Persona 5 - US 2015 [PS3 & PS4] | The Royal (PS4) - March 31, 2020

[Kirin]

Done and done.

Incredible ride, but like the reviews suggested got a little bumpy at the end but they brought it home.

Getting the few bad points out of the way first.

Issues:

Spoiler: show

My issue with the Holy Grail is thematic. P3 kept pretty close to Greece/Roman mythology throughout its names and plot devices. P4 kept it pretty close to Mythological and Feudal Japan for its names and plot devices.

P5 had the trickster theme, but why is Arthurian Legend anywhere near this? Morgana (should) have been named better (at least pick a guys name. Mordred?) but I understand Morgan le Fay's classical role as a trickster. The Holy Grail has absolutely nothing to do with trickster myth. Granted trickster tales tend to involve more character driven devices than symbols and objects of attention or divinity. It would have been better to somehow incorporate the World Arcana in place of the Holy Grail to support the general theme of a trickster as a bringer of knowledge and wisdom despite divine meddling or restrictions.

I would have even accepted having Loki in place of the Holy Grail, as they could have made the argument that Goro only had Loki as a Persona due to the nature of his gift but that Loki was only acting on behalf of Yaldabaoth to further the game.

Praise:

Spoiler: show

The game delivered on its hype and then some. A labor of love that hit every high note while doing enough to cover the few brown spots it had.

Yusuke is one of my favorite characters hands down from the entire series now. And Morgana is easily the best mascot, Magician, and early navigator character as well.

Makoto wins for doing Mitsuru just as good, if not better, than Mitsuru. Also, true Waifu.

Haru was a little too cliche, but thats not really a fair knock against her in a series that relies on tropes but writes them remarkably well.

Ryuji was Ryuji, he could have had a bit more gradual growth instead of the "jump off a ledge moment" (literally), but he did stay true to himself which is good.

Ann got a little lost in the mix. She felt part of the group but honestly at times she felt the least connected to the group. Part of that may be her dungeon being at the very beginning, but part of it being her "role" in the story was also finished fairly early. She did sober up the story at time though with Shiho, and the moments she provided comic relief were welcomed.

Futaba is outright the best navigator in the series, and also one of the better developed characters in P5 overall. I wish they had revisited her mothers death + research theft more with later plot points, but for the same reasons Hifumi was cut from being a dungeon the game may have dragged on a touch too long if they added a small "side dunegon" to wrap that up.

Akira is just a hair under Minato as a character, but may have become Atlus's (or at least Persona's) face going forward. Very recognizable and relate-able character, and it was awesome seeing Atlus branch out with some of his responses to conversations (Beep boop!). I hope Atlus learned some lessons from P4-palooza and reign in the number of spinoffs, but a few here or there featuring Akira would be well received and only a boon to the franchise. Also, possibly as strong canonically as Demifiend from SMT3.

The confidants are hand down the best way they've handled social links thus far in the series. I also applaud the use of demons as enemies instead of the shadows, a change I was initially hesitant about for the Persona franchise, because the shadow design in P3 and P4 became too predictable and boring, while new demons in every dungeon and Mementos kept things fresh.

For the dungeon design, I think it was the right blend between random generation in Mementos and thematic dungeons in the Palaces. Nothing felt stale like Tartarus or frustrating like the Midnight Channel dungeons. From a story approach, I would have liked the Mementos request to have a greater impact on the story especially since Mementos becomes THE final dungeon but its treated as the "oh, also this..." throughout the story. Running into the people before the request is made or seeing effects of the request in Mishima's confidant after stealing their heart would have accomplished that.

Villains were not as strong as P4, but Adachi was honestly FF6's Kefka. Just a perfect villain. They could have done a little more to layer the impact the villains had, like having Goro just be in the background in some dungeons and having the player wonder "Who the fuck is that in the black?", or even fight him right before he kills Okumura in a scripted battle to drive home the point that someones out to get you. Igor could have changed his facial expression at points during the Strength arcana when they begin to question who wrote the list. Small stuff like that.

