Being the main game that got me hooked into the Persona series, this game was a masterpiece. In its entirety, it was able to revamp the classic RPG style I had grown up on and create a ravishing experience. From the story to the battle, the character arcs, and all wrapped up in the beautiful colors and music, this game is in my eyes, a top 3 game of all time for me. The replayability on it is incredible and the story is one that had shocked me with its twists and turns. Each boss felt fleshed out and did a fantastic job creating a bond between the player and the story. Overall, if you're looking for an excuse to get into Persona, or to experience this masterclass, look no further.

I played about 40 hours of Persona 5 in 2019 before circumstances led to the loss of my PS4. Waiting for 5 and later Royal to come to PC, I purchased Persona 4 Golden and played about 20 hours. That game unfortunately was a poor substitute for this one and I failed to get into it, so purchasing and ultimately playing through this behemoth of a game has been an immensely rewarding experience. To be fair to Persona 4 Golden, that game offered me a lot of what I love about this one. The gameplay loop of Persona games is something I find incredibly immersive; living out a chunk of time day-by-day (in Royal's case a year), growing social stats and developing relationships while the plot unfolds. I was drawn in by the steady but marked pace of Royal and the organic character development of my confidants that truly felt earned over time. I love the Megami Tensei shared universe lore, Persona combat systems, creature collecting, and storytelling approach of both Royal and Golden, and yet Golden was still a poor substitute.

Persona 5 Royal stands apart from other Persona games, from other JRPGs, indeed from other games in general primarily on vibe. This game offers a total aesthetic adherence unmatched by any game I’ve played. The visual design from costuming to setting right down to UI, music (of course), character writing, plot, and yes, the pacing all come together to form one message that you’re familiar with if you’ve played: Take your time. For my money this is the perfect comfy game. In 2019 my Saturday routine was to wake up, make a big breakfast with a pot of coffee, watch a couple episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender, and play a few hours of Persona 5, a weekend routine that I long for now that my life doesn’t accommodate it.

These last weeks have been incredibly cozy, curling up with my Steamdeck and getting lost in the game’s world. Yes, it’s long, probably the longest I’ve spent on one completion of a non-roguelike singleplayer experience, but the length only serves to compliment the experience. There’s no rushing here, no panicking, no missing side content to mainline the story. The game takes over 100 hours no matter how you play, and for that time it fully immerses players in its world that oozes coolness and comfort while leveraging raw time investment to form meaningful relationships with characters and build an impressive plot that feels epic because of how much of the player’s actual life it takes to unfold, reminiscent of art like Sátántangó and Jeanne Dielman. Though the visual novel elements offer a superficial illusion of choice while leading down only one set path, they allow players to project their personality onto Joker which goes a long way to bolster immersion, and this game single handedly seeded my interest in visual and kinetic novels. Persona 5 Royal is the comfiest game I’ve ever played and probably the best JRPG I’ve ever played from a gameplay and story perspective, and it has given me characters that I know I will remember and think of forever. I love this game a lot!! Now onto P4G (again)!

It's outright a must play, it does suffer from some flaws though.

The pacing of the game gets brutally slow from time to time, in the form of uninteresting dialogue that just goes on and on about the same thing, and you know I mean it when that sometimes goes over for more than an hour. The lack of real interaction of the player on the dialogue only makes it worse, you have amazing gameplay interrupted by an hour of visual novel.

The other thing is the combat, I don't play many JRPGs because I don't enjoy mindless combat along the lines "push the button that gives the highest number", and Persona 5 is not like that... for maybe the first half of the game. Most of the cool strategies that you could aply earlier in the game get outshadow by "skill that does several damage", which sadly trivializes a rather good combat system.

I think it worth noting that I played the original P5, and that could be a reason to why the dialogue got even more boring for me or how I manage to optimize the combat so much. I would still recommend to play P5R if you enjoyed it the original, but give yourself some time in between.

Still, this game really good, it's not perfect, but that doesn't mean that it isn't one of the best JRPGs out there that you can enjoy even if it that ain't your genre.

Also, do not try to finish this game quickly, it is not meant to be played like that, you'll only get burnt out of it and end up hating it. Now go play it.

List of mods I used available on my pastebin post here. I should also note that “Mastered” in my case means getting all the achievements, leaving out a handful of Thieves Den Awards that become active or otherwise easier to nab in NG+.

For an RPG I heavily played well over a month, fresh and pampered from revisiting Persona 3 in its original and remade form prior, as well as the hot button topic it’s become over the years, you'd expect I'd have a lot to say about Persona 5 Royal. Well... I don't, really. All I can think about in my sleep deprived state is how my 200+ hour venture - and that's generously ignoring inflated idle times Steam's counter acclimates - is how woefully underwhelming the package was save for a few bright spots, and how dispassionately apathetic I became after finally finishing and scouring out for the light.

