Persona 5 Royal (PS4) Review

 Persona 5 Royal (PS4) 8/10

[THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!]

Hello and welcome to another game review. Today, I’m going to tackle the critically acclaimed JRPG Persona 5 Royal. Persona 5 originally released back in 2016 in Japan for the PS3 and PS4, and then in the West in 2017. As per tradition with almost every single Atlus title, they will release the base version of a game and then release a deluxe/definitive version a few years later. Persona 5 Royal is the definitive edition, which was released in 2019 in Japan for the PS4, then released worldwide on March 31, 2020. The game would then be ported to Xbox, PC, and Switch in 2022. Just like the rest of the mainline Persona titles, Royal was developed by Atlus and P-Studios and published by Sega. For this review, I’ll be going over the original PS4 release.

Back when I first got into the Persona games, I got super obsessive. To the point that this series consumed my identity for a solid year - year and a half. Looking back on the series, I’m glad it helped me turn into the person I am today, but man I really wish someone shook me out of that phase sooner. There was a time where I considered P5 Royal to be one of the single greatest games I have ever played, and that might still be true. But after living with the game for so many years, I realized that this game was severely overhyped. I’m not saying it’s a bad game, but I don’t think it deserves the title of “one of the greatest games ever made.” I have a lot to say, so let’s begin.

If you know this story, then you can skip this part. If you don’t, please continue. This is the story of Ren Amamiya (or whatever you wanna call him). Ren is a “troubled” student who transferred to Tokyo for his second year in high school. Apparently he had a run-in with the law that gave him a criminal record. Now living under Sojiro Sakura’s care, he is to begin his new chapter at Shujin Academy. On his first day of school he meets his new best friend Ryuji Sakamoto, a talking cat named Morgana, discovers an alternate reality, and harnesses the ability to summon his Persona. As the game progresses, he’ll meet more students who share his vision of rebellion and they form The Phantom Thieves, a group of individuals with the goal to reform society, one corrupt adult at a time. To do this, the Phantom Thieves will need to infiltrate their target’s Palaces, fight Shadows, and steal their Treasure, which will create a Change of Heart.

The story here is really cool. Full of style and really cool concepts that blew my mind the first time I played this. I love most of the characters, some of the individual arcs are incredibly well written, and the overall theme of rebellion really makes this game stand out. Unfortunately, the game isn’t all rainbows and unicorns, despite what many hardcore fans say. Persona 5’s story has a lot of issues. Some characters never get their proper shine (like Haru), other characters feel like they’re forced into the spotlight (Makoto, but this was scaled back in Royal), and other characters are just straight up annoying (Morgana). I also have problems with certain story arcs (Okumura, Sae, and even Mementos Depths). But first, let’s discuss the positives.

My favorite characters of the game are: Ren, Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, Kamoshida, Madarame, Shido, Kasumi, and Maruki (I’ll dive into those last two in a bit). Makoto is so stuck up and her Confidant story isn’t that good. Haru gets cockblocked by Morgana in her own arc. I do like her Confidant story, but it’s not enough for a member of the Phantom Thieves; she needs more, especially since her stuff comes near the end of the year. Morgana is such a crybaby simp. He’s constantly shitting on Ryuji while glazing Ann (for the same shit that he gave Ryuji. I get he has a massive crush on her, but where are the standards?) When Ryuji finally bites back at the start of the Okumura arc, Morgana forces you to waste a whole week of time because his ego couldn’t take the shit talking he was dishing out. This arc really ruined him for me. I do like Futaba (the gamer gremlin lol), but I wouldn’t say she’s a favorite. As for Akechi, I honestly didn’t care for him that much. I did like the initial pancake twist, but looking back, there’s nothing there for me.

Back to the positives. There’s some great villains here. Persona 5 is split up into 8 different arcs (9 if we include third semester, but I’ll get to that later). Each arc focuses on a specific target, in which each target represents one of mankind’s deadly sins. I like this idea a lot as it adds more themes to the game. My favorite villains are Kamoshida (honestly he’s arguably the best villain of the game as he’s such a well written piece of shit. Taking him down was incredibly satisfying), Madarame (a conniving weasel who manipulated Yusuke’s life. Although he taught him his art skills, he brought about a really twisted dynamic for Yusuke), and Shido (the big bad that the whole game had been leading up to. Another satisfying takedown). Kaneshiro was an alright villain. More like your typical money-grubbing mob boss, but he served the game well. I just wish there was more of a personal stake tied to Makoto seeing as this was her arc. Futaba’s arc didn’t really have a villain (unless you count her guilt turned wrath), but regardless it has great writing. There were a few things that confused me (the whole Futaba being present in her Palace), but I’m willing to roll with it. Okumura’s arc is easily the worst of the entire game because of Morgana. He overshadows both Haru and the main villain (Haru’s father). Although Okumura was a terrible person, he just felt like another corporate CEO that’s drowning in greed (way too many of these nowadays lol). Sae/Akechi was decent, but not a favorite either. And finally we have Yaldaboath, the “final” boss. Yaldabaoth sucks honestly. He came out of nowhere with no build up, fucks with the team, and then dies. If Yaldaboath was at least hinted at somewhere before (like with Izanami from P4), I could at least look past this, but even then, Yaldaboath just isn’t that memorable compared to previous Persona final bosses. 

