Persona 5

[Shrinweck]

This game is too good for me to put any more time and effort than this into a thread.

[kali o.]

I fucked up the romance convo I wanted on the 1st playthrough....and Persona 5 doesn't do auto-saves...I've been spoiled by auto saves. I wasn't going to give up 4 hours of playtime to reload. Damn it.

[Shrinweck]

Yeah that hurts. The game gives you more chances to save than Persona 4 so it doesn't bother at all with the "Would you like to save, now?" pop ups. The last thing I did before I stopped playing last night was start a relationship with the clinic doctor haha

The most time I've lost on a load so far is ~20 minutes but I've definitely gone 90 minutes without saving... during a storm. I really need to either be more mindful or make room on the battery side of my UPS lol

[SineSwiper]

and Persona 5 doesn't do auto-saves...

Off-topic with Persona 5, but even when I have auto-saves, like in Fallout 4, I'm pissed off because it didn't auto-save soon enough.

You mean I didn't bring up my Pipboy off-battle for an entire hour?

[kali o.]

Yeah, I eventually trained myself to open the pipboy every ~10 mins or so (manually use stims).

Back on topic, Persona is a good game. Silly story...sure...but it's Japanese/Persona...

I am post-betrayal (not really surprised). Accidentally entered into two relationships (I was just trying to comfort Ann!). No way will I max confidants at this point, so New Game+ is assured.

[Shrinweck]

I think we're similarly far into the game kali

I've maxed a ton of them but I'm definitely going to miss 3-5.

I've been planning NG+ since I started lol

If I haven't played through P5 three times by this time next year I'll be surprised. I might go back to P4G after my first NG+ of this though.

[Shrinweck]

I beat it. Not that it's a competition but it could very well be better than P4... Not so much P4G which is still my favorite by far. I started NG+ on hard difficulty and switched to Japanese language. But right before I fought the first boss I ended up switching back to English. Too many lines with no subtitles just seemed to detract from the experience. Also one of the lines in English that bothered me (ROWR JOKER GOOD JOB YOU KNOCKED THEM DOWN) was just as annoying in Japanese so I switched back lol

Spoiler: show

I got the impression from the moments with Sae and Sojiro where they think out loud about how this all seemed super convenient and there most be something more going on that they've left the door open for a P4G-style remake with a new final boss that was masterminding everything in the future

[Shrinweck]

I'm still playing this every day. This is the only game I've played so far this year that's managed to meet/exceed the hype/expectations for it. I ended up buying an audio converter so I could play it with my somewhat nice headphones as opposed to my shitty monitor speakers. I'll also be able to use it with my PSTV to get a better experience with P4G. I might play P3P again with it but I don't really know if I want to play that one again lol

[kali o.]

I was rather disappointed maxing all confidants didn't change the ending. I probably would have still played through the NG+, but I was let down expecting something in the ending to change.

Two plays and done for me. But worth the purchase. I had three achievements left (books, crafts and guardian), so I will platinum off an old save at some point.

(Obviously, my 2nd playthrough was way, waaaay, quicker.)

[Eric]

I have some nitpicky complaints about this game, which I'm gonna lead with, I think it starts to run out of steam near the end, spoilers:

Spoiler: show

The build up to Shino could have been better, we know this guy is going to be the primary bad guy short of whatever god figure you need to fight(It is a Persona game), and you see the guy within the first hour of the game, but there's not a great deal done to connect all the dots in I guess a more obvious way before the end of the game. It all just sort of comes together and you've been getting played this entire time.

The game in general kinda runs out of steam in the latter half for motivations and such. Kamoshida? Asshole, felt personal, loved taking him down. Madarame? Asshole, felt personal to Yusuke, dragged us into it due to our inexperience in 2nd heist, and the slow reveal that he was a terrible human being was awesome. Kaneshiro? Uhh I guess he's extorting people? Not very personal? Also not sure why Makoto is so pissed. Futaba? Came outta no where, wasn't personal to any of us, sob story, didn't really care too much, at least her palace was cool and had great music, this is also when the game started to connect the dots to Shino in this roundabout way. Okumura, not personal at all, just going with the flow of the game, if Haru didn't exist I wouldn't even notice, worst final party member, at least Naoto in P4 was suspecting everyone for a while. Niijima Palace was cool, also personal since she's been interrogating you all game, maybe Makoto should have been the final party member? Would have made much more sense. I liked Shido's Palace for the atmosphere, but gameplay wise I'm not sure wtf they were thinking with so many straight line corridors and space. Mementos/God Climb was ok. Final Boss music could have been better, but then what tops "The Battle for Everyone's Souls," in P3?

While it was apparent Akechi was the mind breaker I was still disappointed with the development. I thought they were building up Ryuji for betrayal, which would have made for a better twist since he was always a little too energetic about changing hearts and wanting approval, but they went the other way(How cool would it be if the first guy you make a bond/fought with was a traitor).

I DID however love the twist with Igor, since hardcore Persona fans were complaining about his voice.

Final complaint: I did my first playthrough on Hard(Damage received: x1.6 - Damage dealt: x0.8 - Experience: x1.0 - Money: x1.0), and this was fine for a tougher challenge. I did my NG+ on Merciless(Damage received: x1.6 - Damage dealt: x0.8 - Experience: x0.4 - Money: x0.4 - Critical Damage: x3.0) and I turned it back to Hard. Atlus needs to re-evaluate that difficulty actually means. Making criticals more deadly and changing the weakness modifier to 3x is fine, but reducing EXP & Money gains by 60% is fucking retarded, grinding more exp does not make for a fun gameplay experience, and I don't give a shit if the intention is to keep you at a lower level, they'd do better off implementing a level cap per palace if that's their intention. They could give bosses/sub bosses more abilities that play around the fact the MC is a Overpowered on higher difficulties, increase the HP, give bosses another phase, but the hardest difficulty on Persona games has always pissed me off that they gimp the exp/gold gains to try to limit your leveling and block off skills from your party members and call it "hard", it sucks. It's a poor and obvious afterthought to an otherwise excellent series.

