Persona 5

 PlayStation 4
User Score
8.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5569 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4,794 out of 5569
  2. Mixed: 212 out of 5569
  3. Negative: 563 out of 5569
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  1. Daniel_Campbell
    Feb 21, 2019
    4
    Persona 5 oozes personality and style. The visuals are nothing short of amazing and the Red and Black aesthetic really brings character to the game all on its own. That's pretty much where my praise for the game stops.

    I was super disappointed in Persona 5. I loved the series up to this point but P5 just loses many of the things I love about the series. Persona is at its best when it    Persona 5 oozes personality and style. The visuals are nothing short of amazing and the Red and Black aesthetic really brings character to the game all on its own. That's pretty much where my praise for the game stops.

    I was super disappointed in Persona 5. I loved the series up to this point but P5 just loses many of the things I love about the series. Persona is at its best when it lets you have freedom to do what you want. When you get to decide how to spend your day. These moments are VERY rare in Persona 5. I put 20 hours into the game and my day was usually hijacked by some scripted event. Did someone in you main party sneeze? Yes? There went the entire day! And I realize that there are plenty of times where the game will LET you do what you want, but they always shove an option in your face the moment school is over and make you feel like a jackass if you don't do it. Persona was great when you'd wonder around the school and find a social link/sub story. In P5, it's hitting you over the head with those things. Hell, you don't even have to walk to see people anymore. It's all done through your phone. Just another instance of how they effectively made Persona into a menu/text based game.

    The combat has been over-streamlined as well. Used to be you'd find a weakness of an enemy, have to carefully select your persona and use the corresponding skill. Now the game automatically scans for the enemy's weakness, then automatically selects the appropriate skill they are weak to. 99% of battles consist of pushing R1, then X. That's it. I understand wanting to streamline the experience, but the game is basically playing itself at this point.

    Persona 5, for me, is a black mark on the series record. The promise is there but the execution treats the player like a braindead invalid that has no idea how to explore an environment. Taking the cumbersome mechanics and features out of a game is usually a good thing. But Person 5 overcorrects to such an insulting degree that it all but plays itself.    … Expand
  2. Santoki
    Apr 12, 2017
    4
    Very torn about this game. The visual style and presentation are fantastic. The combat is fun. But the flaws are also enormous. #1 is the Atlus ban on screenshots, which is just awful. Ceo should be fired. The game is very slow- you don't see combat for several days. Pop-ups interrupt you every 5 seconds. These are basic mistakes. I would give this game a 10 if they fired the ceo.
  3. aosan
    Sep 24, 2020
    4
    Just for me this is a very boring game. Yeah, this game has a good musics and cool character design. But..
    Stealth in this game is pure garbage, deadlines, tutorial is too long, Mona's sh*t-talking is so irritating. I don't like battle system in this game (I don't mind a turn-based combat system, but I think that in this game battle system is not good). Despite the fact that I took the    Just for me this is a very boring game. Yeah, this game has a good musics and cool character design. But..
    Stealth in this game is pure garbage, deadlines, tutorial is too long, Mona's sh*t-talking is so irritating. I don't like battle system in this game (I don't mind a turn-based combat system, but I think that in this game battle system is not good). Despite the fact that I took the game at a discount, I regret the money spent.    … Expand
  4. DTanilG
    Jun 20, 2020
    4
    Lack of official Russian localization!
    DLC = TRASH!

    It seems I wasted my money.
  5. OkPlanB
    Jan 24, 2018
    4
    Overhyped high school simulator. How anyone can even call managing your time between studying and doing laundry a serious '' best-RPG'' contender is beyond me. Out of your 100 hours playthrough you will spend 20 of those in dungeons and 80 reading text or watching animes. So many time wasting mechanics, you will start over and lose a lot of progress if you ever miss a palace deadline. I'mOverhyped high school simulator. How anyone can even call managing your time between studying and doing laundry a serious '' best-RPG'' contender is beyond me. Out of your 100 hours playthrough you will spend 20 of those in dungeons and 80 reading text or watching animes. So many time wasting mechanics, you will start over and lose a lot of progress if you ever miss a palace deadline. I'm playing games to relax and have fun, not wanting to throw my controller at my tv wondering how some people got their jobs in this industry. The only redeeming quality to this joke is its art aesthetics. 4/10 would shove a cactus up my rectum over playing this again.… Expand
  6. michely
    Sep 5, 2022
    4
    Persona 5 is not the masterpiece people claims it to be. First of all, I need to point out that I played Persona 5 (not Royal) on Playstation 5 as it was included with it throught the Playstation plus collection. I gave it a try on the Playstation 3, however it didn't catch my attention as there was many great release around the same time that made me drop the game about 15 or so hours ofPersona 5 is not the masterpiece people claims it to be. First of all, I need to point out that I played Persona 5 (not Royal) on Playstation 5 as it was included with it throught the Playstation plus collection. I gave it a try on the Playstation 3, however it didn't catch my attention as there was many great release around the same time that made me drop the game about 15 or so hours of playtime. First, I will point out the positive. The artistic direction of the game is still one of the best to date. The menu, transition and animation is top notch and makes this PS3 game puts to shame other games released today on lower end hardware like the Switch. It's very generous in content as over 130 hours is needed to finish the first playthrough. While other games went on the easy route to switch the gameplay to active battle, Persona stay true to it's roots and kept it a turn base combat game
    Now for the not so good. First of all, while this is very subjective, I hate the music tracks with a passion. Not all of the tracks are hawfull, hoverver, most of them are. Also, I needed to put headphones during most of my playthrough as my wife always complained as she despised the music so much.
    My second negative concerns the main hero. During the 140 hours played so far, I could not give a $4!& about him. The almost silent protagonist is faced with choices thruout the adventures, but most of the choice given makes no sense. I could not believe how many time I was frustrated as all choice where not one I would make. That is when the choice are not exactly the same as other decisions are like: 1-Yes 2-Hmm. Yes. 3-Yes, I think. I was missing so much the great dialogue options of other games like the Mass Effect trilogy. Also, one of the most stupid thing is that you will be asked several questions at school and if you ALREADY know the answer, you will RAISE your knowledge, but if you don't, the teacher will tell you the correct answer and your knowledge will not raise.
    My third and main problem is that the games drags for way too long as most of the game feels tedious. It's soo long in fact, they didn't even have the cast read the dialogue. I found myselft even fast fowarding dialogues that seems unrelated to the main story as they where boring and poorly written. I would have prefered a shorter(60 hours) fully voice acted main story with optionnal side quest.
    Lastly, I don't like the tone of the game, making adults look like they are the villain and depicting japanese culture prone to xenophobism. To me age has nothing to do with how you are as a person, as stupid adult where previously stupid teenagers. I felt awkard playing a game with such ageism. Also the fact that the game is so much ancored in the japanese culture without any taint of any other culture makes me feels out of place.

