I already played the original for 100 hours the first time, I wanted to go fast and see the new stuff. How did this still take 130 hours?? Wtf???
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You know, I feel like Ive softened on Persona 5's issues over time - so playing again did have a nice benefit of getting reacquainted with the things I like about the game.
Im gonna try and focus on the Royal-unique qualities tho:
- Royals rebalancing of the core systems and the new / reworked perks all makes for a much more interesting and enjoyable JRPG experience. Better use of status effects for more necessary use of Technical attacks, unlimited bullet refill, as well as adding components to “work on” at the Darts and Billards hall. Extra teammate skills, more Confidant benefits, Tag Team moves - with enough hard work there can be so much going on that it starts to approach the border of having the JRPG play itself (and thats good, tho maybe a strange condemnation of whats “fun” about JRPGs tbh)
- I think the "Bonus Semester" is written like its a "sequel" to the base game - and that sort of sucks when you have to play 80-100 hours of the base game in order to even access the Bonus Semester. I think this has some unavoidable impacts on the experience - why is the game still going after the climax? Why is there a second climax? Its like cheering a band on to do an Encore after they just did an amazing set and then they play like 10 more songs and have like a whole other second concert. Maybe its, like, entertaining but you feel the loss of the closure.
For me,
personally,
I feel like this should have been some sort of standalone DLC, maybe similar to Persona 3 FEZ’s “The Answer” mode (tho, obviously, actually good). I can appreciate the slow integrated build up of Kasumi and Maruki in the base experience but nowhere near enough to pay 100 hours of fatigue for it, especially when it invites all these pacing issues into the game. I probably shouldnt be feeling “god Im so ready for this to be over” during the most intriguing part of the experience for someone who was already a Persona 5 fan.
- Royals new characters still sort of suffer the "character development arc speed run" thing that alot of characters suffer in Persona 5 base game. Maruki is a very intelligent character, a trained professional in psychology (and even magical psychology), and he is taking on an endeavor that violates alot of peoples sense of agency and self-determination in pursuit of, he hopes, a richer, happier existence for everyone involved. What inciting incident puts him down this path? Well he accidentally wrote himself out of his girlfriends memories. Why? ….. Shrug? His existence wasnt an essential change, he couldnt change it back? He couldnt, you know, just re-meet her? It feels very “It Happened This Way Cuz The Plot Needs It Too” and I feel like it denies me a much more engrossing and captivating experience that would only take just a lil more diligence in the writing - much like MANY characters in the original game as well. Marukis a professional therapist, and during his Confidant its clear he understands emotional regulation - so youre telling me he doesnt see how ruining peoples self determination would be a very bad idea? You cant just skip over this, it doesnt “just work”.
- Due again to the weird “sequel” nature of the Bonus Semester, the details of this conflict are also difficult to follow. Maruki needs some sort of special “Discord Perms” from Yaldabaoth and Mementos? But also his Persona just has some unique functionality anyway? But the merging of Mementos and the real world is important? How do these altered realities work anyway, does this disinclude all future possible misfortunes as well? How are people “brought back to life” but history isnt also fundamentally rewritten? I feel like this is very overwritten and it didnt need to be.
- Outside of these technical gripes tho, I think the premise behind Marukis conflict here distills Persona as a concept and as a series to its best qualities. As a game centered on emotional intervention and growth and introspection, an arc focused on examining “What If People Could “Undo” Trauma?” feels incredibly apt and especially potent. Persona as a series is uniquely positioned to take on things like “The Bad Guy Relentlessly Wants People To Be Happy”, where the ultimate conflict is “Who Cares About People More” and “Which Of These Prescriptions Help People The Most”. To me the series is always the best when it represents real emotional insight and I really really hope they figure out how to go down this path even more.
- The Akechi thing is a stroke of some meta-brilliance. Of course, on the surface level, its a good twist. “You dont like these manipulated realities? Well Youve Been Playing In One This Whole Time.” is some classic stuff. Whats really smart here, is that Persona 5 also gives this to the Players directly by granting them some fan service - people get to indulge themselves in more Akechi, who you also get to include on your team in his previously not available Bad Guy Form. This is sort of the “secret unlockable character” experience and it feels fun and entertaining - and this means the Players are directly placed in Jokers shoes when given the ultimatum of accepting or rejecting Marukis offer. Not only is Joker giving up an alternate reality where his boy still exists, but the Players are giving up an alternate reality of Persona 5 where Akechi is playable. Very smart, very good, primo design right there.
v
v
v
v
v
You know, I feel like Ive softened on Persona 5's issues over time - so playing again did have a nice benefit of getting reacquainted with the things I like about the game.
