Taking back reality
It's not a surprise to hear "Persona 5" in the gaming space today. The one to bring turn based JRPGs from the brink in 2016-2017 during its initial release window. While beloved in many gaming circles, a divisive title in its own community due what was given up or given. It's gotten to a point that you'd be ridiculed on this very site for having the game or the Royal iteration as one of your favorite games because of its reputation as an entry into the turn based JRPG space and JRPGs in general. I enjoyed the vanilla version of Persona 5 when I played it at twenty frames per second on a middle of the line computer several years back and I think while flawed, I enjoyed what I played with the story hitting home pretty well at the time and the combat being really smooth to play. I can safely say Royal adds enough to make the experience fresh and it really needed to do so as I've clocked 141 hours when the clear screen popped up. Despite the long run time, Persona 5 Royal really more than the sum of its parts and some of the parts are dare I say, pretty great.
The narrative really has to pull a miracle here to justify the narrative being as long as it is. The days can go by in seconds, minutes or even hours sometimes. It's hard to gauge the regular main narrative this time around due to being completely familiar with it despite being years of playing but I'll say the good moments still hit and some of the ridiculous moments are still ridiculous but given with a bit more nuance this time around. Still a decent story to tell revolving around how we perceive things, politics, and general psychology although I wish it went a bit farther with some stuff. Royal adds a few more scenes and more things to help flesh out the characters and your cliche as you form memories with your team. The overall arcs range from good to alright with the third arc not being as good despite the dungeon being great in my opinion. Definitely a few flaws overall as much as I want to elaborate more, it would be too specific for a spoiler free opinion but the overall package and the "original" ending still hits pretty strong even though Royal reintroduces a new experience. I think my main problem with the writing and narrative is that I feel it doesn't go deep enough into the subject matter itself. I can understand insulting adults for how the world is but it also feels a bit too naive although the story doesn't really help in this factor. It feels like it can be oceans worth to say but it's only puddles here. It's definitely a long journey to say the least and even with someone lacking in patience like I do, surprised to only feel the padding a little bit in the end.
The biggest additions to Royal in the narrative is the two new confidants: a first year honor student and talented gymnast, Kasumi Yoshizawa and a bumbling yet earnest high school counselor, Takuto Maruki and the brand new "third semester" which really more like an additional arc/month more than anything. Kasumi brings an interesting yet utilized in the wrong moments and even underutilized at times as well. I like her overall demeanor. I guess I can respect that they didn't want her to completely muddy the original narrative with her appearance more constantly and involved and I feel the scenes in between do a decent job of keeping a rapport with her but it's a bit disappointing with how long you truly have her to say the least. Onto greener pastures, the "third semester" overall is a great addition and have some of the highest points I didn't think the game was capable of. Steeling resolves, seeing old friends, one of the most sympathetic palace rulers yet along with an extremely high quality dungeon that's long, manages to provide context and depth, notes on specific things and the visual quality and puzzles are a step up from what we've seen before. I can understand being a bit cautious of additional dungeons in a Persona re-release after Golden but I think this one is hard to go without at this point and arguably one of the highest point in the game. Maruki provides an extremely interesting perspective into the effects on mental health and trauma as you visit him during your playthrough. It's hard to hate his amicable demeanor most of the time. I wish I can say more but I think you should fully realize his dream when you have the chance. I wish to talk about one more person and for those that played the game, I hope it should be obvious when I say they fleshed him out way more than I liked in a good way. I understand why the fans like him now.
