Jump to content
passwords have all been force reset. please recover password to reset ×
MFGamers

Persona 5


spatular
 Share

Recommended Posts

This arrived early wooooo! Nice surprise because i thought zavvi would be slow at delivering, had to get up early and wait in for it at my parents, but it was totally worth it.

 

Anyway yeah I'm really enjoying it so far, but even though I'm a fair few hours in I'm still doing tutorials, lots of story/setup, and some mini dungeon stuff, so early days still.

 

There's been some funny stuff in there, mainly the responses you can pick, but not loads so far.

 

The presentation/graphics/music is great as expected really.

 

The guy in the velvet room sounds odd/different.

 

Something this has from other SMT games that I'm not sure the persona ones I've played have properly had, which i always thought sounded cool, is talking to the bad guys. I like it.

 

As expected it's pretty similar in gameplay and structure to persona 3 and 4, there's a map/school to run round talking to people and social links and stuff, and dungeon where bad guys are battled in turn based combat. 

 

So there you go. I'm sure some people will be picking this up so hope you guys enjoy it :) maybe i shouldn't have started this as I'll probably just skim read it till I've finished the game now, which will probably be a while.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

there's some nice additions/streamlining to the combat, like if you already know an enemies weakness you can select the right skill with 1 button press. first dungeon down, i did it pretty un-efficiently, not story spoilers, maybe useful tip, but spoilered just in case

Spoiler

wanted to unlock some more chests id found so had to not finish the dungeon, make some lockpicks, then go back in, then trigger the dungeon-end thing the day after so wasted a few days there. moral of the story is make lockpicks, or maybe don't bother looting stuff, not sure it was worth it, although i got one good thing.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like the changes they've made to this. I know the platforming isn't anything amazing, but it lets them do some things with the dungeons that keeps it interesting. I also like, and I'm only on the first palace so this might change, that you're not going in to future teammates' minds now, they've broken that pattern 

 

I also like that they've taken a few ideas from the recent Shin Megami Tensei games. Talking to demons is one of my favourite parts, although the demons not having their own health and sp pools means some of the tactics have been lost from that. I'm hoping talking to demons already in your party will mean they replenish your health instead of just items. I guess it's slightly different with the teammates in Persona games, but it was something that lets you stay in dungeons longer in smt 

 

I'm liking it though, I was a bit worried I'd be burned out on this sort of game but there's enough interesting about it. I'm past the halfway point of the first dungeon with 9 days left, so I don't know how much time I can spare with people or making lock picks and the like 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Played the first 4 hours earlier.

 

Surprisingly, a bit of a mixed bag really for me.

 

I just didn't really think much of the first 3 hours really, the last hour I played things got much better but before that I was a bit bored really, the opening is MUCH slower than I remember P4 being, but that was a while ago so maybe I'm just misremembering? Who knows.

 

Anyway, it was just rather slow, the plot is hella interesting already (without giving anything away) but I just couldn't shake the feeling of malaise throughout. The entirety of what I played today was purely tutorial, lots of story stuff, meeting friends, touring around the school, getting used to the combat system and an introduction to the first dungeon.

 

It just felt way too hand-holdy to me, again, maybe P4 was like this and I've just misremembered it, but yeah not a great opening at all to me, I guess a 4 hour tutorial is par for the course in a 120 hour game, but even so I wish it could've let me explore a bit more in those opening hours rather than funnelling me down a set series of events, characters and dungeons, the final hour I played moved things along a bit and I can tell I'm close to the game opening up completely but yeah I wasn't blown away at all by those first few hours except for the art design, plot and music really.

 

It also felt a bit odd to not be playing this on the Vita. I know that sounds weird, but my only Persona experience was P4G on Vita and it felt strange the entirety of my session seeing these HUGE dialogue boxes, character animations etc. I just wasn't used to it at all and it took me a while to adjust to the added size of everything and the added detail and vibrancy in the world.

 

So yeah, the positives. Art design is bloody amazing, even the way the characters dialog boxes work, the full stop on the end of sentences, the way characters enunciate themselves in the half-screen picture now, the loading screens and the ending battle summary sequences are all incredible and meld together so well, such attention to detail it's amazing, keeping you fixed into this world with little details such as those is so important. 

 

Music is absolutely amazing as well, it helps that I've had the theme on my PS4 for a while so when I heard the title music for the first time I was instantly at home, but yeah, all the other tracks I've heard are memorable already and the battle music is more rocky than I originally thought it would be.

