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. Lulcy
    Jun 27, 2019
    7
    This game 30hs longer than it should be, too much padding to hide how either underdeveloped some of its themes and story beats are. Good thing the game is filled with style to distract most players from that.
  2. peap21
    Apr 20, 2018
    7
    I was new to the Persona series and generally not a fan of turn-based combat RPG.
    I admit Persona 5 has a lot going for it and other reviewers would have listed those valid positive points. Therefore I will share only the 3 main negatives here. To me each of those was worth taking 1 point off the max score.
    - Game takes 15h minimum before you get playing more freely. Before then is only    I was new to the Persona series and generally not a fan of turn-based combat RPG.
    I admit Persona 5 has a lot going for it and other reviewers would have listed those valid positive points. Therefore I will share only the 3 main negatives here. To me each of those was worth taking 1 point off the max score.
    - Game takes 15h minimum before you get playing more freely. Before then is only dialogues and tutorials. That's quite a commitment when you don't know yet if you're going to like the game.
    - The combat part is definitely the most enjoyable (though not revolutionary). Still it is quite repetitive. Once the enemy's weakness is known, it becomes a pretty boring exercise.
    - Sooooooooo much text! Several times throughout the games, you will be just reading dialogues for 1 to 2h. The dialogues are mostly slow, naive and repetitive so it gets really boring.
    In summary, totally understand why some would like this game but I would have preferred 50h of denser gameplay to the proposed 120h lacking intensity.    … Expand
  3. NateLane
    May 25, 2018
    7
    While the story, characters, and VO's are top notch in the english version of the game, I feel like the game hardly has any actual... game.. to it. When confronted with non-dialogue tasks, there are no actual choices to be had, as the game provides you with a single option. These "gameplay" moments are then heavily sandwiched by loading screens, cutscenes, and dialogue events that reallyWhile the story, characters, and VO's are top notch in the english version of the game, I feel like the game hardly has any actual... game.. to it. When confronted with non-dialogue tasks, there are no actual choices to be had, as the game provides you with a single option. These "gameplay" moments are then heavily sandwiched by loading screens, cutscenes, and dialogue events that really leave me wanting for more gameplay.… Expand
  4. pmasterfunk
    Oct 2, 2018
    7
    I'll try to make this short. I've been a MegaTen fan for a while now, and I was super hyped about P5. However, I feel it falls short of its predecessors (P3 and P4) and in many ways:

    - It probably has the worst battle system of the lot. The new elements, Psy and Nuke, make the gameplay even more main-character dependant. All-out attacks are overpowered and make all other tactics    I'll try to make this short. I've been a MegaTen fan for a while now, and I was super hyped about P5. However, I feel it falls short of its predecessors (P3 and P4) and in many ways:

    - It probably has the worst battle system of the lot. The new elements, Psy and Nuke, make the gameplay even more main-character dependant. All-out attacks are overpowered and make all other tactics pointless, and enemies who are hard to knock down are way tougher than anything else. Ambushes are broken, as enemies often get two turns attacking after one.

    - The supporting cast is the weakest of the three games; Ryuji is dumb and always mad, Ann is the ditzy blond who doesn't want to be sexualized but wears a catsuit, Morgana is a less interesting Teddy, Futaba is annoying, and Akechi is super tropey. Big bad is not interesting and only involved through some Deus Ex Machina garbage.

    - Story is also probably the weakest, the last chapters lazily throw in references to earlier events to make is sound like it was all part of an elaborate plan, even though adding connections between these events has no impact on the story.

    - There's too much dialog, I don't need to be told that unlocking a door is going to help me through this maze every single time, or what to do with this key that I've found in a room with a locked door. P3 and P4 already had quite a bit of dialog, but P5 pushes it way beyond that.

    - The new dungeons are quite good, but they become inacessible once finished. It's also hard to avoid enemies by running past them, and waiting to ambush enemies can make things long and monotonous. The camera gets testy when sneaking around, which may cause you to lose sight of that enemy you were trying to ambush. Mementos sucks.

    Not everything about P5 is bad, obviously. The game is super polished, even the menu screens are flashy and stylish. Voice acting is pretty solid, and some of the soundtrack moves towards Nocturne and DDS style metal tunes. There are tons of locations to visit, and the different activities/mini-games are numerous and fun. The input method for battles makes things go faster, which is nice. Saving anywhere (except for dungeons) is pretty nice, too. But these things don't compensate for the poor design choices for the battle system, thin characters, and weak story.    … Expand
  5. shaggx83
    Jul 23, 2020
    7
    This is my second Persona game after Persona 4 Golden on PSVita. First of all, the stylish visual and upbeat music in this game is one of the best that I've seen. I generally love this game but it was a little bit too long for me. So many times I just lost interest and it took me a long time to get back to it. I wish it was not as long.
  6. hello_world
    Aug 4, 2019
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The art style of the game is stellar, making the game stand out in a way that many games don't even try to. P5 also carries the tradition of great music to accompany both intense battles and mundane school life.

    The gameplay of Persona 5 is far and beyond the most refined the game has ever been. giving dungeons a unique layout does wonders in making them stand out and the theming of the dungeons does a great job at selling the high-stakes heist vibe. The party's Persona's are also nicely chosen, giving each character a rebel Persona to fit the band of misfits.

