Persona 5 (2016)

Progress (44 Hours) Infiltrating Futabas Palace.

As much as I have been enjoying this game I have found pacing has really suffered in this particular part of the game. Having spent the last two and half hours trudging through an incredibly slow burn of story exposition that was admittedly interesting but could have been done so much more efficiently. This pacing issue is only exacerbated by the fact that as I finished the last palace quite efficiently I probably spent another hour or just doing day to day life so its probably been 4 hours now to get back into the action.

I really just came here to vent. I have a bit of love hate relationship with this game at the moment but now I am looking forward to tackling this latest palace.

Question for those who have beaten the game how is the pacing for the remainder of the game? Does it suffer this kind of problem all the way through or was that the worst of it?

Progress (20hrs) Infiltrating Madarames Palace.

Despite not initially being a fan of Persona 5's aesthetic or combat this game has really got its hooks into me. The life sim side of the game is where this game really shines and is a great way to unwind and the end of a day when you just want to chill. The characters are all captivating and I genuinely want to take down these villains. The over arching story is intriguing and the mystery of this weird abstract world keeps me wanting to advance to find out what the heck is actually going on in this game.

I'm also going through a tough time with a particular person causing a lot of grief in my life and playing this really makes me wish I could be a phantom thief and steal their distorted desires. Its been a long while since something has caught my imagination like that.

We played this game for like 5 hours and never actually got to play the damn game so I'm out. I know this is a cult classic and everyone who somehow survives the first 900 hours ends up adoring it, but I do nooootttt have the patience for that.

I work as a writer and editor, and my biggest frustration comes from the writing. The game didn't need to be this long. If they had tightened up the dialog and hired a strong editor, it could have communicated the exact same plot and characters in a fraction of the time.

Idk, I have no other feelings for this game except a long, anguished groan of frustration, and bafflement at the glowing reviews from people who love it.

I had a thought while playing this game. It's beautiful, I love the storyline, and I enjoy returning to turn-based strategy RPG. But one thing I think they could have done better is making the Joker an ACTUAL character. There is some great voice acting here and then our MCis this silent dud(e) in the corner of the room. This is a classic RPG tactic, but I truly feel we have moved past this now in gaming. I don't want to place myself in Joker's shoes; I want to know who he is as a character. Aloy, from Horizon Zero Dawn, is a perfect example of what they could have done. I get to chose what she says, but she still is her OWN character.

What are your thoughts? Do you think you would enjoy Persona 5 with voice acting from Joker, or do you disagree, liking the classic elements?

I forgot to post on here the other night about this; I finally saw credits!

Even though I kept saying I was ready to be done, I was kind of sad when it was all said and done. It was a really good game. The story is pretty good, and most of the characters have great story arcs as part of their social links. There were a couple of social links I could care less about, but most of them were worth trying to see through.