    To wraps it up, this game feels like a waste of my precious time. The story should have been told in 30% of it's time and the flow should have been better. Overall, I feel stupid wasting time on such a game and only wished there was more turn based games to fill in the void made when Final Fantasy decided to kill the franchise when they made the game action based.    … Expand
  7. sheppardbo
    Apr 3, 2020
    4
    Another dated, turn based JRPG game with stale mechanics, grinding, and recycled mechanics. Critics are a joke. Generally dated gameplay. Music sucks a**. Weebs just eat this garbage up.
  8. Mautilius
    Mar 26, 2020
    4
    I spent 20 or 30 hours looking for something interesting , fighting system was very shallow, after couple of fights I could beat anyone....
  9. iMemeThere4iAm
    Apr 19, 2021
    4
    If you like VIsual Novels, you will like this game. If you are not into visual novels, you will not like this game. I fall in the second camp.

    I love RPGs, turn-based combat, unique characters, and good stories. I just dont like having to read for 70% of the time. I loved the witcher, Mass effect, Dragon Age, Divinity Original Sin, Fallout, Skyrim, Fallout, Fallout Tactics, etc. RPGs    If you like VIsual Novels, you will like this game. If you are not into visual novels, you will not like this game. I fall in the second camp.

    I love RPGs, turn-based combat, unique characters, and good stories. I just dont like having to read for 70% of the time.

    I loved the witcher, Mass effect, Dragon Age, Divinity Original Sin, Fallout, Skyrim, Fallout, Fallout Tactics, etc. RPGs are my jam. Character building, and synergistic party abilities and combat are what i look for in a good rpg. I play most games for the story, but i still need a healthy amount of gameplay. In Persona 5 the gameplay is buried so deep down that you only get to it every 15 min, and it lasts only 5 min at a time.

    This type of game just isn't for me.    … Expand
  10. skinsparks
    Jun 5, 2021
    4
    One of the most disappointing games I've ever played. I'm glad this was free, I just wish I hadn't spent my time on it. I'm not even going to point out the redeeming qualities of this game given that it has 4,350 positive reviews (and only 500 negative). If you ask the fans, it's the best rpg ever, the best atlus game, and it's nearly perfect. I couldn't disagree more.

    P5 is an    One of the most disappointing games I've ever played. I'm glad this was free, I just wish I hadn't spent my time on it. I'm not even going to point out the redeeming qualities of this game given that it has 4,350 positive reviews (and only 500 negative). If you ask the fans, it's the best rpg ever, the best atlus game, and it's nearly perfect. I couldn't disagree more.

    P5 is an over-stylized, highly polished game completely lacking in substance, real style, challenge, or fun. Though it teases you with a vast overworld and hints of interesting combat, what you will get instead is countless hours of hand-holding, pure repetition, monotony, and bad writing. The game consists of nothing more than tacky visual novel storytelling, tedious time management, and the most repetitive combat gameplay I have ever experienced.

    Combat in p5 consists of using a barely functioning stealth system which is nothing but flashy button prompts to enter into 'fights'. 'Fights' go as follows: You hit their weak point, they fall down. You hit their weak point, they fall down. Once every enemy falls down, you use a group attack. This is >90% of the fighting, which is the only real gameplay in P5.

    Aesthetically, the game looks and sounds nice at first, but you will soon realize you've been listening to the same bad attempts at jazz/funk on repeat for the last lifetime while Morgana has been yelling at you every five seconds, as they do the entire game. You will watch the same boring animations over and over and over and over while listening to the same underwhelming, and frankly bad music over and over and over. The worlds look great, the characters look nice (except Panther), the fighting is flashy, but by the time you've completed the first dungeon you will have seen/heard pretty much everything there is to see/hear well over a hundred times. Now get ready to repeat this entire cycle countless more times.

