[b] TL;DR: If you don't mind fast-paced games, and enjoy the stories of Persona, then I do think this game is worth a shot. Due to the quality of the story, I'm choosing to recommend the game, but I have my qualms with it, mainly with the gameplay and lack of polish. 7/10, buy on sale [/b]
[h1] Gameplay [/h1]
As someone who has never played a Musou game before, this was a new experience for me and I can definitely say I wasn't a fan at first. The game just throws you into combat and hopes you find your bearings before you get to the first boss. There were, of course, tutorial screens (quite a lot of them, actually) but they never ended up getting too in-depth, basic controls and mechanics only.
It didn't take me long to find out that strategy doesn't play as much of a role here as it would in a turn-based Persona game. I was going into this hoping for combat that puts emphasis on how you execute combos and dodge attacks, but ended up having to button-mash my way through most encounters. A usual encounter spawns tens of enemies, each with their own skills and attacks, filling up the screen with particles and skill cast notifications that really prevent you from seeing anything. Combine that with the particles from your own (and your party's) attacks, and you end up just kind of hoping that you're not gonna get hit by anything and that the enemies'll die eventually if you press your attack button enough times.
The most fun I had in this game was while fighting bosses, because I got to focus on only one thing at a time and could actually think my moves through. The game was at its best when I was in a situation where I actually had the room to use all the various mechanics that were present (e.g. Baton Passes, Skill Affinities, Support Skills, Showtimes, etc.).
After defeating the first boss, I managed to get into the groove of things a bit and had a decent enough time with the combat for the rest of the game. Ultimately, I enjoyed the variation in choices I had (loved that each character had their own moveset), but disliked the fact that I never got to fully utilize any of them because I was too preoccupied trying not to die to the million enemies on my screen.
Outside of combat, the gameplay is watered down Persona. You get to walk around in a city, but the only
thing you can really do there is shop and talk to your party members. This is a very linear game. There's no social links, the calendar system is just for show, and you get almost no freedom. The real world in this game is basically only for watching cutscenes. You will be spending most of your time in the Metaverse.
[h1] Polish [/h1]
This game has some problems that you're going to immediately notice. The anti-aliasing is completely busted, and makes the game look jagged. I worked around it by turning it off and bumping my render scale up to 2x (thank god that that's a setting), and turning on sharpening (AMD GPU setting). It worked well enough.
What I couldn't fix, and couldn't fully get used to, was the low-res UI. Text, control icons, speech bubbles, everything was blurry. Coming off of P5R, it was a bit sad to see that this port didn't get much love.
This next point is the one I hated the most - controls. The default keyboard control scheme is horrendous and is impossible to play with. Camera mouse movement is also choppy and not very reactive. A controller is absolutely needed for this game. Another problem with the camera, is that there's no sensitivity slider. This got under my skin CONSTANTLY. Many times, my character's attack would make them jump somewhere I didn't want them and the camera followed, and then I had to spend a good 5 seconds turning them back around, which, in a fast paced game like this, felt like an eternity. Especially annoying in difficult fights. There was also no quick turn bind, at least not one that I could find. Sometimes, when I used my Persona, my character DID do a quick turn, but never when I wanted them to. That was also annoying, couldn't figure out how it worked or if it was just a bug.
[h1] Story [/h1]
This was the only reason I stuck with the game. The story carries the game, and is a great continuation of the Phantom Thieves story. It stands up on its own, introducing new characters and blending them very well with the original cast. It is also surprisingly ahead of its time, discussing the theme of AI, dependence on it, and the importance of thinking for yourself.
It obviously goes a lot deeper than that and there's a lot more themes and topics it touches on, but I don't want to spoil too much of it. If you're this far in my review, and you like Persona for the stories, then you should check the game out for yourself. Story-wise, it will not disappoint.
[h1] Music [/h1]
Obligatory section for the music. It's amazing, you should go listen to it even if you don't plan on buying the game.
[h1] Conclusion [/h1]
If you don't mind fast-paced games, and enjoy the stories of Persona, then I do think this game is worth a shot. The first dungeon is gonna be the hardest to get through as you learn the combat, but it gets better as you go on. It's definitely not on the level of the mainline Persona games, but it's decent enough on its own.
Buy on sale, 7/10
