Persona 5 Royal (2019)

I beat P4G last year and knew what I was getting into with P5R, but I just can't put more time into this game than the 30 hours I've already given it.

Let's start with the good: This game is smooth and aesthetically gorgeous with good characters and a passable story. It feels like watching a well written anime with modern production standards.

Unfortunately, it's unbearably slow, and with combat/gameplay that is just as uninteresting as it's predecessors. Sometimes I put two hours into it and feel like I got absolutely nowhere.

Also, maybe this is a weird complaint, but the game is just waaaaaay too sexy. They call it a life sim, I say it's closer to a hentai girlfriend sim. I'm sure I'd have loved this at 14, but as a 40-year old husband and father, I just don't feel good about the feelings this game is pushing on me.

I'm curious for where the story goes, so I may still dabble with this over time, but ultimately I feel like this is a very overrated game that is riding almost exclusively on its stellar production merits.

I'm going to start off by saying Persona 5 Royal is a good game, great even. But, it took a game that is in my top 10 favorite all-time games, and tweaked, added to, and changed things in a way that I mostly liked less.

Overall, Persona 5R has a great cast of characters that really carries the story. P5 was my first Persona game, and I LOVED the blending of fantasy, turn-based dungeon crawling, with slice of life anime world building.

I found myself looking forward to building my confidants, learning about their side stories, and building up my social stats; often more than the actual dungeons!

Like many JRPGs, the story is fun, but a bit convoluted. The end predictably has you fighting a god. But there is a LOT to love here.

However, let me break down why I think base Persona 5 is the superior game.

There are 3 main gripes I have with P5R, which are all related. Here is my spoiler-free description, after which I will do a more in-depth spoiler version.

Pacing: P5 had a few pacing issues, but largely worked. P5R gives too much of a good time, and the added semester doesn't work for the pacing of the game or story. It's just too much of a good thing and hurts the original crescendo of the game, without creating something worth what it disrupted.

Social Choices/Time Management: P5R adds a lot of ways for you to build up relationships with confidants and social skills in time-efficient ways. It also, of course, adds time, which means you have even more time to do these things. P5R makes it possible, with planning (or a guide), to max out every confidant and social skill by the end of the game. I nearly did this even without trying to.

I think this addresses some people's complaints that the previous game made it too hard to see the whole game. But this ruins the choice and time management of these moments. Selecting to spend time with particular party members or confidants doesn't carry the same weight because it is much easier to do. You aren't making tough choices between 2-3 tasks that need to be handled, when you only have time for one. Instead, you can have your cake and eat it, too. I'm sure the 100%ers in gaming love this change, but playing through it, I couldn't help but feel it took a lot of the fun out of social time in the game. Your choices for spending time largely don't matter, you have plenty of it.

Kasumi I don't like what she brings to the game. I don't think her story arc is compelling, and you can't experience most of it until near the end of the game....

This isn't to say all P5R changes are bad. The persona system is more diverse with more variety in enemies, which is great. Some characters have been better developed (looking at you Akechi), and some moments have been polished. But not enough for me to think it's worth it.

Spoilers*****************

Spoilers***

Pacing Okay, so what exactly do I have against the pacing? Well, you hit the end of the previous version of the game (which was already long). The emotional crescendo is phenomenal, you beat a god like being and sacrifice your Persona powers to save the world.

And then quickly you are thrown into another palace that feels just slapped in, because it was! The final palace has some lore reasons it can exist, but these reasons feel paper-thin as an excuse just to extend the game.

I liked exploring the possible ethical reason a "good" person might have a palace, but after the high of the original final fight, this new final palace absolutely brings the emotional pacing of the story to a grinding halt. This palace is also a full palace, so it's not even a 2-3 hour victory lap.

To make things even worse, if, like me, you built up a decent team for the original final fight, you can just wipe out the enemies in this final palace with next to no problem. Making it an absolute breeze, in a game that already wasn't hard!

I also felt the story of the palace and Kasumi was... not great. It's too late in the game for these revelations to feel as impactful as it seems to want. And also rely on you really caring about a character that was a half character patched into this game just for Royal....

My other two points stand, but don't really need more comments.

In summary, this is a great game. But, I feel Persona 5 base game is significantly better, both in story and in actual gameplay (even if that means you, as the player, miss some content in a single playthrough).

It's looking like I'll be maxing out all confidants except one, which will be stuck at rank 9. I explicitly remember a moment when I could have prevented this by choosing to hang out with them instead of hanging out with someone else. That's several days ago and I've done multiple Mementos excursions since (which led me to collect all the stamps, yay me) so I'm not exactly enticed to go back.

Out of all the palaces, I think Shido's is my favorite. It's so refreshing to have dungeons in JRPGs that are not in your usual forest-desert-snowscape environment. I guess that's what comes with the setting being in modern times. I suppose that's why this game reminds me a lot of The World Ends With You as well. However, though these two games only make a very limited sample set, I realized that I'm more taken by games not set in modern times.

I recently discovered that I can make the characters wear Phoenix Rangers outfits, and I love it. Just the Power Rangers game to keep me going.

I also recently found out that I can just run over shadows in Mementos, and that was such a relief (and a great way to level up personas).

Not sure if I can max out the one remaining confidant before the December deadline but I am hoping for the best. I am 120 hours in, and I'm so excited to finish even just the non-Royal content in the meantime.

The characters keep on expressing surprise on how deep Mementos is, and I’m complaining alongside them. I get so tired from exploring that place and looking for stamps.

I’m watching Kimetsu no Yaiba, and I’m at the Entertainment District Arc, and there’s this bit very early in its opening song which reminds me of one of the music tracks played in this game. I kinda want to look it up to actually check.

I wanted to maximize my confidant ranks with Kawakami and Takemi (with everyone actually) so I'm in a romantic relationship with them, and I hated the dialogue that lead to these. I also can't think about this development much because it throws off the game for me.

In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, there's also the possibility of a similar romantic relationship outcome but I was not as bothered there as I am here. Perhaps it's because that happens only at the end of the game and after a time jump?

I was still fairly certain that I'm going to play Strikers and Tactica after this game but now I'm leaning more to not doing that.

