I don't think I've ever seen a game TRY to make you hate it. Its full of BS, Psycho Rage, Panic, Stone, Random Elemental Skills no one has heard of, Invisible Bosses, Calm Sleep, bosses spamming Mudo skill 6 times in a row, etc. there are so many mechanics that are near impossible to maneuver and avoid it can make the game extremely frustrating in its difficulty. But behind that makes it a fun game both in difficulty sense and other aspects. While it can be frustrating, finding different strategies and changing movesets on the fly was something that I appreciated and something new to me (I think unless im forgetting another game I've played does that) and added a new degree to it. The story set up pretty nicely, would've liked a little more interaction between the group of 5/6 main cast but what was there was fine and sequel seems it could be something more. Serph was an alright silent protagonist, I think there's a lot more that could've been done with him cuz he does feel a bit bland or underwhelming

This somehow felt a fair bit shorter than 1 for me. Prefer 1 to it also. Tho while I think its on the same "level" I think 1 just did better things in gameplay and bosses. 2's plot was different from what I was expecting but still delivered it and the conclusion well

Live Happily or some bullshit, who knows

Enjoyed the game throughout, especially the World of Balance portion, I thought that was great. World of Ruin was good but at times felt a bit overwhelming for me personally, though me pulling an all nighter to do it in one sitting before the end of the year could've contributed to that

First srpg I’ve played in nearly a decade (unless I’m forgetting one in that time), was interesting. Starting with gameplay, I do like sprg ig and am defo willing to try more, I just think in P5T it’s kinda up and down. Some levels I enjoyed, some were just such a chore to get thru, not even hard, long unnecessarily long or annoying. Onto the point of then being long, it contributed to the pacing which I was NOT a fan of at all. Probably the worst part of the game and it decreased the value of it across everything because of it. I like the P5 cast and the new additions of Toshiro and Erina were not bad and I think their decent characters, but the pacing around the story made it so hard for me to care, especially when the first 2 kingdoms plot were nothing to write home about and frankly kinda lackluster nothing special. Dreaded playing most of the game and quickly wanted to finish but the game seemed it didn’t want you to do that at all and made everything longer for no fucking reason at all. So in the end, it fucking sucks
(Makoto tho🥰❤️🥰❤️🥰❤️🥰❤️)

Incredibly good game, from the countless biblical and demonology references, to what was showed of what humans would do under dire circumstances and the different decisions they would make depending on their background and upbringing, and a few other things as well. Really liked the different endings that were available in the game and gave different perspectives on choices. Though as any Atlus game, it definitely didn't come without its frustrations and struggles, though overall, the gameplay was fine

Ibr, Im only logging this because I want to fully separate part 1 and part 2 from each other cuz I do not like the direction part 2 seems to be going so here we are. Now can we get Kevin's face off this cover please (THEY CHANGED IT OMGGGGG 6/16/24)
I love part one, I do think the ending has its fair bits of flaws and underwhelming bits but I think it was a meh to decent ending and I cant down on the whole of part 1 cuz of that. Some of my favorite moments come from it

I really failed to connect with most of Part 1.5. It definitely pales in comparison to part 1 for many of reasons and with my doubts and concerns of the upcoming part 2, it definitely didn't leave me w/ many reassurances either. Seele's portion of 1.5 was nothing special to me, found it to be a lot of dross with pacing that did not fit me at all. Only really enjoyed the Senti portions, and didn't care much for Seele and Vita and the rest until towards the very end. The Fu Hua portion are marginally better with the first chapter (40) giving a pretty good start in my opinion and giving me something to look towards. Then 41 didn't deliver it for me, some pacing issues and the small vitas, Phosphorus, and Moriarty especially did not peak my interest then. 42 did give me some things I liked tho and enjoyed that part also. Griseo and Fu Hua during that were good, includes probably one of the best bosses in the game, then the epilogue of everyone from part 1 conversing was a nice little touch at the end and kind of sort of felt like a farewell to part 1. 1.5 didn't lead much into part 2 which I found a bit odd but thats whatever as I mentioned earlier, I am not excited about that at all and would like to do anything possible to separate part 1 and 2 as much as I can, but this isn't a doompost review. In summary, 1.5 was a little bit of a story of 2 halves, Seele's not being all that great while Hua's was definitely something that I enjoyed a decent amount

TLDR: Doesn't do much to improve on its original counterparts nor does it fix any of the issues the original counterparts had (The Tartarus slog, gameplay loop, unfinished characters, etc.)

