"Let us start the game"
(first part is being written on the 20th of june after finishing the main game)
Persona 5 is a game i never tought that i would've liked this much, i had heard of the game for the first time a few years ago since a youtuber i used to watch started a walktrough of it, but i didnt really think much about it, after that over the years i kept hearing about the game in different ways from the memes to its justified fame and praise that it got, but even then i still waited, it was only after playing persona 3 fes in february/march that i decided to finally play p5r, and i decided to jump right into it and skipping persona 4 since i had already gave it a shot even before p3fes but i didnt really like it even though i might get back to it someday since i wanna complete all the persona games.
after finally playing it persona 5 is officially one of my favorite games of all time and i would lie if i said that i expected to like it this much when i started it, but in the end, after seeing the ending today after roughly 102 hrs and almost crying i realized how much i actually liked the game and in my opionion is one of the best games that anyone can experience in their life, and the reason why i say this is dictated by a few reasons, from the gameplay loop, the amazing style of the game, its themes, charachters, story and also all the improvements over persona 3 are the reason why i think that this game is (almost) perfect.
First of all i wanted to talk about the most important part in a videogame, the gameplay, and it was nothing short from amazing, the day to day activities and the gameplay loop were super fun to do and never got boring while playing, i loved how the city was recreated and how many things there where to do in it, from all the shops to the minigames or simply the places where you could hang out with the others. My favorite locations in game being Shibuya and Kichijoji which where both amazing in my opinion, i love also how most of these places where discovered, from being invited by your social links to simply reading books for tourists, making discovering this places feel natural.
Than there was the other part of the game which was the gameplay as a phantom thief which was engaging from the first palace to the last and the battle sistem was crazy good and even though it was nothing special in itself all the effects added to the attacks to all the showtimes never let the game get boring(the best showtime was the one between riuji and yusuke), also the fact that in the palaces joker could use his grappling hook and could also climb up and down made the palaces a lot less linear. The guns where so cool to use and i loved how each member used a different type of weapon, in general being a phantom thief and going through palaces to steal the hearts from the most evil mans every month was one of the coolest things i've ever done while playing a videogame.
the palaces where all amazing in their own way even though i feel some are better than others, and if i had to rank them i would say that my favorite palace was for sure Madarames palace the OST was crazy good and in my opinion the best among all the palaces, and i loved the theme of the museum and how it reflected the villain himself, also how they stole the treasure in this palace was the coolest in all of them, then futabas palace which was also amazing from the ost to the puzzle and how it represented futabas trauma, and then kamoshidas palace since i feel like his whole arc and palace was a perfect introduction to the game and its core mechanichs and themes, all the other palaces where kinda on the same level(which is very good) but i dont really want to talk abouty them all since it would take too long, but i wanted to say that i also liked okumuras palace which is considered by many the worst one but in my opinion it was also very fun to go through.
Also the mementos where very good, i loved all the little interactions between the characters and they were very fast to go through thanks to Morgana becoming a car, how the song changed with the block you were in and also they reminded me a lot of the tartarus of persona 3 that i had liked so they were one of the best parts for me.
then i wanted to talk about the ost which is easily one of the best parts of the game, its perfect, it matches every situation to perfection and also it enchances to the max the immersion in the game and its easy to say that going around tokyo, its numerous locals and the many palaces wouldn't have hit the same without the accompaniment of the ost, which is also better than the one in p3fes which was already perfect, my favorite songs were Alleycat, Life Will Change and Rivers In the Desert.
Then there is the story and the social links which were obviously very important to the game in general, i really liked the story and the ending plot-twist was amazing, the charachters felt all realistic in their own way and the cast in p5 was perfectly crafted and i loved how every character fought for the own beliefs that were at the same time the elements that made them so tied to eachother since everyone had gone through similar experiences, also i really liked morgana and i dont really understand why people hate him so much.
The game obviously has its own flaws like the sometimes repetitive dialogues, the fact that the game is too easy and its lenght, but even though this flaws i think that the good outweights the bad in this case, i also liked how you dont need to romance any female social link if you dont want to since it was needed in persona 3 fes to reach rank 10.
Also one thing that i still dont understand is why they didnt keep the original opening since it was far better that the one in royal, also the main menu was cooler imo.
This was easily one of the best experiences i have ever had with a videogame and i can't reccomend it enough, it will be difficult from now on to find a game that matches this game immersion and its amazing ost and cast of characters, i'm very happy since i also got the platinum and i was also very happy when i got all my charachters to level 99 until i found out that the levels, even for joker, get reset in the ng+.....
SPOILERS
Then there's the 3rd semester (written on june 22).
After 115hrs i finished persona 5 royal this last part of the game was very interesting to me, it felt kinda strange at first since the vibe shifted a lot from the main game with the change of the music and the fact that it was winter, but i really liked how the new reality created by maruki was introduced and how in the first week you need to make you teammates remember the true reality, the new palace was also amazing i loved how it looked, its OST and how it reflected maruki's ideals and how it was supposed to be the lab that he would've created if they didint cut his founds, and it has also become my favorite after Madarame's and if i had to be honest if i hadn't got spoiled about maruki being the new villain i never would have guessed it, since he isnt even really a villain anyway.
Even though the choice was harder this time since the new reality made everyone happy, it was clear that stealing maruki's heart was the only right option, and i loved how they used this chance to reintroduce akechi, because he is one of my favorite chachters in the game and i really wanted to play as him in his black mask form.
also joker saying checkmate when shooting maruki's persona with "I Belive" in the background in the final fight was amazing.
In the end i can say that royal was a good addition but if i have to be honest, while the ending was still very good and emotional since it made me cry a bit, after watching the ending of the original game i think that it was better, idk it just felt more accurate but they were still without a doubt very good.
there might be a lot of grammar errors since english is not my first language and i will check it again and correct it if needed.
