Persona 5 Royal review: A great game gets an even better second draft

It’s not often that I find myself wanting to replay a game that is likely to take me over 100 hours to complete. I love Japanese role-playing games, but they’re huge time sinks, and playing even the greatest JRPGs for a SecondGaming time is often difficult for me.

Those are my thoughts. Persona 5 isn’t any old JRPG. The 2017 release was highly praised because it tackled difficult themes and was stylish. It certainly wasn’t perfect, with some notable gameplay annoyances and some aspects of the narrative open to criticism, but those blemishes were not enough to detract from how fantastic the overall game was to play.

Persona 5 RoyalThis version arrives late this month and basically is a remastered and rethought version of the original, with additional plot added at the end. For a deeper explanation of the game, click here Persona 5, check out Polygon’s original review. These are the bestReviewed by RoyalThis article will concentrate on the differences between the current and previous versions.

Anyone who is completely unfamiliar with the subject Persona 5, here’s a quick summary: You play as a teenage boy in Japan who is falsely accused of a crime and ends up with a criminal record. Make friends with children who are being manipulated by evil adults. You discover how to make them feel sorry and make them confess (by fighting monsters within their brains). Then you set out to save the world.

Image: Atlus/Sega

Half of your time is spent in real life, working part-time, studying, building friendships and doing exams. The other half fights monsters and steals treasure and convinces other teenagers and strange creatures to join you.

Now, if you’ve played through the original Persona 5 As I mentioned before, the first 100 to 200 hours of work you do in a job is not yours. Persona 5 RoyalThis will become a routine experience. There is some content added throughout the first months and many improvements in quality of life. However, the actions you can do on any given day are the same. RoyalYou will get the exact same results.

The bulk of the new story content comes in the game’s newly added third semester, but until then, changes to the narrative will be pretty few and far between. You’ll be seeing interesting incremental tweaks, not grand design overhauls, during a lot of your time in this fictional Japan.

Persona 5 Royal

Price at publishing time.

The latest version Persona 5 is a “a remastered, and rethought, version of the original game, with extra plot dropped in at the end.”

Persona 5 Royal Two new Confidant characters are introduced, the Kasumi (aspiring gymnast) and Takuto (school counselor). Kasumi is the game’s new playable party member, but it’s important to note that she’s actually not playable at all until the third semester, even though she’s dropped into the narrative right from the start. Most of her scenes feel forced in the beginning. She is the only named, recurring character to have seemingly nothing to do with the main plot, and it’s initially a little odd. You’re forced to befriend her, and while she’s well-written, she has half as many social links as other characters, and often seem disconnected from the main story.

Image: Atlus/Sega

Takuto is, however, seamlessly integrated into the narrative. After the events of the game’s first dungeon, in which a teacher is unmasked as having been abusing students, Takuto is brought in to provide much-needed mental health support to you and your classmates. You can visit the new counselor at your convenience, but your fellow party members will continue to see him as they wish throughout the game. They offer valuable insight into teens’ mental health and challenges.

The investigator Akechi may not be new, Persona 5 RoyalHis social connection has been completely restructured. As with the rest of the characters, you can now connect with Akechi at your own pace, and not through scripted events. You will find valuable insights for returning players and a lot more to him in the new scenes.

It’s vital to max out all three of these new Confidants as much as possible before the end of the second semester. That’s because it’s possible to miss key parts of the third semester entirely if you haven’t ranked up these characters in time — something that is not communicated well to the player.

Image: Atlus/Sega

This semester will be a different story with some plot points that are not available to the player. It is a standalone story that can be expanded in another game. Expect to engage with third-semester tasks apart from the main plot. Don’t expect to be finishing social links from the early semesters past Christmas.

The third semester’s additional plot, palace, and final villain are all worthwhile additions to Persona 5. While the plot is perhaps a little predictable, it’s well presented, and worth the hours I replayed to reach it. It provides better closure than the game’s original ending, and offers really rewarding combat for those seeking a challenge. After spending 120 hours completing the main story and the DLC, I came away feeling like the motivation of the third semester’s primary villain was much more empathetic and relatable than that of the main game. The villain was the protagonist of the story. It made it a much more engaging narrative.

Image: Atlus/Sega via Polygon

Atlus also made minor adjustments to the game that make it more fun and enjoyable. Some scenes with important plot points that had been silent before now have full voice acting. Confidants will now call you after hangouts which helps you increase your rank quicker. Morgana won’t be shouting at you to go to bed every night. You may not always be able to go out at night, but you’ll always have the option of watching TV, studying, reading a book, building tools, or brewing coffee on nights when you’re too tired to leave the house, giving you so much more time to raise your stats. I can’t tell you how happy I was at not being constantly told to go to sleep when I just wanted to go downstairs and make coffee. These small changes can make all the difference. Royal The game feels a bit more fluid and alive because it is less formal.