10/10 music. The final battle theme wasn't as strong as "Battle For Everyone's Souls", but that with the Nyx fight was pretty epic and not a fair comparison. "Rivers in the Desert" is great song on its own, but lacked the hype of "Battle" or the emotional strength of "Heaven". Battle theme was better than "Mass Destruction" and P4's battle theme, but "Wiping All Out" is right there with it. "Heaven" would be a better comparison to Sae's Palace song.

The closing theme was excellent, and fit exactly with what it was wanting to convey. P3-5 have all hit a high note here. P3 was mournful but optimistic, P4's was straight melancholy, and P5 was almost celebratory and relaxing.

Final Verdict: 9/10. For comparison P3 was a 9.5 in my eyes and P4 an 8 with P4G earning the 9.

I don't know how Atlus keeps this quality up, but god I hope they do. High hopes for P6 already, and I already feel confident they can deliver in spades because of how they approach development of these titles. P5 had the highest of expectations for it and delivered on every one.

Mission Complete.

[Elcura]

Done and done.

Incredible ride, but like the reviews suggested got a little bumpy at the end but they brought it home.

Getting the few bad points out of the way first.

Issues:

Spoiler: show

My issue with the Holy Grail is thematic. P3 kept pretty close to Greece/Roman mythology throughout its names and plot devices. P4 kept it pretty close to Mythological and Feudal Japan for its names and plot devices.

P5 had the trickster theme, but why is Arthurian Legend anywhere near this? Morgana (should) have been named better (at least pick a guys name. Mordred?) but I understand Morgan le Fay's classical role as a trickster. The Holy Grail has absolutely nothing to do with trickster myth. Granted trickster tales tend to involve more character driven devices than symbols and objects of attention or divinity. It would have been better to somehow incorporate the World Arcana in place of the Holy Grail to support the general theme of a trickster as a bringer of knowledge and wisdom despite divine meddling or restrictions.

I would have even accepted having Loki in place of the Holy Grail, as they could have made the argument that Goro only had Loki as a Persona due to the nature of his gift but that Loki was only acting on behalf of Yaldabaoth to further the game.

Spoiler: show

I kinda agree with the theme, P3 and 4 were pretty easy to follow but P5 didn't really reveal it's true theme until near the end. I don't think the trickster theme is misplaced with the Holy Grail, since the idea is to generally rebel and do shit for yourself regardless of the setting. I think the Trickster was just a cover for the accuser/judge to appear at the end, since it was essentially God and his angels vs the Accuser and his tricksters (Satanael).

The latter of what you said is basically how it happened anyway, though what you suggested would have made it more obvious than it was. Since Yaldabaoth essentially gave Akechi and Akira their powers and pit them against each other to prove his point. Akechi was the true pawn, while Akira was the control method meant to prove that even having a trickster was pointless (but fun), yet as these things go Akira went above and beyond while Akechi didn't.

In general I liked everything P5 had to do and generally say. While P4's message of not averting your eyes to the truth is good (and generally something we all do at all times) P5's message is even more potent given the times we live in. You have to think and act for yourself even if you are a rebel or outcast, and you can't just follow public opinion and hope that someone else will make things better. Given the nature of the story this will become less impactful as time goes on (or more, if the world gets even more fucked) but regardless it still stands strong. In that sense I think P4/5 will always stand above 3, since the message of that game is to not give up and die (???no shit???) and I just couldn't really get behind that because it was so cliche and just not true since no one wants to die, while in P4/5 you can totally see the issues they mention in real life.

P3 cheats in having Minato die (and generally by having everyone with dead parents/friends be an excuse for their character development) while also being a first experience for most (me included), but P5 really pulls through with it's characters, story and message. The ending of P5 is easily the most hype since they combine all the best aspects of 3 and 4 while adding 5's amazing style and personality.

P4's story will be timeless, but P5's could potentially just get more relevant lol.

Overall the more I think about stuff the more I like P5, even over P4 in some aspects. The gameplay really does a lot to make the whole experience enjoyable.

[Corrderio]

I do have 2 odd complaints about the game. The first is I wish tge MC did that creepy assed "Per...sona....!" voice/look like the P3/P4 MCs did when they first summoned.

And for the other (Final boss spoilers)

Spoiler: show

Is it bad I wanted to hear Akechi's voice say "All right let's do this..." when Joker was pulling out his gun to use Sinful Shell?

