As somebody who has been following this game ever since its first versions before the remake, I feel like this game has slowly descended from something which felt like an actually passionate project whose creator just did not have enough skill to realise his plans on a full scale... the thing is, you could feel the passion regardless, even when the art was really bad.
The only thing that has improved about the game is the UI, instead of continuing to improve and learn art, the creator has seemingly given up. I am not going to bring up AI, since criticism of it is forbidden on this site, but despite not being tagged as such, this game has tons of it, from AI music to AI background and poor attempts at masking certain sprites. While I am forbidden from pointing this out as a negative, trust me, even if I do not count it as a flaw, there are so many things to warrant the 1/5 review.
The progression - In this sense, I would like to call the so-called "remake" more of a "demake", this game shifted from a very persona-like social link progression into a very confusing hunt of "who should I speak to next to make this route progress" or "where should I go". The progression in the earlier versions felt very natural, the progress bars were much more organised and it felt much more obvious to as what to do.
The Map - In this sense even me a big hater of any sort of generative AI must admit, I have no clue as to if the AI was used in the earlier versions. But moving around the map felt much less confusing and despite the map not being build canonically as it was in the Persona 4 universe, it felt like its own thing, you knew where to find each character and it made the progression much more fun.
The sprites - What has to be funnily the second biggest downgrade from the earlier versions is the sprites, not like there was much to work with before this anyway. If you check out the main art and the banner for this game, you will see designs that are quite inoffensive. They clearly just snatched the original sprites from the game and traced them, the poses match up perfectly and when they try to make the characters do a pose they never did in their original sprites, it ends up looking hilarious (foreshadowing). I have in practice no problem with tracing, but funnily even these clearly traced sprites managed to be downgraded somehow in the latest version. While some female characters have gotten cuter with animated sprites, the shadowing is very very off, as to previous versions, the creators seemingly tried giving the new sprites more of their own "touch" which is the progression of tracing that I respect. First is tracing, second is giving the traced art a bit of your personal touch and third is making art on your own. But in a monetized game that expects their "fans" to be excited and pay to see more of this traced art, this feels very scummy and only as a way to make use of a popular IP to make money.
Sex Scenes - finally, the most disgusting and depressing part about this game. Back in the day, there used to be flash games based on popular IPs like Evangelion or Love Hina, both of which presented themselves as "lewd games", that used also quite poorly traced art from these franchises, and many young teenagers on the internet back then (including me) flocked to these games and played them for hours, just to discover there were no sex scenes in these games. The ultimate bait, you make a fan game of a popular IP and make it seem like it has sex scenes just to surprise the clueless players with none. Well, this would still feel better than playing Persona H: The Midnight Channel for hours, just to discover what its sex scenes look like... trust me, if you don't believe me, just skip all the dialogue and watch the first scene with Tessie. This is what all sex scenes look like... I am serious.
The only thing that has improved about the game is the UI, instead of continuing to improve and learn art, the creator has seemingly given up. I am not going to bring up AI, since criticism of it is forbidden on this site, but despite not being tagged as such, this game has tons of it, from AI music to AI background and poor attempts at masking certain sprites. While I am forbidden from pointing this out as a negative, trust me, even if I do not count it as a flaw, there are so many things to warrant the 1/5 review.
The progression - In this sense, I would like to call the so-called "remake" more of a "demake", this game shifted from a very persona-like social link progression into a very confusing hunt of "who should I speak to next to make this route progress" or "where should I go". The progression in the earlier versions felt very natural, the progress bars were much more organised and it felt much more obvious to as what to do.
The Map - In this sense even me a big hater of any sort of generative AI must admit, I have no clue as to if the AI was used in the earlier versions. But moving around the map felt much less confusing and despite the map not being build canonically as it was in the Persona 4 universe, it felt like its own thing, you knew where to find each character and it made the progression much more fun.
The sprites - What has to be funnily the second biggest downgrade from the earlier versions is the sprites, not like there was much to work with before this anyway. If you check out the main art and the banner for this game, you will see designs that are quite inoffensive. They clearly just snatched the original sprites from the game and traced them, the poses match up perfectly and when they try to make the characters do a pose they never did in their original sprites, it ends up looking hilarious (foreshadowing). I have in practice no problem with tracing, but funnily even these clearly traced sprites managed to be downgraded somehow in the latest version. While some female characters have gotten cuter with animated sprites, the shadowing is very very off, as to previous versions, the creators seemingly tried giving the new sprites more of their own "touch" which is the progression of tracing that I respect. First is tracing, second is giving the traced art a bit of your personal touch and third is making art on your own. But in a monetized game that expects their "fans" to be excited and pay to see more of this traced art, this feels very scummy and only as a way to make use of a popular IP to make money.
Sex Scenes - finally, the most disgusting and depressing part about this game. Back in the day, there used to be flash games based on popular IPs like Evangelion or Love Hina, both of which presented themselves as "lewd games", that used also quite poorly traced art from these franchises, and many young teenagers on the internet back then (including me) flocked to these games and played them for hours, just to discover there were no sex scenes in these games. The ultimate bait, you make a fan game of a popular IP and make it seem like it has sex scenes just to surprise the clueless players with none. Well, this would still feel better than playing Persona H: The Midnight Channel for hours, just to discover what its sex scenes look like... trust me, if you don't believe me, just skip all the dialogue and watch the first scene with Tessie. This is what all sex scenes look like... I am serious.
