releases 4.4.17

reviews are very positive:

http://opencritic.com/game/1537/persona-5

http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/persona-5/critic-reviews

i pre-ordered from amazon the instant i was able to (don't pre-order games?...) because i had faith in p studio and atlus to deliver a quality product. i can't wait to dive head first into this game. everything is going on the back burner. fuck 100%ing bloodborne, hitman, and forza horizon (for now) and i'm waiting on a patch for the PC version of nier: automata

also japan is back, at least momentarily. nioh, nier: automata, zelda: botw, and persona 5 are all going to be in GOTY discussions come december. of course this is just a part of an insane 1Q 2017. it's a great time to love video games

thankfully Mass Effect got crappy reviews so imma let it depreciate in gamer value on my self and work on Persona period (with some side jaunts into Dark Souls expansion world)

>releases 4.4.17
>
>reviews are very positive:
>
>http://opencritic.com/game/1537/persona-5
>
>http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/persona-5/critic-reviews
>
>i pre-ordered from amazon the instant i was able to (don't
>pre-order games?...) because i had faith in p studio and atlus
>to deliver a quality product. i can't wait to dive head first
>into this game. everything is going on the back burner. fuck
>100%ing bloodborne, hitman, and forza horizon (for now) and
>i'm waiting on a patch for the PC version of nier: automata
>
>also japan is back, at least momentarily. nioh, nier:
>automata, zelda: botw, and persona 5 are all going to be in
>GOTY discussions come december. of course this is just a part
>of an insane 1Q 2017. it's a great time to love video games

This had my attention and those reviews sealed the deal.

I've never played any Persona games before but I'm missing some good jrpg turn based games. Anything I should know before jumping into this?

Is it open world or just semi open and more focused like the older jrpgs? Getting a bit tired of open world.

the hub area was a small mountain town, a school, and a mall. not contiguous. ps1/2 era JRPG fixed camera screens separated by loads. i imagine 5 is similar. maybe modernized a little

I never beat 3 FES/Portable but put a ton of hours into it and enjoyed it a lot.

I gotta at least finish Zelda and Horizon first tho so it might be a while.

Gonna have to juggle between this and Zelda, too many great games this year.

been avoiding all trailers and gameplay footage

p4 golden was my shit!

there are a few packs of items to make the early game easier and a japanese audio track. all free on PSN

kotaku posted a nice and helpful article for first-timers. a lot of this stuff is old hat for persona vets but it did refresh my memory on the importance of sp management, establishing bonds quickly, and pushing yourself as far as you can in dungeons. i forgot how much these games encourage you to be as efficient as possible with your actions

http://kotaku.com/tips-for-playing-persona-5-1793997638

Was going to start this but ME:A gave me more holy shit moments so I'm really trying to finish it first before I dive into another massive game.

Read that guide too so it was very helpful. I scanned over it and took note of some helpful things. I'll scan over it a bit more once I start since I kinda want to experience some things on my own. Watched 10 minutes of a stream just to get an idea and it's killing me because I want to play this so bad it looks so damn good.

i'm about 3 hours in and i just unlocked the first shop. it may help to remember that persona is an anime jrpg so there will be this weird combination anime and jrpg hump to get over. once you're over it you're good

The pacing is so fucked — there's TWO goddamn tutorial sections for basic combat separated by almost an hour of cutscenes! Did they forget about the first one?

I also hate that you have frequent dialogue selections, except most are never acknowledged by the other party, so there was no point in giving the player an option.

it seems like it took hours before you even made it to the first dungeon in p4. at least in p5 they get you into gameplay almost immediately

>The pacing is so fucked — there's TWO goddamn tutorial
>sections for basic combat separated by almost an hour of
>cutscenes! Did they forget about the first one?

yeah it's not great. it was fine for me but i think i was expecting a slower start. i'm just happy i can actually use my afternoons as i wish now. can't wait to get into that dungeon and start sweet/trash talking personas!

