Persona 5

[Vector 138]

Game Name: Persona 5

 

 

 

Platform:

PS3

PS4

 

Time Spent: (A rough estimate is fine if the game doesn't track it)

83 Hours and 54 minutes in 1 playthrough on easy

Currently playing through again on Merciless.

 

Do you recommend?

Yes

 

What you rate the game: (1 to 10)

9.8

 

Initial Thoughts:

As you guys already know, i love the persona series and i was incredibly excited for the game. I had preordered this game back in late October to get my hands on it in February. Sadly it got delayed for 2 months and released in April, and i will tell you right now, it was well worth the wait. First of all, this game was supposed to be released back in winter of 2014 but kept being delayed and delayed. I cannot possibly imagine how fans of 3 and 4 when those games were released must have been feeling all this time.

 

 

Pros: (At least 2 reasons)

Now first of all, the gameplay of this game is phenomenal It's the best the series has ever had. Your MC soon forms a group with his friends called the Phantom Thieves and if you think thieves, you think stealth. This is completely true in this game as the game dungeons are fantastic. First of all, they are light years better looking then Persona 3 and 4.

 

 

 

As you can see via the screen shots, these areas are incredibly detailed. You venture through these "Palaces" To steal the hearts of adults who have committed horrible crimes. Each palace has puzzles and has a large emphasis on stealth. You must venture through the palaces to steal each the "treasure" of the leader of palace. You also climb walls and leap across platforms to get across obstacles. It's very ambitious and it payed off incredibly well.

 

Another positive is the fantastic story. This is definitely the best story out when you compare 3, 4 and 5. The developers wanted to get into a more dreary story like that of the original persona series and the Shin megami tensei series and it really shows on the villains. It also is fun to see the phantom thieves escalate further and further with the more they help people

 

 

Another positive, is there is so much to do and you definitely get your money's worth when it comes to length of the game. I completed the game on easy, in over 80 hours, meaning you if you play on normal you will more than likely get 100 hours out of this game. There are many activites outside of just combat and social links, batting cages, video games, stat building (which was in 3 and 4) in many different ways. Not only does this game have Palaces, but if you liked the scaling of tartarus in P3 or the climbing of floors in P4, P5 has you covered as it has it's own dungeon called mementos. While it's not as vast as tartarus or as beautiful as the dungeons in P5, it's nice to have a whole new area to explore with over 50 floors.

 

 

The characters are also great. While not as good as persona 4 in my opinion, they are better than 3's and they are all very well defined and written teenagers that each have a story and dilemma that is addressed in their respective social links. Haru is probably the weakest but i suppose that's to be expected since shes the last party member you get. Some might be a bit annoyed with Ryuji at times with his dialog, and i will admit, it can be a little annoying especially with the English voice. However, if you can stand English voice acting, just download the free voice pack to get the Japanese dub however you will miss some side dialog. Also, there have been complaints about certain dialoug such as "Salty" and other hip young lingos the kids use these days but they aren't so bad. However i did slap my face when i read bellow.

 

 

Also

Futaba is cute as fuck.

 

As i mentioned before the environments of the palaces are fantastic. However outside of the palaces are just as amazing. Walking around the city with a bunch of people walking by, crowded and cramped really feels like a city and there are multiple parts of cities, and each look beautiful. Atlus really makes use of the Ps3's and Ps4's power demonstrating how beautiful the city can be sometimes.

 

Cons: (At least 2 reasons).

There are some cons. As i mentioned in my previous reviews of P3 and P4, the music in the games are fantastic. Unfortunately, the soundtrack in my opinion, is very disappointing. P3 and P4 each had music that i can instantly remember when that piece plays and i actually found my self listening to these songs outside of the game as well. P5 doesn't really have any aside from the theme and a few other gems but when you compare it to P4 and 3, it really is lacking. P3 had iconic songs such as Mass Destruction, Burn My Dread, the station songs while P4 had Your Affection, Shadow World, It's time to make history and so on. I honestly can't even remember the names of P5s songs. This isn't to say it's a bad soundtrack, it serves it's purpose and it sounds fine, however P3 and P4's soundtrack sound perfect for each respective game.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATcKBMYYSJs

