Man, I wish I could have had the sort of experience everyone else did with the game. For the record, I am all aboard both the SMT and Persona Train. I own every mainline game released stateside, and most of the spin-offs. I even got the Take Your Heart Edition. I have also beaten the game, so there's no notion of 'don't worry, it'll get better later!'. 

I WANTED to love this game. It started out great and I was blown away by how slick everything down to the menu and transitions were. But after awhile, it started feeling like more style than substance

But man, that writing and plot. It felt so... juvenile. I know the characters are teens, but that's not what I'm referring to. I'm referring to how the game just feels like an edgy, teen power fantasy where those ROTTEN ADULTS are so evil and only WE can do anything about them. It was cringeworthy. The game tried to tackle some pretty mature issues, but did so in a shallow, immature way with a stark black and white mentality. Every 'rotten adult' felt more like an evil caricature than a fleshed out human.

Akechi felt like a weak attempt to capture some of what made Adachi compelling and interesting, but without any of the subtly and nuance. I'm genuinely unsure if his reveal as a villian was supposed to be surprising. And the final boss was probably one of the weakest I've experienced in the series. It was like a thematic and gameplay mix of Nyx, Izanami, and Hari Hara (from Digital Devil Saga) but less impactful then all three.

Also that heinous space station dungeon. It left a bitter taste in my mouth. I almost need to take time off from the game. It was bland, long, and wow the big bossman treats his workers like ROBOTS how evil and novel.

I will say, though, it probably has the best social links/confidants of any Persona games. Expect THAT one. You know the one.

Man. Maybe I'm just getting too old to fully appreciate the series.

@brii
Well, you know that slickness and aethestic is the definition of style. Not sure how substance could be there.

That said, social links are really the meat/point of a Persona game. So, if you liked those, then I also don't understand a substance complaint.

What I meant is that I felt the game chose to prioritize that style over the substance like story and character overall. Also, visuals, atmosphere and aesthetics can certainly have substance to them beyond being slick, cool and visually appealing. Visual storytelling is something I really appreciate. But I felt there was very little subtlty in that respect to the game. Any time something was visually meaningful, the game would directly tell me what it meant rather than letting the visuals speak for themselves. (I.E., constantly telling me EXACTLY what each palace and the denizens there were meant to represent when, frankly, it was already really obvious.)

Also, the social links are more like nice little side stories for flavor, in my personal opinion. To me, the main story should have been the meat of the game, and it left me extremely disappointed. It felt hackeneyed and and unfocused, and seemed to think it was more insightful and revolutionary in it's ideas than it was. The story scenes felt over long and constantly railroading me into plot sequences when I really just wanted to up my stats and hang out with the social links. It's hard for me to see the social links as the bulk of the game when I felt like it was constantly trying to pull me away from them to dump plot on me. For the ~120 hours I put into the game, I can't imagine the social links contributing to more than 10.

Interesting. I'm only 12 or hours into it, but I already felt like I've spent a good chunk of time just hanging with different people.

We'll see how it goes as I get farther in. To me, the point of Persona is all about the social links, which is large reason why I struggle to play through SMTIV. Story and characters aren't very good.

I enjoy the social links, and they feel like a nice little treat during the game's downtime. There were moments in the game where I couldn't continue links so I ignored everything else and would do things like stuff my face with massive burgers to max out courage. I made the MC eat way too many of those burgers, man.

The standard SMT games are a more acquired taste, especially the ones before IV. It's less about the characters and more the themes they represent. A lot of the lore isn't directly exposited to you and there's a much more opressive atmosphere. SMT: Strange Journey is one of my favorite games, despite being pretty outdated in graphics and gameplay. Overall, I didn't hate P5 or think it was a bad game by any means. My initial impression was super positive and full of hype. But I think I just had my expectations set to high in the wrong direction, when I'm not sure that's what the game was aiming for. 

As a side note, I also miss the really oldschool Persona games at times. There was more of a twisted element to them behind all the school kid shennanigans and the first two Personas and Shin Megami Tensei If... (basically proto Persona) have some pretty cool Eldritch body horror final bosses.

the result is cool :) every Gamer, play this legendary masterpiece ; ) the best atlus-game ever.

Teddie from Persona 4 is so annoying too...

Nah Teddie was awesome.

Let's talk about person 5 :) the poll-result < 3

1. What are your favorite characters?

2. Who is the funniest character for you?

3. Which world did you particularly like?

4. What story stuff have fascinated you?

This incredible game makes so many players happy now, also the sales figures are awesome. The best atlus-game ever! sales figures.. End of 2017, maybe more than 2,1 million units worldwide? What do you think?

This game is amazing! I purchased it because I caught a glimpse a while back of it being streamed during the Japan release period. It got myself genuinely curious about the game. I was nervous about buying it, as I'm not a fan of turn based games such as really disliking my play through of Ubisofts Child of Light game.

Persona 5 opened my eyes to how wonderful, fun, and in depth with an engaging story it all can be. Loved it, 10/10