>I also hate that you have frequent dialogue selections, except
>most are never acknowledged by the other party, so there was
>no point in giving the player an option.

i think they're mostly acknowledged. whenever you insult ryuji he reacts to it. p4 was like this, wasn't it? multiple dialogue options that led to the same outcome but with different text

>i think they're mostly acknowledged. whenever you insult
>ryuji he reacts to it. p4 was like this, wasn't it? multiple
>dialogue options that led to the same outcome but with
>different text
>

Yeah p4 had a lot of ones where the outcome was the same. P3 seemed like a lot more of your response choices really mattered.

Figured it would take its time but then hook you.

I'm an Anime head and love my JRPG's so I'm good.

:-)

I guess it must be selling pretty well.

$47.99 + release day delivery. i've seen people getting it the day before because they were close to a distribution center

Got the price but for whatever reason I didn't get the release day delivery.

Maybe I pre-ordered it too close to release day and they'd ran out of their initial allotment?

I put the order in on Sunday after seeing it on CAG.

All my other Amazon Prime pre-orders have arrived on time so far (BoTW, Horizon).

>$47.99 + release day delivery. i've seen people getting it
>the day before because they were close to a distribution
>center

it's definitely a persona game. i got screwed over a little because the tutorial forced me to fuse the protagonist's default persona and i didn't have the yen to summon it from the registry until after the subsequent dungeon run. the only personas i had acquired previous to that tutorial section would fuse into personas out of my level range. i think i just got very unlucky there. probably should have loaded an earlier save. maybe could have registered the persona before i was forced to fuse it but i don't remember that being an option. the result is that the protagonist's default persona is severely under-leveled (~5, while all characters are at ~10) and it's taking a lot of time and effort to get it to where it should be. this whole ordeal is kind of frustrating

i'm loving the quality of life improvements they've implemented. they've surfaced where your team is for s-linking purposes and when you're going to finish a book so no more guesswork there. travelling to nearly any location on the hub map (including stores) from any location on the hub map is super helpful. the wrinkles they've introduced into the combat seem to add a lot to it. it's easier to grind for yen since you can extort personas for money. negotiating to obtain personas was a little annoying at first but once i got the tutorial about persona personality types it became a lot easier

i spent about 5 minutes in the menus just looking at the transition animations... not sure i can say anything about the art design of this game that hasn't been repeated ad nauseam. it's an amazing looking game. it's great seeing these personas rendered in a much higher quality. they look very similar to the the cards/stats screen art in P4, which is really cool

story is good so far. very dark right off the bat. i'm seeing a few analogs to P4 characters but i'm sure that will change over time as the characters develop more. i'm think i'm love with the doctor

i'm really enjoying my time with this game. already in that persona mindset of trying to remember which shops have specials on certain days and how to maximize my in-game free time. i'm very much looking forward to the development of the story, characters, and combat

...and I still fucking hate that you get a game over if the main character dies. Getting wiped by Mudo or an unexpected counterattack — fuck that. I think that's probably why I preferred Digital Devil Saga over the other games in the series.

And I'm still not feeling how restricted this early game is, with the cat arbitrarily deciding that you can't do nighttime activities. I gotta work on my Guts, yo!

>...and I still fucking hate that you get a game over if the
>main character dies. Getting wiped by Mudo or an unexpected
>counterattack — fuck that. I think that's probably why I
>preferred Digital Devil Saga over the other games in the
>series.

it's not ideal but i think it's a fair trade since the protagonist is so strong due to being able to use any persona at any given point. it just means you have to be aware of insta-death situations and funnel most of your yen into getting the best protective gear for him. i imagine that once you get an anti-hama/mudo piece of gear or persona you're mostly set. plus the game is so generous with save points and restarts on boss and mid-boss fights that you're rarely losing significant progress if it happens. it's still frustrating though

>And I'm still not feeling how restricted this early game is,
>with the cat arbitrarily deciding that you can't do nighttime
>activities.

even after completing the first dungeon morgana still dictates your schedule occasionally but it's only in service of advancing the story. 90% of the time you can do what you want

>I gotta work on my Guts, yo!

