This game made me wish we just got a Persona 3 sequel about Mitsuru and Aigis forming the Shadow Ops and it stayed a JRPG. Labrys was great. And having a verbal protagonist was great. I liked playing as Teddie. Those are all the nice things I have to say.

I did not like the visual novel storytelling. The characterization was bad. The plot was just a rehash of both Persona 4 and Persona 1, even recycling some of the Investigation Team's character development. The reason for fighting was super contrived and playing through the same story repeatedly but just changing the POV character while all contradicting each other did not make for an engaging story. I did not like Persona 4 Golden and I did not expect this game to be worse, but it was so much worse.

A very cozy game with characters I was sad to say goodbye to by the end of the game. Hinako isn't the strongest protagonist but she is no-nonsense which creates some very interesting dynamics or comedic reactions. I actually really liked the enemy designs, and the battle system wasn't bad either. The music was very calming as well. I just wish there was more to do in the school. Also, I never fully understood the dating/social sim aspects.

I discovered this game from researching Persona-likes and while it wasn't exactly what I was looking for, it scratched the itch enough.

I really love this game. The visuals, the music, the concept and ideas, but I cannot deny its flaws.

First off, it was clearly designed as a next gen game. The PS4 version had load times of about 15 seconds. I can't even imagine how the Switch ran, but when I eventually got a PS5 and downloaded the PS5 version of the game, loadtimes were maybe 3 seconds. Same for my friend's gaming PC. I don't know what happened during development but that definitely left a stain on the game's reputation.

Regardless, I persisted. I fell in love with the game from a single trailer. I bought it digitally because I couldn't wait to play it. Then I bought a PS4 copy for my collection. Then bought the PS5 special edition used on Mercari. I love the visuals, I think splitting the screen between past, present, and future was an awesome idea that can only really be done in the medium of a video game. The combat was serviceable, but I wasn't a fan of the random encounters. They would have been tolerable if the loadtimes weren't awful. Also, I noticed the encounter rate wasn't consistent, which didn't help when there were 2 difficulty spikes during the relatively easy playthrough and suddenly I needed to grind.

The ending was weird to say the least. It should have been so much more emotional than it actually was, but only one character really had an appropriate reaction. In fact, the BAD ending was actually so much more interesting and could be its own game.

This is my favorite indie game. It will always hold a special place in my heart, but I cannot recommend it to anyone who isn't playing on a next gen platform. I might replay it on PS5 someday to see if my love still holds up.