As someone who's formative video game experiences were made up mostly of JRPGS, life sims, and one visual novel (I'm not gonna talk about that one) Persona 5 is pretty much everything my childhood self would have ever wanted in a video game and that's something the me of present day really appreciates and takes great joy in. I love this game.
Persona 5 has the best turn based battle system I've ever encountered in an RPG, Not only are the battles fast and engaging but the possibilities for customization and tactics are wild and it's something I would love to play around with more on future playthroughs. The life sim elements were fantastic too. I loved building relationships with other characters and the gameplay loop of figuring out which day to day tasks to do in order to improve your stats when you weren't in the middle of a palace is quite soothing. I'm going to miss coming home at the end of the day to sit at my computer to study and do laundry.
However, regardless with however much a piece of media or art resonates with me, this is the case with film, books, music, pretty often there's one or two aspects of the work that I don't like or out right bug me. Persona 5 is no exception to this.
The story is juvenile, incredibly so. It was a real turn off at first but I actually really started to like it after awhile. It was kinda campy, and surface level and not subtle and silly and I had a lot fun with it. I don't want to sound like I'm downplaying the writing when I say this. As it's clear every element of the world in Persona 5 is purposefully utilized in the script, the story might be silly but it's well constructed. For the most part I could turn my brain off and really enjoy myself. This was an easy thing to do, because of how much I just loved observing the characters interacting. But for me personally, that surface level storytelling stops being fun when I start to see it blindly go against what it thematically is trying to represent. Persona 5 is a story about liberation. About acknowledging hypocrisy, about stopping it so that hypocrisy and abuse of power doesn't continue harming people. And I think the way this game treats its female cast is completely misaligned with what it is trying to say thematically.
it's a small aspect of the game all things considered. (Though to be fair my opinion might have been much harsher had I not dared to touch the Kawakami confidant with a 10 foot pole.) Despite this I can't help but really adore this game. Even if some parts of it leave a bad taste in my mouth.
Persona 5 has the best turn based battle system I've ever encountered in an RPG, Not only are the battles fast and engaging but the possibilities for customization and tactics are wild and it's something I would love to play around with more on future playthroughs. The life sim elements were fantastic too. I loved building relationships with other characters and the gameplay loop of figuring out which day to day tasks to do in order to improve your stats when you weren't in the middle of a palace is quite soothing. I'm going to miss coming home at the end of the day to sit at my computer to study and do laundry.
However, regardless with however much a piece of media or art resonates with me, this is the case with film, books, music, pretty often there's one or two aspects of the work that I don't like or out right bug me. Persona 5 is no exception to this.
The story is juvenile, incredibly so. It was a real turn off at first but I actually really started to like it after awhile. It was kinda campy, and surface level and not subtle and silly and I had a lot fun with it. I don't want to sound like I'm downplaying the writing when I say this. As it's clear every element of the world in Persona 5 is purposefully utilized in the script, the story might be silly but it's well constructed. For the most part I could turn my brain off and really enjoy myself. This was an easy thing to do, because of how much I just loved observing the characters interacting. But for me personally, that surface level storytelling stops being fun when I start to see it blindly go against what it thematically is trying to represent. Persona 5 is a story about liberation. About acknowledging hypocrisy, about stopping it so that hypocrisy and abuse of power doesn't continue harming people. And I think the way this game treats its female cast is completely misaligned with what it is trying to say thematically.
it's a small aspect of the game all things considered. (Though to be fair my opinion might have been much harsher had I not dared to touch the Kawakami confidant with a 10 foot pole.) Despite this I can't help but really adore this game. Even if some parts of it leave a bad taste in my mouth.