ENDGAME SPOILERS INCOMING!!!!!!!!!

In my opinion, more than any other Persona game, P5's story shattered after Shido's Palace. The game shifted from a semi-realistic interpretation of Japanese society/corrupt politions/desire for nationalism (in some ways Shido was similar to Donald Trump with his "lets make Japan strong again" and people being apathetic to his criminal history). The Sun social link tied into a lot of this stuff. And then all of a sudden, a God of Control is influincing everything? I feel like it actually takes away from the story in a lot of ways and turned P5 into a typical "lets save the world" JRPG.

In Persona 3, I liked how the story's final arc developed. I won't spoil it but the "save the world" theme made sense in context of everything else. It was ~ok in P4 as well, though I think I kind of tuned out to the story by that point as well. But in 5, it throws out the entire story. It even somewhat attempted to "justfy" abusers and perverts who broke out of their cells to create their own palaces (aka thinking for themselves and forging their own future, just as MC and party did). They were justified because according to the game, the prison is abhorrent. So why wouldn't Shido etc try to escape from that Control? They turned the Palaces from the warped desires to these guys just escaping the grasp of the God of Control. It "takes responsibility" off the antagonists we've been fighting all game and throws it on to a mythological being. It throws out all the real-world analogies the game was making. We didn't even get a followup from the guys who wanted to continue Shido's ambitions after he confessed.

In general though, P5's story meandered a lot more than 4's (the slice of life stuff in 4 such as the campout helped alleviate the meandering main plot). Also, Ryuji was not the comic relief that Kanji was, nor was Morgana. Rather than comedy, it felt toxic when Ryuji and Morgana were flaming eachother. However, the twists were fantastic. I didn't see either of them coming, so they were great. Akechi was one of my favorite Persona characters too. Helps that his English VA was very good. He was a far better antagonist than Shido or the God. I was expecting him to be the final boss (either him or his cognition self escaping and becoming a problem).

@mcfart: This is a minor correction, but I'm fairly sure the reasoning for the singular palaces isn't that they escaped the prison, but rather they were the worst in there and were put in their own prisons so they didn't cause issues with the general populace.

Along with RPGFan, you've completely misinterpreted the prison analogy at the end. The game isn't glorifying bastards like Shido, absolving them of responsibility and claiming that their palaces are a solution to escape the grasp of god. Rather their distortion is the result of being ground down by an opressive system that's rigged from the start (see Sae's palace). Their corrupt warped desires were the only thing preventing them from the willfull prison you saw, but isn't the only solution to escaping that fate.

The Phantom Thieves ultimate decision to follow their own moral compass regardless of society's backlash and refusal to be morally comprised in a system that thrives on stepping on the weak is why they are much less likely to end up in that prison than the villains, whom after you strip away their warped desires (ie steal their treasure) theres nothing more but a pitiful husk of a human being left and end up being the most susceptible to that fate than anyone else. Everything in the last dungeon is on point as far as the metaphors and themes of the game are concerned, and you really have to understand Japan's mentality towards authority figures and authority in general to understand why it's a powerful moment in the game (even though a lot of the metaphors can be applied to humanity in general).

In fact, escalating from the new generation opposing corrupt authority figures abusing their power to a totalitarian god brainshawing humanity by seducing them with the comfort and safety of a rigged totalitarian system is completely in line with the games themes. In the most Nietzchan sense, the protagonists have murdered their mentors, murdered their father figures and in the end murdered their god. There's a reason why thematically this game resembles SMT the most, and Yaldey was probably the closest thing they were allowed to get to YHWH. If I had a complaint with the end game, it's that how predictably it plays it out, especially if you've played previous Persona/Megaten games.

Also having the characters indulge in the whacky anime shenanigans of P4 would be completely at odds with the games themes and story. Them not being able to escape the suffocating chains of the massive up hill battle against corruption they've began as the phantom thieves, regardless of where they go or what they do (whether its Hawaii, firework festival, theme park etc.) is the reason why they're portrayed as prisoners, not just of the society they live in but of the cause they've taken up, hence the Phan-site's pervasive presence in every moment of the game.

It's all the more cathartic when at the True End of the game they shed away their roles as the Phantom Thieves. They have to fight to earn back the freedom of just being kids again being able to do what they want without being persecuted, something that the P4 cast took for granted. It's why it's such a melancholic and understated ending-they've essential been fighting uphill for what is basically ground zero.

@drilbey:

Pretty much this.