Review - Persona 5

Adriaan den Ouden · April 2017

Do you believe in the Phantom Thieves? Are the Phantom Thieves just? Are the Phantom Thieves innocent? Do the Phantom Thieves really exist? The public won't always be on their side in Persona 5, but that won't stop them from taking your heart.

Read our review here: http://www.rpgamer.com/games/persona/persona5/reviews/persona5strev1.html

Slayer · April 2017

Thank you for your detailed review. I bought it but haven't played it yet. I'm looking forward to it.

Wheels · April 2017

Incredible period of two months for games

Macstorm · April 2017

Just saying, Slayer is the nicest person.

Adriaan den Ouden · April 2017

Wheels wrote: »

Incredible period of two months for games

Unprecedented, I would say. I've never seen the first half of a year stacked like this before

ChickenGod · April 2017

Agreed about this year. The first four months of gaming this year strongly suggest it'll be the highlight of the last decade or more, for me.

Regarding P5, I haven't said much about it here, but I strongly agree with most of the review. The point about non-randomized dungeons is a small facet that I hadn't really considered, but deeply appreciate none-the-less. Your points about the visuals and soundtrack are spot on too. The soundtrack in particular is used incredibly well to set the mood of each and every moment that the player goes through, something that more developers desperately need to learn how to do better.

P5 the best game in the series for me, and its even managed to overcome the stress-inducing nature of the time management system that I inherently dislike and turned that on its head so that I'm enjoying myself at leisurely pace. Its one of my all time favorite games already, and I still have at least 3 months to go in game, if not more.

DarkRPGMaster · April 2017

This is the rare once-in-a-decade golden year for RPGs. We're going to have a lot of games to play this year.

I massively agree with the review, except the last pro...YMMV.

ultraness · April 2017

I'd give the game a 5 for visuals. Everything looks fantastic in the game, and its style is one that will age really well.

Anyway, I've been really enjoying the game. I've got a lot of it left, but it's looking like it will be my favourite Persona game. Everything in it is just done really well. I wish there were more games like it.

Adriaan den Ouden · April 2017

ultraness wrote: »

I'd give the game a 5 for visuals. Everything looks fantastic in the game, and its style is one that will age really well.

Anyway, I've been really enjoying the game. I've got a lot of it left, but it's looking like it will be my favourite Persona game. Everything in it is just done really well. I wish there were more games like it.

i docked it a point because, despite some amazing style, they aren't the most technically amazing visuals, especially after everything we've seen this year.

i agree that it will age well, though. cel-shading always does.

Budai · April 2017

Just this year- Zelda, persona 5, nier, and tales of berseria are all 4.0 or more games, for me. And I haven't played horizon zero dawn.

yangwenli · April 2017

Great review. This is my first persona game but I'm loving it - at 75 hours so far . Makoto is clearly the best girl though, just saying

Adriaan den Ouden · April 2017

yangwenli wrote: »

Great review. This is my first persona game but I'm loving it - at 75 hours so far . Makoto is clearly the best girl though, just saying

make like a cheetah and dash. Futaba is best girl.

i am totally okay if this thread devolves into best girl discussions.

mooserocka · April 2017

i loved every second. I dont like how guides say you cant get all confidants and max out stats on first playthrough i did it with a day to spare : D. only things i need for all trophies is beating twins and hitting homerun and collecting all soda.

TheAnimeMan · April 2017

omegabyte wrote: »

ultraness wrote: »

I'd give the game a 5 for visuals. Everything looks fantastic in the game, and its style is one that will age really well.

Anyway, I've been really enjoying the game. I've got a lot of it left, but it's looking like it will be my favourite Persona game. Everything in it is just done really well. I wish there were more games like it.

i docked it a point because, despite some amazing style, they aren't the most technically amazing visuals, especially after everything we've seen this year.

i agree that it will age well, though. cel-shading always does.

Early Cel shaded games have not aged as well as later cel shaded games. Examples Wild Arms 3 and the Musashi game for PS2.

LordGolbez · April 2017

I was concerned when I read the minus bullet point, because I'm about entering the late game period after just finishing the fifth palace (if you count the fifth palace as one of the weaker dungeons I think you're crazy, but I assume you mean after that). Fortunately, in the review itself you said the story picks up, so I guess I don't have to worry so much that the best of the game is behind me. Actually, this sounds possibly not that different from P4, where Heaven was the best dungeon. The seventh one was fine from a story perspective, but kind of lackluster by comparison. The last one was decent in a soothing, melodic, creepy sort of way, but not as good as the fourth and sixth dungeons.

