simply a masterpiece. while not having the most special story, it does everything really well. the characters though, feel super alive, and I like almost all of them. the gameplay consists of two parts. one is the dungeon crawling, which I really enjoyed. all the special animations and the ui make it incredibly enjoyable, and it isnt super complex either. the daily live sim is the other part of the gameplay. this is also really enjoyable and well done, you get to know your friends in game better this way, and you need to manage your time well to spend enough time with everyone. overall this is just really good, im a little biased since i like this so much, but I cant name much flaws on the top of my head.

Most likely never finishing this...

Besides the cool atmosphere and the alright turn-based combat I do not have any positive things to say about this game at all. The gameplay is nothing outstanding or special, the dialogue can be super corny and unnatural, and the praised cast chemistry of the Phantom Thieves just seems like really weird trauma bonding instead of a natural feeling way to expand and execute upon the cast.

It's definitely a game 👍

Doesn't help I've had the displeasure of being spoiled on basically everything within the final arc, at least those spoilers looked alr I guess, but I will never get there myself.

I really love the fact I can just boot this up and hang out in some of the places I used to go all the time when I lived in Tokyo. I only played this after moving out of there, but the overlap of places depicted here and places I would go to do stuff is huge, which is a real blessing when I want to reminisce. I used to live really close to Inokashira Koen and I would go there all the time to take pictures, my workplace was in Shibuya and would stroll around after work until dinnertime, there was this brazilian ramen joint I loved in Sancha, along with tons of record shops... When I saw Kichijoji for the first time in this game I just spent 1h just hanging out.

Anyway, just immaculate presentation. Although is not the best Persona game, it's still the most replayable one by a long mile because of that - it's like like a luxurious hotel package where everything is taken care for you and you just have to sit back and enjoy it without any care in the world. The menus, the UI snappiness, the music, everything comes together and makes this one of the best hangout games ever.

Played it on the hardest difficulty setting this time around, which is still fairly easy compared to other SMT titles, particularly the ones for the DS. Also played in japanese, which is something I should really start doing every time I replay japanese titles, it's great practice

Prior to P5R, majors mask had always been my favourite game to date. I was put off playing P5 due to the notoriously long play time, consisting of something crazy like 100 hours on average for one playthrough. Then came the release of P5R, essentially an expansion on the base game adding in roughly 20 hours of more content, new features and new characters. Finally as of recently I took the dive and purchased persona 5 royal. If I were to tell you this game was fantastic that would be an understatement, I was truly blown away by the nature of P5R. From features ranging from the action/dungeon crawler side of the game to the social Simulator esc gameplay I can confidently say I've never been more impressed, Invested, and amazed by a game. But over all of this my favourite and most definitive aspect of the whole game, the story. What this game does different (and the reason as to why the story is so impactful) is the 100+ length playtime. As a result of this you (the player) is able to connect and truly become invested in the characters and how the outcome of the story will affect them. Not only this but the story is able to balance out fun action packed gameplay and story whilst having a dark and disturbing premise. This is a very short tribute/explanation to why Persona 5 Royal is my favourite game but I do not see my opinion on the game ever changing, and i look forward to see where the persona series goes next

I’ve had Persona 5 in my library for way over a year now, and playing it has been a long time coming. I was honestly somewhat apprehensive to, I really disliked Persona 4, so even though I’ve heard nothing but great things about Persona 5, I was afraid something similar would occur. My main motivation to playing Persona 5 in the first place was that one of my friends started playing it, and I didn’t want to be spoiled. This entire preamble is to lead up to this; for the past 8 days I have done nothing but play Persona 5. 104 hours total, beginning to end. My perception of time has been fundamentally altered because I was so engrossed and invested into Persona 5, these past 8 days have all blurred together into some amalgamative mass. If it isn’t already obvious by all of this, I absolutely loved my time with Persona 5.

Way before getting into where this game just absolutely works, I love how much style is put into this game. UI, animation, music, everything in this game has this particular style to it that’s addictive. Even when I’m 20, 40, even 60 hours into the game, I hear certain music tracks, or see certain animations, and I get that same level of excitement that I do seeing them for the first time. And in a similar vein, the game’s UI is absolutely stellar. It took a little bit of time getting used to each button being a battle command, instead of having to scroll through a list of actions, but once I got used to it, it really felt great.

I also absolutely love Palaces. They feel like properly planned out and designed dungeons, and I love how they’re able to fully and completely fit the theme they’re going for. I’ll try to avoid comparing Persona 5 with Persona 4 as much as I can, but I want to highlight that I really didn’t like how the main dungeons of Persona 4 were all procedurally generated, it made Palaces such a breath of fresh air. I love the stealth mechanics, being able to hide from enemies and ambush them from the shadows always felt great to do. I would say most palaces are rather good, with only one not being as strong as the others, but that’s mainly because the puzzles in that palace are rather basic. It might be contrarian to what I mention prior, but I also really love Mementos as a dungeon. It is procedurally generated which would make it seem like I would dislike it, but I think it’s the balance between Palaces and Mementos that allows me to actually enjoy Mementos. It’s a dungeon you can take at a sort of piecemeal way, as you’ll be able to slowly gain access to lower parts of Mementos as you progress with the story. You can then alternate between Palaces and Mementos, allowing for a sort of balance between them, which I really appreciate.

I’m also really enamored by the combat system of Persona 5. This is the first MegaTen game I’ve played that doesn’t feature the standard Press Turn system, so it was definitely another thing I had to get used to. Even then, Persona 5’s gameplay system is absolutely masterful. Persona 5 does sort of feature a press turn system, though not in the exact same way. One More functions about the same as a Press Turn, but of course it only activates when downing an enemy. There’s also of course a specific turn order in battle, instead of player and enemy rounds. But going back to One More, it leads into one of my favorite mechanics in the entire game, Baton Pass. Baton Pass works basically as a free switch to an ally to use their action, but you can chain it up to a total of 4 times. Increasing power, recovery, and even lowering the cost of skills if you chain it high enough. It becomes an absolutely addictive system that I love both utilizing, and in a way, abusing.