More than 80 hours in and although I am certain that I am more than halfway through, the length of this game is starting to get to me. I appreciate how party members join through different events and how each palace has a different gimmick, and the story is interesting but I'm getting a bit tired, especially with exploring mementos and beating up and negotiating with shadows.

I've finished five palaces, and if my theory is correct, there're at least two more. Plus there's the added Royal content. I'll keep on playing because it is still entertaining but it's not as fun as it was around twenty gameplay hours ago.

Playing a lot of this, and although that's fun, I'm starting to think I should hold back for other activities. Maybe I'll just do a Memento run today (although I have six requests), and wait for the Medjed deadline which is already in two days. That should, relatively, not take much time.

To maximize the rank of female confidants, I have to romance them. There doesn't seem to be a way around it, and I have to do it to everyone. I don't like that. I also don't like how there's no romance options for male confidants.

Managed 35 hours in one week (which is a feat for me) before my living room got out of commission again. Finished two palaces, and team has quite grown but I have no favorite characters yet. I also don't have favorite personas. The ones I have in my party are crazy mashups of skills and abilities from fusions I made with minimal thought.

The concept and gameplay are good but there are still disappointments. I think the sexism in this game hits me harder than in other JRPGs because it is set in modern times. Sometimes all the dialogue options exhibit this, or your confidants make remarks rooted in this, and that puts me off. The prison-guillotine-electric chair theme also doesn't sit well with me although I don't understand why yet. I wish everyone had something like Morgana's slingshot instead of guns.

Phew, finally beat this one in only about 180 hours. It's a great game with a ton of content, and combines a lot of fun and different gameplay elements in an addictive, compelling way. While I think it's generally worth the high praise that has been given to it over the years, I want to reflect on and nitpick a little on the issues I found in my experience:

-The game's beginning is very slow and restrictive. It's one thing to take time to introduce characters, mechanics, and settings and to build things up for later, but the game constantly says railroads you from doing even little things like use a vending machine for a long time. It just feels needlessly restrictive when paired with such a long introduction before the player can really do what they want.

-For the Royal version I found the implementation of DLC content to be rather clumsy. You're really just dumped with a ton of money and useful items and accessories right near the beginning and can even get powerful Personas for free whenever. It really steals the fun and appeal of working your way up and should have been something they held back until at least the halfway point.

-The overall difficulty is pretty mild except for a couple intense difficulty spikes, and this paired with changes to the dungeons or Palaces to be shorter in Royal makes me curious about the approach made to balancing. Palaces can generally be done in a day, but the game mechanics and narrative really support the idea of you doing them in chunks over weeks so it's weird they opted to shorten them.

-Dialogue tends to get real repetitive with characters repeating the same basic thought or idea over and over that could have been reduced for greater impact and not make the game feel like it was dragging at times. On that note, they really didn't bother to fix repeating voice line triggers for Royal, so you really get the same "looking cool, Joker!" type of line repeated all the time in battles.

When it comes to the Shin Megami Tensei series and the Persona games, SMT is known to have a greater focus on the core gameplay of exploring, battling, and fusing demons. While the Persona games leaned harder on character development, with a focus on the story. When I compare the latest main entries, SMT V and Persona 5R, I think my ideal is really still somewhere in the middle.

SMT V was great but really lacked impact towards the end because you don't really get the time to feel any attachment to the characters or the events going on. Persona 5 can feel drawn out and tedious due to the amount of time you must spend interacting with all of it's characters and seeing story beats unfold that the actual core gameplay feels like almost an afterthought. Yeah it was also a good time, but also not one I'm looking to sit through again any time soon.

Now the reason I have knocked a star off isn't anything but my own patience, I like to think of myself as an overall patient person, I love JRPGS, mainly the ones i have played and yet this game has kept my interest for probably over a month. Last night I decided to call it quits, the only issue I had was that it wasn't really on my own terms. Iv loved every part of the game story wise, it really filled the hole of good old school relationships with peers and a secret that unites people that wouldn't be together otherwise. It reminded me of talking to some friends in my school on the phone for a few hours into the early morning. Without going too far off the review I moved house recently and had started collage and haven't socially fitted in at all, it's not I don't want to it's just that most of the time everyone around me feels a little immature, so I never felt like I had a good fitting in when growing up. For probably how weird it is to say, but the characters in this game are really well written, sure some of the social gimmicks of it being a video game are present (mainly just saying the obviously correct dialogue choice to pursue a friendship is one) but all the characters struggles are definitely unique given to an individual character. The story definitely succeeds on creating an impact, and it's one that while using the childish message "adults bad, children good" it carries over serious topics in a very open way.

The gameplay is solid, when I first saw it I was instantly overwhelmed by the choices mainly due to how stylish the UI is but coming from a Pokémon game, one which UI isn't really an art style, this game is still easy to understand, weaknesses, stat debuffs, moves that cost some sort of PP or MP. Its not too hard to understand.

A word of complaint: Okay now to address the title, you see I made the mistake of ranking Maruki to rank 10. For a first time player such as myself, I'd advise heavily do not do this, you see when I got to November I thought "hmm an extra palace won't be too bad" then it was creeping up to December, and after I really regretted the choice. The biggest struggle I have with the game is just how filler the entire month of December actually is. The stories flow take a complete 180 and everyone is constantly talking about how this is the final boss, then some other boss is next, I was getting so tired of battling what is meant to be the finale just to then fight another "boss" mere hours after. Without a shadow of a doubt, I hated myself for this, because I purposefully chose the bad ending. You see if you rank Maruki to rank 9 before November you will be locked to do another semester after Christmas, this is what I believe to be the bulk of royal's content added. The issue is, is that if you opt in a few 10 hours or so before taking on the end game, the only way of ending it early is to be faced with one of the most bitter-sweet endings ever. It was the pay-off of leave all the characters but spend another week on the game, or drop the game where possible, so I can move on with my life. Again, this is my own fault, but it felt it indirectly punished player choice forcing to play more of a padded out ending, just sounds a bit weird. And when you've spent hundreds of hours built up, the quick ending really hurts, but I also am aware that I just need to move on in my life.