It’s funny I mentioned my time investment a bit off the heels of a discord within FF7 Rebirth’s activities and planning, cause it should be mentioned (and emphasized) that it’s actually pretty easy to focus and fine-tune your palette into whatever it is you desire. No one except yourself, and perhaps foolish pride, is forcing you to do all of those activities after all, unless they’re particularly easy to nab off the beaten path. That is, of course, neglecting the key component: the focal point where all points are stitched and huddled around, an area P5R constantly falters over. Already saw a flashback sequence? Fret not, you’re gonna be subjugated to it not 10 minutes after. Got a good grasp of the ongoings of the story, be it by themes or event details? Alright, but you’re gonna have to bear the condescending attitude as you watch the character(s) exposit these things anyway. Grew a form of investment over a beat and how it unfolds before and during the main show? Slow your roll there bucko, you haven’t heard about the overly unnecessary and outright damaging undercurrent that ruins it! Sure, it sounds like hyperbole, and as you go along many of these detriments are either quelled or nulled, but it doesn’t change the fact that they’re present, nor does it alleviate their weight of bloat and the meekish presentation of what are honestly some pretty simple themes. The fact it took my entire first session of play to get to the initial true Free Time event on the 18th, whereas P3 - both versions, might I add - give me that freedom within just a few short hours and P4 just about half of this, is appalling.

The writing woes extend to the Phantom Thieves themselves, which I suppose isn’t a Hot Take or anything since there’s been a bit of a debate surrounding them over the years. To dispel some common points, I don’t believe the notion that they are “centered” around Joker - on the contrary, not only is this running along the recurring theme of “kinship through displacement”, there’s already a bit of an established line between Ann and Ryuji, Futaba and Sojiro, and, though faint and dubious, Makoto and Haru. As a group, there’s a rather believable sense of friendship and camaraderie developed and finalized throughout the course of the story amidst the hustle and bustle of urban civilization, which is a bit of a surprise since I was pessimistically expecting the opposite. What did come true, unfortunately, is the lack of individualism and the expression that's delivered from it. The handling of Ann and Haru are criticized enough that I don’t think I can add anything to the former’s blobby mold of an archetype and hypocritical implementation of her supposed freedom of self-expression, and the latter’s seed of growth taken away due to the already mentioned bloat plaguing the game; same with Ryuji and how his (great) Social Link about reliance on others and strength through teamwork is routinely undermined by him being treated as a joke within the main cutscenes. Futaba is ostensibly headcanoned as one under the Autism umbrella, and while the intent is competently delivered and well-handled, the amount of #GAMER allusions are poor and clumsily handled, leading to a bumpy state of her psyche. Yusuke, who’s SL arc revolves around the dichotomy of man and their drive of passion within the hobbyist and professional mindset, is often treated as The Quirky Oddball One of the group with superficial understanding as to what art is since they did this like, twice before I guess and believed third time is truly the charm, which is also why they made Morgana have the same arc as Teddie and Aigis but without any of the things that made those two compelling. Of the group, Makoto is the one with the fewest weights holding her down; her arc is straightforward, explored to its fullest in her SL with little downplay within the narrative, and her importance in the group is always front and center. Her straight-edge nature can be too plain at times, granted, as are her connecting points regarding resolve and resolution, but compared to everyone else? It’s way easier to swallow. To reiterate, however, my main issue isn’t with the characters themselves, honestly I only truly despise Morgana and his obnoxious (albeit small in intensity) demeanor - it’s just kind of hard to truly feel connected with the group when the game seems to treat them more so as dolls for amusement than actual people, something even P4 never fully succumbed to during its outing.

I kind of wish I had more to say, really, cause it’s not as if I totally hate P5R or anything. There’s some good bits in here, like the full exploration of escapism as a theme finally being done here thanks to the “Royal” part of the game desperately giving the endgame a sense of closure, some of the non-essential confidants like Hifumi, Mishima, Chihaya and Yoshida being great to explore despite the drawbacks, and the superbosses being a fair bit of fun to go over. But, like, I’m not really sure what more I can add unfortunately. I’d sort of just be repeating common talking points and, compounded by the fact I’m facing burnout from both writing and my aforementioned time allocation, it just feels fruitless to go over? Like I don’t want to be the umpteenth mouthpiece going over how ridiculously easy this game is even excluding Merciless’ baffling(ly hilarious) modifiers pertaining to player favor and the constricted dungeon design making it so that ambushes are a rare, if ever present, occurrence one can face, cause everyone already discussed that. Did you know that, even in the original team, there were some Etrian Odyssey battle planners? Really makes me wonder how the hell it ended up so milquetoast in engagement, dungeon layout, and the us v them nature of gameplay routing when EO1’s first two stratums already had more going on. It’s also why I’m hardpressed to mention my adoration with Third Semester, cause I can’t quite word it in a way that isn’t already brought up by the people, what with Maruki, Akechi, and Kasumi being the ethos, pathos, and logos of Joker’s - and by principle, Yuki and Narukami’s - Wild Card slot and the reflection they face should his life be altered ever so slightly. I dunno man, it’s like… expansion aside, this is the RPG that got a lot of people into the genre now? The Atlus mega-hit? I’m a lot cooler on the problems than others seem to be, and I wouldn’t cynically berate others over this cause that’s stupid and rude, but it does leave me scratching my head and wondering what else I had missed in my long, long journey as an urbanite Fool.