Was going to hold off on this because it's 70 bloody euros and because I was still playing Gravity Rush 2. But since Gravity Rush 2 is so utterly shit that I dropped it altogether I decided what the hell, might as well jump in with everyone else and get that 'crap game' taste out of my mouth.
Thank god for the PS4 'play while partially downloaded' feature, as it let me put in two hours last night between 1am and 3am.
So far, there are a few little flaws and niggles, but overall I'm really, really enjoying it. A really solid start. I don't like most JRPGs (and hated SMT IV) but the persona series simply has such a sense of style, flair and 'smoothness' that it overcomes my general issues, and it looks to be the same here. The UI is unparalleled, the music is already fantastic, the setting is great, the anime sequences are well-integrated, seeing the SMT demons in 3d like this is awesome... From a presentation point of view I think the only thing I'd nitpick is that the actual gameplay visuals are pretty bog-standard for a PS4 game. You can tell it's a PS3 port.
Anyway, I loved the way the story started off quickly - the pacing has been fantastic so far. I'm not as much of a fan of how they depicted the MC's 'issue' that leads him to the school, or how people react to it. It just doesn't make any sense that this kid wouldn't have been able to explain to people what happened considering he had the woman as a witness, and even if convicted due to corruption or what have you, he should still be able to explain to teachers etc that it's all BS. Instead he just lets everyone treat him like shit - why? But that's a minor point - I'm happy with the rest of it so far, and crucially I like the characters I've met so far.
What has really, really surprised me is how tolerable the voice acting is so far. It's obviously still the stilted 'read one line at a time' anime-style voice acting rather than any kind of convincing attempt at conversational flow (and man I wish a JRPG would attempt that) but the voices themselves I find just fine, maybe with the exception of Igor.
I was expecting to play 20 minutes and then turn the game off and wait for the Japanese language download, now I'm not even sure if I'll use it. That's a great result, as I couldn't stick in the english voices in P4G for more than an hour.
Some of the translation is wonky, though... it's feels like a lot of the lines haven't been fully localised, like they're not natural english speakers writing the lines or something. However considering it's set in Japan and uses honourifics even in English it's something I can rationalise as 'trying to be authentic'.
Anyway, can't wait to get home after work and play it, which is a great feeling after 10 days of literally forcing myself to play GR2 as a chore because I spent money on it.