If you love Anime, JRPG's or Slice of Life games, go and play Persona 5. I'm not going to stop you and you will probably enjoy what the game has to offer regardless of what I say.



Persona 5 is the type of game that you either play in a healthy way or the way I played it, and spend a week on completing the full 120 hours. I was very quickly hooked by the beginning and the first palace and was ready for my mind to be blown. Unfortunately, the heights of the first 10 hours never returned. In truth, the first palace is the best content Persona 5 has to offer.

Before I dive deep, let me say that the OST of the game is one of the greatest I've listened too. The creator, Lyn, was really able to capture the theme of rebellion, and I unironically think that, and the sunk cost fallacy were the only motivation driving me after the 100-hour mark.

The Style of the game is also part of this motivation, as well as the battle animations, UI design and the visual gags (like Ren always keeping his hands in his pockets) but these wore off after a while. They are a positive part of Persona 5, but they are not enough.

The early four characters are the ones you spend the most time with, but there is one person who you get to know the most: Ren, AKA you, the protagonist of Persona 5. The way he acts, talks, and becomes the leader of the group feels artificial; this is because the player doesn't really control him. Many times his dialogue contains no variety, and no real choice behind his intent. Every playthrough for all the different players will be the same. The only differentiating factor will be the choice who the player spends time with.

Free time will most likely be spent with confidants. Persona 5 tends to be grandiose when it comes to them. The music, the visuals and the voiceover makes it seem like it's a life or death situation for Ren, and he's clearly slowly moving towards survival. However, these oaths are a sham. They give gameplay bonuses, sure, but their role in the story is nothing more than a few voicelines in the end that makes the ending no different. No deviation, no substance, no alternatives.

Persona 5 waves the flag of rebellion and themes of going against the System to do the right thing, but are forcing the player to abide the laws of the developers, and revoking their ability to roleplay or have unorthodox choices not the same? Why promise a setup for alternate endings when you know you will not deliver?

To keep it short I will only talk about the Phantom Thieves that were problematic. Those being Ann and *sigh* Makoto.


Ann is a victim of the writers as during the Kamoshida arc she's a conflicted character that got trapped in the circumstance, and she's ultimately not driven by rebellion against the gym teacher; moreso she sees her journey as a path of revenge. And as she fulfills her revenge, she becomes a plaything of the writers. She's used the same way she was used by Kamoshida, first during the second palace, then during the Futaba arc, and she's also used for Morgana's love interest, or for jokes of her being beautiful, and her becoming a model, etc. Her arc was sacrificed for sex, and I feel sorry for her.

Makoto. Look. I know she's a fan favorite. But her introduction to the team is catastrophically bad. The "useless" arc is forced and idiotic. Her blackmailing of the team is petty. She forces the thieves to go against a target against their will. The meeting with Kaneshiro was one of the worst cutscenes I've ever seen in media. The gang just showing up face-to-face to meet a crime lord, no questions asked, just appearing, and Kanoshiro not even being surprised by it... It's baffling. And Makoto feeling justified to view herself second in command is revolting and illegtimate. Even though she eventually grew on me, due to her unimaginable introduction I never got to like her. And it's a shame; in a different game I would probably like her the same as the fans do.

After Shido's palace I was very much done with the repetitive nature of how the game handled the plot, the characters and don't let me get started on Mementos. But after Palace 8 I felt that maybe the monotony and the theme of "there's always someone bigger" could end. But no. Welcome to Dr. Maruki's palace.

Persona 5 Royal was the first and only version of Persona 5 I've played. So to my surprise (but probably not to most players') the very obvious, done and finished ending of Palace 8 (WHERE YOU DEFEAT A GOD) was not the actual ending of the game.

As it turns out, the all powerful and all-controlling god was not the actual final boss of the game. Instead we still have Dr. Maruki's heart to change, and save reality or whatever. I'm not going to go into details addressing Dr. Maruki's story, or if I think his palace is bad. It's not. It's a challenging end to a JRPG. No. My problem is that the extra content was added in Royal, and nothing was changed about the story. Mementos returns to reality "just because". Palaces are still a thing, "just because". This palace is actually the new reality, "just because". The new god of control is now Dr. Maruki, "just because".

And sure, Ren CAN choose to accept Dr. Maruki's reality but the game is so obviously manipulating the player not to. During the last arc, Ren just walks around, meeting his friends every day and he says the most simple stuff to them and they immediately question their reality. The choice for Ren to accept that their friends are happy is so sappy and unneeded. Why not embrace the fact of no agency, a fact the game held all throughout the 100 hours, but drop this choice now? We clearly see Ren's friends in doubt; where's the theme of trust? Or the oaths that we've taken? Wouldn't it be more powerful if the characters realised their oath to question and defied authority based on how far we've gotten to know them? Connect the story with the choices we've made? And not just repeat what the characters already realised right before facing the god of control in the Velvet Room?

But no. The final confrontation against Dr. Maruki is a boss fight like any other. There's no discussion, no arguments of both sides. Nothing to drive a real philosophical question to a conclusion. Just the same old strategy with everybody else. The final phase of Dr. Maruki is a scripted Deus Ex ending that, once again, robs the player the agency. And the last fight you have in the game is a fistfight with the poor lad. It's pathetic.

Persona 5 was the most exhausting game I've ever played. It has one of the strongest hooks of any media ever, and the biggest of letdowns ever.
After the 100% completion and 120 hours of Persona 5, I was shaken by the experience of a game never letting go and forcing the player to just take the stupidity and butcher the characters that they grew to be interested in. The never-ending nature was so great I had to take a break and gather my thoughts, not just of Persona 5, but the hobby of gaming itself.
If something is not fun, why bother? Why bother sinking 120 hours into a game everybody loves but I despise? Why give chance for it to turn better if the last 50 hours were a slog? Why complete a game 100% when I can do something more refreshing and rewarding? Why pretend to make a choice when you are predestined to have the only ending? Why even play games if the games themselves play You?

I loved Persona 5. But I also hate it more than most games.