I want to start out with, having played FES, I don’t think this is a good “remake”, “remaster”, “reload”, whatever you want to call it or class it. It adds some nice things here and there, but fails most of the bigger problems I had or in some cases, amplifying them. While I don’t agree with the whole “they made it P5” statement, I do agree that the game lacks the charm in some areas, for lack of a better word, that FES had. Found some portions Tartarus visually lacked the feeling it gave in FES (a few I liked the updated look) and lighting stuff in the overworld, or for the sake of visual effects, section(s) were made harder to traverse because of it, Adamah, but that’s nitpicks.
On a merciless run, I found the game way too easy for such difficulty, was pretty disappointed about that but also at the same time, didn’t want to spend any more time than I did on the game, so whatever. I thought the addition of Monad Doors/Passages was interesting as first, but as I traversed further into Tartarus, they felt more and more in the way instead of a good challenge. Most of the bosses just were not good or fun in challenging ways and a bit dumb at times, then after a certain point, I found myself fighting the same bosses in different Monad Doors? ok man
The game doesn’t do much at all to improve the gameplay loop of its original counterparts, in some areas it even being worse. There’s nothing that alleviates the slog Tartarus is, at times even feeling moreso than the original. It’s not rewarding at all, you go thru 30-40 odd floors per section, then what? Go back to what u were doing irl waiting for the next full moon, which when you get there, still doesnt do anything interesting, just fight an arcana boss then leave. Yea it does lead to something in the very end, but before that it shows no narrative for the most part and isn't something I looked forward to. The “lore” papers they added into Tartarus just aren’t enough, 30-40 floors for one paragraph of incomplete lore that frankly isn’t interesting did not do it for me. It’s just fighting fighting fighting with no reward, Combat is fine, but when your doing the same mind numbing battles over and over, it gets boring and not fun.
I don’t find the plot good or interesting at all, in FES, and Reload doesn’t do much, if anything at all, to make me want to change opinions. The full moon days are supposed to progress the plot, but I struggle to find where, you go in, fight a boss, then that’s basically it. You might get a few scenes depending on where you’re at in the game but nothing that really carries a narrative. When u finally get to points where it does push the narrative, it’s frankly disappointing, partially from the slow pacing of the narrative or it just not being interesting or incomplete. A lot of the characters feel unfinished or done in by their screen time (All 3 Strega characters, Shinji, SEES members, Ikutsuki, etc.).
Another small nitpick I have is that the SEES member social links are either locked by later dates or by social stats, there are a few Social Links outside of them that are interesting, but having to still wait for around for them sullied my interest throughout the game
I don't want to make this whole review negative, so I'll mention a few things, if I can, that I liked. Aigis and her character was one I liked in FES and it not having much change, of course I would like her in Reload. The final scene, both times, hasn't failed in giving me a knot in my throat. A few other social links I came to like, like Kamiki and Yuko. The voiced SLs did seem to enhance them a bit and appreciate that
Taking in the amount of idle hours I had on Reload, more or less, was considerable longer in hours played, which given its the same game for the most part, was not to my liking. The game overall is slower paced, whether it was Tartarus and its battle animation or overworld scene, didn't appreciate the extra time commitment
OSTs are worse for the most part, at least the remixes, are all worse than their older counterparts. Idk what their thinking was but a lot was missing the oomf and power that the originals had.

Starting with the point, I've only done 1 out of the 4 'route' or 'classes' you could choose for the game, the sage route. I will go back over time to finish the other 3 but for reasons I'll point out later, I'm not all too keen to go thru them at the moment
Honestly the fact this game was made by one single person is kind of baffling. Karekusa put a lot of thought, feeling, and passion into the game I don't know how long this took but major props to the sole creator, deserves all of it and hope since the game was made they've gone onto doing something they love. The raw fantasy setting, vibe and lore is insanely cool with nice OST accompanied to it. The Sage route offered a lot of what I was asking going into the game. For a RPGmaker game and not being the biggest fan of them, the gameplay isn't bad (though does get boring at times). I don't want to get into spoilers but the mystery and plot of the route was great, the game gave me way too many chills just cuz of everything surrounding it. It is kind of a choose your own way/route story which was nice at times but also something I did not enjoy always. The game is about as non linear as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, it says its non linear when it kind of isn't. The lack of direction at times was quite frustrating and found my self at an impasse a few times which felt more tedious and annoying than fun. It still funnels you to a concluding point but I don't think it does the best of keeping the non linearity at the same time, giving me multiple headaches. it would be incredibly frustrating for me to play all 4 routes back to back hence why I'm deciding to take breaks. Some fights are weirdly placed where your not ready for them at all or if you don't have this specific item, you're basically fucked or in for a marginally harder time. That's about the only cons I have but it comes out as a net positive and would genuinely recommend this to anyone looking for a fantasy setting game to play

MTL'd, I plan to reread in future when I become proficient enough in JP

Game w a lot of nothing. Face of things, aesthetically, it looks pretty nice with the world design and pixel style for the game. Gameplay is nice but the game difficulty is incredibly easy, didn't struggle at all through out. The plot isn't really there, would be harsh to say it’s not finished, but could be a fleshed out maybe? more to it? Feels generic to me. No characters that was really of note for the game, a couple others solely cuz they looked or were cool, neither being the main characters, which is a huge problem in itself, but overall, characters lacked a lot, from main characters to antagonists. Also really don’t like the true ending cuz it devalues one of, maybe the only, the significant plot points and moment in the game

Ik it’s only the start but frankly it’s not good in any regard so far, not surprised. Hoyoverse managed to use the name of their best project, and turned it to boring slop like the other 2+ IPs they have. It’s a completely new game I really just don’t get the point of the “Part 2” (money reasons yes I know). Incredibly boring/bad designs, nothing of note or of interest to take away from the story so far. Boring storytelling and dialogue, since end of part 1 they’ve shifted the writing style to something w a lot of filler words, words of nothing, and it’s so much more evident here. Panders to a new fanbase but not to a returner player at all. How I wish I could see the downfall of this company, I need a money laundering scandal to pop up or something, I’ll be the first person to be there

Don't have much to say. Concept was cool with time traveling and stuff. Wouldn't say story was bad but it also wasn't anything extraordinary. One thing I didn't really appreciate was despite the game being pretty easy, it had a few minor bosses with the weirdest difficulty spikes, gave a couple annoying headaches but whatever

Umm, well this is not how you do an introductory game. Yes it's the first in a trilogy, setting up a story, it does it pretty poorly for the most part. Everything prior to the final chapter and a bit of chapter 3 was such a drag. Annoying character interactions (except Olivier, you get a gold star babes) and nothing about the world that got be interested in the setting. Felt like a quest completer for most of it. Thought the ending bits were pretty nice, nothing special and found a couple things about it generic? or nothing new for me, but was at least a step up from the rest of the game.