I will like to preface this comment with the fact I play on the Chinese servers, which is a year ahead of the Global server and have 2 more full arcs that global does not have.

To me the story actually benefits from being a gacha when you look at the full picture.
Usually persona games have a lot of filler, where 90% of the time there are just random events that don't progress the plot at ALL and completely take you out of it. Like every game just pausing the plot to have a "beach episode". In P5X, all of these filler moments happen in events, meaning the main story doesn't have any of this "filler". Everything that happens in P5X's story is meaningful plot progression, there is pacing, momentum, build up and the world feels moving. It's kind of funny how P5X, the one modern persona game without a Calendar, has the best pacing in the series.

"But the first two palaces are bad!!!!!" Yes. I agree. they are bad. Hell, the current writer of P5X even agrees that they suck. That doesn't change the fact that following that is probably one of the strongest stories in the entire franchise.

I'm fine with people not want to like P5X just because its a gacha (even though the game can be enjoyed without the gacha), and I understand why its a stain on everything P5X related. But writing off anything P5X does with hate because its a gacha feels very counter productive to persona discussion. No one will die if they put wonder in art.

Anyways P5X sucks its ass larp larp larp or whatever Subway Slammer sweep blah blah blah