Im gonna try and focus on the Royal-unique qualities tho:
- Royals rebalancing of the core systems and the new / reworked perks all makes for a much more interesting and enjoyable JRPG experience. Better use of status effects for more necessary use of Technical attacks, unlimited bullet refill, as well as adding components to “work on” at the Darts and Billards hall. Extra teammate skills, more Confidant benefits, Tag Team moves - with enough hard work there can be so much going on that it starts to approach the border of having the JRPG play itself (and thats good, tho maybe a strange condemnation of whats “fun” about JRPGs tbh)
- I think the "Bonus Semester" is written like its a "sequel" to the base game - and that sort of sucks when you have to play 80-100 hours of the base game in order to even access the Bonus Semester. I think this has some unavoidable impacts on the experience - why is the game still going after the climax? Why is there a second climax? Its like cheering a band on to do an Encore after they just did an amazing set and then they play like 10 more songs and have like a whole other second concert. Maybe its, like, entertaining but you feel the loss of the closure.
For me,
personally,
I feel like this should have been some sort of standalone DLC, maybe similar to Persona 3 FEZ’s “The Answer” mode (tho, obviously, actually good). I can appreciate the slow integrated build up of Kasumi and Maruki in the base experience but nowhere near enough to pay 100 hours of fatigue for it, especially when it invites all these pacing issues into the game. I probably shouldnt be feeling “god Im so ready for this to be over” during the most intriguing part of the experience for someone who was already a Persona 5 fan.
- Royals new characters still sort of suffer the "character development arc speed run" thing that alot of characters suffer in Persona 5 base game. Maruki is a very intelligent character, a trained professional in psychology (and even magical psychology), and he is taking on an endeavor that violates alot of peoples sense of agency and self-determination in pursuit of, he hopes, a richer, happier existence for everyone involved. What inciting incident puts him down this path? Well he accidentally wrote himself out of his girlfriends memories. Why? ….. Shrug? His existence wasnt an essential change, he couldnt change it back? He couldnt, you know, just re-meet her? It feels very “It Happened This Way Cuz The Plot Needs It Too” and I feel like it denies me a much more engrossing and captivating experience that would only take just a lil more diligence in the writing - much like MANY characters in the original game as well. Marukis a professional therapist, and during his Confidant its clear he understands emotional regulation - so youre telling me he doesnt see how ruining peoples self determination would be a very bad idea? You cant just skip over this, it doesnt “just work”.
- Due again to the weird “sequel” nature of the Bonus Semester, the details of this conflict are also difficult to follow. Maruki needs some sort of special “Discord Perms” from Yaldabaoth and Mementos? But also his Persona just has some unique functionality anyway? But the merging of Mementos and the real world is important? How do these altered realities work anyway, does this disinclude all future possible misfortunes as well? How are people “brought back to life” but history isnt also fundamentally rewritten? I feel like this is very overwritten and it didnt need to be.
- Outside of these technical gripes tho, I think the premise behind Marukis conflict here distills Persona as a concept and as a series to its best qualities. As a game centered on emotional intervention and growth and introspection, an arc focused on examining “What If People Could “Undo” Trauma?” feels incredibly apt and especially potent. Persona as a series is uniquely positioned to take on things like “The Bad Guy Relentlessly Wants People To Be Happy”, where the ultimate conflict is “Who Cares About People More” and “Which Of These Prescriptions Help People The Most”. To me the series is always the best when it represents real emotional insight and I really really hope they figure out how to go down this path even more.
- The Akechi thing is a stroke of some meta-brilliance. Of course, on the surface level, its a good twist. “You dont like these manipulated realities? Well Youve Been Playing In One This Whole Time.” is some classic stuff. Whats really smart here, is that Persona 5 also gives this to the Players directly by granting them some fan service - people get to indulge themselves in more Akechi, who you also get to include on your team in his previously not available Bad Guy Form. This is sort of the “secret unlockable character” experience and it feels fun and entertaining - and this means the Players are directly placed in Jokers shoes when given the ultimatum of accepting or rejecting Marukis offer. Not only is Joker giving up an alternate reality where his boy still exists, but the Players are giving up an alternate reality of Persona 5 where Akechi is playable. Very smart, very good, primo design right there.