This review contains spoilers
I feel inclined to split this review into the good and the bad, because there's no other way to talk about the game other than to make a clear distinction between everything that makes it incredible and everything that makes it irritating. To be clear: I have not played Royal yet, and no please don't go off to me about how Royal fixes everything and yadda yadda, I'll get to it when I get to it.
The Good:
- Persona 5 visually is quite appealing. I don't think its the sexiest looking game alive, but it's undeniably nice to look at.
- I love the phantom thieves. I like them more than the Investigation Team, as I do truly feel like this batch of friends have seen it all together. Yusuke is very very funny and relatable as a freak with hyperfixations, Futaba hits way too close to home as someone who lost a parent and then went into emotional despair, and as someone who has to overcome extreme anxiety in the pursuit of being a normal member of society. Even Akechi, which I'll get to later, I like to think about cause he's so shitty that I love him.
- Confidants are really cool in concept, I love how they're executed and I think that calling them Confidants as opposed to social links really brings together the themes of thieves working together to bring vigilante justice.
-The new persona designs are Soejima's best work. The casts' original personas are some of the most iconic, banger designs from the series, most notably Arsene, Carmen, Johanna, Captain Kid, and Loki really do it for me.
- Kamoshida and his entire arc is a great introduction not only to P5, but Persona. It's a great hook, line, and sinker that left me wanting more (we'll get to it.)
- I really like the ideas a lot of the earlier dungeons had. The dungeons here are a really nice step up from Persona 4's TV World, and even Tartarus which I'm insane enough to defend.
- The end game is incredibly tense. The twists, as opposed to P4 come out of NOWHERE. Igor's inevitable recast was handled exquisitely, and there were so many moments where I was genuinely panicked as I thought it was all over, but it still just kept going. The final fight is incredible, the best in the series in my opinion, and nothing will send chills down my spine quite like the words, "Pillage him, Satanael".
- The music is pretty dang good. I like P4's OST better, but this still has some shining moments.
The Bad:
- The stretch between Okumura's dungeon and Memento's Depths is a fucking disaster. Okumura's Dungeon has been blasted enough. Sae's Palace is pretty fun, especially to someone who likes casino/gambler aesthetic (me), but the story is just so fucking off the rails by that point.
- Goro Akechi is so terribly written that its hilarious but the game has so little self awareness to how much I do not care about his daddy issues and inanely convoluted backstabbing plan.
- The game has horrific pacing. Characters lack much needed screen time, especially Haru and Akechi. Characters also are often brought up in their arcs but are reduced to supportive cast at times. Their Confidants are supposed to spread this out more, but it leaves actual story segments empty of flavour as characters like Yusuke or Makoto are kinda just there.
- The Confidants are cool in concept but some are just busted, and some are utter dogwater.
- The game's UI can sometimes feel like it's too much, as cool as it is.
- The evolved Persona designs are kinda ugly in my opinion. If not ugly, they're not as interesting or iconic as the originals. Poor Haru...
- The game is braindead easy. It doesn't tickle the strategic elements of the brain nearly as much as other entries and it more so than any other game in the series feels like "press Agidyne to win".
- Mementos is boring. Tartarus at least shook up its aesthetic and added onto the song. Tartarus was also the only dungeon, where this is a side thing that's actually necessary to go through to complete the game.
- The game's themes made no sense to me. Persona 3's themes of Life and Death hit me hard and I see the entire game reflect it, Persona 4's pursuit of the truth and being honest with one's self is inescapable, but Persona 5's themes can't even be agreed upon by some people. Is it about the human heart, conviction, morality, rotten adults, all of the above? It doesn't commit it just says "MM HUMAN HEART" without explaining what they think the human heart means. It doesn't explore the inherent dubious morality of magic lobotomy and invasion of privacy. They don't really challenge the phantom thieves morality to the players, even when the world is challenging them they don't make the player actually wonder if what they're doing is wrong, they just say "no its okay they're bad guys".
- The music is the biggest OST thus far in the series but also it consists of like 10 versions of Beneath the Mask.
- The fact that most of the gameplay is a flashback shoots itself in the foot. It wants to set up tension but it also ruins many surprises, most importantly Akechi. Akechi is so brutally obvious its not even funny.