that's the first attribute i leveled. i'm just trying to spend more time with hot punk shady doctor so i can get some sp regen items. "dauntless" guts (idk which level that is) is teased as unlocking a special weapon early on so i'm shooting for that as well

https://soundcloud.com/wyte-song/battle-result?in=wyte-song/sets/persona-5-ost-rip-1

the story is good. reminiscent of 4 and i think 3 (i don't remember 3 that well). some of the characters in 5 felt similar to those in 4 but over the course of the past 30 or so hours they have been differentiated. i'm enjoying getting to know everyone. still in love with takemi (confidant rank 7) but i can't pursue romance options until i get an attribute up (charm?)

get those confidant ranks up ASAP. i forgot how powerful you can be when you have good fusion options. i walked over the last story boss because i spent a good amount of time grinding s-links and fusing. ended up with a persona that nulled physical damage while i was around level 25

mementos dungeons seem to be the best way to get good gear early on. gear found in those dungeons would show up hours later in iwai's shop. i think memento dungeons are also how you get more 3-way fusions. they're kind of a pain because the layouts are randomized and the enemies tend to not be a good indicator of how strong the boss is (previous memento boss almost brainwashed me into a game over). i imagine memento dungeons are a gold mine in the mid to late game if your fusing abilities are strong

the wrinkles they've added to the combat and fusing are intriguing. i'm still getting the hang of comboing when status effects proc but i think it's really cool idea. hopefully using those combos is vital to late game encounters. i also like the expanded fusing options. won't reveal too much as i know there are a few people just getting started but you are given a lot of extra things to do with personas. these abilities are revealed at a nice pace as well, keeping your time in the velvet room interesting

i wish this game was a ps4 exclusive instead of a sony exclusive. the limitations imposed by making this game able to run on ps3 are starting to show. once you get past the flashy presentation and fantastic art design you start to see the less polished parts: bad/no anti-aliasing, poor textures, SD-conscious text and overlay. it's a great looking game but my heart aches at how much better it would look if the ps3 hardware was not a consideration

The biggest detriment is how frequently the game prevents you from choosing how to spend your time, coupled with the severe penalty of making it so any pursuit of combat takes up the entire day. As such, it puts stress on doing as much a given dungeon as you can in a single day, except you constantly come up against random reasons to go back home.

And this is especially frustrating because I really enjoy the combat, development of your personas, and most of the "social" content. Though I fucking hate that Social Stats are still hidden.

>i wish this game was a ps4 exclusive instead of a sony
>exclusive. the limitations imposed by making this game able
>to run on ps3 are starting to show. once you get past the
>flashy presentation and fantastic art design you start to see
>the less polished parts: bad/no anti-aliasing, poor textures,
>SD-conscious text and overlay. it's a great looking game but
>my heart aches at how much better it would look if the ps3
>hardware was not a consideration

It's not that "the PS3 was a consideration", it's that this is a PS3 game that got delayed for actual years so that they could re-draw assets for the PS4.

>The biggest detriment is how frequently the game prevents you
>from choosing how to spend your time, coupled with the severe
>penalty of making it so any pursuit of combat takes up the
>entire day. As such, it puts stress on doing as much a given
>dungeon as you can in a single day, except you constantly come
>up against random reasons to go back home.

constantly? i remember a few times in the first 3 dungeons, and they were story related. are you experiencing a little min/maxing anxiety? i had that for a little while but decided to let it go because of how often my free time was being taken away very early on in the heavy tutorial sections. i'm not too concerned about missing an afternoon or evening because i feel like i still have a lot of free time to do what i want

>And this is especially frustrating because I really enjoy the
>combat, development of your personas, and most of the "social"
>content. Though I fucking hate that Social Stats are still
>hidden.

why won't you go to level 4, guts? i keep spending all my time grinding you. what do you want from me?!

>It's not that "the PS3 was a consideration", it's that this is
>a PS3 game that got delayed for actual years so that they
>could re-draw assets for the PS4.

that's right! i totally forgot this game was stuck in development hell because they decided to also make it a ps4 game. very unfortunate. why didn't they up-rez the textures if they delayed it for so long?

But right around August/Dungeon 4 is when things have taken a turn for the worse; summer vacation is when the game seems like it's opening up and letting you take control of your days, but after that you get locked into like two weeks of cutscenes and now I want to strangle the damn cat every time it tells me to go to bed.

