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I've been putting this off and putting this off but it's finally done. 129 hours later.

I would have taken a screenshot but it wouldn't let me.

Edited by martinist
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p101N1i.jpg
 
I've been putting this off and putting this off but it's finally done. 129 hours later.
I would have taken a screenshot but it wouldn't let me.
Congrats! Absolutely incredible game. :)
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Started playing this last week, and I'm really enjoying it so far. For anyone wondering, I'm nearing the thirty hour mark, and I'm in the third palace.

The art style is great, and consistent throughout, resulting in a UI that is not only snappy, but awesome to just simply look at. The vast majority of battles last maybe a minute, in less than ten button/trigger presses/taps? The story is engaging, characters are interesting, and the time management simulation aspect of the game is surprisingly not at all overwhelming. 

My only real complaint so far in terms of gameplay isn't even that big, and it's that there were a couple of strange difficulty spikes scattered around very early on (Archangels in the first palace spring to mind), as I was still learning the ropes of the game, but those seem to be falling away as more members join my party and my understanding of the game improves.

Something that's confusing me about the game so far, and regarding Ann, and perhaps the biggest part I'm down on so far, though...

Spoiler

The first palace has you to take down Kamoshida, who sees Ann as a girl to be objectified and manipulated into sexual acts. It's also hinted at that he attempts (and succeeds?) in doing this with Shiho, too. Ann's character arc in this part alone was actually pretty good, and it came across well.

However, the game since just seems to...throw that coming to terms with the oversexualisation of her character aside? She's still in a skimpy, skin tight leather outfit; Yusuke wants her to pose nude for a painting, and though this is taken advantage of for purposes of advancing the story, no-one seriously objects to his offer other than Ann; random NPCs will comment on her looks in a creepy way, considering that she's a high school student; and even Ryuji and Morgana try to sneak a peek up her skirt as she falls asleep on the sofa in your room after the hot pot party to welcome Yusuke. 

This kind of thing doesn't happen too often, but it happens often enough to be worth mentioning, because it's my biggest turn-off in the game so far. For a game about teens rebelling against the ways of malicious adults, there's surprisingly little control when it comes to such scenes playing out, and dialogue options in these scenes seem to be there to give the illusion of control when said scenes are clearly heading in a direction which makes me uncomfortable.

Another example would be when you first head over to Shinjuku with Ryuji. When you meet up with him after some cutscenes that place before heading home, these two seemingly gay guys come over -- nothing wrong yet. Then they start trying to chat him -- a high school student -- up, hurling compliments his way. Okay, it's starting to get a bit creepy at this point. Then they literally take him away against his will, and there's no option for you to help him out -- even though he's literally asking you to help him out! What's more, your time in Shinjuku is suddenly cut off here, and you immediately head home to sleep.

I've seen some people upset that the only gay characters encountered in the game up to this point were presented in such a way, and I'm totally with them -- knowing what little I do of the general attitude towards homosexuality in Japan, I wouldn't be surprised if this were a conscious choice. But, even if they were women instead, the much bigger problem for me is that your best friend in high school is dragged away by two strangers in a dangerous area and you don't have the option to do anything about it. I half expected the next palace to belong to these two characters, or for Ryuji to go missing, or lord knows what else after that interaction. 

Short rant over -- but this is definitely my biggest problem with the game so far. It's not even so much a problem with the game itself (like I hinted at above, everything I like about JRPGs is being excelled at so far) but the writing, specifically with such unnecessary scenes being written in the first place. ::shrug:

Anyways, back to gushing about the game: Shoji Meguro's OST is the best [opening thirty hours of a] video game soundtrack that I've listened to so far. Easily. I'm pretty sure about 80% of the soundtrack so far is instantly recognisable, catchy, and hummable.

That's actually the main reason for my posting; the theme for the third palace is insanely gorgeous, and it's just one of many great pieces in this game:

 

Edited by Julius
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eeWSxoY.jpg

The Persona games are pretty bad about homosexuality in general. I was really annoyed by Yosuke the last time I played Persona 4.

