This review contains spoilers
what a monolith of a game! persona 5's reputation is crazy. it's lauded as the best game ever by some, or at least best JRPG. I thought it was pretty good! i'm comparing it to Dragon Quest 11 and Persona 4 Golden mostly, of which i am very fond of, but P5R is still good!
i'm not super fond of persona's combat, it has this emphasis on capitalising on weaknesses which does work but i'm not huge on, it makes me feel like i'm making a mistake when i hit an enemy with something thats NOT their weakness. i think this game has improved upon P4's combat with the introduction of guns, nuke, and psi damage, as it allows every party member to bring something unique to the team. then, if you're like me, you cover all the other elemental bases with one special persona. for me this was mostly King Frost, then Metatron, then Beezlebub. it is very cool as always the level of customisation you can have in Persona, the way you can spec your characters, but mostly Joker, in a multitude of ways. i appreciate and respect that bc most JRPG protags don't have that level of variety. the confidants in P5R are always so much better; i'm glad i played P4 first because going back to that to find out that you dont get stuff from non-party member confidants would've been crazy. it is so worth leveling up confidants to get cool special abilitie in P5, and its very rewarding capitalising on those things, especially kawakami and the gun about kid. That being said, in terms of free time it sometimes got silly with the amount of stuff i had to do! i think having to wash sooty clothing to get armour sucks and feels like a fake way to waste time, but even then i maxed all my social skills super early and was maxing confidants i didn't care about for the sake of it. ah well! palaces are a very interesting improvements from the P4 ones, wherein instead of procedurally generated corridors they're actual places. on one hand this is so much more interesting, but the palaces are SO long in P5R, and they are very railroaded with the characters stopping at every locked door to have dialogue about whats going on, slowing them down so much. the palaces really began to drag. it is, i think, bc theyre designed almost like zelda ones, with an emphasis on exploration, but with battles being turned based affairs it makes a single room much longer. i enjoyed the palaces much more when i was high levelled and could insta kill normal encounters, saving actual fighting for the Strong enemies and bosses. still, mostly an improvement. another bad thing in persona 5, and 4 tbh, is the items. there are so many fucking items in persona, and they are not fun. i dont know what most of them do from the name alone, a problem a lot of newer persona fans will have, and there's just so many. they're overwhelming, and lack personality. at least in DQ every item has an image that shows you what it is, and gives you a fictional idea of how you might use them. i got the point with treasure chests where i'd mash through it and ignorewhat it was because of the amount of black rocks i got and other shit. my rule was if it wasnt a weapon it wasnt worth it! fuck items... last thought on battles. the okumara boss is insane and made me mad LOL
the story of P5R is pretty good! overall the cast is super solid; i like all the members of the phantom thieves a lot aside from Yusuke, who feels particularly one dimensional and boring. his inclusion feels shoehorned and i think the game wouldve been better without him. haru should've had his dungeon so she had more time to get over the murder of her dad,which she doesnt actually give much of a shit about. I romanced Ann bc she was a great party member and also fun character, although her social link was a little bland. also her costume sucks! for a characters whose introductory arc was about how being objectified sucks, it is was stupid to put her in literal bdsm gear! otherwise i really liked her. the plot of P5 is quite good, its opening chapter spending a decent amount of time to give ryuji, morgana, and ann time to breathe and establish themselves. kamoshida is a great introductory villain, a small enough scale guy but big enough to feel threatening. gives you time to get your head around all the concepts that are being introduced. very solid and feels very victorious when you finally beat that first palace! the plot slows down for quite some time unfortunately, the important details being that you pick up more party members, but plot wise these things aren't important. its filler and its long! it doesnt get particularly interesting again until Akechi joins the plot, who is the best thing about P5. Royal makes him better, he is interesting, well written and well performed, and royal makes him great. i cant quite verbalise what is so great about Akechi other than everything. i love his design, his plot, his gameplay, and his VA is fantastic too. the royal bonus stuff that brings Akechi back is also genuinely great, it is not a redemption arc for him, but it does allow for deeper understanding of him. i really appreciate that they didnt make him a psychopath without empathy, he DOES like us and he does have feelings, he's just twisted and fucked up. the stuff royal adds is pretty good, and significantly better than P4 Golden's Marie stuff, which is honestly atrocious. on the note of the plot, it is good but because of its slower moments it lacks some of the edge that P4 had with its creepy serial killer stuff going on. P5R is not a horror, and neither is 4 really, but there's a slight lack of flavour here. i didnt care that much about the public perception of the phantom thieves really? it just didn't matter to me!