    My misgivings is the narrative and characters, which I feel are a step down from P4. The theme of P5 is freedom and rehabilitation. This works well with the prison motif of the Velvet room, but this theme seems disconnected with the idea of going on heist to stop corrupt adults. The characters, are also less engaging. The main problem is that Atlus wanted to use momentos in all of their story lines to help them with a problem. But the result is that you don't really get to know about these characters as well. For example, Makoto's storyline was focused on helping out her friend, which takes away from learning more about Makoto. Sojiro's story is also essentially a watered down version of Dojima in P4. This usually wouldn't be that big of a deal, but the characters is a main reason why I like the persona series and this made P5 feel like a disappointment.    … Expand
  7. Luahanseng
    Aug 12, 2020
    7
    Finished the game for almost 250hrs. I dont like the ending compare to 4. i dont like the story compare to 4 and i dont like the battle mechanics compare to 4. particularly when your persona is summoned in this game, it appears as shadow and after it attacks it disappears. Unlike 4, when summoned its a new character appearing and battling in the game.
  8. dadel
    Sep 20, 2019
    7
    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    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 fade in a few years. It would be understandable a few weeks after release as a protection against spoilers. But after two years, when entire game is on Youtube? Come on..
    2) The soundtrack is very repetitive. There is just a few songs that you'll hear 1000 times. For example, in the Cafe Leblanc which serves as your homebase and you'll spend a lot of time there, there plays this: [search "Persona 5 OST - Night Rain (Vocal Version)" on Youtube]. The song is quite nice..at first. But not for 1000th time. And things will get worse - during almost all battles you'll hear this stupid disco: [search "Last Surprise [With Lyrics!] (Persona 5)" on Youtube]. Again, and again, and again, for the entire 120 hour playthrough. Annoying for the second time, equivalent of waterboarding for the 1000th time.
    3) There is a lot of text in the game. A LOT. It is an equivalent of National Library. You are dragged from one conversation to another and you cannot avoid it so you just mindlessly press X to advance. "Auto-advance" feature in the settings applies to just roughly half of the texts. Sometimes you have 3 choices of answer but in most cases all three have the same meaning. And the worst part - most of the texts is just a filler and contain nothing of interest. The characters just comment on obvious things, again and again. On everything you do in the game.
    You enter a safe room:
    Character 1: "Finally we can rest a bit" (press X)
    You leave a safe room:
    Character 1: "We have rested and now let's get back to work" (press X)
    Character 2: "I'm looking forward to kick their butts" (press X)
    Character 3: "The dungeon is big but we are halfway through" (press X)
    Character 4: "Yeah, let's go, Joker!" (press X)
    You take a sh*t and wipe your ass:
    Character 1: "This is awesome! You can use this paper to clean your ass!" (press X)
    Character 2: "Sugoi! I like that." (press X)
    Character 3: "I wish I had such paper to clean my ass" (press X)
    Character 4: "We have such paper at home. You don't?" (press X)
    Character 3: "No we don't." (press X)
    Character 5: "Let's concentrate on our quest. Once we steal the treasure, we'll buy a lot of toilet paper" (press X)
    ok, I invented the last part but you get the point..    … Expand
  9. Qirigin
    Jul 20, 2020
    7
    Its a good game but the game was to long, way to less voice and to mutch to read... The story at the end got very weird and the plotpoints didnt make mutch sense imo. They should have shorten it to 6 palaces or maybe even 5.
  10. Ginger_Avenger
    Dec 11, 2022
    7
    This game certainly has a strong sense of style. The story is a bit laughably convoluted at times, and combat gets old after while- although to be fair , both of those things can be said about a lot of Anime-esque turn based Japanese RPGs that I've played. Moreover, its the characters you're meant to care about, not the plot so much. So, overall, I thought the combo of life/time managementThis game certainly has a strong sense of style. The story is a bit laughably convoluted at times, and combat gets old after while- although to be fair , both of those things can be said about a lot of Anime-esque turn based Japanese RPGs that I've played. Moreover, its the characters you're meant to care about, not the plot so much. So, overall, I thought the combo of life/time management and dungeon exploration to more engrossing than I had expected.… Expand
  11. Tigloco9
    Apr 26, 2022
    7
    Charming and stylish in its presentation. Preposterously basic in its plot and themes. Some character introductions and confidant stories will cause you to roll your eyes several times, but that's the definitive Japanese game experience after all. For all its mechanics, the game becomes very easy no matter the difficulty and repetitive in it's combat, but the high-level personas will keepCharming and stylish in its presentation. Preposterously basic in its plot and themes. Some character introductions and confidant stories will cause you to roll your eyes several times, but that's the definitive Japanese game experience after all. For all its mechanics, the game becomes very easy no matter the difficulty and repetitive in it's combat, but the high-level personas will keep you going, because how can you not check them out. You can easily get 300 hours out of this game. And when it's all done, you might even feel sad that it's over. … Expand
  12. Weyfet18
    Jul 22, 2022
    7
    un gran juego pero el gato de los cojones me caga y desearia que lo eleminaran en futuras actualizaciones gracias
  13. Barrage
    Apr 24, 2023
    7
    I have a strong love-hate relationship with this game. It has fun style, and plays a lot like a Final Fantasy game. The music is initially catchy, but quickly becomes obnoxious. The game has some long segments between save points, and difficulty spikes in combat can be very frustrating.
  14. Foxoczu
    Oct 18, 2022
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Persona 5 is a really nice game. It has good mechanics and all but... I'm giving it 7 bc they deleted reverse and break mechanic which would make us think more about how to spend our time. Plot is nice but the first moments may put you to sleep… Expand
  15. zarvx
    Jul 20, 2023
    7
    my first introduction to persona, and loved it i wish they could have done more with the plot development though.
  16. MrFlankster
    Mar 20, 2019
    6
    HONEST REVIEW: Let me start by saying Persona 4 Golden is my all time favorite RPG. Now that that is out of the way.... I'm about half way through, so unless something seriously changes, I'm sticking to my score. Yes, it has a decent story. It hasn't hooked me like P4G. Gameplay (battles) is still as great as ever.
    Here is my issue. MAJOR HAND HOLDING. If you want to have a cat as your    HONEST REVIEW: Let me start by saying Persona 4 Golden is my all time favorite RPG. Now that that is out of the way.... I'm about half way through, so unless something seriously changes, I'm sticking to my score. Yes, it has a decent story. It hasn't hooked me like P4G. Gameplay (battles) is still as great as ever.
    Here is my issue. MAJOR HAND HOLDING. If you want to have a cat as your mother telling you when you should go to bed, when to go out, when not to do this or that, then this is the game for you. There is absolutely NO freedom in this game. It's extremely linear. In this day and age, this is simply "not okay," especially for an RPG. For example, I finish fighting in a palace, get home, turn around to go out for the evening to up some stats and the CAT tells me it's time for bed??!!
    This happens throughout. They make everything you do seem like it has to go through the cat first. This has ruined the overall experience. In my mind, it's a step back compared to P4G.    … Expand
  17. Chiyou
    Aug 3, 2018
    6
    You all are out of your minds... No but seriously I did not enjoy this experience.. I didn't care for any of the characters. Ryuji got way on my nerves way too much. I wanted to love this game I really did. i loved Persona 4, the characters in persona 4 mixed with the backdrop of rural japan was charming as hell. This game loses all that. The one thing it does better is it has a moreYou all are out of your minds... No but seriously I did not enjoy this experience.. I didn't care for any of the characters. Ryuji got way on my nerves way too much. I wanted to love this game I really did. i loved Persona 4, the characters in persona 4 mixed with the backdrop of rural japan was charming as hell. This game loses all that. The one thing it does better is it has a more complex dungeon system. Unfortunately it's paired with the most awful stealth, sticking to wall gameplay I've ever seen. It's gotten me into trouble more often than I can count.. okay i can count higher but I do have an education. The dialog system rewards you for selecting the right command so much that you'll either end up reading a guide to choose correctly (because game time is so valuable) or you'll restart your game over and over again. it makes it feel completely pointless.. as if someone whose spending over 100 hours in a game would want to see a less complete story. I won't be giving Atlus another chance after this.. If i'm going to spend 100 hours in a game again it's going to have to have some dragon shouts or something.

    (BTW I put over 100 hours into this game and decided that was enough)    … Expand
  18. DelCast
    Aug 20, 2022
    6
    I have played every Persona since 3, and I would say JRPGs are some of my favorite games. But sadly I am quite disappointed with Persona 5. Don't get me wrong, It's an OK game, but I find a lot of it's flaws are very overlooked.

    It is certainly a very stylish game, menus are amazingly stylized and while some of the textures are muddy, the overall personality of characters and    I have played every Persona since 3, and I would say JRPGs are some of my favorite games. But sadly I am quite disappointed with Persona 5. Don't get me wrong, It's an OK game, but I find a lot of it's flaws are very overlooked.

    It is certainly a very stylish game, menus are amazingly stylized and while some of the textures are muddy, the overall personality of characters and environments shine though. The music also fits the art style nicely, which really shows an evolution from the previous games which were already quite stylish.

    But I feel that is the only real improvement.

    On the downside, From the very start, the game felt slow and meandering, both in its exposition, dialogue and in how much it holds your hand. This isn't particularly surprising for a JRPG, but a lot of the "social sim" type activities, and even the battles or "puzzles" in the dungeons, feel insanely overwritten and unnecessarily guided.

    The characters also tend to talk a lot but say very little, with constantly repetitive dialogue that rarely ever really fleshes out any of them beyond the clichés. P4 was very smart in the way in which the dungeons revealed hidden aspects of our party members, making them more human and serving as an introduction, but this game rarely understands how important that is when building a long story like this.

    Dungeons, while visually improved, are not mechanically interesting, whenever a puzzle is introduced, the game basically solves it for you, never trusting in the player's intelligence. Additionally, the controls and the stealth aspect of the game are very awkward, so these gimmicks play out as badly implemented mechanics that add very little to the game.
    Moreover, the tremendously restrictive nature of the game always prevents you from feeling any growth, as the battles can either be a complete breeze (done in one or two turns) or go bad FAST. And this structure remains throughout almost all the game (this may have been the same in P4, but i personally felt like I could grind if I wanted and feel a more rewarding progression, while through the first 40 hours of P5, SP is so restrictive that this feels almost impossible).

    And the worst culprit, the story. Persona 3 and 4 both have twists and turns that, can be satisfying, but end up falling more on the side of clichè. However, this is less of a problem when those games had a less self serious perspective.
    P5 is always at the edge of something interesting, always toying with the idea of saying something challenging, but it constantly stumbles, stretches and ultimately drops the ball and falls into the clichés again and again, It lacks subtlety to actually explore any of the interesting topics it hints at: For example, It constantly asks if it is really correct to basically brain wash people? But then it shows completely monstrous comically evil rivals, so it can deflect the conflict : These are monsters so, DUH.
    It tries to be cool and mature, it ends up feeling childish and defaulting to basically EVERY JRPG trope, while taking itself WAY too seriously.

    There are many more issues with the game, i find, the unskipable repeated sequences (seriously, the post fight animation is 10+ seconds long, and plays fully after each of the hundreds of fights in the game), the seemingly filler dungeons, the often pointless extended exposition, which serves very little narrative purpose. And smaller peeves, such as the impossibility to 100% the game (in one 100+ hour playthrough), questionable treatment of topics, and extreme length of the game just make me think Atlus felt compelled to bloat this game, and never wrote or designed thoughtfully around it.

    It is possible that many of these problems were present in the previous games of the series but i feel like the run time and the somewhat less fleshed out cast really end up damaging the complete package.    … Expand
  19. Garathiel
    Dec 18, 2022
    6
    Cutted story, boring sessions of ripetitive gameplay, choose royal edition! It's another game!
  20. DreamCore
    Oct 27, 2020
    6
    I have to start by saying that this is an extremely overrated game.

    There are many things that I liked with the game, but equally many I hated. The Good: * This being my first Persona game, it felt very unique compared to most copy pasted games nowadays which was really refreshing. * The art style and UI design is really cool. * The story with the Metaverse and Palaces was very    I have to start by saying that this is an extremely overrated game.

    There are many things that I liked with the game, but equally many I hated.

    The Good:

    * This being my first Persona game, it felt very unique compared to most copy pasted games nowadays which was really refreshing.
    * The art style and UI design is really cool.
    * The story with the Metaverse and Palaces was very cool.
    * Intersting combat system.

