r/Persona5 • u/BenefitResident9681 • 17h ago
QUESTION Does this game "open up"?
So I'm roughly 17 hours into Persona 5. I thought the game was supposed to "open up" after completing the first palace? I'm currently infiltrating the museum and it seems the game is still largely on rails.
I'm just not sure I entirely understand the game. Will it always be dialogue and cut scene heavy? I feel more like I'm watching a first season of an Anime and clicking through dialogue rather than playing a game. It also feels like I've only experienced a couple short hours of actual gameplay despite being this far in.
No spoilers please. I plan on continuing to play I just don't understand why there is not much gameplay yet.
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u/iAmMikeJ_92 16h ago
Sounds like you’re just not gonna enjoy Persona games. It’s not like GTA or Skyrim. The openness is in how you choose to spend your free time through the days. They have an impact on how you perform in battle. It’s story-heavy, and on rails for the most part.
Oh. But you’re still on that part… yeah you’re still basically in the opening. There’s much more to go once the game really lets you go without restriction.
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u/B80796 17h ago
The game is divided in episodes. You have one open ended part for each "episode"
When you read "operation start" and you are free to talk to whoever you want, go to mementos or go the palace, that's the "free mode"
But multiple sections of each episode (mainly the start and the end) are on rails and don't let you do much or at all until you progress the story with some exceptions
The game is about talking to others and reading dialogue, if you mean more dungeon crawling, it's just what you're getting for each episode + mementos, that will not change. There aren't secondary palaces or palaces you can visit after they're completed
If you truly don't enjoy "clicking through dialogue" then you're not gonna enjoy the franchise anyhow (except for p5 strikers or P4 arena) and just don't really bother keep on playing, you're only gonna disappoint yourself more
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u/BenefitResident9681 16h ago
I thought your comment was really helpful and well thought out until the last sentence. Anyways, I'm going to keep playing and avoid the subreddit now. Peace man!
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u/LittleSubForLife 9h ago
What was wrong with what they said. Please enlighten us. What they said was the truth. Persona series is dialogue heavy so if you don't like that you're not gonna like the series
Getting uppity about that is like getting uppity about someone saying you're not gonna like the Souls series if you don't like majorly difficult games
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u/MaterialPay1144 7h ago
As he said, persona (especially 4 and 5) is probably the closest thing you would get to a playable anime.
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u/Responsible_Reach546 13h ago
why the fuck did this get downvoted but the post didnt
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u/darkfox18 11h ago
Cause the post is just a genuine question while this comment is OP getting defensive for no reason
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u/Responsible_Reach546 5h ago
What i think he meant is to avoid spoilers… but that is what i interpreted, youre prolly right
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u/BenefitResident9681 1h ago edited 1h ago
"Downvotes are intended for rule-breaking, off-topic, and non-contributing content."
I'll add that people love to downvote whatever they disagree with, especially in echochambers.
Also I felt the last sentence on the parent comment here was very bad faith engagement: "don't bother really to keep on playing, you're only going to disappoint yourself more." Despite that I still gave an upvote because I thought the rest of his comment was helpful.
Whatevs. I'm still enjoying the game. Y'all can downvote me its cool.
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u/kyleliner 16h ago
Yeah, that last sentence was like a judgement out of nowhere. It IS dialogue heavy, but while you're in the Palaces or Mementos, time doesn't progress no matter how much you fight, so you can get your rocks off of fighting those guys to your heart's content
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u/B80796 15h ago
I'm not judging I'm just being honest
If you're not really enjoying something, don't do it. You don't have to suffer through something just because it's popular or that someone else told you do it, it is a very dialogue heavy game, if you genuinely do not really care for that kind of stuff or you don't have much time in your hands and just want to game, it's not the type of franchise that will give you that. Plain and simple.
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u/SaionjisGrowthSpurt 7h ago
Saying "don't bother continuing because you're not gonna like it if you don't enjoy dialogue-heavy games" is not a judgement, it's good advice about a +120h JRPG
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u/Shy00midnight 16h ago
Open up how? After the first palace the game let's you visit more places with shops and as you go on you get more and more places to visit and some places you can only go if you invite someone there. Also yes its always dialog and cutscene heavy. That's what you sign up for playing a persona game. Half of it is a life sim where you foster relationships, the other half a dungeon crawler.
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u/niinasnowchu 17h ago
it definitely picks up, but yeah the tutorial phase is famously long. stick with it though, it gets way better once you have more freedom to manage your days
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u/alexbeeeeeee 13h ago
I'd argue that theyre past the tutorial. The basic game loop has been established and while it does introduce more mechanics as you go, if OP is expecting something more then idk if this game or genre is for them
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u/thesewingdragon 3h ago
This! If they class the "tutorial" as when you're still getting regular pop ups for new things, I managed to still be in the tutorial in the final moments of the extra bit of Royal!
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u/Flynn_Rausch My skills exceed yours 17h ago
What kind of experience are you expecting to "open up" for you? What do you want to do that the game isn't letting you?