And this leads me into what I think is what kept me playing all this time. What allowed to sit through and play 104 hours total of this game with only sleep being a break. That of course is none other than the game’s story. Immediately before the game even gets going, it has absolutely one of the best cold opens I’ve seen in a game, and it serves well as a tutorial section too. It sets up so much intrigue that made me want to see more and more of what is going on in the game. As well, the character writing is so good. The main party’s dynamic is really good, and it feels like they’re a proper group of friends. As well the villain of each arc can at times be cartoonishly evil, but I think that exemplifies the world and the themes that Persona 5 is trying to go for. This idea of young rebels fighting against a corrupt society that allows for these cartoonishly evil villains to avoid punishment, and forcing them to realize their actions and live with the understanding of what they’ve done. It’s something immaculate. There’s also just so much else I could talk about here, though I won’t as I don’t really want to spoil anything specific here. The last few arcs of the game are amazing, I love the Royal story content, and the end is absolutely perfect. Persona 5’s story is everything I really hoped it to be, and more.

Goro Akechi

Unlike in Persona 4, where I went only for the Social Links of the main party, I actively engaged with as many social links I possibly could in Persona 5. I’m not going to go into elaborate detail into all of them, that would be the absolute death of me. I would say for a good majority of them, they were really good, and I love how some sort of tie into Mementos and doing Mementos Requests. Its nice that the game opens up a lot of night options to allow you to try to at least get 2 social link rank ups in a day if you plan well. There were definitely some characters I didn’t feel as strong about, but there were few, if any characters I actively disliked. I tried my best to get as many social links done as I can, and I’d estimate I probably got about 90% complete. I completed 18 social links, but I was pretty high in the other ones, ranging between ranks 5-8. I also really like the bonuses that some social links give, some of them are absolutely busted too. One of Ryuji’s bonuses particularly became the perfect level-grinding method. Though it does feel weird examining the mechanical reasons to raise Social Links, it feels good to raise social links not solely because of the mechanical boons, but because I care about these characters.

I’ll say this as well, but I wish I was able to really compare the differences between base Persona 5 and the content exclusive to Royal. While the last major arc of the game (if you unlock it) is Royal exclusive, there’s noticeably differences solely based upon certain characters existing. Maruki and Kasumi are Royal exclusive characters, but they exist through nearly the entire main storyline of base Persona 5. What is it like when those characters aren’t there, what changes? This thought makes me wonder what other changes exist in Royal, and since I don’t have a way of playing the original Persona 5, I have no way of comparing. I should specify I’m not saying this as a negative, it’s more just a thing I’m curious about more than anything.

It feels weird being done with Persona 5. Yet again, I must reiterate, I have done nothing but play this game for the past 8 days. I really do feel like for me, Persona 5 is an unforgettable experience, not only because of the game itself, but because of the environmental circumstances around me that not only brought me to play the game, but while I was playing the game as well. I don’t know if I can bring myself to replay the game anytime soon, it was over 100 hours long after all, but maybe a few years from now I’ll revisit it. I’m glad to have played a Persona game I ended up absolutely loving.

Stole my heart again, second time around.

Played the original back in 2017 and it immediately became one of my all time favourites.

What made the experience sweeter was when I visited Japan (Tokyo) for the first time in 2018, I realized I had "visited" all the places before. All the time I would be like - "I have been here", "I know this".

Was putting Royal off for a long time because I didn't really want to commit 100+ hours to a game I had already beaten recently.

Finally bit the bullet sometime late last year and finished it today (played with all DLC).

What a wonderful, wonderful experience. I will love this game till the day I die.

Persona 5 is a game I played in 2017 and did not enjoy very much. The game has a strong start but the longer it goes on the more it feels like it completely goes back on everything it was trying to say in the early game. Was it just a complete disconnect between writers or is it a Persona 4 situation where they just made the decision to constantly undermine all of its themes. While the time management system is actually pretty fun a lot of the new social link rewards go towards making an already boring and repetitive combat system even easier.

One more is flawed on its own but it feels like there's very little room for things to go wrong in most of the games fights. Every random encounter is exactly the same and bosses actually just do no damage for some reason. This is likely because of how easy it is to get over leveled in this game and how important level difference is when it comes to damage. I ended up equipping armor that gave the minimum 10 defense to my whole party just so I had to think during bosses and even then a lot of them still weren't a big issue if I just payed attention to buff/debuff uptime but at least there was something I actually had to pay attention to.

All of this said I'm surprised to say that the new content added in Royal is actually really great? It all has proper buildup and is foreshadowed through the whole game. The party is personally invested in the new conflict and the events that take place all make sense. The new characters are fantastic and that new story is absolutely worth experiencing.

Is something I would be saying if you didn't need to play 90 hours of Persona 5 before getting close to the payoff. If the Royal stuff was somehow in its own game then this game would be like an 8 out of 10 but as it stands it's just not worth the time.

