An accomplishment 3 years in the making, I have finally “seen the credits” for Persona 5.
I use the term because there were several moments in the last 30 hours of game time that I thought I was at the end, but the game kept on going. Only when the credits rolled did I finally let out a sigh of relief and feel confident it was finally over.
My completion playtime on my save file is a little over 130 hours. And this with me being a fairly fast reader and often just skipping a lot of the text if it was getting repetitious and not feeling crucial to advance the story. Taking into consideration occasional reloads and paused time, my PS5 tells me my time spent playing the game was 150 hours; eclipsing all my other games except MGSV (a whopping 224 hours on that one!)
I’m stopping at 77% trophy completion. I only have 7 trophies left for the platinum, but I’m going to just have to concede on the hopes of ever accomplishing that. I actually am not too far from a full persona compendium, which is probably the most time consuming, but I haven’t been able to hit a home run at the batting cages, and I haven’t heard all 250 of Futaba’s lines, so it’s not worth it to try for the other grindy trophies like creating all types of infiltration tools.
I won’t go into a detailed breakdown, but I will say the game is worthy of much of its praise. The amount of content is staggering, and I only played the base version. I can’t imagine what Royal must be like. In a way, I’m glad to have just done the base game experience because Persona 5 has been like an albatross around my neck for 3 years and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I had some measure of relief at having completed it.
Nevertheless, I am already sad to have it over. Will I miss the characters? Absolutely. The ending was touching and slightly emotional for me. I had spent so much time building these relationships and the game does a great job at the end of pulling together all these friends and confidants you’ve invested so much time in. I have quite enjoyed the dance rhythm games for Persona 3 and 4, and I purchased the Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight, so I’ll be happy to revisit the gang in that game later on. And now I’m actually seriously considering Persona 5 Strikers, since I guess it’s almost a sequel of sorts, although I haven’t ever played musou games from which P5S has apparently been inspired.
So for me, the character and social simulation was definitely the highlight. The story ended up being a bit stronger than expected in the end, but it’s by no means Oscar worthy narrative.
Ending spoilers:
I really liked the initial twist of Joker being shot by Akechi, only to find out that it was all a trick done in the metaverse. I thought the role of Shido being the villain behind the scenes was a also a great twist. I also liked the final palace being the representation of the will and choices of the collective society. I thought that was cleverly done. And I even liked the twist that Igor and the twins end up being the unconscious villains through being victimized by Holy Grail/Yaldabaoth.
Unfortunately, I think the final boss and the subsequent final moments of the destruction of the metaverse and the explanation of Yaldabaoth’s motives and the philosophical ramblings about the human subconscious and desires and what’s real or not... it became a little too nonsensical and I had trouble completely wrapping my brain around it. I think there was something lost in translation from Japanese, either linguistically or culturally. Nevertheless, I appreciated the effort at trying to make a deep intellectual and metaphysical statement with the game. But the only part of the games message that will stick with me is one of Riuji’s final remarks in the last scene when he says something like “In order to change the world, you have to alter the way you look at it.” (...Or some statement along those lines) But if someone else garnered another moral of the story, then I’d like to hear it.
In the end, it’s a solid 7-8/10. I have more fond memories of P3 and P4, but I’m not sure why. By all counts this is a better game. The palaces are much better than prior games’ dungeons, the art style and production value trumps other games in the universe. But a certain je ne sais quoi is missing that the previous titles possessed. I can’t help but think the game would have heavily benefitted from cutting out some of the extraneous content, yet the silly social sim stuff was my favorite part. 😅
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
fml Kasumi is never available. We just finished the casino palace and I'm still only rank 3 with her. Now I have less than a month before the time limit.
@OrigamiCrane REALLY need to get around to playing my copy of Strikers.
Currently Playing: Fields of Mistria (PC); Cookie Clicker (PC); Metaphor: ReFantazio (PC); Overboard! (PC)
I think Strikers is alright but without having much agency over what I do in my free time it isn't as compelling to me. I like in normal Persona how you have loads of friends and things to do and one afternoon spare to try and cram it in. The social stuff is much better in the main games.
I also don't like the combat much in Strikers. It's a button masher and it can get a bit tedious at times. I wish the dungeons were shorter. I get that they want more game in their game so it's not all talking, but if the game is just me mashing square until everything is dead then I'd be okay having less game.
It's fine though. Still haven't finished it. I think I'm like two dungeons off the end or something. Who knows.
@Th3solution Hey man sorry I'm so late, haven't been on Push this past week. But congrats of finishing the triathlon of a game that is Persona 5! And don't feel bad my time spent is about the same, but now that you finished it I would really recommend looking up the Royal story, it is very much worth knowing if love all of these characters.