Overall, I like Persona 5 a lot but it has some fucking issues. It's a big mess in many aspects, although its also just so inherently cool. I have a very vicious love hate relationship with this game that will likely never end. You should definitely give it a shot though, just don't go expecting perfection.
The Good:
- Persona 5 visually is quite appealing. I don't think its the sexiest looking game alive, but it's undeniably nice to look at.
- I love the phantom thieves. I like them more than the Investigation Team, as I do truly feel like this batch of friends have seen it all together. Yusuke is very very funny and relatable as a freak with hyperfixations, Futaba hits way too close to home as someone who lost a parent and then went into emotional despair, and as someone who has to overcome extreme anxiety in the pursuit of being a normal member of society. Even Akechi, which I'll get to later, I like to think about cause he's so shitty that I love him.
- Confidants are really cool in concept, I love how they're executed and I think that calling them Confidants as opposed to social links really brings together the themes of thieves working together to bring vigilante justice.
-The new persona designs are Soejima's best work. The casts' original personas are some of the most iconic, banger designs from the series, most notably Arsene, Carmen, Johanna, Captain Kid, and Loki really do it for me.
- Kamoshida and his entire arc is a great introduction not only to P5, but Persona. It's a great hook, line, and sinker that left me wanting more (we'll get to it.)
- I really like the ideas a lot of the earlier dungeons had. The dungeons here are a really nice step up from Persona 4's TV World, and even Tartarus which I'm insane enough to defend.
- The end game is incredibly tense. The twists, as opposed to P4 come out of NOWHERE. Igor's inevitable recast was handled exquisitely, and there were so many moments where I was genuinely panicked as I thought it was all over, but it still just kept going. The final fight is incredible, the best in the series in my opinion, and nothing will send chills down my spine quite like the words, "Pillage him, Satanael".
- The music is pretty dang good. I like P4's OST better, but this still has some shining moments.
The Bad:
- The stretch between Okumura's dungeon and Memento's Depths is a fucking disaster. Okumura's Dungeon has been blasted enough. Sae's Palace is pretty fun, especially to someone who likes casino/gambler aesthetic (me), but the story is just so fucking off the rails by that point.
- Goro Akechi is so terribly written that its hilarious but the game has so little self awareness to how much I do not care about his daddy issues and inanely convoluted backstabbing plan.
- The game has horrific pacing. Characters lack much needed screen time, especially Haru and Akechi. Characters also are often brought up in their arcs but are reduced to supportive cast at times. Their Confidants are supposed to spread this out more, but it leaves actual story segments empty of flavour as characters like Yusuke or Makoto are kinda just there.
- The Confidants are cool in concept but some are just busted, and some are utter dogwater.
- The game's UI can sometimes feel like it's too much, as cool as it is.
- The evolved Persona designs are kinda ugly in my opinion. If not ugly, they're not as interesting or iconic as the originals. Poor Haru...
- The game is braindead easy. It doesn't tickle the strategic elements of the brain nearly as much as other entries and it more so than any other game in the series feels like "press Agidyne to win".
- Mementos is boring. Tartarus at least shook up its aesthetic and added onto the song. Tartarus was also the only dungeon, where this is a side thing that's actually necessary to go through to complete the game.
- The game's themes made no sense to me. Persona 3's themes of Life and Death hit me hard and I see the entire game reflect it, Persona 4's pursuit of the truth and being honest with one's self is inescapable, but Persona 5's themes can't even be agreed upon by some people. Is it about the human heart, conviction, morality, rotten adults, all of the above? It doesn't commit it just says "MM HUMAN HEART" without explaining what they think the human heart means. It doesn't explore the inherent dubious morality of magic lobotomy and invasion of privacy. They don't really challenge the phantom thieves morality to the players, even when the world is challenging them they don't make the player actually wonder if what they're doing is wrong, they just say "no its okay they're bad guys".
- The music is the biggest OST thus far in the series but also it consists of like 10 versions of Beneath the Mask.
- The fact that most of the gameplay is a flashback shoots itself in the foot. It wants to set up tension but it also ruins many surprises, most importantly Akechi. Akechi is so brutally obvious its not even funny.
Overall, I like Persona 5 a lot but it has some fucking issues. It's a big mess in many aspects, although its also just so inherently cool. I have a very vicious love hate relationship with this game that will likely never end. You should definitely give it a shot though, just don't go expecting perfection.
silverware
1 year ago