Persona 5, anyone playing?

harsaphes

harsaphes

Supreme [H]ardness
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Just read a great review of this game and it has me intrigued. I've never played any of the series. Should I pick this one up?
 
I haven't played 5 yet but it's an amazing series. If you like JRPGs I highly recommend it. The best of the best IMO. Tons to do where you can easily spend 100hrs into the game. Great soundtrack. Combat is kind of Pokémon-ish style where you collect demons with different abilities. During the day you make choices around going to school, keeping up social aspects, jobs and much more. While that sounds like a chore on paper it makes it much deeper and I enjoyed learning about certain NPCs almost as much as the main storyline. Plus they all give or unlock certain powers/upgrades for battles so not a waste of time.

Everything I've read on this one it surpasses Persona 4 and that's no small feat.
 
Playing it now, have clocked over 30 hours so far since getting it on release day. Even though I'm probably less than 25% into it, I'm enjoying it immensely so far. If there's any area where it might be lacking compared to P3/P4, it's the music; however, it's not bad by any stretch of the imagination. The graphics definitely will not blow you away even on the PS4 version, but it's so freakishly stylized that you won't notice these shortcomings. I literally have a hard time putting it down; if I didn't have to go to work or eat, I'd probably never stop playing.
 
Does the game allow you to change the voices to Japanese while keeping subtitles on English?

Or is there no voice acting in this game?
 
chenw said:
Does the game allow you to change the voices to Japanese while keeping subtitles on English?

Or is there no voice acting in this game?
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The Japanese voice acting is highly regarded, and the English is pretty solid. You have both options available if you buy the NA version (subtitles included).

This game is so freaking good (I played JP version late last year, imported it). If you've never played a Persona game, this one is a great place to start, as it's more forgiving than the previous ones in terms of time management. It's turn-based, but it's so smooth and seamless that it feels like it's not. Totally worth a playthrough (I logged over 75 hours) for anyone that likes not only rpg's, but jrpgs.
 
My NA premium edition came today, going to put this next to my Japanese 20th anniversary. Woo! Backpack is sort of lame...steel case is much appreciated however.

That idiotic translation though, "...these phantom thieves will steals into the hearts of people...". Ahah.
 

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I picked it up and played non stop for the few days I had with it before embarking on a long overdue vacation. I'm not very far in - 2nd palace - but I'm enjoying it even more than P4 and P3. And those two were fantastic games. I think it's a good entry into the series - you're not missing anything from the previous games. It stars off quite slow (as does the others), but that's part of the charm. Character development is very important for this title to work. It sounds like a game with terrible mechanics, but it's great and well worth your time. It won't make many people's top ten greatest games of all time lists because it just not that well known and kind of niche. But for those that have played through 3,4,or 5 - I'd be surprised if one of them didn't make the list.
 
Kongar said:
I picked it up and played non stop for the few days I had with it before embarking on a long overdue vacation. I'm not very far in - 2nd palace - but I'm enjoying it even more than P4 and P3. And those two were fantastic games. I think it's a good entry into the series - you're not missing anything from the previous games. It stars off quite slow (as does the others), but that's part of the charm. Character development is very important for this title to work. It sounds like a game with terrible mechanics, but it's great and well worth your time. It won't make many people's top ten greatest games of all time lists because it just not that well known and kind of niche. But for those that have played through 3,4,or 5 - I'd be surprised if one of them didn't make the list.
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This game is totally freaking awesome, but I am a bit biased. It's honestly #1 for me (the series I mean), constantly fighting with FFIX for the top spot. The gist for anyone new, is that you have the real world, and the other dimension world, and you have to do shit in both. Keeping up with your life (interactions, quests, etc.) in the real world makes you stronger in the fucked up world (where you do all the battles). It's a cohesive system that functions fantastically in practice.
 
boomboy2k1 said:
I'm playing the game. It's one of the best turn-based JRPG in years.
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You try the Japanese voices (do you pay JRPG's regularly?)? They're far better than the English, IMO of course. When I played last year I imported the JP copy and loved the voice acting, but listening to the English ones on YouTube makes me cringe (no, I'm not a weaboo, I just generally dislike the English voice actors chosen by Japanese companies). Would love to hear others' opinions on the subject though.
 
Personally, I generally prefer dubbing by the voice actors of the game's country of Origin. Western voice actors in western made video games are still excellent, it's the western dubbers for Eastern media that I often cringe (no idea why).