I'm typically of the opinion that "less is more" when it comes to games, and that a longer playtime does not equal a better experience. I honestly resisted playing this game for quite a while simply because I knew how much of a time sink it was, despite its positive reviews. Well, now that it's all said and done, it was both as long as I expected, and as good as I had heard. In Persona 5 Royal, you play as a Japanese high school student with the codename of "Joker", as he is forced to transfer schools following an assault charge he was framed for (a setup that always felt a bit flimsy. Where are his parents??). The game is half Japanese high school social simulator, as you make friends with other students and people around town to boost your stats, and half turn-based RPG as Joker and his party travel into the subconscious of ne'er-do-wells to compulse them into having a "change of heart". These subconscious "palaces" serve as the game's dungeons, with the day-to-day activities providing much of the plot. First and foremost, I want to stress how stylish this game is. From its animations to designs to especially its UI, this game just oozes flair and is probably a major contributor to its success. The characters are all really likeable, with your party members in particular being very memorable and interesting with their own unique quirks. I do want to give a special shoutout to the voice acting in this game. If you took a look at it, you would assume it would have pretty "anime" acting, a style I'm not really a fan of, but the acting in this game is superb and really elevates the characters across the board. That isn't to say there aren't some unlikeable allies, and the ability to romance any of the female "confidants" leads to some... unfortunate pairings, such as a doctor, a middle schooler, and your high school teacher moonlighting as a French maid. The villains are all pretty compelling too, with their evil ways well exposed to the player so that they feel both a threat and deserving of having their deeds exposed. The extra Royal villain in particular is really interesting, and much less black and white than the others. That being said, I was wary of a long game losing my attention, and near the end it does begin to drag on. It's not too bad for the original Persona 5 content, but the extra Royal chapter, interesting as it was, feels a bit tacked on, and I had to force myself to continue doing the day to day social stuff once more. If I had to give any other criticism, I never really jelled with the combat system. It's similar to Pokemon in a number of ways, such as capturing enemy "personas" for your team and exploiting enemy type weaknesses, but I found the fusing system a bit confusing and ended up just creating a team with a variety of types, rather than focusing on any one persona. This is a minor criticism though, as it easily held my attention, and I'm very interested in playing the other Persona titles... after a break.

If you're thinking about playing Persona 5, and are unsure whether to go with Royal or the original release, then rest easy. Unlike the eternal Persona 3 version wars or even some contested discussion on the Persona 4 version, it's pretty easy to say Persona 5 Royal is the way to go for your Persona 5 experience.

This version patches up most of the issues that exist in the base version of Persona 5. Too easy? Felt the story to be too flat for what you know of Persona? Well the Third Semester patches both of those up: A rich narrative wrapped around a combat experience you simply cannot spam physical attacks to get through, and a final battle that serves as a true test of the mechanics you've learned and bonds you have formed to get to that point! The only way they could have improved things further was if they found a way to add a Chihiro cameo, but I digress. As far as reworked versions goes, this does much more for Persona 5 than Golden does for Persona 4, and it really feels like Atlus has learned from their previous remasters.

There are a few caveats, though. The grappling hook is a neat addition that the new dungeon really takes advantage of in interesting ways, but for the pre-existing dungeons it varies from feeling like it fits to feeling tacked on. Speaking of the entire Persona 5, you have to redo the entire game with a couple new things on the side before you get to the wholly new section. The new additions are all good, but given how long Persona 5 already is it can be a bit daunting but it was worth it since the new additions were for the most part good. The last issue is exclusive to the 2022 version that I played (can you believe Persona 5 on Switch isn't a meme anymore?), and that is the free access to the previously released DLC with not even no strings attached, but immediate access to a level 90 Persona and tons of abrsud powerful skills, with no option to disable access to them beyond self-imposing yourself, which can also get in the way of fusions....this also includes the powerful DLC accessories. Costumes are great but some change the battle music when Joker wears them when I wish they weren't attached so you could choose a battle playlist while the Results would only depend on your costume.

Persona 5 Royal is the definitive Persona 5 experience, that in my eyes gave Persona 5 the boost it needed to stand tall next to Persona 3 and 4 as legendary games any RPG fan must play!

Persona 5 is a very long game; so buckle up, cause this review is going to be a ride.

I first played Persona 5 in its vanilla form in 2017 when it first came out on PS4. I distinctly remember my play sessions going well over the 6 hour mark at times. I would play into the early morning and going to my classes dead eyed, exhausted, but excited to get back to the game. I was in love with the music, the swaggy presentation, and the characters. I’ve played JRPGs before, but never as grandiose, flashy and so dedicated to being cool the way Persona 5 was. It truly entranced me. There was a time in my life where I seriously considered Persona 5 one of the best games ever made. After the Royal version came out, it was always something I had on my radar, but my life became a million times busier so I never had the time for it. I kinda forgot about it as years went on; instead doing a Persona 4 replay a year ago. However, with the announcement of the Persona 3 Remake, I found myself in the Persona mood and decided to take some time to do a deep dive into P5 again, this time with the Royal content. Unfortunately I did not enjoy the game nearly as much as I did way back. It certainly had high highs, but the lows were very low, and more frequent than the highs. Please bear with me as I try to parse my thoughts on all the major elements of Persona 5.

