Finally finished the game today at 130hrs, best JRPG i've played in years. AAA quality right to the very end. Final boss battle, music and finish on point. I pity anyone who gets the bad end, 100hrs in and to let it end like that?
Not to mention it will screw you over on the next playthrough.
So many plot holes with the way Akechi went out. So much for being a famous detective.
Too much happened in the game for me to play it again, even if you skipped all the text/scenes I doubt you could get it under 50hrs.
So, after 3 months of playing (mainly because been playing it concurrently with other games/rpgs) I'm at the
Shido Ship dungeon
around 80 hours in. Still love the game, and it's my GoTY, somewhere between a 9.5 and 10/10.
I think at this point I love everything about the game, the story, the characters, the art, the music, the dungeons, the battle system, the persona. Only 4 things I don't like about P5, which are small outside the first one.
#1 - The difficulty balance. I've said it every time I talk about P5, but the game is too damn mainstreamed easy which was a big issue I had with SMT4 as well. The hardest part (spoilers for near-end game) was
When you had to fight solo in the battle arena in the casino because solo fighting is challenging.
. The difference between normal/hard doesn't fix the difficulty, because changing a few stats doesn't change the base challenge design of the game. It's designed specifically in its encounters and dungeon flow for one type of challenge, which is a mainstream one. Which is fine, it's just normal cakewalk modern rpg difficulty, and P4 was already getting easier and more mainstream, but I miss when Persona 3 was fucking tough megaten.
#2 - While I like the stat checks and this is a minor thing, I wasn't a big fan on a lot of the final characters having lvl.4 or lvl.5 stat checks before you can even begin their coop, or like mid-coop having a lvl.5 check to continue the coop any further. I'll have max lvl.5 in all stats by the end at this rate (I'm lvl.5/4/4/4/4) but I feel like that makes some of these late game coops meant more for 2nd playthrough, whereas I think they should all be pretty even so you can roleplay and hang with whoever you want.
#3 - (endgame spoiler)
Regarding the mid-season mecha upgrades that P3/P4 introduced and were awesome. I don't like how they handled it here. By making them lvl.10 rewards for coop for party members, it takes away the story moment of a character having a mid-season revelation upgrade, it takes away from the story acknowledging the upgrades at all, and because you need coop 10 to get them, and some of the late join party members like Haru (who needs a lvl.5 skill check to even start), there's a good chance your average player won't get all the party upgrades on their first playthrough. Which sucks. I think I'm gonna be able to get all of them except Haru and maybe Futaba because they came late with high stat checks, so I'll youtube any I don't get, but this uncertainty of whether I'll even get the mid-season upgrades (I only have 1 so far, but a couple are at lvl.7/8) is lame when it should have just been a cool mid-season/endgame moment when the character has a story event and gets their upgrade. It's cool in mecha shows and it was cool in P3/P4, they shouldn't have messed with this. I mean I'm glad the upgrades are at least still in because I guess they could have just ditched them all together. Again, this is a minor thing.
#4 - (very big endgame spoiler)
Very minor nitpick, but why the fuck did they show Akechi unleashing a Persona in the middle of Shibuya in the very opening of the game??? Like the second we meet his character in the 2nd or 3rd arc and I saw his face I instantly recognized him as the guy unleashing the Persona in the opening. So once I figured he was going to be a party member, I knew he was the traitor. Other things they shouldn't have done to make it so obvious to the player so it could've been an actual twist would be to not have the auto-leveling of the coop and more importantly it's the only coop where after he joins there is no "next skill" which is incredibly suspicious. Plus there's also him looking like a fucking psychopath when he has his group attack win pose and the whole light + DARK movelist. But really, I just wish they didn't show his face in the opening movie because I would've been a lot less certain that he was the villain if they didn't show that 3 second bit AT THE VERY START OF THE GAME. Like that was just really unnecessary? I guess they figured most people have bad memories or stupid and wouldn't remember that bit. That being said, the way they handle the twist and the fact that the main party recognized it as well was excellent and made up for it in spades instead of just being something that you as a player knew and then your player characters just act super surprised and you're like "smh, c'mon".