Another design issue that I was thinking about is why move more content to where the supposed end is supposed to be? If you're a player, would you value your time with the game if you had to complete it all just to reach the new content? If an unexpected player ranks Maruki out of the benefits just for the plot to carry on the way it does, is it unfair to drop the game at a bad ending, or is it justifiable?

It's annoying because I spent around 140 hours loving the game, but to be met with the swift change and the amount of hours of people talking towards the end, I just lost a little part of me in settling for a worse ending for spending more time on the game. After the few days of playing, what is the end boss? Towards the end because so much of the change in story is placed at the end, for me, it was a little forgettable. I was still wrapping my head over Ren faked his death just for a few hours later to then take on shido believing it's the last boss to then take on the holy grail just to be delivered hours worth of exposition to then fight a god. All of this in what was supposed to be the last part of the game.

For a first play through, this was simply too much at once. and made me just wish I opted out of the royal content, and then did a swift play through on new game plus having the patience from being overpowered to go through the story, at a quicker paste getting to the end game at a time I have more patience. This way of adding content just also sounds a little obscure, friend a confident for around an extra 30 hours worth of story. A pretty odd design choice. Either way, to end the review, I'm bitter I didn't just finish the game normally with the normal ending, made a (what I thought) small choice that will come back to bite me around 20 hours later. I would still recommend this game, but I'm unsure if I would recommend going for the new content unless you've played persona 5 out to its initial ending and then experience the extra content, making a second play through worth it. But I'd like to mention again it's my own fault in some regard. Future wise, I'm going to avoid spoilers, play new game plus a few years from now, and either beat the game with the original ending or doing the extra 30 hours and with social stats increased, strong personas, steam rolling the game, and I should be left with more patience and a better understanding and appreciation of the game.

Overall, personally, I'd advise not opting in for Maruki's confident on a first play through. Because if you later regret it, due to time or whatever circumstances, you can't go back on a decision that impacts the game so much, unless you hold an earlier save.

The first thing you should know about Persona 5 Royal is that it isn't a sequel or spin-off of Persona 5. It is, in fact, more of an expanded re-release of the original game (although it qualifies as a remaster on PC, PS5 & Xbox Series consoles) with quality-of-life improvements, new mechanics & various additions to the story. So Royal does supersede the original game both in canon and as the superior version of the game.

As for thoughts on the game itself, the story is solid. The opening arc does a great job of easing newcomers into the mechanics & world of this game while also getting them invested in the plot & characters fairly quickly. The rest of the story is consistently pretty engaging, with the new Royal content being pretty seamlessly integrated with the original Persona 5’s story (until it isn’t, but at that point, it’s clearly supposed to be jarring for story reasons I won’t get into here) & building off of the original’s themes, at least to someone like me who didn’t play much of the original/vanilla Persona 5. The villains, while generally hate sinks with little nuance, are enough to keep you invested in the narrative & there are a couple of more nuanced antagonists later on. The game even manages to have quite a few tear-jerking moments. There are some dry stretches though, with the section right before the Okumura arc being the worst part of the story, filled with Idiot Ball moments & generally less interesting events outside of maybe the Hawaii trip.

The Confidants, essentially a series of side-stories where Joker helps either his fellow Phantom Thieves or an eclectic set of his peers & down on their luck adults with their problems, are a mixed bag. Some have both an engaging arc & great gameplay benefits, some have one but not the other & then you have the ones that are completely useless and suck (LOOKING AT YOU OHYA). But this part of the game is definitely appreciated overall.

The combat is also a highly polished and smooth experience for a turn-based RPG. There is a certain flow & rhythm to the combat that makes even standard encounters engaging, something I can’t say about most turn-based RPGs. Although I will say that Mementos (a large, randomly-generated dungeon that you can access at almost any time) can get a little stale toward the end of the original game’s arc, but the new third semester added in Royal adds a new floor to Mementos that makes things a little more interesting again. Palaces on the other hand don’t get stale as there’s a lot more variety in what you’ll do in any given Palace & none of them outstay their welcome. My only real issue is that after the introductory Palace, none of the remaining ones (except maybe parts of the Okumura & Cruise Ship Palaces) really have much of a challenge when playing on Normal difficulty if you’re levelling certain Confidants (including ones you have to max out to advance to the third semester).

Outside of Palaces & Mementos, the life-sim gameplay sections are fun & interesting at first, but later on as you max out your social skills & Confidants, there really isn’t much to do. So that’s disappointing. Before that though it is a solid gameplay loop & I can see how it can become addictive.

As for the visuals, they really are as striking and distinctive as they are made out to be. It definitely has a sense of style & flashyness that sets it apart from other RPGs. And the music is also SO GOOD. Lots of bangers on this game’s soundtrack.

Conclusion Overall, Persona 5 Royal is a great JRPG that is an excellent entry point into the genre for newcomers & may go down in history as this generation’s Final Fantasy VII. But it’s not a perfect game. There are some balancing issues & a lack of things to do outside of dungeon crawling toward the end and the story has a couple rough patches, but this doesn’t stop it from being a phenomenal game that’s worth playing, especially now that it’s more accessible than ever.

Ratings

Creative score (story, gameplay, voice acting, art direction): 9/10

Technical score (graphics, audio, performance)): 7/10

Business Practices score: 6/10 (Not the worst I’ve ever seen, but Atlus really do love milking Persona with lots of DLC costumes & Personas as well as spin-offs & crossover appearances in other games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate & Nier Reincarnation)

Overall score (my thoughts on a game’s overall quality, does not consider the business practices unless they are detrimental to the experience): 9.5/10

Two things before we start: 1. Note the difference between Personas and personas. Capitalized persona means the not JoJo stands and lowercase persona means a façade, a metaphorical mask. 2. I will call the main character both Joker and Ren (since Ren is his name in the anime adaptation and the dancing spin-offs).

"Humans have the power to change the world. They just forgot about that a bit."