    Okay, so the sound and visuals are repetitive, and the combat is boring and not challenging, and Morgana is annoying. Surely the amazing story makes up for this? Well, let's talk about the 'story'.

    P5 starts strong with a clear theme which is reinforced by everything around you. You are trapped, imprisoned. The world around you restricts you and the main positive force in this world is 'the spirit of rebellion' with which you reclaim your spirit and fight against these literal and metaphorical shackles.

    Sounds awesome, right? Yes, well, you will not hear about any of this again. Sadly this great idea and theme, which is even used as a visual theme in the interrogation room and the velvet room, is not actually part of the story at all. Instead it drops into the very loose concept of 'phantom thieves' which is ultimately nothing more than the exact same formula you'd expect from other persona titles. High schoolers, bad guy, psychic world, bla bla bla. Any interesting story arcs are suffocated under gags, overly drawn out sequences, and the pure monotony of the game.

    P5 is also sorely lacking in nuance, depth, and taste. Do you enjoy long hallways of busts of schoolgirls in tight, small outfits? Do you like hour long gags about the hypersexualized literal 'catgirl' character being forced to take all her clothes off? Well, I don't. And it's sad to see such awful creative decision making undermine this story just like they did in P4. Cheap gags, shallowness, and cliches pervade and infest the world of P5, but there is no rebellion against these distortions because it's just the nature of this trite storytelling.

    Perhaps there is something good buried under hundreds of hours of Morgana yelling the exact same voices lines at you and controlling everything you do, being forced into 100% linear gameplay for most of the game, and doing the exact same combat cycles with literally the exact same button combinations for entire dungeons. In fact, I'm sure there is. Maybe I'll watch the cutscenes on youtube or something, because I'm not finishing this profoundly boring timesink of a visual novel which people are calling a game.    … Expand
  11. Eatt
    Oct 22, 2022
    4
    I cannot understand why this game is so highly praised … there are parts of the game where for hours nothing interesting happening. The combat is so boring and the length of the game makes it even more tedious. After 60 hours I just gave up out of boredom
  12. Eglin
    Jul 18, 2019
    3
    This game is not suitable for adults. The story is presented like something from an old Street Fighter game, where you're constantly wondering if something got lost in translation or if the writers simply believe everyone that plays video games is stupid. Press X to continue. Gameplay, as far as I've gotten in the game, is like a worse version of DMC with graphics that completely failThis game is not suitable for adults. The story is presented like something from an old Street Fighter game, where you're constantly wondering if something got lost in translation or if the writers simply believe everyone that plays video games is stupid. Press X to continue. Gameplay, as far as I've gotten in the game, is like a worse version of DMC with graphics that completely fail to impress. I am learning that when the word JAPANESE is a tag for a game that it is going to be unsuitable for intelligent adults in the same way that a HORROR tag means walking simulator. Not fun, not recommended.… Expand
  13. midipon
    May 24, 2018
    3
    More overrated anime tripe from Atlus. Persona games always tackle a controversial topic just enough to get asspats for it then drop it like a ton of bricks or not actually say anything meaningful. Good for waifu-slobbering sexless manchildren and teenagers, but there's not much else.
  14. tomvs123
    Jan 27, 2019
    3
    Being a long-time JRPG fan (I bought Dragon Warrior 1 on the NES brand new, at full price), and having fond memories of Digital Devil Saga, I thought it was natural to give Persona 5 a try, my first Persona game.

    I outgrew my addiction to grinding to increase levels and stats around 15 years ago, and have instead continued to play JRPGs because of their unique and meaningful    Being a long-time JRPG fan (I bought Dragon Warrior 1 on the NES brand new, at full price), and having fond memories of Digital Devil Saga, I thought it was natural to give Persona 5 a try, my first Persona game.

    I outgrew my addiction to grinding to increase levels and stats around 15 years ago, and have instead continued to play JRPGs because of their unique and meaningful storytelling (Nier), and strategic based combat systems (Final Fantasy X). Persona 5 unfortunately has neither.

    What Persona 5 does have is and incredibly unique and flashy aesthetic and lots of grinding (on most difficulty levels), but when you look deeper, everything falls apart and it shows you how simple and basic the game really is.

    The combat, while turn-based, is one of the least strategic JRPG combat systems I've experienced. It's complexity is limited to the large amount of status ailments and damage types. Because there's so many, it makes them nearly impossible to plan for (unless you're following a guide), so most strategy goes out the window. And because of the massive cost of most spells, you'll quickly find that it's much more efficient to use physical attacks, while saving your magic for healing. This leads to a very grindy and not-fun combat system (unless you like grinding). Thankfully, you can lower the difficulty level, to reduce the grind, but it doesn't make the combat any more fun.