    The bad:
    * The negotiation system for "catching" personas SUCKS. I had to use a guide because it simply didn't make sense.
    * Some enemies/bosses have abilities that one-shot you which can cause you to die with the blink of an eye. This is bad design and something I truly despise in games. It's unfair and pure trash design. It's particularly bad in this game because if Joker gets one shotted, it's over, and it's also random so you have no control. The only safe way is to make sure you always have the ability to negate instant death once, because you never know if a new enemy can randomly one shot you.
    * The game is very slow and drags out for too long. The real-world part gets old really quickly and leveling up your stats and confidants over and over, hour after hour gets really dull.
    * Mementos is garbage. With 50+ levels with the same repetitive enemies that you have to grind through is a perfect way of lazy design and how not to do things. Is only there to increase the playtime, pure and simple.    … Expand
  21. Darcsun
    Jul 22, 2017
    6
    I got about 40 hours into the game before deciding to trade it in. Honestly, it got boring hours earlier. The game is repetitive after the first 10 hours or so. Dungeons are the same, fights are the same, choices are the same... even the music is the same.

    I put RPGs as my favorite genre, and loved Nier, which I finished before this. I've played JRPGs since Phantasy Star on the SEGA    I got about 40 hours into the game before deciding to trade it in. Honestly, it got boring hours earlier. The game is repetitive after the first 10 hours or so. Dungeons are the same, fights are the same, choices are the same... even the music is the same.

    I put RPGs as my favorite genre, and loved Nier, which I finished before this. I've played JRPGs since Phantasy Star on the SEGA Master system. I'm a bit surprised that so many people dumped over 100 hours into this one. After 20, you've basically done 80% of what there is to do.    … Expand
  22. Bunterboy
    Aug 17, 2018
    6
    This game can be summed up as 100 hours of a cat telling you what to do. You think you're going to get a huge world with a wide variation of what you can do but really you can ONLY do EXACTLY what the game wants you to do. The choices are an illusion.

    Visually it looks great and the combat is for the most part quite enjoyable but the story, Jesus, what a pile of wank and when coupled    This game can be summed up as 100 hours of a cat telling you what to do. You think you're going to get a huge world with a wide variation of what you can do but really you can ONLY do EXACTLY what the game wants you to do. The choices are an illusion.

    Visually it looks great and the combat is for the most part quite enjoyable but the story, Jesus, what a pile of wank and when coupled with some really crappy mechanics (despair I'm looking at you) and some completely unnecessary design choices (Mmm, I'm a mouse now; oh its a crappy airlock maze) they all combine to suck the fun out of the game. I'm at the last stage and can barely keep myself going it's such a slog.

    This game could do with being about half the size and it would be a lot tighter and benefit the whole experience.    … Expand
  23. TatsMcGee
    Sep 8, 2018
    6
    I went into this game knowing that I was not going to finish it. I just wanted to experience the game and see what it’s about. Every year my friends and I get together and do an end of the year podcast. We just talk about our top 10 games of the year and I know this game is going to be the game of the year for 2 of them.

    So I wanted to try this game and see why they like it so much. I    I went into this game knowing that I was not going to finish it. I just wanted to experience the game and see what it’s about. Every year my friends and I get together and do an end of the year podcast. We just talk about our top 10 games of the year and I know this game is going to be the game of the year for 2 of them.

    So I wanted to try this game and see why they like it so much. I enjoyed my time with the game but its just way too long for my taste. The game takes about 90-100 hours to beat and I prefer games that are around 30-40 hours. At least my RPG’s, I prefer them to be a bit shorter. A big reason for that is, I work about 45 hours a week. So during the work week, I only have 3-4 hours per night to play. That’s assuming I want to play a game every night. So during the work week, I can play for 15-16 hours. On the weekends I have more time but even then I typically don’t play games for than 12-15 hours on the weekends. So I game for 25-30 hours per week. That’s a lot of time for me to play my games but a game that’s 90-100 hours. That’s basically an entire month of me playing one game. I get burnt out before I ever get to end.

    So my time with this game, I did enjoy. I played for about 20 hours and the story itself didn’t do a ton for me but I enjoyed the combat. I like Turn-based combat and looking for enemy weaknesses. Even though I did enjoy the combat, after about 20 hours. I started to grow bored of it. Knowing I had 70-80 more hours of the game. I decided to call it and really I accomplished my goal. I just wanted to experience the game and see what the fuss is about.

    This game was not for and I went in knowing that but I always try to keep an open mind. If you’re into Japanese Role Playing Games then I highly recommend this one. It’s a well-made game that just too long for me.    … Expand
  24. DarkMagix
    Apr 17, 2017
    6
    I'm new to the series and JRPG world so my opinions and review are based on being a non-anime person reading how this is the best JRPG ever and wanting to experience a new type of game. Overall, it's a mix of being too bizarre/silly and simply put *old*. I feel like I would have seen this on a system 5-10 years ago and I would wager a guess that this is intentional but as a noob it'sI'm new to the series and JRPG world so my opinions and review are based on being a non-anime person reading how this is the best JRPG ever and wanting to experience a new type of game. Overall, it's a mix of being too bizarre/silly and simply put *old*. I feel like I would have seen this on a system 5-10 years ago and I would wager a guess that this is intentional but as a noob it's painful to experience coming in without a background.

    Graphics: Subpar at best. It's got the anime feel down but it looks pretty old. A lot of effort was clearly put into details but it's just not that great and maybe that comes with JRPG territory (expect graphics to look like they are from early generations of video gaming) 5/10

    Story: Pretty bizarre but nothing special. Again maybe it comes with the territory but the translation seems completely off, sometimes the speech and story just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I'm assuming in it's original form the meaning is likely drastically different. At times the translator appears to read directly from an incorrectly translated script which is void of the meaning of what is being presented on screen. Take what would be a 6/10 and throw a wall of button smashing text to get to any real action and you get a 5/10.

    Gameplay: For what there is, it's not too bad. Pretty intuitive though not very challenging. 8/10.

    Overall: It's for those that love the style I think. If you are used to the previous games then it's probably a blast. If you are new like me, then it feels like a 30 dollar-ish game that you start and want to love but give up after the mind numbing button smashing for the next best thing (and on PS4 that's probably in a week or two). I think it's a good choice in December when it's down to almost no price (30 or under) and you want a game to go back to when you are in a lull between your many other awesome PS4 games. 6/10    … Expand
  25. Kyeoli
    May 6, 2020
    6
    I loved the game don't get my review wrong but i really disliked the "forced" nature with the "freedom" for exploring. wanting to go out at night even though i have the keys "stupid cat - hey shouldn't you sleep" it's really lazy and kind of wonky being at a batting cage passes a whole portion of the day or studying in a cafe don't even know how long or it apparently taking a wholeI loved the game don't get my review wrong but i really disliked the "forced" nature with the "freedom" for exploring. wanting to go out at night even though i have the keys "stupid cat - hey shouldn't you sleep" it's really lazy and kind of wonky being at a batting cage passes a whole portion of the day or studying in a cafe don't even know how long or it apparently taking a whole portion of the day to make coffee . then your forced to sleep i can't craft tools in the evening i don't know if its i haven't gotten far but that aspect really sucks, it ruins the whole experience of having so much to do but apparently anything drains the whole day, being in a palace or whatever i can understand but being in a batting cage takes off majority of the day just what is that?… Expand
  26. merryinc
    Apr 30, 2017
    6
    the game just isn't that great, how on earth IGN give is 9.7/10 and game informer 10/10, i've played 5 hours so far, and in that 5 hours, there is about 30 minutes of actual game play, the rest is hitting X after every sentance. I don't understand how every review i've read besides this one, gives is 90% plus, but 4/5 is still to high to me.
  27. katieelizabeth
    Nov 29, 2020
    6
    I was excited to play this game, seeing as so many people say it's beloved and one of the best games last generation, but to be honest, I could not really get into it. If you're a fan of jrpgs, you may not necessarily enjoy this - it's not an automatic shoe-in like other classic jrpgs might be.

    For one, the time-based simulator did not jive with me. I found it difficult to know what all    I was excited to play this game, seeing as so many people say it's beloved and one of the best games last generation, but to be honest, I could not really get into it. If you're a fan of jrpgs, you may not necessarily enjoy this - it's not an automatic shoe-in like other classic jrpgs might be.

    For one, the time-based simulator did not jive with me. I found it difficult to know what all of my options were in given time period at times, and I was always stressed out in choosing how I spent my time because I really didn't know what the impact of my decisions would be, or what I needed to prepare for. This is the kind of game where beating it once probably gives you the necessary information to make better informed decisions in subsequent playthroughs, but with the game being well over 100 hours, that's a proposition I don't want to take the developers up on.

