At its best, the addicting combat combined with fusing new, powerful demons is a good time, but that is about where it ends. At its worst, it is an uninspired subquest collectathon tied together with a story that continues to pull its punches.
Coming from Persona 5 Royal & 3 Reloaded, I was incredibly interested to play the series that this all came from (I chose the Path of Vengeance storyline). While not initially hooked, though the combat was fun enough, I really found more interest once the story started to become more clear: a tale about the limits of control. Using the contrasting characters of Tao and Yoko to guide the narrative, the game sees how control has or has not affected the demons and humans that you interact with.
The concept itself, even though it is as old as time, is incredibly interesting when contrasted with our real modern day. However, the game does not try to pierce beyond the surface level of these choices- almost none of the decisions you make have lasting weight. It tries to present both options as somewhat morally grey, even though it is obvious that Atlus heavily favors the lawful path by creating condemning dialogue or placing you with violent characters whenever you side with the other choice. Additionally, whenever you get a dialogue "choice", either option is so basic to the point where you would have no idea which morality it aligns with.
Outside of the barebones story, the design choices for some of the "levels" are sometimes nonsensical. Without spoiling, there are multiple different sections where there will be a new gimmick introduced that seems to have nothing to do with the actual game other than making a minor inconvenience. There are two levels in particular that stand out in my mind, but I will avoid spoilers.
Also- the final four to five hours of this game I found dreadful, very unsatisfied with the ending and fights.
The game is so frustrating in these ways. There is an incredible conversation hidden in this game. There is a fantastic combat system to back this, too. It just sucks that it's potential is never realized.