    More than half of your time in Persona 5 will likely be spent grinding confidant levels. These are basically your friends and leveling them up through conversations and dates gives you various optional perks. Most of the confidant stories are relatively interesting, but not very meaningful or profound. Their stories are average at best, and is where my only enjoyment of the game came from. They all revolve around the same basic theme as the main story, which is:

    Adults are evil. That's the main theme of the game and it sticks to it religiously. You play as just and righteous teenagers and every adult you meet, interact with, or hear about wants to use teens or children for their own nefarious gain. I thought briefly that if you change the word "adult" in the game to "white people" or "black people," then it would point out just how stupid this theme is. And they get around this stupidity by injecting even more stupidity: By making the adults dumber than the teens. As an intelligent adult, I couldn't relate to anyone in the game for the main story or subquests. Every decision made by the teens was questionable at best and all of the decisions made by the adults were simply unbelievable.

    Every main quest and side quest consists of some child being abused or used by an adult. And instead of calling someone who might be able to help or convincing the abusers' of their wrongdoings in a meaningful way, you go into the metaverse and magically change abusers' minds by beating them up. It's like the game is teaching children to escape into their own imaginary worlds when things get tough rather than actually solve problems.

    The world building is nonexistent, probably because the game takes place in modern-day Tokyo. The issue with that is that the adults in power in the game don't act like they do in modern-day Tokyo, so most plot points fall apart under small amounts of scrutiny. The adults in this game simply wouldn't be able to exist in real life, and as a result, are unbelievable.

    At about 75 hours into the game, I was having a hard time dealing with the above and the misplaced/unexplained symbolism (tarot cards, poetry, chains/jail). And then the big twist occurred. And boy, that took the story from being unbelievable to being outright crap. The twist created several plot holes that the game spent the next hour trying to plug up through character explanations.

    That single point made me completely disinterested in continuing my confident relationships, and without those, I had no need to complete the game. I got to the last dungeon, saw that this was going to take another 10-20 hours to get through, and quit.

    Persona's not for me. But if you're a defiant teen who things adults are evil, you love grinding through simple turn-based combat systems, or you rarely notice plot holes or unbelievable characters in stories, then you might just like it.    … Expand
  15. juanlobo
    Jul 30, 2022
    3
    regular visual novel with the worst rpg sections I ever have the disgrace to play. The visuals and music are pretty good, the story is so so, the dialogs are BORING and repetitive, Ryuji being the more annoying always making the same comments again and again AND again, too many times I started reading the dialogs but just skip them because are just stupid and not getting never to theregular visual novel with the worst rpg sections I ever have the disgrace to play. The visuals and music are pretty good, the story is so so, the dialogs are BORING and repetitive, Ryuji being the more annoying always making the same comments again and again AND again, too many times I started reading the dialogs but just skip them because are just stupid and not getting never to the point. I just want to finish it but this crap is ETERNAL

    now the rpg parts are the worst I've ever seen, the turns doesn't make any sense and you just have to go weak, weak, weak or you are screwed, no matter that the opponent is 10 levels lower than you, he can kill all your team in one turn. The sp is horrible, only in the last stages you can have something to replenish it and for a game that NEEDS to use SP ALWAYS is horrible. There are a lot of instakills too, so if you have bad look (and believe me you have) you are going to loose a LOT.    … Expand
  16. bogiepiff
    Jun 20, 2017
    3
    This RPG is rediculously over-rated.
    It is not immersive, it is not fun, and the dungeons are repetitive.
    The battle system is repetitive. The dialog is repetitive. The game is a recap of a recap Only the first dungeon in the game is fun, which is, i assume, when most people write their reviews. Everything after the first dungeon is the same thing over and over and over again.    This RPG is rediculously over-rated.
    It is not immersive, it is not fun, and the dungeons are repetitive.
    The battle system is repetitive.
    The dialog is repetitive.
    The game is a recap of a recap

    Only the first dungeon in the game is fun, which is, i assume, when most people write their reviews. Everything after the first dungeon is the same thing over and over and over again.

    This game is NOT fun . And honestly any mediocre RPG, i.e. disgea, the tales series, anything is better than this .
    Even the worst game in the "Tales of" series is better than this.

    I put 40 hours into it before i got rid of it .

    100% hyped up trash. nothing like any RPG ive ever played before including other games from thepersona and shin megami tensei series.

    I can't believe how high the scores are on here . This game is a boring recap ofa recap    … Expand
  17. likeyeahwhatevr
    Jan 4, 2021
    3
    Can't be gay in this game, smh. Atlus it's the 2020s ffs...................
  18. woollyshaft
    Jun 6, 2017
    3
    After spending about 10 hours playing this game, the game still insists on tacking on gameplay in order to add some sort of depth. I just don't care enough to merge personas, or craft tools, or chat with confidants, or try and get new personas from talking to enemies when they are stunned. These tedious elements feel tacked on, and detract from the story and exploration. I've just come toAfter spending about 10 hours playing this game, the game still insists on tacking on gameplay in order to add some sort of depth. I just don't care enough to merge personas, or craft tools, or chat with confidants, or try and get new personas from talking to enemies when they are stunned. These tedious elements feel tacked on, and detract from the story and exploration. I've just come to a point where everytime the game introduces some new mechanic, rather than be excited about it, I dread keeping track of it all in my head.The characters are completely one dimensional, but that is pretty standard in anime. The dialog is repetitive, like, "for real"

    While I know this review will likely anger many persona fans, just rejoice that one of you nerds will find a used copy of it at a gamestop near you very soon!    … Expand
  19. martianmarcel
    Nov 28, 2017
    3
    So, I just got to 20 hours of playing this game, finished my second Palace and I don’t think I can play it any longer. I’ll start by saying that this is my first time with a Persona game and I really didn’t know exactly what to expect, but my expectations were pretty high with all the absolutely great reviews and feedback this game was getting. So I tried, I tried and I tried a little bitSo, I just got to 20 hours of playing this game, finished my second Palace and I don’t think I can play it any longer. I’ll start by saying that this is my first time with a Persona game and I really didn’t know exactly what to expect, but my expectations were pretty high with all the absolutely great reviews and feedback this game was getting. So I tried, I tried and I tried a little bit more to enjoy it, but I just couldn’t.