Weirdly, there's a drag queen in Persona 5 who's handled really well. ::shrug:

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To be fair though, Kanji as a character and questioning his sexuality/masculinity was handled really well IMO.

Plus, Yosuke is a known idiot, so saying something stupid like that isn't exactly out of character for him. It probably would have been better to leave it out though.

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On 17/02/2019 at 2:46 PM, Magnus said:

Weirdly, there's a drag queen in Persona 5 who's handled really well. ::shrug:

Is it wierd that I give Lala Harvey Fierstein's voice from that episode of the Simpsons where Homer grows hair and is made an executive?

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It's been so long since I played the game, I imagine her sounding like Dr. Girlfriend from The Venture Bros.

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Playthrogh number 2 is done. Could have gotten the platinum trophy but It was November when I saw the "read all books" trophy. Thought I didn't need to read them since all my starts were maxed out.

Looks Like I'll be playing another 100 or so hours of this game for the platinum trophy.

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Just passed the sixty hour mark.

Music is still great. Gameplay is still great. The story's still got me intrigued, and it's starting to pick up quite a bit. Finished the fifth palace yesterday. 

Aside from the problems I mentioned in my last post, I'm really enjoying my first Persona :peace:

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So, I actually finished this last Sunday, but wanted to take some time to gather my thoughts before posting. 

u0rR03Jh.jpg

This game was awesome.

Killer soundtrack, which is probably my favourite video game soundtrack period; intriguing story; a great cast of characters; an excellent gameplay loop between the monotony of daily school life in Tokyo, and the abundance of choice that would bring, as well as the way that is broken up by the excitement brought forth by Palaces and their stories. 

Seriously though, just to gush about the soundtrack some more: Shoji Meguro is a damn genius, with the soundtrack being so great and nuanced in its astounding variety. Lyn brings to the soundtrack a voice which has me half-convinced that she's a siren, her voice is that alluringly beautiful. 

Minute-to-minute gameplay is great. Like I mentioned last time, the UI is so snappy and intuitive that you can be in and out of a battle -- without running! -- in thirty seconds, maybe even less. The UI is a real feast for the eyes, and personifies the game's style, which perfectly compliments the art style found in the game. Whether gaining Personas through negotiation or decimating them with All-Out Attacks, I feel like this is turn-based gameplay virtually mastered. Animated cutscenes are almost always a plus in my books, too, and the voice cast was absolutely stellar (I instantly noticed it and it took me out of the game for a moment, but I'll take Suzuha as Makoto any day of the week!). 

My single complaint regarding the UI is that during Baton Passes, trying to select who to Baton Pass to can often be a bit of a pain, as attempting to toggle through characters from left to right seems to instead cycle you through the turn order of characters. I've seen some complaints around the internet levied at the battle mechanics not changing much from the beginning of the game through to the end, but I feel like this is justified somewhat by how becoming familiar with the mechanics results in much shorter battles, which, given the length of the game, can only be seen as a positive, in my opinion. I myself also didn't find the need to grind at all in the game, but if that's something that you need/want to do, again, the speed of battles here are only going to be working in your time's favour. 

As I've mentioned before, the oversexualisation of some female characters made me feel uncomfortable, and in Ann's case, completely went against her arc from the early parts of the game. I certainly didn't appreciate my player character trying to catch a peek down her top with some of the other guys in the group, and it resulted in a lot of eye-rolling on my part. Look, game, I get it: some teenage guys can be kind of pervy. But given the context of the game's first ten hours or so? Ann's definitely not the character that this should be directed at -- at least not by her closest friends. 