At its core, Persona 5’s main story is about a group of teenagers who all have been wronged by greater society in some fashion; and use their manifested powers to rebel against what they believe to be the forces corrupting said society. They become the Phantom Thieves in order to change Japan for the better. They achieve this by changing the hearts of corrupt authority figures. Starting from a perverted high school teacher and finishing with the would be Prime Minister of Japan. They do this by navigating the metaverse, a world that represents the subconsciousness of society. Along the way they get caught up basking in the popularity of the Phantom Thieves and lose sight of their original goal, before reuniting and coming back stronger than ever. On paper it's a fine enough story. My biggest issue, and the main reason why I can’t engage with the narrative, is because it becomes very disingenuous at the very end. Like I mentioned before, during the third act, the Phantom Thieves choose to change the heart of Masayoshi Shido, the favorite to become the next Prime Minister of Japan, after learning of his corrupt ways. Not only was he using the metaverse to gain political favor, every party member had some deleterious connection to him as well. The protagonist had a personal confrontation with Shido; Shido is also responsible for Wakaba’s and Okumura’s death. The Shunjin academy principal, Madarame, and Kaneshiro were all connected to Shido as well. With all this, it seemed evident that Shido had to go down. And after much effort, struggle and unbelievable ass pulls, they actually do it. The Phantom Thieves managed to change the heart of Shido. They got Shido to admit to all his corruption and crimes in front of the entire country of Japan right before being elected as Prime Minister. Japan is saved! Right? Except, it’s not. The citizens, who all supported Shido, rather than starting to change perspective, embrace a defeatist mentality. The growing sentiment is that nothing matters and there’s no point in trying to change things. In the meantime, Shido’s party was already making moves to put someone else to replace Shido as the new political puppet to maintain power and manipulate the masses. I actually loved this development, because it speaks starkly about a grim reality of our world. No one person is responsible for all the evil in society. Persona 5 knows this because Japan is not saved when Shido is defeated, and it makes a point to recognize that the solution is not as simple as “beating the bad guy”. In that case, if that’s not the answer, what is? Well, if you were expecting a nuanced answer like “it’s the systems in place that keep the elites in power and the common man oppressed” i.e. CAPITALISM, you’re wrong. According to P5, it’s actually a god that forced everyone to become a doomer. Apparently, society is so messed up that people would rather not think and accept their fate than try to achieve their dreams. And it’s this god of control that gives people comfort by essentially removing their ability to think critically. While I certainly empathize with this sentiment, it completely falls apart if you simply ask “why?” Why do people find comfort in not thinking about achieving their dreams and making due with their place in life? Why is it so hard to accomplish your goals in this society in the first place? We come to the same answer, the systems! By pivoting so hard into this ultimately meaningless conflict with Yaldabaoth, Persona 5 betrays whatever good will it built up with its narrative. It became a game with seemingly earnest attempts at criticizing modern Japanese society that ultimately failed to make any strong statements to avoid being too political. It’s sad and frustrating. Doubly frustrating when you realize that at the end of the game, the Phantom Thieves did not even change society much at all. Beating Yaldabaoth did not make Japan better, it simply removed some bad guys.


Beyond the content of the main narrative itself, the pacing is absolutely horrendous. I don’t know why I’m cursed to play these long ass jrpgs with horrible pacing but here we are. Persona 3, 4 and 5 all suffer from bad pacing because the game takes the time to make sure you understand everything about needing to immerse yourself into the game world. They all have complicated plots and gimmicks so there's a little bit of “onboarding” that needs to take place to make sure the player understands. What makes Persona 5 worse than the other games is that it tries to engage with the player as if they have never played a video game before as well. The game has an extended tutorial session right when you boot the game to help introduce players to things like movement, sneaking and the very basics of combat. I have no issue with this usually, and it makes sense that Atlus would make an effort to accommodate all players. This is Atlus’s biggest game after all and will likely pull in a lot of people who are video game/jrpg naive. But there is no way to skip it. Not only that but you actually play through it twice. After that tutorial section where Joker gets arrested, you start over again narratively by having the game start with Joker just moving into Tokyo. I understand what they were going for, but the benefit of starting in media res is that you usually skip the boring slow build up, instead sprinkling it in throughout the action. Persona 5 makes you start in media res, and then goes back to start from the very beginning. This introduction was so sloppy that I dread ever playing this game again from how much it actually drags. Even after, when you're in the game proper, the pacing is still way too slow. Pacing in video games exists in two forms: gameplay and narrative. Gameplay pacing is essentially the onboarding process to make sure you understand the mechanics of the game before it challenges you to see if you have a grasp on them. This is usually done via tutorials or easier challenges that promote player confidence. Narrative pacing is essentially just what it sounds like, how is the main narrative paced. How promptly are the major events presented and how many important scenes are given to the player to engage with. In both these regards, Persona 5 fails.

Besides the main narrative, character writing plays a huge role in Persona 5, mostly via social links where the main character spends quality time with certain characters in attempts to get close to them. With regards to the social links or confidants, I was going to have a paragraph on all of them but as I started writing them I realized that I could more succinctly criticize them all in one breath. The social links are all relatively well written and fun to go through. Each one is memorable in some capacity and it is fun watching Joker get progressively stronger as the rewards for completing them are amazing this time around. They are definitely the most consistent in quality when compared to P4 and P3. The reason they are all so consistent, however, is because most of the social links tell essentially the same story. Basically, some character is branded as a delinquent by larger society because of unfortunate circumstances. Through meeting Joker, they learn to fight against society’s judgment and decide to make their lives better. However things take a turn for the worse and the character essentially gives up. So Joker and the Phantom Thieves go to the metaverse to fix things. Finally, the character realizes that Joker is a Phantom Thief and possibly falls in love with him. This is the synopsis for Chihaya, Kawakami, Ohya, Hifumi, and Iwai’s confidants. While playing through it you don’t necessarily notice it in the context of so much going on, but thinking back, it is really evident that Atlus did not know how to exactly incorporate the major themes of the game uniquely for every character. Again, not to say that these are bad, but it is a little disappointing when you realize what is going to happen before the social link is done. I do want to make mention of the politician Yoshida’s social link as I believe it is the best confidant in the game. Yoshida is someone that was rightly shunned by society for being a corrupt politician some 20 years ago when he was young. He did serious reflection and growing up, and now is trying to improve Japan by his conviction and morals, not because the Phantom Thieves made it easy for him. In fact, Joker never intervenes on his behalf, Yoshida fights his own battles with his own corrupt party even when the opportunity to become elected again presents itself. I think Yoshida’s confidant and arc represents Persona 5’s core tenet of standing up against society’s branding of you more than anyone else. Another social link I really loved was Mishima’s. I couldn’t stand that character until about half way through his arc when you realize that he is essentially acting the way he is due to the fact that he is incredibly insecure about his relationship with Joker. He understands that he is powerless when compared to the almighty Phantom Thieves, so he acts like a bossy brat as his way of exhibiting control in the relationship. But by some miracle, the Phantom Thieves actually talk down his shadow instead of stealing his heart like they do with every other encounter. While this opens up a whole bunch of questions regarding the nature of shadows, I like that Joker was able to recognize that Mishima was a very insecure teenager who needed validation at the end of the day, rather than some criminal that needed to be pacified with force. Mishima’s arc was one of how insecurity can ruin a relationship and sometimes reminding each other of the intrinsic value friendships can be life saving.