All of my moaning aside I really did love this game. I think it's the first JRPG I've played through more then once that's come out in the last decade or so.

The art style is awesome, the MC is probably my favorite Persona MC design wise. The music is great(Life Will Change is probably Top 3 Persona songs for me), the combat somehow breathes lives into turn based combat gameplay and keeps you engaged. It's just a fun and well put together game.

[Shrinweck]

I ended up playing this game back to back three times haha. I don't really disagree with your complaints. You're correct that merciless is absurd.

Did you do the secret/extra boss? I had a lot of fun beating them, but I ended up changing the difficulty from hard to easy after my second wipe for that because I didn't want to beat my head against it.

It's a really well put together game in general, and while it's probably my least favorite Persona game in general (played 3-5) I ended up putting like three times as much time into it as the others lol.

I still plan on playing through P4G again at some point. Maybe during the next gaming drought... which will probably be next year.

[Eric]

Which boss? The Reaper?

[Shrinweck]

Spoiler: show

The twins. You can find them on the first/party floor in Mementos in NG+

[Eric]

I have a save there, I shall check it out!




https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DFiq8J8U0AAi-0N.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DFiq-AtUIAADPxD.jpg

[Shrinweck]

Oh pertinent news: Persona 3 and 5 are getting dancing games (4 already has one)

[Eric]

Let the milking begin!

(Give me Persona 5: Crimson Atlus)

[Shrinweck]

Persona 5 R sounds amazing. It has the possibility to fix all the problems I have with the Persona 5 story that make it probably my least favorite of 3-5.

When I think back on Persona 5 it genuinely fills so disjointed. All the characters feel relatively dropped after their various chapters with the exception of Ryuji who still doesn't seem very well fleshed out. They feel like they get relegated to catchphrases and cheerleading. The Confidants/social links are almost all disappointing... in fact for a great deal of the characters the confidants aren't even ABOUT the characters you're trying to get to know. I think it just feels like it was written unevenly because of the years of development and suffered for it. I think the biggest indication of this is how incredibly shitty the opening is compared to standards established in the other games. Just look at how much better the openings for the Persona dancing games are.





Compared to



I mean... Makoto, Futaba, and Haru are barely even in it lol. P4G probably has a better opening and that's on the Vita for pete's sake.

[Eric]

We'll see! Persona 5 is actually my favorite PS4 game(I beat it like 4 times). Needless to say this is a day 1 purchase for me. Alas it's not until early 2020 and it has so much competition! >_<

[kali o.]

Wait...is this coming as a DLC or do people have to buy the whole game again? If its the latter, Im going to be pissed.

[Shrinweck]

They've redone a lot of the game. Even more than P4G. I haven't seen a REAL confirmation for this but I think there's an entire new semester of content (Edit: Okay after some Googling it looks like this is confirmed by Gematsu). I also think they have probably taken a pass at changes of the old content. Unfortunately that does mean another whole new purchase, I'm assuming.

I think the latest trailer teases an entirely new direction during the big confrontation with the traitor, which to me implies you can either fail there, do the story like before, or access an entirely new true ending.

This is all just guess work though.

I always had assumptions where the story would have gone if there were more. Namely

Spoiler: show

Akechi living (you never see a body), a "God" who has been manipulating things behind the scenes like in P4 true ending, probably more shit that I could remember if I was feeling a little fresher right now.

There's stuff about the game that I was always a little intrigued by. Sojiro seemed like he got an outside push to take you in. Shido must have gotten his abilities somewhere, this is the outside influence I think could be more than fake Igor. Futaba's mother died when she was a child from what I gathered. That means Akechi was killing peoples shadow selves in the metaverse when he was like ten fucking years old? I dunno...

I should say that I still had a great deal of fun with Persona 5. It's the most fun Persona game to actually play even though I end up liking it the least.

[kali o.]

If that ends up being the case, thats a non-starter for me. Remasters a year later at full retail is fucking greedy and a slap in the face to everyone that already bought it.

I get people are fans of Persona (I am obviously) but that kind of crap should not be supported. They can easily add it as a New Game + option or something -- just like they did with the Chosen in Xcom actually.

[Shrinweck]

For the amount of new shit it's going to have more value than War of the Chosen. It will have been two years by the time it releases. Also there are already hints that if they did provide a NG+ option you wouldn't know what was going on because of the additions they are making.

[kali o.]

You are justifying because you are a fan as far as I can tell. I think you are "wrong" to do so, in the sense that I believe supporting Atlus here is a net negative for all of us.

In any event, if it isnt available as DLC for the western release, Atlus won't see a penny out of me.

[Eric]

You're 100% Right in this case Kali.

That being said I'm still gonna sell out and buy it lol.

[kali o.]

You're 100% Right in this case Kali.

That being said I'm still gonna sell out and buy it lol.

Ya I know. I'm buying Monster Hunter World's overpriced DLC, so I'm not exactly much better.

[Eric]

Take Over plays during a pre-emptive attack while Last Surprise plays during normal battle.

[Shrinweck]

Just having any kind of variant in the default battle music is a big deal. I bought the P3 and P4 costumes partly because they came with something that let you change the battle music.

[Eric]

I wish I had known that the first 3 times I beat it lol.

Recently played through Chrono Trigger and modded in Battle Theme 2, since I've played through CT with the regular theme 15141 times. Made for a nice change of pace.

Would probably enjoy Dragon Quest XI more if I could change out its music here and there.

[Eric]

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