Everything after Palace 4 is a significant step down tbh. It never gets into outright bad territory or even really average, but the first half is so strong and it never quite recovers.

I pretty much feel the exact same way. I think palace 4 is way too much of a pain in the ass on first playthroughs, and far too tedious and needlessly dangerous (easy to die to lamia ambushes) on ng cycles. I think palace 5 is fine, and I only really find the final puzzle particularly frustrating.

My biggest issues by far with the game lie in the timeframe these two palaces take up, and unfortunately, this is probably the longest section in the entire game. Many of the character arcs here are too weak and uninteresting, and far too much of the palace design feels like devs wanted players to waste even more of their time than usual.

The games story felt forced in. I wish the game was a little longer so it could've felt like a much smoothe transition into the final parts. Also known of the social links IMO were as good as some from Persona 3.

Actually, Palace 4 was my favorite palace. Palace 5 was crap though.

Everything before and after the incident with Ryuji and Morgana I love

The game should have been shorter if anything. Everything between Palace 7 and the timeskips could have been cut.

I clocked in at 115 hours when I finally finished and to me, that's way too long. Or at least they didn't pace the game well enough (ESPECIALLY endgame) for the length to work. P3 and P4 took me 75 and 65ish hours respectively which is a fine amount of time.

What the fuck?
Palace 4 was great and in summer you finally get you fucking free time but NO you choose to complain on a fucking forum.

Fucking hating you OP, i am calling Demiurge RIGHT NOW.

Palaces 4 and 5 are great honestly
the ONLY palace I have any problem with is 7, i dont hate it but those winding hallways wear out their welcome about halfway through but they keep GOING

The 5th palace was a nightmare

Okay, but Palace 4 is repetitive and takes forever. Sure, the free time in summer is nice but that doesn't excuse the shitty dungeon.

Regardless, I feel like the first and last thirds of P5 are incredible. But it's that middle third that is so irritatingly worse than the others that it's frustrating.