YOU’LL NEVER SEE IT COMINGGGGGG!
I will start this review by saying that Persona 5 Royal is my favourite game of all time. I played this game during COVID and I had a blast with it, to the point where I’ve already played the game four whole times (as I’m writing this review). This is the game that got me into Persona and SMT, and for that I will forever cherish this game as one of my favourites. Gotta thank my friends who told me to try this game, and they were not wrong when they said THIS GAME IS PEAK.
Now let’s talk about the story. This will be spoiler free of course, and these will just be my overall thoughts on the story. The game starts really strong in the first arc (even if the biggest slog of the game is to survive the tutorial that goes on FOREVER). Honestly, this game probably has the most memorable first arc out of any game that I’ve played, it’s just so good. Although the game does start to fall off afterwards, it does peak during a couple of the arcs, and I think the game truly does peak after the late mid-game where everything just becomes peak. I didn’t play the original Persona 5, so the Third Semester was a great part to add in order to flesh out several characters that really needed it. Not to mention, it gave us a great antagonist. Honestly, I have no complaints about the story, in fact, I kind of wish it was longer because I loved this game and wanted more and more and more story, and I ended up having post-game depression after completing the game.
Characters tend to make or break a game, and considering how character-heavy the Persona series is because of the social sim aspect, I think it does a great job at handling characters. I can confidently say that in the entirety of the game (well besides the antagonists but I do think they make great antagonists because they fill their roles so well), there is only one character that I despise with all of my might, and you meet them in like the first hour of the game. Yeah, some of the NPCs are annoying, but that’s about it. I love the Phantom Thieves as a group, and they all have their different quirks that really make the theme of the game stand out even more. The various characters that the protagonist has are Confidants are also explored deeply through their social links, and I actually care about the majority of them, barring like one or two exceptions, who are mediocre at best. Overall, this game has an excellent cast of characters.
Speaking of Confidants, I just like how they give you different services and abilities to use both in and outside of combat, as well as in Tokyo in general. They make the game much more enjoyable. Some of them also have really great storylines, while some flop and fall pretty meh. However, most of them are great.
I don’t usually talk about graphics because they don’t influence my decision to play games, but I just need to talk about the overall graphics and style of the game. This game pops. From the stylish menu, to the great GUI, I love this game. I can never get over the menu screen and I’ll always love it. The graphics aren’t much, but they’re serviceable for this type of game, especially when they aren’t the focal point of this games success anyways.
Going from style to music. This game is just filled with bangers. Each dungeon has some great background music, and even the regular exploration theme for Tokyo in the forms of Tokyo Daylight and Tokyo Emergency are just such bangers. Not to mention the many battle themes: Last Surprise, Takeover, Rivers in a Desert, Will Power, and probably all the battle themes, they’re all just straight bops. I can’t forget the school music also just being a straight bop. Alas, I can’t end this section without talking about Beneath the Mask which is in my opinion the best OST in the game. I remember when I used to just leave it on in the background when I studied for exams, it was great.
Now I want to talk about gameplay. This game is notoriously known for being easy, especially on the hardest difficulty, where for some reason, attacks that knock down enemies deal x3 the damage. So, if you want the true challenging experience, play on Hard. Besides that, this game was my first introduction to SMT combat (even though it’s a simplified form). The concept of demon fusing was interesting to me, and the game only added more things to do with the demons you collect. Various skills like physical attacks, magical attacks, buffs, debuffs, status ailments, healing, walls, reflections, and even skills that activate on their own, this game has them all. I love the level of customisation you have with the different varieties of demons that are separated via Arcana, and how you can pass on skills from previous personas onto the new persona. I always spend so much time in the velvet room just fusing away to make even more powerful personas. Demon fusing aside, I want to talk about the actual gameplay. I enjoy the 1 More system, but that and all-out attacks just make the game so so easy. And to top it off even more, baton passing is just utterly broken. I enjoy how confidants give the party members different abilities in combat, and even some of them make things like grinding tolerable. I love the gameplay in this game, but it can be easily abused.
Now, I want to talk about the elephant in the room, which is Mementos. Just to avoid spoilers, it’s essentially your grindy dungeon. I HATE MEMENTOS REQUESTS and mementos in general. I hate being forced to go into mementos, it’s so annoying. Each area starts to look exactly the same, and there are rarely any changes that make me excited to go to mementos. Thank god for one of the confidant abilities that allow you to insta-kill enemies and claim the rewards, otherwise I probably would’ve set the game to Easy mode to avoid grinding. I am not a fan of randomly generating dungeons that have multiple floors, and I think this is one of the weakest aspects of an otherwise outstanding game.
Overall, THE GAME IS PEAK! Please consider playing the game, even if turn-based combat doesn’t seem to be your style, you never know, you might find a fan favourite series!
