Persona 5, A Satisfying Game With Well Written Story

    First of all, I have to admit that I am not one of the followers or fans of the Persona series. The Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 that I played on my PS2 doesn't leave much of a strong impression. Instead, GrimGrimoire developed by Vanillaware that has a story line with much similarity to the later hit anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica was a more satisfying PS2 game.

    However, that wasn't the case with Persona 5. With games like Final Fantasy XV, Dragon Quest Builders, Nioh, Nier Automata that caught my attention at first, but ending up Persona 5 earn my recommendations. I highly recommended it to those that wanted to casually enjoy a game with a nice story at its core accompanied by a well balanced and fun game-play. However, there are some exceptions though. First of all, if you don't have time to leisurely enjoy the story and cut scenes, this game is not for you. 100 hours or more for a standard play-through is pretty normal and half of the times are spent on the story and cut scenes. Secondly, although the game is in anime style, but due to the dark theme and heavy exposure to the unjust of society, kids or less mature people are not encourage to play this game. It may have bad influence or steer them in the wrong direction.

Pros:
-Engaging story
-Balanced and intuitive game-play
-Well dubbed English voice cast
-Addictive soundtrack
-High replay-ability

Cons:
-Dated game mechanism

!!From this part onward, there might have some spoilers.

Dated Dating Sim Mechanism

    As I said before, you will most likely spend half of your time in this game going through the game story and the cut scenes. This is due to its dated dating sim mechanism that go by a fixed time slot calendar system. It's rigid and really made me feel the lack of freedom to control in the game. IMO, even dating sim games have more flexibility.

    Personally, I would like to see them implement something similar to Sakura Wars LIPS system though. Although it may add too much complexity to the already huge storyboard of those sub characters, but I always enjoy Sakura Wars LIPS system that have a time limit and will even change the selection after a certain time.

Refined Turned Based Battle System

    Although action RPG is the main stream now, but the refined turn based battle system is rather balanced and intuitive. Due to its turn based battle system and some of the game limitation aspects, you will find most of the time you are playing the game with intuition. It's the same with the rather logic weakness and strength system. By looking at your enemy skills list, you have to try to deduct its weakness and strength.

    Besides that, the boss battles coherent with the story background very well. It's not just plain fight and kill. They will even throw in some extra helps for some of the bosses if you find yourself struggling against it.

Game Difficulties, Challenging Yet Fun Without The Need To Grind

    Including the DLC, this game offer 5 difficulties level and it can be changes on the fly whenever you are able to access the menu. I found that altering between "Normal" and "Hard" and sometimes "Easy" and "Merciless" depending on your character level, equipment and persona made me able to enjoy the game casually with some challenge without the need to grind.

Well Dubbed English Voice Cast + Addictive Soundtrack

    I was hoping that all of those dialog in the game has a voice cast instead of just half of them got a voice cast. That just show how much I love those voice cast. In the meantime, the soundtrack are so addictive especially those sung by Lyn. For those that would like to collect the physical 3 CD OST as I do, you may try HMV JAPAN. I had been using it for few years and it ship internationally. It has frequent promotions as well as used CD on sales. Just some extra info, if you decide to get books or limited edition CD with a lot of stuffs, it will be quite expensive on the logistic fee due to their sheer weight.

High Replay-ability

    Due to tons of sub characters quest and some added extra features after finishing the game once, this game welcome you to replay the game a second time which so called New Game Plus that you may choose to inherit some progress from your previous save file.

    It's a very welcoming feature as it allow me to enjoy some stuffs that I am unavailable to before. Especially I have the free time to fully decorate my room now. Even more, I have the free time to went on date to various locations with the girl I have a relationship with instead of just dumping her aside.