Persona 5 or Xenoblade 3? Help me choose my next RPG!

Need to know a little more about what you're looking for or like. I haven't played Persona 5 but I did beat Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I liked it. It's VERY anime, like maybe the most anime possible, and the combat system is pretty repetitive in the back half (as is the game's structure) but it has a strong story, good characters and performances, an interesting world, some cool abilities, and kept me engaged. What it doesn't have is a ton o challenge or gameplay depth. Are you looking for something mechanically dense or a pretty world to run around exploring and collecting things?

I haven't played Xenoblade Chronicles but I've heard good things about it. On the other hand, I did play Persona 5 and found myself not liking it nearly as much as I thought I should have. I really liked the slice of life parts of the game, but unfortunately to get to those you have to slog through the dungeons, which I found to be aggressively unfun.

The combat system was something I found atrociously boring, which would be fine if you could do the dungeons in smaller chunks. Unfortunately, the game heavily incentivizes you to get through them in as few sessions a possible, which means you are kind of forced to spend long amounts of time engaging with systems I just don't think are very good.

Sounds like you should try XC3.

Persona 5 Royal does smooth out some of the rough edges on the P5 gameplay, but it doesn't change the fact that it still encourages you to get through the dungeons in as few sessions as possible, which typically means extended periods of time when you're just in the dungeon.

I love both games but I’m big on XC3 as a top JRPG of all time so every fan of the genre should pick it up.

If you liked Persona 4, you're going to at least like Persona 5 Royal. The gameplay is tightened up, battles aren't nearly as arduous, menu shortcuts abound, and there's even auto-win for when you tragically outclass the enemy encounter.

The characters are more richly developed and better realized, I found something to love about every single S. Link, the tone is a lot more mature, and the protagonist doesn't feel like he's on the verge of starting a cult with how much every single person in the world is fawning over them, despite them being a cypher ("Joker" actually has a bit of personality, and the people around him seem to have more realized internal lives).

That said: I haven't played XC3, so I can't directly compare/contrast them.

I haven't played XC3, but I'm playing through XC2 and think its very good. I did, however, played through both P5 and P5 Royal and both are great games. If you go with P5, go with the Royal edition for the full experience. Many people praise P4 and they should, but P5 for me is the best game in the series.

@bigsocrates: I grew up on anime but now it mostly just doesn't bother me that much. It doesn't add to my enjoyment. Is Persona 5 a more challenging game? For reference, last year I played through Dragon Quest 11 as a game to play while listening to podcasts and I would classify the experience as "fine".

@therealturk: Did you play Persona 4? I'm curious if you did, whether this game was tougher for you to slog through

Persona V was my first experience with the series. Like I said, there are lots of things I really like about it, such as the style and the music and the slice of life stuff. If the game was just the parts where the objective was "lead a normal student life," it would probably be one of my favorite games ever.

But the combat and dungeons just kill it for me. The dungeons, for as interesting as they are visually and conceptually, tend to have super-basic level design that doesn't live up to the concept. The combat I think is just a slog. Underneath the style, there isn't a ton that feels super-unique about it and if you're ambushing enemies, a lot of the encounters just feel trivial.

I played both! They are both great games, but I would recommend XC3 as long as you don't mind minor spoilers from XC2.

Persona 5 Royal is extremely polished, stylish and has a bumpin' jazzy soundtrack, but I really hated the dungeons in the fall semester. P5 has discrete dungeons instead of the randomized ones in P4 and the latter dungeons take several hours (at least 3 hours) to clear. P5R is a like higher budget version of Persona 4 Golden and you'll know what to expect: time management, social links, going to high school, dungeon crawling, etc.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 doesn't have as strong a story as the original, but makes up for it with better gameplay and character interactions. Nopons are less annoying compared to the previous games. XC3 follows the open-world RPG design of XC1, but that's where the similarities end. The game features a class mechanic similar to Final Fantasy Tactics. Also XC3 is much more tasteful than a typical anime JRPG. An early scene has our characters take a shower together and it's not shot like a horny anime scene like you'd expect.

I haven't played any of the Xenoblade games, so I'm likely biased, but Persona 5 Royale is one of the best JRPGs I've ever played, maybe even my favorite of all time. I think it's the sort of JRPG that folks that don't usually like JRPGs can like. The polish, the style, the music, the premise, just all of it is *Chef Kiss*.

@therealturk: I'd love a version of the Persona Series where the dungeons stays were 15-30 minutes. I think they'd benefit from a smaller, finite amount of carefully curated encounters rather then the endless grind.

Persona games are a big chore where every single game mechanic is extremely shallow and repetitive to the point of intense boredom, along with a slew of issues in the writing department (that honestly are enough to earn an avoid rating). Just listen to the OST and look up some of the art and you will enjoy the only good aspects without wasting your life. Play it only if you love watching hours of the same canned animations of the protag going to school and doing school things.

The Xenoblade C games have some insane requirements for 100%-ing them but I would pick 1 and 3 over Persona any day of the week since they actually have good fighting mechanics and interesting locations. Hated XC2 but that was more a character/writing issue.

Neither.

If you have not already, maybe try Tales of Arise. It has better pacing and more manageable length.

@theonewhoplays: I have a tremendous amount of fondness for Persona, but the realness of this takedown is really making me reconcile some things.

XC3 is amazing for the first 15 hours and then it becomes a boring slog.

Persona 5 Royal is amazing for the entire play though

I like Tales of Arise, but it's just not on the same level as P5 and XC3. You can finish it in half the time though; that is true.

Have you considered Trails in the Sky FC?

It's a fantastic little 25-hourish JRPG, it's on Steam. It's the first game in a long series but it works well on its own. The sequel SC is also great.

I played it last year and it's up there with Persona 4 for me now. The characters and music are excellent. Also, you do not fight God at the end as it's reasonably grounded. (but there is at least one dragon)

@chaser324: Kind of to its detriment I thought. Arise was a rare jrpg where I’m like you know we could actually stand to linger a bit more.