 

And of course the plot is amazing, without getting into spoiler territory things are already set up perfectly on that front and certain dark themes that put a spotlight on humanity's worst traits has already been shown.

 

I like it already but it has a bit of work to do before I'm swooning, let's put it that way, 4% through the game though and I'm still in the tutorial phase so I'm sure things will get much better at time goes on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm fighting the boss to claim my third heart. And this is definitely the part of the game where the difficulty spikes a but since I seem to remember Persona 3 having a similar spice. It's basically when enemies come in bigger parties, don't have easily exploitable weaknesses and sometimes know insta-kill spells. 

 

I've not really posted about it because I'm too busy playing it. Any day I have off is spent doing stupid marathon sessions on this. The game owns so hard it isn't fair. 

 

It does have a really long tutorial section but it is tied to a pretty dramatic plot so despite it being hand-holdy it still feels high stakes enough. 

I mean I did want the game to just let me play Persona but I can't say what happens is bad and dull. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only had time for another 2.5 hours on this over the weekend, 6.5 total.

 

And now I think I'm falling for it, still not at the stage to be absolutely swept off my feet, but I'm not far off.

 

Still very much in the tutorial phase but the story has ramped up significantly already and got even darker.

 

I've got the 4th member of my party, I love all the characters already pretty much, and have been slowly learning about more involved combat mechanics like talking to Demons, the Stealth meter and stealth attacks, how to negotiate with Demons to possibly get them to be one of your Personas or getting money/items from them in the process.

 

Spoiler

P4G went to some dark places too, but P5 feels even darker than that already. The whole deal with Kamoshida beating students, the insinuation of possible rape with Suzue, which then results in her suicide attempt, some really dark subject matter there, reminded me somewhat of Kate in Life is Strange.

 

The music is incredible too, must be one of the best soundtracks I've ever experienced in a game, just pottering about the school furthering the plot and a new song came out, just let the dialogue pause, sat there and listened to it for a good 5 minutes, even took my headphones off and let my old man have a listen, just magical, and something I feel may be forgotten under all the other awesomeness the game has to offer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Y'all know the drill ;)

 

4 hours earlier, 10.5 total.

 

Carried on in the real world for a while, still following the set-path of the story beats. It's rather astounding just how damn big the world is, and the attention to detail is stunning, even right at the start having to transfer stations to the Ginza Line in order to get to school (without any waypoints to help) was a really great touch. Up until now it has all felt somewhat gated though, every shop I went up to or character I'd try to interact with I'd be met with a 'this doesn't look like it's open yet...come back later' but after carrying on the story for a bit I was finally left to my own devices.

 

And fuck me, I was immediately overwhelmed, there's just SO much to see and do it's unreal. Throws you right in at the deep-end and lets you explore with the occasional pop-ups telling you things as you click on them, somethings I recognised from P4G like the books making you learn certain attributes, studying, getting your companion ranks up etc. that was all stuff I'd got used to before, but in P4G the town was tiny compared to this, I mean the Central Street near Shibuya Station is like a street out of Yakuza really, shops, eateries, weapons, people to talk to, a cinema, bookstore, dvd rental place, vending machines, leaflets for part-time jobs, it really is an assault on the senses and immediately I didn't really know what to do, it was all so bewildering.

 

Decided to take on a part-time job at a convenience store (no idea when this will start up), bought a few SP healing items, checked out one of the books at the library and spent some time with the Doc after-school to get the companionship added to my compendium. The next day I spent with Ryuji and then studied in the evening.

 

The day after I thought enough dilly-dallying and went into the dungeon. As soon as I got in I had a long chat with Igor in the Velvet Room about fusing Persona's, I remember doing this in P4G but didn't really have a clue what I was doing, hacking at it blindly to try to get a decent Persona out of it and in all likelihood it will probably be the same case here. 

 

As soon as this was over I entered the dungeon proper, and it felt like the shackles had come off here too, there were still a few tutorials about the stealth and platforming mechanics but it definitely felt like I'd been given free-reign of the Castle to explore for the first time. Compared to P4G and this the dungeon design is almost night and day really, P4G's dungeons were the worst part for me, I'd always look forward to getting through them so I could spend some more time with friends, some of the antagonists and themes to them were great but the dungeons themselves were a lot to be desired, just procedurally generated mazes with lots of floors and enemies here.