    The graphics aren’t a problem for me. Although many people complain about them, being a port from PS3 and all, I don’t really cared too much about them. They were simple and, for the most part, beautiful. There is a lack of livelihood to the characters when they are standing somewhere talking, but for the most part you’re reading the conversations and it doesn’t matter. The transitions are stunning, as is the opening for this game.

    The sounds of the game is something disappointing to me. I didn’t really cared for anything sound-wise here. The music is boring and lame. The voices and conversations are boring and that **** cat talking all the time is so annoying. I thought I would have a nice, well-constructed soundtrack here, but ended up getting something far, far away from that.

    The gameplay is, for the most part, what you’d expect from a JRPG. The battles are nice. The turn-based fights are really fun and this along with the running around the dungeons are what made me play this 20 hours and not less. It was really, really fun. Even running around the city or the school finding new stuff and getting your stats up is a little bit fun, even thought they don’t come close to the battles. The problem is, 90% of the time that’s not what happens. You just have to click the X button over and over and over again because the characters simply won’t shut up. They keep talking forever about a billion useless stuff and you get stuck there, trying your best not to tell your console to go to hell and turn it off. It’s just plain boring. Even when they were just explaining new mechanics to me, I just wanted to kill everyone and I thought I was going to die of boredom because it goes on and on and never stops. And, again, that **** cat doesn’t shut up and it won’t let you do anything. No wonder this game is só **** long.

    I won’t say a lot about the story because, as I said before, I played “only” 20 hours of this 100+ hour game and got through 2 of the, if I’m not mistaken, 7 palaces, which means I didn’t go too deep into it. It was kinda interesting and had potential, though. Teenagers who are in some sort of trouble and have to face society’s prejudices and people’s judgments and, at the same time, fight everyone’s worst sins and desires in order to try to make them better and everyone else to suffer less. Besides not being the most original or incredible thing ever, it’s interesting, although the characters themselves are really uninteresting and that becomes a huge problem when you spend almost the whole game just talking to one or another. It’s just sad that those stupid and pointless dialogues got me completely out of this.

    I am disappointed. Disappointed because I totally see the potential of this game. Disappointed because I tried very hard and spent a long time trying to enjoy this game, just to be turned off by its enormous amount of meaningless dialogue, lack of actual choice of what to do and god-awful soundtrack. I tried to love you, Persona, but you let me down.    … Expand
  20. LordGus
    Jan 18, 2018
    3
    I don't get why people praise Persona 5 so much, since, in my opinion, it's flaws are pretty severe.

    Much of the dialogue throughout the game is horrible. No one speaks like these people do and it's very repetitive to boot. I think you could probably cut at least 1/3 of it without problem. The biggest source of irritation for me is the damn messaging. It's like the game doesn't trust    I don't get why people praise Persona 5 so much, since, in my opinion, it's flaws are pretty severe.

    Much of the dialogue throughout the game is horrible. No one speaks like these people do and it's very repetitive to boot. I think you could probably cut at least 1/3 of it without problem. The biggest source of irritation for me is the damn messaging. It's like the game doesn't trust that it has made its objectives clear enough, so it has to hammer them into the player with lengthy and repetitive chat conversations.
    Also, it may be a cultural thing, but what 16-17 year olds really consider themselves children and **** about bad adults? I know I didn't at that age. It made the characters seem like they were 12.
    Furthermore, the game tries to be very edgy with "adult themes", but the character's childish behavior made it feel very disjointed.

    I would say that the games best features are the battle system and game play in general.    … Expand
  21. Bobbymcbobinson
    Nov 26, 2018
    3
    Persona 5 is a video game that is much more flawed than people make it out to be. Although there are some things that it does well, there are other aspects where it falls flat on its face.

    To start, I will address what it does well. The OST of this game is one of the best in any video game ever made. I constantly find myself listening to the OST in my daily life. The overall aesthetic    Persona 5 is a video game that is much more flawed than people make it out to be. Although there are some things that it does well, there are other aspects where it falls flat on its face.

    To start, I will address what it does well. The OST of this game is one of the best in any video game ever made. I constantly find myself listening to the OST in my daily life. The overall aesthetic and art direction of the game are also well done, and the game is a joy to look at with its stylized UI and beautiful animations.

    Unfortunately, that is where my praise ends.

