u/Aniboy43

And I feel Empty.....

This game has made me feel things I haven't felt in a long while after playing games.

I have already talked about the story till Yaldabaoth and All the Bad endings here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Persona5/s/zrZlLyeMe9

https://www.reddit.com/r/Persona5/s/wUZ90Yqz2b

At first, I thought the third semester was slightly boring, And something felt off. But it absolutely made sense, The entire world felt different because of Maruki, I don't know exactly what they changed apart from the music of course, But the world felt not normal, attending school didn't feel normal, Completing Confidants or playing games didn't feel normal, It was as if the world was frozen or dead. But that's the point of the third semester, Maruki gave everyone a happy ending, But the world is completely stale and dead despite.

After completing Maruki's palace, I felt how normal everything was, Everyone back to normal, The world felt normal, Hangouts felt normal.

Despite me loving the Maruki's deal ending, I MUCH prefer the Royal ending where Akechi is foreshadowed to be alive and everyone split up to do their own thing and follow their dreams. Which felt like a completion of an arc because every member fought in the phantom thieves initially to get the freedom from the suppression, It makes sense that they would take that and finally achieve their goals. That plus what Maruki made them live.

This is why Maruki's ideas were good, Because he genuinely showed a world where everyone is finally trying their best at what they wanted to achieve. Taking inspiration from that reality and actually trying to achieve that made me like everyone more, Especially Ryuji.

I also loved Maruki's taxi scene over the Vanilla cutscene(Hot take). But the part where he meets Sumire and then part ways immediately kinda felt cheap. I thought they would atleast have a good send off to each other, But it's satisfactory.

After all that, The part of the ending that totally broke me is this song "Out light", Played during the credits with the members and the lyrics reflecting the story, Genuinely made me sad especially after what happened with Akechi, My man wanted to choose his fate for once, Not controlled by Yaldabaoth or Shido or Maruki, But himself, It costed him his life(I prefer to think that he's dead in front of everyone's eyes).

The song and how it ended left a void inside me.

Peak game 10/10, Would definitely do a ng+.

I love pancakes, Do you guys want to join later?

One of the best memes, My boy Akechi just wanted to try some pancakes 😔

So I've gotten all three bad endings I could, and let me say, I was intrigued by all three, Would love to share my opinions on them.

1. **Giving out your teammates to Sae and taking her deal** :

This ending is arguably the ending that you can call absolutely bad, Both reality and actuality wise. Joker dies, The phantom thieves probably hunted down, Akechi and Shido probably took over the country and Akechi dead by the end. This is just a terrible ending. But here's the fun part, I played this ending before continuing with the royal storyline, So I thought I chose the wrong answer again and Joker died again and I couldn't do anything (But it wasn't true lmao). Also the good part about this ending is that it doesn't ruin Sae's involvement, Akechi's goals and any of the major spoilers continuing the story, So you can get this ending and continue with the story and still be surprised with the plot.

2. **Accepting the God of Control's deal**:

This one is the "good" ending that feels eerie asf. Phantom thieves are praised,The main characters are probably happy, But Joker is evil, No one can have their own choices and everyone is a slave to Yaldabaoth. This is probably the least interesting ending in my opinion, as Igor and Lavenza are doomed, The phantom thieves probably controlled by Joker and Yaldabaoth. It's just a mess.

3. **Accepting Maruki** :

This ending tore me, I can understand Maruki a LOT and why we have to fight him, But omg, This ending is actually good and happy, Reality looks good but in actuality it's pretty much the same story as Yaldabaoth, Except Maruki isn't evil. This ending seems like a good ending until you realize that Kasumi isn't herself, Akechi isn't himself, Morgana isn't Himself, Yusuke isn't himself, Haru, Makoto and Futaba living with their dead family members and Ann and Ryuji living in delulu. They all lose characteristics and in Actuality are just placeholders for Maruki's world to process. But I still loved this ending with the credits and the final card that showed everyone. It seems soo good.

But since I haven't finished the true Royal Ending, I don't think I'll say if Maruki's ending is actually good(It probably isn't, It's a delusional ending). But yeah I'm loving this game, Threw 100 hours would do it again ten times more. Can't help but continue yapping about this series. To whoever reached here, Thank you.