Persona 5 stole my heart. It's the game that I actively think about 3 years after playing it for the first time, which I can't even say much for even a lot of what I consider to be my favorite games. The music, the story, the themes, the characters, the vibes that the game brings. While not perfect (in fact problematic in parts), Persona 5 really, really worked for me. Worked so well that it was my favorite game. I say "was" because Persona 5 Royal blows the original out of the water. The new characters and third semester are what really flesh out the characters even more. 2 years after playing the original Persona 5 for the third time, it's hard to believe that Persona 5 stole my heart again with Royal and had more of a profound impact on me and I want to express all of it in my longest review ever.

A NEW GAME + REVIEW OF PERSONA 5 FOUR PLAYTHROUGHS LATER

I adore Persona 5. It's killer aesthetic is infectious. It just seeps you in your chair as you immerse yourself into its effervescent setting. The game does run on a time limit, but if I were to award a game "the most comfy game", I would easily give it to Persona 5; it offers a lively iteration of Tokyo with a group of characters. Mhe kusic perfectly accomodates with the tone. Persona 5 is a game about its themes such as how fame can corrupt someone, even if it's just for a brief moment, how networking can make your life a whole lot easier, and how we are not set in stone and how we can be the change that we want to be. Despite the loop making play sessions go on for at least 5 hours, The menus hook your eyes as they ooze with style and anger. Things are always moving but they don't strain your eyes. P5 has some my favorite music to ever exist that is just as stylish and lively as its aesthetic. The series has always had the best soundtracks and P5 does not disappoint at all. And despite being 85-100 hours, every scene has purpose, the story still has you hooked like a fish that you just keep playing for long binging sessions just to see what's next. I still love this game 3 years after playing it and having experience with it made me appreciate Royal even more.

YOU CAN CREATE YOUR OWN PATH, BUT THERE IS NO NEED TO REFRAIN FROM A LITTLE BIT OF HELP.

One of the biggest changes to Royal is the balancing of the game. Royal adds so many quality of life changes and expands on certain mechanics. The baton passes for example. Now in Royal, you can upgrade them via playing darts to make them heal or regain a small fraction of SP. If you baton pass to your entire party, the next skill costs nothing and amplifies the damage of an attack or increases healing. It incentivizes using items that give elemental damage so that every one can be able to knock down. Chaining combos is now a thing since with each baton pass, the damage increases more and more. You can do so much more with this mechanic compared to the original. Technical attacks now give the chance of downing an enemy so it gives the player the chance to down an enemy with no weakness affinities without relying too much on critical hits. Though there are definitely some things that need to be revamped. Persona 5 was already an easy game, but Royal takes easy to a whole new level. I played on hard for the best challenge (merciless makes things less challenging by amplifying damage for technical attacks and crits for both the player and the enemy and increasing the XP multiplier) and the first palace was challenging, even as someone who played the original P5 three times. Everything else was a cakewalk. Okumura was a bump, but he was fine. Just abuse 1 more, baton pass to Ryuji or Haru, and use Triple Down or Swift Strike. It took me 5 tries to get it down so I wasn't too frustrated. Anyways, this game is really fricking easy. There were some tweaks in the confidant ranks that really impacted the difficulty. Ryuji's instakill ability at rank 7 is great for grinding or the lack thereof since now doing so gives money and XP, but with Mementos's new revamp of granting a bonus percentage of XP, money, and items for stamps given to Jose, this makes the intent of grinding feel unconscious. Persona 5 Royal is the only RPG where I was playing the game through where I didn't intend on grinding, but I made it to the max level anyway by the time I was at the third semester. I do kinda wish for Ryuji's instakill that even when the Persona stock is full, the demons would still get added to your compendium. It makes treks through Mementos feel like less of a chore. Some other OP confidant abilities come from new characters Kasumi Yoshizawa and Takuto Maruki. Kasumi's abilities make it harder to be ambushed and can even inflict ailments at the start of the battle and Maruki's abilities can instantly get rid of Joker's ailments and double both physical and magic attacks once without the cost of a turn. The most powerful change is that once you level up Caroline and Justine to rank 5 instead of rank 10, you can now fuse Personas that are higher than your current level. Higher level Personas are costly, but since the changes of money and XP make this less of an issue, you can get this early game by the time you hit Kaneshiro's palace. Something that was in Persona 4 Golden is how you can adjust the difficulty options. You get this at the start in the PC version and once you beat it in the PS Vita version, but in Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal, they don't exist. You can't adjust enemy health, you can't adjust any multipliers. I just feel like for a sequel, some things should've been brought over. Moving over to a positive change, guns are now actually useful in Royal. In the original Persona 5, ammo doesn't restock until the next day or if you use an item that does so. Narratively, it didn't make sense when the Phantom Thieves fight in a world of cognition. Since the enemies see airsoft weapons as actual weapons, wouldn't they think that what someone would be pointing at them be an actual gun that is fully loaded? So Royal makes ammo restock after every battle. More QoL changes have been added, but you get my point. They make things super duper easy, but they make for the most flexible RPG that I have played in spite of the game being mostly on a timer. Like seriously, in the original, the party members were stuck to their roles for the entire game, but now accessories and the jazz club offer so much flexibility. Despite still being easy, the loop is still a lot of fun and provides a lot for the player to dig deep into. It's just that I'll admit that the balancing isn't that good.

CRITICIZE WHAT YOU LOVE. IT'S HOW YOU CAN HELP IMPROVE.