I've got some more spoilerous thoughts, so: 

Spoiler

Not really a fan of how you can't do everything in one playthrough, and I actually find it kind of disrespectful that the game wants you to play through it a second time, given just how long the game is. I played through the game blind and I'm not driven by trophies (the only game in which I've actively hunted for a Platinum was Spider-Man, and that's because I was only a few trophies off by the end of my playthrough), but I would have liked, at the very least, to max out all of the confidants in one playthrough, amongst a myriad of other things. I thought I'd completed all of the requests too, but after checking a guide after finishing the game, I'm guessing that I must have missed one in the summer when Mishima kept shooting me texts asking to hang out, which means I ended up missing out on a book about a hangout spot that I couldn't otherwise visit -- perhaps things like that could have been handled better, too, with a symbol next to the message, or it reading "New request!", because it's easily buried in the mountain of texts found in the game. I'm of the opinion that the game could have given us two more slots of time (Morning and Noon) during Sundays and holidays, so I don't think that maxing out all of the confidants, reading/playing everything, etc., in one playthrough would have been impossible if handled in such a way. 

I think that Akechi and the escape plan were handled perfectly. Going into the game, I'd heard that there were a few different endings, and he had only just gained my trust some seventy hours into the game before things quickly changed direction and I found him shooting Joker between the eyes! I completely panicked and found myself thinking that I'd actually got a bad ending, so I think it goes without saying that, for me, these threads were flawlessly executed. I also didn't pick up at all on the connection between Shido and Akechi (the closest I got was probably thinking that the "future prime minister" that the SIU director kept talking to was Akechi), so there were certainly a few twists and reveals like that which left my jaw hanging. 

I do feel like the game's pacing for the last ten hours or so between the completion of Shido's Palace and the end of the true final Palace was all over the place, and could have been handled much better than it was, but I still found myself elated at everything that happened from the start of the final battle to the end of the game. 

Finally, I'm going to be bitterly disappointed if Persona 5 R is along the lines of Persona 4 Golden (i.e. an enhanced/definitive edition), because I feel like the game ended in such a way that hints at a sequel of sorts (even if it's just DLC). The big question for me right now is certainly about what happened to Akechi, and I do think that there's enough of a thread left hanging by the end of the game for more events to take place set after the ending of this game. 

So, all in all, my first Persona experience was a massive success: it undoubtedly has some minor flaws, but honestly, I'm happy that it does, because it means that there are areas for Atlus to improve moving forward and when it comes to Persona 6 -- and the thoughts of them improving on a game which for me was a 10/10 experience that I lived for around a month has me very excited.

So I guess Persona 4 Golden and a Vita are on the horizon for me... :D

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I think the problem with giving the player too much time to max everything is that it would take all the fun out of having to manage your time.You're supposed to have to make some tough decisions.

Anyway, I maxed out all of my confidants in my first playthrough, so... :p

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30 minutes ago, Magnus said:

I think the problem with giving the player too much time to max everything is that it would take all the fun out of having to manage your time.You're supposed to have to make some tough decisions.

Anyway, I maxed out all of my confidants in my first playthrough, so... :p

Yeah, for sure, but that's not exactly what I'm saying. The time management aspect of the game is great, because it's challenging in an interesting, almost puzzle-like way, and I'm not saying that you should be able to do everything in the game in one playthrough.

My point was more that there was certainly "space" for more time slots in the game, such as four slots as opposed to two on Sundays/days off, which make sense in the way that the game is set up: morning and lunch are slots on school days, so why not have those two slots available on days off? There's no real reason that you shouldn't be able to do more in a single playthrough using the logic laid out in the game, I guess, is my point. 

And cool. I know that I could have maxed out of all of my confidants (think I ended up maxing out seven or eight of them?), but then I wouldn't have achieved/spent some more time with the other things that I enjoyed in the game, and there are undoubtedly things that I managed to get done in my first playthrough that you couldn't with yours due to the different choices that we made. Thing is, I think that if someone truly "balanced" their time by splitting it evenly between different activities, I get the feeling that you wouldn't max out anything in a single playthrough, which I think underlines my point. 

It's a small bullet point on a very short list of things that I think could have made the game better as a single playthrough experience, but like I said, I loved the game and really enjoyed my time with it, so... :p

EDIT: I've just read my post back @Magnus, and I don't know if it's just me, but for some reason it seems like it comes off as being a bit mean-spirited? That certainly wasn't my intention, so apologies if it comes across that way.

