Persona 5

The low point of the story is Akechi turning into the standard deranged woobie antagonist. For a game that gets labeled as "animu," the story doesn't really dip into those tired characterizations and tropes much, but then Akechi goes and undoes it with his woe-is-me bad guy routine, over the top snapped demeanor and all. Screw you Akechi. Go have some pancakes.

However, I don't think it's as bad as Morgana and Ryuji's quarrel in September. That one felt so forced and it really pissed me off. It was just an excuse to introduce Haru, a completely irrelevant character plot-wise, and begin the Okumura arc.

Makoto learns Mediarahan and Energy Shower and cures any other ailment or KOs using items. She also learns the defence buff, has lots of SP (not as many as Morgana equipped with his best slingshot though), she is weak to a rare element and her ultimate gun is mind-bogglingly OP (+10 to all stats... Why?)

Morgana has the best healing skills (Salvation, Mediarahan, Samarecarm, Me Patra), but Makoto's Mediarahan + items is just as good. Lowest damage output and most frail member, even his best armor sucks. He gets the Accuracy and Evasion debuff, but that becomes obsolete once Joker gets Debilitate, like Ann's (Ma)Tarunda. At least he's the best at evading attacks, he never has to use items to heal and Miracle Punch is somewhat decent.

To be honest, once I got a Persona with all 3 auto-buff abilities, I felt that a healer was no longer necessary, so my party was Ryuji / Ann / someone you haven't gotten yet against regular enemies and Ryuji / Ann / Morgana vs bosses, because I don't like Makoto as much and Joker was too OP. I used her though as my healer against the NG+ secret boss.
Ryuji (highest damage, highest endurance, most HP, attack buff) /  Ann (2nd highest damage output, Dormina for enemies that resist fire or have no weaknesses, Diarahan) / Makoto is definitely the best endgame party.

Bonus: Highest to lowest endgame damage in 2 turns (based on a topic I found on Gamefaqs):

- Ryuji [1070 / AoE 1200, physical, cost: 24% HP and 15 SP]
- Ann [900 / AoE 970, fire, cost: 27 / 69 SP]
- Makoto [860 / AoE 780, nuke, cost: 96 / 44 SP]
- Yusuke [AoE 800, physical, 48% HP]
- Morgana [AoE 700, wind, 40 SP]

.. followed immediately by a slightly out of left field hissy fit from Morgana, who went to the next palace alone and is receiving "mysterious" help.  I say "mysterious", because unless you were completely inattentive, you can see exactly who it is that is helping him, which renders any sense of intrigue almost null and void, the how and the why being all that remain.

I had to learn about the Temperance confidant screw over the hard way.

And boy, tackling Palace 7 in only two visits (and even then, the first visit only had a little bit of stuff done, with the second taking up most of the work) just barely battle-ready for what was to come near the end sure was fun. Isn't it typical THAT asshole had to be even more of a pain? I got him, though. Him and that Persona of his...

Makoto has deduced from Futaba's findings that the Phantom Thieves have been being manipulated into taking out the ruler of the fifth palace.  Thing is, there have been a couple of big hints of where things are heading.

Please, don't confirm or dent any of the following speculation, I'm just trying to think things through as logically as I can.

So, there's a traitor amongst the thieves.  We've known that from the first few minutes of the game (and no, I haven't forgotten, even sixty hours later!) and there are only two possibilities I can see.  First up, and least likely, is Haru.  She's been far too nice about the fact that her father died as a result of the Thieves' actions.  Second, and most likely culprit, is Akechi.  Why  A few reasons, some of which are very meta so I'm sure Chou shall approve of the deduction, even if it is incorrect!

1) Akechi is on the steelbook case, meaning he very likely becomes a Phantom Thief at some point.
2) However, he has no portrait on the exterior of the "Take your Heart" edition box.
3) Neither does he feature with the rest of the Phantom Thieves in the "Art of Persona" book.  He's listed as "extra characters", just like Sae
4) There have been several parallels to the reveal of the killer in P4, notably several scenes in which Akechi is visible - even only partially in some cases - in the background, including times where the Thieves enter the metaverse on at least a couple of occasions.  He didn't looked shocked or flustered by any of it at any time.

Ergo, he'll join the Thieves under false pretences only to be revealed as the traitor at some point.  Yes, it's very meta and based on what could be viewed as circumstantial evidence, but there's no way all those things together can be mere coincidence.  It'll be interesting to see how close to the mark I am.

As for the hows and whys though?  I've got no idea.  Presumably he's working for someone else.

Goro was invited to the school fayre thing, and admitted he's known who the Thieves were for the last month. Additionally, he's a persona user now as well, and was attacked by the real murderer.

Now, this may be a lie, but if he was the killer and knew who the Thieves were, he would surely have just outed us by now? Or worse, killed us.

Oh, and Sojiro found Futaba's calling card. Busted.

So, has Sae had a change of heart? Is this all an elaborate ruse? There have been a couple of scenes recently where the background has gone a bit fuzzy, Sae alluding to the fact that Joker may still be drugged, only it has happened in his memories as well.