[Celeras]

I just hit the date in the spoiler and want to know if I'm fucked regarding achieves (requests/confidant) from here on out. Simple Y/N will suffice.. literally at all maxed except two 9s.

Spoiler: show

12/24

[Corrderio]

Yep

[Elcura]

Yep

Spoiler: show

You know it never actually occurred to me that Satan saved Christmas.

[Corrderio]

Spoiler: show

You know it never actually occurred to me that Satan saved Christmas.

Spoiler: show

That just goes to show you how fucked up the world is

[Kirin]

Spoiler: show

You know it never actually occurred to me that Satan saved Christmas.

I had that exact thought.

And yep. Enjoy New Game +!

[Seravi Edalborez]

Finished tonight. I'm very satisfied and pretty much echo all the praise.

I do want to point out a wonderful irony though that, for the game that dropped the SMT name from its title it is by far the most SMT of the modern Personas. And all the better for it.

My only real complaint is that Normal becomes extremely easy very early. Or rather, it's easy to become overpowered very quickly. But I was mainly here for the plot anyways. Hard feels suitable while Merciless is more of a glass cannon mode than a harder difficulty.

PS: Shiki-Ouji forever.

[Zeb]

Man, I must have fucked off badly during the days. on 12/15, finished last dungeon, still have like Futaba and Haru at rank 5, Yusuke and Oda at 8. I JUST got Kindness to 5 so I can continue Hiero/Hermit after doing like 6 saved up Mementos. =/

[Celeras]

Done here too. Fell apart a little at the end for me narrative wise but nothing so egregious as to detract from the 96 hours it took to beat.

Jesus fucking 96 hours. What a campaign.

[Tobi]

I fucked up on reading books, I read all books but one but no time to get it done cause its a library book Hopefully I can get the book trophy around july still so I don't have to do a near full NG+ run for Platinum

[Kaslo]

Finally finished at 96.5 hours, and looking through a lot of the spoiler tags here I'm not sure I have too much to add...

But I really enjoyed it. I had a drive and addiction to just keep experiencing more. Which I guess is a sign of a great game.

[Zealot]

Any recommendations on what difficulty level to play this on? Are there any trophies that affects?

[Gokulo]

Any recommendations on what difficulty level to play this on? Are there any trophies that affects?

Difficulty doesn't affect trophies at all.

[Omniyoji]

You can switch the difficulty at any moment. I recommend Normal unless you want more of a challenge...

[Elcura]

Normal if you haven't played SMT/Persona before, Hard if you have. I don't really think it makes a huge difference, shit is always generally harder at the start than at the end no matter what you pick.

[Seravi Edalborez]

Merciless can potentially be easier than Normal/Hard later in the game if you know weaknesses ahead of time and/or pack high-crit builds (something like 3x damage on Crit/Technical/Weakness). It only really works against you vs bosses (no weaknesses and can't crit), trying to capture personas (because the triple damage makes it hard to knock down enemies without killing them), and reduced EXP/money.

I think once you get out of the first dungeon, Hard is pretty suitable. I found Normal to be slightly easy with exception to bosses doing high damage.

[Tobi]

I went with normal for first dungeon, hard from 2nd onwards, then went to merciless around the 5th I think. After playing so much on merciless, it was weird going back to hard in final dungeon. The exp is just too good in last dungeon I had to swap back to hard, entered it at lv57 and was lv74 by the end of it, then just grinded one last level before doing final boss. One thing I noticed while leveling up so quickly is that levels seem to increase your damage as well, even though you're not gaining any stats. Every level my Hassou Tobi damage would get higher and higher while my Yoshitsune was already 99.

[Tobi]

Got the plat done, enjoyed every moment of the game, well except mementos which was kinda meh to me. It's gonna be so hard going back to P4G and finishing that up now after playing P5, this game spoiled me so fucking hard with all its improvements. I never fought Margeret in P4 but the

Spoiler: show

Twins

kinda felt like a joke, so I can't compare difficulty between the two. Due to fighting

Spoiler: show

The Twins

at lv12, I did have to rely on some rng to dodge the gun attacks as they would one shot me, so had to pray throughout all phases that the gun attack would either never come at all or would miss, after a few tries I got nice run of all misses.