I beat it tonight. Overall, I am not pleased with the game. It just has too many problems.
-Three kinds of maps, with the worst being the overworld map. Who knows where half the shit the game wants you to do in sidequests is. Tokyo is a miserable experience every time you leave an area.
-Constant demon fusing makes it feel like your team is never really together. You never really get to form attachments to demons - they are all fusion fodder.
-Too much content locked behind DLC.
-The game is easy to the point of boring once you get to Tokyo, minus a few surprises like Ancient Curse.
-Combat is exceedingly random, forcing players to rely on certain skills like Tetrakarn and its sister to survive encounters with the unknown. For the first half of the game, there is a good chance you will lose if you are caught off guard.
-The real game feels locked behind apps. Eveything is a struggle until Party MP Recovery, and then it is too easy. You have to earn attack slots, and that is just not fun.
-Tons of useless demons. The worse the demon looks, the better it seems to be.
Caster demons require skill min-maxing to even be viable since they have so little HP. It is better to go with high HP demons and drink chakra pots when you need to.
-Too much travel time. There is no convenient way to get from point A to point B. The transporters require a good 5 min to get to for use, and then there are the demon encounters on the world map to make it take even longer.
-The challenge fights I might consider organizing a real team for are completely random. That is crap. I beat the final boss on Chaos with some ragtag bundle of demons I fused 15 minutes prior. Why bother putting thought into it?
How many of these problems exist in the Persona games? I was really looking forward to this game, and I don't want to waste my time if they are just as poorly designed. I tried to love it, especially since I love demons, but I was just not enjoying myself. Same question for SMT: Nocturne.