Overall I liked the ending. Sophia struggling like crazy to overcome her programming and awaken her persona was satisfying. Sure it was the kind of thing AI characters deal with, but that didn't make it any less enjoyable. It was hard seeing her being used to attack everyone and taking a fall in order to avoid doing more harm.
I really liked the various moments of tension the story had. Be it the main cast having to hide from islanders out to kill them or actively having to avoid an impending police raid, the game had good moments in it. It took advantage of how dangerous things could get and how helpless the main cast are outside of their element.
I did find myself really missing the various confidants as the story went on. More so than the previous Persona games, the confidants were truly allies of the main character and his journey. I feel like you could have cameo'd a call from Mishima and getting his site back up for the occasion or the various allies that would have most definitely taken notice of what was going on. But I get the idea here. The focus was very much on the Phantom Thieves. They kept the group together more than it felt like they were together on their much longer game
. And I'm good with that.
Now I did kind of wish they found a way to incorporate the character relationships into things. It was a bit awkward having the girls interrogate the MC about his love life...including potentially one of the girls he might have been dating from the previous game
. And I still wish this was a continuation of Royal instead of just the original game. Left me missing the presence of Yoshizawa and other characters. But oh well, that's just how it goes.
Also huge points to them changing things up a bit with the villains. They changed it up and I appreciate it. Instead of just people being bad and needing to be punished, this game had more nuance to it. The Monarchs did bad things and that's not a question. But they all were damaged in some way and taken advantage of. They did all need to pay for their actions, but the Phantom Thieves could empathize more. In part because they weren't direct victims of them this time around and instead were just coming across them. It let characters like Ann, Yusuke, and Haru grow in how they reached out and helped these people see where they went wrong and change for the better. Huge points for Haru who needed this
.
Of course I'll always prefer the combat from P5 ahead of this. It was fun changing things up for this sequel story, but I wouldn't want to use it for a main game like Persona 6. Wasn't quite as satisfying as getting a huge baton pass cycle going and just wiping out enemies
. But the combat was still fun.