    The other part of the game I did not enjoy was the combat. Mechanically, the combat is fine, but the rng is very brutal. If one of your party members misses an attack, or if your damage rolls much lower than it usually does, a fight that would have normally not wasted any HP or SP could spiral out of control and royally mess things up. For example, let's say a character misses an attack, and then that enemy that is on low health gets 3 crits in a row, and now 3 party members are below 25% hp despite being at max HP before the combat started - this can happen. It's very swingy like this. With SP being very limited in dungeons, using it to heal to recover from situations like this will really prevent you from finishing it in a smaller number of trips.

    RNG also plays a roll in deciding what enemies you will face. You could get unlucky and just face the hardest batch of enemies over and over - it can easily happen. The end-result is that you will have to spend more resources to heal up damage and/or prevent damage than if the encounters were more balanced.

    All this means is that grinding is actually fairly essential, even on normal difficulty, if you want to reduce your trips to do the dungeon to maximize your social time... which you probably want to do because you will end up with more abilities and stats compared to going in the dungeon multiple times.

    Beyond how much I did not like the swingy rng, the graphics are actually fairly terrible. Outside of the anime cutscenes and art (which do look great), the actual 3d engine looks similar to what you find in a PS2 game (only the resolution is higher). On top of this, camera rotation and movement is extremely clunky. It almost reminds me of Mario 64 - it's kind of that bad. Like if you tilt your analogy stick slowly to the half-way position, the camera does not move until after you pass that 50% tilt, and then moves suddenly by a lot, exactly like Mario 64 c-sticks did. I wish it was a lot smoother :/ Rotating the camera to see enemies behind corners and stuff feels awful - like it's really bad.

    There are some good things about the game. The voice acting is really good. The UI's and art style is neat. The music is quite good - some really nice tracks at times.

    Ultimately though, I did not enjoy the swinginess of the rng in combat or the stress of not knowing what the impact of my social decisions would be, which is basically the 2 largest parts of the actual gameplay. I think if the combat was less swingy and you were not as punished by the rng and if the game did a better job showing available options with consequences to make decisions more intelligently, I might have enjoyed the game. But I sort of think this game is overrated and I enjoyed other modern jrpgs like Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Atelier Ryza, Octopath Traveler, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, etc. a lot more than this. I don't get the hype - I think you need to be a certain kind of person to enjoy this as there is a risk you might just not get into it. I could not finish it after about 10 hours or so - I was done.    … Expand
  28. ORevisor
    Feb 14, 2018
    6
    - Muito diálogo, dias a fio só de diálogos... E muitos sem relevância, é tanto diálogo que me fez deixar de prestar atenção no enredo do game, graças a Deus tem um botão de acelerar as conversas, mas mesmo assim é muito chato...
    - Sem grandes inovações comparando-se aos predecessores
    - O sistema de confidant já está chato, sem novidades e extremamente limitado, assim como as versões    - Muito diálogo, dias a fio só de diálogos... E muitos sem relevância, é tanto diálogo que me fez deixar de prestar atenção no enredo do game, graças a Deus tem um botão de acelerar as conversas, mas mesmo assim é muito chato...
    - Sem grandes inovações comparando-se aos predecessores
    - O sistema de confidant já está chato, sem novidades e extremamente limitado, assim como as versões anteriores existem respostas pré-definidas para se elevar o ranking e ter basicamente os mesmos resultados finais
    - A recuperação de SP no início do jogo é extremamente difícil
    - Muitas habilidades boas são liberadas apenas com personas de níveis muito alto
    - O jogo favorece personas que são criados em níveis baixos, pois você pode controlar os pontos de atributos quando se ganha lv ao longo do jogo, já os que são criados em lv alto vem com os atributos bagunçados e sem possibilidade de correção ou aprimoramento, lembrando que nessa versão só se aumenta os atributos através de elevação de nível
    - Poderiam ter criado mais personas
    - A maioria das magias ficaram simples e feias
    + As lutas são divertidas e fluidas, as magias são executadas com maior velocidade comparados ao 3 e 4
    + As músicas do game são muito boas
    Findando... o jogo vale a grana gasta, porém, não acredito que se trate de um jogo 10/10, os diálogos se tornam tão irritantes que estraga o fator replay, terminei uma vez o jogo e não tenho vontade de joga-lo novamente...    … Expand
  29. PCLBrunelli
    Nov 20, 2019
    6
    Jogo cansativo, muito extenso, tema politicalizado... Gráficos bons, músicas & efeitos ótimos, jogabilidade boa...
  30. Revoltado
    May 6, 2018
    6
    Seria muito bom se não tivesse uma quantidade EXORBITANTE de diálogo... pior que o 4... O pós game também não empolga...
  31. michaelb1928
    Mar 27, 2019
    6
    a group of teenagers mask their mysterious alter egos, their "phantom thief" side. Who are they? Why are they dressed as such? What are their motives? And... why are they being
  32. vodkaffee
    Jan 20, 2020
    6
    a complete disappointment. unlikable characters with uninteresting quests. lame story. good soundtrack and battle system. but comparing it to persona 4 is a step down in every level
  33. Nero_Project
    Jan 16, 2019
    6
    Story: 10
    Gameplay: 3 (in 2019)
    Voice acting: 3 (they should put the whole P5A anime series instead of the text and dialog in the game)

    My score: 6!
  34. ieatcaramel
    Mar 31, 2020
    6
    a good ps3 game but the story could be improved. glad they improved it in royal which is a 10 on 10
  35. ilx4ever
    Aug 26, 2020
    6
    It's a nice game, but it is not for everyone. I wish someone have told me that before I bought it. Graphics are not on a level you expect from a game with such a score. The sound is on the same level as graphics. Gameplay is slow, but that's how it should be for a game like that. The story is the magical thing that keeps you playing the game.
  36. natesacid
    Dec 19, 2020
    6
    Not enough lotus juice. That’s the entire review. Knack 2 baby. Also I hate Akechi.
  37. RVD1OFAKIND
    May 12, 2017
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Contains spoilers of Personas: 3 4 5. Full review in Gamefaqs later.

    The Good:

    Music - Shoji Meguro does it again. 6th game I've played with him doing music. The lack of Lotus Juice is sad and the battle theme is pretty bad though.

    Style - Eye orgasm. The after battle transitions, the all out attacks, the menus...

    Yusuke - great character. Great social link. Best playable character by a mile. No questions asked.

    Futaba - another great character. Great social link with just 1 weakness - the friend from school thing but it was still handled better than other social links (more on this later) .

    Valentines event - If you have multiple romantic relationships (maybe you have to have them all, I'm not sure), the scene is glorious.

    Small things: class questions with pictures. Better model animations in cutscenes.

    The bad:
    Bad vocal main cast and their social links:

    Ryuji - I ran on a track team once, I'm dumb and get angry easily. Great stuff. The SL is REALLY bad.

    Ann - I like food, shopping and modeling. Wow. I don't even know what to say here

    Makoto - Miss "I've read the script". Seriously. Every team meeting everyone discusses what happened/what should we do etc. And then she goes "This is how it was/this is what we will do". EVERY. TIME. Her social link is complete garbage and is more about her friend than her.

    Haru - Who? Exacly. Why is she even in this game? If she was not there - nothing of value would be lost.

    Morgana - Teddie rehash without being funny and loveable. Shadow - check. Teaches you stuff - check. Feels useless after a navigator joins - check. "I'm not a cat" pretty much describe his character.

    Other social links: Here are the other social links:
    1. Meet with the person. His/her life seems pretty good.
    2. An evil person walks up and tells some evil stuff
    3. You go beat him/her/them up inside mementos
    4. End of social link.

    Akechi - Great character at the start who gets ruined completely. Disregarding the AWFUL post fight death flip flop scene, the thing I hated the most was how he, for no reason out of the blue, just says "I'm a character you should pity too btw". He shouldn't say that. You should hear that from Shido's shadow. Fixed. Also...

    Rehashing Persona 4 and 3 to a lesser extent - Let's see...
    Mascot that teaches you everything and feels useless when navigator shows up but is actually a shadow.
    The traitor/criminal is the police detective that acts nice and innocent.
    Last boss is a complete copy of the Eye Boss (ameno-sagiri). "Human desires are my desires".
    Mementos is literally Tartarus turned upside down. Even the designs look extremelly similar. Randomly generated dungeon with teleporters "quick move" that have bariers that go away after story progression and there's your last boss at the end.

    Villains - Akechi aside, the villains were really forgetable and boring. They just pop up out of nowhere without any development. All of them was "find out about them. get in trouble. change heart within time limit" Shido didn't feel like the main villain. He just felt like "another dude that needs a change of heart" that they made the mastermind behind everything as an afterthought. Compare this to Takaya who killed your 2 friends and Adachi who killed 2 people and caused Nanako's death (she still died for a bit). Shido was just "another dude". Also his dialogue was very weak.