I'm also fairly sure that you generally can't do activities in the evening when you go into the TV in P4. One thing that makes me a little unsure is I probably beat most of the dungeons in one day, so for the few that I didn't my memory may be off about not being able to do things in the evening. You definitely can't do things in the evening when you beat the boss in the TV, because there's a story event (I seem to recall that for one of them, you actually can do something afterward, which I always thought was probably a serendipitous mistake on the part of the game designers).

MyopicMirror · April 2017

Spoiler:

I didn't like that all the non-teammate confidants(at least all the ones I maxed) required you going to Mementos to fix a problem for them. Can't I just help someone with the power of my Charm or Kindness?

LordGolbez · April 2017

TheAnimeMan wrote: »

omegabyte wrote: »

ultraness wrote: »

I'd give the game a 5 for visuals. Everything looks fantastic in the game, and its style is one that will age really well.

Anyway, I've been really enjoying the game. I've got a lot of it left, but it's looking like it will be my favourite Persona game. Everything in it is just done really well. I wish there were more games like it.

i docked it a point because, despite some amazing style, they aren't the most technically amazing visuals, especially after everything we've seen this year.

i agree that it will age well, though. cel-shading always does.

Early Cel shaded games have not aged as well as later cel shaded games. Examples Wild Arms 3 and the Musashi game for PS2.

Early Cel shaded games never really looked all that good to begin with, so I'm not sure it's a question of aging. Cel shading just seemed like a bad design choice until more recently.

Phillip Willis · April 2017

I agree with the graphics rating. Stylish, hell yeah. I love it. However, there are plenty of times that, as I'm walking around the city or whatnot, I feel like they could have added more detail or the such. Compared to, say, Horizon Zero Dawn, which is quite the oppsoite... not as much style, but soooo very much detailed (and technical) that it's just jaw dropping in that regard.

Wheels · April 2017

JCServant wrote: »

I agree with the graphics rating. Stylish, hell yeah. I love it. However, there are plenty of times that, as I'm walking around the city or whatnot, I feel like they could have added more detail or the such. Compared to, say, Breath of the Wild, which is quite the oppsoite... not as much style, but soooo very much detailed (and technical) that it's just jaw dropping in that regard.

I totally agree

LordGolbez · April 2017

I tend to think that a game should not need to necessarily be technically impressive in the graphics dept. to get a 5 on visuals. There are games that push the envelope on graphics, but are populated by boring and uninspired visuals. I would be inclined to give such games a 3 or 3.5 even if they're top tier in the graphics department technically. That said, I think a 4 is probably sufficient for the visuals on P5, but I do think that creative, inspiring visuals are more important than technical graphical power.

Slayer · April 2017

Macstorm wrote: »

Just saying, Slayer is the nicest person.

I appreciate your kind words Mac.

ChickenGod · April 2017

JCServant wrote: »

Stylish, hell yeah. I love it. However, there are plenty of times that, as I'm walking around the city or whatnot, I feel like they could have added more detail or the such.

Hmm, I actually can't say I agree with this. Leaning more towards Golbez's line of thought. Here's a random example I googled:

Just looking at this, you can see how much is in here. Books on shelves (look at the bottom shelf, all those books are different colors), drinks in vending machines, tons of unique signs with text, every NPC has shadows, there's patterns of design on the main street that differs from the sidewalk, an NPC looking into a shop while a couple is walking down the opposite side, both with different bags in hand, each advertisement looks unique and not pre-generated. Other things off the top of my head include 5 different movie advertisements on the side of the Shinjuku theater, patterns on the walls inside of shops in the Underground Mall, and various styles of products on display such as the purses at Funny Face. I do agree that they could have done a little bit more with regards to the clothing NPCs wear, but not pictured here are a lot of the little quirks that NPCs can have such as hunching over, using their phone in different ways (finger tapping or holding it to their head), holding bags over the shoulder vs in the hand, wearing the medical masks, some are gathered in groups while others can be crouched down or inspecting merchandise. I actually think the faceless aspect of them is sort of creepy and ties into the game's themes as well as mimics my own personal experience of not noticing people's facial features in crowd settings the overwhelming majority of the time.

