Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - We Played Persona 5 Royal! - First Impressions

Episode Date: February 17, 2020

Blessing and Joey got to play Persona 5 Royal! They sit down to share their thoughts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yo, what's up? Welcome to kind of funny first impressions. I'm one of your host's blessing at E.A. Jr. And joining me is Christmas after Valentine's Day weekend, Joey Newell. Hello. Joey, how are you doing? Good. This is my first time being on the show. Totally didn't know that there was like a little whole little intro thing.

Oh, yeah. This is like real professional. This is something I put together myself because I was lucky to be the one to like start off the first impressions. And so I could just set the tone. And what I say, what I say is intros. I don't think you. You were the deciding factor on that one, Bless. No?

I think we had an intro prepped for this one before. No, I wrote this by myself. He wrote all the music. Well, not the music. I didn't write the music. I'm talking about the actual intro. Oh, you're talking about the intro? Oh, you're talking about the music intro, or are you talking about the script?

Both. This is the show. This is going on with Gamescast feed. Of course, this is kind of funny first impressions where we take a look at the new games we're playing and give you our first thoughts and feelings. You can access it live right here on Twitch. TV slash kind of funny games, except right now we're not live on Twitch. dot TV slash kind of funny games because of embargoes.

This is going live. Well, I guess this is live when you see it. Yes. And so you can get this specific episode on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games or on podcast services around the globe on the games cast feed. See. Today, we're playing. Well, we're not playing.

We're actually watching something we played a while ago. Personify Royal for the PS4. Yeah. So me and you, Joey, we went to L.A. Had a fun little trip. a great trip. Some travel snafus. Very smooth trip.

Nothing wrong happened. It was a great time. Everybody knew their flights. Went to Hollywood. Went to the exact right airports. Went to the exact right terminals and everything. But yeah, we went to L.A., went to a preview event, and we played some Persona 5 Royal. We did.

I was very excited for the opportunity to do this. It's been, I want to say, like, almost two years since I finished persona. So it's been... It's been a while since I've jumped back into it. Yeah, same for me. The first little bit was like, what are the controls? What am I doing? How does this work?

Yeah. So like the way they had it set up where there are like four different saves where we could jump in. And so they had one towards, I guess the middle of the Kamashito dungeon. They had one toward the end. And then they had one out in the world and they had another one. And so we were allowed to like pick and choose like, okay, where do we want to start off?

And yeah, I also started off in Kamashita's dungeon. And I was like, I don't know what I'm doing because it's been two or three years since I've actually played this game because I beat it when it first came out. And so I have. have my pre-recorded gameplay, I cut down, I added it down to the more interesting bits, because I got to capture about 45 minutes, but a lot of it is stuff that we've already seen, because for people who aren't initiated, what's the difference between persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal?

So Persona 5 Royal has an additional semester that somehow is in the middle of the game, from what I recall. It's because after Christmas, you just... There's that time jump. Yeah, you kind of do a bunch of jumps. Like, you get to important dates, but there's, like, a whole gap in between Christmas and then the end of the school year where you leave, essentially. I think it'll be interesting to see a lot of different things with that.

I never played persona four Golden. Yeah. So, and you have, correct? I played Golden. I've not played original Persona 4, so I'm not sure all the differences between those two, but this is essentially a similar thing where it is, like, this is the expanded version of Persona 5 with more story content. member. Yeah, there's a new character.

She looks dope. Yeah, and she's going to be in like the second half of this gameplay. And I really like her character. Yeah. I mean, I don't know about you, but I had like minimal interaction. I had like one conversation with her. I had like one scene with her. All of the like stills and like character art that they've released for her is really cool.

Yeah. So this right here, sorry to interrupt you, but this way here is an introduction to the new mechanics or new mechanic in the dungeon, which I'm calling it. The grappling hook, yeah. which then allows you to get to new areas and find new secrets. Yeah. And so there's like the first, I'm assuming this is the first instance of it happening in the game where you get to use it. And so I hooked to that thing, takes me over there.

