Recent reviews by VNM

6th Game in the series
One of 3 potential starting points in the series would recommend to at least play the previous games or watch YouTube story summaries especially LadyVirgilia Trails Archive

But nonetheless a great starting point to go in blind
Falcom also mentioned after the release of cold steel 1 that at the start of every new arc in the franchise they will try to make it as an entry point for new players to get into.
(This game is where most people are introduced into the franchise no harm in starting with it)

5th Game in the series and the last in the Crossbell Duology
DON'T PLAY THIS WITHOUT PLAYING THE REST OF THE GAMES HEAVY SPOILERS would recommend to at least play or watch YouTube story summaries especially LadyVirgilia Trails Archive

4th Game in the series
Can be a starting point in the franchise as it starts in a new country and in a new arc with new casts
But will heavily spoil the past games (i.e past characters will be side characters and explain the events in their game)

Thank you for NIS America for their partnership with the GEOfront team to bring the crossbell duology to the west

Don't start with this game it is the 3nd game in the series


The game is clearly dated especially with its graphics alongside its lack of voice overs and can easily be a turn of to most.
But if you are able to over come that you will be able to experience one of the greatest jrpg story that falcom has ever made.

PS. There are also downloadable mods in the internet that adds updated profiles arts & voice overs from the PSP Evolution version of the game

Don't start with this game it is the 2nd game in the series


The game is clearly dated especially with its graphics alongside its lack of voice overs and can easily be a turn of to most.
But if you are able to over come that you will be able to experience one of the greatest jrpg story that falcom has ever made.

PS. There are also downloadable mods in the internet that adds updated profiles arts & voice overs from the PSP Evolution version of the game

Pros
-Good Music
-Great Storytelling
-No Dialogue Wasted
-Reading Newspapers & Books Helps With World Building
-Lovable Cast Of Characters
-Great Buildup For Future Events
-Fun & Unique Battle System (Coming From Someone Who Just Finished The Persona Series)

Cons
-Needs A Voice Patch
-Need More Money To Buy The Rest Of The Series
-The Game Ended
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(NO SPOILER REVIEW)

After completing the story playing New Game Plus on Merciless Difficulty and attaining all the achievements on the game i could clearly say that this has to be one of the greatest sequel games I have played so far.

Coming out of playing Persona 5 Royal -> Persona 4 Golden -> Persona 3 Portable & FES this game felt like a breath of fresh air.
Going back to Shibuya as Joker seeing how the other phantom thieves are doing in life really felt like meeting your old friends again back in the day. And thats where this game shines it takes all of whats in persona 5s story and world building and adds upon it. Using the same rules not breaking it but also adds upon it to the point that it feels natural is one of the greatest ways to make a sequel. Another thing that I enjoyed is the dialogue of each characters every single dialogue didn't feel out of place, every line of each character has meaning, each banter among all of the characters is nothing but entertaining to watch (props to the voice actors as they did a phenomenal job never in my entire life have i heard such great voice acting their performance in P5R was great but this was a major step up).

Overall 10/10 for writing and direction

Gameplay wise it is similar to a warriors game but may it not stop you from actually trying the game out the combat is smooth and the combos are satisfying to pull off and are greatly animated. Each character are uniquely made to suite every play style and not one character was ever useless or unplayable. Gameplay loop of smashing buttons is fun as heck.

Overall 10/10 for Gameplay

Now on the the graphics and animation, it may be in a different game engine and was made by a different team but the graphics and animation never fell off furthermore it feels more of an upgrade at times. So in short if you love the original Persona 5 aesthetic you will love it all the same with this game

10/10

Now music.
Its a no brainer 10/10
Lynn went ham with the signing remaking most of the songs from the original persona 5 and making them into rock was a move no one expected but everyone enjoyed. From past music to new music everything on this games track was banger after banger never disappoints.

Addition to what i said about the writing of the game all the new characters mesh well with the phantom thieves group and are all well made.

The only con I have with this game is that after finishing and experiencing it means less persona games i have left until persona 6 or another persona 5 spin off is released.

Note Before Reading
I have almost 90Hrs on to the game
Achieved 100% Achievements
-Doing all Side-Quest
-Beating all Bosses
-Collected all Fish & Recipes and etc

(This review is my personal opinion on this game and the experience i had with it)

As a classic tales fan who started with the symphonia duology this game feels like a major step up in game/series direction aiming to be more main stream with its story and writing complementing with its wonderful animation along side its smooth and buttery combat mechanics makes it one of the more friendlier tales of games to get into albeit it may differ a lot to older tales of games especially in combat it still serves as a great entry game to the series in my opinion despite the slow pacing of the story while only kicking things on full throttle on the latter part of the game.

Pros
-For full marks on Character Design and Animations
-Playable characters with different play styles to try out
-Difficulty and uniqueness of each Mob brings to the table each fight
-BEST FISHING MINI GAME

Cons
-No major hook that i can remember
-The only good and memorable writing the game has is on its skits (not saying skits are bad but if the game has to rely solely on this feature that smells worry some for future installments)
-It felt like there are things they wanted to do more but weren’t able to and things that could have been executed more effectively and because of this it would create awkward and questionable moments.

Overall Ill give the game a 7/10

Would recommend to someone who wants a modern gateway entry series to the franchise.

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