I've already mentioned that the game is too easy, but I have more to knock against it. Almost everything about the original story of Persona 5 is still in tact. It is almost the exact same as the original, save for some new little cutscenes like Maruki's talks and Kasumi's brief moments, so there are still some ideas and scenes that are questionable such as a giving the player the choice of making the main character, a minor, date adults and while I understand and will defend some scenes, they can leave a bad taste in people's mouths. Speaking of Kasumi, as much as I love her as a character, she doesn't do much in the main story. She just exists. She only spends time with Ren and barely interacts with the Phantom Thieves. For as flawless Maruki's scenes are implemented, Kasumi's feel clunkily placed in comparison. Especially at the intro. Despite the heavy marketing of her and making her costume pack $15 (what the hell, Atlus?), she is only playable in the third semester which is where her character really shines. The game is really long so it's not going to be for everyone. Personally, I didn't mind the length, given I have a lot of time on my hands and I play for long sessions, and I feel a lot of scenes make sense as to why they exist. It took me 85 hours to get the platinum trophy on my first playthrough, but that's because I skipped a bunch of cutscenes since I already know P5's story after playing it 3 times. Some characters like Yusuke, Ann, and Haru don't really do much in the story after thier major arcs finish. You don't really see developments pay off in the main story unlike say Persona 3 since that game feels the most organic with its character development. There are so many instances of "tell, don't show" that is a traditional Atlus habit that I hope they break out of. I get the criticism with the narrative structure being a flashback. Since most of the game is from Ren's persective, it lessens the chance of seeing the Phantom Thieves interact with each other outside of him and it makes a lot of the plot predictable, in spite of the point being the Phantom Thieves getting closer to the greater villain. I'll defend the "twist" and say that it was the point to set up another twist that was actually freaking cool. It didn't treat the Phantom Thieves as idiots for not knowing. Jose has no resolution and the end of his arc is left ambiguous. He's set up is this mysterious boy, but there's no payoff.

Persona 4 was the game to really appeal to those into waifu culture, but P5 does it worse here. And you can really feel it in the fanbase with waifu wars. More could be done for the theme of rebellion. We don't have any instances of racism, homophobia, or transphobia being being called out and I think that would make the theme ring less hollow since this is a game about an ostracized cast of characters. And lastly, for as greatly told the theme of freedom is, it does some commentary on the broader aspects such as prosecution, blackmailing, of Japanese society but doesn't really flesh it out enough. Like many of the Japanese games today, they're more so window dressing. If we're going to get political commentary, then that aspect being fleshed out would be what I wish most for in Persona 6. Especially since we now have a new director for the series.

Looking at the rating, you'd think that I am heavily biased towards this game, and you'd be abslutely right, but I wouldn't call myself blind. I know my favorite game is not perfect, but I think a lot of the good here outweighs the bad just because how good the good stuff is. I just have too much of a connection with this game that there's gotta be tough love no matter what.

NEW DOESN'T ALWAYS MEAN BETTER, BUT THIS IS AN EXCEPTION.

After the first change of heart, Takuto Maruki is introduced as a school counselor for Shujin Academy for the sake of giving the school a better reputation after a massive scandal. We get new scenes of the party members talking about their struggles and their desires and as added scenes, they fit organically. Both for character studies and for the greater picture of the game. One of my favorite characters to come out of any game. His confidant is also one of my new favorites. A lot of the time, you spend time talking with him about his research about cognition and as someome who likes the psychology of Persona, this pleased me greatly. While Kasumi didn't get much screentime for the main story, she's a pleasure to be around. She has a bubbly attitude and a real sweetheart. I prefer the Japanese VA of her since the localization uses English Senpai a lot to kinda get on my nerves, but I think further playing it in English, Laura Post's performance makes sense. More about that in spoilers.

Where I really didn't get much out of Persona 4 Golden's new arc involving Marie, Royal's new story arc is not only the best of Persona 5, it is the best, period. It alone makes P5R the best of the expanded Persona games in terms of new additions. I think the third semester arc compliments Persona 5's story much better than Marie's arc does with Persona 4. This part of the story really opens up for discussion more than anything the series, let alone anything Persona 5 has had to offer.

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Reality is often pain for us. We are mortal and thus, we end up making mistakes and we can get pain in return. At points, we can't accept the realities of which we have faced that we just wish that these traumatic moments never happened. We have our limits. And sometimes, when we reach that limit or even past it, the easiest way out is to lose control of yourself. So that brings us the question that Persona 5 Royal's third semester dares to ask: if you were able to control your pain, would you get rid of it or learn from it?

The third semester starts after you beat the final boss of the original game. When Sae asks that you turn yourself in, somehow, Akechi swoops in he turns himself in. You actually get to celebrate Christmas and New Year's Eve and Day. When the new year arrives, you dream a weird dream. You dreamt of a chasing a butterfly into a familiar room. When you wake up oddities happen. Morgana is now a human boy and you come downstairs to see Wakaba, Futaba's mother who was supposed to be dead. You go see your friends at the shrine, but something's off. Ryuji says he's hanging out with the track team, Ann's going to be with Shiho. It's a funny moment seeing Ren act befuddled at what he's hearing. The next day, Akechi visits Leblanc to talk with Ren about the oddities going on. Few days later, you, Akechi, and Kasumi go to a new palace. Since it could be the cause of the oddities. Maruki turns out to be the ruler of this new palace and states his motive of making a reality where everyone doesn't suffer. After a revelation, Maruki asks Ren to see how his friends react towards this salvation. See how he feels about the current reality. The overworld changes in atmosphere. It's mostly the same. People are roaming, there's no rain or heavy snow, but one major detail that gave me that off feeling is how nearly NPC has a creepy smile on their face. In fact, smiles are everywhere. The posters all over have smiles. It helps give off the feeling that this world feels like a mind of one person.

The main theme Persona 5 Royal dwells upon is of actualization. Like Futaba, Maruki is not a villain. He's an antagonist. And he is the my favorite antagonist in all of fiction. Maruki acts as a foil to the Phantom Thieves. Where the Phantom Thieves change others by making them atone for what they have done, Maruki's way of changing people is by beridding of memories that scar them. Whether it be by bringing a dead person to life or rewriting someone's mind. The Phantom Thieves change hearts to make the Palace Rulers stand up for themselves rather than to succumb to their distortions. The Phantom Thieves exist act as inspiration to the public to stand up for themselves. The Palace rulers linger on to their past like it's their treasure. Maruki berids of the suffering so that people will be happy, but with a cost of self improvement and free will. Rather than stopping a man from doing wrong, the Phantom Thieves defy the ideology in spite of Maruki's good intentions. Both sides are understandable, and if you were to answer the question, you would agree with both in some regard. Of course, the more moral decision would be to face the hardships and decline Maruki's reality, but there is always this part of our concious that reminds us that if we can get away with something immoral, we'd think about doing it. You'd probably argue that you'd accept Maruki's reality because think about how many lives would be saved. The world can be cruel and society can be unfair. Sometimes, situations can't be solved through growth. You'd probably argue that you don't want a reality without failure. Imagine this: you're taking a test that you didn't study for. When you get your grade, you get a an A+. You pass the entire class, but in the next grade, you still don't know what's going on. Education exists to help us grow and master and with Maruki's reality, there is no reason to improve ourselves as better people.

