I'm still not very far into P5 but the segments with heavy railroading can get annoying - I'm losing even the illusion of choice, feels like my hands are off the steering wheel completely at times.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Persona 5 |OT2| Someone must have been helping you go to bed early. Talk!
- Thread starter BRSxIgnition
- Start date
Personally I would have preferred if they changed it so no confidants were available and balance it out with stat upgrades taking longer. At least there was something to do then.
The go to bed stuff gets annoying at times.
Fbh
Member
Finished it!!!. 102 in total.
While some parts of it annoyed me and it made me do things I've never done before in a game (lower the difficulty), overall I really enjoyed my time with this game. 100 hours in and I was still looking forward to play almost every day.
The only other game I in the franchise I played was Persona 4 which I dropped at what I think was the mid point. I think I'm in the minority here but the story and characters didn't grab me as much as the ones in 5 and I really disliked the Dungeons, which is probably the area where the game improved the most, taking some much needed notes from the core Shin Megami Tensei (which have always been more my thing).
I also think I appreciate this kind of game more than I did back when I played P4. It's almost like a mix of playing a game and watching a TV show, the real life bits are more like an interactive anime and the dungeons are more like a great JRPG and it creates a nice balance.
My only real complain with the game is that while it took me 102 hours to finish, I think it would have been way better at 70 or 80 hours. A lot of areas and story bits feel like they are only there to make the game longer and everyone has a bad tendency to talk in circles. There's times where it feels like the pacing slows down to a crawl and in a 100+ hours game it really feels like it's not needed. Even the dungeons, which I mostly liked, tend to go on for too long. The first few are great in terms of length but the later ones are too long with lots of areas that you can easily tell are only there as a filler. Eventually (like 90 hours in) I just turned the difficulty down to easy to move faster through these areas and only turned it back to hard for bosses and mini bosses (all of them are really fantastic IMO).
Overall though, as I sad, I had a blast with this. Great characters and stories and fun gameplay. I can count the games I've spent more than a 100 hours on with one hand and I'm glad P5 is one of them
While some parts of it annoyed me and it made me do things I've never done before in a game (lower the difficulty), overall I really enjoyed my time with this game. 100 hours in and I was still looking forward to play almost every day.
The only other game I in the franchise I played was Persona 4 which I dropped at what I think was the mid point. I think I'm in the minority here but the story and characters didn't grab me as much as the ones in 5 and I really disliked the Dungeons, which is probably the area where the game improved the most, taking some much needed notes from the core Shin Megami Tensei (which have always been more my thing).
I also think I appreciate this kind of game more than I did back when I played P4. It's almost like a mix of playing a game and watching a TV show, the real life bits are more like an interactive anime and the dungeons are more like a great JRPG and it creates a nice balance.
My only real complain with the game is that while it took me 102 hours to finish, I think it would have been way better at 70 or 80 hours. A lot of areas and story bits feel like they are only there to make the game longer and everyone has a bad tendency to talk in circles. There's times where it feels like the pacing slows down to a crawl and in a 100+ hours game it really feels like it's not needed. Even the dungeons, which I mostly liked, tend to go on for too long. The first few are great in terms of length but the later ones are too long with lots of areas that you can easily tell are only there as a filler. Eventually (like 90 hours in) I just turned the difficulty down to easy to move faster through these areas and only turned it back to hard for bosses and mini bosses (all of them are really fantastic IMO).
Overall though, as I sad, I had a blast with this. Great characters and stories and fun gameplay. I can count the games I've spent more than a 100 hours on with one hand and I'm glad P5 is one of them
Lightning Lord
Banned
At the very least it'd be nice if you could still do things in Leblanc--Make coffee/curry, make infiltration tools, play games, etc etc. Maybe then I would feel more inclined to try working out.
Dragon1893
Member
I don't agree with a lot of the complaints I'm seeing.
I'm pretty sure that between the palaces and mementos I spent more time dungeon crawling than in P4. Not to mention that in P4 sidequests make you revisit the dungeon you cleared previously while P5 provides a dungeon just for that, with its own sense of progression parallel to the story dungeons.
And outside of dungeons there are more areas to explore, Inaba was tiny.
In previous games you couldn't do anything else after going to a dungeon either, P5 actually allows you to change that through a confidant ability.
Speaking of which, confidants have a much bigger impact on the gameplay with tons of perks that are very useful.