It's like a contextual thing. I walk up to wherever I get the prompt and I do it. But, and I'll show you later on the gameplay, there are moments where you can like discover the grappling hook moments, which I think adds a level of like, okay, cool, like I can discover things in the dungeons, which is nice. This is funny because I didn't end up doing any of this. I couldn't, I didn't know. So we started playing and I like jumped immediately back into like, oh, we're playing persona. And I'm going to fight all these like minibuses on the hallways and stuff like that.

And I'm like, what am I here to do again? Like it's so hard not to just get back into the groove of playing persona. Yeah, that's my thing too. I was like, all right, how do I heal my members? How do I like, all right, I want to go through all this one go. And I was like, wait a second. This isn't even my save. Like, why do I care so much?

I don't have my like healing items from the doctor. So this is the thing that you can discover now. Yeah, these are hidden through. the dungeons. I'm not sure they're actually they explain what it is, but it's a will seed. Oh, cool. Yeah, Morgana just said it, a will seed. Yeah, yeah, this is a result. I call it a will seed. But yeah, you're using your grappling hook to

find things like this. It's so, it's just like a discoverability thing on your map, right? Do you use like your sense thing? Yes, and all that comes up. It's going to explain in a second. It may not be as as a prize as a treasure, but it's still quite the rare find. Oh, actually, no. I think what this does is it gives you more SP. I'm pretty sure. Yeah, because that was my problem with doing the first two, like, save points that they gave us.

Was that I had just run out of SP by the time I got to, like, the things that I actually needed it for. So yeah, they give you the choice. Well, they don't really give the choice. They do the thing where they give you two options to say the same thing. Yeah. So you take it. And then I believe it just gives you more SP. Red Lusseed. do you think you're going to play through all of this again? That's like the big question for me because up until now, I've said yes. I'm down to replay persona 5 all 120 plus hours now. But with how busy this year is, it's starting to become more and more like, oh, we'll see.

And playing this, I think playing this has been a turning point for me because up until now, I've been like, okay, yeah, like I'm down to do it. Playing it again, I'm like, okay, it is. a lot of the same game, which makes it, which has made a conflicted place because Persona 4 Golden did it, and people love Persona 4 Golden, and these games have a precedent of, we were looking the whole game with expanded content. There are locations within the palace,

a palace ruler's cognition, blah, blah, blah, items called will seeds will appear. There are three will seeds in each palace, you'll recover a small amount of SP, so there you go. That's cool. And so you can find those now. But I found that while exploring this palace, it felt very samey outside of these bits of like, oh, cool.

They've added, like, a new room or like the grappling hook stuff. And, you know, that stuff is a bit cool. And I think in some ways it'll help you get through the palaces quicker because I found one area actually here where I was able to find a place where can grapple hook up to. And it seemed like it allowed me to skip a point. So those stars are like the designation that it's like a grappling. point. Yeah. Yes.

That is correct. I didn't notice that, but that makes sense because I did grab a hook to where those stars were. But yeah, like I'm still, I'm still, I'm still, because I like some of the story stuff too. That's like the thing for me is like the dungeon stuff. I'm like, okay, like this stuff is cool. The story stuff with Kasumi so far, I really like her character and I'm sold on her.

And so I don't know. What about you? I'm a little bit torn to you. I do feel like this demo was also a turning point for me of I love Persona 5. I think it's a good. great game. But from what I saw, and granted, like, this is a short 45 minute, even, and I even feel like we played closer to probably an hour and a half.

Yeah. Demo for a hundred plus hour game. To interrupt you, right? Like, my hand right here is, like, glowing. And I didn't know what was happening. Does that mean you can grapple? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what that meant, because I was like trying to, I was, like, trying to figure out, I was like, where is it glowing?

And then I ended up using my sense. And then you could find. Yeah, I was trying to figure out the buttons because it's been so long. Right. But, yeah. That's the hardest thing with, again. doing a demo for a game like this. So I used my sense and I was like, oh snap, okay, what's this?

And I'm pretty sure the hand means that there's a gravel hook area near you. And then boom, I found that. And then I did some more searching. And it looks like there's another grapple hook. Yeah, there's one like up there that I looked at. I was like, oh, snap. And so I do like the fact that that gives you. That's a way cooler mechanic than I had thought it was.