 

I believe the dungeons in P5 are hand-crafted, not procedurally generated and if that's the case it definitely show's. The Castle has such a nice flow to it that feels like it could've only come from a designers blueprint, all the platforming mechanics (while basic) work really nicely, and the stealth mechanics work well too and give the opportunity to get the drop on enemies easily, didn't expect there to be as many puzzles as there is either, again they're on the basic side but I do like them being in there, finding keys I'm less keen on but it does add some variety to proceedings. The combat itself though is a bit of a mixed bag, I do like it a lot, it reminds me of the P4G system a lot (and Pokemon too with the fire/wind etc. elemental weaknesses the system employs) but after battling seemingly endless hordes of shadows it did get very repetitive after a while, I'm playing on Safe difficulty and had to use quite a few potions to top up my HP and SP at times and some of the enemies deeper in the Dungeon can really pack a punch. 

 

Reached the end of the dungeon, exited and left it there, unsure whether to explore some more and go back in a bit later (as I've still got 12 days before the deadline) or not really.

 

Glad the game has really opened up now, incredibly bewildering prospect to try to get my head around everything going on at once (like it was in P4G) but I'm sure I'll get into the flow of things after awhile.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Itsraininggotys.gif

 

:lol: If it's as good/better than P4G and lives up to my expectations it'll go way above GOTY contention to GOAT territory :wub:

 

Still early days though, not my GOTY yet (still Yakuza 0) so we'll see how it goes...

 

Anyhoo...had more time today so spent 6 hours on this earlier, 16.5 total.

 

Went straight into the Dungeon, opened the last couple of chests I had remaining then fast travelled to the nearest Save Room to the 'Treasure', defeated the boss here and then exited.

 

After this everything is pretty quiet, so are mainly left to your own devices to do the typical Persona things of part-time jobs and spending time with people, I was just going about the willy-nilly really no idea if there are certain people/tasks I should prioritise or not over others, I just seem to be bumbling my way through and slowly improving certain attributes in the process, it definitely helps that I can fully explore at Night now as well as there's a few more companions and jobs that open up as a result.

Spoiler

 

You also get introduced to the 'mementoes' which are procedurally generated dungeons that are an amalgamation of the general public's suppressed desires rather than 1 'King's Palace' in particular, the coolest part of this though is that Morgana turns into a car which you then drive about :lol: was a genuine WTF moment when she turned into a car, damn cool traversing a dungeon with it though, it is similar in design to the dungeons in previous Persona games but the whole addition of the car just adds a new dimension to proceedings and keeps things feeling fresh and new, just as you think you've seen everything in this game something like this comes along and surprises you.

 

More down time follows and then you're slowly introduced to your next 'target', Kamoshida felt much more personal but with the second antagonist it definitely doesn't feel as natural. In P5 the 'Phantom Thieves' are actively looking for targets, so it feels less personalised and more of a Heist film or something, I guess that's what they were going for but the way P4G handled things was more personable and less jarring to me, same with Kamoshida, you felt the Protagonists angst and anger when they faced him but with this second guy it's just some random bloke you know nothing about.

 

When you first hear about the second antagonist it's just a bit strange that the game wants you to hate this character based on a few lines of dialogue, with Kamoshida you felt the Protagonists anger and heartache when the faced him, it was a personal grudge but with this second guy it feels like some random bloke you know nothing about that has just been picked off a random document on a noteboard like in a film or something.

 

 

I wanted to give a mention to the online features too, I really like the way they handle things. Similar to Catherine and the Telltale games' decisions summaries, they're not too in your face and you don't even have to touch them if you don't want to but it's just cool to see what other people did on a certain day to make your decision easier and feel like you haven't wasted your time, and the same goes for Class Questions and how they let you see what everyone else chose, definitely feels more satisfying than looking at a guide and less of a shot in the dark than when you randomly guess.

 

Did some exams at school, handled much the same way as P4G, actually couldn't put my finger on any differences off the top of my head, and made my way to the entrance of the second dungeon where I called it a day.

 

More love for the music too, it continues to astound me, yes the series is known for its fantastic soundtracks, and Persona 4's was incredible too, but I just adore the music in this, it really is magnificent. One of the tracks I'd been listening to from the start got vocals added to it today and I just took my headphones off and listened to it for a good 5 minutes humming the tune, and that is the second time I've done this in a relatively short period of time, Shoji Meguro has outdone himself with this soundtrack, could be his magnum opus.