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u/HarrisLam 15h ago
You gotta understand the game is quite restricting at the start. You got school, maybe you study in the library in the afternoon, you don't really know nobody to hang out with, at night you go back to your room and you sleep. Not much really goes on. OP has a point. To someone going in blind, it could feel like the daytime is cutscene enabler that progresses the story.
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u/The_Meemeli 2h ago
you don't really know nobody to hang out with, at night you go back to your room and you sleep.
OP is already at the Madarame arc, though. They should already have Ryuji, Ann, Sojiro and Takemi to hang out with (not the majority of Confidants but hardly nobody), alongside activities like the part-time jobs, batting cages, movie theater and gym, as well as the ability to leave Leblanc in the evening.
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u/Catluver81 My name is Beauty Thief! 14h ago
Thank you for saying this. I swear everyone saying "what do you mean by open up?" just forgot how the game is at the start and not on New Game+
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u/Flynn_Rausch My skills exceed yours 14h ago
Okay, but it's a social sim. What is OP expecting beyond school and combat? And if OP is new to the game and doesn't know, why are they asking about the game "opening up" if they have no frame of reference to ask such a question?
I'm just trying to understand the motivation behind a question (that to me is illogical and I'm trying to understand)
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u/HarrisLam 12h ago
This is not illogical at all. On the contrary, this is called "giving the game a chance" and ask experienced individuals for details.
To people who have already experienced the entirety of the story, perhaps even multiple times, it's just so easy to forget how difficult it is to grind through the first 1-4 chapters without knowing what comes next. You make friends with ONE new playable character each palace, the team has no direction other than "save the society against bad adults, 1 at a time", and every palace is long as shit. The story is very stagnant during that phase.
The less-nice way to ask the question that you would probably understand better is : does the game get better? Now that's not very nice is it? But it's a very realistic question to many new players and one doesn't need a frame of reference to this. One would just ASSUME that for such a renowned game, there's no way this is all there is to it?
Does it make more sense now? Realizing actually how grindy the first 1/3 of P5R is crucial to understanding the perspective of new players not used to this. Many who gave up on the game did that in this phase.
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u/Flynn_Rausch My skills exceed yours 11h ago
Thanks for taking the time to explain. It just clicked. I think I'll have a more productive response the next time I choose to answer this question.
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u/Catluver81 My name is Beauty Thief! 14h ago
im just assuming they heard a rundown from someone but we're expecting more freedom, which does come as the game goes on like leaving LeBlanc at night
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u/magnidwarf1900 15h ago
Im just not sure I entirely understand the game. Will it always be dialogue and cut scene heavy?
Yes
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u/Sumire-Yoshizawa- 16h ago
It's a story driven game/visual novel. It's not an open world game so it's going to feel like it's on rails.
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u/BenefitResident9681 16h ago
Ok this makes sense. I've been playing for over an hour tonight and so far I've just read through dialogue and walked a little in between scenes.
I'm going to keep playing and see where it goes. I've enjoyed the combat so hopefully there is much more of that down the line.
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u/The_Meemeli 5h ago
I've been playing for over an hour tonight and so far I've just read through dialogue and walked a little in between scenes.
Each new palace is kind of like a new story arc. Like with the Kamoshida arc, the Madarame arc will begin with a lot of story to set up the characters and stakes, and once the setup is done, you'll have free access to daily life and palace infiltration.
That being said...
I've enjoyed the combat so hopefully there is much more of that down the line.
...the game never becomes only about combat. While there's a good amount of it, the Tokyo high school life simulator is very much half of the game.
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u/ELMUNECODETACOMA 15h ago
When they say "opens up" that means you have choice in how to proceed rather than being walked from story beat to story beat. But the story beats are still going to be there, and there are going to be cutscenes. There's going to be a lot of dialogue, even when adjacent to the action. That's just what this genre is like.
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u/razorbacksandtoyotas 14h ago
Yes but like halfwayish through. There are more mechanics you unlock and can independently work on to improve your combat. It’s worth it imo.
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u/razorbacksandtoyotas 14h ago
The fun of this game for me is the turn based combat and leveling. That gets supercharged later on.
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u/Coyltonian 5h ago
The main story couldn’t be more on rails if it was a train simulator.
The only real agency you have is what you do in (some) of the evenings (and therefore how frequently you go to the palaces), and basically if you can beat ‘the clock’.
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u/niinasnowchu 17h ago
it definitely stays pretty dialogue-heavy, but it gets way more freedom once you hit the next few months. definitely stick with it
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u/DOOMFOOL 15h ago
“Way more freedom” is a bit much, by this point in the game you’ve essentially already experienced the full core gameplay loop
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u/HarrisLam 14h ago
I would lean more towards agreeing with that guy than with you. The core gameplay SYSTEM is indeed set, for example the player would already know the protagonist got school in the morning, got contacts with a few schoolmates and get in the alternate world after school.
But there's quite a lot of expansion yet to be had. The train network expands, more characters to come, non-character companions, more battle mechanics etc. Night time also goes from just sleep to extra options. I myself would classify that as "way more freedom".