A play is not without the actors and actresses and the cast and characters for the game are actually great but also a missed opportunity at least with the main cast. I think what really sells them for me is the little interactions sprinkled out throughout the story making it a bit more believable that these people are actually friends with a similar confidence to truly face the world and fight for what they believe in. Some characters are a bit tropey but that's a given in a japanese title and especially JRPGs at this point but some are just a bit too out there at times. It's also more that they do some really dumb and ridiculous decisions that take me out of the story for moments and just leave a bad taste afterwards too. Even with their initial arcs, I think the game does a good job of keeping them doing stuff together and have some semblance of importance in the overall plot compared to the other games where they kinda become paper stands for the big moments. Despite that, you honestly feel like you belong in this group and probably the only people in the game that will truly sympathize with you. The villains are a bit lacking sadly barring a few. It's almost feels like cartoon villain tier with the stuff they did or doing so you never feel a twinge of regret playing through most of the game. Not to say that sympathetic villains are the only way to write good villains but I think figuring out how and why they went these awful ways would be something that can also link to the main narrative as well so a thread can continue spinning after an arc is concluded. I thought the will seed system introduced in Royal would be just that when I heard about what it is suppose to represent in the cognitive world but I was disappointed there isn't much to them from a narrative sense. It's funny because I think this game has one of the better villains I've seen in a JRPG too but just know it'll pay off in the end. You can't reform society with a few teenagers as you learn about confidants or people that are dealing with their own unjust struggle the same as you. You'll probably spend a huge majority of your time helping these people, understanding their struggles and setting their problems on the right path so to speak. I fortunately managed to complete every one with time to spare and most of them were a treat to experience again including a revised confidant that I won't spoil but enjoyed a lot. The variety of people is great too ranging from a teacher, a former yakuza, a politician and a journalist looking for the truth.
Time. Persona 5 Royal gives you more of it to fully utilize the new locations and activities but the main appeal of the game is how you'll spend that time. Apart from moonlighting as a phantom thief, you'll also be a high school student with a variety of activities to do after the final bell rings. The main form of progression here is your social stats: how smart you are, how dexterous you are, how kind and understanding you are, how brave you are in the face of sheer adversity and danger and how much charisma you garner to attract those that share the same values you do. These are eventually used to continue specific confidants themselves and grant various advantages as well so aiming to be the best person you can be feels a bit more believable given the incredible amount of time you have for this game. The standard rage of activities comes from seeing your friends and confidants, participating in self improvement like reading and going to the gym to more recreational activities introduced in Royal like playing darts with your friends or showing off your billiards prowess. Persona in recent times is known to have this wonderful mix of brevity by showing the real life continuation of someone while giving you a regular JRPG experience with levels, dungeons and customization to boot and the day to day section feels a bit more fleshed out here granted I did get a bit bored near the end when I had nothing else to do but improve mine or my friends stats which didn't feel like a complete waste but there was nothing meaningful at that point. I was ready for the journey to end.
The other side of you, fighting for your own justice. When it's finally time, you have work to do. This is when you enter the other world and begin your infiltration. The dungeon format consists of palaces throughout the game and you're given a few weeks to complete each one which feels extremely generous in all honesty. If you're good enough, you can complete them all in one day eventually and the Royal edition gives you a lot of tools for sustainability during your trials. I only truly had SP problems at the first dungeon but not as much afterwards so I managed to stay at every dungeon indefinitely until I "completed" it for the day. I will say the dungeons themselves are honestly great here and Royal does a bit to make them a little better to say the least. Despite the linear nature, they're always visually distinct from one another and provide different means of getting from A to B other than the new grappling hook mechanic. Will Seeds are cool but another missed opportunity too with how gathering them only involves going a little out of your way and the main reward only happens for getting them all and a bit more SP for your troubles. Out of every dungeon in the game, I only really found two of them to not be as great and almost tedious at times but some shine so much brighter than others, it's hard to forget their dark sheen. The new Royal dungeon probably has to be the best one by a huge mile, thematically and story wise too. Palaces aren't the only "dungeons" you'll be experiencing as well as there's Mementos, a large overarching dungeon that relies on randomly generated floors like the previous two titles did for their dungeons. Fortunately Royal improves them a tiny bit with the addition of Jose, a mysterious being that wants to understand human desires. He makes exploring Mementos a bit more to it but unfortunately I can't say it's much other than it'll give great rewards for actually doing so at least and even change how much you even get from the place too. I really do find the locations themselves interesting and thematically fitting for the group of heroes moonlighting as thieves. You'll essentially be robbing a bank, an art museum and even an ancient pyramid for "treasure" really sells the thief fantasy pretty well too when I thought about it. All locations that usually have something precious and expensive in them.