    What I look for most in a video game is great gameplay, and Persona 5 fails to deliver. Persona 5 features a turn based combat system, and unfortunately this system is mediocre at best. The combat never develops at all throughout the 80+ hour game, with combat staying the same against the first enemies you fight when compared to the last, so this means combat gets extremely repetitive. This would not be a problem if the combat was exciting, but unfortunately it is not. The combat is extremely formulaic, with everything coming down to finding what element an enemy is weak to and exploiting it, over and over again. Boss fights are not any better. Beside's the last few bosses, none of them are a test of the players skill, but rather ask the player to do specific things to take down the bosses. This leaves no room for creativity, and unfortunately makes boss fights bland and forgettable.

    As for the dungeons, or palaces as they are called, they are far too linear. There is no room for free exploration in these dungeons, and the game forces you to progress in them with a calendar based timer. This would be acceptable if the palaces were engaging, but they are not. Many of them revolve around puzzles that so many other games have done already. One thing these palaces do right are that they cleverly incorporate elements that help progress the story. There is one palace called Mementos, which is a randomly generated palace-like area, which I love to explore. The only problem is that if I progress the story, I have less time to do Mementos, which I will get into later.

    And with that, lets get into the story. The story concept is fine, with it being about teenagers fighting adult injustice, and overall it was enjoyable to see how the story progresses, despite some predictable plot twists and a cliche ending. However, this story could have been so much more if the characters developed even in the slightest. Characters that help you along the way do not develop at all once they are introduced. There is one exception, with a character that helps you a lot after they join you, and the rest of the cast should have been developed this way. Once the main (silent, might I add) character meets a character that will help them in their journey, the new ally does not change. The most that happens is that they have a problem in their life that the main character helps fix in the form of confidants, yet this problem does not develop these characters, as they are just the same as when they started. Confidants could have been a great way to develop characters outside of the story, and it was such a missed opportunity to do so. It also does not help that the supporting characters dilute to nothing more than walking cliches, with one character being a vulgar meathead the whole story while another is the smart calculated one who people listen to. At the very least, these characters have personality that makes them somewhat interesting. As for antagonists, they are pretty stereotypical and overdramatic, but I think that gives them charm. But overall, the story and characters are pretty weak.
    At least the conclusion is very satisfying.

    One glaring flaw in this game that makes me from feeling neutral to dissatisfied is the way the game handles story progression. Because the game is based off of a calendar, I felt the need to finish palaces as soon as possible. This means that once the palace is finished, I would have to wait hours before I could progress the story further. If I had paced myself better, maybe this would not have been a problem, but this would mean I could not buy better equipment, progress the confidants of the team to make them stronger, or explore Mementos. Time management is an aspect of real life that does not translate well into video games, nor should it ever be incorporated to video games.

    All in all, Persona 5 is a game with great music and aesthetic, but has a mediocre story, bland and repetitive combat, lame characters, annoying in-game mechanics and an abundance of missed opportunities. I would recommend getting this game only at a high discount. If you cannot do that, just watch the cutscenes and story on YouTube and listen to the music.    … Expand
  22. Juba88
    May 30, 2020
    3
    I don't get what all the hype about this game is about? Approximately 3 hours into it, and I am finding it very hard to continue investing time into this game. Persona 5 has reached a level with me, where it has become almost unbearable and annoying. If I really had to try and find something positive to say about Persona 5, is that I picked it up for about $15 from the PS4 store.
  23. Wanderer9090
    Dec 24, 2021
    3
    Interesting semi-anime cartoon styling, but like many JRPG games uses hugely outdated mechanics. The dialogue popup boxes are longwinded and tedious. The gameplay has a lot of rinse and repeat aspects. It becomes a chore to keep playing. Because of this I would get into auto-pilot playing mode and then quite suddenly would be somehow killed; thus undoing an hour or more of gameplay. ItInteresting semi-anime cartoon styling, but like many JRPG games uses hugely outdated mechanics. The dialogue popup boxes are longwinded and tedious. The gameplay has a lot of rinse and repeat aspects. It becomes a chore to keep playing. Because of this I would get into auto-pilot playing mode and then quite suddenly would be somehow killed; thus undoing an hour or more of gameplay. It would then take me a few days to want to go back to it. After a dozen or so returns I didn't go back to it.… Expand
  24. Zanorok
    Feb 22, 2022
    3
    10/10 game, shame I'm unable to play this game. Please Atlus, just port the game already.
  25. PoGo_PL
    Nov 10, 2019
    2
    Under nice the aesthetics and memorable characters there’s only boring and repetitive gameplay. Jrpg like many other.
  26. phoeniix23
    Apr 5, 2018
    2
    First off, I've never played a Persona game. I bought it based on rave reviews and had no idea what to expect beyond gameplay videos on Youtube.

    These are what make up Persona 5: 1. Visual novel 2. Life simulator 3. Turn based combat 4. Anime 5. Simple puzzle based levels which can be infuriating because the save game locations are so far apart in the later stages and you can lose    First off, I've never played a Persona game. I bought it based on rave reviews and had no idea what to expect beyond gameplay videos on Youtube.

    These are what make up Persona 5:
    1. Visual novel
    2. Life simulator
    3. Turn based combat
    4. Anime
    5. Simple puzzle based levels which can be infuriating because the save game locations are so far apart in the later stages and you can lose HOURS of progress just cos of a stupid death. And it's not fun to repeat the same stupid puzzles. Bloodborne for example has a similar mechanic where you might lose progress, but it feels fair because I know for sure it's my fault when that happens and it also helps that repeating the process in Bloodborne is fun practice because of the awesome combat.

