Persona 5 - PlayStation Hits - PlayStation 4 Standard Edition

Wow! I am impressed with this game. You must like turn based games and JRPG if you want to invest in this game. I been playing RPG and JRPG a long time since the first Ninitendo LOL...on a serious note, this game as ALOT of Story telling so be prepared to read a lot of the story, that being said, the story is great and has a lot of character development which is I find it important. It makes me want to log in every day to play. If the story doesnt develop enough for me, I usually stop playing and move on to another game. For example I was playing Horizon zero dawn ( 60 hours into it) and was totlaly bored than I moved onto Persona 5 and haven't loolked back! Thelast RPG I played before that this year was Final Fantasy 15 which i finished right before i did Horizon but i try to finish one RPG at a time... Anyways on to the Persona 5. The game is also very straight forward and so if you are new to JRPG you wont get lost because you can use your third eye to unlock hints in the game. I have never played any Persona series games and found this very easy to get into! When I say straight forward, i mean it guides you pretty much what direction to go in the game, so this is not an open world exploring game like Final Fantasy 15. you have time limits in the game to finish these palaces in the game and if you dont meet the time limit it is game over. The game can be very unforgiving at times too so saving is crucial in case you screw up! I learned this the hard way because if you dont save and save... and you dont meet the timeline it will put you back the earliest a week of work from the game! So remember to save when you can, it will immensely .However, I will tell you I am already over 80 hours in the game and no where near done, i am estimating 100-150 hours game play at this point for me. As this isn't one of those games you just breeze through... it takes time and effort but well worth it! I love the whole concept for going to class ( trying ot answer these quiz questions) and then fighting the palaces at night! i love doing all these other activities in town when you are allow to and the characters personality are great! If you really like in depth story lines this is worth it. The who concept of using Tarot cards to improve your confidants and strengthen your personas are so fun! Each character has theri own special persona except your main character! Make use of your main character because he can be whatever you want him to be and i love using him because he covers all my weakness on my team when I sub out a character! he does it all from fighting ot healing and debuffing! Keep in mind this game doesnt really allow pwerleveling... Its not that easy to do that. I was able to do that with Final Fantasy but thats because of the whole open world and freedom to roam. You won't have much time to do that either, there are limits in what you can do each day! There is alot ot do too! The games complexity makes ikt a great challenge!. If you have patience to develop your team , then this will be very enjoyable. No character is useless in this game either. The story line is worth it! Check it out if you love JRPG!

In a twisted sort of way, which is the only way Persona knows, these games are a bizarre 21st entry heir apparent to John Hughes high school hijinks and angst. Persona 5 continues a very unique evolution of the SMT JRPG system which by this point is a genuine formula involving dungeons, Pokemon, high School, social links, group battles and dating. Yeah that's all Persona. All of it. After many, many P4g and P4 PS2 play throughs, I can attest that P5 is a well-made follow up to P4. The lineage is clear. The music is great and the story is solid. Atlus did a great job in some areas in particular: - The Tokyo details. You didn't have to spend time in Shinjuku to pick up on everything, but if you've spent any extended time anywhere in metropolitan Japan - Osaka, Kobe, etc - there is so much here to connect with. From the convenience store layouts to lines of subway ticket machines, the environment designers hit all the right notes. THERE IS EVEN A POLLEN WARNING FOLKS. - The music. Now arguably P4 had better music, but the soundtrack is still pretty awesome stuff. - The visual design is as colorful and as lively as walkthrough through Shinjuku or Dōtonbori in Osaka after sunset. Atlus sort of took the Catherine graphics design and went nuts. - Offering a Japanese audio track for free. Confession: I haven't actually heard a single word of the English track. I have a Japanese copy I brought back from Osaka and I played through the American release from start to finish with the Japan audio. I know some people have ranted about flaws in the localization, but if that stuff bothers you so much, just get the full Japanese version. If your kanji isn't really up to snuff like mine, but you can get through the audio, the American release is an easy choice. The Japanese audio track is a free download on the PSN store. - 100 hours from start to finish. This shouldn't be a surprise to any Persona vets. The truth is, a lot of this play time is more about watching the story unfold and fulfilling character stat boost tasks than some grueling marathon. It's like a Netflix season really. - Though the difficulty spikes are still there, the combat is also still tons of fun, strategic and really satisfying. Now some complaints. Persona 5 is not perfect. Neither was 4 or 4G. Or 3. Or 3 FES. Or Q. - Main dungeons are not half random like before, but honestly, they're still a little bland. Some have some really great bits and the use of color is fantastic on all of them, but you're still essentially on rails waiting for a button prompt to hit shadows for combat. I actually think Persona Q felt a little better than this even if you were just moving on squares. Traversal in a Persona game has never been a focus of the designers and it's not really much different here than past titles, but it feels limiting. Mementos - the side mission grind playground - IS made of randomly generated room branches and mostly a good edition since dungeons disappear permanently after you beat them, but it's sort of small scale simplistic stuff that often feels a little weak in comparison to the rest of the game. However, you finally do get a mystery machine van that we didn't have in P4. - 100 hours from start to finish. The downside to this? Well a lot of that time has to do with Morgana telling you what you can't do on particular days early on (this was something the game used to force on you in P4 but now handled through a screen character). Another chunk of time is the infinite cross fading loading screens between any action that happens in the game. - Persona 4 was a little slow moving until you hit the 8-10 hour mark. Persona 5 is marginally better, but arguably, the game doesn't actually begin until when the 3rd dungeon begins which is roughly 18-20 hours in. - Lastly, and this is 100% subjective, but as good as this game is, it is lacking the immeasurable charm and heart from P4 or P4g. I'm not taking anything away from the full group of characters in P5, but overall, it's maybe 9/10s of Persona 4. There is a distinct lack of freshness to many of the game's systems too as some aspects of the game feel lifted from Catherine too. But as I type this, I know there were plenty of people who said similar things about Persona 4 coming off P3. Your mileage may vary. You can't go wrong though. Person 5 is in line with the other life dominating Atlus entries to the series and is so dang amazing that my complaints above came after much thought from a player who has braved the Tartarus, Midnight Channel and now the Metaverse. This is a great game and in many ways is the opposite of open world games in good and bad ways that are dominating video game releases these days. By the end, it's not really about stats or how many cars you have in your GTA garage, it's about looking back and truly earning the right to say, you went on a real journey and you did it among friends. But I still miss Yukiko and Rise. And maybe Chie.