Palaces are a way to improve quality of life beyond daily play. Persona 5’s enemy-laden dungeons. It was a relief to discover that my gun automatically refilled with ammo after every encounter. This is a significant improvement in combat. The original Persona 5Guns were essentially useless. They could do high damage, and they had status effects. But their ammunition would only last for a few fights. Gun modification is much more profitable than converting to automatic-reloading weapons. Iwai (the gun shop owner) was barely utilized in my first playthrough. But guns quickly became a reliable secondary source for status ailment that allowed me to get through sections. Royal.

Image: Atlus/Sega via Polygon

Now, each persona comes with an inherent trait RoyalA special ability which can include ice moves that cost less SP or immunity to physical strikes. You can pass these traits on to your persona through persona fusion. This adds an additional layer of customization as you figure out how to transfer a specific ability to the right persona. While I initially didn’t pay much attention to these traits, by the late game I was spending time fusing persona explicitly to try and get a set trait onto a specific high-level creature.

Baton Pass — the ability to pass control to another character for a free attack after each successful super effective hit on an enemy — is now available from the start of the game for all characters, rather than needing to be unlocked. To upgrade Baton Pass, visit the Kichijoji location. This can then be used to give benefits such as HP restoration to characters. It will also encourage future Baton Pass strings. The town of Kichijoji has many new shops and sidequests. But the main reason I went to it was because of the potential to improve the utility of Baton Pass.

Image: Atlus/Sega

Palace layouts were slightly altered to allow for return players, Royal’s new grappling hook. The grappling hook feels much less effective than the other improvements, making it almost inconvenient for traversal. However, some grappling hooks can open up hidden areas with Will Seeds. This is a brand new item. Royal.Every one that you find will help restore SP, which can be used to get you through the entire dungeon. Additionally, if you manage to collect all three of them you’ll gain an in-game powerful item. This is the perfect level of optional difficulty for dungeon exploration. Each dungeon’s final seed is guarded by a super tough enemy that I would argue is at times more challenging to defeat than the dungeon boss.

In comparison to exploring dungeons, boss fights in Royal They have been significantly reworked and improved. Bosses that used to cycle back and forth repeatedly between two forms — like the twisted art dealer Madarame — now present each form only once, or introduce new forms that make more sense with the narrative of the enemy in question. Madarame, for instance, creating ever more poor copies of himself feels right. It also blends in nicely with the character’s arc.

Image: Atlus/Sega via Polygon

The only truly terrible aspect of dungeon exploration — inexplicably bad in the original game, and not much improved in Royal — is negotiation conversations when trying to convince new Personas to join your team. They’re still bizarrely written; each question Personas ask just doesn’t match the dialogue options I’m given to respond with. It’s bafflingly stilted writing in an otherwise brilliantly written game.

While Mementos, the game’s randomized lengthy dungeon, is still pretty long and convoluted, Atlus made small changes to make it less of a chore to play through. I was bored by the monotonous music that played in unison for so long. The music now changes as you progress, rather than repeating itself endlessly. Jose is a young boy that will help you trade stamps and flowers hidden in Mementos. This can give you bonus cash or boosts to earned experience. This made me less likely to rush to get to each Mementos layer’s exit. Instead, I drove around checking every corner and took my time. Jose isn’t a social link, but as an NPC with a shop and a little plot, he helps Mementos feel less like it’s disconnected from the wider story.

Image: Atlus/sega via Polygon

There’s one other story point that I feel can’t be ignored. Prior to the publication of Royal,Atlus was very vocal about the English language localization team’s plans to change a controversial scene in the original game. The localizers did change it, but their changes really didn’t go far enough, and the scene is still not great.

The original Persona 5 features a scene in which two gay adult men approach the character Ryuji — a teenager — talk about how hot he is, acknowledge that they know he’s too young for them, and then physically grab him and drag him off. It’s two of the game’s only gay characters forcibly abducting a kid who has said he isn’t interested. It’s a creepy, uncomfortable, unnecessary scene — and it’s an unavoidable part of the game’s story.

The revised scene really isn’t much better. Now Ryuji and the two men assume Ryuji is in secret into drag but are too ashamed to confess. They once again ignore him saying no, and drag him off to force him into women’s clothing against his will. It’s still a scene where two gay adults abduct a teenager and force him into an unwanted situation, and it still feels gross and creepy. Don’t pick up Royal It would be great to see an improvement in that scene. I still really enjoyed the game.

Image: Atlus/Polygon

Sincere, it’s all about my general thoughts. Persona 5 Royal, they’re pretty simple. There are many quality-of-life enhancements that will make it easier to play the original, as well as additional content for the third semester.

You’ll have to replay a lot There is a lot to it, however, you will enjoy the stories, characters and new gameplay features. If you’ve never played Persona 5It’s the ultimate way to enjoy the game.

Some plot issues are still not fully resolved. The game’s aesthetic is great, there are many things to do and it remains one of the best JRPGs on this generation.

Persona 5 Royal It was launched on October 20th on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 on Windows PCs, Xbox One on Xbox One, Xbox Series X on Game Pass. The game was also released by PlayStation 4 on March 31, 2020. Atlus provided a code for the download of this game. Vox Media also has affiliate relationships. While these do not impact editorial content or sales, Vox Media can earn commissions from products sold through affiliate links. See our website for more details. Ethical policy.