People also seem to have forgotten P4's slow start, which makes you sit through over 2 hours of dialogue before letting you access the first dungeon.
I dunno, I've played the previous games several times and P5 seems to be structured pretty much the same way to me.
I'm pretty sure that between the palaces and mementos I spent more time dungeon crawling than in P4. Not to mention that in P4 sidequests make you revisit the dungeon you cleared previously while P5 provides a dungeon just for that, with its own sense of progression parallel to the story dungeons.
And outside of dungeons there are more areas to explore, Inaba was tiny.
In previous games you couldn't do anything else after going to a dungeon either, P5 actually allows you to change that through a confidant ability.
Speaking of which, confidants have a much bigger impact on the gameplay with tons of perks that are very useful.
People also seem to have forgotten P4's slow start, which makes you sit through over 2 hours of dialogue before letting you access the first dungeon.
I dunno, I've played the previous games several times and P5 seems to be structured pretty much the same way to me.
nightmare-slain
Gold Member
Finally got around to buying this! Only a couple hours in but really enjoying it. I like Morgana 
So I max-ranked and romanced Ann and well I kind of feel guilty now romancing the other girls.
Though her overall arc didn't appeal to me that much, I think the whole competition bit with the other model could have been left out. At the end she showed vulnerability that I hate breaking even though it's just a game and it won't do that much with it.
TheNotoriousAFG
Member
You're correct.
Dragon1893
Member
Currently in early December, not sure if I'm gonna max all confidants, probably going to fall short on 1 or 2 by a couple of levels, I've personally always enjoyed the time management, it's a game within the game for me.
Let's see how it goes, might be doable if I play my cards rights.
Let's see how it goes, might be doable if I play my cards rights.
My apologies if this has already been answered. Feel free to point me to threads if they exist, I didn't want to search and get aspects spoiled. I picked up Persona 5 today cause it was $32 at Best Buy, but I've yet to open it cause I've never played a Persona game and I am not sure if it's for me. Mostly because I have a tendency to not stick with games beyond 30 or so hours unless it's something like FIFA or Splatoon or Mario Kart something that accrues gameplay just by casually playing over a long time. Seems like there's quite a few mechanics to master and that the Perosna games are kinda obtuse? But there's also a nice gotcha mechanic of sorts and the style and story seem pretty compelling. Plus the setting looks fantastic. I suppose what I'm asking is: sell me a bit on this game. I've watched reviews and impressions ands listened to some podcasts but I just wanna get a bit more feedback before deciding whether or not to give it a go. Thanks in advance!
It's hard to ascertain from your post what exactly are you looking for. This game is nothing like FIFA/Splatoon/MK. It's a 70+hr story focused turn-based RPG with quite a bit of reading and forming relationships with NPCs set in Tokyo. There are various systems to learn from both the social and battle aspects but if the previous sentence is giving you doubts then it's not really for you.
You're conflating the games I mentioned with what I want out of P5, which is not the case. I said that I struggle to stick with most games past a certain point unless they're those repetitive games (e.g. FIFA) where the hours just accrue naturally.
What I suppose I'm asking is: how beginner-friendly is it? Not so much in terms of my overall capacity gameplay-wise, but am I going to be getting into a deeply referential game that is almost impossible to understand because it builds on mechanics I'm not familiar with, or is it fairly good at teaching players how to play the game and giving plenty of time to learn the mechanics? From what I've heard, it sounds like the Persona/SMT games are riddled with mechanics that build off previous games and they're almost like Souls in that they just throw you into the world and sorta have you figure it out. I'm not comparing the game to Souls, just the learning curve. I know what the game is ABOUT, I'm just not sure how it PLAYS, if that makes sense?
Persona 5 was the first Persona/SMT game that I've ever played, and everything is pretty easy to pick up. They ease you into the different abilities you have pretty slowly, and generally give plenty of hints along the way.
This. P5 is also my first foray into the series and it is very accessible so if that is what you are afraid of, fear not and venture forth!
The game is very beginner friendly, though there are quite some mechanics they are introduced slowly one by one into the game. I played P3 and P4 so I knew some of the mechanics were coming but this only means I am able to play the game on hard more easier not that the game is harder on new players.
Speaking of difficulty, I would recommend normal but there are two difficulty modes below that and you can switch to at any time.
