Holy fuck I love this game. I came in expecting a particularly action-RPGy Musou, along the lines of the Dragon Quest Heroes games, fused with Persona 5. I got that and then some.
Similar to DQH, the game focuses more on smaller groups with tough enemies than the weak hordes of some Musou. On top of that, there's the usual Persona mechanics. Weakness exploitation is as important as main Persona games and other notable mechanics like 1 More and All-Out Attacks are all featured in some way and they work surprisingly well here. The combat in this game is honestly addictive as fuck, thanks to those RPG elements and game's ridiculously fast pace. It's hectic and chaotic as fucking hell and I love it for it. Thankfully, using your Persona's skills pauses the action a bit to let you get a bit of a break and choose the right skills. I felt it had a solid difficulty (played on Hard), specially with its optional content. I also saw I unlocked some post-game challenges to dive into next, which I REALLY look forward to. Gameplay-wise, Musou haters have nothing to worry about here.
Aside from combat, dungeon design is also more akin to an RPG instead of the "open field" approach of most Musou, which I appreciate. There's even some platforming, though I wish there was a bit more of that. Thankfully, there's no baby tier puzzles to deal with this time, or the excessive over explaining of said puzzles that made it feel like the game thought you were a retard back in P5.
Story and writing I actually like more this time around than in P5. While the story does have some rehashes of stuff in P5, I felt it carved enough of its own identity and it was just really fun. The writing is better this time because the characters already know each other and are friends. This means that Morgana isn't as much of a dick to Ryuji and that Haru doesn't get scuffed by her tardiness and the plot. On top of that, the fact that it's set during their vacation meant the PT are trying to just enjoy their time and have fun more, which is welcome because they almost never stopped talking about being the PT in P5. Makoto being some perfect know-it-all also got toned down, which I really appreciate also. Unlike P4AU/PQ, the characters don't feel flanderized to hell either. And finally, the new characters are fantastic, with Zenkichi becoming an instant favorite the first time his goofy ass showed up on screen. Due to being rid of the calendar shit, the story's pace is also waaay better than it ever was in P3, 4 and 5. Infinitely less repetitive dialogue, too. I also liked the Monarchs having more to them than just the "I'm evil cuz I can and I enjoy it" of the Palace Rulers.
Music is excellent, with What You Wish For and Axe to Grind instantly becoming my new favorite Persona battle themes. The Jails all have great music, specially from the 4th onward. Each city gets its own song, which are also pretty good and I personally enjoyed more than I ever did Tokyo Daylight from P5. On top of great new music, there's also banging renditions of the battle themes from P5, with the Scramble version of Last Surprise in particular being a lot better to me (though it would NOT have fit the original P5 lmfao).
As for what I did dislike... it's all relatively minor to me, as shown by the 5/5 score.
But anyway, unlike most Musou, character progression plateaus early on, REAL hard. Most of the new moves and such are learned as Master Arts, obtained by just playing as a character... but there's only 4, and you get them real quick. Aside from that, characters only gain skills via their Personas, so their movesets stay relatively the same through the whole game. Though those new skills do affect what their Personas so when called mid combo, this is particularly important for Joker, and I also felt that all characters played great and were pretty varies between each other. I switched characters a good lot, so it never got stale for me. Still, more evolving movesets would've been nice. I mainly complain because it's been done better by other Musou already.
Fusion is a bit weak in this. Though I was honestly fondly surprised when they first announced it was gonna be in the game at all. But it's not quite as involved as in mainline Persona games. You can only search by result and improving Personas in the Velvet Room is done entirely with Persona Points, obtained through fusing and deleting Personas, or just from having a full stock when you get a new one. Personas' experience requirements are also exponential so, for example, my lv45 Arsene requires way more experience/PP to level up than an originally-Lv45 Persona, which is odd to me. There's some nice little QoL additions though, such as being able to fuse Personas without having to manually get them out of the register yourself or registering only Personas with a higher level than the already-registered one (which I don't think was in P5 but I can't remember).
Also a pair of the Jails were extremely short. Which was sad, because they were some of the best in story, aesthetics and music theme. Bit disappointed there. Also the first two were a bit weak in retrospect (or maybe the rest were just that good).
Lastly, there's not much to do in the multiple cities. But that's extremely minor to me because I expected nothing on that front and I think anybody who expected as many real world side activities as in P5 just had the wrong expectations tbh.
But yeah, TL;DR? I fucking loved this game. Was EXTREMELY sad to see it end. It made me like the P5 cast a lot more since they actually shut up about being Phantom Thieves for a change. The gameplay is amazing. The soundtrack is fantastic. The story is very entertaining. It met my expectations and then some, and its flaws barely dampened just how much I enjoyed playing it. Unless a miracle happens and Elden Ring gets released this year (and doesn't disappoint), this is very likely to be my GOTY 2021 tbh.
