Board 8 > Final Thoughts on Persona 5 *no spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Jesus christ this game is long. I clocked in at 110 hours and I wasn't even taking my time.

Overall I greatly enjoyed my time with the game. The high points were very high and ended up being some of my favorite segments in the series. Unfortunately, the game also dragged in areas that felt like filler/padding. The character interactions weren't nearly as good as they were in Persona 4 (and at times, even Persona 3), although this improved significantly towards the end of the game. In general the last 20% of the game kicked ass (Persona 3 still has the best final boss though). Overall though I only liked 1 or 2 of the characters as much as the P4 group, who I universally loved.

Gameplay is super good and obviously the best in the series. Music is awesome and the visuals are stylish as fuck. It feels like it *should* be my favorite in the series, but as stated the writing issues were a major issue for me. The biggest offender is the segment directly after the 4th Palace...and Palace 5 in general. It's really bad. Persona 5 also takes too long to introduce all of its party members. Some of them (especially the final one) barely get enough time to feel like a member of the team. This also contributed to the characterization issues.

The main plot is the best in the series, easily. It tackled some pretty heavy social issues, and I really liked how your group wasn't operating in secret this time. Your actions affected the world in a noticeable, appreciable way.

The Social Links are as good as P4's and the roles they play in the endgame are amazing. Very very happy with that aspect. Plus you can date a bunch of older women and who doesn't like that? Kawakami 4 Life.

Kneejerk reaction after finishing is Persona 4 > Persona 5 >= Persona 3. I hope Persona 6 doesn't take another decade to make!
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Lack of character interactions definitely hurt, yeah. Your party may as well not exist outside of social links and dungeons. At no point do they feel close at all.
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