Talking generally about the cast, I would say that I really like them as a whole, but I would not say that they come across as a tight knit group. My favorite thing about P4’s cast was how close everyone was to one another, and how every character had their own unique interactions and in jokes with basically everyone else. Think about Kanji being bros with Teddie, respectful to Yu, annoying to Yosuke, kind to Chie/Yukiko, indifferent to Rise and crushing on Naoto. That does not really apply in P5’s case. Yusuke for example, does not really have much of a relationship with anyone beyond Joker. The same applies to Haru. This problem is exacerbated even further with the new party members Royal added. There are certainly plenty of opportunities for meaningful dialogue that can grow the interpersonal relationships between characters, but instead the game likes to waste time by repeating the same 6-7 sentences about having to get the treasure before the deadline or something bad will happen!!! It is honestly very frustrating and adds to the poor pacing that I was mentioning earlier. Another thing that really bothers me about the whole cast is their character development is basically nonexistent in the main campaign, it is all locked away in their confidants. That’s not really a big deal but it makes it jarring when you see the cast basically act the same way they did back in April when they should have grown as people. It’s doubly frustrating when you find out that the social links are generally really good and help flesh out the characters a lot.

Starting with Ryuji and oh my God. Easily the worst party member in the game. He initially was a cool character as I’m a sucker for one brain cell brawlers with a heart of gold. The problem is that Ryuji actually does not have a heart of gold. At least, in the main plot. Ryuji is CONSTANTLY spouting nonsense to the rest of the group, and is always actively detrimental to the Phantom Thieves efforts. The cast has to continuously go out of their way to either shut down or stop Ryuji from himself because otherwise they would all be in big trouble. The worst part is that Ryuji is never aware of how much of a detriment he is to the group and is constantly whining about it. This becomes most evident when Ryuji’s constant berating of Morgana hurts his feelings and causes him to leave the group. Morgana leaving the group is entirely on Ryuji and it’s 100% his fault. And even when Morgana comes back to the crew, Ryuji does not even apologize! It’s a shame because his social link is actually really sweet. It’s how Ryuji tries to remediate his relationship with his track teammates after his temper ruined that relationship. He uses his new confidence gained by his persona to disrupt any other corrupting influences in the track team as well as try to heal old wounds by approaching his teammates with a measured apology. It shows that his temper is not something to be proud off but rather something he should fix and address. It’s just a shame that this sweet, mature Ryuji is nowhere to be found in the main campaign.

Ann is another character who is entirely redeemed by her social link. In the main campaign she essentially only exists to repeat meaningless narrative beats over and over ad nauseam, and to be the source of the game’s most predatory dialogue. For a significant portion of the game, all Ann would do is get mad when other characters made remarks about her body. Which is doubly gross when you realize that her story arc that made her join the phantom thieves in the first place is the fact that she was a victim of sexual harassment. That doesn’t stop Atlus from making jokes about her breasts or her body; or making an entire sequence about having Ann pose naked against her will??? Anyway, her social link is another one that is really sweet. Ann, blames herself for being able to let her bestie Shiho get sexually harassed or worse by Kamoshida, so she takes it upon herself to become “stronger”. What does it mean to be stronger, well her entire social link is trying to figure that out. Ultimately she lands on chasing her passion, modeling, as enthusiastically as she can. Promising Shiho to always be there for her in the future. It’s a relatively simple social link but I think it shows one of Ann’s best traits, which is that she was able to grow mostly by her own willingness to be better, rather than change because of Joker’s intervention.

Makoto is the real main character of Persona 5. The moment she joins the Phantom Thieves, the game revolves entirely around her. And she never does wrong. Her plans are always correct. Her analysis is always perfect. Her theories are always on point. And if there is ever a problem, it is nothing Makoto and Futaba cannot fix. The game leans on her so much it is honestly baffling. Not only that, but she also has the most private time with Joker. It is easy to see why she is such a popular romance pick. The problem is that beyond her perfection, there is no real personality. She is like the mom of the group but without the loving mom part. In the main plot she just exists to direct the team as to what to do and to give the appropriate story dumps when necessary. And her social link is not even about her! It is essentially about how she is too perfect and she needs to mingle with the plebs of the high school, leading her in more trouble than necessary. That might be a more cynical interpretation of the social link, but it does come across that way. Don’t get me wrong, I think her relationship with Eiko helps humanize Makoto and I do believe it is a net plus for her character, but their dynamic is off. Eiko essentially exists to be saved by Makoto, more evidence of Makoto being perfect. By the end of her social link, she does not really grow beyond what she already experienced with her persona awakening, that she should chase what makes her happy instead of what society expects of her. Proportionally she has the least amount of development compared to screentime.