To fully enjoy the game I would recommend not to stress about doing everything. There is a lot of content and par using a guide you're not going to manage to do it all. Hang out with the characters you most like, do the activities you enjoy and don't worry about handling your time as efficient as possible. Because of the length chances are pretty high your only going to play this once. So enjoy the time with it instead of trying to make the strongest character.
MudoSkills
Volcano High Alumnus (Cum Laude)
If you like repetitive games you'll love P5.
Mediking
Member
Because Joker is the Wild Card and Ditto can transform to any mon, makes perfect sense.
I can't quote the above because of the spoiler but (possible story spoiler/ ideas)
from the start I felt that because of the whole rehabilitation the person who assaulted the girl at the start would be the main antagonist. I would be surprised if it wasn't, I'm OK if it is though just don't want it actually spoilered yet.
Finally beat the game, put 135 hours into it (actually more than that counting the missteps in dungeons)
As a first time Persona player though, the game was really fun. Looking forward to picking up NG+
Hope Atlus will port Persona 4 Golden on PS4, would play on an emulator but Golden is the definitive edition and want to pick up on that. For now, I'll crank up my friend's 360 and play Catherine
Will say the last boss was rather disappointing. Not a big fan of some god as the endgame boss but the twist that he was playing as Igor was interesting. Shame though that Shido got overshadowed by him, he was the better antagonist. Also could've built more depth in Haru's characterization; felt that she was rushed
As a first time Persona player though, the game was really fun. Looking forward to picking up NG+
and maxing out other confidants
JudgmentJay
Member
123 hours later I finally finished the game. I remember at launch (maybe of the Japanese version, I don't remember when exactly) people were complaining about Igor's voice actor change.
EDIT:
Anyway, 10/10, GotY, best Persona game, etc.
I'm wondering what the reaction was when people found out it was for story reasons. I thought it was a pretty great moment when the real Igor came out and spoke.
EDIT:
Apparently even the new Igor isn't the old voice actor? It's been a pretty long time since I played Persona 4 so I assumed it was the same. Oh well, still cool.
Anyway, 10/10, GotY, best Persona game, etc.
demosthenes
Member
To your spoiler, I'll do mine too just in case:
old one died. The new voice in 5 actually works out in the story that way. But even at the end it's different from the old one.
With around 145 hours, I finally beat the game last night. I've been playing this once a week(sundays), since release. The past few sessions I was just trying to power through to the end of the game to get ready for the slew of new releases like Yakuza.
Now that I finished it, I feel kinda sad. Turns out I wasn't ready to be done with these characters 😩
Now that I finished it, I feel kinda sad. Turns out I wasn't ready to be done with these characters 😩
AmayaPapaya
Banned
I just beat this after about 150 hours with no guides (also, this is my first Persona game)...I'm a little mixed. I loved the characters and the gameplay was fun. Overall, though, it overstays its welcome. I wanted the game to end much sooner, than it did.
At some point, I stopped playing cause it was fun to play, and just because I wanted to see the story come to a conclusion. That happened 30-40 hours before I actually completed it. It seems like the game knows its time has ran out too, as, at that point, there were a ton of ways to just make everything much easier and fast.
I've been sitting on the game so long, it feels weird now that all of a sudden there is no more story with the characters I've come to really like. Like, I kinda miss them. So, in that regard, it was a huge success. I liked everyone a lot...except Yusuke LOL. From what I caught on, people didn't like Ryuji, but they just haters. I liked him a lot, he felt like an earnest person I'd meet in real life. Kinda annoying but light-hearted. Yusuke is just not likeable, IMO.
I romanced Tae, and am happy with that. The game really pushed Makoto, though, and I kinda feel like I missed out not romancing her. I really like her character as well. She was probably my favorite Phantom Thief. I couldn't escape Tae though @_@ Goth doctor just speaks to me, ya know?
As to the whole ending
In the end I'm happy, but exhausted. I don't know if I'll do NG+, but not now, at least.
I was really hoping Sae's palace would be the last one. By then, I was super tired of the palaces.
I've been sitting on the game so long, it feels weird now that all of a sudden there is no more story with the characters I've come to really like. Like, I kinda miss them. So, in that regard, it was a huge success. I liked everyone a lot...except Yusuke LOL. From what I caught on, people didn't like Ryuji, but they just haters. I liked him a lot, he felt like an earnest person I'd meet in real life. Kinda annoying but light-hearted. Yusuke is just not likeable, IMO.
