i want to start off by saying that i'm reviewing this purely as an add-on to the base of P5. if i were to rate this as a whole game, which is majority P5 (which i loved), the rating would be a 4.5/5.0. as an add-on though? this is a 1.5/5.0.
i think the thing that strikes me the most about this game is that i just could not justify to anyone in any way shape or form buying this game if you've already bought P5 and actually value your purchases. i pre-ordered this game because i adore P5 and am willfully horrible with money, but i could not at all tell someone that this is a good buy. there's just not that much new content here to justify a $60 price point, and even after it drops in price, if you've played P5, you're getting a nonessential experience with Royal.
there's three main components to Royal that i feel are worth assessing as an add-on to P5: the new party member, the new palace, and the additions to akechi's character + confidant.
i'll be upfront and say that the new character is just not interesting to me and the game goes out of its way to shove her down your throat. she doesn't feel organic to the story, and every time there's an event with her, it feels as though the game is pressuring you to like her and become attached to her despite her complete irrelevance to the main plot. i didn't expect a complete rewrite of P5's script to include her, but there's also a reason why she feels nonessential to the narrative: it functions wholly without her. her confidant is very dating simulator-y, and yes i know, in a persona game, that's to be expected, but even here it felt overwhelmingly forced and "am i cute and charming uguu~"-y. she becomes slightly interesting by the time you get to the bonus palace (which is the first point you can even use her), but by that point, the game is nearly over. she's hardly a selling point when she's nonexistent for the lion's share of gameplay and has a character that feels tacked-on (because it is). i think the most damning thing i could say about her is that her presence was equivalent to that of poochy from the simpsons. completely unnecessary and forced.
the bonus palace itself is... functional? i don't have any strong complaints but it also does almost nothing for me. by the time you do it, you've already defeated the final boss of P5, and the overarcing narrative is finished. comparatively, the bonus palace feels much less important and in the context of the game, completely inconsequential to the story P5 told. gameplay-wise, it's not a terribly long palace and i would say it's shorter than a handful of the P5 palaces, which is kind of bad when this was supposed to be the whole point of the third semestre. there's nothing really to do in the third semestre besides maxing the new party member's confidant (which has to be at rank 5 by this point anyway) and exploring the relatively uninteresting bonus palace. there's just not much to do worth noting. the worst part about it is that it's locked behind maxing out a confidant, with the game never telegraphing this to you. i didn't find this to be an issue because i have autism and am thus compelled to max every confidant when i play the game, but it's worth mentioning.
akechi's additional content is honestly the only good part of the add-on. it actually gives his confidant some depth and enhances his character. he's also given more to do in the main plot, but i won't say much about that because of spoilers. akechi was one of the weakest parts of P5's narrative, but strangely enough, he's the strongest part of P5R.
that's a batting average of .333. not great. this game did not need to be a game, but instead could've easily been a $20 DLC. in cases like P4, Devil Survivor, or Strange Journey, their remasters were done because you couldn't do DLC for their original platforms. but P5 doesn't have that excuse. i would even debate calling this a definitive version of P5 because of how disjointed the plot gets near the end. only one of the major plot elements of P5 (akechi) was fixed with this add-on, and the rest that was added just feels unnecessary and excessive in a game that was already 100+ hours long.
final verdict is that you should only buy this if you're fine with the concept of replaying P5 with minimal changes just for some less-than-stellar content, or you're able to find it for cheap.
i think the thing that strikes me the most about this game is that i just could not justify to anyone in any way shape or form buying this game if you've already bought P5 and actually value your purchases. i pre-ordered this game because i adore P5 and am willfully horrible with money, but i could not at all tell someone that this is a good buy. there's just not that much new content here to justify a $60 price point, and even after it drops in price, if you've played P5, you're getting a nonessential experience with Royal.
there's three main components to Royal that i feel are worth assessing as an add-on to P5: the new party member, the new palace, and the additions to akechi's character + confidant.
i'll be upfront and say that the new character is just not interesting to me and the game goes out of its way to shove her down your throat. she doesn't feel organic to the story, and every time there's an event with her, it feels as though the game is pressuring you to like her and become attached to her despite her complete irrelevance to the main plot. i didn't expect a complete rewrite of P5's script to include her, but there's also a reason why she feels nonessential to the narrative: it functions wholly without her. her confidant is very dating simulator-y, and yes i know, in a persona game, that's to be expected, but even here it felt overwhelmingly forced and "am i cute and charming uguu~"-y. she becomes slightly interesting by the time you get to the bonus palace (which is the first point you can even use her), but by that point, the game is nearly over. she's hardly a selling point when she's nonexistent for the lion's share of gameplay and has a character that feels tacked-on (because it is). i think the most damning thing i could say about her is that her presence was equivalent to that of poochy from the simpsons. completely unnecessary and forced.
the bonus palace itself is... functional? i don't have any strong complaints but it also does almost nothing for me. by the time you do it, you've already defeated the final boss of P5, and the overarcing narrative is finished. comparatively, the bonus palace feels much less important and in the context of the game, completely inconsequential to the story P5 told. gameplay-wise, it's not a terribly long palace and i would say it's shorter than a handful of the P5 palaces, which is kind of bad when this was supposed to be the whole point of the third semestre. there's nothing really to do in the third semestre besides maxing the new party member's confidant (which has to be at rank 5 by this point anyway) and exploring the relatively uninteresting bonus palace. there's just not much to do worth noting. the worst part about it is that it's locked behind maxing out a confidant, with the game never telegraphing this to you. i didn't find this to be an issue because i have autism and am thus compelled to max every confidant when i play the game, but it's worth mentioning.
akechi's additional content is honestly the only good part of the add-on. it actually gives his confidant some depth and enhances his character. he's also given more to do in the main plot, but i won't say much about that because of spoilers. akechi was one of the weakest parts of P5's narrative, but strangely enough, he's the strongest part of P5R.
that's a batting average of .333. not great. this game did not need to be a game, but instead could've easily been a $20 DLC. in cases like P4, Devil Survivor, or Strange Journey, their remasters were done because you couldn't do DLC for their original platforms. but P5 doesn't have that excuse. i would even debate calling this a definitive version of P5 because of how disjointed the plot gets near the end. only one of the major plot elements of P5 (akechi) was fixed with this add-on, and the rest that was added just feels unnecessary and excessive in a game that was already 100+ hours long.
final verdict is that you should only buy this if you're fine with the concept of replaying P5 with minimal changes just for some less-than-stellar content, or you're able to find it for cheap.