Additional PC port note: port was very solid with 0 crashes all playthrough and consistent performance. Graphic options are barebones and the AA sucks, use Nvidia panel or Reshade for better AA.
Similar to DQH, the game focuses more on smaller groups with tough enemies than the weak hordes of some Musou. On top of that, there's the usual Persona mechanics. Weakness exploitation is as important as main Persona games and other notable mechanics like 1 More and All-Out Attacks are all featured in some way and they work surprisingly well here. The combat in this game is honestly addictive as fuck, thanks to those RPG elements and game's ridiculously fast pace. It's hectic and chaotic as fucking hell and I love it for it. Thankfully, using your Persona's skills pauses the action a bit to let you get a bit of a break and choose the right skills. I felt it had a solid difficulty (played on Hard), specially with its optional content. I also saw I unlocked some post-game challenges to dive into next, which I REALLY look forward to. Gameplay-wise, Musou haters have nothing to worry about here.
Aside from combat, dungeon design is also more akin to an RPG instead of the "open field" approach of most Musou, which I appreciate. There's even some platforming, though I wish there was a bit more of that. Thankfully, there's no baby tier puzzles to deal with this time, or the excessive over explaining of said puzzles that made it feel like the game thought you were a retard back in P5.
Story and writing I actually like more this time around than in P5. While the story does have some rehashes of stuff in P5, I felt it carved enough of its own identity and it was just really fun. The writing is better this time because the characters already know each other and are friends. This means that Morgana isn't as much of a dick to Ryuji and that Haru doesn't get scuffed by her tardiness and the plot. On top of that, the fact that it's set during their vacation meant the PT are trying to just enjoy their time and have fun more, which is welcome because they almost never stopped talking about being the PT in P5. Makoto being some perfect know-it-all also got toned down, which I really appreciate also. Unlike P4AU/PQ, the characters don't feel flanderized to hell either. And finally, the new characters are fantastic, with Zenkichi becoming an instant favorite the first time his goofy ass showed up on screen. Due to being rid of the calendar shit, the story's pace is also waaay better than it ever was in P3, 4 and 5. Infinitely less repetitive dialogue, too. I also liked the Monarchs having more to them than just the "I'm evil cuz I can and I enjoy it" of the Palace Rulers.
Music is excellent, with What You Wish For and Axe to Grind instantly becoming my new favorite Persona battle themes. The Jails all have great music, specially from the 4th onward. Each city gets its own song, which are also pretty good and I personally enjoyed more than I ever did Tokyo Daylight from P5. On top of great new music, there's also banging renditions of the battle themes from P5, with the Scramble version of Last Surprise in particular being a lot better to me (though it would NOT have fit the original P5 lmfao).
As for what I did dislike... it's all relatively minor to me, as shown by the 5/5 score.
But anyway, unlike most Musou, character progression plateaus early on, REAL hard. Most of the new moves and such are learned as Master Arts, obtained by just playing as a character... but there's only 4, and you get them real quick. Aside from that, characters only gain skills via their Personas, so their movesets stay relatively the same through the whole game. Though those new skills do affect what their Personas so when called mid combo, this is particularly important for Joker, and I also felt that all characters played great and were pretty varies between each other. I switched characters a good lot, so it never got stale for me. Still, more evolving movesets would've been nice. I mainly complain because it's been done better by other Musou already.
Fusion is a bit weak in this. Though I was honestly fondly surprised when they first announced it was gonna be in the game at all. But it's not quite as involved as in mainline Persona games. You can only search by result and improving Personas in the Velvet Room is done entirely with Persona Points, obtained through fusing and deleting Personas, or just from having a full stock when you get a new one. Personas' experience requirements are also exponential so, for example, my lv45 Arsene requires way more experience/PP to level up than an originally-Lv45 Persona, which is odd to me. There's some nice little QoL additions though, such as being able to fuse Personas without having to manually get them out of the register yourself or registering only Personas with a higher level than the already-registered one (which I don't think was in P5 but I can't remember).
Also a pair of the Jails were extremely short. Which was sad, because they were some of the best in story, aesthetics and music theme. Bit disappointed there. Also the first two were a bit weak in retrospect (or maybe the rest were just that good).
Lastly, there's not much to do in the multiple cities. But that's extremely minor to me because I expected nothing on that front and I think anybody who expected as many real world side activities as in P5 just had the wrong expectations tbh.
But yeah, TL;DR? I fucking loved this game. Was EXTREMELY sad to see it end. It made me like the P5 cast a lot more since they actually shut up about being Phantom Thieves for a change. The gameplay is amazing. The soundtrack is fantastic. The story is very entertaining. It met my expectations and then some, and its flaws barely dampened just how much I enjoyed playing it. Unless a miracle happens and Elden Ring gets released this year (and doesn't disappoint), this is very likely to be my GOTY 2021 tbh.
Additional PC port note: port was very solid with 0 crashes all playthrough and consistent performance. Graphic options are barebones and the AA sucks, use Nvidia panel or Reshade for better AA.