The game is also full of side characters that you’ll get to know. My favorites being Mishima (yes he’s a good character), Shiho (I do wish she had a confidant. Honestly one of my biggest disappointments), Iwai (the airsoft gun shop owner), Sojiro (he’s such a bro, even if he comes off as an ass at the beginning), Lavenza (honestly I much prefer her over Caroline and Justine), Takemi (the goth mommy doctor with a troubled past), and Hifumi (the shogi player at the church who should have been a party member instead of Makoto). The rest of the side characters are either alright or straight up forgettable.

And now we go into the Royal exclusive stuff. As opposed to the original vanilla game, Royal includes three new Confidants: Kasumi the gymnast and freshman at your school, Maruki the counselor, and Akechi (who didn’t have a social link before). I did like the added character development for Akechi, but ultimately I still don’t care for him lol. As for Kasumi and Maruki, these two are excellent additions to the cast. Despite all of my grievances about the main story, Royal’s Third Semester is easily one of the best written stories I have seen in a video game. The main story just feels like it’s laying the foundation for what this story does, including the stuff with Yaldabaoth and Mementos. Kasumi has a tragic backstory regarding her twin sister and I love how Maruki is tied to that. I do wish you could have used Kasumi earlier (like during Sae’s Palace), but the game said “no not yet.” As for Maruki, he is easily the best character of the entire game and one of the best final bosses. Maruki was such a convincing villain that at first it was hard for me to fight back against his reality, but ultimately it’s better for humanity to fight and strive to become better instead of living in a happiness simulation. Honestly, I would replay this game solely for the Third Semester. It just sucks this only appears after 80-100 hours and you have to fulfill certain requirements to unlock it. 

One thing I do want to bring up is that Royal is written differently compared to the original. Certain dialogues and overall story points are written much better and clearer. This is blatantly shown with Okumura’s arc with Morgana leaving the team for a week. Ryuji’s dialogue got changed to make him appear more as the one at fault (which is still bullshit as this whole thing is Morgana’s fault in the first place). I also love how Makoto isn’t the main focus for all of the exposition and detective work. One of my issues with the original was that I felt that Makoto kind of took over the team when she joined in, pushing all characters to the side for her own screen time. This time around, Makoto shares the spotlight with everyone else.

I do need to mention one last sin that the game commits: the ending to Shido’s Palace (if you’ve played the game, then you know what I’m talking about). After you defeat Shido and steal his treasure, the ship starts blowing up. Ryuji makes the decision to “sacrifice” himself so that everyone can escape. Back in reality, everyone rejoins except Ryuji, who got blasted out of the Palace a little ways away. This could have gone two different ways. First was to kill off Ryuji. This is sad and would suck, but it would make sense from a writing perspective. Would help fuel the next arc (Yaldaboath) with wanting the public to stick Shido with everything that was found. This would also give the story some greater stakes as none of the main characters die (I was half expecting this to happen as Persona 3 did this with a certain character). The other way this could have gone is if Ryuji survives and everyone is grateful to see him, with Ann specifically happy to see her friend alive (seeing as these two have known each other far longer than the rest of the team [and I could totally see them hooking up in the future lol]). Instead, the game does one the worst things ever and has everyone beat him up for scaring them. Like what the fuck? My guy literally put his ass on the line to save yall and you beat him?? This is just shitty writing and I would love for a change. There’s other dumb moments in the story like this, but this scene was the worst offender.

Overall, Persona 5’s story is decent at best. As I said earlier, there’s a lot of cool ideas and some good characters, but this story definitely needed some more ironing out. Certain characters shine brightly while others not so much, and certain story points could have been handled a lot better. But the peak of this entire narrative goes to the Royal exclusive Third Semester.