Very minor nitpick, but why the fuck did they show Akechi unleashing a Persona in the middle of Shibuya in the very opening of the game??? Like the second we meet his character in the 2nd or 3rd arc and I saw his face I instantly recognized him as the guy unleashing the Persona in the opening. So once I figured he was going to be a party member, I knew he was the traitor. Other things they shouldn't have done to make it so obvious to the player so it could've been an actual twist would be to not have the auto-leveling of the coop and more importantly it's the only coop where after he joins there is no "next skill" which is incredibly suspicious. Plus there's also him looking like a fucking psychopath when he has his group attack win pose and the whole light + DARK movelist. But really, I just wish they didn't show his face in the opening movie because I would've been a lot less certain that he was the villain if they didn't show that 3 second bit AT THE VERY START OF THE GAME. Like that was just really unnecessary? I guess they figured most people have bad memories or stupid and wouldn't remember that bit. That being said, the way they handle the twist and the fact that the main party recognized it as well was excellent and made up for it in spades instead of just being something that you as a player knew and then your player characters just act super surprised and you're like "smh, c'mon".
What are you talking about here? I don't remember this happening at all.
If you're talking about the anime cutscene when you first arrive in Shibuya, that's the Protag, not Akechi. I can't think of any other scenes that match that description other than that.
What are you talking about here? I don't remember this happening at all.
If you're talking about the anime cutscene when you first arrive in Shibuya, that's the Protag, not Akechi. I can't think of any other scenes that match that description other than that.
I think you might be right on this. I remember debating at the time
I saw the intro whether it was supposed to be the protag or somebody else and since Akechi actually looks nearly identical to the protag's face (same-ish hair w/bangs, medium length, just a little lighter) when I saw Akechi I was like "oh, that's him"; and if you go in suspecting Akechi from the start, they make it obvious enough so you're 99% certain it's him by the he picks the target and the specific date to send the card (which lead to the ambush).
I think they should have at least given him a 'next skill' on his coop page after he joins at lvl.6 because him being the only coop in the game that doesn't have one was basically confirmation he was the badguy at that point he joins the party. The only other reason he wouldn't have a next skill would be that maybe he was gonna die.
I'm kinda of on both sides of this. While I wish it was a little less apparent that Akechi was the sellout/badguy/killer (I'm curious if most people, like me, figured it was him, or if it was actually a surprise to people like Adachi in P4), I also appreciate that they litter the game with enough clues that it makes intelligent sense and everything adds up rather than being an out of nowhere surprise.
Going back to that Shibuya scene, it is kinda weird though that before he has his Persona he sees presses the Navi button and then time stops and he sees himself looking evil. If it's not a "vision of the future" or something, it doesn't really make any logical sense from the logic of the rest of the game and it's world. Which is why I thought he caught a glimpse of Akechi who was going around using his persona to kill people evily when he pressed the Navi button.
Having not read the spoiler thread since I haven't finished the game yet, is the general consensus that people didn't suspect Akechi and were surprised at the reveal? Or did most people guess/figure out it was him before the reveal because of the various clues?
Having not read the spoiler thread since I haven't finished the game yet, is the general consensus that people didn't suspect Akechi and were surprised at the reveal? Or did most people guess/figure out it was him before the reveal because of the various clues?
Many suspected him because of the clues , but not because of the start of the game.
Many deducted that he wasn't all that he seemed from His tarot card, his skills , his dubious escuse when he wanted to join the group. Many didn't pick up the clue on the encounter at the Tv station before the game told us so.
With regards to the difficulty, I almost wonder if it's not the megaten games being made easier, but rather that after you've played a bunch of megaten games, you get familiar with the demons and generally know when you first meet them their usual weaknesses and strengths; that combined with over the franchise learning how to effectively use stuff like dekaja/dekunda/tetrakarn/marakarn and basically know how to play the SMT battle system, makes it so the games which seemed tough when you first get into the series are actually pretty standard jrpg difficulty.
Like I wonder if players who are new to SMT/Persona with SMT4/P5 get a lot of party wipes and find battles challenging because they don't know the weaknesses and they accidentally hit a demon's block or absorb.
The only objective thing I can think of that megaten has changed since like the PS2 Nocturne/DDS/P3 days is the light/dark death spells. Enemies used to use them A LOT more back in the day and the accuracy was much higher. I remember sections where you needed death blocking demons or else you could get instant wiped over and over again. To a degree it was always the scariest part of Megaten, the light/dark death spells since one bad turn and you could game over. Nowadays they're very nerfed when used by the ai, but that's also a lot more fair to the players.