Edit: Ultimately my point is that I think the P5 has plenty of details in its scenery. Getting a score of a 4 vs 5 is whatever to me. Especially when you consider that all 3 of RPGamer's Best of 2016 graphics award winners scored a 4 on the scale including, yes, Final Fantasy 15. The standard seems pretty high here and I agree that a 4 is certainly reasonable especially in a year with releases as strong as this one.

Phillip Willis · April 2017

Sure...but then I see faceless people in the crowd and it pulls me right out. Sometimes I find myself more distracted by them than I am by the pretty detailed city. Am I nitpicking? Sure...but to get a 5/5 in graphics from me, you have to wow me so much that I just can't stop looking at the awesomeness...and any imperfections/low res/etc., I just don't really notice over all of the awesome.

Also, while the city is detailed, It's not as 'wow' details as Horizon: Zero Dawn...which has me staring at the moldings in the buildings and level of detail in the backgrounds. It begs me to take screenshots and turn them into wallpapers. I wanna say Yakuza 5 even looked a wee bit more detailed, better on the technology side (though a wee less stylish), and its crowds had faces.

Also, the dungeons...while a big step up from P4, don't really pull their full weight in the graphics/details department. Again..they are good IMHO, just not great.

All of this is just my silly opinion, of course. P5 is a super awesome game that I'm really enjoying... It's just that the graphics, outside of the style it oozes in menus/animation/combat, doesn't wow me over as much as a few other modern titles.

DarkRPGMaster · April 2017

JCServant wrote: »

Sure...but then I see faceless people in the crowd and it pulls me right out. Sometimes I find myself more distracted by them than I am by the pretty detailed city. Am I nitpicking? Sure...but to get a 5/5 in graphics from me, you have to wow me so much that I just can't stop looking at the awesomeness...and any imperfections/low res/etc., I just don't really notice over all of the awesome.

If it helps, it makes sense because in the MC's eyes, they're people who aren't catching his attention either. That's why they're faceless.

ChickenGod · April 2017

Its a perfectly reasonable opinion for sure, especially with how hard RPGamer seems to be in terms of success in the visuals department. Even The Witcher 3 only got a 4!

Just wanted to point out that I think the developers did care and put a fair amount thought and effort when it comes to some smaller details in the city/places they created. To me it stands out compared to most competitors that have been done in the anime/cartoon style, thats all. At the end of the day, there's not a whole lot you can do when Horizon and BOTW are the new gold standard. All you can really do is point out artistic preference or ask that slightly lesser achievements are allowed to be grouped into the same category.

imercenary · April 2017

Personally, I wish the game had a tighter design. Some of the side activities just seem like they're there just because the developers wanted more locations to play with (Seriously, we didn't need 4 different part-time jobs when the main character literally lives in the attic of a coffee shop.)

I also disagree that the story is philosophical or political. For all the talk about justice and doing the right thing, everyone's (except for the main characters of course) moral compass is so blatantly broken I kept expecting the NPCs to go full fascist and just randomly punish you at random times just because they could.

Phillip Willis · April 2017

Yeah, @ChickenGod ...I agree. At the end of the day, this is all very subjective, and everyone definitely has a right to their own opinion, and what makes a 5/5 graphics score for them. For me, even if it is not the best of its generation, I'll give a game a 5/5 in a category if it really wows me over. The STYLE of the animations and menus very much does. I do not recall ever seeing that in a game. I really like how the ending looks of the battles wrap up with them all striking a thief/gangster like pose and the loot/xp displayed as graffiti. If I was judging that alone, I would give a 5/5.

For me, it's the backgrounds (especially some of the dungeons/side areas) and little things...like missing faces... that I just find either "Average", "Good" or "Distracting" (and the things in that last category are minor items...faces!) that pulls it out of the 5 slot...not necessarily the fact that it missed banchmarks set by BOTW and HZD's. (I simply reference HZD as a game that executes graphics really well througout). I see someone explained the faces thing above. I guess there can be a story reason, but I just know that when I'm walking around, it distracts me from enjoying the overall look.

I totally agree, CG, that it does stand out compared to a number of other anime/cartoon style games that I have played. That's why I would give it an overall 4/5, which for me is pretty darn good/borderline excellent. If we did .5's, I may be tempted to give it a 4.5 in graphics. Maybe.

@imercenary Your moral compass comment had me LMAO this morning. Hahahahaha!

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Review - Persona 5

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