Yes. And it gives you more reason to use your sense abilities, which I feel like we're underused. Yeah, like I never really used that in person to five originally. Like a little bit, but never, like, it didn't feel significant. Like, it never felt like I had to use it at any point. Because I feel like every, like, you could see most of the threats that were around. Yeah. Like, it was supposed to alert you to.

Yeah. I should also say I had no sound during my capture. Like, my demo had sound. For some reason, capture messed up. And so that's why I've dubbed music over it, so you might not have noticed. Oh, look at you. Yeah. So, like, there you go.

I'm really digging this new mechanic because I think for a lot of people who do want to go back and replay, this will definitely, this grappling thing that seems like it's gonna get you through some things faster, like will help with some of the pacing especially earlier on the game. And like a lot of the, this entire first palace, which takes like 10 hours to get through, is the entire tutorial essentially of the game.

And so like I think it's... Which is I, I do think they added the grappling hook partly to help you skip through certain parts. Right. Yeah, because it seemed like I skipped through like a whole few rooms there when I grappled hook, grappled hook up. It's Cafe Daddy.

Yeah. So I hear I transition to the open world stuff, not open world, but overworld, I guess, stuff. They've added a new area. Correct. Called Ichijo, it'll come up in a second. Kichi-jogi. Kichidoji? Kich-jee-jee-jee-jee-jee-jee.

And so I'm going to travel there in a second. But I wish, so I didn't spend as much time as I wanted to in the world. Yeah. Because I started off in the dungeons thinking that that's where I was going to find the new stuff. I should just start off in the world. Because when I transition to the world, that's where I was like, okay, here we go. Here's the new content that seems like it's going to be pretty fun. Yeah, I agree.

I spent way too much just playing persona in this, getting caught up in like kind of that thing, rather than looking at the newer content, which is. So, yeah, Kichi-jji-jee. This. There was also another safe point. Did you put this in there? The Kamashita Boss Battle has some, like, additional content. Did it? Okay, so I did that.

It's been so long since I played that, like, I couldn't tell you by playing through it what was new about it. Yeah, that was one of those things where I went to that save during the demo, and I was like, I can't figure out where the new stuff is. And so I was just like, you know what? I'm running out of time. I'm just going to get into the open world. So this is me running around Kichi-Doggi, you said? Yeah. Kichidoji and kind of looking out what's around, which I don't know if there was much stuff in the demo for me to access.

Like, the more you play for Sona, the more kind of like things you kind of lock in the world. It's always just fun to have a new area to look around and all. these new shops and like what that means for new challenges for skill points and stuff like that too. Yeah. And so I ran around really quickly so you can kind of see like what the area looks like. And then I stopped by this one building where you can play darts and billiards. But you can't actually play billiards, which was a thing that was a bummer. Because you can play darts. And that was the thing that they stressed during the demo. They were like, oh, you can play darts and there's actual dart mechanics.

But they give you the choice here. and it said let's play darts or let's play billiards and i was like oh i'm going to play billiards if you're saying i go play billiards i'm going to play billiards and you can't actually like there's no mini game for billiards but it does it's essentially like just when you read on the train right it's just like yeah it's like a social thing it's the thing you do it's the thing you do with your confidence yeah and so that helps you increase your relationship in your skill your skill points it's like a passive activity exactly and so they have like the the cutscene that shows you like okay yeah here are you and your friends and like it's

It's more additional content, you know, as far as like, conversational. Conversational stuff, which is fun. But I was a bit bummed that you could play darts. And I did play darts later on in the darts video game. It's pretty fun. I'll talk about that later. Is it? Because I didn't play.

I just, like, kind of explored around, and then I just, I played through a little bit further so I could get, because I wanted to try and have more conversations with the new party. Remember whose name I can never remember? Because see me. Thank you. Yeah. And I got a trophy.

Oh, look at you. Trophy, you're going to have to get all over again. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure we'll see it in a little bit. But Darts plays kind of like the batting game. Batting cage, like. I don't think I ever played the Batting Cage game. Oh, really?

Oh. It was so fun. So, this is Kasumi here. Oh. She's so cute. She is amazing. She's so cute. So what's her backstory again?