To sum it up: I wholly agree with you, and I completely get why they had to make it this way. I -- quite selfishly -- just would have loved to spend even more time with these characters in that world without having to start a NG+, because while I have no doubt that I'll one day return to this game, I guess it's just easier from my perspective to swallow the pill of spending another twenty or thirty hours with them than I did, as opposed to having to start all over for another roughly 100 hour endeavour! :D

Edited by Julius

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So like, where is Persona 5 Arena? P4A is still a game I back to from time to time, and a modern update to that series would be killer.

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According to Play-Asia, Persona 5 will be getting a PlayStation Hits edition, which is set to be released next month (April 2019). 

Persona-5-PlayStation-Hits.jpg

This would seem to suggest, at least to me, that Persona 5 R/the Persona 5 R projects will not be/include an enhanced edition of Persona 5, a la Persona 4 Golden, as it would most likely result in both confusion and cannabilised sales in conjunction with this PlayStation Hits release. 

I think this gives credence to the possibility that we'll see a sequel of some sorts, whether it be its own game or, much more likely, some story DLC for Persona 5.

Not long until we find out, either way! :D

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So, uh, Persona 5 R: The Royal

It's so unclear as to what it is. I'm guessing she's a first year student from her uniform, and apparently she says that she's not really a fan of the Phantom Thieves or their methods of helping people.

Is it DLC? A new game/sequel? An enhanced version with the option of a female protagonist, kind of like Persona 3 Portable? I kind of doubt that last one, but who knows ::shrug: just throw us a bone, Atlus!

More information coming on April 24th.

Edited by Julius
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Fingers crossed it's some sort of stadalone thing. Although it's one of my favourite games of all time, I really can't be arsed to play through the whole game again for a few extra sections.

Although from the title, it's obviously a battle royale game. Probably with procedural generation, crafting and roguelike elements.

Edited by Goafer
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On 3/22/2019 at 6:44 AM, Julius said:

According to Play-Asia, Persona 5 will be getting a PlayStation Hits edition, which is set to be released next month (April 2019). 

Persona-5-PlayStation-Hits.jpg

This would seem to suggest, at least to me, that Persona 5 R/the Persona 5 R projects will not be/include an enhanced edition of Persona 5, a la Persona 4 Golden, as it would most likely result in both confusion and cannabilised sales in conjunction with this PlayStation Hits release. 

I think this gives credence to the possibility that we'll see a sequel of some sorts, whether it be its own game or, much more likely, some story DLC for Persona 5.

Not long until we find out, either way! :D

Nice, I was looking into getting this game a while back but it was hard to come by and very overpriced. I was thinking I'd probably get the Switch release (if that is even happening), but £20 PS4 game is much more appealing.

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It's official: Persona 5 is joining the PlayStation Hits lineup! 

 

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Looks like it's PS4 only for now.

Edited by Goafer

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Nice. Any idea if the base P5 will get a DLC or we need to buy P5R to play the new content? 

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5 hours ago, DriftKaiser said:

Nice. Any idea if the base P5 will get a DLC or we need to buy P5R to play the new content? 

It won't be DLC.

I was reading a list of new features, and everything sounded good until I got to...

Spoiler

Human Morgana. Why, Atlus? Why must you always ruin your mascot characters? :cry:

k3ShJVI.jpg

 

Edited by Magnus
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8 hours ago, Magnus said:

It won't be DLC.

I was reading a list of new features, and everything sounded good until I got to...

  Bleurgh (Reveal hidden contents)

Human Morgana. Why, Atlus? Why must you always ruin your mascot characters? :cry:

k3ShJVI.jpg

 

God it's teddy all over again...

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Should I buy the "standard" version now for 20€ from the PSN store or wait for Persona 5: The Royal which will probably arrive next year...

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59 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Should I buy the "standard" version now for 20€ from the PSN store or wait for Persona 5: The Royal which will probably arrive next year...

Did you ever finish Persona 4 Golden?

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