Apart from the exploration of the other world, you're going to have to fight the sea of cognitive beings and people to reach your goals. I have always respect how smooth combat plays out even in the original Persona 5 due to the intuitive "menuing" system as I like to call it. A quick explanation of "menuing" would be how fast your muscle memory goes to specific commands in a turn based JRPG and how fast the delay between selecting the move and the move being done is. Persona 5 is excellent for this to the point it also doesn't feel turn based when I was in the zone and being fast with my inputs. The sheer amount of customization and flexibility for creating your demons is outstanding too with a new trait system and other systems to make making strong demons much more feasible and more into your own desires. Your teammates also essentially work as their own Persona being able to get skills as specific levels as usual but you can actually do more with them in the Royal edition. Taking them to a jazz club can enhance their stats or even grant them new moves they wouldn't have been able to get to allow a better amount of customization that I really enjoyed with the game that kept me going honestly. Sadly that's where the positive remarks stop and now I introduce my main problem with the game that might purely be subjective: The game is incredibly easy even on Hard. I didn't play Merciless since extra damage on technicals and more exp and money when I was already getting overleveled without even grinding was kind of an issue for a bit. I think it feels unfortunate when the game gives you so many fun tools to make the ideal demon for the ideal situation and the game never really expects much from you at all even with the various difficulty levels. Most of the game I was just overleveled without even trying so most enemies were never challenging to engage with barring one boss that caught me by surprised by how specific you had to be that I actually enjoyed the challenge. Maybe it's that I'm used to playing megaten games at this point that this felt like a cake walk but I just wish they introduced harder difficulties especially when Royal adds a few quality of life additions that make the combat even easier like reloading your gun after a battle now and so forth. If this game had the right amount of challenge, it might have been one of my favorite JRPGs easily. Sadly because of how easy it was mostly, it barely misses the mark a bit for me.
One of the main appeals of Persona 5 is the style and overall sound. Menus with a red and black motif, the obviously jazz inspired soundtrack to the point you get "Persona 5 invented jazz" memes spread throughout most of the internet. The stylized world really helps make it feel way more unique compared to the others it's not even funny. Bordering on overrated at this point, I still think Persona 5's overall soundtrack is excellent and the new Royal additions are just as excellent almost if not better too. Hearing The Whims of Fate during a specific palace really enhanced how exciting everything was at the time. From the other side, hearing this palace theme with an extremely emotional guitar playing in the background to the point you can feel their pain traversing through one of the unique palaces in context.
"Style over substance" feels like a common way people tend to describe Persona 5 but it doesn't feel exactly wrong or right either. I do agree that the game never goes too far with the themes and ideas it tries to present and goes for a safe option where most of the villains are painted out to be always evil, the characters despite being treated different and ostracized from society never fully going into how that truly affects someone's mental space. I can see how people wanted something really deep with this title and while I can say the original title didn't do that, Royal managed to do a bit more here. I also feel like the quote is wrong too because there's a lot to love in this game despite my gameplay grievances with it. Even if you didn't find the narrative and characters life changing, getting to know everyone and being in that world for that much time and rarely feeling like it was padded for 141 hours almost feels like a miracle. One day you can spend hanging out with someone and it could mean the world for them and another day, you're just hitting home runs at the batting cage. The endings of these games always feel bittersweet because of the long journey it took to get there, you spent so much time in the world that you can't help but feel sad when the game ends because replaying it is a herculean task in itself sadly. Maybe not for others but putting another 100 hours in an NG+ playthrough might be a bit much sadly.
Given unfair justice, a young adult tries to take back his future and the world with the help of those that share his struggles in itself creates a place and meaning in society just for them. If you enjoyed Persona 5 already then the Royal edition is a no brainer but if you're apprehensive or not a fan of the original title, hard call to say but leaning towards not trying it again since it's a time investment at that point for you. A few missed opportunities and generally too easy but I enjoyed the long haul in general.
