The anime adaptation? Not so much... (Though it did get my to buy the game and I am grateful for that)
I did enjoy this anime for what it was worth, but compacting 100+ hours of gameplay and story into a 26 episode block is far from easy. Personally I noticed a lot of the story was skimmed or summarized. For someone who has played the game several times, I didn't really struggle to keep up, but people who have only seen the anime must be completely baffled sometimes as to what is happening on the screen.
The art and animation were no doubt amazing. Several of the Castles were especially well done...but only visually. They cut out so much of what made the castles so interesting, but I suppose I can understand due to time constraints.
The music was completely on point though, and I was very thankful for that. Persona 5's soundtrack is sheer brilliance at its finest, and I'm glad much of it was incorporated into the show as well. The intro/ending themes the anime introduced were also amazing, I loved watching them every week when a new episode dropped.
I found a lot of the fight scenes in the anime rather boring compared to how I experienced them in-game. Once again, time restraints, I know. But fights ended in a matter of seconds and grazed over several of the in-game features that made Persona 5's fight system so incredibly fun.
Persona (and the entire Shin Megami Tensai series) is known for having a huge variety of creatures, but I feel like I saw very few in the Anime adaptation. Plus, the anime barely touches on why the Protagonist's persona changes every so often. For anyone who has never played the game before, this had to be really confusing.
Finally, character development suffered too due to time constraints. The game features very developed, multi-step interactions with many main and side characters that left you feeling like you were almost a part of the group. The anime touches on these, but has to summarize them far quicker. Seeing a character conflict/story introduced, discussed, and resolved within about 6 minutes doesn't do the character development justice. The patient and detailed stories featured in-game really tug more on the heartstrings, make you laugh, and allow you to invest into even the more minor characters. Anyone who has not played the full game is probably finding the anime's attempts to cover the side-stories as pointless filler, when it is completely the opposite.
Overall, a red-hot masterpiece of a game turned into a lukewarm animated adaptation. However, I do still think it is worth a watch, especially for any fans of JRPG games or anyone interested in buying the Persona 5 game. For anyone who doesn't want to play the game and just wants to enjoy the anime, I'd recommend some supplemental wiki pages or youtube videos to fill in some of the gaps. The show will make a lot more sense that way.