I used to love RPG (Role Playing Games) when i was younger... it started with Final Fantasy III (VI in Japan) on the Super Nintendo. Japanese RPGs were really popular in the late 90's all the way to around the late 2000's. During that time period, there were four main role playing games series that were on the forefront of Japanese role playing. Those were Final Fantasy, The Tales Series, Dragon Quest, and Persona. Out of the four, the Persona series had the least exposure here in the states. It had it's cult following and made more of a splash in the past decade. I myself had never played a Persona game before this one. I was into the other three series more. When I heard that the PS4 was getting, I thought it would be time I finally saw what the Persona series had to offer. In a nutshell, the game is great! I will try and break it down but keep it brief. Gameplay: 10/10 - This is a more traditional turn based RPG. What i mean by turn base is that your party controlled characters and the "enemies" that you encounter take turns taking actions during all enemy encounters. The battles are paced well, the controls are are tight and responsive. As you progress through the story, there many side quests to partake in. These side quests will sometimes help you gain experience for your character. The best part of the game is that you never feel like you're level grinding for the sake of getting stronger. As you move through the story and do the side quests, you will level up. Of course if you want to level up, by all means, it's up to your style of gameplay. Graphics: 10/10 - The game itself has a completely anime inspired look to it. The characters and enemies are all well drawn, and the environments make you feel like you're in Japan. Sound: 10/10 - The whole soundtrack has a nice Jazz'y feeling to it. It's not your typical sounding Japanese RPG. It definitely has the most engaging battle theme. You can replay the game after you beat it. The best part is, you get to keep your current level, so in essence, you can tear through the game. This is mostly for the side quests... to complete different ones to see different aspects of the story. It's a nice touch. The characters are charming and memorable. The story makes you want to keep playing until you see the end credits. At the end of the day, what we want from the game is entertainment, and this game provides it in spades. When I finally beat the game, I felt a sense of accomplishment. I also felt a somber feeling... but like great tv shows and books, we move on. I now patiently wait for Persona 6... I'm just hoping it's release before 2020.

I had never played a Persona game before but it was highly reccommended by a friend and she's never steered me wrong before whenever I've asked her what game to get. Somewhere around my 1st 5 hours of gameplay I started to doubt my purchase because it's a very confusing game mainly when it comes to "fusing" personas and all the other things you can do with them. It has a help section for this aspect of the game but I was still confused. I stuck with the game, however, and I'm glad I did because the characters are great, the story is great and I enjoyed the flow of the turn-based combat. Plus there is just so much to do as you step into the shoes of the protaganist and live his high school life. You go to school and even get asked questions and take a lot of exams etc. I actually learned a lot about Japanese history and culture as well as some other things. You can go shopping at various stores, go to the batting cages, arcade, get multiple part-time jobs if you want, watch dvds, read, study, the list goes on and on. Alongside these options, you will also be given the choice to spend time with teammates and other characters you will meet in the game in order to boost your relationships with them which will in turn unlock special abilities for you or them that will primarily aid you in combat. Now by reading, watching dvds etc these will give you points to certain attributes such as charm or knowledge that you will need to level up in order to access and advance certain characters storylines and yet more opportunities to help them and gain more combat boosts. Lost yet? Now here is my complaint with the game and why I really want to rate it 3.75. Each day is divided into morning, afternoon, and night and in the morning you will be at school so your only real options for choosing 1, yes 1, activity to do is either afternoon or evening and whether you choose to study or spend time with a companion it will take up the entire afternoon or evening. The meat of the game which is exploring these "Palaces" in the Metaverse can only be done in the afternoon. This is where the action is. But sometimes the game forces the storyline on you and you don't even get the option to choose what to do and this is a bit of a downer because THERE ARE TOO MANY OPTIONS OF WHAT TO DO AND THE GAME WON'T GIVE YOU ENOUGH TIME TO EVEN TRY HALF OF THE ACTIVITIES. Teammates and other companions are going to be pulling you in a million different directions at the same time all wanting your help. It's just too much. I put about 100 hours into it but didn't even finish it and sold it to get another game. I was pretty close to the end but after 100 hours I was done. If you're a fan of Persona, get it. Heck, if you have never even played a Persona game before pick it up for 25 or 30 bucks. The diversity of characters and the story alone are worth it but be prepared to be a little frustrated and confused. It's a good game but it will take maybe up to 10 hours before you might come to that conclusion yourself.

