give me the scoop, will this curb my persona hunger until February?
Only a few hours in, but at its foundation its pretty much a Persona game, albeit with some systems stripped away and altered.
You still wander Tokyo as high school kids and visit shops for accessory upgrades and consumables. Dungeons still feature enemies on screen as you manage your resources to survive the gauntlet of enemies before reaching the boss.
The big changes reflect a lack of Social Links, and the very minor Fire Emblem infusion into combat. Persona's are essentially just cameo characters(uncertain if there is a deeper relationship to that franchise beyond just stylizing popular FE heroes and villains as supernatural Persona's). Skill gain occurs from crafting new weapons from materials and leveling them up through combat to add to your limited selection of slots.
Tone and story is very light-hearted and family friendly so far. Persona itself felt a bit toothless compared to its SMT brethren in that regard, but this goes even further to match Nintendo's image, but the pop-idol theming actually is a bit charming and endearing so far.
My only real complaint this early in is how dull some of the exploration music can be. Certain vocal tracks are very energetic and well produced now and again, but exploring the world map(such as your home base) between dungeons fills your ears with some rather lackluster theme tracks that are just limp. Oh and so many lines of Japanese dialogue are untranslated during combat that it feels like you are missing out on lots of banter.
Persona fans should give it a look for sure.