Like, how are they introducing her to the, did you guys get any sense of? We didn't get any of that in here. We didn't really get when she was first introduced, but by the time you... So did you get the phone conversation with them where they seem to be talking about somebody spying on them or something? Or was that just like... I don't think I got that. Because I, they had run the phone, like the text conversations where they're talking about

someone. I was like, are they talking about Kasumi or was this like a story beat that I think that's Makoto because Makota is trying to figure out what the fuck they're up to? That's what it was. Okay, so I was confused at first. And I was like, this seems familiar, but I can't remember if this was like a thing or a new thing. But like, Consumi's whole thing is she's.

like an honor student. Yeah and like she doesn't she transfer here like the same time you do as well? Yeah that was from the first trailer I think yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, here she needs to get home and it was raining and you know like what am I going to do? Can't

let her get wet in the rain and so I busts up the umbrella because the homie Morgana packed an umbrella for me. Always having your back on that one. Yeah. Shout to Morgana. we didn't get any opportunity to look into the new

The Thieves Den? Well, I looked at the Thieves in a little bit. I can talk about that. But the new confidant who's like a school counselor. Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah, we didn't get a chance to see anything from that. That's a bummer because he looks real hot.

I know. So, persona, you know, just the series of inappropriate relationships. Oh, yeah. Students, teachers, people in power, you know. But I'm kind of bummed because I did wanted to see how what his kind of vibe is. Yeah, and like what he helps you with like what to level up in and stuff like that. And like what his perk is because like, yeah, the teacher gives you like extra time to do stuff. But what would he do for you?

Well, here the MPCs, like the other characters are kind of making fun of her. And they're like, oh, she's so smart. Oh, she's like a special snowflake. And she's nice about it. She's like, oh, I'm sorry. You shouldn't need to deal with them misunderstanding like that. She seems great. Yeah.

She seems great, Barrett. There might be a Makoto replacement here. No. See, that's so interesting because I... Nah, man. I wasn't, like, hugely in love with any of the girls. Not even Makoto? I think they're all, like, relatively fine.

Oh, how dare you? The one that I liked most was the Shogi player. He phoom me? Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. But she wasn't... Which she wasn't... which she's supposed to be like a full-blown party member, but then...

And that's, like, another interesting choice, too, is that, like, she was originally supposed to be a party member, and then, like, we had this whole expanded version of persona five, and then we don't even get, like, that added to it instead of someone else. And, like, it's probably because I, like, leveled her up, but, like, I feel like I had a way better, like, time with that than I did with, like, ever getting to know Haru. See, that was my thing is I didn't even level he can me all the way up,

even though I wanted to you, but at a certain point, I was like, I don't want to waste time. I want to make sure I get all my course. members leveled up. And even with that, I was like, I liked Hefumi way better than Haru. I feel like a lot of us liked a lot of other people over Haru. But I think that's also just like

Haru's the last party member that you get and you get her like 80 to 90 hours into the game. And at that point you already have your like party figured out. Yeah, and you're invested in all these other characters that you spent like so like interesting, I feel like. Because in Persona 4, like who's the last person? Wasn't it Rese? I've never played Prona before. I want to say it was Resei.

Who's like, I feel like a lot of people's favorite character. Yeah, like, Rese and Nato, and like, a lot of these later confidants or social links you get are in your party are like the best characters. All right, it's time to play Darts for us. Yeah, so this is what, so I went back to the place because I was like, all right, well, there's no Billiars minigame. And I'm going to play a minigame in this demo. I'm going to do something. And so I went and I played Darts and I could choose my teammate who I chose Ann on, how we want to pronounce it. And darts is interesting

Because I learned very quickly I don't know the rules to darts Apparently you're not just supposed to stay about the bullseye every time Really? Yeah, I know Darts is kind of like pool In the sense that like you could play it a billion different

You can play a bunch of different games With the same board and pieces So it just depends on What rule set you're going on Yeah, because there's one where you want You need to get like The closest number of points to something so you're trying to like hit specific.

