Topic: Persona 5

Hey guys, p5 on sale on psn for 12$ cad, does it let you do things more or less freely?
Do, talk, explore as u like?
Or it's scripted, guided a lot?
Do things,,story, characters relations to u change depending on u?
I know there's p5r now, but it will be a while before it's so low too.

@Jtheripper I finished Persona 5 a couple months ago and I’ll have a stab at your questions…

First, you do get to do things freely as you like while you’re in the part of the game outside the palaces (they’re like dungeons in other RPGs, but much more thematic and well crafted than previous Persona games). In the palace sections you have a basic journey through to the end of each one to reach certain goals. It’s not open at that point but linear. However, the other half of the game is spent in a social simulation setting and you have mostly free reign to spend your time as you wish. You can hang out with whatever companion you want, spend time at a part time job to earn money, spend time studying to improve your grades and traits, go to a movie, go fishing, etc, etc. Each activity has some perk you might get out of it to increase one of your base characteristics or improve your bonds with your companions. So there is a lot of freedom to do things however you want.

However, not all companions are available every day, and you don’t have access to the full map every day, especially early on. So the game funnels you through certain more limited options, especially until you unlock more of the map and more of the social interactions (called “confidants”).

So there is a lot of choice, but sometimes it is the illusion of choice. But overall, it’s way more customizable than most games and two players could easily play the game and end up with completely different character builds based on how they spent their free time. However, most of the main story points will be the same no matter what other choices you make. But it will affect how well you’re able to battle in the dungeons.

The game is mostly scripted, but you do have a choice of response during some conversations which make slight differences in the way dialogue will turn out. And there are a total of 6 possible endings, I believe, which are dependent on a few choices you make. It’s definitely possible to not see entire scenes if you haven’t opened them up through building certain confidants or traits.

TL;DR version:
If you want a game with a lot of choice and customization then Persona 5 is a really good game to try. Just don’t go in expecting an open world, as the main story is mostly a linear affair. But the way you play and choices you make definitely affect your experience and potentially make each playthrough unique.

My playthrough took me about 125 hours, by the way. So the game is long. People can complete is quicker, like maybe 80 hours, but I wanted to see and do as much as I could so it took me longer.

@Th3solution
Hey there, well thanks a lot for the good write up, appreciate it.
Yeah that's how it seemed from videos and reviews i guess, just hard sometimes when seeing parts of playthrus if the player is just rushing thru it and there's more to it or not.

I'm liking the social part,, adventure style interactivity around, i like turn based combat, and mature subject matter, even though the style is pretty childish.
Not so much fond of non realistic cartoon style so much,corny japanese style and dialogue, and the music.
But still intrigued and seems like living a cartoon semi realistic, but fantasy styled psychological aspects as well, adventure. With some leeway in how you go about it.

Not sure I'd wait on the p5r to be so low too.
Thanks again.

@Jtheripper You’re very welcome.
I didn’t play Persona 5 Royal, but apparently it adds a whole extended storyline with a different ending and a whole new companion to your team, along with other things too. The game is really long as it is, so for the much cheaper price then I’d say grab the base game, especially if you’re on the fence anyways.

The art style is actually really great. I understand you’re preference for realistic graphics and animation, as that’s my usual preference, but the art style in P5 is quite fabulous. It’s really well designed with a lot of flair and personality. The Japanese quirkiness is certainly there in large amounts, so you’ll have to be ready for that, but the subject matter is actually fairly mature. The themes are really serious, even if the High School student setting has a adolescent feel to it. As for JRPGs it’s probably one of the more approachable for a Western audience, actually.

@Th3solution yes, i got the base game, more than enough for me i think hehe.
I can appreciate all types of games and I'm sure i will many aspects of this one too,p5, but still many things from what i saw in aren't my thing so much, so will see, i only played the very beginning for now, up until the 2 short dreams when lay in his room.

But i feel to try more some japanese/asian designed games for a change, but with little as can cringiness.
I liked the demo of ff7 remake, a little bit ff 15 demo, but just the fight at the end i liked.
And just got yakuza 0, 1st for me in that series, surprised with the good presentation, with Japanese voices, intonation, dialogue, faces with character, music, and combat can be fun.

Then, dmc series from 4 on up.
Bayonetta, nier automata, code vein etc.
Devil may cry makes me wish for a gow 1,2 ascension remasters on ps4, i dont like to rent on ps now.
Cheers.

Sometimes this game is just broken beyond repair. I am at full health, encounter a very weak monster with a physical resistance, I let one of my party mates boost Joker's damage, then the monster enrages Joker, Joker does a physical attack which backfires and suddenly I am inflicting almost 2000 HP of damage on myself; Game Over. That's an hour of grinding through Mementos lost, thanks game. :')

Also, I'm at 120 hours in, it's November, and I still really love my time with the game. I'm also given a lot of time to improve my confidant standing this month. I was quite worried about that, but it seems like I can max out a lot of them.

