Where to begin with a game this large? I think I'll probably just break it down into the usual 4 different areas that game reviewers typically do, and I'll be mainly comparing the game to the previous two in the series and also the mainline Shin Megami Tensei games, so keep that in mind while reading this. Spoiler-free.
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GRAPHICS (8.5/10): Stylistically stunning. Considering that Persona 3 and 4 were a step backwards visually compared to 2003's Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, it's great that they've finally surpassed that once again. However, it's pretty obvious that this was originally a PS3 game - there are corners cut in some of the environments and it's somewhat disappointing that they didn't bring it a bit up to par with what you might expect from a PS4 game. At least the upside with that is that graphically the PS3 and PS4 versions aren't too different visually, except in terms of the resolution.
Persona games have had great looking UIs since Persona 3 and still Persona 5 manages to be a huge step up from the previous two in that regard and the looks never get in the way of functionality.
Plus it's great that we're facing the demons again instead of the previously boring, frequently palette-swapped shadows of the previous two games. Fighting them is much more satisfying than before and the HD versions of the original Kazuma Kaneko designs are glorious to behold.
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SOUND (6.5/10): The Persona series has mostly excelled with its music and this game is no different. However, it's a huge gripe for me that there's literally only one song, "Last Surprise" for 90% of the game's battles. This is only exacerbated when you consider the sheer length of this game (my playthrough logged in at 85 hrs by the end). I found myself muting the game sometimes when I was going through a dungeon. It's a good song, but any song, no matter how great will become grating with repetition. (why I'm sick of Bohemian Rhapsody!) Even Nocturne managed to have more than one encounter song, so why not Persona 5 with all that additional Blu-Ray space?
In addition to that, the voice lines are incredibly repetitive and annoying. I played with the English dub, and to a degree, I regret that. Do we need to have characters saying the same, exact line every time I down an enemy? It became yet another reason why I was muting the game at times.
"BONA FIDE MONA-FIED!"
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GAMEPLAY (7.5/10): The previous 2 Persona games had the issue where the two main sections of the game (the daily life and the dungeons) feel very segregated from each other. For the most part now, the social links feel like they have greater implications on the dungeon gameplay thanks to various buffs you acquire through leveling and maxing out the social links.
The devs must have been listening to my prayers as well, since the negotiation system returns from the mainline SMT games (it was previously in Persona 1/2 but absent in 3). It makes a lot more sense that you're collecting / convincing the shadows to join you vs getting a random Persona drop that you did in the previous games. The battle system ultimately still isn't as great as the Press Turn system of Nocturne and IV, but they've made great strides to making it much more viscerally satisfying than before with the addition of guns and the menu changes.
Like the previous two Persona games however, the game is simply too fucking long. It actually felt far longer than the previous two games despite being maybe 5 hours longer in the end. I took a long, long break once I reached the second-last dungeon due to how sick of the game I was by that point. Maybe this would be less of an issue if this was the first game in the series I'd ever played but by this point I had already played two that we were very similar and it just left me as fatigued as the characters did in Tarturus in Persona 3.
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STORY (8/10): One of the biggest issues with the previous 2 Persona games is how long it took for anything interesting to happen in the plot, but right off the bat Persona 5 gives a much more compelling beginning than before, with you entering the first dungeon within the first hour. The pacing is still slow as fuck though, and just like Persona 4 especially, it's hard to reconcile the lack of urgency you'll feel given that you have several weeks to complete each dungeon. No matter what story reason they've given for some terrible event to happen some weeks later instead of happening very soon, they still feel incredibly contrived. The reasons they give are definitely much more well thought out than Persona 4's "oh, you should take a break, don't push yourself too hard" while one of your friends is trapped inside a fucking shadow world though.
They seem to have made a greater effort to touch upon societal issues, but their handling of it can be hit or miss at best and downright abysmal at worst. Many people have already brought up the poor handling of gay characters in the game, but this is not exclusive to this entry in the series as the previous two games had bungled their treatment just as badly. It's just sad that even 10 or so years later that not much has changed since then, and the lack of gay romance options is an additional disappointment in a game where it seems important to self-insert (why can't I date you Yusuke??)
Despite the pacing issues, the story is mostly compelling throughout, with every consecutive villain you face throughout the game being perfectly hateable, and a surprisingly nuanced look at the grey morality in terms of what you wind doing to those villains throughout the game. However, there really isn't the same level of nuance afforded to the villains you face - they're almost always the biggest bastards on the planet with minimal redeeming qualities.
The lack of urgency and pacing issues definitely hurt the motivation to continue going though, and I can only hope future Persona games are much tighter in future (although I obviously doubt that'll happen).
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Overall, definitely the best entry in Persona franchise thus far (despite my soft spot for Persona 3, being the first game I played in the series) and despite my various complaints, gives me a lot of hope for the future. I can't keep but think however of the phrase "The more things change, the more they stay the same," and considering the theme of this game, I can only hope they don't remain complacent with future entries.
8 / 10
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