 

So yeah, some decent progress today, still hasn't got its hooks in me to the same degree as P4G yet but that took while to besot me too if I remember rightly.

 

A song from the soundtrack just to give an idea of how awesome it is:

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours earlier, 20.5 total.

 

Well it has taken a while but I think it has finally taken my heart (;)).

 

Spoiler

 

I was a bit down on the setup to the second target yesterday but today everything kind of fell into place and actually became way better than the first target surprisingly. I still don't quite get why the game expects you to hate this guy right off the bat but actually fully exploring the Dungeon is incredibly good and better than anything I could've imagined from the game going in.

 

It is just levels above the first dungeon and miles above any Dungeon from P4G, feels almost like that Catherine Zeta Jones/Sean Connery film from the 90's Entrapment in a lot of ways, you have to infiltrate this incredibly detailed museum, complete with a few context-sensitive laser puzzles, lots of laser grids to turn off, dodge and jump over and then eventually you get to this door which has a TON of security in front of it, you can't proceed and have to exit out.

 

The next segment is just amazing, reminds me of some of the heart-warming goofy moments from P4G, you use Ann as bait, by getting her to agree to be Yusuke's nude model, you assure her that she's not going to have to go through with it and you're only doing this to get into a locked door inside the bad guys Shack. What ensues is just hilarious, Ann turns up with about 15 layers of clothes on and does a really poor acting job (whilst getting berated by Morgana) attempting to seduce Yusuke to get him to open the locked door. 

 

Of course things don't go to plan and the Target comes home halfway through. Ann, Morgana and Yusuke all bundle through the locked door and whilst making their escape get sucked back into the Palace to find the previously locked door in the Metaverse now open too, so you continue on through the dungeon through more laser traps and puzzles,

 

I ran out of time so had to leave it there for the day.

 

So yeah the quality of this dungeon is just incredible and such a HUGE step-up from P4G (and the first dungeon in the game) that I'm going to actually be incredibly excited by the time the next dungeon hop rolls around, still got to reach the finish on this first though. The whole goofiness surrounding the obstacles you face getting through the dungeon (in the real world and the upside-down) has made me adore the characters now too, I've liked them throughout but this was the first time I felt that incredibly unique deep Persona bond that I did in P4G.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Put in 8 hours since my last post, 28.5 total.

 

Not really much more to add since my last update, just been going with the flow of the game really.

 

Finished off the second dungeon, which was fantastic throughout. The conclusion wasn't quite as satisfying as I didn't really hate

Spoiler

Madarame

as much as

Spoiler

Kamoshida,

felt much less of a personal grudge than the first dungeon which felt more shocking and close to the knuckle.

 

The best part of it though was getting

Spoiler

Yusuke

to join the Phantom Thieves, he's a really interesting character, much quieter and less in your face than all the rest of the crew, seems much more considerate, polite and considered in his thoughts, ideas and speech and it's great to have more variation in the squad. 

 

Spoiler

 

Got back into the rhythm of doing the social links and extra-curricular activities and then begun the investigation into the 3rd dungeon. The way they handle the introduction to this dungeon and the antagonist behind it felt much more natural and akin to the first which I was pleased about. You essentially get blackmailed by Student President Makoto (who is herself getting Blackmailed by the School Principal) to investigate the crime-spree around Shibuya and find out who's behind it before she reports you to the Police in 2 weeks time. Over the course of your investigation however, Makoto becomes more attached to the case and wants to prove herself useful for once (as she feels she can't live up to the name of her big Sister and people treat her as being helpless and someone who says yes to everything) and ends up getting kidnapped by the Mafia boss, you negotiate with him to let her go with a 3 million yen fee due in 2 weeks time.

 

I loved that set up, I felt for Makoto and genuinely wanted to help her out, explored the dungeon and Makoto's Persona activated (which is bloody badass!) and then called it a day there.

 

 

Still barely feels like I've made a dent in the game even after all this time, very much still in the first act I feel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't get a chance to play this weekend, but I have the week off so looking forward to getting some quality time with the game. 

 

I'm building up to beating the first palace, got about 11 days left I think. I'm loving the presentation, it's got great style.

