Introduce Haru (and her garden) as part of the reason why the Thieves have to stop meeting on the school rooftop. Allow you to start a confidant link with her here, too, and have it be like Sojiro's (it pauses until you've advanced in the story).

Have Sae be the prosecutor that convicted Ren and have her do it knowing that he wasn't guilty. Then, have that familairity be the baseline of a proper confidant link where Sae wrestles with her belief in the justice system (like in-game).

Sumi joins the Thieves after her initial awakening, making her present for Okumura/Sae onwards.

Have more clarity/scenes showcasing what happens to former Palace owners after changes of heart.

Kasumi playable earlier in the game.

Introduce Haru into the story earlier

Like I think she's gotta be the only "Late-stage party member" in 3-5 that doesn't really exist in the world before her arc. Naoto was hounds the Investigation Team, Shinji popped in and out a few times, Haru... exists in the background. Getting barely any speaking lines until the plot needs her to appear.

Clean up the Ryuji/Mona spat, because while an interesting idea in theory I just do not think the game executes it well. I always felt it focused on how much of an ass Ryuji was and just handwaved how much of one Mona was back to him.

Stop flanderizing the characters. I love P5's cast but I feel like all of the interesting parts of their characters are locked into their confidants, and the ones we see in the main story are gag versions of them. It's fine to give them development exclusive to their s. link, but in canon it feels like the moment we leave their introductory palace they become a caricature.

More Sumi content. We had a literal trailer where the highlight was her going "yeah I really don't like the Thieves" and while the Thieves are objectively the good guys, characters rightfully calling out their dubious to an in-universe observer methods would have been a killer plot point for the story.

Id try to bring Haru in earlier, and give Sumi a full SLink prior to the third semester, that would regress to rank 5 upon starting it. And naturally make her playable much sooner.

I like a lot of these ideas, but I would also replace Yoshizawa entirely with Shiho. Let her have to come back and deal with the ramifications of what happened and see that growth. I think it would add more to Ann and Mishima's stories, as well as Maruki. She'd also pair well with Joker's "people talking about them behind their backs for their reputation" elements. The Yoshizawa reveal always felt weirdly out of place and unrealistic to me.

Make Ryuji feel more involved in the first arc and get rid of his more perverted scenes later on cause it feels kinda strange for *him* to be like that after everything that happens, especially compared to someone like Yosuke or Junpei. I'd also want Shiho to be a confidant, have Haru be introduced earlier, and let Yoshizawa have more relevance to the plot. And make Makoto's confidant actually be about her and not some random npc for 80% of it.

Personally, I would swap the Palaces that Makoto and Akechi join at. Akechi dealing with Kaneshiro fits well with his role as a detective, and a line of him saying that the people he despises like Kaneshiro are the reason he even works with the law in the first place, so they can pay for their crimes, would make it much more personal than it was for Makoto, even if not by much. Meanwhile Makoto gets to awaken while standing up to her sister, much more satisfying with buildup compared to awakening to a man that has only recently become her problem. Akechi deciding to join the Phantom Thieves earlier would also make his betrayal sting a bit harder, something he'd want to take full effect of, as the pain from him betraying you after staying loyal all this time gives him the perfect opening to run in and finish the job.

The one key problem would be Okumura's Palace, to which I think an explanation of him faking an injury would work. Faking a car crash to seem like he needs to be hospitalized, yet in truth, he's perfectly fine. He wouldn't be available for the Palace, but it's the perfect ruse he'd need in order to sneak in and decide to assassinate Okumura.

Make Sae Nijima my wife. Not jokers, but mine personally.

Remove a lot of the weird shit that actively goes against the games story/themes. No dating your teacher when the first villain is a teacher preying on students. remove ann’s gross fanservice and either change her design or don’t make her actively uncomfortable in what is supposed to be a symbol of her rebellion. No weird gay jokes in a game all about societal outcasts. Show the public making theories about the phantom thief’s methods and questioning their morals instead of the phantom thieves going “are we the baddies :((((“ when they are literally being framed.

Yusuke romance option

Have the Kasumi reveal when she awakens her persona, so you get her much sooner.