Before I get into the gameplay, let’s talk about aesthetics. The game looks just as good as before. All of the cutscenes look clean (especially the new 2D animated ones, but it is weird how the game could look even better with the hardware it was released on). I also need to mention that once you get into the third semester, the game looks like it got a face lift, which is weird. I love the overall design for the game and its flashy substance. The game oozes with style and it’s hard to find another game like this. Character designs are all solid and I love the Phantom Thief outfits for each member. The look for all of the Palaces are solid too, with my favorites being Kaneshiro’s Bank, Futaba’s Pyramid, Sae’s Casino, Mementos Depths, and Maruki’s Laboratory. I also like the designs for most of the Personas, especially Arsene and Raoul. Raoul is fly as fuck; would love a figure of him.

Sound design is great too. All the sound effects (trains running, people chattering, your attacks, etc.) all sound great. The voice acting is great too. All the original voices returned for their roles and they sound good. Special shout out to Xander Mobius (Joker), Matthew Mercer (Yusuke), Max Mittelman (Ryuji), Robbie Daymond (Akechi), Billy Kametz (Maruki) [rest in peace bro], Carrie Keranen (Caroline/Justine/Lavenza), and Jamieson Price (Sojiro). Everyone else sounds great too (except Shinya), but these sounded the best. Also I didn’t even notice that they changed Takemi’s voice. Both versions (Vanilla and Royal) sound great and I don’t really prefer one over the other.

As for the music, I am 50/50 on it. It’s a great soundtrack, I’m not denying that. However, there’s only so much “NEVER GOING TO SEE IT COMING!” a guy can take. As a BATTLE THEME, Last Surprise is awful. As a regular song, it’s great, but it does not have that level of repetition that other battle themes have (both from Persona and other games). Same thing for Take Over. Decent songs, but they’re not good battle themes. There’s a reason why Mass Destruction from P3 was so good, because it was made with the intention that it’ll be played over and over and over again, sometimes on repeat during a single battle. The overall soundtrack is full of jazz, rock, and some soul. I’m all for this, but I feel like Shoji Meguro kinda lost his edge with this soundtrack mainly because a lot of the standout tracks aren’t meant to be listened to 500 times in one sitting lol. There’s plenty of notable themes and notable tracks here and I don’t want to take away from that, but compared to other Persona titles, P5’s soundtrack isn’t as good as it should be. I will say, Life Will Change will never not get my blood going lol. Also, Whims of Fate isn’t that good either (I can already see the pitchforks lol). I will say, some of the new songs in Royal are just incredible. I love all of the stuff regarding Maruki and the Third Semester (really sets the mood for what’s going on).

Now for gameplay. Persona 5 is a turn-based Japanese RPG with time management and social mechanics. Your goal is to progress through the game while spending your time as wisely and efficiently as possible. Each day is split up into different parts of the day (morning, class, after school, and night). Will you spend time with Yusuke at the train station or will you go to the shrine and meditate? Will you choose to go on an outing with Caroline and Justine or go to Mementos and grind. So many options, but only a select few correct options. As you play the game, you’ll unlock Confidants that you’ll need to hang out and form bonds with. The more you hang out with a person, the more that Confidant levels up, which in turn will rank up their Arcana. The stronger your Arcana ranking is, the stronger your Personas will be when you fuse them. It’s important to max out as many Confidants as possible, but I’m sure you already figured that out. It’s also important to max out Maruki and Akechi and reach a certain level with Kasumi before you end the game.

So here are my issues with the game mechanics. Persona 5, just like the other Persona titles and many other games, is a wiki game where you need to have a bajillion tabs open in order for you to fully maximize your time and efficiency. There comes a point in your playthrough where it feels like you’re following a walkthrough with all of the time management and social aspects. If you select the wrong dialogue option and/or you don’t have the correct Persona with you, you basically just wasted your time. You need to min/max your time and choices to the extreme in order to fully enjoy this game. It basically becomes a second job and that’s not really fun is it. Now tack on all the grinding you’ll be doing in both the Palaces and in Mementos. This game becomes a fucking chore. And it’s because of this that it’s hard for me to recommend any Persona game to anyone unless they are willing to fully dive into the game and its mundane mechanics.

