Don’t forget about Persona 3 and 4 in just a couple of months

Although it doesn’t sound like you had the best experience lol

I was actually quite enjoying the game for probably like 80-90 hours or so, but then the game just kept going and going, and so by the end I was really just desperate for it to be over. There was a long stretch where I was engaged with the story, (most of) the characters, and I wanted to try and collect all the different Personas...but yea, then it really started to drag towards the end.

It got to a point where I knew exactly where the overarching story was going, and the plot "twists" were super predictable. Plus, the characters had kinda worn out their charm for me at that point as well, cus even for some of their better moments, and growth, they still ultimately come across as fairly one note in dialogue. So because of that, you reach a certain point with them where you can really just skip all their dialogue and still known pretty much exactly what they said, and if it requires a response, you know exactly what they wanna hear (which usually boils down nonstop affirmation and praise). There's very little nuance to be found in the dialogue.

It doesn't help either that the game is very poorly paced. Because you're trying to maximize your schedule, you're always either doing a whole lot of combat and palace progression for long stretches, or a whole lot of social activities for long stretches. Perhaps the game would feel less long if these elements were more elegantly interwoven in such a way that both sides of the game continued to feel fresh for over 100 hours, but alas, this is not the case. By the end, both sides suffer. 

It's also got the whole GTAIV thing going on, where your cousin, or some other person would randomly call you and wanna go bowling or whatever. Only here, it's well over a dozen people constantly hitting up your phone non-stop to come do shit with them...and when they're not hitting you up to spend time with them, they're doing it to rehash some dialogue pertinent to story topics that were just covered like 5 minutes ago in person. In fact, the game very much makes a habit of rehashing pretty much everything at least 3 times or more, and constantly has characters acting surprised over things they should already know. I started summarily skipping all group texts in this game less than halfway in, because that's pretty much all they are.

I don't wanna sound like I'm shitting on the game too much, cus I did have a fun time with it more often than I didn't, but I also don't remember getting so frustrated with a game in a while. Nor being so elated once I'd finally finished it. Maybe the best game that I never wanna play again?

I think there's a lot of really cool ideas here, and a good framework around which to build a much better game. Less black and white writing. More character choice/agency. Tighter pacing. More gameplay relevant interaction between Metaverse and regular world. Shorter, more focused main story, and split off some palaces for larger sidequests/optional objectives that can feed into alternate endings.

Now go get yourself Persona 5 Strikers.

I don't see that they have much choice but to do 3 personally. If PS5 Pro is indeed happening (and recent leaks from reputable sources say it is happening), Xbox has to respond to it, they can't let Sony win back the most powerful console crown. And if they stop making either S or X, devs will become increasingly resistant to wanting to port to the dropped console throughout the 2nd half of the generation. They kind of dug this hole for themselves by doing 2 consoles from the start of the generation. So I do think we will see 3 consoles in the latter half of the generation, because it is better than the alternatives.

I think they will learn a lesson from this and not do 2 consoles at the start of the gen next time. What S has done so far is alienate retailers due to more S consoles than X being made (resulting in lower Xbox physical game sales and hurting Xbox's retail presence especially in non-core markets), and piss off some developers who apparently foresee S being a bit of a paperweight later in the generation. Better to have just 1 console at the start of next-gen, and then do a mid-gen refresh. 

@Angelus yeah but who did you think was best girl and I agree with you its Ann.

It doesn't help either that the game is very poorly paced. Because you're trying to maximize your schedule, you're always either doing a whole lot of combat and palace progression for long stretches, or a whole lot of social activities for long stretches. Perhaps the game would feel less long if these elements were more elegantly interwoven in such a way that both sides of the game continued to feel fresh for over 100 hours, but alas, this is not the case. By the end, both sides suffer. 

This is because you actually understood what is the best approach to do the game without losing precious time slots. After all, this is the game about time management. And I think it is meant to be something like: 5 hours in dungeons, 5 hours for social activities, 5 hours for scripted story scenes in preparation for the next dungeon. And that's how game meant to be not to become boring. Because you switch between these types of activities all the time, instead of doing the same thing for tens of hours. But well, I guess you got bored with it anyway.

It's also got the whole GTAIV thing going on, where your cousin, or some other person would randomly call you and wanna go bowling or whatever. Only here, it's well over a dozen people constantly hitting up your phone non-stop to come do shit with them...and when they're not hitting you up to spend time with them, they're doing it to rehash some dialogue pertinent to story topics that were just covered like 5 minutes ago in person.

I've just finished August (summer break) and in case of this month I agree. It's kinda stupid that every day in this month you get a scripted scene every morning when someone texts you inviting to hang out with them. What makes it even worse is that the game teaches you early on how to check notifications on your phone, so IMO it was unnecessary. The worst part though is that after that comes September with the most stupid plot arc in the game.

More gameplay relevant interaction between Metaverse and regular world

I don't think this will change in the future, because once again, it is meant to be this way, the game is built around the idea of time management, where you need to choose how to spend your time slots - go to dungeon, hang out with friends, or raise social stats.

Shorter, more focused main story, and split off some palaces for larger sidequests/optional objectives that can feed into alternate endings.

Then you should play Soul Hackers 2. It's the closest I could think that will fit this description. The main story can be done in 20-30 hours. The local "Mementos" is entirely optional and can be skipped, but you won't get the good ending as a result. All social interactions are built in with the main story with the exception of bar events which can be done anytime. And no time management, no calendar system. The game is very linear.

P.S. I somewhat agree that Atlus went a bit overboard with this one and 120 hours (that's what it took me to beat P5R on PS4) for main story is a bit too much. The game probably could have been and should have been shorter, because I know that this is exactly what turns the most people off from even giving it a try. Vanilla P5 took me 90 hours to beat, so it looks like they increased the game's length by 30 hours with Royal. The good thing is, Persona 4 and Persona 3 are a lot shorter, especially P5, because the range of side activities is a lot smaller in these two games. P4 Golden took me 65 hours and P3 - 85 I think. Also, in Persona 3 you can just skip social links entirely, because they don't give you anything except for Persona Fusion bonus.

P.P.S. It's good for you that you gave up on filling the compendium, because it's not possible to do so in the first run. You need NG+ for that.

If anything that we've learnt from how this gen started is that Series S was a wise decision from Microsoft. So, I hope they do the same next gen as well especially if the chip shortage is still a thing by then. But IMO, with the way how technology goes, I think it's time to switch to ARM for next gen and have a lower end handheld model (Series S), and higher end home console (Series X).

guys rate on persona 5 dilogue, narrative, gameplay, predictability ^^ And do you think JRPG like these merit the metacritic or is it overhyped .

Someone make a persona 5 thread talking anout compared to other rpg giants? yum.

Yeah, I don't think Xbox will abandon the two-console approach next gen, Xbox Series S has been a success and the consumers matter more than local retailers who complain but still stock Series S and the very few developers who are complaining compared to the near dozen who say it's not an issue, including Digital Foundry.

The stock shortage does play a large part in its success, but I also think the cheapness is appealing too whilst being powerful enough still and you don't get that by just removing the disc drive. If anything, next gen, I could see them launching with a high-end console with both a disc drive and without a disc drive and then a lower-end console without a disc drive.

Having two options is great imo.

The pricing strategy and it being digital only is what got me to buy mine this year.

Only thing I picked up in the Black Friday sale in Borderlands GOTY. I was hoping Dragon Age 2 (my favourite DA) DLC would be discounted as I'm about to do another full replay of it.