It's not a surprise to hear "Persona 5" in the gaming space today. The one to bring turn based JRPGs from the brink in 2016-2017 during its initial release window. While beloved in many gaming circles, a divisive title in its own community due what was given up or given. It's gotten to a point that you'd be ridiculed on this very site for having the game or the Royal iteration as one of your favorite games because of its reputation as an entry into the turn based JRPG space and JRPGs in general. I enjoyed the vanilla version of Persona 5 when I played it at twenty frames per second on a middle of the line computer several years back and I think while flawed, I enjoyed what I played with the story hitting home pretty well at the time and the combat being really smooth to play. I can safely say Royal adds enough to make the experience fresh and it really needed to do so as I've clocked 141 hours when the clear screen popped up. Despite the long run time, Persona 5 Royal really more than the sum of its parts and some of the parts are dare I say, pretty great.
The narrative really has to pull a miracle here to justify the narrative being as long as it is. The days can go by in seconds, minutes or even hours sometimes. It's hard to gauge the regular main narrative this time around due to being completely familiar with it despite being years of playing but I'll say the good moments still hit and some of the ridiculous moments are still ridiculous but given with a bit more nuance this time around. Still a decent story to tell revolving around how we perceive things, politics, and general psychology although I wish it went a bit farther with some stuff. Royal adds a few more scenes and more things to help flesh out the characters and your cliche as you form memories with your team. The overall arcs range from good to alright with the third arc not being as good despite the dungeon being great in my opinion. Definitely a few flaws overall as much as I want to elaborate more, it would be too specific for a spoiler free opinion but the overall package and the "original" ending still hits pretty strong even though Royal reintroduces a new experience. I think my main problem with the writing and narrative is that I feel it doesn't go deep enough into the subject matter itself. I can understand insulting adults for how the world is but it also feels a bit too naive although the story doesn't really help in this factor. It feels like it can be oceans worth to say but it's only puddles here. It's definitely a long journey to say the least and even with someone lacking in patience like I do, surprised to only feel the padding a little bit in the end.
The biggest additions to Royal in the narrative is the two new confidants: a first year honor student and talented gymnast, Kasumi Yoshizawa and a bumbling yet earnest high school counselor, Takuto Maruki and the brand new "third semester" which really more like an additional arc/month more than anything. Kasumi brings an interesting yet utilized in the wrong moments and even underutilized at times as well. I like her overall demeanor. I guess I can respect that they didn't want her to completely muddy the original narrative with her appearance more constantly and involved and I feel the scenes in between do a decent job of keeping a rapport with her but it's a bit disappointing with how long you truly have her to say the least. Onto greener pastures, the "third semester" overall is a great addition and have some of the highest points I didn't think the game was capable of. Steeling resolves, seeing old friends, one of the most sympathetic palace rulers yet along with an extremely high quality dungeon that's long, manages to provide context and depth, notes on specific things and the visual quality and puzzles are a step up from what we've seen before. I can understand being a bit cautious of additional dungeons in a Persona re-release after Golden but I think this one is hard to go without at this point and arguably one of the highest point in the game. Maruki provides an extremely interesting perspective into the effects on mental health and trauma as you visit him during your playthrough. It's hard to hate his amicable demeanor most of the time. I wish I can say more but I think you should fully realize his dream when you have the chance. I wish to talk about one more person and for those that played the game, I hope it should be obvious when I say they fleshed him out way more than I liked in a good way. I understand why the fans like him now.