    These are the cons of the game to me:
    1. Super long-winded conversations which may appeal to those who love Japanese anime.
    2. No freedom of gameplay and lots of hand holding. There's an illusion of choice.
    3. Story is predictable and I could see the "twists" and who the main villain is from a mile off.
    4. Some characters are not appealing at all and could've been unnecessary.
    5. At the 88hr mark of my gameplay, I was in the final Palace, having endured 2 annoying levels of backtracking for Letters of Recommendation to face the final boss, and then, I got killed due to a random turn based mechanic and I lost all progress cos there was no save room on that level. Absolutely crazy. Uninstalled it out of frustration and plan to just watch a video of the ending on youtube and skip all the inane gameplay and backtracking.
    6. Turn based combat and capturing of Personas are boring after a while. I LOVED FFVII and the turn based combat there felt more tactical and fun.
    7. For an RPG, I didn't really feel like I was roleplaying. It felt like watching an anime show.
    8. Pacing could be better. At the 50-60hr mark, if they had just wrapped up the story, it would've been great. It feels overstretched by the 80+hr mark, and my patience was already running low when the stupid save system blew up in my face. As an adult gamer, time is very precious. Respect our time. Ironically, for a game which teaches time management for your character, it really takes away a lot of real time in your life unnecessarily. Cutscenes, transition screens, game mechanics could have been streamlined to save more time. They were cool to experience at first but by the 50-80hr mark, trust me, it is soooo annoying.
    9. I played 105hrs of Dragon Age, hundreds of hours on Fallout4/Skyrim/Witcher respectively. For each of them, I didn't want the journey to end, or at least I was enjoying myself near the endgame. But for Persona 5, near the endgame, I kept saying "I really hate this game", and kept wondering how much I had to endure to see it to the end. Turned out I reached my breaking point when King Frost somehow, randomly, missed my spells by 2 of my characters and then consecutively critically hit my main character and he died. 2hrs progress gone. 2hrs of annoying backtracking that I have to repeat. No effing way. UNINSTALLED.
    10. I don't know who decided on this, but the worst combat mechanic is if your main character gets KO-ed, it's GAME OVER. Imagine if Cloud got KOed in FFVII and then everyone else dies, how infuriating is that. Doesn't make sense.
    11. Mementos is the worst. It's like Bloodborne's Chalice Dungeons but absolutely mind numbingly boring.
    12. I have no idea why this game has a New Game+. I CANNOT IMAGINE GOING THROUGH IT ALL OVER AGAIN.
    Things I liked about the game:
    1. The song "Life Will Change" which is my current go to track when I go jogging.
    2. Some characters that I got attached to. (4 of them: Tae Takami, Ryuji, Ann, Makoto)
    3. The first few Palaces and their stories were awesome. Then it got too long. They went for quantity instead of quality.
    4. I liked the class, tv quizzes. Pretty interesting fun facts.

    TLDR: If you DON'T LIKE visual novels, Japanese anime, turnbased combat, long puzzle-based dungeons, long dialog/expositions then please, stay away from Persona 5.    … Expand
  27. somedude14
    Oct 31, 2017
    2
    This review is based on 10 hours of playtime. While I would consider myself a fan of Atlus - at least a fan of their quality works - I'm so tired of this entry and the extremely low quality of its PS4 release that I felt this was a good place to give an adequate summation. If I ever get around to finishing it, I will update the review to reflect that, but as is, this release has left meThis review is based on 10 hours of playtime. While I would consider myself a fan of Atlus - at least a fan of their quality works - I'm so tired of this entry and the extremely low quality of its PS4 release that I felt this was a good place to give an adequate summation. If I ever get around to finishing it, I will update the review to reflect that, but as is, this release has left me feeling very bored and soured by Atlus in general. Seen enough to make a good call.

    Overwhelming sense of "been here, done that", but I've also been playing SMT games since the 90s. Tons of recycled assets and concepts, while the soundtrack is new in general, I've heard repeats of tracks and/or segments of tracks I've already heard many times before. I get it makes sense, it's like how Zelda has recurring music, but it's the same reason that brand has more or less become dead to me now as well. Treading the same ground over and over and over again. Gets old!

    The low score is largely based on the extremely low quality of this port, since this is clearly a lousy port of a PS3 title, which is another huge sore spot with this release. This was clearly a PS3-centric title in development that got a PS4 release with nothing to differentiate it but a resolution bump to 1080p and 30fps lock, which is quite easy. And while it is locked 30fps on PS4 vs the PS3 version's spiky performance (proven in videos) with a ceiling of 30fps, they could have made this 60fps which would have made it pop far more on the PS4, which could have easily handled this framerate - the textures are low quality, the LoD is low, the effects are low quality. It's all clearly a last-gen title with a resolution increase. They even kept in the lousy PS3 joystick deadzone size - massive, which plagued the entirety of the PS3s lifespan. Sony backed out of this error with the PS4, but Atlus couldn't even be bothered to polish up the port by making the deadzone tighter to reflect the newer control scheme. Again, it's a straight dump of the PS3 version minus the resolution bump and 30fps lock (both of which are really easy to do, the latter especially so since it's just the PS4 brute forcing the PS3-designed engine with better hardware) and they couldn't even take the extra 10 - 15 minutes to make the stick controls tighter. Sure, it's a JRPG, but you still have a character to steer and are still turning the camera plenty, while only about 10% of the joystick space is actually recognized. It matters and is very frustrating that they couldn't even be bothered to take that very small time requirement to brush this up.