The Akechi twist was just gold, lol in the back of my mind all I heard was "You'll never see it cominggggg" But the impact of it was tapered down a bit because I knew somehow the game continues after Joker "dies" because of the existence of Royal and Strikers. All in all though this arc was great and to me all the buildup was worth it (including the dreadful Okumura palace), not to mention I just really liked the themes of Sae's palace. Shido's palace was good too, having to fight Akechi in his true form was really nice, and then Akechi kills Akechi... Damn. The song Rivers in the Desert is so good!! It made the fight with Shido so intense, and I enjoyed the 1v1 with him, very fitting considering the backstory there.
From the very first time I went into the Velvet Room I did not trust Igor, but over the course of the game he grew on me. I was expecting a twist where he was the true villain but I did not expect him being an imposter, and the twins being one person! Right under our nose the whole time. I expected to go to the depth of Mememtos, but I didn't expect an entire section to explore. I don't know about your experience or what difficulty you played on but man the end of this game was crushing (I played on hard). Fighting each one of those guardians on the way to the Holy Grail used up almost all my resources. I went into Holy Grail/Yaldaboath with 6 coffees, 1 soma, and 1 bead chain. My god this may have been one of the toughest boss fights in my gaming career. I also really loved the music and environment for the fight, man talk about having a vision and having perfect execution. It felt as epic as it was designed to be. Having all the thieves feel like defeat was imminent, seeing Mishima of all people bring people to their senses, and all of my max confidants showing up put a big dumb smile on my face. The moment with the gunshot was just.. Chef kiss worthy. That animated cutscene where Morgana floats up in the sky was so moving, I felt so many emotions, I had my entire 100+ hour playthrough flash before my eyes. I'd have to agree with you that the explanations got a bit too complicated/convoluted for my tastes but I still overall love the premise of the game. My main complaint like most, is that the game is too long for it's own good. My love for it far exceeds its flaws and is a 10/10 for me.
@TraCuz- That’s a great analysis and I agree with you on how moving some of those final story beats were. I agree that from day 1 I felt like Igor’s voice didn’t fit his character. It seemed creepy, but in an unusual way.
I was surprised that Morgana didn’t get turned into a person at the end. I fully expected that. I figured the depth of Mementos would lead to some sort of witch spell that would turn him back. You probably know why I thought that if you’ve played the other entries (trying not to spoil in case you haven’t)
Overall, I think for me, the pacing and length brought it down from a 10 but it may be like RDR2 for me — where I thought at the time I played the game that it dragged too long at the end and yet after a few weeks of contemplation I forgot some of that annoyance and had mostly fond powerful memories of the epic moments.
@Th3solutionThe minute I heard Igor’s voice in 5 was when I knew something was up. He’s always had the same voice actor and it was too drastic a difference.
Ha ha well done @Th3solution... I'm almost a little disappointed it didn't take you even longer to beat... You zipped through the finale pretty quickly it seems!
Can't say I agree about a lot of what you've said. I know I'm a broken record at this point with my negative feelings on Persona 5 so I won't repeat my main gripes again for billionth time cus I really don't wanna rag on it and I'll just go off on a longwinded rant if I do. 😂
It IS far too long for it's own good though I can certainly agree with you on that.
I also think the final boss and it's motives pretty weak and I'm not really a fan of the rather sudden supernatural bigger bad guy/final boss that it or Persona 4 did. At least Izanami had a cool fight, a memorable design, that orchestral reprise of Reach out to the truth at the end of her boss battle track to really make it feel epic... Yaldabaoth (I didn't even remember the name of the dude til reading your post lol) was completely lame in comparison. Shido was a much better fight both thematically and emotionally (Though I wasn't that keen on him either)
Persona 3 & 4 are the better games without a doubt though sol... All Persona 5 has going for it a flashier style and a nice lick of paint
I think one the most damning thing for me personally in regards P5 is that can't remember the credits song at all. Yeah I'm not fond of the soundtrack or the vocals of P5 I know but still... I've always had a soft spot for the ending songs in all the Persona (Or most of the SMT) games.
Kimi No Kioku/Memories of You from P3 made me flat out cry a little after that ending and Nevermore from P4 was wonderfully catchy. Hell I really like Now I Know from P4 Arena too... But I can't even remember the name of P5's credits song yet alone what it sounds like. And it's not like I've only heard it the once lol
I know it's probably partially down to the fact that I wasn't emotionally invested in P5 in the slightest... But I still remember tracks like Rivers in the Desert, Beneath The Mask, the main boss theme... Blooming Villain i think it's called?... And... Yeah I'll stop rambling now 😅
Once again good on ya sol for finally beating Persona 5! Well done
@TraCuz- wow, really interesting. I knew it! Morgana does get to be a person! Yeah, the video ends at the palace and so I have to search some more to see the scenes at the end of the palace. I have looked around at some other end game Royal videos and it’s kinda confusing. Since I never met the extra characters I’m not really sure what going on there. But it is good to know that Morgana gets his redemption!
