@sackmanjones: I am currently sitting at 88 hours and 40 minutes played. Assuming the next dungeon is the last one, I'm looking at finishing somewhere between 90 and a 100 hours. I played some of the side missions (and all of the "side dungeon"). I was not in a particular hurry to play through, but also didn't agonize over not being able to do everything and find every social link opportunity, etc. So I'd say most people's final time will be somewhere between 80 and 110 hours, depending on their rhythm (you could save quite a bit of time by not letting the voice acting play out before skipping, for instance.) So it's a good length.
As for the game itself, it's been fantastic. I think P3 was very good, and that P4 is one of the best games I have ever played. I'd say in terms of story and characters, this game is nearly on par with P4. I'd place it only slightly below it. I never got attached to any one character in P5 the way I did to Nanako in P4, but I love most of the cast here all the same.
The game is also insanely stylish. Seriously, whoever did the UI design and the environment design, they aer geniuses. It has fantastic music too, that remains imprinted onto your brain in the same way P4's did.
The game's single biggest improvement over P4 is its dungeon design. All of the dungeons are very interesting to look at, and require new mechanics to navigate, which makes them feel more fresh. It's always exciting to see what the concept for a new dungeon is, which wasn't the case for me in P4, because all those dungeons basically were bland corridors with a different colour palette attached to them every single time. On the other hand, the "extra dungeon" that focuses on a side plot does suffer from repetitive environments, but that's something I can easily look past.
The combat is deeper than it has been before (more magic types, some extra mechanics around the ability to talk to shadows and negotiate with them) but it is still very much the same thing. If you loved the combat in the previous Persona games, you'll love it again here. For me personally, however, the combat has always been something to endure through in order to get to the juicy, voice-acted storyline meat.
Finally: there's quite a few very good-looking animated cutscenes. Or at least, it feels like there were far more than in Persona 4. And I really like those.
So my verdict in a nutshell: it's pretty goddamn great. If you liked P4, I can't imagine you'll dislike P5.
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