    Story - oh boy, the big one. So until the betrayal, the story was "ok". It had good and meh moments. Most of the terrible writting happened during and after betrayal.
    The main problems before were:
    1. Haven't done the dungeon? "Dude you should really do the dungeon". "Damn, remember that dungeon?". Done the dungeon? "Oh I hope this works". "What if this doesn't work?".
    2. "Gosh what random guy will we pick next". "Supid adults"
    Afterwards the problems were:
    1. The betrayal itself was really poorly done in my opinion. The party members have shown to be rather incompetant. Then they somehow think of a master plan down to every small detail. It's overexplained. Seemed like writters trying to cover all their bases. And how can they think of such an elaborate plan and then later be shown to not notice they are on a damn ship for 30 seconds. It's mindboglingly jarring. 2. Everything with Akechi afterwards 3. Shido seems like "just another dude" 4. Oh boy a god is behind everything again 5. Fake deaths of Ryuji and Mona that any sane person wouldn't believe for a second. It's downright insulting that they were taken seriuosly by the party. 6. 4-5 scenes of "Here are all the social links you've made" Overall - Persona 5 amounts to be a bog standart JRPG. As a sequal its a complete letdown. Persona 3 and 4 were the pinacles of the genre standing head and shoulders above every other JRPG. They were a 10 when all the other were a 5 at best. That's how wide of a gap I feel there is. And sadly Persona 5 joins the latter...    … Expand
  38. CitanZero
    May 10, 2017
    5
    I wanted to like this game. The main problem for me is the storyline. I'm 3 hours in, and this whole castle business with the gym teacher and then the cat, I just can't get into it. I've played a ton of RPGs, and I think maybe if I was a teenager still, I might have been able to get into it. I tried Persona 4 and liked it more, as far as I can remember, more than this one as far asI wanted to like this game. The main problem for me is the storyline. I'm 3 hours in, and this whole castle business with the gym teacher and then the cat, I just can't get into it. I've played a ton of RPGs, and I think maybe if I was a teenager still, I might have been able to get into it. I tried Persona 4 and liked it more, as far as I can remember, more than this one as far as storyline goes. The main issue is that I was hoping for a more adult theme. The game is very childish in its plot and characters. I wanted something like Death Note as far as a storyline. I find myself hitting X over and over to get through the very obvious dialogue now and will probably put the game down. It started off with a lot of potential, but now, at the point where the girl Ann is coming to the castle, I find myself just not interested. As far as the graphics and the gameplay, that's all top-notch. But that doesn't do anything for me if I can't get into the story. The characters seem paper-thin and somewhat annoying at this point, especially Skull. Again,this game might be good for younger gamers. I was a teenager when I played FF7, Chrono Cross, FF8, etc.… Expand
  39. pieguard
    May 11, 2017
    5
    The interface and music is very hip and cool, but for me (especially the music) this got old after many hours. This is a fairly long game, and hearing the same melodies and songs repeated over and over for 100 hours is too much. I love some of the boss themes, but I wish they did a better job incorporating more casual- all the time music. The turn based system is kind of dated but worksThe interface and music is very hip and cool, but for me (especially the music) this got old after many hours. This is a fairly long game, and hearing the same melodies and songs repeated over and over for 100 hours is too much. I love some of the boss themes, but I wish they did a better job incorporating more casual- all the time music. The turn based system is kind of dated but works well, overall eh. The finale of the game was underwhelming and kind of anti-climactic. Overall it seems to be exactly what most people would expect from another installation to the Persona franchise ... nothing really innovative or earth shattering. I think the best parts of this game were the character interactions.… Expand
  40. tobiaschan
    Nov 19, 2017
    5
    This game is fun, but it is not the level of getting a GOTY. If this is a year like 2010, this game deserves the GOTY. Sadly this year there are a lot of games that are creative and with really good graphic. I think the reason why everyone love this game is because they love to watch Japanese animation and they think it's cool to control animated character. I am not a fan of JapaneseThis game is fun, but it is not the level of getting a GOTY. If this is a year like 2010, this game deserves the GOTY. Sadly this year there are a lot of games that are creative and with really good graphic. I think the reason why everyone love this game is because they love to watch Japanese animation and they think it's cool to control animated character. I am not a fan of Japanese animation and this is my opinion. Generally this game is cool but I don't see what make it stands out more among other games.… Expand
  41. egoBorder
    Sep 30, 2022
    5
    This game is stylish and cool, but its long development time shows in some awful quality-of-life decisions. In brief, sessions of this game often were entertaining but usually ended at some point where frustration with the linearity and info/dialogue dumps forced me to quit and not return for days or weeks. Persona 5 is totally worth playing, but interface and pacing may drive someThis game is stylish and cool, but its long development time shows in some awful quality-of-life decisions. In brief, sessions of this game often were entertaining but usually ended at some point where frustration with the linearity and info/dialogue dumps forced me to quit and not return for days or weeks. Persona 5 is totally worth playing, but interface and pacing may drive some players insane. The game's good parts have been praised elsewhere, and they are all valid, but personally I find it hard to recommend a game that wastes so much of my time and whose story moves at a Harry Potter-esque glacial pace despite obvious clues.… Expand
  42. Firmament1
    Apr 4, 2019
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Persona 5 is one of the most overrated games I've ever had the displeasure of experiencing. Everyone is ignoring the severe flaws that are in this game.
    "It's the best game ever made!"
    "GOTY!"
    Heck no it ain't.
    Now, I don't dislike everything about it. Otherwise, I would've given it a 1 or 0. The gameplay improvements, as well as the music are great. Certain arcs are great. However, everything else? Crap.
    The story is the EXACT SAME THING as Persona 3 and 4. Go to a new town, supernatural crap happens, new dimension discovered, get party members, repeat 2 times, then pick up the story a bit. After that, reveal this human traitor (Which is always terribly executed, Ikutsuki was killed too fast, Adachi's motives were "I was bored, so I killed people", and Akechi was rushed, and they slapped a sad backstory on him). Oh no! There's this other guy pulling the strings, so we need to kill them! Kill "Epic god boss" (Which is terribly executed in Persona 4 and 5), and then end the game. In which it's the same thing as Persona 4.
    As I said, Palace 1, 4, and 6 are great. However, 2 and 3 are just repeats of Palace 1, just with far worse execution. Palace 5's writing is utterly insulting, and condescending. They keep beating you over the head with obvious plot points that have been repeated. The palace is frustrating, and boring. All around garbage. Palace 7 is rushed, and despite the buildup, is highly underwhelming. Shido is a 1-dimensional cartoon villain with very little development. I've already explained Akechi earlier, so I'll leave that. Yaldabaoth's defeat with "You can do it Phantom Thieves!" is unbelievably contrived. I have never been so disappointed with a game's ending.
    Confidants still do nothing for the story at all. Character development is the same thing. Get dragged into a palace for whatever the reason, encounter palace boss, get mad, rant about how they're not society's slave anymore, and then boom, awaken Persona. Proceed to get tossed off to the side right after the arc. Oh, and now their character development has been locked to Social Links, just like in Persona 4, which was a terrible decision. Great to see they've improved character development so much in this game. /s
    Dialogue options still don't do a thing. How nice. Still haven't fixed that, I see. My god, can't they make this game more like Fallout, where dialogue options actually DO something? When will they finally address these?
    Battle system is the same as Persona 4, just with the ability for One Mores to be passed to teammates, and hold ups. I guess that's some improvement. Oh, and I guess it looks prettier.

    In conclusion?

    Pros
    - Great starter arc
    - Palace 4 and 6 were well-done
    - Gameplay improvements
    - Music

    Cons
    - Repetitive in story, and character development
    - Beats you over the head with plot points we've already heard.
    - Contrivances
    - Traitor
    - Has some of the worst villains I've ever seen in a story
    - Character development locked to confidants
    - Confidants don't affect story
    - Dialogue options do nothing
    - Same thing as Persona 3 and 4

    Incredibly disappointed by this game. Persona fanboys will hate on me for this. Go ahead. I don't care about this game anymore. On the bright side, someone's giving it away online for free.    … Expand
  43. SplitMind
    Jun 19, 2019
    5
    I have no idea why this game has such universal acclaim; presumably the hype has deluded people.

    The single major issue I have with this game is the pacing of it. It is so incredibly slow, repetitive and linear despite seeming to be the opposite. There are a plethora of activities and methods to develop your character, yet most of the time you are conscripted into story-based    I have no idea why this game has such universal acclaim; presumably the hype has deluded people.

    The single major issue I have with this game is the pacing of it. It is so incredibly slow, repetitive and linear despite seeming to be the opposite. There are a plethora of activities and methods to develop your character, yet most of the time you are conscripted into story-based activities. Each day has a cycle, yet this can be skipped entirely because of a story event. Finally when you are given some space when there is an upcoming boss, you are further restricted and pressurised by having a limited amount of time to level up, forcing you to choose specific skills, attributes and equipment develop. This really railroads the entire experience.