The question isn't always black or white, however, with Maruki's strongest point to his argument being Sumire Yoshizawa: a younger sister of honors student Kasumi Yoshizawa whose mind was rewritten to berid of the memory of her sister's tragic death. Since Sumire is seen as the shadow to Kasumi, she's had a case of inferiority complex. So when Kasumi dies instead of her, Sumire wishes that she died instead. This twist recontextualizes a lot of stuff. For one, when she was Kasumi, I thought she sounded fake. I thought Laura Post wasn't as great with her delivery as the rest of the cast, but now I feel that was the point for Kasumi to sound fake since this is Sumire's persona that Maruki cast upon her, and that really made it work for me. Two, at the start of the game, Sojiro mentions that the month before Joker starts living in Leblanc, a 15 year old girl was killed in a car accident. That girl being Kasumi. So now not only does Sumire have an inferiority complex, she has survivor's guilt as her sister saved her from an attempted suicide at the cost of her death. As Maruki states, who would want to live that kind of life? She's suffered a lot so to make her suffer even more could be too much. Her new arc is of overcoming that she must not live in Kasumi's shadow. As a younger brother, I connected a lot with Sumire. My school life was and is just average while my sister was spectacular. She was popular in school while I was introverted. I bit more than I could chew just to get out of that shadow and in return, and there were tons of moments that just overwhelmed me. I felt like I was at my breaking point at times. I wish I could show Sumire to my 11 and 17-year old self since I feel he really could've needed it. But now seeing my sister depend on me for stuff at times, showed me that I can carve my own path. Whatever I'll do, I'll do well in So seeing Sumire's arc and thinking about itafter beating the game made me sob a couple of times while driving.

DEFENDING AKECHI (SPOILERS)

Without spoiling, if Akechi left a bad taste in your mouth in the original game, Royal does him justice in both his revamped confidant and the main story. He was one that I felt not much care for, but now with Royal, he's one of my favorite characters in the series.

With Royal fleshing out Akechi even more, we finally see him as a rival, an intended aspect that felt messy in the original, now makes much more sense in Royal. It felt forced since his confidant was automatic. The automatic confidant made it feel more like we're told that we're Akechi's rival rather than us feeling like we are his rival. He feels more like the other side if the coin as he was intended, which the original failed at making him represent. Atlus wanted to do a lot with him: make him a an orphan to put in a half baked commentary on orphans being considered bastard children, With his new confidant, we compete against Akechi. We see how much of an egotist he is. With him using his non-dominant hand in games, he sees Joker as beneath him, and that is also the case for when they fight each other in Mementos since he uses Robin Hood instead of Loki. And since he sees Joker as beneath him, he goes easy just because he wants a good match. His ego breaks when he has no friends while Joker does. His ego breaks when he loses against Joker. With the social link, we see the the relationship between Joker and Akechi not as one of friendship or love, but as one of rivalry where they push each other past their limits because as Akechi says, "A world that panders to your every whim is so mundane. Where's the thrill if there's no competition?"

Then we roll into the third semester. This is Akechi at his absolute best. Akechi drops the detective prince act. Robbie Daymond's delivery makes him sound more cold in his personaliy it sounds like Akechi wants to get over with it. His new sprites are replace his normal eyes with Atlus did a great job of bringing him back to life without it feeling cheap. Apparently, Maruki brought Akechi back since it was Joker's wish. But he sees his own resurrection as him being controlled, just as Lavenza states before the climax. Since he was only birthed as a pawn, he's been controlled his whole teenage-adult life by both Shido and Yaldabaoth. A time where you should be thing of your own path for the future stripped from him. So the path that he wants to take is to die a free man rather than being birthed as a puppet since at least it was his own choice. Which makes February 2nd that much more impactful.

He's also a riot in this game. For a little bit, Akechi is your navigator and Robbie Daymond (Yes. I played the dub. I just love the voice cast of any nuPersona game, even if I am a sub purist with anime.) knocks his performance out of the park. Since you have known Akechi as his persona for a majority of the game, this contrast with him sounding merciless gave me whiplash in the best way. "They're all brainwashed! Buncha sheep." "Heal yourself, genuis!" "They're weak to nuclear attacks. I wanna see a mushroom cloud in here!"

My only gripe with him during the third semester is how he didn't get enough hate from the Phantom Thieves. I get that they accept him since they have to fight a greater foe, just as initially planned with Shido. And there are some lines from Ryuji, Futaba, and Haru that show that they're pissed off at him for killing Wakaba and Okumura, but I just feel that hatred could've been a lot more present instead of just Mementos dialogue and Futaba and Haru not being able to play Tycoon with him. My idea is that Akechi could've been a coleader since he and Joker are both wild cards. Since we see him more as a detective during this arc, he could be the leader calling the shots and talking for Joker since he barely speaks. I could see him doing this and either Ryuji, Futaba, or Haru responding with pissed off remarks.

He was once one of my least favorite characters in the series in terms of writing, but with Royal, he's now one of my favorite written characters in the series. Or you could say that he's been done justice.

THE FINAL PALACE

Maruki's palace is by far the best palace in the game. It seems like Atlus knew how to make a phenomenal palace with it. The quizzes are most likely the parts of the game to spark up questions. Palace progression is tied to your understanding of Maruki. Gentle Madman and Out of Kindness are some of my new favorite P5 tracks. The palace of sorrow has a color scheme of mostly white, marking Maruki as the light to everyone's shining path. There are hints of Lovecraftian horror. For as controversial of a figue H.P. Lovecraft was I believe his idea of fearing what we don't understand to be universal in a way. I see the use of Lovecraft nods as a foil to Maruki's desires of a world with no fear or suffering. Memories are scattered throughout the palace of Maruki being tormented. Leaving his fiancé to make others Every puzzle is good. Every moment shines. And the peak of the palace is the garden of Eden. Just perfect symbolism there. Reflecting Maruki as the god trying to drive anyone away from any form of suffering.

