So my copy arrived last night. I can tell you what it's like a few hours in, but I'm still at the first dungeon.
It's awesome so far. Haven't gotten this into an RPG in a while. It is far darker than P4, and in some ways darker than P2 and P3. There was already an implied (SPOILER)rape of a student by a teacher for example. Anne apparently made a deal to sleep with the asshat if he leaves her friend alone. At least that's how my google translator made it sound.
The city areas are fricking huge. Lots to explore this time. People are constantly walking by as well. There's literally hundreds of NPCs walking around and living out their daily lives. Most aren't stationary. A nice touch is that the MC looks around when he hears someone talking, or you pass by a shop.
Speaking of the MC, he's not really silent this time. He has a few lines in cutscenes, and you constantly see his thoughts(usually before bed). It kind of reminds me of FFVIII in that single regard. So he's not a mere player avatar. He has his own thoughts and opinions on things. Granted you do still pick a ton of dialogue options, but he definitely has a stronger and more defined personality than previous MCs. He's not the jerk you may imagine him as either. (SPOILER)He gets screwed over for trying to do the right thing in his back story. Stopped a guy from sexually assaulting a woman. The guy hurts himself, and tells the cops that MC randomly attacked him though. The lady is too afraid to speak up, and MC gets taken away in cuffs.
Characters seem cool so far, but I've only seen MC, Ryuji, Morgana, and Anne. MC is a total badass. Arrogant and humble at the same time. Ryuji is a great bro type of character and pretty funny. Morgana is adorable and hilarious (SPOILER)fighting demons with a scimitar as big as he/she is lol. Morgana kind of reminds me of Nall from Lunar. Anne seems decent enough, but I need to see more of her before making the call. But yeah, so far it's the most likable cast thus far. Usually someone annoys me by now, but these characters all seem pretty cool.
Game play is amazing. EASILY the best in the franchise. Combat is lightning fast, and it has an interface where each button does a different action. Triangle is the Persona button, Square is item, Circle is physical attack etc. It reminds me of Mario RPG, and that is great thing.
Dungeons are actually well designed this time, at least the first one is. It has style, and is fun to navigate. Not merely a series of interconnected corridors(3 and 4), or a a bunch of god awful pitfall traps(2). It reminds me a lot of classic PS1 era style dungeons. Kind of getting The Legend of Dragoon Hellena Fortress vibes with the stealth mechanics, and action button commands, but that may be just me.
Music is better than I thought. Not a big fan of the songs with lyrics, but some of instrumental stuff is quite good.
If you have any questions feel free to ask.