    Related to the pace are the cutscenes. You are constantly pressing X in order to advance each conversation, a monotonous task in itself.

    The above really marred the entire game for me. The graphics are fine, and the gameplay is excellent when you actually get to battle!    … Expand
  44. discogolf
    Nov 21, 2019
    5
    I've never played a Persona game. I bought it based on rave reviews and had no idea what to expect beyond game play videos on Youtube. Turn rpg is boring and outdated. The game is very slow- you don't see combat for several days. Pop-ups interrupt you every 5 seconds. The game also give you fake diol huge options where you are given various ways to say the same thing, “say yes, say II've never played a Persona game. I bought it based on rave reviews and had no idea what to expect beyond game play videos on Youtube. Turn rpg is boring and outdated. The game is very slow- you don't see combat for several days. Pop-ups interrupt you every 5 seconds. The game also give you fake diol huge options where you are given various ways to say the same thing, “say yes, say I agree, or say totally!” This happens dozens of times.… Expand
  45. AllNewSuperfake
    Dec 3, 2020
    5
    Great style and music, well fleshed out mechanics and gameplay +10
    Children's book level writing -1
    90 % of the game is pressing X to continue the neverending blabbering -1 Morgana -8 (Morgana is just the most obvious example for a great sandboxy game getting repeatedly stabbed in it's best parts by being streamlined to let the story shine, and while the story isn't terrible, the    Great style and music, well fleshed out mechanics and gameplay +10
    Children's book level writing -1
    90 % of the game is pressing X to continue the neverending blabbering -1

    Morgana -8

    (Morgana is just the most obvious example for a great sandboxy game getting repeatedly stabbed in it's best parts by being streamlined to let the story shine, and while the story isn't terrible, the way it's shoved in your face made me hate it and everything about it)
    readjusted the score because it's really not a 0, but I now understand the glorious vision that was the cat silencer in "postal 2" +5    … Expand
  46. JP_Wilde
    Jun 19, 2020
    5
    I tried to like the game, but I couldn't.
    I even got used to the mechanics of the game and the simulation of school life, but there are things that bothered me a lot and take away my patience.
    First, you almost never have the freedom and time to do what you want, because there is always something to do and you spend a whole day, or sometimes you do something silly and end the day. But    I tried to like the game, but I couldn't.
    I even got used to the mechanics of the game and the simulation of school life, but there are things that bothered me a lot and take away my patience.
    First, you almost never have the freedom and time to do what you want, because there is always something to do and you spend a whole day, or sometimes you do something silly and end the day.
    But what makes me most angry is the fact that the game always trolls the player, when you have few resources and want to leave a dungeon, the game forces you to walk through everything that has happened again to find either an exit or a Safe Room '', but resurrecting all the enemies that you exhaustedly defeated, so if you are unlucky enough to fall into a battle in which a CURSE enemy decides to focus on the Joker, you lose the entire battle even though you have 3 Party alive, then you lose at least 1 hour with absolutely nothing, go back to the beginning of the last save you made.
    I wanted to play for fun, not to get bored and waste time like that, you feel your time being wasted in seconds, it makes me sick.
    The game is not bad, but it is very frustrating and random, especially when enemies teleport in front of you right after finishing a battle against another.
    I hate walking around on several maps one by one just to get out of the dungeon, and if you die, you lose your hours at the cost of NOTHING!    … Expand
  47. streetkrc
    Aug 1, 2021
    5
    I did not like the game, I do not recommend it. It has interesting gameplay and nice art, that's all. The game is very long, after 40 hours you start to get tired of its monotony. There are a lot of stupid diologs. Heroes are also uninteresting, a bunch of losers. Bad mechanics and balance, as well as just awful implementation of saving.
  48. MnameJeff
    Feb 23, 2020
    5
    Fitting that Persona 5 gets a rating of 5. In my opinion one of the most overrated games of all time, and I’ve played this game all the way through 3 times. I’ll start with the positives. 1, the gameplay is great, the turn based combat system in this game feels great to use and the menus are nice and fast. 2, the UI as everyone already knows is over the top, flashy, and pretty sick to lookFitting that Persona 5 gets a rating of 5. In my opinion one of the most overrated games of all time, and I’ve played this game all the way through 3 times. I’ll start with the positives. 1, the gameplay is great, the turn based combat system in this game feels great to use and the menus are nice and fast. 2, the UI as everyone already knows is over the top, flashy, and pretty sick to look at. And that’s all for the positive, onto the negative. 1, the story is very mediocre and peaks at the first dungeon only to go down from there, this review is spoiler free so I won’t go in depth, but I’ll say there’s one character that’s handled terribly and is the worst part of the story, with many other meh things too. 2, the character development, while I think the characters themselves range from terrible to great, they’re development sucks. For example, they learn a big lesson in the first dungeon only to completely abandon what they learned in the second dungeon and use it as comedy. 3, the dungeons, they range from terrible to good, with most of them being very meh, and as everyone knows the 5th dungeon is terrible. 4, the difficulty, this game is a complete cakewalk, as someone who’s played many other RPG’s this game offers little to no challenge throughout almost the whole game, the hardest dungeon in my opinion is the first one and only because you don’t have a good grip on the gameplay yet. 5, the calendar system that the game uses where you play through every single individual day can get very boring, especially during summer it feels like there’s nothing to do, leading right into the next and final point. 6, social links (confidants), for the most part tend to be pretty boring with some standouts like Iwai being great. My final say on this game is: you’ll probably think it’s amazing, even a 9/10 or a 10/10 on your first playthrough like I did, but after replaying the game the magic of my first playthrough started to fade away and I saw how mediocre the game really was under that thick polish of slick UI and fun comabt. Thanks to anybody who reads this whole thing through.… Expand
  49. SiRock
    Oct 1, 2021
    5
    Perhaps the most tedious, slow and boring game I’ve played in a while. I love reading and don’t mind a good story driven game, but the writing in Persona 5 seems childish, dialogue borderline nonsensical. The tutorial lasts for like 15 hours, pop-ups and game interruptions make it an exercise in patience. At the same time, characters are likeable, combat pretty engaging. Overall narrativePerhaps the most tedious, slow and boring game I’ve played in a while. I love reading and don’t mind a good story driven game, but the writing in Persona 5 seems childish, dialogue borderline nonsensical. The tutorial lasts for like 15 hours, pop-ups and game interruptions make it an exercise in patience. At the same time, characters are likeable, combat pretty engaging. Overall narrative is interesting but I don’t have patience to ever go back to it… Expand
  50. RPGconnoiseur
    Jul 23, 2022
    5
    As someone who only plays RPGs recommended by metacritic, this was an ok non-JRPG
  51. 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
  52. 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.
  53. 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
  54. DTanilG
    Jun 20, 2020
    4
    Lack of official Russian localization!
    DLC = TRASH!

    It seems I wasted my money.
  55. 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
  56. 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
  57. 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.
  58. 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....
  59. 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
  60. 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
  61. 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
  62. 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
  63. 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.
  64. 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
  65. 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
  66. 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
  67. likeyeahwhatevr
    Jan 4, 2021
    3
    Can't be gay in this game, smh. Atlus it's the 2020s ffs...................
  68. 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
  69. 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
  70. 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
  71. 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
  72. 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.
  73. 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
  74. Zanorok
    Feb 22, 2022
    3
    10/10 game, shame I'm unable to play this game. Please Atlus, just port the game already.
  75. PoGo_PL
    Nov 10, 2019
    2
    Under nice the aesthetics and memorable characters there’s only boring and repetitive gameplay. Jrpg like many other.
  76. 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
  77. 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
  78. 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...
  79. 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
  80. 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
  81. tonberry_ftw
    Jun 24, 2023
    2
    The graphics, mechanics improved far compared to its predecessors, but the characters are far less interesting, and the story goes meh at the end (typical "oh, you did terrible things, but you're good-looking and have a sad past. we all forgive you" crap). First persona game in which i actually liked non-playable characters (i.e. doctor, arms dealer, shogi player, teacher, etc) far moreThe graphics, mechanics improved far compared to its predecessors, but the characters are far less interesting, and the story goes meh at the end (typical "oh, you did terrible things, but you're good-looking and have a sad past. we all forgive you" crap). First persona game in which i actually liked non-playable characters (i.e. doctor, arms dealer, shogi player, teacher, etc) far more than playable characters.… Expand
  82. Vigilem
    Apr 6, 2017
    1
    Needlessly prolonged, repetitive and will punish the player randomly, undoing hours of work.
    A big disappointment. 'Playing' this game is tedious and really does feel more like work.
    There's a nice art style about it, that's about the only praise I can give it.
  83. BN333
    Apr 4, 2017
    1
    Sadly another dated, turn based JRPG game with mechanics that grow tired and stale within a short amount of time grinding, recycling the same mechanics, look and gameplay from 3 generations ago. While critics are working PR overtime to sell people on this exclusive title, it wears out its welcome extremely quickly in the modern era.
    In an era where jrpgs are free on mobile/tablets, you    Sadly another dated, turn based JRPG game with mechanics that grow tired and stale within a short amount of time grinding, recycling the same mechanics, look and gameplay from 3 generations ago. While critics are working PR overtime to sell people on this exclusive title, it wears out its welcome extremely quickly in the modern era.
    In an era where jrpgs are free on mobile/tablets, you have to do more then the bare minimum and sadly this game does not cut it in this day and age, similar to Tokyo Mirage Sessions.
    Dated gameplay aspects, excessive filler and padding and the very questionable cultural setting/choices for regular gaming audiences in the West, make the game a complete drag. Music is also extremely grating.