That was the version we're playing. Honestly, I think... So it's all motion controls. Oh, that's weird. I feel like I'll never play that. You press a button, but you press a button and it essentially brings up like a sphere and then like there's a dot that's bouncing in the sphere

and then you have to hit the dot and then that'll just determine where the thing lands. I feel like this was probably a little, like they actually made this a mini game over Pool because it's, I think, Darts Live 3, might be like, I think that looks like a partnership with some company. So they're probably like, oh, like, let's flesh out a mini game. Oh, look at you.

Yeah, dude, I was getting it in until I realized I was playing wrong. Well, I guess I didn't get a bull's eye there. But, yeah, I believe, actually, I don't even see the score. Oh, yeah, on the bottom left, like the score 232. So every time I hit the board, the score goes down. And I believe I'm supposed to hit it to zero, but I'm still not positive if that's how guards works. So if you're planning on playing this, make sure to read the tutorial.

Yeah, I figure out how Darts works because I was pretty bad. It was pretty upset because I thought I was doing great. So did you guys get to check out the new palace at all? No. No. And I think this might have been, because you guys are a little lukewarm about Royal now. I feel like they showed you the wrong things to sell you on Royal as Persona Five fans, you know? Yeah.

It's like, hey, a reminder, this is a game where they show you like the little breadcrumbs. added, but they didn't show you, like, the cake. Yeah, it's a hard game to demo. Like, I'll, like, I'll definitely give them that because it was one of those things where I was like, okay, I got an hour to demo, how do I find the new stuff? And I spent a lot of time, like, running around in the old stuff because, like, they didn't necessarily, like, point you, somebody sneezes very loudly in there. I think that's any.

I think that's you. But, yeah, they didn't necessarily point us in any sort of direction. And so, like, as I was fighting, like, when I was in Comachito's dungeon and I was doing the grappling hook stuff, like, I was like, I was like, I was like, all right, like, I could see how this would translate to other dungeons, and I can see how this would, like, add, like, a certain layer, but it didn't necessarily... If that means that I don't have to do this dumb mouse puzzle in the...

Oh, you will. But it's like I could grappling hook around it. I mean, you might be able to skip some of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, I can see how that would add a certain layer. I don't know if that necessarily speaks to me. Yeah, I think it's more of just like a, hey, if you're replaying this, like, this could speed up some things if you don't, if you know you don't,

need to like level up a lot here or grind here in the specific part you can kind of like move around quickly throughout the palace and this like more expedited way yeah yeah but like the story stuff like the actual like character stuff consuming specifically i was like i like her character so far and from what i gather the ways in which they add stuff to the overall like i can never remember the name of this place i ii ki kichi i always want to say inki dojiko because that's freaking Callie Play games, Twitter. Yeah. And so that's the last what it sounds like.

Dang it. Why'd you have to say that? Now that's going to be stuck in my head. It's Kichi. Kichi, Jogi. Kichi Jogi. Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. Kichi Jogi seems cool.

And like the trailer stuff seems cool. Like all that stuff is enough to make me kind of want to replay Persona 5. But the fact that it's still a whole game of Persona 5. Like I do wish this is, like I do partly wish this is just DLC. Yeah.

And I can just jump into the new stuff. But I understand why they do it like this. This is kind of what people want, I imagine. And it's weird because, like, Persona 4 Golden, I feel like it was an opportunity to bring back a game from the PS2, right? To give it to a new audience and, like, have it be this whole remaster and have it be this big deal where this feels like a remaster for a game that came out two to a three years ago at this point. Like, it's just, it's weird. They could have held this for like PS5 or something and maybe it made a bigger thing or switch, but who knows what's going on there. And I'm just like interested in, because there was four years between Persona 4 and Persona 4 Colding.

Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, yeah, because Prisona 4 came out in like 2008. Yeah. On the PS2? Yeah. That's wild. It is.

But I'm just so also fascinated about the differences between Persona 5 Royal and Persona 5 Scramble. Of it's so interesting that they, it looks like Scramble is like kind of the more proper story sequel. and this is just an expanded story but then does that take into account changes that they're making or like additions that they're making with P5R? Yeah.

And like how all of that kind of is going to shake out? Yeah, that's the thing like I talked about this last week on PSLLU where I was like, yeah, Scramble seems like it's more, almost more additional content than Royal is. Like if I was a persona fan and had to choose one between playing Scramble or playing Percentify Royal, I might pick Scramble, honestly.