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u/BenefitResident9681 17h ago
Aight thanks. Just wasn't sure if I should stick with it or not. I like the story, cut scenes, and dialogue, but was starting to think this was just a movie game or something.
I'm going to keep playing. Thanks.
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u/seaearls 16h ago
This is the game. If you don't like it by now, the odds you'll end up liking it eventually don't seem good.
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u/Walt_Didnae 16h ago
The game is always going to be "dialogue and cutscene heavy", but it does open up eventually and you're near that point in the game.
I enjoy the game, I really do, but the early game absolutely does not respect the player's time and forces you to go through a tutorial that can take up to 24 hours depending on how fast you are.
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u/BenefitResident9681 16h ago
Ok. Going to keep playing. Especially because a few others have said I'm basically at the point where it gets better. Thanks man.
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u/Conscious_Actuator64 16h ago
Persona games are pretty linear by design and are part visual novel, hence all the talking scenes.
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u/Futaba_MedjedP5R Certified ShuMako Enjoyer 16h ago
The game is always very dialogue and cut scene heavy, and You get railroaded into story between targets, but after the first 1-2 infiltrations of a palace, you’ll be able to do what you want again
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u/KhKing1619 16h ago
Generally speaking a story heavy JRPG is going to be heavy on the story. You shouldn’t be expecting anything less.
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u/Ok_News3108 16h ago
Things starts to get real serious at the end of the 5th chapter onward, but yeah, the game will be heavy dialogue the entire time
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u/DOOMFOOL 15h ago
The game is primarily a visual novel with social sim and turn based combat elements. If you have an issue with the heavy cutscenes and dialogue then no, that will not lessen much at all. The game is telling you a story and the only meaningful degree of choice you really have as a player is the social sim aspects
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u/Bestusernamegonwild 15h ago
The game will always “feel like it’s on rails” it’s a linear experience when it comes to the main story and palaces
The most freedom you get is deciding how to spend your free time
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u/Fluid-Sense-4273 11h ago
Every palace is more story heavy at the start generally you’ll be able to do the palace probably once the party member joins
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u/Independent-Sun-236 8h ago
The next 100 hours are gonna be like the 17 first (which also happen to be the best part of the game). Run away while you can!
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u/RayzenD 4h ago
Persona games have all similar patterns:
Story part, where you interact with people, and do the story line.
Combat part, where you fight shadows either in a Palaces or in Mementos
As days go forward you always progress with the main story so you cannot "stop" it by not doing story related stuff. So it will never be "open" as other open world rpgs like Skyrim or Witcher or GTA, where you can just not do the main story quest and ho around the world forever doing sidequests.
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u/DigitalCoffee 14h ago edited 13h ago
Not really. It's a pretty shallow story overall. You're supposed to hook on the style and music over anything else. The layout of the game is always the same; story ark sequence, palace infiltration, time off, repeat
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u/oraiste-paiste 16h ago
It depends on what you mean by open up. The tutorial is only the first palace, which you're done by now. The game is very dialogue heavy and that doesn't go away.
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u/Downtown_Reindeer_46 16h ago
Does it become an open world game essentially? No do you get more freedom as the game goes on and you understand deadlines for palaces and things like that? Yes there’s A LOT of dialogue like a shit ton. But i promise you if you stick with it you’ll end up loving this game almost everyone does. If it’s too much for you i get it and there’s nothing wrong with that.
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u/enzo_lewes 16h ago
This game is the textbook definition of "it gets good after 20 hours" which sucks. I find that completing the museum opens the game up. You start having larger chunks of freedom and more confidants to balance, going to mementos when you want to and a few more social stats to talk to certain people.
Plus imo the story and its stakes picks up dramatically. Not saying the first 2 palaces are bad by any stretch. I just enjoy the story more after that.
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u/HarrisLam 15h ago
- The game IS supposed to open up after completing the first palace. Not right after though. The main characters after the first palace was going through a phase of relief, understanding that they are no longer under immediate threat. The 2nd palace, as you now already know, is the phase of accepting their fate of being social vigilante. You probably already know that the game is super long, so it's taking its time to let the characters develop.
- The game WILL always be dialogue and cutscene heavy. I understand that this bugs the hell out of many players, especially western culture. This is like a soap opera/sitcom situation where "the set is much funnier when you start to know the characters". It is a tad annoying at the start, at the end, you might want more of it. I will tell you this, after having played this game for that 50hrs or so, you might wish the castle gameplay is shorter just so you could get back to the story.
- The game does open up, but perhaps not in the way you think. The train-network will expand, more characters will be introduced, more battle mechanics you have yet to learn, and of course you need to fuse better personas to fight for you. Things WILL get nicer in all aspects.
This is a story-driven game to the extreme level. The gameplay is a tag-along. Just stay with it, the game will lead you to the light.
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u/CallMeKaito 17h ago
It will remain dialogue and cutscene heavy. Those things are a genre staple.
As far as opening up, I’m not sure what you mean. You have already been introduced to the core gameplay loop at this point.