i disagree that the series isnt immersive, i do think 4 and 5 in particular do a great job of at least trying to immerse you in their city settings. The npcs, the social links and specially how they use the settings to inform the main story. inaba and tokyo feel like fleshed out cities....the definitely couldve done more to distinguish each part of the towns- i wont disagree with that. but id say they do that enough with social links, sadly its optional content but its not like 4 and 5 are lacking on that.....3 is the one i feel lacks in developing its environment, its much more about the characters you meet rather than the places you visit. but i agree that they could do more to immerse you in dungeons! one thing that i was a bit surprised is that they dont integrate mementos with palaces. It was kinda a perfect framework, you have this big main dungeon that is the colective unconsciousness and like, you couldve explored it to find palaces- kinda like in 4 you have the entire tv world and these different places in it but you dont explore the TV world, teddie just goes "oh i found a new place lets go there", mementos wouldve been a great opportunity to expand on that and yeah you couldve had shadows being non hostile, npcs and even towns in mementos if they took that approach. added conventional side quests instead of just velvet room requests and phatom theives takedowns- etc etc.
I mean you say SLs are optional content but realistically what else is there to do? It's one of the main draws of the game so if you ignore that then you're missing approximately 1/3rd of the game's content. I wouldn't exactly call it optional since the game directly promotes you doing them as a means to utilize the free time you have, with direct benefits to your character and party's performance in battle. It's like saying leveling up is "unfortunately optional" in an RPG.
"but realistically what else is there to do?" i mean, youre right on the money with this. That has been the issue with the formula since persona 3. There isnt anything to do in the cities besides social links. the days where you cant really progress links are completely wasted- in a gameplay sense. But you cant say its not optional. You can ignore all social links (except for the ones that progress with main story events, naturally). and there isnt a single link in any game that is required for game completion, thus making them optional content. i do agree they are *part* of the core appeal of modern persona, tho.
I do sort of feel a tension with the mechanics of Persona 3/4/5 trying to be both dating simulators and JRPGs. Most dating sims are built for multiple playthroughs, for the player taking a while to really understand the hidden numbers and mechanics and/or to pursue all the character routes, which are all supposed to have some special appeal to them, to make you want to play it in the first place. But most JRPGs are built around the idea of a "perfect playthrough," where (perhaps with some exceptions) you're able to get pretty much everything you could want to see, complete every task, etc. It can create this odd feeling where making the wrong choice while hanging out with your friend is a more stressful experience with greater real consequences than fighting a boss.
Persona isn't a dating sim and I don't know where you people get that from. It's a life sim time management first and foremost. The dating doesn't even encompass 5% of the game's content. At most, 10-15 minutes worth of screen time in an RPG that extends well past the 100 hour mark. Persona is far from a dating sim. Baldur's Gate 3 is more of a dating sim than Persona.
@@natedus27 your conception of the dating sim genre is wildly misinformed if you condescendingly argue about it like this. there's just so many dating sims with endings where you don't end up with anyone.
@@RedGoner while there is an option to date in the game, i would not say that its presence is big enough to have the game be considered a dating sim. You could argue that it's a visual novel, and I feel like that's what you mean when you say dating sim, but a dating sim it is not
They fix a lot of the problems you have with persona 3 and 5 in royal and reload. Persona is a series that learns from every new game in the series Implementing ideas that couldn't quite be realized in the previous game in new games. like reload shift mechanic is a more balanced version of 5's baton pass. persona 6 will probably have the Handcrafted Dungeons of 5 and the fully voiced social links of reload and will improve on those ideas
I do plan on playing reload eventually! I'm sure P6 will do that. I played 5 first and worked my way back but when you put it in the correct order, I do think theyre on an upward trend
I’m a big fan of the series personally. While I enjoy each game’s story, I do agree that they are on average weaker than the other big JRPG’s offerings (I’m a big Xeno guy, Trails’ scale is mind-boggling, Final Fantasy games always do more than enough to present really fantastic main narratives, etc.). However, I would argue that none of the series I just listed are quite as a good at communicating and developing strong central themes and messages as Persona is, which is part of why they still hit so hard. The other main part of that, of course, is the quality of the main cast and the general group dynamics, which is always well above that of most other narratives. I will say that if you’re looking for a stronger central story from this series, Persona 2 Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment are probably the height of that as of now, at least in my opinion. This was still before the calendar/social link system had been forged, so all the creative concepts with the world and character work is done in the main story and, therefore, are far more free to more closely interact with the other characters and the main story. Maybe there isn’t quite as much to dig into with each of them specifically because of that, but…well, it’s inherently give-and-take. It’s also not hard to get access to the duology anymore, most laptops and PCs can run a PSP emulator (PPSSPP) and the best version of both games are available on that (Eternal Punishment for PSP was finally fan-translated within the last year or so).
Def plan on playing Persona 1 and 2 eventually. I'm familiar with emulation so I shouldn't have any issues getting it running. Persona does it's themes well for sure, in general I don't have an issue with the story itself. As it plays out in the game though, I did tend to feel like it was stretched too thin for the playtime in these games. Anyway yeah def interested in 1 and 2. Curious on how maya and tatsuya are along with the rest of the cast!
persona is a +100 hour game and you want more? I get most of your point even if I don't think you are right, but some things are literally just impossible
My biggest issue with Persona is the pacing. The games are way too long with too little interesting stuff happening. Persona 5 Royal would be perfect if it cut like 20 hours of playtime