    Regardless how good the story may or may not be (there's a *ton* of dialogue bloat here however - again a symptom of the "bigger not better" development mentality), this is a PS4 release at a (at the time of this writing) AAA pricepoint. At that level, far more is to be expected, and at that level, it falls flat on all technical fronts. As far as gameplay is concerned, it's really just a watered-down old-school SMT - *severely* watered down, might I add - with a *ton* of story added on to try and cover up those flaws due to people becoming attached to characters, but all the typical anime-archetypes are here. In a nutshell, this is just another run-of-the-mill dark anime, but then it has JRPG elements to it and the Atlus flair to spice it up. Except it doesn't, because it's all so bland now. All they can do is go bigger, but going bigger with something bland isn't a good idea. It's spreading something tasteless over more space for people to chew and feel less of anything because that already tasteless spread is being spread over so much space, what is it anymore?

    Would love to see a SMT Nocturne Remaster. 1080p with the PS2 motion-blur mask removed and HD font with nothing else changed. $20USD. Peak of this corner of the genre Atlus has carved out and it's clear all they can do is repeat themselves and go bigger. Not better. It's very telling how little they care about this property when they can't even take advantage of the modern hardware it *should* have been designed for with the simultaneous multi-plat release. Or delayed this release to give it a proper PS4 upgrade that could then get an ultimate release as an "Extended" edition (like P3 has FES and P4 has Golden). This PS4 release has "fine, here" written all over it, and nothing more. If it wasn't worth their time to do properly, it isn't worth giving them your money for something they didn't do properly to have your time wasted with something that's sub-par compared to their prior works anyway.    … Expand
  28. Dionison
    Mar 17, 2020
    2
    I have played it for 120 hours so it is is clear that I enjoyed it. It is 120 hours of story, no generic side quests. And if you have been to Tokyo, you will visit many familiar places here.
    However, the game has a few major flaws.
    1) You cannot take screenshots which is sad. I like to take pictures in games just like during travels - to retain memories. Now my memories of Persona 5 will...
  29. Shenandoah
    Feb 22, 2021
    2
    OMG. I can‘t believe the constantly good ratings. This game simply makes no fun at all. Let me summarize: bad characters, bad story, bad visuals, bad gaming performance (for a PS3-like game), bad dialogues, bad gameplay, bad world design, bad combat and skill system, bad user interface, bad cutscenes, bad music. This is one of the worst RPG experience I‘ve ever had. Definitely the mostOMG. I can‘t believe the constantly good ratings. This game simply makes no fun at all. Let me summarize: bad characters, bad story, bad visuals, bad gaming performance (for a PS3-like game), bad dialogues, bad gameplay, bad world design, bad combat and skill system, bad user interface, bad cutscenes, bad music. This is one of the worst RPG experience I‘ve ever had. Definitely the most overrated game ever. Take a closer look to it before buying!… Expand
  30. mr_satoshi
    Jul 2, 2023
    2
    Got this game for free as part of PS Plus collection.
    Sunk 120 hours into this game - that's 120 hours of my life I will never get back.
    Was it worth it? Emphatic no. Don't let the uniquely designed menus fool you. Dialogue was repetitive. Gameplay was pokemon-esque. Leveling up personas, stats, and social links got old quick. It's gameplay (pokemon-esque) and writing felt too    Got this game for free as part of PS Plus collection.
    Sunk 120 hours into this game - that's 120 hours of my life I will never get back.

    Was it worth it? Emphatic no. Don't let the uniquely designed menus fool you. Dialogue was repetitive. Gameplay was pokemon-esque. Leveling up personas, stats, and social links got old quick. It's gameplay (pokemon-esque) and writing felt too elementary for a game that is rated M.

    Instead of wasting your time on this life-sim game, go make real connections in the real world.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

1
#1 Best PS4 Game of 2017
4
#4 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2017
2
#2 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
93

Universal acclaim - based on 98 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 97 out of 98
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 98
  3. Negative: 0 out of 98
  1. Cubed3
    Jun 4, 2019
    90
    Persona 5 is an absolutely amazing game that convinces with its art style, music and story. It has anything one could ask for such a game and more. The turn-based battle system offers a wide array of opportunities. While it may not be everyone's cup of tea, it is definitely recommended to give it a go.
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  2. PLAY! Zine
    Feb 22, 2018
    90
    Persona 5 is a great example of quality jRPG game, with a good story, great battle system and fabulous artistic style, this is a must have for the fans of the series and the genre.
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  3. Power Unlimited
    Oct 19, 2017
    93
    Persona 5 beats every other turn-based RPG in terms of production values, combat, story, symbolics, character design, music, pace and variety. 2017 is a great year for gaming and Persona 5 confirms this with a load of unmatched swagger.
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