 

The PS3 version is good, the resolution is a bit lower and apparently has longer (but perfectly tolerable) load times, but I have no complaints. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It really is a very well presented game. I'm not surprised the PS3 version holds up well as it is very economical in how it uses everything.  I guess they always were not now the do it and look real good.  You can tell Catherine was a warm up to this. 

 

The loading screens even do a great job of setting the tone. Absolutely everything is used. 

 

I've just taken my 4th heart and they do change it up a bit for this one. No one can stop me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Played another 4 hours today myself, 32.5 total.

Going about the usual day-to day for the first half of the session, met a couple of cool new S-Links which I managed to rank up a bit and furthered some of my ranks in my more established links, after a while of pottering about it was time to face the dungeon.

 

Spoiler


Again, this one had a really unique design, it was a Bank so the whole security aspect with cameras was emphasised, getting through Vault doors was a nice touch too, I don't really think it is quite as well designed as the 2nd and I did find myself sighing at times as the next floor/room revealed itself but it had its moments and was definitely unique.

Also feels Souls like at times opening up previous doors with keycards to access some treasure or open a shortcut for easy exploration when you come back later on. The whole code system is ingenius too, had to get out a pen and paper, note down all the code translations to open some of the Vault doors, a nice touch for sure.


Got to the last room (I think), opened 3 of the Vault doors and will pick it up there tomorrow.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

think i'm on about 75 hours, not a clue if i'm approaching the end or not really as i think i took longer than most people on persona 4 (and a fair chunk of that maybe from leaving it paused). i'm still really enjoying it and the dungeons remain really good. it's weird though i get the feeling i'm not enjoying it as much as i should be, it had a lot to live up to with persona 4 being so good, i was expecting great things, and playing it just after zelda (which was a lot better than i expected) maybe doesn't help. also the characters/social link stories was one of the main things i liked about 4, here they don't seem quite as likeable, although to be fair i haven't finished any social links yet. despite that i am still hooked and enjoying it as already said. and the overall story is great.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, spatular said:

think i'm on about 75 hours, not a clue if i'm approaching the end or not really as i think i took longer than most people on persona 4 (and a fair chunk of that maybe from leaving it paused). i'm still really enjoying it and the dungeons remain really good. it's weird though i get the feeling i'm not enjoying it as much as i should be, it had a lot to live up to with persona 4 being so good, i was expecting great things, and playing it just after zelda (which was a lot better than i expected) maybe doesn't help. also the characters/social link stories was one of the main things i liked about 4, here they don't seem quite as likeable, although to be fair i haven't finished any social links yet. despite that i am still hooked and enjoying it as already said. and the overall story is great.

 

I feel exactly the same, it was more pronounced the first 10 hours or so and it has got much better as its gone on but I keep comparing it back to P4 in my mind and it's just not as good in a lot of respects really, the combat, art design and dungeons are much improved in this but everything else doesn't feel quite as vivid as it did in P4, there has been no characters like Chie (:wub:), Naoto or Yukiko for me really and I prefer Teddie to Morgana even if he was just a running joke. I haven't met all the characters/party members available yet though, and you're well ahead of me so my opinion could change, I think Makoto is my favourite already in P5 and she's only joined my party relatively recently.

 

Anyhoo, 4 hours earlier, 36.5 total.

Spoiler

 

Spent the first hour or so reaching the treasure in the 3rd dungeon (really loved the code entry puzzles here, had to rack my brains trying to suss out one of the harder ones toward the end, the whole lock aesthetic was so nicely designed as well) and straight after that I sent out the card and went back in to finish everything off. Boss fight was a doddle, he reminded me of Dr Robotnik/Eggman from Sonic for some reason, may of his contraption he used to fight and his demeanour maybe :lol:

 

After this it was just back to doing the S-Links for a while, met a couple of new ones and ranked up Makoto (my new favourite character) a bit. Had 5 or 6 requests from Mementos and the game hinted at me that it was best to do them now so I went back in and actually had some fun with it, zooming around in the Morgana-Van is quite fun, the randomised levels not so much but it didn't take too long really and it was quite addictive defeating all the enemies and finding all the trinkets available on each floor. Damn is that place big though! I ventured down to about the 4th Floor of the 3rd area (I guess more areas unlock as you beat each Palace) and it just seemed endless really.

 

 

Defeated all the targets I needed to and changed their hearts, ranked up a bit too and made a bit more cash which is always handy. So yeah got quite a bit done today, the 3rd dungeon story arc I should get finished tomorrow and then onto more school shenanigans.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...