I've not played any other SMT games, so this could be just cause I'm new to the series, but Persona 5 is one of the most relaxing JRPGs, and even just general games, I've had the pleasure to play. The overworld/hub-world is a stylized recreation of some places in Japan, has weather, gains more areas as the player makes progress, and is pretty compact for how many things the player's allowed to do in it. The dungeons feel pretty big, are hand-crafted (except 1 randomly generated one), usually have their own unique mechanic, and play out like a lite Sly Cooper game when you're not in a battle. One thing that really stuck out tho was that the soundtrack was so nice. There's a lot of jazz and blues tracks for the overworld, which are truly soothing when combined with the environment and ambiance. The battle themes rarely change except for boss battles and the like, but they never completely wear out their welcome as battles can amount to arguably only like 20% of the game, if even that. Most of the time spent playing this 80+ hr game is spent in the overworld raising stats through life simulator tasks, and its actually enjoyable to do so. The characters sport more depth than at least I'm used to in JRPGs, and are actually nice to hear from when you do talk to them. The story's sorta basic at least it's well written. It does have twists at times, but there's nothing that surprising. The villains are really evil people, to the point where fans have apparently labeled them as "cartoonishly" so. I'd agree if they were more cartoonily over-the-top than the rest of the game, but there's other stuff in there that's much more cartoonish without breaking the game's vibe too hard. Anyways, great game for JRPG fans who are fine with taking their time. Especially enjoyable if played in spurts during down time (seriously, don't binge this game). Really easy to jump in and out of. Gameplay: - Time progresses each time you raise a stat, visit a dungeon, or a significant event occurs. - Usually, 2 time progressions are allowed per day. - Dungeons must be completed by certain in-game calendar dates. - You can make friends with certain NPCs to gain certain boons that can be extremely helpful. Battles: - Personas are packages of moves you may use in battle. - Physical moves cost HP and Elemental moves cost SP (the only two resources in battle). - Hitting someone with their weakness gives the attacking character an extra turn. - Hitting all opposing members with their weakness(es) before the end of the round allows you to do a high-damage attack, ask for an item or money, or ask an enemy to join you as a Persona.

My fav game of all time

I have played very few games with as much heart as this game. The sheer amount of content is staggering. Persona 5 is not afraid to let you spend hours upon hours with getting to know it's characters. Luckily, their personalities are so varied and their interactions so enjoyable that I found this aspect of the game just as enjoyable as the actual gameplay (not to mention, getting to know your friends better will help you all grow stronger in combat.) Daily tasks like studying, building relationships, even going to the batting cages are an absolute treat, and are very tightly woven into the game. Combat is very approachable without feeling too easy, and the enemy design is superb. The only con I can think of is that it is pretty picky about when it allows you to save. Palaces require you to save in a "safe room" (of which only a handful are located in each palace). I once had to redo about an hour of work after I died in a palace, as the only option it gives you is to start from your last save. Frequent trips back to the safe room to save can be a nuisance. Overall, an incredible game. I am currently 60 hrs in and, as the game covers a full year, I feel I am about halfway done. This is a game you will not even remotely feel guilty for buying!

The simple review: Persona 5 is absolutely amazing. Persona 5 was my first game in the Persona series, so you do not need to have played any prior game to become familiar with the workings of the game. In fact, as a new comer, I may have had an even better experience with the game's story because I was not sure what to expect. After playing this game for over 150+ hours, you feel really connected to the teammates and they become almost real. The story is fun but has it's dark underlying tones that battle some problems that as a society we face today. From the everyday struggles of being a student to the sinister thoughts of those around you, be prepared to fight for the long haul. The artwork for Persona 5 is stunning. Amazing detail was added to even the smallest aspect of the game such as the in-game menus. Persona 5 really shows that games don't need to be realistic in artstyle to shine, and it really gives it charm. As far as the music, you must listen to it. Seriously. Acid Jazz really gets you into the vibes of the game, from the slow paced songs of the average day to the upbeat and amazing battle music (Especially when on the last day of a Palace, just me). If you enjoy any sort of RPG, you will probably enjoy Persona. As mentioned in the other reviews, it is a JRPG which means the battles are turn-based; perfect for any strategic thinker. Don't let the strategy turn you away though, Persona 5 comes with many aids to help out your battle plans and make it easier for anyone that does not want to finely control the battle experience. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed Persona 5, and I dare even say it has become my overall favorite game and experience and I highly recommend it. What are you waiting for? Come jump into the Metaverse and join the P5 Family :)