The other thing I can think of is dungeons are less horrible mazes with traps that fuck you over like some of the PS1 megaten and DDS. Very few pits. Which isn't a bad change either, makes it more fun even if less exploration.
Hmmm, I think that'd be an interesting thread on its own talking about whether the franchise has a franchise difficulty curve that starts high but gets easier the more megaten games you play.
Many suspected him because of the clues , but not because of the start of the game.
Many deducted that he wasn't all that he seemed from His tarot card, his skills , his dubious escuse when he wanted to join the group. Many didn't pick up the clue on the encounter at the Tv station before the game told us so.
Yeah, I missed the TV station clue. I thought that was really clever. In fact, the whole way the characters are actually smart and pick up on the clues themselves was just extremely well done.
One thing about the TV station clue that's strange though. They mention the reason why people can hear Mona speak in the real world is because after hearing him speak in the Navi world they change their perception that Mona can speak.
But if Akechi hadn't been around Mona and heard Mona speak in the Navi world, how could he have heard Mona speak about pancakes at the TV station? Since I haven't finished the game I have a feeling the game will explain this when it explains what Mona is eventually, so I don't really want to know the answer right now. This is just me thinking out loud.
Yeah, I missed the TV station clue. I thought that was really clever. In fact, the whole way the characters are actually smart and pick up on the clues themselves was just extremely well done.
One thing about the TV station clue that's strange though. They mention the reason why people can hear Mona speak in the real world is because after hearing him speak in the Navi world they change their perception that Mona can speak.
But if Akechi hadn't been around Mona and heard Mona speak in the Navi world, how could he have heard Mona speak about pancakes at the TV station? Since I haven't finished the game I have a feeling the game will explain this when it explains what Mona is eventually, so I don't really want to know the answer right now. This is just me thinking out loud.
basically only those who have already awaken to their Personas are able to figure out what Mona is saying. Goro wasn't part of the Phantom Thieves at that point of the story, that's how the protagonist and his pals figured out there's something fishy about Goro. He could have only heard that line about pancakes if he had already awoken to his Persona.
As for the
Culprit
, it was
quite fishy when AtlusJP accidentally leaked that there would be one more member through that P3/P4 20th anniversary costume DLC and subsequently refused to add him to the opening and what's not, so yea, he was numero uno in terms of being the suspect so I wasn't too surprised
With regards to the difficulty, I almost wonder if it's not the megaten games being made easier, but rather that after you've played a bunch of megaten games, you get familiar with the demons and generally know when you first meet them their usual weaknesses and strengths; that combined with over the franchise learning how to effectively use stuff like dekaja/dekunda/tetrakarn/marakarn and basically know how to play the SMT battle system, makes it so the games which seemed tough when you first get into the series are actually pretty standard jrpg difficulty.
Hmmm, I think that'd be an interesting thread on its own talking about whether the franchise has a franchise difficulty curve that starts high but gets easier the more megaten games you play.
Oh man, I'm at the very, very, very end and this final dungeon has been the most gameplay-fun I've had the entire game. Like other parts have been more fun for the story, but this final dungeon difficulty-wise is everything that I've been asking for the whole game. It's non-stop tough as nails enemy setups, multiple bosses between saves and one bad set of status effects or back attack can wipe you're whole party, but you're also equipped with great persona/partners with a whole arsenal to combat it so your either kicking ass or you're dead and that's the kind of high stakes make your hands sweat SMT gameplay I love. Kinda wish it got tougher earlier in the game, but this is very satisfying. It's a complete opposite of the final dungeon in SMT4-F/A earlier this year which was a total unfun slog.
I am a big fan of the new gameplay-additions P5 brings in. Baton Touch is very fun if you work it right and post-baton touch skills are neat, wish there were more of them. The extra 2 elements were really needed and basically a lot of high level enemies that didn't used to have any weaknesses now do, which I'm ok with because weaknesses make the battles fun, otherwise you tend to do the same attack strategy on all no-weakness enemies.