It's not so much about min/maxing as much as it's "I just watched 10 minutes of talking, please give me some agency in this game", and instead it's "hey, buddy, you just had a long day of pondering deep thoughts, you should definitely sleep".

>But right around August/Dungeon 4 is when things have taken a
>turn for the worse; summer vacation is when the game seems
>like it's opening up and letting you take control of your
>days, but after that you get locked into like two weeks of
>cutscenes and now I want to strangle the damn cat every time
>it tells me to go to bed.
>
>It's not so much about min/maxing as much as it's "I just
>watched 10 minutes of talking, please give me some agency in
>this game", and instead it's "hey, buddy, you just had a long
>day of pondering deep thoughts, you should definitely sleep".

this is my least favorite part of the game. as a person who routinely skips all cutscenes as quickly as possible in nearly every game, it's frustrating when being forced to thumb through 10 minutes of text when i just want to try the burger challenge. lucikly the writing in p5 is pretty good

>But right around August/Dungeon 4 is when things have taken a
>turn for the worse; summer vacation is when the game seems
>like it's opening up and letting you take control of your
>days, but after that you get locked into like two weeks of
>cutscenes and now I want to strangle the damn cat every time
>it tells me to go to bed.

fucking hal 9000-ass cat. i just got to this point. very frustrating. i get the day being used but why couldn't i do something at night? even making tools or watching a dvd would be fine. i'm past it now but jesus why did that have to take so many days?

I wish this jawn was on Switch. I guess because I put the majority of my time on Persona 3 in with the PSP version so I think of it as a portable game series.

P3 on PSP was my first persona too. And something about carrying it around, playing while riding to work or hanging with friend I miss being able to do with this one. Plus all my friends was playing P3 at the time and we would compare where our story lines had diverted.

About to finish the 5th palace, and it's been a blast figuring out the puzzles and learning the system on my own. I haven't really been using guides, but the whole fusion system still feels really overwhelming, so I have been using the calculator for at least that.

It's sometimes hard to plan out your activities because of the story getting in the way (e.g., some things that occur in the morning that don't leave you the chance to do things you planned like seeing confidants), so sometimes I wish the game would let you know when things like that would happen, but I guess you shouldn't know exactly what's going to happen in the future.

Pretty much all the characters are likable (although I don't really like Mishima and don't care for Goro), which makes it really fun. I had to romance Kawakami, though. I've heard that you don't get an item if you go for the harem route, so I'll save that for the NG+. I imagine I'll be pretty overpowered carrying over all of those items and confidant rankings into the NG+.

Yep, gonna spend each and every Fri and Sat night calling the maid service, which hopefully will turn into "service" once I blow enough money on it...

(The doctor is also on my to-do list)

maid service! Im mad she charge so much though. LOL Im about 32 hours in just started my 3rd palace.

i found the kawakami max rank perk to be extremely useful. it essentially increases your free time by 100% on certain days. takemi's higher rank perks allow you stay in dungeons longer for the right price

here's a non-spoilery tip: towards the end of maxing confidant ranks you tend to get a lot of bonus social stats so don't spend too much time on activities like studying and taking baths. i put a lot of effort to getting my social stats up and ended up maxing everything except guts before entering the final (?) dungeon (the casino) so now i'm stuck with hanging out with people i don't want to or fishing, which i perceive to be a waste of time

also get that strength confidant rank up ASAP and grind yen in mementos when you don't have anything else to do. i have a persona that is at least 20 levels above the protagonist's level because i did both of the above

The characters are so lovable, I just want to spend more time doing random things with them. Also the Valentine's Day scenes were great, especially if you've romanced more than one girl.

(Wasn't an easy decision but I picked Kawakami over Makoto)

Guess now's a good time to start playing FFXII, or *shudder* FFXV...

trying to make it last. Not looking forward to going back to FF15 once I beat it lol.

Probably a little too much considering the hours to actual storyline progress ratio lol

which means I'll probably enjoy it when I get around to playing it, haha.