romance is also really well done. Also the best I’ve seen in a game. It’s so genuine and real feeling with the way it’s portrayed. Especially with how they just want to spend time with each other, rather than just a head to the bed scene like Mass Effect.
The games style can’t be understated, from the Phantom Thieves designs to the combat and all our attack finishers. It does so much to make the combat better. The fonts and and shops also need to mentioned along with all that can’t be mentioned without an essay. Overall I felt much more drawn by the graphics than any real looking game these days. Not to knock them, but I think this was almost perfect. I can’t imagine what larger graphics budget would do.
The soundtrack adds to the style and is perfect for the game. It’s so chill and adds so much to the game. It’s possibly the best soundtrack I’ve ever heard. My only gripe with it is that it could’ve used a few more tracks or variances on stuff like the sad/heavy piano since it’s such a long game. I clocked in at about 122 hours.
The dungeon design and how it tells the story was also stellar. It made them so much more engaging and kept the story going at all times. It also gives you so much to think about with the symbolism. Especially the end with the depths of Momentos and the holy grail, I mean dang, what is says about society is eerily true . The social commentary in general is pretty spot-on, eerily so sometimes. I also liked how it had political social commentary without taking a stance outside of supporting the future.
It all makes me want to help change the world more honestly. It also makes me glad I live a good life when I think about my own possible distorted desires. Nothing else like this has made me want to actually do something about the message presented on this way.
It’s the 3rd game to give me tears, once a few just for seeing the anguish of my teammates when Joker gets captured, second when Morgana was disappearing. I think the saddest game of all time would be Persona 5: everyone dies if they ever made such a terrible thing.
I do hate how it’s game over when Joker goes down though. It makes no sense as everyone else of fine if they go down. If they wanted to say you can’t mess them fine, but they all have free-will available. Maybe someone would see that used if they did that. Also felt like a swearing wa as little teyhard at times and felt out of place (granted, I don’t like in the first palace, but it felt a little more off in this case).
Overall 10/10. I guess that’s my review lol.

Also, the Valentine’s Day massacre wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It made me feel like a terrible person no doubt, but at least Makoto wasn’t there as I spent Valentines with her. And Sojiro saved me as well. But I still felt bad about all the relationships he’d have to break off eventually.
And Kamawai’s relationship is the most strange and inappropriate feeling yet so sweet and genuine thing ever.

@KratosMD It gets better as you play it. As your grow connected it just gets better. It went from a great game to the best ever made when I played it.

@KratosMD You probably know this as well since you played 4 Golden, but be careful of dating multiple characters. It makes you feel like a terrible jerk playing with peoples feelings. I’ve never seen guilt be the punishment so effectively in a game.

Also, would anyone want a P5-2? I’d love a direct sequel to spend more time with the characters. I know Persona hasn’t done it yet, but I’d love for P5 to be the first to do it.

@KratosMD There’s also the doctor. I won’t lie, while it’s really well done (it’s really sweet), Kamawai’s romance felt super inappropriate to me, much more than expected. It wasn’t sexual or anything, just dating your high school teacher like that. And while it makes perfect sense, it doesn’t help that she’ll do your laundry and stuff for you lol.
And two other things. Makoto Makoto Makoto!
And “I actually never really thought of dating multiple people at the same time in P4G, I'm not that type of guy IRL so it never crossed my mind.“ You sir, are a saint.

My romance was with Makoto, although I did almost choose Hifumi Togo. The only Persona game where I dated more than one was Persona 3 and that led to broken social links and outraged characters.

Kawakami's confidant interactions were a little weird and inappropriate at times, even though her story was surprisingly poignant.

@KratosMD I actually prefer P5's story to 4. It just really resonated with me at the time and felt like it had a lot of thematic depth and links to things going on in the real world, compared to 4's more simple small-town murder mystery. That's not to say I didn't enjoy 4's story as I still thought it was amazing!

@KratosMD Wow that's a lot of playtime each day.

For Makoto I think that level 4 is enough. Later in her social link you also need a certain level in another stat in order to progress. I can't remember what though (sorry). That was the case for many of the social links, which put a spanner in the works!

Makoto really grew on me. I didn't like her at first, but like all the characters she is very complex. She's very sweet and I appreciated how hard she was working to change and be strong for everyone.

@KratosMD Dang, 10 hours. Where do you find the time? I’m not judging, I’m just honestly curious. I could put every second I’m not working sleeping, eating or showering into playing a game and not have 10 hours a day.
And also, the other stat needed later on is Lv 5. Charm I believe. (You don’t mind this type of info right?)

@KratosMD Welp, if you finished the 3rd palace, then you passed me now. But yes, Makoto is awesome. But Ann ... wonderful, goofy Ann... I dunno.
I’m just going to do a harem play through, all integrity be damned.

@KratosMD I agree, the time spent playing a good Jrpg just seems to fly by. I’ve spent around 30-40 hrs on Persona 5 and it really feels like I haven’t even barely scratched the surface. Yet, it seems weird that I could have finished the whole Uncharted Drake’s collection in that same time.
I do need to get back into P5. It doesnt look promising to occur within the next month or two though. I want to experience Spider-Man and Shadow of the TR with the masses, or at least as much as possible. I play games slower than most, so I will probably be on Spider-Man for several weeks, then in Tomb Raider for several more.

I thought P5 dragged towards the end and I just wanted to hurry and finish it. The story went too bonkers for me to care anymore. I enjoyed playing the game but thinking back I honestly can't remember much about it, other than Makoto being fab.

@ApostateMage When you get to the end, I think you definitely need to remember the artistic importance of everything happens and all the symbolism that’s involved. It definitely keeps it all very high quality and mind-blowingly good and meaningful. If you don’t look P5 as a piece of art, then you’ve already missed out on a lot while playing it.

@KratosMD The only deadline is the end of the game. Max out the fortune teller above all else though. It’ll let you raise confident relations in between levels so you don’t have waste time with fillers. Kamawai will also let you have evenings after dungeons.
I’ve never encountered a deadline or heard of one before in the game.

@KratosMD I never encountered deadlines or heard of them still. Maybe I just was lucky, but I’ve never heard of them. They were available to hang out with post maxing them out too, all of them if I recall right. The closest thing is going into Menmentos for them. And yeah, you’ve already wasted a fair amount of time by avoiding the fortune teller.
Edit: I could go on dates with Makoto at the end of the game too.

@KratosMD There were a few available early game I never maxed, but had the whole game to work with them. Sojiro, the gun shop guy in particular.

@KratosMD It really does teach you how to spend time effectively. What do you think about how it's super hard to get all of the confidents maxed on the first playthrough? I mean, I understand that there is a desire to have it be replayable, but I kind of feel like when a game is 120 hours, it shouldn't want to you to do a second playthrough to see stuff like that. I was really careful to try maximize my time too.