Futaba, similar to Makoto, becomes the Phantom Thieves resident problem solver. There is no issue that Futaba cannot hack her way out of. In fact, the biggest plot twist in the game to have Joker fake his death was entirely carried out by Futaba's super hacking skill. The narrative of Persona 5 is carried so hard by Futaba and Makoto’s respective genius abilities that it is honestly funny. I know a lot of people hated how the dub characterized her dialogue to make her talk in internet 4chan lingo but I honestly loved it. It made the boring exposition dialogues much more fun to go through. Futaba calling Mishima an NPC is likely my favorite line in the entire game. I also like how the main game took a considerable amount of time to help Futaba with her social anxieties. Sure it ended with her in a bikini which is a little unbelievable but this is Persona we are talking about, so these kinds of things have to be graded on a curve. I think her social link is one the best ones in the game as well. Having to go through “main quests” to help her grow out of her anxiety. Ultimately growing to become a person that someone else in worse circumstances can count on, rather than always being the one asking for help. It’s her way of paying it forward and it was genuinely a joy to see her grow into a confident girl that can enjoy a normal life after all the trauma she has endured. Also, if you romance her you’re a mega creep.

Speaking of creeps, Yusuke at first glance is a nothing character except for the occasional joke here and there. But he honestly has one of the most nuanced social links in the game. After finding out that his master has been plagiarizing other pupil’s works on top of his own for monetary gain, Yusuke was quick to disregard him as a negative presence in his life. However, his social link seems to show that he continues to have affection for him. He can’t bear to call him a complete negative in his life despite the toxicity of their relationship. He still calls him master, and the kindness that Madarame showed to him was genuine in his mind. This tears at his heart. And when he finds himself at the whim of public opinion with his art, struggling to find something that the audience and fellow art critics would enjoy, he can’t help but relate to Madarame more. He ultimately finds out that just like the art he creates, the justification for creating art does not have be black or white. There is a unique flavor of art in finding balance between monetary gain, public attention and artistic expression. I just wished this level of nuance and sophistication was applied to the rest of the game.

A lot has been said about Haru and how she is a nonentity because of her late joining. Well I do agree she is essentially a nonentity, she is also one of the biggest missed opportunities of the game. Haru awakes to her persona power by herself and is able to traverse the metaverse without help of the Phantom Thieves. Also, at this point in the game, public perception of the Phantom Thieves was trending towards the negative. There should realistically be no reason why Haru should trust the phantom thieves. So when her father dies, Haru should be extremely suspicious of the Phantom Thieves. But instead, she just takes a few days to herself and decides to trust them completely. This ruined her character for me. How can someone so smart be so naive? Nonetheless, her social link is honestly really heartwarming. It reminds me of a Persona 4 social link where it is more about how the character “feels” about their development rather than the development itself. With her father dead, she is now the heir of Okumura foods and would rather go back to being a quaint coffee shop rather than a mega corporation with chains everywhere. Haru is just a child and has been coddled her whole life so she is not used to advocating for herself, especially on such a large scale. However, in a strange wholesome twist, the board of directors for the company are all for it and appreciate the new direction Okumura foods is going to take. It’s a little unbelievable, but it’s sweet and I liked it. Best girl btw.

There is honestly not much to say about Akechi, despite him being such a popular character. Akechi is written to be a parallel and an opposite to Joker. Both are lonely kids with no parents and essentially blank slates. But whereas Joker fought against his branding by society, rebelling against his label; Akechi did everything in his power to fulfill society’s expectation of him. Akechi took on the role of the ace detective to be beloved by society and by others, most pressingly his father who abandoned him. But where Joker found genuine connection despite being a rebel, Akechi could not. This drives Akechi mad with jealousy, leading to their rivalry. Akechi learns from Joker that being true to yourself is the key to forming real connections, not just fitting yourself to society like a slave. The problem with this is that behind the ace detective facade that Akechi built up, is a completely insufferable person. Akechi’s true personality is ruthless, inpatient, rude and malicious. I don’t know how anyone can find someone like him likable enough to form a relationship with, let alone a friendship. This is one of the things that Royal did that actually made the experience worse. By bringing Akechi back, you reveal his true personality and you realize that he’s just a massive piece of shit not worth engaging with at all. When he dies in base Persona 5 you at least get the feeling that he was remorseful about his actions. Royal took that all away.

Kasumi is a weird one. More than anyone, Royal makes certain that Kasumi is included in all sorts of exclusive scenes with Joker so you don’t forget about her. The game also makes it insanely obvious that she has a crush on youpretty soon, which is different from the other girls in the game, so that sticks out in your mind. Throughout base Persona 5, you see Kasumi as this confident, preppy, outgoing student who does no wrong and is trying her absolute hardest to meet the expectations the school has placed on her. It is not until the Royal content where you realize that Kasumi is not who she says she is. Kasumi is actually Sumire, her twin sister. The real Kasumi died trying to save Sumire from a car accident. Sumire, having always dealt with an inferiority complex given the fact that Kasumi has always been more talented than her, as well as wracked with the guilt of the world losing the “better” sister, decides to take over Kasumi’s identity. Her guilt is so much that she decides to surrender herself to Maruki’s cognitive world, so her suffering can be forgotten. We rescue her from herself and through our actions we show her that there is value in growing through pain. We show her that there is beauty in becoming a better person through hardship as opposed to forgetting all the suffering. Sumire realizes that forgetting her suffering would be akin to forgetting Kasumi’s sacrifice. She decides that it is better to strive towards something meaningful with the life that was gifted to her as opposed to forgetting it all. It’s funny cause she says the exact same thing about the Phantom Thieves during one of her social links. She mentions that while she is not opposed to the Phantom Thieves' actions, she finds it disheartening that they are stealing the opportunity for those people to redeem themselves through their own will. Funny how she was not able to apply that to herself when her turn came.

