7 Things Nobody Wants To Admit About Persona 5

When you want to love someone, but they keep pushing you away.

Persona 5 Ann 1
Atlus

Attempting to voice a negative opinion on something as critically revered as Persona 5 is not an easy task. Right now I guarantee a small army of fans are sharpening their pitchforks and loading their shotguns, one cartridge at a time.

"Let's here what he has to say", thinks one. "No, it's already gone too far!" cries another, lighting a piece of wood and holding it aloft, the flames highlighting the real fire behind their eyes.

And here's the thing: I really love Persona 5. Parts of it. At time of writing I'm 40 hours in (or 38:43, to be precise), and I've got some thoughts - some that contradict the straight 9s and 10s the game has been getting since launch. Some that make me question how much I've possibly put up with in Persona/JRPG games past, and others that highlight the cross-generation development cycle the game went through to emerge on PS4.

For the sake of both placating the fans and establishing exactly where I stand before we go further, Persona 5's presentation, score and overall style is one of a kind; a truly exemplary aesthetic package that rewrites the rulebook on how a game can feel. This translates into the majority of gameplay too (hence close to 40 hours in a few days), but there are a handful of poignant negatives I can only imagine I'm not alone in noticing...

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Note: Spoilers for the first three main story Palaces.

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Gaming Editor
Gaming Editor

WhatCulture's Head of Gaming.