so contrary to what i wrote yesterday, i do not actually have a massive diatribe about p5 at the ready, especially since most of my grievances are very subjective and relative to other games in the series. tl;dr: it's style over substance and the conflict/themes feel incredibly juvenile and, more than anything, cynical compared to its predecessors. p4 was a harbinger of that, i suppose, but i felt that there were more things that worked in p4's favor to make it compelling, even if i still don't think it's that good: a smaller scope in terms of setting and narrative arc (killing god notwithstanding), more compelling character dynamics, and more humanistic themes. now, to be fair, iirc the cynical tone was informed by real world events in japan either shortly before or during development. nonetheless, i assert that the story has a bunch of bark with little bite.

it's difficult to articulate exactly what i mean because p5 still has so many of the ingredients that made me love the previous games, but i guess it's like me trying to make cream cheese frosting the other day and the first time i made it, it was basically Cream Cheese Chunk Sugar Soup because the proportions of the ingredients was completely off. it had all the things necessary to make delicious frosting, but i tried eyeballing it instead of measuring it out like i normally do. that's what p5 feels like to me. the flavors of those ingredients aren't there. they don't come together in a smooth and cohesive way. it has all the components of a fantastic game, which is why most people will tell you that it is a fantastic game, but it tastes off to me. texture wrong

i also only like yusuke and makoto LOL the characters did not resonate with me at all, which is a shame.