Current Events > Nearing the end of Persona 5 (I hope)... the pacing of this game is so bad

(+) Yeah! (+)

I was loving this game but the last palace was a repetitive slog and there are way to many hours of text dumps

I'm in the velvet room where I have to go around and repeat the same conversation with every member of my team and it's just a total waste of time. I can't even save right now so I have to sit through this shit even though I wanted to be done playing like a half hour ago

I have to imagine the 10/10 scores from everywhere are people who didn't finish the game to the actual ending?
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The pacing issues with the game start around Palace 5 and it really goes into overdrive after Palace 6. A revision like Golden would do well to fix that, and give more relevance to a certain party member who was barely fleshed out

Reis posted...

The pacing issues with the game start around Palace 5 and it really goes into overdrive after Palace 6. A revision like Golden would do well to fix that, and give more relevance to a certain party member who was barely fleshed out

the school trip was right after palace 5 right? that was utterly useless.

it was like a good ten days or so where you just had no control over anything and had to click through text boxes
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I'm still in the summer, after the beach trip.

I got the game in February, and I really like it, but yea, the pacing keeps making me put it down.
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boxington posted...

I'm still in the summer, after the beach trip.

I got the game in February, and I really like it, but yea, the pacing keeps making me put it down.

I'm about 110 hours in and I started it new years day

just about ready for it to be over, 70-80 hours would have been fine imo
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I love the persona series but man the pacing of 5 is pretty bad, especially towards the end. They legit should've ended the game after Shido's dungeon and trimmed out the last 15 hours >_> I still had fun but it definitely soured my taste for the game right at the end
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damn, idk what I was doing, because I've played 100+ hours
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TheGoldenEel posted...

I'm about 110 hours in and I started it new years day

just about ready for it to be over, 70-80 hours would have been fine imo

i just finished it too. yeah the pacing gets thrown out the window on the last couple days. then yeah, after everything its just about wrapping everything up. i really felt sad about leaving these characters behind, but i wanted it to end just as badly lol.

i think the persona game team just felt that, they wanted the social links or whatever to really be a part of the gameplay and story. and thats why the ending is the way it is.

in persona 4 its just like whatever bye everyone who isn't chie. i dont even remember the other social links. some.. fox?
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NeonOctopus posted...

I love the persona series but man the pacing of 5 is pretty bad, especially towards the end. They legit should've ended the game after Shido's dungeon and trimmed out the last 15 hours >_> I still had fun but it definitely soured my taste for the game right at the end

The twists to keep the game going feel particularly contrived too

They should have just straight up said ok we just want the game to be another 20 hours at this point dont worry about it

Instead its endless exposition dumps
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slow ending too

i mean i get that the social links are a big part of the game but after the final boss there's like 90 minutes of limping to the finish

can't believe people play these games more than once but overall it was fun
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I've heard very, very few people say they played through Persona 5 more than once. I think it's going to be viewed like Grandia 1 years from now... great game with turrible replay value so finish it the first time you play through it.
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IIRC my playtime ended up being 150 hours and I enjoyed it all.

*shrug*

Complaining about a lot of text in a Persona game seems weird to me. They're extremely dialogue and character heavy games, with almost all the focus on story.
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CreekCo posted...

I've heard very, very few people say they played through Persona 5 more than once. I think it's going to be viewed like Grandia 1 years from now... great game with turrible replay value so finish it the first time you play through it.

I played through it three damn times to get the platinum.
I will never play it again
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Tmk posted...

IIRC my playtime ended up being 150 hours and I enjoyed it all.

*shrug*

Complaining about a lot of text in a Persona game seems weird to me. They're extremely dialogue and character heavy games, with almost all the focus on story.

This.
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CreekCo posted...

I've heard very, very few people say they played through Persona 5 more than once. I think it's going to be viewed like Grandia 1 years from now... great game with turrible replay value so finish it the first time you play through it.

i maxed all but one confidant (iwai) and I got him to 8 so I got most of his story

but so much of the endgame is giving you stuff for ng+; i can't imagine wanting to get back into this again

too many damn games in the world to spend time replaying 100+ hour ones
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Tmk posted...

Complaining about a lot of text in a Persona game seems weird to me. They're extremely dialogue and character heavy games, with almost all the focus on story.