I will start this review by saying that Persona 5 Royal is my favourite game of all time. I played this game during COVID and I had a blast with it, to the point where I’ve already played the game four whole times (as I’m writing this review). This is the game that got me into Persona and SMT, and for that I will forever cherish this game as one of my favourites. Gotta thank my friends who told me to try this game, and they were not wrong when they said THIS GAME IS PEAK.
Now let’s talk about the story. This will be spoiler free of course, and these will just be my overall thoughts on the story. The game starts really strong in the first arc (even if the biggest slog of the game is to survive the tutorial that goes on FOREVER). Honestly, this game probably has the most memorable first arc out of any game that I’ve played, it’s just so good. Although the game does start to fall off afterwards, it does peak during a couple of the arcs, and I think the game truly does peak after the late mid-game where everything just becomes peak. I didn’t play the original Persona 5, so the Third Semester was a great part to add in order to flesh out several characters that really needed it. Not to mention, it gave us a great antagonist. Honestly, I have no complaints about the story, in fact, I kind of wish it was longer because I loved this game and wanted more and more and more story, and I ended up having post-game depression after completing the game.
Characters tend to make or break a game, and considering how character-heavy the Persona series is because of the social sim aspect, I think it does a great job at handling characters. I can confidently say that in the entirety of the game (well besides the antagonists but I do think they make great antagonists because they fill their roles so well), there is only one character that I despise with all of my might, and you meet them in like the first hour of the game. Yeah, some of the NPCs are annoying, but that’s about it. I love the Phantom Thieves as a group, and they all have their different quirks that really make the theme of the game stand out even more. The various characters that the protagonist has are Confidants are also explored deeply through their social links, and I actually care about the majority of them, barring like one or two exceptions, who are mediocre at best. Overall, this game has an excellent cast of characters.
Speaking of Confidants, I just like how they give you different services and abilities to use both in and outside of combat, as well as in Tokyo in general. They make the game much more enjoyable. Some of them also have really great storylines, while some flop and fall pretty meh. However, most of them are great.
I don’t usually talk about graphics because they don’t influence my decision to play games, but I just need to talk about the overall graphics and style of the game. This game pops. From the stylish menu, to the great GUI, I love this game. I can never get over the menu screen and I’ll always love it. The graphics aren’t much, but they’re serviceable for this type of game, especially when they aren’t the focal point of this games success anyways.
Going from style to music. This game is just filled with bangers. Each dungeon has some great background music, and even the regular exploration theme for Tokyo in the forms of Tokyo Daylight and Tokyo Emergency are just such bangers. Not to mention the many battle themes: Last Surprise, Takeover, Rivers in a Desert, Will Power, and probably all the battle themes, they’re all just straight bops. I can’t forget the school music also just being a straight bop. Alas, I can’t end this section without talking about Beneath the Mask which is in my opinion the best OST in the game. I remember when I used to just leave it on in the background when I studied for exams, it was great.
Now I want to talk about gameplay. This game is notoriously known for being easy, especially on the hardest difficulty, where for some reason, attacks that knock down enemies deal x3 the damage. So, if you want the true challenging experience, play on Hard. Besides that, this game was my first introduction to SMT combat (even though it’s a simplified form). The concept of demon fusing was interesting to me, and the game only added more things to do with the demons you collect. Various skills like physical attacks, magical attacks, buffs, debuffs, status ailments, healing, walls, reflections, and even skills that activate on their own, this game has them all. I love the level of customisation you have with the different varieties of demons that are separated via Arcana, and how you can pass on skills from previous personas onto the new persona. I always spend so much time in the velvet room just fusing away to make even more powerful personas. Demon fusing aside, I want to talk about the actual gameplay. I enjoy the 1 More system, but that and all-out attacks just make the game so so easy. And to top it off even more, baton passing is just utterly broken. I enjoy how confidants give the party members different abilities in combat, and even some of them make things like grinding tolerable. I love the gameplay in this game, but it can be easily abused.
Now, I want to talk about the elephant in the room, which is Mementos. Just to avoid spoilers, it’s essentially your grindy dungeon. I HATE MEMENTOS REQUESTS and mementos in general. I hate being forced to go into mementos, it’s so annoying. Each area starts to look exactly the same, and there are rarely any changes that make me excited to go to mementos. Thank god for one of the confidant abilities that allow you to insta-kill enemies and claim the rewards, otherwise I probably would’ve set the game to Easy mode to avoid grinding. I am not a fan of randomly generating dungeons that have multiple floors, and I think this is one of the weakest aspects of an otherwise outstanding game.
Overall, THE GAME IS PEAK! Please consider playing the game, even if turn-based combat doesn’t seem to be your style, you never know, you might find a fan favourite series!
Kneevirus
9 days ago