@Kidfried If the monster was very weak, shouldn't you have just been able to run into it and defeat it automatically without entering a battle?

But yeah, things like that really sucks and it's happened to me multiple times.

@LtSarge I did that to all monsters on that floor, except this one! And dying randomly probably has happened to any player of the game at some point, yea.

I love my journey with this game. Started as an absolute noob, and just ignored a lot of gameplay facets that I didn't really get. I switched from Persona to Persona everytime I found a new one.

Two weeks ago or so I picked up the game again. And I thought to myself that I really loved my current Persona, Thoth. I spent some more time at the Velvet Room, and guess what? Maxed out all its stats and learnt it incredible strong moves in no time. Breezing through the game right now as a result, and pretty proud of my achievement.

I don't know anything about Persona, so maybe this is something everyone should do and does, or how these kind of things vary from game to game. Nevertheless I'm still proud I actually figured out how to game the system myself here!

@Kidfried That's awesome to hear mate! It took me several Persona games before I started to utilise its systems because when it comes to RPGs, I play kinda conservatively. Like I don't really explore the mechanics in the game because I just want a simple experience. It wasn't until I got to Persona 5 Royal when I started to fuse Personas like one normally should and it was such a satisfying experience. I didn't even appreciate leveling up arcana ranks when hanging out with confidants before P5R because I wasn't fusing Personas. So when I noticed that my fused Personas were getting a bunch of bonus EXP because I had hung out with a certain confidant, it felt very gratifying. It's definitely very enjoyable once you understand it.

@LtSarge Your post is super relatable!

Like you I play conservatively too when playing JRPGs. Even though I really appreciate all ongoing mechanics being there, I tend to stick to a simpler way of playing.

The game does a good job of explaining all mechanics involved, but it still was kind of overwhelming for me. Thinking about how to manage what I'm doing every day took up most of my headspace, and combat sometime was a bit of an afterthought.

I did fuse a lot, to but that was because of just collecting all different kind of Persona's in a Pokemon kind of way. But I didn't utilize the mechanic to improve my combat strength.

And like you said, when all pieces started to fall into place how you could use these systems to your advantage, it was so very satisfying to me.

I beat The Reaper this afternoon. I haven't looked up what level one should be to beat it, but I was level 80.

@Kidfried Nice! I’m glad you’ve discovered some of the nuanced tactics and features.

More than almost any other game series, Persona has a way of being dichotomous in its difficulty. It’s extremely hard if you don’t really know what you’re doing or aren’t maximizing the game’s feature set, yet it can be quite easy when you utilize the system against itself by exploiting enemy weakness and doing things like you just discovered with all the features of the Velvet Room, fusing personas, using cards, etc.

@Th3solution Yea, the final dungeon for the main game was a bit laughable as a result. I could rush through any enemy and the bosses didn't stand a chance either. A far cry from how much I struggled to stay afloat in the first dungeon.

And now I just started the actual Royal content. So far it's already pretty intruiging. I hope to return to this thread somewhere in the next week or two with a final verdict on the game

I'll be honest, so far I've been a bit letdown by the Royal content. What's the overall opinion on the third semester? And will it get better?

@Kidfried It's a strong story addition that fleshes out several underdeveloped characters, and the final dungeon is easily the best in the game. Totally made up for the underwhelming final area in the main game, IMO. How far in are you?

@Kidfried Overall opinion seems to be that it's really good but I actually didn't care for it as much and I'm actually not sure if the original game might have just been better without the additional story. I'm actually not sure. They both have pros and cons.

@Kidfried If I were to give an opinion without comparing it to Persona 4 Golden, I'd say that it was a very interesting and unconventional addition to the game. But if I were to compare it to P4G, I honestly didn't care that much about it because I thought you'd be spending more time with your friends doing fun activities like snowboarding but there's no such thing. Just like the main story of P5, the focus is constantly on the Phantom Thieves, Phantom Thieves and more Phantom Thieves.

P5 just forgets in general that one of the things that makes the Persona series so special is just hanging out with your friends and doing fun normal stuff. I guess most people don't really care about that stuff.

@LtSarge That makes me interested in 4 Golden, when you put it like that! I think I'm now somewhere in the middle of January and I still haven't been able to do anything in my free time

@Ralizah I wonder which characters those are. So far Akechi is even flatter of a character than the original game, and unbelievable as an ally too. But it's still early days!

@LtSarge It's probably because I'm more of a 'Persona Without the Heart' fan, but P5's darker tone and reintroduction of elements like proper dungeons, guns, and demon negotiations are primarily why I like it so much.

Also, the third semester feels VERY SMT in terms of the writing and ideological focus of the conflict (and some of the awesome music it introduces). It was such a massive breath of fresh air.

tbh I'm replaying P4 via the original PS2 release (slooooooowly) and am bored out of my mind with it. 😂

At least the difficulty balancing is better than P4G. And both versions of P5, for that matter.