    Learning more from modernized jrpgs would have been a smarter move.

    Do not let blind devotion to anime and anything "Japanese" otaku culture fool you with this one.

    Save your money for Yakuza maybe, one of the few worthwhile japanese exclusives.    … Expand
  84. penaferus11
    Jun 4, 2017
    1
    Over 100 hours of time-wasting monotony. You could play 3 other great RPGs in the time it'll take you to finish this awful game. I reached Shido's palace and watched the Goro Akechi traitor boss as well. Pretty lame that you once again fight a god in Mementos for the final battle. Horrendous game. I want my time and money back.
  85. moothemagiccow
    Jun 11, 2019
    1
    In the first fifteen minutes of this game, you get in trouble with the police for STOPPING A RAPE. Japan is the worst country in the world! (The game is set in Japan)
    You can't just press start and save, so you lose your progress every time the PS3 turns off, like it is 2001 or something. The last game made by Atlus, for the 3DS (!), Shin Megami Tensei IV, in this series, let you save    In the first fifteen minutes of this game, you get in trouble with the police for STOPPING A RAPE. Japan is the worst country in the world! (The game is set in Japan)
    You can't just press start and save, so you lose your progress every time the PS3 turns off, like it is 2001 or something. The last game made by Atlus, for the 3DS (!), Shin Megami Tensei IV, in this series, let you save anywhere, like every other game made after memory cards stopped being a thing (Xenoblade, TMS#FE, even FF13, which tanked in reviews). I really thought this game would be somewhat similar, but no. I waited forty minutes (because the saves have timestamps) between the start of the first dungeon and the next time I was allowed to save.
    The first level is - ride the train to school, and transfer trains. Except... I can't read Japanese. All the signs are blurry. Nothing on the map tells you which train line is which. This is supposed to be fun? Commuting? You just walk around hitting every wrong direction while the game tells you that you are going the wrong way. Everyone who gave this a high score has impossible amounts of time to devote to video games and no other life responsibilities, but never mentions that in their review. You cannot just pick up and play this game for thirty minutes. You must devote your night to it, and if you want to sleep, you're going to lose progress.    … Expand
  86. sesragi
    Apr 6, 2017
    1
    I like Megami Tensei, Persona 1 or 2 overwhelmingly more than this.
    I prefer the work of the past.
    I feel uncomfortable because I feel like trying to make a stylish directing.
  87. Modesta
    Apr 26, 2017
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. An amazing game for any first timer with Persona series, but imo not so much impact for anyone that already familiar with the past installments. The characters very passable, Ann as lovers arcana should be pushed more towards the MC compared to other girls. But she's quite annoying and also passable as love interest. Almost no dynamic relationship between her and MC at all. The story, plot wise and twist is almost too flat and predictable like most shounen manga. And without the arcana mechanics, there's only a little parts of main dialogue that help the depth of the characters. This game sacrifice the luster for pleasing wider audience. Don't go mainstream Atlus, learn from Final Fantasy mistakes.

    27/4/2017 update
    I decided to replayed the game and aimed for the "good" boring ending, after i finished the game with "true end" law ending. But i can't, there's so many things inside the game that turned me off from playing it again. Some of the English voice acting is so bad that it didn't fit and can't conveys the real moods of the characters. Ann's voice actress voice shrieks almost all of the times, it hurts my ears so bad that i need to turn down my tv to whisper quiet. Some characters entered the main storyline in awkward way and rushed. The ost is groovy, but it's hard to pick up most the words sang by Lyn with her Engrish. Oh well... i'm gonna play P3 again to heal the wounds.    … Expand
  88. blufnx
    Sep 10, 2017
    1
    WTF? I was excited because many of the critics were calling this one of the best RPGs ever?! I'm just confused. It's like watching an anime, instead of playing a game, with a TON of very structured and scripted dialogue and VERY little choice. Maybe this is just a cultural thing and you have to be Japanese or into Pokemon or some crap? I genuinely do not understand the hype.WTF? I was excited because many of the critics were calling this one of the best RPGs ever?! I'm just confused. It's like watching an anime, instead of playing a game, with a TON of very structured and scripted dialogue and VERY little choice. Maybe this is just a cultural thing and you have to be Japanese or into Pokemon or some crap? I genuinely do not understand the hype. Definitely not for anyone much older than 6 or 7 years, and you will NOT enjoy if you're a fan of the best RPGs ever made such as Skyrim or the Witcher. Really not even sure why it is classified as an RPG.… Expand
  89. mmdcasdca
    Jun 9, 2021
    1
    There are two types of games in Japan. 1 minute conversation and 59 minutes fighting (like dark souls). And 59 minutes conversation and 1 minute fighting is this Persona.

    If you like a lot of conversation, this is game for you. But it is not for me. Too many irrelevant talks in the game just repeats many times.
  90. Phuz
    Jun 7, 2021
    1
    This game has had a lot of love put in to it by some very boring people.

    The story and dialogue. It's just slow and bad. Nothing exciting, nothing leaving me wanting to know what happens next. Just wanting to know when something will actually happen. So I'll break it down. I love anime style graphics. It is my preference in games but they must have tried really hard to make it this    This game has had a lot of love put in to it by some very boring people.

    The story and dialogue. It's just slow and bad. Nothing exciting, nothing leaving me wanting to know what happens next. Just wanting to know when something will actually happen.

    So I'll break it down. I love anime style graphics. It is my preference in games but they must have tried really hard to make it this ugly.

    Next the OST. Well if you happen to be a fan of the genre 70's porn music then this will be right up your alley. Don't think this means 70's funk because it isn't, I love 70's funk. This is just crap porno music.

    The story. He's such a bad guy, watch out for that guy, let's stay clear of him, why did he have to come to this school, I heard he got arrested, ......bored yet. Well if not then great because you'll get hours of rubbish dialogue saying just that.

    Gameplay - same as everything else, bland dated and boring. I don't play many menu combat games often but all other similar recent games I played such as Ara Fell and Dragon Star Varnir were more enjoyable.

    The dungeons as with the entire game feel completely dated.

    So why 1/10 and not 0/10. Somehow the combination of junk all seems to tie in well together. Games must feel cohesive for me to enjoy them and I can't deny it that. It feels like a team working together made this, not just individual parts winged together. The dialogue in this makes the SAO games look exciting to read. At least with SAO the game was fun between the dialogue.

    Overall this game sucks balls.    … Expand
  91. nieXas
    Dec 21, 2018
    1
    Maybe I am too old for this kind of game, but it seems lame and over stuffed with unnecessary things like text and effects. Its like you pimp your old old ride and expect everyone to believe it is a great car that can compete with latest models or MB. I cannot believe this is so high rated game.
  92. oiuytre
    Jun 3, 2020
    1
    I've never felt so betrayed by Metacritic - this game is terrible. The story is so boring, the chapters are so tedious and so low stakes, the characters flat, the dialogue is lame, the soundtrack is abysmal - the same fight song plays every time! This would have been a good game if it was 15 years ago, but we've evolved since then. I really don't get how people like this game. It was theI've never felt so betrayed by Metacritic - this game is terrible. The story is so boring, the chapters are so tedious and so low stakes, the characters flat, the dialogue is lame, the soundtrack is abysmal - the same fight song plays every time! This would have been a good game if it was 15 years ago, but we've evolved since then. I really don't get how people like this game. It was the biggest waste of money in the history of me owning a PS4. I honestly committed to beating the first few castles expecting it to get good, but it never did. I've had more fun doing yard work.… Expand
  93. Maxiflux
    Nov 7, 2019
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. In 6 years or maybe 8 years time, people will look back at this game and think to themselves "why did I play this garbage?"

    This overrated JRPG sells itself with its aesthetics and music. Sure its colorful, eye-grabbing, and pretty looking, but much under the surface there is deep ugliness.

    The gameplay is nothing special, after many hours, it gets repetitive and un-challenging. The music is the one carrying the experience. I dare players to play this game for 2 hours without music. You'd be surprised how P5's music shaped your experience. While doing so, pay attention to the bad script and writing.

    P5's story is bad, the worst I've seen. Walking anime-stereotypes, moronic villains, try-hard funny scenes, and very cringe worthy dialogue.