I romanced Tae, and am happy with that. The game really pushed Makoto, though, and I kinda feel like I missed out not romancing her. I really like her character as well. She was probably my favorite Phantom Thief. I couldn't escape Tae though @_@ Goth doctor just speaks to me, ya know?
As to the whole ending
it felt so unnecessary. The game should have really ended after the cruise ship. The whole god stuff was uninteresting, took too long,
felt unsatisfying, and I didn't feel any of the emotional beats. The final boss was absolutely dreadful. It felt like it took me like 2 hours, but I don't know how long it really took. I used Makoto for defense boost, Ann for attack decrease, and Morgana for heals. It helped that Ann did a ton of damage (by end game she did almost double the MC).
All my characters finished the game at an appropriate level 69, at least haha. The parts after this weren't so bad, though. I didn't care for the prison stuff but after was heartfelt. The last part where you go around saying goodbye to everyone was full of feels, for me. It felt good to finally get there, at least.
felt unsatisfying, and I didn't feel any of the emotional beats. The final boss was absolutely dreadful. It felt like it took me like 2 hours, but I don't know how long it really took. I used Makoto for defense boost, Ann for attack decrease, and Morgana for heals. It helped that Ann did a ton of damage (by end game she did almost double the MC).
All my characters finished the game at an appropriate level 69, at least haha. The parts after this weren't so bad, though. I didn't care for the prison stuff but after was heartfelt. The last part where you go around saying goodbye to everyone was full of feels, for me. It felt good to finally get there, at least.
By the time the seventh Palace is done, almost nothing is resolved in a meaningful and thematically appropriate way. I absolutely don't understand how you would want to cut Mementos Depths out ...
Lightning Lord
Banned
The fact that Morgana is still missing his memories and you had yet to reach the bottom of Mementos (which is what Morgana talks about wanting to do fairly early on) should be the biggest giveaways that the story isn't over.
Anyway, I'm pretty close to getting the platinum now... in fact, I should be able to do it tonight. Just need to fuse
Satanael
After that... I think I'll finally be ready to put P5 down, at least for a while. It's tempting to do another NG+ but I gotta move on. Sometime next year I plan to start playing through the entire series (as I've never played 1 and 2) so I could potentially end it with me revisiting 5... but we'll see.
EDIT: Aaaaaand platinum earned. Now to just beat the final boss and I'll be truly finished!
so my wife is cosplaying as haru.
and we have a morgana plushie that we are going to make a sign for to say things.
we are looking for ideas (around 10 words or less)
we want one that is something along the lines of
"It's getting late you should go to bed to be rested for the con"
but we are looking for other ideas.
especially based on lines with haru.
and we have a morgana plushie that we are going to make a sign for to say things.
we are looking for ideas (around 10 words or less)
we want one that is something along the lines of
"It's getting late you should go to bed to be rested for the con"
but we are looking for other ideas.
especially based on lines with haru.
Is this even humanly possible? Are you perhaps a shadow my good sir?
Anyway, I came across this image earlier.
It's a little amateurish since it just uses official artwork as the art but I thought the concept of a FF-like logo for Persona was pretty neat. I imagine 3 could be a blue full moon at the center of the logo (like FF VII's), and 5 could be either the Phantom Thieves logo at the left side, or Arsene or Joker (whichever one it is would be in the colors black and red, of course). I'm not sure what 4 could be, maybe a stack of yellow televisions?
Weird I don't remember it being hard or hard (lol) maybe I just got lucky.
Bacon_Boss
Member
I just started the game last night, i'm on chapter 2 and it's getting frustrating. My days just keep playing out without any interaction from me. I just wanna train on the damn chair before bed :|
All the games I've played after P5 have suffered in comparison. Even the remake of FFXII which I loved on the PS2 felt like a bit of a chore to get thru, and it only took me 60 hours to finish compared to 120 for P5. And I started Horizon three months ago but am only six hours in.
The gameplay loop in Persona and the feeling of constant progression really suits my tastes. The only game close to it so far this year for me was Nioh.
The gameplay loop in Persona and the feeling of constant progression really suits my tastes. The only game close to it so far this year for me was Nioh.
