I got a question for you. i never played a persona game but you seem like the biggest fan of them is it worth getting?
Absolutely.
This one, like FF games are all separate entries so you don't have to play P1-4 to play 5. It'd honestly be hard to play 3/4 after playing 5 though because the gameplay is so much better here.
how is the story? is there weapons? basic JRPG stuff?
The story in 5 is about a group of troubled high school students who meet each other and realize the society they're in is corrupted and toxic and ruled by corrupt adults and authority. The main character is on probation which makes him more of a character rather than an avatar like the last two.
You form a group, through discovering the power of your Personas(called demons/shadows in this alternate world) that you use to fight/defeat the darkest, deep secrets of corrupt individuals in what you call "Palaces." This group is the Phantom Thieves.
Basically it starts off with a bang. Other JRPGS typically start off slow and build up but Persona 5 literally starts off chronologically later in the game and then reaches a climax which then sets the story for it to be told from the beginning, leading up to that moment. It's long as hell too and the pacing is just right. It keeps getting better and better without dragging it's feet.
It's much more to it than that as there's lots of themes and other social commentary that you'd have to play to understand but themes such as extortion, fraud, gluttony, death etc. The story is very good because the writers know how to make really good characters that have personality.
Weapons yes, the game is a standard JPRG. There are guns which serve as projectiles weapons, blades/swords, hammers/fists etc. It's basic JRPG stuff. Elemental types such as Dark, Light, Wind, Fire, Physic, nuclear almighty etc. There's potions, elixirs, accesssories, buffing/debuffing etc. Boss fights, etc. There's leveling up the whole 9 yards. This isn't a JRPG "lite" game.
The game is a mix of dungeon crawling through handcrafted dungeons filled with monsters. These aren't repetitive mazes or hallways like Persona 3 and 4 had though. These are actual places with a structured layout, puzzles(nothing hard really), mini bosses, bosses, scenes etc. They're very exciting imo in contrast to the regular world.
What makes it stand out though is there's a mix of regular daily life in it in that during the normal daytime you have school which serve as the mundane day to day stuff that you're "supposed" to do which is an overarching theme in the game which basically makes the characters feel like slaves so to speak. You have classes, you have after school, night time and there's time management in between all this. A typical day you go to school, see some stuff/class and then after school you can go to work for money, go about different activities to raise your stats such as Courage, Dexterity, knowledge, charm etc. Activities such as batting station, going to the movies, reading a book on the way to school or at home, Gym, hang out spots etc. This is stuff that's typically very fast when done so it's not like you're spending 20-30 minutes lifting weights or reading. They've streamlined it so you can sort of get an idea of what you want to do and how. There's also a network thing that you can see what other players did that day.
The other aspect of this is like Pokemon. In dungeons, you can capture enemies and have them join your party. They typically have to be downed/almost killed. They sometimes join your out of fear if their the only one left, you can force them and when they do join you you can fuse them with other monsters to create stronger monsters. Theses demons all have different types, called Arcanas. The Arcana's have a leveling system which you can level up outside of dungeons by forming bonds with various people called Confidants. By hanging out with them after school or some of them happen automatically throughout the story, raise Arcana type levels(Death, Moon, Sun, Emperor etc.) You typically have several time slots throughout the day to do this so there's ample time to fit dungeon crawling/fighting and regular stuff. There's anin game calendar system that tracks all this.
There's also a LOT of text so it harkens back to more old school JRPGS where you had to read and shyt.
There's way too much to explain as it's way bigger than what I'm making it out to be but check this video out. This game is a JRPG through and through.
Oh and the soundtrack deserves special attention to. It's really fukking good.
also i am also thinking about that Fantasy JRPG Atlus is going to make with the Persona director do you think it will be turn based?
what would you like to see from it?
I'd like to see this engine used because if there's one thing this game has is, is style. It's fukking beautiful. EVERY menu has a cool animation, slick fade/fade out animation that makes just flipping through menu's a joy. Honestly just a nice story along with challenging gameplay and shyt. I hope it stays turn based. The turn based gameplay in P5 is really good. Like, it's fast, frenetic and looks really slick in motion. Turn based JRPGS must've gotten a bad rep last gen but this plays well. It's also challenging at times. I've had several times enemies wipe my whole team out in one or two turns on Normal. I've tried hard mode for a while but went back because them enemies hit really hard but for the most part the game isn't hard on normal.