A play is not without the actors and actresses and the cast and characters for the game are actually great but also a missed opportunity at least with the main cast. I think what really sells them for me is the little interactions sprinkled out throughout the story making it a bit more believable that these people are actually friends with a similar confidence to truly face the world and fight for what they believe in. Some characters are a bit tropey but that's a given in a japanese title and especially JRPGs at this point but some are just a bit too out there at times. It's also more that they do some really dumb and ridiculous decisions that take me out of the story for moments and just leave a bad taste afterwards too. Even with their initial arcs, I think the game does a good job of keeping them doing stuff together and have some semblance of importance in the overall plot compared to the other games where they kinda become paper stands for the big moments. Despite that, you honestly feel like you belong in this group and probably the only people in the game that will truly sympathize with you. The villains are a bit lacking sadly barring a few. It's almost feels like cartoon villain tier with the stuff they did or doing so you never feel a twinge of regret playing through most of the game. Not to say that sympathetic villains are the only way to write good villains but I think figuring out how and why they went these awful ways would be something that can also link to the main narrative as well so a thread can continue spinning after an arc is concluded. I thought the will seed system introduced in Royal would be just that when I heard about what it is suppose to represent in the cognitive world but I was disappointed there isn't much to them from a narrative sense. It's funny because I think this game has one of the better villains I've seen in a JRPG too but just know it'll pay off in the end. You can't reform society with a few teenagers as you learn about confidants or people that are dealing with their own unjust struggle the same as you. You'll probably spend a huge majority of your time helping these people, understanding their struggles and setting their problems on the right path so to speak. I fortunately managed to complete every one with time to spare and most of them were a treat to experience again including a revised confidant that I won't spoil but enjoyed a lot. The variety of people is great too ranging from a teacher, a former yakuza, a politician and a journalist looking for the truth.
Time. Persona 5 Royal gives you more of it to fully utilize the new locations and activities but the main appeal of the game is how you'll spend that time. Apart from moonlighting as a phantom thief, you'll also be a high school student with a variety of activities to do after the final bell rings. The main form of progression here is your social stats: how smart you are, how dexterous you are, how kind and understanding you are, how brave you are in the face of sheer adversity and danger and how much charisma you garner to attract those that share the same values you do. These are eventually used to continue specific confidants themselves and grant various advantages as well so aiming to be the best person you can be feels a bit more believable given the incredible amount of time you have for this game. The standard rage of activities comes from seeing your friends and confidants, participating in self improvement like reading and going to the gym to more recreational activities introduced in Royal like playing darts with your friends or showing off your billiards prowess. Persona in recent times is known to have this wonderful mix of brevity by showing the real life continuation of someone while giving you a regular JRPG experience with levels, dungeons and customization to boot and the day to day section feels a bit more fleshed out here granted I did get a bit bored near the end when I had nothing else to do but improve mine or my friends stats which didn't feel like a complete waste but there was nothing meaningful at that point. I was ready for the journey to end.
The other side of you, fighting for your own justice. When it's finally time, you have work to do. This is when you enter the other world and begin your infiltration. The dungeon format consists of palaces throughout the game and you're given a few weeks to complete each one which feels extremely generous in all honesty. If you're good enough, you can complete them all in one day eventually and the Royal edition gives you a lot of tools for sustainability during your trials. I only truly had SP problems at the first dungeon but not as much afterwards so I managed to stay at every dungeon indefinitely until I "completed" it for the day. I will say the dungeons themselves are honestly great here and Royal does a bit to make them a little better to say the least. Despite the linear nature, they're always visually distinct from one another and provide different means of getting from A to B other than the new grappling hook mechanic. Will Seeds are cool but another missed opportunity too with how gathering them only involves going a little out of your way and the main reward only happens for getting them all and a bit more SP for your troubles. Out of every dungeon in the game, I only really found two of them to not be as great and almost tedious at times but some shine so much brighter than others, it's hard to forget their dark sheen. The new Royal dungeon probably has to be the best one by a huge mile, thematically and story wise too. Palaces aren't the only "dungeons" you'll be experiencing as well as there's Mementos, a large overarching dungeon that relies on randomly generated floors like the previous two titles did for their dungeons. Fortunately Royal improves them a tiny bit with the addition of Jose, a mysterious being that wants to understand human desires. He makes exploring Mementos a bit more to it but unfortunately I can't say it's much other than it'll give great rewards for actually doing so at least and even change how much you even get from the place too. I really do find the locations themselves interesting and thematically fitting for the group of heroes moonlighting as thieves. You'll essentially be robbing a bank, an art museum and even an ancient pyramid for "treasure" really sells the thief fantasy pretty well too when I thought about it. All locations that usually have something precious and expensive in them.