I've mostly avoided this by playing completely different games from my backlog. Uncharted 2 and 3, Stick of Truth (which surprisingly fullfiled my needs for a Paper Mario 64/TTYD sequel more than any of the recent Paper Mario entries did, so that was cool), and I'll be trying Half-Life (again) shortly. I also have some "dungeons" left in Breath of the Wild, and while it's still very enjoyable to play even now, it's been bit hard to get myself as invested as I was back when I started it. Nothing has gripped me as much as P5 did, but at least it's been easy to avoid comparisons and I'm enjoying other games fine. Still probably too early for another traditional JRPG though, but as soon as I'm over it I'll be choosing between Xenogears, Trails in the Sky or one of the Atelier games.
As for 2017 releases, I have high expectations for Yakuza 0 and Nier, so maybe they'll fill that void whenever I get around to them. Hollow Knight and Night in the Woods look interesting too. I liked Nioh's beta but after DS3 I'm kinda done with Souls-likes for now.
Yeah I was a bit bored playing P4G after P5 =/. The characters are what made me forge on however. I doubt I will try P3 unless it's remastered with P5 mechanics and dungeon variety.
Nioh is different enough from souls to be interesting imo. It's practically souls + diablo 2+ ninja gaiden. It's more twitchy and faster pace with tons of shit to do in any second.
For me Nier > Nioh > P5 but that's like really close right at the top. Would play any of these games any time.
Nioh is different enough from souls to be interesting imo. It's practically souls + diablo 2+ ninja gaiden. It's more twitchy and faster pace with tons of shit to do in any second.
For me Nier > Nioh > P5 but that's like really close right at the top. Would play any of these games any time.
nightmare-slain
Gold Member
Is there a point I reach where I can think well if I've made it this far I can go on to finish the game? I'm only about 10 hours in and at the throne room safe room in the 1st palace. it's made clear that the treasure is real close to me so i think one more visit should do it before sending the calling card.
I'm loving the game and would love nothing more than to spend another 90 or more hours playing but I'm worried it might get too difficult and I need to stop. So far I've found a part time job, got some books, upgraded weapons/gear a little, studied a little and spent time with confidants a bit. The biggest issue I'm having is managing SP. I've used up the items that restore SP and can't seem to find anymore... I've tried vending machines and the clinic. All I can find is HP items.
I'm loving the game and would love nothing more than to spend another 90 or more hours playing but I'm worried it might get too difficult and I need to stop. So far I've found a part time job, got some books, upgraded weapons/gear a little, studied a little and spent time with confidants a bit. The biggest issue I'm having is managing SP. I've used up the items that restore SP and can't seem to find anymore... I've tried vending machines and the clinic. All I can find is HP items.
IMO the 4th palace is the first major difficulty spike I ran in to, there are a few enemies that are tougher there, but otherwise there's nothing overly crazy. The most difficult thing is (as you have discovered) managing your SP. SP restoration items are pretty rare for a while in the beginning, but the Doctor sells them later once you build up her confidant a bit more (Death confidant). If you just try out different attacks and find the weaknesses of enemies, you should be able to get through most of the palaces fairly well.
Arrrammis Is right. A big key to conserving SP is to always go for the Hold-Up. Make sure you are always ambushing and always testing each shadow's weaknesses. That way you are only spending SP to knock them down. All-out-attacks cost no SP and deal powerful damage. Use the analysis feature (R2 I think) when in battle to look up what you've learned about each shadow.
Also, for weaker enemies, just melee attack them to conserve SP and use healing items rather than healing spells. Finally, if you are really low, you can just sneak past enemies although that really shouldn't be necessary if you are doing the first two.
Once you can buy the SP Adhesive items from the Doctor, your SP problems will go away.
Also, for weaker enemies, just melee attack them to conserve SP and use healing items rather than healing spells. Finally, if you are really low, you can just sneak past enemies although that really shouldn't be necessary if you are doing the first two.
Once you can buy the SP Adhesive items from the Doctor, your SP problems will go away.
broz0rs
Member
Just wanted to add to this, on each floor of a palace will have the same set of monsters. Figure out their weakness, and rotate your team members who has counters. You can just use attack with everyone while the member that has the counter will be the only one using SP. It makes SP management a lot easier.
From the early to mid game, you can literally just use the cheapest ability to knock them all down to set up the All Out. Later in the game, it's better to use stronger abilities to clear mobs faster.