Morgana can be easy to hate. You are with Morgana literally the whole game and he is essentially a lore dump, an exposition source and a tutorial all in one. The memes about bedtime stuff more than speak for themselves. However, if you are able to look behind all that nonsense, you will find that Morgana is one of more sensitive characters in the game. It is apparent that Morgana will likely never be a human, despite his desire to do so, and he knows this. This becomes a source of insecurity for him; because if he cannot be human, he can only be valuable to others as long as he is useful as a phantom thief. This insecurity continues to grow as the Phantom Thieves become stronger and Futaba starts having more knowledge about the metaverse. Culminating in Morgana leaving because Ryuji teases him too much about his ability as a phantom thief. However, we show Morgana that his value is not in being knowledgeable about the metaverse, or being able to transform into a car, but rather in being a friend to everyone. It's a sweet little arc that I really enjoy, especially when you consider that Morgana was made by Igor as a representation of the human spirit. And because he is a representation of the human spirit, his feelings are untainted by logical thought, kinda like a child. His crush for Ann is romantic and cute, he dreams of being her knight. His jealousy is easily provoked but fleeting, and his temper tantrums are real. I really grew to like Morgana a lot during this playthrough, a lot more than I realized. I dare say he might be my favorite character and I do not know how to feel about it.

I won’t be as detailed with the antagonists as I was with the main cast because honestly there is not much to say. I agree with the general consensus of Kamoshida being the best one. Kamoshida works so well to engage the player because he has personal beef with every party member at that point. Kamoshida personally sexually harassed Ann, broke Ryuji’s leg and is trying to get Joker expelled. He is also making the lives of Mishima and Shiho living hells through his actions. His presence is oppressive and you can feel it across the whole school. Kamoshida leading Shiho to attempt suicide just doubles down on just how horrible this dude is. Compared to him, no one else comes close. Yes Madarame, Kaneshiro and Okumura are all horrible people as well, but the extent of their horribleness was limited to one person usually. Not to say they are not good antagonists as they do serve the greater plot well, but comparatively they are weaker than what came before. With Shido, I do love how every character’s life has been made worse by his actions. He arrested Joker, worked with Kamoshida, Madarame, Kaneshiro and Okumura; and killed Futaba’s mom. He is also Akechi’s father and the source of his search for acceptance. It’s just a shame that his encounter and battle ultimately did not lead to anything as the game turned around and tried to pivot towards Yaldabaoth. Shido was built up well, but his defeat served no emotional or narrative purpose.

Maruki is an interesting case however. Maruki is an antagonist in the narrative sense, but he is not a criminal or some horrible person. Rather, his antagonism comes from a different world view. He believes that suffering has no place in life, and if given the chance to erase it, he would. Well Maruki was actually given this power, after seeing how much his finance was suffering from her parents death. Maruki took this to mean that it was his responsibility to remove suffering from the whole world. He spent years researching a way to do so and he ultimately developed a cognitive world where all suffering is gone. Futaba has her mom back, Haru has her dad back, Morgana is a human, and so on. While it all sounds fine and dandy, Joker fights against that world. As I mentioned in the Kasumi section, suffering is an intrinsic part of life, and there is value behind the pain. It’s how we grow, how we become better, how we learn. Joker sees this and refutes Maruki’s reality. It’s honestly a pretty interesting twist for the game to take so late and I think it better serves the larger psychological themes of the series as a whole. As for Maruki himself, it's hard not to like him. As a therapist he goes out of his way to talk to every party member to help them go through their own baggage. With his social link you can tell that he is truly a selfless person and that he truly believes in his cause. He genuinely considers his way to be the path for happiness. He does come across as someone with a little bit of a savior complex, but it is ultimately well merited.

Since I’m already mentioning Maruki, I might as well talk about the Royal content. I do believe it is a net positive to the Persona 5 experience, but not by much. The added palace is genuinely fantastic and the best palace in the game. Maruki serves as a fantastic boss fight and antagonist. The added focus on the nature and value of suffering is more in line with the psychological roots of the series which I appreciate. However, just like the base game, it is paced horribly. Keep in mind, you are 100 hours into Persona 5 by the time you reach the Royal content. Having the game slow down to a crawl while you go day by day convincing the party members to give up Maruki’s cognitive world is honestly asking too much by this point in the game. Not only that but it ruins Akechi as it turns his death into a joke, essentially delegitimizing his feelings right before his passing. The narrative itself is very strong as it is character focused on Kasumi and Maurki, as opposed to event focused like the base game. Ultimately I would say it is worth playing but it is not perfect. The best thing Royal does to be honest are the addition of the jazz club and the small tweaks to make mementos more tolerable.

With all this bashing of the writing you would think I hate the game, but I do not. And that is because the gameplay is so fantastic. The battle system is likely the best turn based battle system Atlus has made, next to press turn. Hitting an enemy weakness for a one more action was a good base, but the addition of baton passes, showtimes, and switching party members on the fly made playing Persona 5 addicting. The addition of technicals as a status element and the changes to curse and bless elements were also changes that elevated the gameplay experience. Demon negotiation is the best it has ever been and should be a staple for every Persona game from now on. The dungeons themselves were also well paced and fun to explore, with Maruki’s being the crowning achievement. It is just a shame that Persona 5 does not really challenge the player much. You get granted so many tools to succeed that it is hard to not become an unstoppable killing machine. Between all the DLC personas, the buff you get from social links, the itemization, and the new ways to get knock downs, Persona 5 becomes something of a cake walk, even on the highest difficulty. It’s not a big deal but I wish I could engage with the systems more than what the game currently asks of me. Other than palaces, you also get to explore Mementos which is essentially a large dungeon with multiple sections similar to Tartarus in P3. It’s pretty brainless, but I appreciate a simple way to grind and collect personas you might have missed. Royal added experience multipliers which just breaks the game even further in your favor. Given how easy the game is I can genuinely make an argument for Persona 5 Royal being someone’s first JRPG. Beyond the combat portion, the social sim portion is also pretty well designed. There are plenty of ways to increase your social stats which is a good thing because you are definitely going to need to increase them as much as possible. Social links this time around have pretty significant social stat requirements, much more than the previous games. I don’t think it’s possible to max rank every confidant on your first playthrough blind, but you definitely have more than enough time to do every party member and Maruki.