Apart from the exploration of the other world, you're going to have to fight the sea of cognitive beings and people to reach your goals. I have always respect how smooth combat plays out even in the original Persona 5 due to the intuitive "menuing" system as I like to call it. A quick explanation of "menuing" would be how fast your muscle memory goes to specific commands in a turn based JRPG and how fast the delay between selecting the move and the move being done is. Persona 5 is excellent for this to the point it also doesn't feel turn based when I was in the zone and being fast with my inputs. The sheer amount of customization and flexibility for creating your demons is outstanding too with a new trait system and other systems to make making strong demons much more feasible and more into your own desires. Your teammates also essentially work as their own Persona being able to get skills as specific levels as usual but you can actually do more with them in the Royal edition. Taking them to a jazz club can enhance their stats or even grant them new moves they wouldn't have been able to get to allow a better amount of customization that I really enjoyed with the game that kept me going honestly. Sadly that's where the positive remarks stop and now I introduce my main problem with the game that might purely be subjective: The game is incredibly easy even on Hard. I didn't play Merciless since extra damage on technicals and more exp and money when I was already getting overleveled without even grinding was kind of an issue for a bit. I think it feels unfortunate when the game gives you so many fun tools to make the ideal demon for the ideal situation and the game never really expects much from you at all even with the various difficulty levels. Most of the game I was just overleveled without even trying so most enemies were never challenging to engage with barring one boss that caught me by surprised by how specific you had to be that I actually enjoyed the challenge. Maybe it's that I'm used to playing megaten games at this point that this felt like a cake walk but I just wish they introduced harder difficulties especially when Royal adds a few quality of life additions that make the combat even easier like reloading your gun after a battle now and so forth. If this game had the right amount of challenge, it might have been one of my favorite JRPGs easily. Sadly because of how easy it was mostly, it barely misses the mark a bit for me.
One of the main appeals of Persona 5 is the style and overall sound. Menus with a red and black motif, the obviously jazz inspired soundtrack to the point you get "Persona 5 invented jazz" memes spread throughout most of the internet. The stylized world really helps make it feel way more unique compared to the others it's not even funny. Bordering on overrated at this point, I still think Persona 5's overall soundtrack is excellent and the new Royal additions are just as excellent almost if not better too. Hearing The Whims of Fate during a specific palace really enhanced how exciting everything was at the time. From the other side, hearing this palace theme with an extremely emotional guitar playing in the background to the point you can feel their pain traversing through one of the unique palaces in context.
"Style over substance" feels like a common way people tend to describe Persona 5 but it doesn't feel exactly wrong or right either. I do agree that the game never goes too far with the themes and ideas it tries to present and goes for a safe option where most of the villains are painted out to be always evil, the characters despite being treated different and ostracized from society never fully going into how that truly affects someone's mental space. I can see how people wanted something really deep with this title and while I can say the original title didn't do that, Royal managed to do a bit more here. I also feel like the quote is wrong too because there's a lot to love in this game despite my gameplay grievances with it. Even if you didn't find the narrative and characters life changing, getting to know everyone and being in that world for that much time and rarely feeling like it was padded for 141 hours almost feels like a miracle. One day you can spend hanging out with someone and it could mean the world for them and another day, you're just hitting home runs at the batting cage. The endings of these games always feel bittersweet because of the long journey it took to get there, you spent so much time in the world that you can't help but feel sad when the game ends because replaying it is a herculean task in itself sadly. Maybe not for others but putting another 100 hours in an NG+ playthrough might be a bit much sadly.
Given unfair justice, a young adult tries to take back his future and the world with the help of those that share his struggles in itself creates a place and meaning in society just for them. If you enjoyed Persona 5 already then the Royal edition is a no brainer but if you're apprehensive or not a fan of the original title, hard call to say but leaning towards not trying it again since it's a time investment at that point for you. A few missed opportunities and generally too easy but I enjoyed the long haul in general.
RedTheFunnyLad
1 year ago