compared to DQ11 which was another monolithic JRPG of the time, i think P5 loses on visuals bc of its age. its way older than i remember and clunky in a lot of places. i like the music, but i dont love it, and also in maruki's dungeon i couldn't change Akechi's costume to his prince one which was a damn shame. oh welL! time for persona 6 in like 6 years lol
i'm not super fond of persona's combat, it has this emphasis on capitalising on weaknesses which does work but i'm not huge on, it makes me feel like i'm making a mistake when i hit an enemy with something thats NOT their weakness. i think this game has improved upon P4's combat with the introduction of guns, nuke, and psi damage, as it allows every party member to bring something unique to the team. then, if you're like me, you cover all the other elemental bases with one special persona. for me this was mostly King Frost, then Metatron, then Beezlebub. it is very cool as always the level of customisation you can have in Persona, the way you can spec your characters, but mostly Joker, in a multitude of ways. i appreciate and respect that bc most JRPG protags don't have that level of variety. the confidants in P5R are always so much better; i'm glad i played P4 first because going back to that to find out that you dont get stuff from non-party member confidants would've been crazy. it is so worth leveling up confidants to get cool special abilitie in P5, and its very rewarding capitalising on those things, especially kawakami and the gun about kid. That being said, in terms of free time it sometimes got silly with the amount of stuff i had to do! i think having to wash sooty clothing to get armour sucks and feels like a fake way to waste time, but even then i maxed all my social skills super early and was maxing confidants i didn't care about for the sake of it. ah well! palaces are a very interesting improvements from the P4 ones, wherein instead of procedurally generated corridors they're actual places. on one hand this is so much more interesting, but the palaces are SO long in P5R, and they are very railroaded with the characters stopping at every locked door to have dialogue about whats going on, slowing them down so much. the palaces really began to drag. it is, i think, bc theyre designed almost like zelda ones, with an emphasis on exploration, but with battles being turned based affairs it makes a single room much longer. i enjoyed the palaces much more when i was high levelled and could insta kill normal encounters, saving actual fighting for the Strong enemies and bosses. still, mostly an improvement. another bad thing in persona 5, and 4 tbh, is the items. there are so many fucking items in persona, and they are not fun. i dont know what most of them do from the name alone, a problem a lot of newer persona fans will have, and there's just so many. they're overwhelming, and lack personality. at least in DQ every item has an image that shows you what it is, and gives you a fictional idea of how you might use them. i got the point with treasure chests where i'd mash through it and ignorewhat it was because of the amount of black rocks i got and other shit. my rule was if it wasnt a weapon it wasnt worth it! fuck items... last thought on battles. the okumara boss is insane and made me mad LOL
the story of P5R is pretty good! overall the cast is super solid; i like all the members of the phantom thieves a lot aside from Yusuke, who feels particularly one dimensional and boring. his inclusion feels shoehorned and i think the game wouldve been better without him. haru should've had his dungeon so she had more time to get over the murder of her dad,which she doesnt actually give much of a shit about. I romanced Ann bc she was a great party member and also fun character, although her social link was a little bland. also her costume sucks! for a characters whose introductory arc was about how being objectified sucks, it is was stupid to put her in literal bdsm gear! otherwise i really liked her. the plot of P5 is quite good, its opening chapter spending a decent amount of time to give ryuji, morgana, and ann time to breathe and establish themselves. kamoshida is a great introductory villain, a small enough scale guy but big enough to feel threatening. gives you time to get your head around all the concepts that are being introduced. very solid and feels very victorious when you finally beat that first palace! the plot slows down for quite some time unfortunately, the important details being that you pick up more party members, but plot wise these things aren't important. its filler and its long! it doesnt get particularly interesting again until Akechi joins the plot, who is the best thing about P5. Royal makes him better, he is interesting, well written and well performed, and royal makes him great. i cant quite verbalise what is so great about Akechi other than everything. i love his design, his plot, his gameplay, and his VA is fantastic too. the royal bonus stuff that brings Akechi back is also genuinely great, it is not a redemption arc for him, but it does allow for deeper understanding of him. i really appreciate that they didnt make him a psychopath without empathy, he DOES like us and he does have feelings, he's just twisted and fucked up. the stuff royal adds is pretty good, and significantly better than P4 Golden's Marie stuff, which is honestly atrocious. on the note of the plot, it is good but because of its slower moments it lacks some of the edge that P4 had with its creepy serial killer stuff going on. P5R is not a horror, and neither is 4 really, but there's a slight lack of flavour here. i didnt care that much about the public perception of the phantom thieves really? it just didn't matter to me!
compared to DQ11 which was another monolithic JRPG of the time, i think P5 loses on visuals bc of its age. its way older than i remember and clunky in a lot of places. i like the music, but i dont love it, and also in maruki's dungeon i couldn't change Akechi's costume to his prince one which was a damn shame. oh welL! time for persona 6 in like 6 years lol