I did a lot of save/reloading in the last 2-3 weeks of the game trying to maximize as many coops as I could since I tried doing a bit too many coops and ended up with a bunch at lvl.5-7. I ended up finishing 12 coops, and if I had one a few more days could've gotten 13. If I ever do a 2nd run I can definitely finish the rest, but what I might do since the game is so long is just reload a save about 3 weeks from the end and dedicate all 3 weeks to finishing one coop at a time and see the rest of them. The only one I can't see is Haru since I never got that stat to lvl.5 -_- that and courage were the only two I didn't get to lvl.5. I was actually surprised and really happy when I got kindness to lvl.5 as I thought I'd have to save that for lvl.4. Let me finish up
soujiro's coop
in the last few days of the game and that + party members were the ones I really wanted to see through.
Oh man, I'm at the very, very, very end and this final dungeon has been the most gameplay-fun I've had the entire game. Like other parts have been more fun for the story, but this final dungeon difficulty-wise is everything that I've been asking for the whole game. It's non-stop tough as nails enemy setups, multiple bosses between saves and one bad set of status effects or back attack can wipe you're whole party, but you're also equipped with great persona/partners with a whole arsenal to combat it so your either kicking ass or you're dead and that's the kind of high stakes make your hands sweat SMT gameplay I love. Kinda wish it got tougher earlier in the game, but this is very satisfying. It's a complete opposite of the final dungeon in SMT4-F/A earlier this year which was a total unfun slog.
This line is from after the first dungeon or so where Ann takes you and Ryuji to a restaurant to eat. After Ryuji and You went to the bathroom, you run into a couple of guys.
I've always kind of been stumped with this last line.　　I can't quite understand what まがい mean in 暴力. It's like it's saying those (girls) over there are the ones who started the rumor about Kamoshida's violence and threats?
Its' from early in the game, around the first dungeon. It's the scene where Ann, Ryuji and you the main character are talking and Ann points to a group of girls or something.
This line is from after the first dungeon or so where Ann takes you and Ryuji to a restaurant to eat. After Ryuji and You went to the bathroom, you run into a couple of guys.
I've always kind of been stumped with this last line.　　I can't quite understand what まがい mean in 暴力. It's like it's saying those (girls) over there are the ones who started the rumor about Kamoshida's violence and threats?
Its' from early in the game, around the first dungeon. It's the scene where Ann, Ryuji and you the main character are talking and Ann points to a group of girls or something.
Maybe? But since it's a ～なの大人 I dunno if that makes complete sense. That said I'm not entirely sure how to read it...
Maybe? But since it's a ～なの大人 I dunno if that makes complete sense. That said I'm not entirely sure how to read it...
ah sorry you're right. But in any case, since it's a "blah-blah-blah-esque adult", I can't think that the クン has much to do with your MC's name...
I'm like 90% sure that's クソ but you wrote it down as クン. So it becomes something like "Yeah, we just ran into [him/them]. [He's/they're] the kind of egotistical, garbage adult(s) that just look down on others."
Ryuuji loves calling out those クソな大人.
I'm like 90% sure that's クソ but you wrote it down as クン. So it becomes something like "Yeah, we just ran into [him/them]. [He's/they're] the kind of egotistical, garbage adult(s) that just look down on others."
Ryuuji loves calling out those クソな大人.
Lol yup it makes sense. The way I copied it was using a OCR program called cap 2 txt and then I used a image I took from my phone to copy the sentence. The OCR must've picked it up wrong I never bothered to triple check. I actually had the sentence as クンな大人 and always felt something was off about it. I just thought he was saying my name since my character name is クン. lol
Well, there's plenty more surprises in store for me, right? I mean more plot twists and story revelations that are revealed? And I doubt this'll lessen my enjoyment of the game.
Well, there's plenty more surprises in store for me, right? I mean more plot twists and story revelations that are revealed? And I doubt this'll lessen my enjoyment of the game.
When I spoil myself I usually focus more in the "how" rather than the "what". You know that piece of information but you don't know the circumstances nor the build up that leads to that revelation. The journey is always more enjoyable for me.
When I spoil myself I usually focus more in the "how" rather than the "what". You know that piece of information but you don't know the circumstances nor the build up that leads to that revelation. The journey is always more enjoyable for me.
When I spoil myself I usually focus more in the "how" rather than the "what". You know that piece of information but you don't know the circumstances nor the build up that leads to that revelation. The journey is always more enjoyable for me.
