Review: Persona 5 Royal (PS4) – Heart Stolen.

Played on: Playstation 4 Pro
Developer: P-Studio, Atlus
Release Date: 3/31/2020
Lobsters: Entrancing

Persona 5 Royal will take over your life. Minor spoilers in images below.

The perfect pandemic companion. Persona 5 Royal has just what I’ve been missing this last year. Through the pandemic and shutdown of local business in the area, I’ve really missed going out for a bite or hanging with a group of friends. P5R has you going out with friends, hanging with your group, eating out, practicing sports, doing laundry… all the mundane daily chores that are missing from daily life through 2020. It does help that these chores are set to an exceptional soundtrack and the fact that I am doing them while sitting on a couch….

Should you buy Persona 5, or Persona 5 Royal?

Persona 5 Royal is an updated version of the original game which includes a whole lot of extras. The main additions include a few new characters and an extra semester of gameplay (roughly 20 hours of additional content in my playthrough). I tried to play the non-royal version of the game when it originally came out back in 2016, but had a couple false starts and I was going through a phase in which 100+ hour JRPG epics didn’t appeal at all. Luckily, Royal has many upgrades over the base game, including: a brand new area- Kichijoji (one of the biggest areas in the game), new moves and dungeon flow, showtime attacks, guns that are viable, and, if playing on a PS4 Pro or PS5– a major jump in resolution and clarity.

Additionally, the game features a ton of quality of life improvements that overall make the game, well, a better game. One of the most noticeable improvements is running over shadows in Mementos, which significantly cuts down on some mid-to-end game grind time. More “free time” is available as well, especially at night (Joker- why are you so tired?). Buy Royal.

Presentation – One Slick Display

Persona 5 Royal is nothing if not stylish and cohesive. The graphics, art, music, menus, and overall presentation create one slick display. The style is unique and persistent through every aspect of the game. The original game was developed for the PS3, but is also on the PS4 with a minor bump to graphical fidelity. If you have a PS4 Pro, Royal is the best choice so you can enjoy that checkerboard 4k. While a lot of the textures and graphics are touched up, there is no getting around that this is an anime-style game originally developed for the PlayStation 3. Style points more than make up for any perception of “poor” graphics in this case, proving that artistic direction more important than technical perfection.

Gotta do what you gotta do

You will notice the music, and how it is possibly the best soundtrack in the last decade of gaming. So much so that I dropped a few hundred bucks on the LP after beating the game. These songs will stick in your head months after you finish– especially as you drive to work blasting Beneath the Mask. Through the 120+ hours or so of playtime, I could hear my wife humming the tunes anytime the game wasn’t on.

Gameplay – A Masterful Loop

Persona 5 Royal has an excellent dungeon and battle system. The game revolves around monthly dungeons and provides you the freedom to attempt them at your leisure– despite protests from the Phantom Thieves that they are ready for some action everyday you don’t attempt to clear them. My preferred way of attack was to knock the dungeons out in a day or two of in-game time, leaving the rest of the days to power through social links or increase stats. Some dungeons I cleared immediately after accessing them, others I took the time to level up first and then rushed through towards the end of allotted time. Failing to beat the dungeon in the time provided ends in a game over and gives you the option to reset a week of in-game time for a reattempt.

The game itself plays well and has a nice progression, though it is quite easy to break the game and become massively overpowered. One of my favorite aspects of Persona 5 Royal’s battle system is the game constantly staying fresh by introducing new mechanics and abilities throughout the entire length. I find that RPGs in particular sometimes give you all the rules upfront and then lock you into a 100 hour grind using the same tactics. Think: Skyrim stealth archer. As you level up your Social Links, those that are in your party will acquire new skills that happen at random throughout your battles, quite often shaking things up, helping the grind end quickly, or simply coming in clutch during a tough battle.

The showtime attacks are perfect. Think Final Fantasy limit breaks, but with entertaining animations, and you have the perfect way to end any battle. The animations are a bit long after seeing them a 100 times, but you can skip the bulk of it, which skips to the end of the attack if you are in a hurry.

The Personas themselves provides a fun Pokémon like experience. The main character will acquire new personas throughout the game, and then fuse them to create new and more powerful creatures, or even items. The system is expansive, and provides for a lot of customization, but this is also where the game can break down if you aren’t careful. Persona 5 Royal includes DLC Personas, which are far too overpowered pretty much at any point throughout the game. Several can nullify certain elemental attacks, even physical attacks. Try not to use any of these Personas until the end if you are looking for any semblance of a challenge. Just here for the story? Let em’ rip!

Conclusion

An epic with fully realized characters, engaging gameplay loop, and excellent presentation. P5R’s characters shine through (some more than others) and those friendships are what makes the game so hard to put down. Everyone is fighting their own battle and conflict within their lives. Every dungeon’s Big Bad has reasons for committing the crimes they are guilty for, with a party member being directly implicated in that person’s relationship or motives. Enough story beats are peppered in that the gameplay loop feels fresh and doesn’t feel stale, even at the 50 hour mark, while the excellent presentation ties everything together.

Ultimately, Persona 5 Royal is one of the best games I played last year. My main criticism of the game is the pacing towards the end. More game should equal a better time, right? The extra semester hits hard and immediate after what should be the original game’s ending. There is no room to breath, or enjoy victory. The party is thrown into another mystery and that feels a little draining after the epic sequence occurring an hour beforehand. I would recommend you hit the original “final boss” and then take a week off before coming back for more. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

If you are waiting to jump in, or have never played Persona 5 before, make sure to grab Royal. Warning: the third semester is locked behind certain progression in the main game. Accessing the extra semester requires a few social link level ups. Easily done, but also easily missed if just aren’t interested in these characters:

• Hit Rank 9 with Maruki before 11/18
• Rank 5 with Kasumi before 12/18
• Rank 8 with Akechi before 11/24.

If you can remember to hit these three targets, then I recommend not using a guide or google-fu and playing through the game fresh.

Saving the incendiary statement for the end of the review: Makoto is the best girl.

Disclaimer: If you appreciated my review and are looking to buy a copy of the game, please consider using the affiliate links below to help pay for this site. This game was purchased and all opinions are strictly my own.