| spemanig said: I've been thinking about this, but while SMT is clearly the "darker" series, it's not really accurate to say it focuses on "darker" elements. What's most accurate is to say that SMT, as a franchise, focuses on philosophy and mythology while Persona focuses exclusively on psychology. Even the high school thing I think is overstated. The reason mainline SMT protagonists are never in high school is because they're all in the middle or the aftermath of an apocalypse and literally can't go to school, but they're all of high school age aside from the SJ protagonist. That's what Persona is there for. "IF" that apocalypes didn't occur, what would happen in it's place? Also, Persona is very clearly a dating sim now. I know people don't like when people point that out, but mechanically that's what it encourages and is where the time management and "personal" skill mechanics come from. They come from dating sims. To call the series the most intelligent and mechanically nuanced dating sim in existance would be to sell it incredibly short, and the genre would have such a bad rep if most of them were like Persona. |
I completely disagree witht the last paragraph because it's very different in P5. It's more of High School sim in Japan than a Dating Sim TBH. You can go to work, Study, Exams, Eat Food, Fishing, Baseball and read books, You can even be a barista and do laundry, play video games, work on your tool, Claw machine.
Even though dating sim is one of the important aspect of P5 but It's like 1/4 of the things you can do in P5 it is not forced unlike the previous Persona. I mean you can practically skip it and you can still get a powerful Persona in P5. Strengthening, Training, Itemize?
Mild spoiler ahead Conversation with Fool confidant and some the Confidant are even story related and can you even consider that as a date? The request of the twin wardens is like a side quest in order for you to Strenghten your persona. Velvet room for P5 is one of the greatest improvment for Persona series.
You can also just train or do request or hunt materials for tools everyday in mementos or train in the palace, do the laundry for armor, create tools or Physical training to raise your HP everyday. If you want to do something different go Fishing and Play baseball or work for extra income. Going to date/hangout or not with the confidants is very much your choice because it will make going to Palace much easier but you can just focus on the main hero and building his stats and making a strong persona with the right skillset and you can still beat it with ease.