Last thing I’ll mention are the aesthetics. Persona 5 is obviously very gorgeous and the artstyle is generation-defining. I still haven’t seen a game so committed to being cool the way Persona 5 is, even now after all these years. The menus, the menu transitions, the title screens, the loading screens, every little minute detail has been tailored to build a red and black canvas of suave and debonair swag. The music is fantastic as well, but that needs no mention. Shoji Meguro is one of the greatest composers of all time and this soundtrack just builds to his repertoire. The acid jazz, the silky keys, the rebellious violins, Lyn’s smooth voice, it all builds into an ensemble of cool calm and collected. Beneath the Mask is one the best songs in the entire series, and Futaba’s palace theme goes unbelievably hard. But it’s Life Will Change which I believe best represents the game. Despite all its flaws, I can’t bring myself to hate the game. There is something about the charm, aesthetic and characters that are still with me despite it all. It is absolutely a game that is greater than the sum of its parts.

eu nem acredito no que eu acabei de jogar. vai ser muito difícil de eu conseguir expressar o quanto eu amei esse jogo do fundo do meu coração do início ao fim. foi definitivamente uma experiência única que eu faria de tudo pra poder ter ela de novo pela primeira vez. eu me apeguei tanto a esse mundo, a esses personagens, que até fica difícil de acreditar que eu finalmente zerei ele e que eu nunca mais vou sentir a mesma coisa que eu senti jogando isso

eu sempre tive muito hype pra jogar esse jogo desde quando eu comprei ele a 2 anos atrás, só que eu nunca tive a chance por conta da duração do jogo me assustar muito (e tambem pq a primeira vez que eu tentei jogar, eu fiquei preso no PRIMEIRO PALACE por pura burrice e incompetência, mas eu consegui criar coragem e começar um novo save e jogar o jogo desde o começo)

eu amei cada milímetro desse jogo, desde a história, os personagens, o estilo, e PRINCIPALMENTE a música PUTA QUE PARIU
a todo momento a música desse jogo quer te passar uma sensação que só Persona 5 vai te passar, cê tem noção que de todos os estilos de música possíveis eles escolherem JAZZ pra um jogo de rpg de turno e funciona TAO BEM quanto a maioria das trilhas sonoras icônicas de final fantasy por exemplo

vale destacar que esse jogo também tem MUITO estilo, e ele sabe disso, e joga isso na sua cara a todo momento que ele pode. a todo momento o estilo e a personalidade própria que esse jogo tem consegue se superar e te impressionar cada vez mais e mais, eu nunca vi um jogo tão LINDO quanto esse. é realmente algo inexplicável e único que você só vai ver em persona 5 e em nenhum lugar mais

os personagens desse jogo também foi um dos fatores que me influenciou a gostar ainda mais desse jogo. todos eles são extremamente carismáticos e jogo consegue construir o seu relacionamento com eles como se eles fossem seus amigos de verdade, e quanto você finalmente finaliza o jogo você consegue perceber um vazio dentro de si porque acabou, sabe? depois de 100 horas de jogo junto com esse elenco espetacular, em algum momento você tem que zerar o jogo, e ai tudo isso acaba pra sempre. e pode parecer besteira, mas isso dói, dói muito mais do que eu queria

até agora eu só falei do jogo que vem junto com esse álbum, então pq não falar da soundtrack, que é o conteúdo principal né? eu te juro que não vai ter UM momento em que você vai enjoar da música desse jogo mesmo escutando ela toda vez que você entra em uma batalha. a música de Persona corrompe o ser humano e o faz ouvi-la todo. santo. dia. até pra quem nem vai jogar o jogo e não faz questão da existência dele eu recomendo fortemente ouvir a soundtrack dele. eu genuinamente não sei se eu vou ter a mesma sensação que eu tive ouvindo a música dos créditos desse jogo de novo alguma vez, aquilo foi um bagulho de outro mundo.
dito isso: top 5 melhores músicas desse jogo que ninguém pode discordar:
1 - Take Over
2 - Our Light
3 - Last Suprise
4 - Whims of Fate
5 - Life Will Chance

para finalizar, minhas considerações finais:
- o conteúdo que a versão Royal adiciona é ABSURDO, todo o arco final do terceiro semestre adiciona muito não só pra história, mas pro jogo em si. além obviamente dos personagens novos como a Yoshizawa e o Maruki, que são MUITO bem construídos nessa parte final do jogo

- esse jogo é perfeito pra quem sabe inglês e quer botar ele em prática, porque o jogo inteirinho é completamente em inglês e jogar ele sem saber muita coisa pode te deixar boiando (já que é um jogo focado narrativa e com bastante diálogo), mas pra quem sabe, tá aí uma ótima recomendação, já que além de treinar você também aprende novos termos e isso é do balaco baco

- YOU'LL NEVER SE IT COMIIIIIIIIINNG, YOU'LL SEE THAT MY MIND IS TOO FAST FOR EEEEEYES, YOU'RE DONE IIIIIIIIINN, BY THE TIME IT'S HIT YOU, YOUR LAST SUR-PRIIISE

o único defeito que eu consegui achar pra esse jogo é que ele tem fim e que a porra do backloggd não deixa eu dar uma sexta estrela a mais pra ele
dito isso: 11/10, meu jogo favorito da vida