    The narrative is packed with hypocrisy and obnoxiousness. You'd think this game would help outcasted members in society and help the vulnerable, but in fact it does the opposite.

    1. Excusing Child Pornography

    The Phantom Thieves excuses a case in Futaba's confidant, her friend Kana. This game tries to tackle mature themes but does an awful job. How can a game like this be praised, when it excused child pornography. The PTs telling the offenders to just "be better people". Wow, true justice delivered.

    Apparently, child sex-exploitation is a "light" issue to be taken account of.

    2. Homophobia

    Demonising male homosexuals and mock them. The LGBT community in Japan is suffering, and this game encourages it. As of recent news, P5 Royal still contain these scenes. Atlus had three years to remove these scenes for their remake, yet they didn't.

    This goes to show, the developers hold certain views against this marginalized community.

    3. Anne's Sexualization and Humiliation

    Did one horny developer wanted to jack off to Anne's humiliation so badly? The game plays it off that she's this "strong empowered woman, who owns her body", but it really isn't.

    She's forced into uncomfortable situations: A. Pressured into stripping for a stranger B. She and her friends got pressured into wearing swimsuits under the request of her friend Ryuji (ironic) C. None of her friends defended her when she was getting groped, they all stood and watched.

    And oh yes, P5R introduced bunny-suit Shiho, a victim of rape, another controversial addition. Double-down with cheap shock factor and titillation.

    4. Lack of Consequence

    PTs are not heroes, they are a gang of teenage vigilantes. The game urges you to support the "good guys" and shouts that in "what they are doing, is not wrong". However, as the plot-holes pile up and the hypocrisy builds, the PTs notion of justice is in fact, deluded.

    How can one support a group that forces individuals to change. The PTs strip away people's identities and their free-wills. No matter how evil a person can be, should this be considered acceptable? No one calls them out on it, apart from Akechi, but even his reasoning is stupid.

    The game also paints that every person holds this "secret guilt" of their evil actions. Do you really think a man like Kamoshida, actually feels guilty of abusing his students? The game showed he took delight of his power, made him an unlikable bastard. IRL, there are people who exist, who holds no regrets of their bad actions, isn't Kamoshida one of those people? Persona 5, tries so hard to make villains sympathetic, shove it in our faces that "everyone has a conscious", but fails to do so. The justifications of many of the evil targets are also downright stupid.

    Clearly no heart was put into the plot, all of that budget went straight into music, visuals, and waifus.

    What is Persona 5 actually teaching? To excuse inhumane actions, encourage stigmatization of a discriminated group, sexualizing victims of sex-abuse, believe that "all adults are evil" and their core message..."Fix up society, by changing hearts" with force.

    Video Game journalists should be ashamed of themselves for overlooking these flaws. The morals conveyed in Persona 5 are problematic, hypocritical and shallow.    … Expand
  94. Izzytehpwnr
    Jan 22, 2018
    0
    over-stylized,overrated,over-hyped,overly-unoriginal, did nothing to expand from the previous 2 entries, and most of all, an overly disappointment.

    the fanbase certainly did not help.
  95. tracem
    Dec 2, 2019
    0
    READ THIS BEFORE PLAYING. Understand what a calling card is before you play because it completely ruined my experience. I lost 10 hours on my first palace because the game never explains what a calling card is until you are nearly finished. You need to use a calling card for every palace which will take an extra day before your deadline. THIS IS NEVER STATED ANYTIME BEFORE. What the hell.READ THIS BEFORE PLAYING. Understand what a calling card is before you play because it completely ruined my experience. I lost 10 hours on my first palace because the game never explains what a calling card is until you are nearly finished. You need to use a calling card for every palace which will take an extra day before your deadline. THIS IS NEVER STATED ANYTIME BEFORE. What the hell. I grinded the palace my last week and the game makes me completely revert my whole playthrough because of a mechanic they never explained. Terrible game design and glaring flaw in this system. Explain the damn calling card beforehand Atlus. So disappointing.… Expand
  96. leonsnow
    May 4, 2017
    0
    Turn rpg is boring and outdated ...it would be better if it was action rpg
    game made for Japanese audience , it is really creepy and has a lot of sexual content
  97. Treassach
    Apr 22, 2017
    0
    This game is the most absolute piece of **** ever produces. The combat system is terrible, while the story is passably ok, the combat system just makes the game feel drawn out and boring.
  98. special_effect
    Jun 29, 2018
    0
    What a piece of garbage game...the graphics belongs to PSP, the story telling choices available have ZERO effects on the game's trail and MOST IMPORTANTLY, the game is bloated with 40 to 50% of game padding such as unnecessary text, totally useless animated transition between scenes and whatever is possible to make 50 hours of already repetitive game play to artificially become 100 hours.What a piece of garbage game...the graphics belongs to PSP, the story telling choices available have ZERO effects on the game's trail and MOST IMPORTANTLY, the game is bloated with 40 to 50% of game padding such as unnecessary text, totally useless animated transition between scenes and whatever is possible to make 50 hours of already repetitive game play to artificially become 100 hours. If Persona 5 had 3 castles + the Finale it could have been a great game and experience, but the over exaggerated length break it all. DON'T BUY THIS UNLESS IF YOU ARE A PERSONA FAN.… Expand
  99. Diosuke
    May 22, 2018
    0
    no se lanzo para pc y nisiquiera esta en español, que falta de confianza para la comunidad, no digo que lo probe pero no quieren sacarlo para pc ni en español
  100. mmchen
    Jun 12, 2018
    0
    Persona 5 is a JRPG (Japanese Role-Playing Game) that is part of a bigger franchise called the Megami Tensei. Just like it’s earlier instalments, Persona 5 also focuses on the high school life of Japanese teenagers. This brings the players into the culture of the Japanese high school life. The factors that set Persona 5 apart from other JRPGs is its unique gameplay, and game design.Persona 5 is a JRPG (Japanese Role-Playing Game) that is part of a bigger franchise called the Megami Tensei. Just like it’s earlier instalments, Persona 5 also focuses on the high school life of Japanese teenagers. This brings the players into the culture of the Japanese high school life. The factors that set Persona 5 apart from other JRPGs is its unique gameplay, and game design. Throughout the game, players will never get bored because of the beautiful view of Tokyo players are able to explore. The boss fights are another factor. Each boss has a unique fighting style, and it is up to the players to organize their character roster and defeat the boss. In this paper I will analyze what makes Persona 5 such a great game to play.
    Personally, the aesthetics of a game is what I look first. The Persona series in general has always had its high standard of aesthetics. Persona 5 in particular has astounding art design and music components. Through the access of the top-notch processing power of the PlayStation 4 console, the Persona 5 team was able to add in more details to the game compared to the PlayStation 2 Persona 4 game. As the player explores Tokyo, players will realize the small details set in by the producers. For example, when you explore the in-game Tokyo, you will realize that the train station is exactly the same as the one in Tokyo. When you compare each train station, it is as if you are touring Tokyo in real life.
    The details Persona 5 provides even brings players into the culture of Japan as well. Throughout the game, players experience many different festivals in Japanese culture. Personally, I really enjoyed the school festival they had in school. It really brings out something different compared to other JRPG games. I believe that people are drawn to this aspect of the game since it brings out the Japanese culture that people are interested in. Playing as a high school student also brings in the high school culture as a Japanese high school student. It makes some events relatable. I believe that this is one of the reasons that the Persona series is so successful. When playing the game, players are easily intrigued by the fine details of the high school life. It is easy for someone to say “Oh! This reminds me of when I was in high school” or “Hey! I am experiencing something similar in the game!” These relatable experience in school makes the game standout compared to all the other JRPGs on the market.
    Persona 5 is different from other JRPGs not just because of the relatable experiences, but also the unique narrative gameplay it provides. In the beginning of the game, our protagonist is tied up in jail. This immediately captures the players interests as what is going on in the game. Similar to the movie “Memento”, players are constantly intrigued as to what caused the protagonist to be locked up in jail. After every chapter of the game, players reveal more and more information of why our protagonist is in jail. The transitions between the end of a boss fight and the interrogation scene in jail is extremely well done. The manga feel page flips, the animation, and the music just goes well together to set the tone of an ending to another beginning.
    In the end, Persona 5 is definitely a game that I will be revisiting very soon. Personally, I have already played over 100 hours on the game and counting. Persona 5 is a game that is meant to be revisited over and over. Players may have finished the story of the game, but there is always something more to test and challenge your abilities as a player. For example, in the depths of Mementos, there is a hard boss known as the reaper. He is one of the hardest bosses to play against. Players need to have their characters at a high level, and also needs to coordinate between each character to attack and defend at the right timing in order to beat him. There are also other side quests players could complete. All in all, Persona 5 is a great game that I would recommend to anyone who is interested in the JRPG genre.    … 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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