In the same token, Eastern dubbers do a fairly poor job at voice acting a western game, EG Diablo 3.

So generally I prefer to play a game with voice actors in the same country of origin.

Exceptions exist of course, The Witcher series, despite being Polish made, still have very good English voice actors.
 
BiH115 said:
You try the Japanese voices (do you pay JRPG's regularly?)? They're far better than the English, IMO of course. When I played last year I imported the JP copy and loved the voice acting, but listening to the English ones on YouTube makes me cringe (no, I'm not a weaboo, I just generally dislike the English voice actors chosen by Japanese companies). Would love to hear others' opinions on the subject though.
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I play tons of JRPG's but I couldn't care less about voice acting. I read English subtitles. I am deaf in both ears but could listen to music without understanding the words.
 
boomboy2k1 said:
I play tons of JRPG's but I couldn't care less about voice acting. I read English subtitles. I am deaf in both ears but could listen to music without understanding the words.
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Forgive me for my ignorance/misunderstanding, but how is it you're able to listen to music!?
 
I finished my first playthrough with the English voices and am now on NG+ with the Japanese voice track. I actually prefer the English voices and this is coming from a guy who always watches anime with Japanese audio.

I'm really surprised at how well the English voice talent matches up with their Japanese counterparts, it's almost as if they did it on purpose! I'm looking forward to getting to some of the latter points of the game where there's lots of yelling and primal screams to better judge which is truly the better audio track.
 
heatsinker said:
I finished my first playthrough with the English voices and am now on NG+ with the Japanese voice track. I actually prefer the English voices and this is coming from a guy who always watches anime with Japanese audio.

I'm really surprised at how well the English voice talent matches up with their Japanese counterparts, it's almost as if they did it on purpose! I'm looking forward to getting to some of the latter points of the game where there's lots of yelling and primal screams to better judge which is truly the better audio track.
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How'd you like the game overall though? Thoughts, impressions, suggestions for improvement?

The only shitty part of Japanese voices with English subtitles is that nearly everything is lost in translation. The subtitles serve to get some sort of point across, but that's about it. The nuances and slang are all just difficult to translate, but if you've finished it in English, you generally know what the hell is going on, so it doesn't matter. Personally, I found the Japanese voices far better, the tone just seems more fitting. Again, all subjective really, but then again I can understand Japanese as well.
 
I think it's the best in the series overall; I started with the Innocent Sin fan translation for the PS1 a while back and have been following the games ever since. I've read a lot of comments about P5's pacing being a drag, but I feel P3 has it beat in that department. It seems like most people think the soundtrack is lacking too, but honestly, aside from the instrumental-only background themes, it's pretty freakin solid; Life Will Change never fails to get my blood pumping. The Social Links/Confidants did feel a little shallow though, especially for the characters who appear later in the game; some of them feel pretty rushed.

I was actually pretty curious if the English text matched the Japanese dialogue; there were several instances where the character says one or two words while the text is like an entire sentence lol. We waited, what, 8 years for this game? It was definitely worth the wait; I'm not gonna say that it's going to make JRPGs the "it" thing again, but after being disappointed with Star Ocean 5, it's nice to see an older series come back and prove its relevance in a really big way.
 
Started this last night. Never played a Persona game before. Strange game. Feels extremely linear, controls are wonky. You need to move the stick a certain amount of degrees to the right or left to actually get your character to turn. Sometimes you don't have camera control and have to press the circle button to get the camera to change directions. Ugghh.

Finishing a battle there's no insta-skip to get past the results screen. For a game as streamlined as this the developer didn't think an insta-skip would be a good option?

Loading screens EVERYWHERE. The transition animations help, but still. Loading loading loading!

Game runs at 30 fps but the graphics are PS3 quality. Why? PS4 has more than enough horsepower to push this thing at 60 fps.

I do like the voice acting (English). There's a lot of personality in the character's voices.

I *hate* the ambient music they have playing during the "calm" times (e.g. in the cafe). It gets old fast and never stops playing.

Sorry for the cynical view, but when this game is rated among the best of all time, I expect to be absolutely blown away.

I will continue playing as I am only about 3 hours in. Hoping it gets better.
 
