For the first few Jails everything is fairly by the numbers, but enjoyable. It was nice to see Yusuke and Haru take the spotlight since they're two characters I always felt were less fleshed out than the rest, and this was the most convincing Yusuke's passion for art has ever been to me. But the worthwhile story stuff definitely comes when the plot kicks into gear and switches focus to Zenkichi, Sophia and Ichinose, who are really good characters. I felt the themes of justice were handled with more nuance here during the Konoe arc than they had been in even the original P5. While it's not like the writers denounce the Phantom Thieves or anything, the pre and post-boss scenes with Konoe where they argue their righteousness I felt were a marked improvement over the original game where there's very little legitimate questioning of their methods and it's usually dispelled very quickly.
This game felt so much clearer than Royal and in some places the original P5 in terms of knowing its themes, what it wanted to say about them, and how to get there. I found the argument that "hearts can change" much more hopeful and convincing this time round, and the focus on decisions makes so much sense in hindsight - using AI to incorporate the Sefirot into the story in a simple and elegant way was a stroke of genius. I can already tell Sophia's speech to Ichinose is going to remain one of my favorite Persona moments, it's such a beautiful scene and has so much pay off to it. They really take the AI theme as far as they can and an AI breaking its own code to choose for itself is the perfect cap-off to a story about the importance of decision-making and change. I'm sure some will be disappointed with another god final boss but the idea of an AI that has advanced to the point where it achieves a god-like status is too good a good twist on the original game's "false god" to pass up. Despite it not having any references to Royal whatsoever, it ended up probably still worth being playing Royal first, since Scramble continues the theme of following "one's chosen path" and took it a lot further.
The CG cutscenes also deserve a lot of praise. I enjoyed P5's ones, but these are on a whole other level, and there's a lot more of them. I really hope that Atlus takes some lessons from KT and can do more cutscenes like these in their own games in future.
Jails 4 and 5 are weird. I feel like they should've just accepted that 7 Jails was too ambitious with the game's budget and downsized, rather than try to meet that number by making a couple of the Jails tiny. The game doesn't have a lack of content, but it makes it feel like it does by drawing attention to it like this. It also just makes the game's pacing feel kinda wack, having 3 large Jails, 2 small ones, 1 really large one, and then another small one. 5 similar sized ones with the last Jail remaining smaller as it is would've been a better way to do it, and the fourth Jail's plot can easily be covered in a few cutscenes instead. That niggle aside, I thought the Jails themselves were pretty great. The little conversations that play while you're exploring are charming and they don't get interrupted because you open a door or enter a battle (ahem, Mementos). Not to mention they're longer than two lines and relevant to the actual setting. That said, there needs to be some restraint - there's so much battle dialogue during Konoe's boss fight that I had to pause the game just to hear what his boss theme actually sounded like. Unfortunately, I'm not a huge fan of the soundtrack, barring the battle themes, which are all fantastic. The Jail and town music is extremely forgettable and safe, which is a big disappointment after P5's Palace themes, and the majority of the cutscene music is lifted straight from the original game. Sophia's theme, the extended Jail theme that plays in Osaka Jail, and the Okinawa town music were nice, but that's really all that has stuck out to me.
Combat was usually fun, and surprisingly difficult throughout even on normal. There were a few minibosses that I couldn't help but think would be more fun if they got rid of the smaller shadows and just had the boss as the sole enemy though. Those fights with a single strong opponent were typically the most enjoyable ones. I also really enjoyed the final boss, even if it's a little repetitive - I've been wanting a Persona final boss to make use of every party member instead of just the active 4 for a long time, and I think they did it really nicely here. I doubt it was intentional but having to choose which characters fight what and then immediately realizing I'd made all the wrong choices and picked all the wrong elements but soldiering on nonetheless was very thematically fitting. I do wonder if they initially intended for you to be destroying the spheres at the same time as fighting the boss itself and switching between characters, but couldn't implement it for whatever reason.
Anyway, I really enjoyed it. The game was a lot of fun, but it's the story that really impressed me. It really feels like the people writing this game know exactly how to write P5. It has left me with so much to actually think about in regards to its themes, which I haven't felt after beating a Persona game in a while. It's such a pleasant surprise after the main things Royal left me contemplating were whether I actually enjoyed it or not, or whether it was worth the price.
Scramble 2 please Atlus.
