I have been a fan of the Persona series ever since I got Persona 3 for my PSP many years ago. I love the music, the stylish character designs, the storylines, and the use of mythological imagery for the plot and monsters. I'm also a fan of the Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor series, which the Persona series spun off from. When Persona 5 was announced, I eagerly awaited updates on the game.
It was the second Persona game I'd ever completed. The first was Persona 4: The Golden, but I didn't get the "true" ending to the game and have yet to go back and complete my New Game + run.
Persona 5 uses the themes of outlaws, imprisonment, and corruption in places of authority. The protagonist is accused of assault and battery of a man who apparently has a lot of power over small-town police, and is shipped off to live with a friend-of-a-friend in Tokyo to live out his 1 year probation sentence. At his new school, the protagonist is subjected to social rejection as other students have already learned of his criminal record (though not the unjust part), and both the students and teachers are hesitant to get to know him. To make matters worse, the student body and faculty seems to be under the thumb of an absurdly overly-important athletics department - in particular a rather sleazy volleyball coach who treats his female athletes like eye-candy and male athletes like cannon fodder. After accidentally stumbling across a strange castle run by a speedo-clad version of the volleyball coach, the protagonist discovers that he has the ability to step between the real world and the "Metaverse" and to take on a Persona, specifically that of Arsene Lupin the famous phantom thief of French literature. The protagonist decides to use his newfound powers to fight against corrupt adults around him by stealing their Metaverse "treasure" to change their behavior. He's joined by several other teens with similar motives, but the Metaverse is full of more dangers than just the odd boss-battle - there's some real political conspiracy going on here and if the protagonist and his friends aren't careful, they're likely to end up in some serious hot water.
I loved the stylishness of the game - from character design to menu design to music, this game is just dripping with style. The controls were also pretty easy to get the hang of. I also liked how timely and relatable the storyline was - it's not just teens tired of corruption in positions of authority. It's nice to be able to "fight the power" and see immediate change in the hearts and minds of the corrupted, even if it's just in a fictional world. Unfortunately, solving problems in the real world isn't as fun or easy as stealing a "treasure" and fighting a boss-battle with a kickass soundtrack in the background.
I only have a few complaints about the game. They all occur at about the same point in the story - the Big Bang Burger storyline. Not only is the inter-group conflict poorly written, but the dungeon related to that part of the storyline has one of the most frustrating puzzles and battles out of the entire game. Plus, you are given your final party member at this point, but in order to max out the social link with that character, you have to be really, really good at managing your time in-game or have maxed out other relationships earlier in the game to the detriment of non-party (but still valuable) relationships. Basically, they could have established a social link with Haru a lot earlier in the game and had it change to a party-relationship later in the game (like they did with Akechi). I mean, Haru was introduced before the class trip to Hawaii, and that would have been a great time to squeeze in a social-link establishment scene.
A lot of people complained about Mementos, the underground dungeon that basically serves as a level-grinding dungeon. I actually didn't mind the Mementos dungeon, and I liked how it was worked into the overall game. It gave me a chance to get Personas I missed in the boss-level dungeons (which become inaccessible once the boss is defeated, unlike the dungeons in Persona 4). Plus, I liked being able to correct small social wrongs as well as tackle the big ones like corrupt politicians and businessmen.
Overall, though, I really enjoyed this game. And, perhaps this game will get a similar treatment that Persona 4 got with The Golden, only instead of introducing another character storyline, they smooth out the existing flaws with the latter part of the game.