 

Another con i have is that there isn't really many outdoor trips that you and your companions take that actually feel like you and your companions grow as friends. There are some celebrations like when a party member is recruited or when a mission is accomplished but those don't really go into detail, the only one that does is when you complete the second palace. There is the Hawaii trip but that felt like a little bit of a waste of time. The trip to the beach though was a fun experience but Persona 4 Golden had the camping trip, the school festival, the ski trip, the fireworks show and so on. Persona 3, had the trip to Kyoto, the island trip (which was more interactive then persona 5's trips) as well as a few funny voiced scenes showing a different side of each of your party members.

 

 

Final Thoughts:

In the end, Persona 5 is a fantastic game. It was well worth the wait, the added difficulty to the game is very well appreciated as even on hard in Persona 4 Golden, it got a little easy at points because of certain cheese tactics. Not saying there isn't anything like that here, but later in the game you see stronger enemies who hit hard and have hardly any weaknesses and while you can farm, you have to be careful of certain things. Status effects in this game for example are a nightmare. They hit so much more often then they did in P3 and P4 that it can be very frustrating. For example, in the first Palace, Sucubus has the ability to use Marin Karin, which they changed it to have a high chance to inflict charm. One shadow ambushed me and i was surrounded, meaning the 4 succubus went first. They all caste Marin Karin and each member of my party of 4 was hit and eventually died and had to reload. Rage, hunger, charm, fear, and so on feel like they hit often, so be sure to bring your meds and characters that cure such problems. While i do like persona 4 more then 5 in certain aspects. There is no denying that the gameplay of this game is phenomenal and you will not be bored. In the end, this game is a perfect example of how much people put hard work into video games. The details of the Personas, the story, the characters and gameplay completely outshine anything negative about this game. Thank you for reading.

 

 

 

This will be my last persona review for awhile. Stay tuned for something else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Futaba is best girl

Edited April 30, 2017 by Vector (see edit history)

[Sora_ 48]

I'm considering trying out Persona sometime. Planning on starting with 3 then moving to 4 and 5. I heard that time management becomes grueling at certain points in the game, to the extent that some players' social circles started to lose out. Is this true?

[Vector 138]

I'm considering trying out Persona sometime. Planning on starting with 3 then moving to 4 and 5. I heard that time management becomes grueling at certain points in the game, to the extent that some players' social circles started to lose out. Is this true?

If you want to complete all social links and get your stats to max on your first play through, you HAVE to use a guide because there's a lot of things you won't know. Also, i have never experienced a social link regress but from what i've looked up, it's mainly if you don't hang out with them from 60 - 90 days. But if you max them they will never go down. Also, if you plan on dating all the girls, do NOT date them all at the same time, you can Max social link one, then go onto the next social link to max that girl.

[Sora_ 48]

If you want to complete all social links and get your stats to max on your first play through, you HAVE to use a guide because there's a lot of things you won't know. Also, i have never experienced a social link regress but from what i've looked up, it's mainly if you don't hang out with them from 60 - 90 days. But if you max them they will never go down. Also, if you plan on dating all the girls, do NOT date them all at the same time, you can Max social link one, then go onto the next social link to max that girl.

Ah, I see. So the RPG bit and the dating bits are seperate? That's good, I wouldn't want to worry about some girlfriend while I'm fighting for my party's lives. Thanks for the info.

[Vector 138]

Ah, I see. So the RPG bit and the dating bits are seperate? That's good, I wouldn't want to worry about some girlfriend while I'm fighting for my party's lives. Thanks for the info.

Anytime, feel free to message me if you got anymore questions.

[Tatost 604]

The game is also actually

This was at the end of your paragraph before you started putting in screenshots, was it supposed to be leading into the pictures or did you forget to delete it?

 

I'm going to sound like such a snowflake if I didn't catch onto something there.

[Vector 138]

This was at the end of your paragraph before you started putting in screenshots, was it supposed to be leading into the pictures or did you forget to delete it?

 

I'm going to sound like such a snowflake if I didn't catch onto something there.

didn't see that, thanks.