After seeing some of the supplemental story of Royal, I do see the allure of playing through it again to get the full experience. I probably won’t be doing it any time soon though.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Thanks! I was proud of having finally completed it. I did push through the end a little more aggressively because of getting the PS5. I didn’t want P5 to be hanging over my head since I knew once I jumped into the PS5 that I might neglect some of the PS4 backlog. These games are real marathons and sometimes that’s a good thing, and sometimes not.
I’ve never been really good at remembering or appreciating the music in games, so I completely can’t remember the ending song either, and I just recently finished it. I did like the music in general though. I’m going to play Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight at some point.
But hey, it’s all good - Maybe Persona 6 will redeem the series again for you! 😄
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
I tried the demo of Persona 3 Dancing in Moonlight but.. I'm not great at them... The characters dancing and the button prompts all over the screen seriously mess with my vision and I can't focus.
There was some nice song remixes though @Th3solution and it was nice to see the P3 gang with some actually good models 😅
I never went through with it last year but hopefully this year I'll get through with that replay of P3FES I've been meaning to do for a while!
Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy The ending song for P5 is great! There’s a whole bit where Lyn hits a high note while the percussion kicks in which is a proper chefs kiss moment 😂
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy To be perfectly honest, I really dislike every battle track in Persona 5. But for me, the music all around Tokyo totally makes up for it.
@Kidfried Really nice thoughts there. You probably are around half way, but I can’t speak to the extra Royal content which adds a fair amount of content at the end, so it’s possible you’re a little shy of the halfway mark. And it depends on if you’re going to spend time in the late game fishing for the guardian, ranking and maxing your level in Mementos, doing all the targets in Mementos, fusing all the personas, getting the Strength persona maxed, etc.
As far as your confidant ranking, I actually agree with a lot of your top 10. Takemi ftw! I’d actually move Morgana and Ryuji down a bit and move Sojiro way up into the top 10. I didn’t care for him at first, but he ends up with a fantastic arc in the latter half, imo. I don’t actively dislike Yusuke, although his story was one of my least favorite. I’m not sure I’d put him at the very bottom, but in the lower half. Part of it is I’m not sure how realistic the idea of plagiarizing art is, since I’m not an artist, but it does seem a little unusual as a plot device.
Yuuki would probably be my bottom one; he’s just pretty annoying all across the board, both with the in-game dialogue and texts, as well as his side story. I would also move up Kawakami. It’s a strange relationship, to be sure, but something about her I found mildly endearing, despite the creepiness of it all. I’d have her in the middle somewhere.
Obviously I have no opinion of the Royal specific confidants, outside of the YouTube footage I watched after I completed the game. Kasumi seems kinda middling to me too. There are still a couple key confidants you’ve yet to encounter and so I’m curious what you think of them. One of them I liked, one I didn’t, although it was a case of awful voice acting ruining it for me in that individual.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
I finished Strikers and it was okay. Pretty good. That's fine. I missed social links. The story felt like a retread of 5. But I loved having the band back together.
I'm fuming at the trophy list though. It's one of those annoying ones where the trophy list is easy and then they have one obnoxious grindy one that takes like a billion hours to get. Canny.
@Kidfried Regarding Kawakami, I can definitely agree that it’s a strange and awkward exchange that is difficult to really invest any emotional tie, despite the game giving her an empathetic background story. In fact, it’s a little bit of a double standard the way the game treats her relationship and then vilifies Kamoshida. Obviously there is the large issue of consent that separates the two, but realistically Kawakami should be under fire as well. But taking all that clear narrative dissonance out of the picture, her perks are among the most useful in the game, whereby you get a lot of extra time when she calls teachers out of the class for you and then does the massage after a palace or mementos visit so you can spend some time on social links or character traits afterwards. Having her maxed was key to my being able to get all the confidants. So I guess the actual gameplay benefits is what made her confidant a worthwhile investment.
And its great that you warmed up to Sojiro, because his relationship feels among the most ‘real’ in the game to me.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
RE Kawakami: It did always strike me as weird that you essentially have a slave who will jump on a dime to massage you for free. Not that I'm complaining: it's wonderful being able to go out at night.
Also, skipping class to read is really nice.
In terms of perks, Kawakami is definitely Best Girl.
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