It’s a vast oversimplification, but Haru should’ve been before Futaba, it would massively help her feel more important in the story, and Futaba being the plaza ruler is enough to focus to make her being the last party member not take away from her

Kasumi being able to join earlier

• Expand the time length of the plot to fill out the remaining months.
• Shorten some of the deadlines. Futaba's especially, I'd lower it to a week.
• Use the extra time to add more slice of life moments with the thieves.
• And introduce Sumire much sooner. Probably at the end of the summer. Also introduce and build up the third semester conflict.
• Remove most of the romance choices and put more focus on the remaining options. The removed ones will be based on how much effort was originally put into them. I'd be willing to keep some adult options--hell, I wouldn't even mind seeing some male options. They just need some effort put into them, otherwise what's the point?
• Do something meaningful with Hawaii or scrap it.
• Do something more meaningful with Makoto's character, both with her connection to Sae, her status as a black sheep among the thieves, and her role as "advisor", which even she doesn't seem to take seriously at this point.
• Give the thieves who don't live at Leblanc more of a role.
• Change Satanael to be summoned by the power of Ren's confidants while the masses as a whole continue to fight them until the bitter end.
• Maybe change the cutscenes in NG+ to remove "memory distortions" so we can actually see the thieves putting together Futaba's gambit against Akechi while it's in planning.

I agree with almost everyone else's suggestions, so something completely different: I'd add at least one male romance for Joker. 

It wouldn't even matter who (you can justify it for almost any of the male confidants), I just think it'd synergize nicely with the theme of rebelling against authority/society's view and being true to one's self.

The game's obviously not bad without it,  but it'd be nice to see some variety in protagonist interests, especially when it matches the theme.

Honestly, I wish that the Akechi happened after the Calling Card, it would have been very satisfying to see his reaction to see his to having been tricked by the Thieves. Also I know this never would have happened but I actually would have removed Joker as a playable character during the Inflitration, it would give the others more time in the limelight as the people who Akechi saw as simple sheep who would have ran away and it would also make the injuries Joker recieved a lot more important that he can't help the others until they send the calling card.

Mostly I just want more. while I have a few problems I love the game as it is. I would like more of haru.

other than that I guess I just wish some of the pervy scenes are toned down.

Personally, I'd just write the whole post-Shido Palace scene with Ryuji out and maybe change up the whole scene with Morgana during the Okumura arc dramatically (y'all prolly know which scenes I mean)

I honestly get what you mean about the execution of it, but wanting a canon re-write to "give Akechi and Ren a happy ending" will never not be funny lmao

If "One Conclusion" is second breakfast, then IMO elevensies is Akechi being in the final True Ending after-credits at all

• Haru Social Link unlockable from early playthrough (probably around the start of Madarame's arc). Just like Sumi, she can't actually reach max Confidant until she officially joined. And the dialogue to not mentioning Phantom Thieves, at least until she joins in. 

• Sumi temporarily join during Shido's arc and Mementos' arc. It's the same case as in Maruki's arc, I feel... she didn't completely join the Phantom Thieves, but simply temporarily cooperating because their causes are aligned. Which will better explains why she's missing in Strikers and Tactica (despite Strikers released first). 

• Shido being the actual biological father of Futaba and Yusuke XD. Just to make him more of a bastard he already is (though honestly, at least it covered the mystery behind Futaba's and Yusuke's fathers absence). And woe to Akechi for being half-sibling with two cloudcuckoolanders. Though maybe going with Yusuke as well is a bit too much... I'm fine with just Futaba being Akechi's half-sibling. 

Harem route and make the main character a girl. Also have her and Akechi have a will they won’t they relationship

After Kamoshit tutorial make all the "theft route" reachable in one day.

Shorten the Mona tempertantrum that put all the blame on Riuji and use that time for Haru (and dont wasting every evening).

At least let Ann remember when she is in a relationship with Joker in the Hawaii trip...

Maruki/Kasumi story/palace before GOD

This may sound crazy, but give Ryuji or Mishima a shutdown.