I accidentally spoiled myself on Persona 4 Golden when I was trying to get the golden ending. I had got a neutral ending and I felt the story ended kind of weird. I looked up online what to do and say the villains name in the search results. It didn't stop my enjoyment though and that wasn't the FINAL spoiler though with the main main villain.
Well, there's plenty more surprises in store for me, right? I mean more plot twists and story revelations that are revealed? And I doubt this'll lessen my enjoyment of the game.
When I spoil myself I usually focus more in the "how" rather than the "what". You know that piece of information but you don't know the circumstances nor the build up that leads to that revelation. The journey is always more enjoyable for me.
I accidentally spoiled myself on Persona 4 Golden when I was trying to get the golden ending. I had got a neutral ending and I felt the story ended kind of weird. I looked up online what to do and say the villains name in the search results. It didn't stop my enjoyment though and that wasn't the FINAL spoiler though with the main main villain.
I clicked that spoiler he posted and all I literally saw was like the first two letters of a name and I just darted my eyes away. I don't know what happens or anything but a character's name is in my mind now. oh well.
Finally almost done with this after taking a long break, just finished the 7th palace. It's been an incredible ride. Aside from the length (which will certainly be shorter for those playing the English version, so much of that was looking stuff up) and the fact that it's easier than previous games, there really isn't much to complain about. Really sets a new standard for the genre imo.
My friend got the JP version of Persona 5 as an early birthday present, but it looks like he's getting stuck in the game a lot since he doesn't know a lick of Japanese.
I was wondering if there are any English walkthroughs or guides anyone could link me to that could help? I was going to look myself but I'm terrified of accidentally spoiling myself...
My friend got the JP version of Persona 5 as an early birthday present, but it looks like he's getting stuck in the game a lot since he doesn't know a lick of Japanese.
I was wondering if there are any English walkthroughs or guides anyone could link me to that could help? I was going to look myself but I'm terrified of accidentally spoiling myself...
Looks to be quite a few on Youtube, just gameplay guides, no talking or translating over it, just telling you what to pick and where to go.
I think the difficulty is definitely that we just know how to play megaten at this point. In watching some of those guides and translations it's hard to get through them for me because they don't play "correctly." I mean I saw a guy/girl combo translating the game wasting SP going for the weaknesses of some level 3 mobs when they were level 8. Then turned right around and wasted more sp on Pixies. Then left the dungeon because they were out of SP. Didn't even attempt to go further. I guess my point is, what's easy to those of us who have played these games(and I still think Digital Devil Saga was harder than P3) others haven't quite grasped yet.
Also I felt like reaching through the screen and telling those people to use Rush, but I can't read any of the text at the bottom. I know it's there, but not which one it is.
The mouse/statue puzzle was interesting the first two times. After that it was just tedious and mechanical. Really overstayed its welcome.
The boss rush that started with the Yakuza boss was really cool, but I wish I had known it was coming because I wouldn't have started it at 11 PM on a work night...
The final series of bosses was quite underwhelming. I really don't enjoy that sort of "war of attrition" boss battle, and we've seen so many more mechanically interesting bosses in this game that it felt like a terrible letdown.
I've got a week or so until the last free time, and only two more co-op ranks to finish up. First time fully maxing all Slinks in a Persona game, and I didn't even use a time guide (though I did look up the perks from the co-ops and made sure to level a few key ones early on). Timing felt more relaxed than in P3 and P4, overall.
This game is long. Man. I know it'd be going faster in English (probably about 30% faster, at a guess - and much more if I were to skip through voiced scenes as fast as I could read them), but I'm sitting at 140 hours and I know I've got a fair bit left to go. I think at least a dozen or so hours of that is idle time from cooking dinner with the game paused and stuff, but jeez.
Hoping to finally finish it up this weekend, but for all I know there's another 30 hours to go!
Camp a memento floor for a while maybe 5 minutes? Then you can hear the chains.
Dude is super tough though. I beat him by exploiting the day where the weather gives you a high chance of inflicting despair.
Camp a memento floor for a while maybe 5 minutes? Then you can hear the chance.
Dude is super tough though. I beat him by exploiting the day where the weather gives you a high chance of inflicting despair.