I think I would too because I would want, that seems like entirely new content. Yeah. And this is like 80 maybe percent, if not more. This is definitely for two people, right? It's for somebody who hasn't played Persona 5 and wants to jump in. Yeah. Like obviously played this version because it's going to have.

This seems like the definitive version now. This is the definitive version. And two, it's for like the hardcore fans that do like want more to chew on. Like when I go back, I want to be like, oh yeah, like I miss persona 5. I want a reason to replay it. Okay, cool. This is a reason to replay it. And then also I get like the expanded story stuff.

Like it feels like it's for those two people. but if you're somebody who already play a persona five and you're like, okay, well, do I, like, how worth it is it going back and playing royal? Like, I'm not saying it's not going to be worth it because I think it's for, it's going to be for some people. Yeah. But at the same time, I'm like, man, it's a long game.

Like, it's a lot of commitment to go back and replay some of this content. Yeah, I think my plan is going to be, because I do want, I am going to replay it. I think I'm going to put it on, like, the lowest difficulty level, the one, like, below easy. so I can kind of just like and probably auto battle through most of the dungeon stuff just so I can so I don't have to do as much of the grind but I can still have the benefit of like being able to do the story and like re-experiencing the cool moment and then leading into the new semester and like the new palace and stuff like playing it like playing it on easy or on normal difficulty isn't I don't know I don't think it's going to change any of that stuff so it's like man if I can cut some of those hours down by just kind of kind of powering through all of the stuff that I've already experienced to know and I understand that I don't need to like really grind through everything again.

And I think that makes it a little bit more enticing to go back and do all of this. But I'm still excited to play through it and see what all the new content is. I just wish we got to see a little bit more of that. I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm excited for all the new additions. What, this is the end of March? March coming up.

Yeah, yeah. So like there's, since everything is. being delayed for everything in spring. This actually, like, that was a big relief because now the only game really close to this that I really care about is Final Fantasy 7. Do Eternal. Animal Crossing.

I'm going to beat in, like, three days. Animal Crossing? No, I'm not playing Animal Crossing. Don't pretend like you're playing Animal Crossing. I'm fine, I'm going to play Animal Crossing. And so, like... Rizzi, you both of you. That's the only, like, really big...

It's Final Fantasy 7 will probably be a little lengthy, but I'll have a good couple months to chew on this we get to the last of us, the cyberpunks, the whatnot. And so, yeah, I'm, like, super ready to go back. I'm excited. Are you playing Resident Evil 3?

Because that's about three days after this. Really, no? I'm not a Resident Evil guy. We've had this conversation, like, five times. Probably. Yeah, I'm not a huge scary game boy. And so, like, I'm excited to have an excuse to go back. The, like, updated, like, graphics and stuff.

Like, there's actually going to be PS4 Pro support, which was, like, a big frustration of mine when the game originally came out, that it wasn't, like, it was made for the PS4 and the PS3 but not really the pro and so I'm excited for all these little tweaks to just give an excuse to get back into that world

I love that world so much so I'm pumped for it. Joe Noel any final thoughts? I'm stressed out about having to balance this and Animal Crossing because they come out like 11 days that's my thing too. Like I'm stressed about having to balance this in like four other games. Yeah March 20th for Animal Crossing and then we gotta find a name for that block

for that late March going into the early April block. Because I feel like a few years ago, it was like, I guess we could call it Hell Week. I think it was called Boner Jam a few years ago. I think that was a What's Good Games. What's Good Games, I think it was them. I think it was them.

Is that like a mashup of things? Because that was like the day where it was like Assassin's Create Origins and Mario Odyssey and like one other game, Wolfstein 2. But it's not like a mashup of like the titles. No, no, no. It wasn't like, Assassins. Audits. Actually,

your is in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for watching this kind of funny first impressions

of Personafive Royal. Let us know what you think in the comments below. Smash that like button. Is that a thing that we do? Smash that like button.

I guess so if you want to. We'll be back here with more Persona 5 Royal review kind of thing, I imagine. Yeah. Until next time. It's been our pleasure

to serve you.