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I commend you for trying it out! The first 10-15 hours go by pretty slowly and are mostly scripted events, but stick with it because it will get better!
 
heatsinker said:
I think it's the best in the series overall; I started with the Innocent Sin fan translation for the PS1 a while back and have been following the games ever since. I've read a lot of comments about P5's pacing being a drag, but I feel P3 has it beat in that department. It seems like most people think the soundtrack is lacking too, but honestly, aside from the instrumental-only background themes, it's pretty freakin solid; Life Will Change never fails to get my blood pumping. The Social Links/Confidants did feel a little shallow though, especially for the characters who appear later in the game; some of them feel pretty rushed.

I was actually pretty curious if the English text matched the Japanese dialogue; there were several instances where the character says one or two words while the text is like an entire sentence lol. We waited, what, 8 years for this game? It was definitely worth the wait; I'm not gonna say that it's going to make JRPGs the "it" thing again, but after being disappointed with Star Ocean 5, it's nice to see an older series come back and prove its relevance in a really big way.
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I do like the soundtrack, though like any rpg, you're bound to hear the same tune over and over again, can't really escape that. The English voices definitely don't match the Japanese Text, and vice versa, but that's to be expected, the Japanese language just does not work the same way as English does. Either way, I'm finding that the English voices are actually not too-too bad the more I'm listening to them. I hope they keep making quality games like the Persona series, it really is a breath of fresh air among what we're used to in the west.

jaguax said:
Started this last night. Never played a Persona game before. Strange game. Feels extremely linear, controls are wonky. You need to move the stick a certain amount of degrees to the right or left to actually get your character to turn. Sometimes you don't have camera control and have to press the circle button to get the camera to change directions. Ugghh.

Finishing a battle there's no insta-skip to get past the results screen. For a game as streamlined as this the developer didn't think an insta-skip would be a good option?

Loading screens EVERYWHERE. The transition animations help, but still. Loading loading loading!

Game runs at 30 fps but the graphics are PS3 quality. Why? PS4 has more than enough horsepower to push this thing at 60 fps.

I do like the voice acting (English). There's a lot of personality in the character's voices.

I *hate* the ambient music they have playing during the "calm" times (e.g. in the cafe). It gets old fast and never stops playing.

Sorry for the cynical view, but when this game is rated among the best of all time, I expect to be absolutely blown away.

I will continue playing as I am only about 3 hours in. Hoping it gets better.
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I hear you on some of the little nuances/issues. The game actually was in concept mode roughly a decade ago, built in mind for the PS3, that's why it feels PS3'ish to a degree. I'm hoping, at least, that they'll patch in some Pro support down the line, otherwise the performance is actually outstanding.

Keep playing, it only gets better.
 
Screw this game. I spent my entire day playing only to have all of my work undone. I decided to do Kamoshida's palace on the day before the deadline because I thought it would be good to save up lots of money and buy a lot of items and whatnot. After all, the loading screens stress to "take your time".

So I get near the end of the palace and I'm running dry on SP, but I can't leave the palace because that will force me to sleep which will force a game over the next day.

So whatever, I turn the difficulty to easy and get to the treasure. The game then explains to me that I need to send a calling card, but I can't do that until the next day! WTF!!!

So I'm forced out of the palace, which forces me to sleep, which forces the next day, which forces a game over. Then all of my progress is turned back one week. I just about threw my PS4 out the window.

I feel like that's a major oversight by the developers. Why the hell would it let me grind through an entire palace only to force a game over? Unbelievable.

There needs to be a message somewhere that says you need to complete the palace *2 days* before the deadline.
 
Unfortunately, it seems a lot of people are complaining about that, and to some point, I agree. However, as with past games, I've never had this issue (perhaps it's because I've played other Japanese games, and more so, the others in this series). The game tells you to check your calendar frequently (and the deadline should be there, highlighted if I recall). I think that they could have made it an even bigger point to tell people that, but unfortunately that's not the case. I always left 4 days to complete a dungeon, minimum, and that's never failed me. For the first one, it's best to do the dungeon near the deadline, as that way you'll be going in with stronger teammates (because you'll have spend time making connections, skilling up, and all that good shit). Save very frequently.

One solid thing about setting you back a week, is that within a weeks time, you have a real chance of going through and beating the dungeon. In past games, this wasn't an option, and you'd just be shit out of luck, unless you picked a good save date that would have allowed you enough time to complete everything.
 
I have the game, it's a lot of fun, not really far into it, about 6ish hours in.
 
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