Adieu

I DON'T WANT THIS GAME TO END OMGGG.

I've been grinding, Collecting personas, Hell even mindlessly buying lottery and playing arcade and what not to NOT continue with the main story. I am exactly at Sae's palace and I've found the pathway to the treasure and I just closed the game before sending a calling card.

I genuinely don't want this game to end, Leblanc, The phantom thieves, Shujin and the entire city of Tokyo has such a special place in my heart, I hear beneath the mask and start thinking about everyone hanging out there during summer and just talking stuff.

I can feel the story building up to a climax and almost catching up to the present. I really wish this game goes on for more than what I believe to be the length of it(I used some play throughs without spoilers to get an estimate)

After finishing this game I genuinely might have a void that can't be replaced by anything other than replaying this game again in new game+

This game genuinely wanted me to go out and spend time with people, Managing my schedule and being productive by doing different things that affects me positively.

Enough mindless yap, I shall genuinely rate my experience in a measurable manner:

1. Kamoshida palace: This part of the game I genuinely got bored of, Maybe with a new game+ I'll have more fun. But the constant tutorial kinda made me lose interest and I dropped the game halfway through the Kamoshida palace. This palace is basic and imo doesn't have much identity other than it being a tutorial.

7/10

2. Madarame palace: Genuinely where I started to get a ton of interest in the game, Yusuke as a character is super fun and how he develops through this arc of the story is amazing to see. Plus I liked the beginning of their journey of being popular. Plus the buffet and Sushi scenes are some of my favourites.

8.2/10

3. Kaneshiro palace: I loved Kaneshiro's palace especially the large lock mechanism he had. I just enjoyed the idea of going through a bank and how Makoto's story connects and how she finally steps up, She legit keeps the entire team under control in a lot of situations ngl. Good arc overall, 8/10.

4. Futaba palace: This was one of the shorter ones, Plus Futaba's inclusion, Which imo is the BIGGEST carry of the team and I just like Futaba as a character and her struggles with her mom and Sojiro and How Sojiro's confidant is a part of the story asw. Despite it being small I still liked it more than Kamoshida and Kaneshiro. Plus so far this is the only palace that isn't part of the city but rather in the desert(Atleast upto this point) . Also loved MEDJED and how >!The name was used to manipulate phantom thieves to gain popularity!<

8.1/10

5. Okumura Palace: Palace design, peak, The goddamn boss battle SUCKED. I hated the battle, But yeah once I got the hang of baton pass and technical it became a BREEZE. I love the airlock puzzles as it made me use my brain a bit and I enjoy doing puzzles. I don't like Okumura as a character, Felt a bit rushed with Ryuji and Morgana plot plus Haru plus Okumura and what he was doing to the workers, Felt like I had to care about too many things plus the fact that >!They were framed by that SIU guy!< , Just too much going on in this arc for my liking and I felt like the phantom thieves shouldn't have bothered too much with this. But plot convenience, Despite all this I love the conclusion of the arc plus the dire situation that it led to. I wish they had shown more about the cultural festival and stuff related to the school cuz it became a Lil too serious and restrictive(Especially cuz I forgot to rent any new DVDs and Read all the books available).

Palace and Ending:8.6/10

Plot and Aftermath:7.2/10

6. Sae Palace: Best palace in the game so far, Loved the gambling mechanism and traversing through the entire palace as a whole. Plus I'm interested in Sae's character, Akechi being one of my favorites, Him joining the team and more focus towards Maruki, In my opinion, The best Story arc in the game right now. Can't wait to see how they are gonna steal the treasure and how Joker is in the present situation. Maruki is probably my favourite non Phantom Thief character, His entire personality is so good and I am entertained everytime I see him.

9/10

Extras:

Confidants, Mementos and Social stats are super fun to level up and advance in, Plus the romance options. Can't wait to replay the game with maxed out Social stats and see how different Joker acts and how easy it is to start and completely confidants.

That probably wraps up my thoughts on this game

TLDR: I love this game, I've never seen anything like this and probably will never see another game like this. Morgana is annoying by not letting me outside after metaverse but I like his character during the entire ordeal of him leaving the gang because he felt useless.

I think that should be it, Thanks for reading,

Adieu~