A lot of the text in P5 was utterly pointless, specifically the text messages where the same ideas get repeated constantly during the "Mission Start! Until the deadline". There was also the aforementioned school trip that was also pointless in the grand scheme of things (unlike say P3 where lots of plot related things happened)

My desire to play that game was all over the place. I loved it at first. Then the pacing and lack of freedom started killing it. Then near the very last dungeon I started to love it again because I could finally fuse some cool persona.

I doubt that i could slog through it again.
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Reis posted...

A lot of the text in P5 was utterly pointless, specifically the text messages where the same ideas get repeated constantly during the "Mission Start! Until the deadline". There was also the aforementioned school trip that was also pointless in the grand scheme of things (unlike say P3 where lots of plot related things happened)

I don't really see something pointless if it lacks plot stuff happening because Persona games are very character-driven, and any interactions or dialogue from characters is basically establishing/reinforcing the cast as a result, and can also be contributing to world building.

Heck I voluntarily would regularly walk all around the game world, especially after major events, to hear all the new dialogue in and around the city. There's a lot going on and some of it even relates to Mementos stuff that hasn't fully developed yet, or in response to stuff you did do.
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That would be a fair point, but the P5 cast as a whole didn't feel very well developed at all. Even their links all felt pretty flat to me, which was weird because I found pretty much every other link to be phenomenal

Reis posted...

That would be a fair point, but the P5 cast as a whole didn't feel very well developed at all. Even their links all felt pretty flat to me, which was weird because I found pretty much every other link to be phenomenal

I think this game had an actual budget so they were probably developed more by focus groups and committees versus the smaller groups putting earlier games together. You can kinda tell by the character designs that a lot of polish went into the characters but I guess it was more on visuals and looking cool versus substance. Same thing for the prolonged ending as everyone mentioned... some producer must have mandated 100+ hours or something. There's a lot about the ending stuff I really wasn't feeling.
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That is sort of how I ended up feeling. I didn't find them flat, but, I did like the cast in 4 more overall, and I also weirdly liked the non-party member links a lot more overall in 5.

At first I liked Mona more than Teddie, but ultimately I think Teddie had a better arc.

And then in P4, what struck me in particular was that the later party members you get are just...you know, let's say more exciting/unusual, and P5's later party members didn't really give me the same vibe. Not to say I dislike Mona, or there was no one in the main cast I didn't really like and find neat, just like, the overall package I guess.

Though in 4 there was definitely a lot of links outside the party I didn't really like at all, whereas I was pretty interested in almost all of them in 5.
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yeah the last palace was the worst. on my 2nd playthrough i just stopped playing when i got to it.
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I actually think the pacing is better than 3 or 4, since you have no lulls of literally nothing, though it has its own problems with lots of fluff to keep shit happening which is shit in its own way

the plot and core party were pretty flat for the most part, other confidants were great even if formulaic, only palace I didn't like was Futaba's, 110 hours I believe

I beat Shido's palace and watched his confession. 145 hours.

Excellent game but it is too damn long. Some dungeons drag and there is too much dialogue.

3 and 4 felt perfect lengths, they went overboard with this one.

Also didnt like cast or story nearly as much as 3 or 4. Gameplay was certainly much improved tho.
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i only finished it once and got bored at the 1st dungeon when i did new game+ .
they should let us skip the whole scene instead of just fast forwarding it.
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Yeah, I legit just started skipping the text messages most of the time after dungeon 4 >_> They're all so boring and repeated so much. Like after you beat a dungeon, every fucking night the texts are literally like:

"we beat the dungeon, I wonder if their heart will change"
"I guess we'll have to wait and see"

Next night

"Do you guys think his heart will change?"
"It happened to everyone else, but I guess we'll find out later"

Etc.
Etc.
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NeonOctopus posted...

Yeah, I legit just started skipping the text messages most of the time after dungeon 4 >_> They're all so boring and repeated so much. Like after you beat a dungeon, every fucking night the texts are literally like:

"we beat the dungeon, I wonder if their heart will change"
"I guess we'll have to wait and see"

Next night

"Do you guys think his heart will change?"
"It happened to everyone else, but I guess we'll find out later"

Etc.
Etc.

Agreed. I havent read a single text message since dungeon 4 either.

Also, the parts where the thieves meet the person's shadow self is always so cringey... the shadow explains how he uses others for his own gain and the thieves all take turns saying "you are a terrible person, the way you view people as tools makes me sick, this is unforgiveable, etc."
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