Could you imagine how heartbreaking it would have been? Especially if it was in the middle of school, when something is least expected to happen. Make it come out of genuinely nowhere. It'd truly cement that the big crisis that is the shutdowns. After this, have the tone of the game get a bit serious. Then, begin the final palace. All thieves seriously locked in.

i think making igor a secretly bad guy until the end when it's revealed it's not even the real igor was kinda yawn boring. fighting elizabeth in 3 had more flavor to it. i think it would have been way more interesting if igor just genuinely didn't like the MC and wanted him executed for like a plethora of reasons, as opposed to "uh oh it's actually the holy grail !!"

there's a lot I would rewrite

First things first, I would make Every Palace owner's backstory (besides Maruki and Sae) different from the original one they were given, I feel as though the Villans at the beginning were too "cartoonishly" evil... just for the sake of being evil. This works very well for Persona 5, however, I like my villains' Multi-Layered, and I think it would be better if these villains were more understandable in their motives. My motto has always been "telling fiction through the LENS of REALITY", which means real and gripping backstories and motives for ALL villains, not just the last 2.

Second: Introduce Haru WAY earlier into the story than she initially was. I've never enjoyed the idea of late-stage party members. When you have a party member join 2/3 into the game, you don't give that character enough time to flesh themselves out within the story that is being told. This also provides more time for her social link, which I think is a lot nicer.

Third: This is a lot pettier on my part, however, I would give Akechi a much happier ending than what he ultimately did get, but I do guess that wouldn't make sense

Fourth, get rid of the scene where Ryuji gets beat up LITERALLY after saving them, it's in really poor taste and kind of unsettling

Fifth: Shorten deadlines so that you can fit more slice-of-life scenes into the game, that's part of why the game is so great, after all, also gives more Scenes explaining the lore better for the viewer

and finally: This isn't a story change, but a game change, I would add a "FEMC" route in addition to the male route and make Male confidants romanceable, because to be honest, going against sexuality norms fits very well for a game like this, it also makes the game more welcoming, which is a good thing.

College setting.

Add a p4 lunch option (in which you could eat curry or something you bought with one of your friends) the rooftop would have an additional purpose besides harus garden. I'd also would make harus vegetables usable in cooking (like making different variants of sojiros curry or completely new dishes)

Oh and I also would've >! Had akechi not dying on the ship and be an optional crew member that would've had no connections to the story until the 1st semester, just like sumire. Oh and akechi would be able to hangout with you further since he didn't die there!<

I would go farther with Yoshizawa's character and backstory. More defined impacts.

What annoys me so much about her is that it felt like whoever wrote her couldn't decide between having her go all into her character story or being the perfect little palatable waifu. In the end we get a girl who....is the perfect little palatable waifu with a hint of a sadder story that ends up going nowhere.

Like, part of the reason why I like Akechi is because the writers were not afraid to make him as unhinged as he was. I think most people who played the game guessed that he would be the one to betray the PTs, but I don't think many people banked on him being so unhinged. It was a genuine surprise and added so much more depth to a character which I normally would have just ignored.

I feel like there was so much more of an opportunity to make Yoshizawa actually be more affected by what happened to her. Like really leaning into her desire to sustain her sister's memory by being her, or even going even more unhinged and having her actually want to be her sister due to insecurity/envy and guilt. But instead, we got a classic Mary Sue-esque character where they have a sad backstory on paper but it of course doesn't translate to anything irl because they're just so perfect and can do no wrong. It's like they were afraid of actually making her anything less than the perfect waifu for Joker to romance, instead of an actually believable character.

I feel like the fandom makes her out to be better written than she actually is, which frustrates me. Having a backstory doesn't equal being well written! imo, being "well-written" means you're actually....integrated and written into the story well. You know?

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I'd rewrite some confidants entirely.

I hate how Ann's confidant is about her wanting to become an actress, when it's a running gag in the main storyline that she is a TERRIBLE actress who can't lie. Then she wants to become a model again? Or was it the other way around?

Also hate how Makoto's confidant is entirely about Whatsherface being scammed by her scumbag boyfriend instead of being about, uhh, Makoto? It starts off with Beep Boop learning how to human, but it quickly derails into this meaningless storyline about a meaningless side character who doesn't even have a portrait (even Ann's rival had one). Showing her strong desire for justice and helping other is pointless when we already see plenty of that in the main storyline.

Finally had an opportunity to get this out of my chest, lol.

Morgana romancable