Combat got a facelift. Now you don’t have limited ammo for your gun (which was a weird decision in the vanilla game as it would imply the Shadows knew how much ammo you had left). This time around I was able to max out both Ryuji and Hifumi, who made huge changes to the Metaverse side of things. When you max out Ryuji, you can skip entire battles if you sneak up on an enemy, making the grind SO MUCH easier. And with Hifumi, she gives you different abilities that you can use during combat, like switching party members with non-active ones. Mementos also got a facelift. Instead of being the same randomly generated floors over and over again, now there’s some variety with the floors. Some floors will be more maze-like while others can be a straight hallway. Some floors will have only Treasure Demons while others will have only a specific Shadow. Really adds to the variety. And of course, we can’t forget the bestest boy Jose. Jose is another new character that got added to Royal. We don’t know too much about him, but he seems to be related to the Velvet Room Attendants. He has his own quirks and adds a twist to your Mementos exploration, with the use of flower collecting and stamps. There’s also a little something something with Jose near the end, so it’s important to do what he asks lol. Speaking of combat, we got a new mode in the Velvet Room: Special Battles. These are challenge battles where you must complete specific fights in certain ways. You can even battle both Makoto Yuki and Yu Narukami from P3 and P4 (which is such a cool addition that I wasn’t expecting). Final addition to the combat is the introduction of Showtime Attacks. These are special moves that two specific party members can perform that do a lot of damage. Some of these are cool (like Yusuke and Ryuji) while others aren’t (like Haru and Makoto). I do wish there was some variety with each Showtime Attack as it got annoying seeing Morgana fawn over Ann every time they do theirs.

Royal also added some stuff with Tokyo. We got a new hang out spot called Kichijoji and the game makes sure you use it to its advantage. There’s the hang out club Penguin Sniper, side missions with the Phan-Site, and a few other cool stuff. There’s other added stuff throughout the game, but this is the biggest addition.

And of course the Palaces got an upgrade too. They’re still roughly the same, but they added some new areas and corridors to accommodate Joker's new grappling hook and a new collectable: Will Seeds. The grappling hook is cool and all, but it just feels forced in as this was not a thing in the original release. I’m not exactly hating it, but I do wish there was a better way to introduce it instead of Morgana randomly giving it to you. As for Will Seeds, these act as both mini bosses and additional lore for your target. Also shout out to the devs for fixing up Okumura’s Palace (specifically the airlock puzzle). It’s still annoying to run through, but not a nightmare like before. Best Palace designs go to Madarame (Museum), Kaneshiro (Bank), Mementos Depths, and Maruki (Laboratory).

All of the bosses also got an upgrade. In the original version, I enjoyed the bosses but felt that they lacked a layer of difficulty. This time around, all of the bosses are more enjoyable. Each one now has two phases to them, which I greatly appreciate. My favorite fights go to Madarame, Okumura, Shido, and Maruki. Okumura was the HARDEST fight in the entire game. I’m still debating if Maruki was as difficult or not. Because of his fight (and how overleveled I had to be), Sae and her entire Palace was way too easy. Shido’s second phase was awesome as it was a 1v1 between Joker and Shido. Taking him down was very satisfying. Yaldabaoth was an entertaining fight, but lowkey sucks ass as a FINAL boss. Doesn’t help that his boss theme sounds so uninspired. Maruki’s boss fight was another highlight for the game. His entire fight was this massive puzzle and if you fuck up once, you’re dead. His boss theme also goes hard as fuck. The aesthetic, Azathoth’s design, and everything else is so fucking nice. Also the whole thing with his Persona evolving and Adam(?) was cool, but the actual gameplay fight for phase 2 was a bit lackluster. Final shout out to the Hastur mini boss in his Palace. The devs didn’t need to go so hard with this fight. Playing Rivers in the Desert and it’s Joker and Akechi vs a Lovecraftian god. And how you finish the fight with a Showtime attack. Also very nicely done.

Another addition to Royal is the Thieves Den. The Thieves Den is Joker’s Palace that takes place outside of the main story. What happens here is completely non-canon. This entire area is a massive hangout area/museum that you can customize to your design. While here, you can interact with the Phantom Thieves for extra fanservice, play a card game called Typhoon, watch cutscenes, listen to music, and even look at your in-game achievements. I love the Thieves Den. It's easily another highlight for the game that I feel gets overshadowed by other aspects.

Overall, Persona 5 Royal is a great game and I can see how some people love it to death. But it’s also kind of tiring seeing people blindly glaze the game when it has some glaring problems. I’m not even trying to nitpick the smallest details. There are glaring issues that people just seem to overlook. Regardless, Royal is a great game and is arguably GOTY for 2019 (or 2020 if we’re going by western release). Personally, I wouldn’t mind revisiting this game, but only for the stuff with Maruki. Maybe I’ll replay it in the far future. We’ll see. Until my next review, stay frosty and watch out for talking cats.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

This is Zorgak, signing off.