#i didnt even recognize him at first when they released it but unfortunately im fucking Ill about him again

[chaoticcandies1]

i hauve covid.

[kasaneteto]

my thoughts on persona 5

ive had this in my drafts for like a month and i just now finished it so TAKE IT

THIS ISNT SPOILER FREE!!!! so only read this if you’ve finished the game/don’t care about spoilers. im gonna be comparing it a lot to persona 4 (and 2 / 3 to a lesser extent) so if you haven’t played it and dont want spoilers DONT READ THIS!!!!

i went into persona 5 with high expectations. i’ve been a big fan of the entire series for many years, and like everyone else, had been eagerly awaiting the delayed release of the game; and for the most part, i wasn’t let down. there are very few real issues i have with the game, and despite my bias toward persona 4 i can definitely say that this is the best installment in the series so far.

persona 5, much like p4 did with p3, takes the best things from p4 and improves upon them. you can tell that a lot of care went into this game to make it as polished as possible. all of the things that made p4 a great game are present and more. the characters are very fleshed out and diverse, just as in any persona game. the game also does an excellent job in making you feel connected to the characters. when the characters were plagued with anxiety, so was i. when the characters were depressed, so was i. it really made me feel immersed in the world.

the graphics are also obviously an incredible step up from the previous persona games. the game in general is absolutely beautiful. it’s so vibrant in it’s colors and constantly gives the impression of a bustling city environment. not to mention how stylish the UI is. it’s really apparent that the persona team utilized their resources to their full potential in how fluid all the menus are alone. the way loading screens and menu changes transitioned into each other was so stylish that it had me sifting through menus just to watch the animations. over all the art direction for this game has surpassed all other persona games so far. everything is so incredibly polished, from the cutscenes to the normal gameplay. i can only think of two or three occasions in which a texture looked off to me, and that’s mostly me just nitpicking.

i love the concrete theme of the game as well. from the personas to the social links, everything feels as though it ties together under the thief motif. i really loved that every social link fell under the theme of “someone who has been ostracized by society” and how it enforced the idea that the phantom thieves were necessary in this world. the way each social link has a coinciding mementos request made the social aspects of the game feel a lot more connected to the battle aspects, as well as the fact that social links can now grant you special battle abilities. the fact that they added this aspect is one of the best things added to the social link system in my opinion. it gives you more of a reason to try and max a character’s social link if you aren’t particularly interested in the character to begin with. (however, personally, i didn’t find any of the social links in this game to be uninteresting.) the way they incorporate maxed social links into new game+ is incredibly useful as well. it helps make you feel as though you really accomplished something in your previous play, as well as making you feel motivated to finish the things you were unable to last time.

the battle system and the dungeons are LEAGUES better than any previous persona game. the flow of battle is so much more fun; the baton pass ability brings a whole new aspect into battle. that and the ability to easily ambush enemies makes you feel as if youre really in control of your battles and makes it a lot more fun. i also love love love LOVE the battle aspects that they brought back from persona 2. demon negotiation was one of my favorite things about p2 and i was ECSTATIC to learn that they brought it back with p5. not only does it give you the ability to get exactly what you want out of battle, but it makes you really excited to fight new enemies!!! i was always really excited to get into a battle in a new area to see what personas i could recruit. the fact that youre battling the actual personas rather than the same palette-swapped shadows every dungeon is also super cool to me. it made me really excited to see a shadow that i recognized and be all “OH THAT’S SHIKI-OUJI!!!! I NEED THAT GUY!!!!”

dungeon navigation is so much more fun too. i can’t even begin to express how happy i am that they incorporated puzzle elements into the palaces. it made navigating them so much more fun compared to previous games where you just ran around hallways opening doors until you found the stairs. it made every dungeon feel different and unique, and most importantly really fun!! another thing i really appreciated was the ability to switch party members in the middle of a dungeon. it really encouraged you to use every party member rather than just sticking to a select 3 like previous games, in addition to making it a lot easier to keep your teammates balanced and around the same level. i found it really convenient to be able to just switch someone out when they were low on SP compared to having to either leave or use SP recovering items on them. it also made it a lot easier to finish palaces in a single day (if possible).

most of all though, the story telling elements in persona 5 truly live up to the standard set by previous persona games. my god, was the story telling in this game amazing. the foreshadowing was PHENOMENAL. every once in a while i was able to pick up on something small, and then when they pieced all those little things together at the climax HOLY SHIT. i was literally hyperventilating when they flashed back to goro mentioning the pancakes. the part where he first joined the thieves had me second-guessing whether someone else mentioned pancakes in that scene and i was just overthinking it. but when it turned out to be a real thing I WAS SO EXCITED!!!! not to mention the twist of the fucking century with igor being a fake. the entire time the tone of the velvet room felt off compared to the previous games, but it really didn’t become apparent until the true igor returned. once he did, and lavenza became herself again, i seriously almost cried because of how at home i felt in the velvet room. speaking of crying though... this game had me in fuckin tears on so many occasions. the character writing and development is so much. the way it makes you really feel like all the characters are good friends makes me so emotional. it’s such incredible writing, the way it sneaks up on you and before you realize it you’re fighting yaldaboath and you realize how much you love every single character in this game and you don’t want it to end.

now with all that praise out of the way, i do unfortunately have a few qualms with the game as well. 

my firstt issue is how similar the structure of the story is to persona 4. the characters are all quite different, and the environment is drastically different, but the narrative, namely in the latter portion of the game, is strikingly similar to p4. that isn’t necessarily a bad thing per se, p4 is really good and p5 did an excellent job of improving upon something already great, as previously stated. however, due to my familiarity with p4 i was pretty much able to predict how the end of p5 was going to play out, more or less. because of this i actually was convinced that i had to call everyone up again to fight through one more palace on the last day, like with izanami in p4. it’s not the worst thing that they could’ve done, but i guess i just would’ve liked to see them create something a little more different.

now my BIGGEST issue is just a personal thing that im sure not everyone can sympathize with. however, it honestly kind of ruined the end of the game for me. nobody so much as mentions goro after his death. sae brings him up, like, once, and shido talks about him before you fight him, but.. thats it. he wasn’t even in the credits along with everyone else. it honestly broke my fucking heart. it felt like they all forgot about him. goro is my favorite character in the game, so im definitely biased, but still... i would have liked to see them at least bring him up in some of the more climactic moments of the ending, or just had some kind of mention of him other than “he’s missing”. i felt so empty when the game ended. it was a wonderful ending, dont get me wrong. i just... wanted goro to be there. im not saying that he shouldnt have died, (i mean, i would have liked it if he didnt, but it wouldnt have been necessary to make the ending satisfying for me) just that they at least acknowledge him more after his death. idk. maybe im just being nitpicky, but that really dampened the ending for me.

anyways thats it like comment and subscribe thanks