ROYAL SPOILS PERSONA 5

My biggest flaw with Royal, however, is how good the third semester is. When we're in the final palace, we see memories of the palace ruler's past. It made us understand how they got into the position that they are now and fleshes them out. Every single bit of these works tremendously to create a fantastic antagonist. The palace rulers from the original story have will seeds which add flavor (abliet inaudible), but Atlus cut out cutscenes of the villains' backstories. If it was done for time constraints, I believe more time should've been made for the developers to polish this aspect out for both the inital Japanese release and the localization since I feel these scenes would leave much more of an impact. The previous palace rulers were mainly used as stepping stones for the Phantom Thieves, but none of them left close to as much of an impact that the new palace ruler does.

CLOSING THE BOOK

Now here's where I go full out pretentious and analytical.

There are three endings that the third semester offers: one where you miss the deadline, one where you accept Maruki's reality, and one for vice versa. All three give something to think about. And if you beat the game already, I highly recommend watching every ending.

February 2nd arrives, Maruki arrives at Leblanc, waiting for Ren's final decision. Before he gets it, Marki uses Akechi as his final plea for Ren to accept his reality since Maruki was the one who brought Akechi back to life. Is he sure to live in a reality without him? Ren sends his final callind card in front of Maruki. Flicking the card and letting it slide on the table as a way of pity for dangling a man's life for the sake of happiness. When Maruki leaves, Akechi will ask what your decision is. If you're really that attatched to Akechi, you have choices to say that you don't want him to die. The choice of fake happiness and growth is such a tough decision and one of the most emotionally powerful moments in the game. The 2 main endings are what I consider to be the ideal and real endings (because that's the name of one of his theme songs).

The "ideal" ending is pretty straight forward. Joker accepts Maruki's reality. And the PT + Akechi have some wholesome moments, Sojiro wants to adopt you instead of the game ending with you going back home, but it feels off. On the last day, Joker and the Phantom Thieves take a group picture outside of Shujin Academy (a symbol of Maruki "freeing" them from all of the struggle. The school is called Shūjin, meaning prisoner). Akechi is about to take the picture, but Maruki comes in as anonymous. What could've been a moment of Akechi taking control is now taken away from him as Maruki takes the role of the photographer and puts him in the picture. The credits roll, but something's off; the rolling credits are tilted, pictures of each individual member appear, showing how happy they are, and Maruki's theme, The Ideal and The Real, is remixed to sound, and in the final picture, Ren and Akechi stare at the player, questioning them if this really was the right decision. Of course Ren would've denied Maruki's reality, but you made him accept it. You making the choice was the loss of his free will.

This is a very bittersweet ending; yes, everyone is happy, but everything we have done is now undermined. I don't understand Akechi putting on the detective prince façade. Did he put it on himself or did Maruki use his Persona's power to do so? Thinking about it now, Sumire's name was changed to Kasumi, so the latter could be the case.

As for the choice of the true ending, if you deny Maruki's reality, you'll take away what everyone else wanted, you'll take away Ryuji returning to the track team, you'll take away a healthy Shiho from Ann, a proper master from Yusuke, a father from Makoto, a mother from Futaba, and a father from Haru. Losing something you love again is a painful decision. Not everyone will respond to pain well, but for our Phantom Thieves, their suffering is what made them grow.

When entering the palace, instead of Life Will Change, I Believe plays. Its lyrics act as a response to Maruki and the guitar motifs at the beginning and after the chorus are nods to Life Will Change. Not gonna lie. You know how you can just fast travel to the closest shortcut? Well I didn't do that with Maruki's palace. I did it because this really felt like an event. The final boss ensues and Keep Your Faith Plays. Midfight of the final boss, Maruki begs our Phantom Thieves to give them the happiest reality possible, but everyone has their own lines responding to them, showing him their growth. Defeating Azathoth, Maruki evolves his persona into Adam Kadmon: the ulimate man in the teachings of Kabbalah, untainted by earthly matter. Representative of the people Maruki wishes to see in reality. The lyrics kick in and the song is now called Throw Away Your Mask. Bone chilling This is my favorite song in all of Persona. On top of being a bop, this is still a sad song about Maruki's side. On the first and third lines of each stanza of the verses, Lyn sings softly as the notes go down, painting an emotion of soothing, something he wants to give in his reality. And the bridge is the softest moment of the song, reassuring that his reality becomes true, nothing bad will happen and everyone deserves better.

Adam Kadmon is a setpiece boss, but it makes for the hypest moment of my experience playing video games. I've finally have my hands on this moment. This is my checkmate.

When Maruki finally comes to terms with what he's done. The Metaverse starts to disappear once again. So he asks Ren, to kill every last one of his regrets doing research for a hedonistic utopia. We no longer have the abilities to summon our Personas, so that means we have to solve it with our fists.

"I gave up everything! Everything! So why.... why Rumi? A reality where no one suffers."

This is my favorite scene in a game. The foils here do a lot of the heavy lifting here. When Maruki lies on the floor and reaches his hand towards the sky, just like Ren did when dissapearing from cognition. A foil where they're two people who just wanted to help questioning themselves if they did the right thing. When the floor cracks, Maruki wants to die since the suffering is too much for him, an easy way out, but Ren grasps his hand, as a sign that despite all the hardships, Maruki can change and be better.

Let's timeskip to March 3rd, every party member has a new goal for their future. Ryuji is going to live near a physical rehab facility to get back in the track team, Ann is studying abroad for her career, Haru and Makoto plan on living on their own, Futaba is going to high school, and Yusuke will make a painting representing his time with the Phantom Thieves. I know I say this word a bunch of times, but it is a bittersweet moment. It's sad that we are all going our separate ways, but what matters is that we look at our future and grow.

