The first half of the story is pretty slow, but it's necessary build-up for the more emotional beats that happen later. The second half of this game is now my favorite stretch of Persona storytelling ever. The characters and themes all come together in such a beautiful way.

Most of the social links are very good and have fantastic conclusions, but a few of them really haven't aged well. I also wish the game didn't make it so hard to do school social links. Sometimes you'll have to wait weeks without being able to progress them. Summer vacation is easily the worst offender of this, and I just couldn't wait for it to be over.

Tartarus is fun for the most part. I really enjoyed the new combat additions and qol features. If you love Persona combat like me, this game does a good job of keeping it interesting. The familiar dungeon layouts start to get pretty repetitive later on though, even with each block of Tartarus getting a visual overhaul.

The story is what really elevates this game for me. The characters go through such massive developments, and truly grow to feel like a group of life-long friends. The ending is also now one of my favorite video game endings of all time.