March 20th. The final day arrives. You say your goodbyes to everyone and are ready to leave. You're about to ride with your friends back home like in the original ending. But Maruki now comes in as a taxi driver to take you to the train station. It fits his character development since instead of guiding people to where he wants them to be, he's now guiding them to where they want to be. A fitting end for a god tier character. And a little something is left a little equivocal.

Our Light tops Persona 3's Kimi no Kioku as my favorite credits theme. It's a melancholic yet bittersweet goodbye to Kasumi from Sumire, to Rumi from Maruki, and to the Phantom Thieves from Ren. And that chorus. That chorus hits so freaking hard. Lyn belting out gets me everytime I listen to it. As for this ending, it feels different compared to the original Persona 5. Instead of

IF YOU WANT TO BE BETTER, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

Persona means so much to me. I don't just see the Persona series as just journeys about the bonds that we make or a game where you can make a harem of waifus. I see Persona mainly as a wake up call for anyone who is down. In my eyes, Persona is a series about proactivity. Persona 3 may be the most depressing game, but it's not about wanting do die. Like the guns S.E.E.S have to their heads, it represents that although death is inevitable, the best that we can do is to just live our lives, rather than wallow in apathy. In Persona 4, I don't just see a group of kids in a small town coming to terms with the worst of themselves. I see them being brave enough to stand up for what is the truth, even if it may be painful. If we live in ignorance, then the worst of history could repeat itself. And with Persona 5, I see people fighting for the best future, by standing up to those who abuse their power. I see a group of teens wanting to make the path for their futures in their own way, no matter the hardships that they come through. I see people standing up, no matter the risks. I see people changing themselves to become better by pushing through whatever obstructs their way. That is the hope that I see in humanity and one of my buggest hopes is that everyom would overcome their ignorance.

CONCLUSION

After beating Persona 5 Royal, I felt empty. It exceeded my monumental expectations that I don't know if I will find another game that would leave even a fraction of the impact that Persona 5 Royal does. I have so much more faith in the Persona series if Daiki Ito, the director of Royal, is behind the wheel since he made pretty much the best story arc ever. I have no better title to give Persona 5 Royal than my favorite game of all time. No more ties like the original was with DOOM Eternal and Bloodborne. Bloodborne and DOOM Eternal are games that I consider to be the highest standard of what video games should live up to, but Persona 5 and especially Royal just speak to me. This is my one and only favorite game of all time and I couldn't be any happier that I got a PS5 mainly for this game alone for Persona 5 Royal is video game royalty.

P.S. If you have reached the end, thank you so much for reading. This game means a lot to me so I wanted to go all out. Putting out the most heart and soul I have ever done with a piece of work. By the time of this review being released, February 4th, 2022, today will be my 20th birthday. The final boss also ends on that day. Poetic, isn't it? Just thank you from the bottom of my heart. My first actual review on this site was of Persona 5 so I'm so happy that I have finally had my hands on the same game in a new light 3 years later. Just again. Thank you.

If you enjoyed P5 vanilla, then you'll enjoy this. If you've ever wanted to take a dive into the series, this is the most accessible title to do so.

My only gripes with the game were a certain palace boss in outer space on Hard, and the ending. I wasn't nearly as emotionally attached when this game ended as I was when Persona 4 Golden did. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Shujin Academy.

I finished it a few days ago, but I took a few days to organize my opinions... because they are COMPLICATED.

Did I like it? Sort of. The plot is good, UNTIL it stops being good and then never kinda recovers. The party of characters is good, the interactions are funny and meaningful and you actually start caring about some of them when you thought at the beginning you weren't going to like at all, BUT the Confidant system is an incredibly badly implemented idea.

The main problem? It is way, way, WAY too long. It just keeps going and going and going, and the sticking to fixed dates and throwing you whole bunches of days where absolutely nothing is happening and you have nothing to do except doing repetitive actions time and time again to farm stats doesn't help at all. I barely could play for two or three hours a day and several days were wasted on those "free time" sessions that get grating fast when you want to actually move the freaking plot along because you don't have time to go eat a giant hamburger for the thousandth time.

The Palaces themselves, tho, are a great concept, with enough variety in design and mechanics to keep it fresh and interesting. In particular, Futaba's Palace it's an interesting twist on the already established concept, and the minigames in Sae's Palace change everything a bit and it's refreshing after so long. Mementos, while it's basically Tartarus IN THE SUBWAY, it's still interesting enough that the requests aren't too annoying, and advancing is easy enough.

However, completing them in a single day is very, very easy, giving you whole weeks of in-time game of just "wait and see" between plot points that not only totally break the pacing of the history but, as I said, end up being big wastes of time.

Also, as I said, while the plot, by the most part, it's decent, it all falls apart HARD once Akechi joins the party.

Listen, I get it, you wanted to do a "mole on the inside" plot... but it is totally ruined because WOW THE DUDE WHO HATES US, HAS BLACKMAILED US INTO LETTING HIM JOIN AND IS CLEARLY THE TRAITOR TURNED OUT TO BE THE TRAITOR. HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN.

I spent most of the game thinking that Mishima was going to be the traitor, and I still think that would have been the best choice, AND make the most sense to the God of Control's point of "look everyone can fall into apathy and not give a fuck about what happens", while handling the emotional fallout of the earliest and most annoying... loyal, I meant loyal, fan of the Thieves turns against them. But, because clearly the writers were running out of ideas here, we went with the obvious, because of course we did. Then we get the most confusing and barely foreshadowed plan ever, evil people monologuing about their evilness, and the obligatory "redemption" with Akechi fighting his cognitive self inside Shido's Palace.

(Holy spoiler block, Arsene)

It all picks up again a bit with Royal's postgame, and I will admit I liked it way more than the original plot's whole last arc. However, by this point, I was pushing 80 hours, and that was while ignoring requests for the last month or so, and I just wanted it to just end to the point where I fought the last battle in Safety difficulty just so it ended faster.

As I said, complicated emotions. Did I like it? Well, enough to play it almost daily for 84 hours.

Did I like it enough to go for a New Game +? I don't think so. It can't give me anything else from what it already did.

Would I recommend it to people? I sincerely don't know.

So yeah. Complicated.