Persona 5 Royal

Reviewed by Pluto 9/26/21

“A strong blend of beautiful art and amazing combat makes this a must-play.” – Pluto

If you’ve played other entries in the Persona series, viewing this from the outside you might think it’s the same content they’ve been releasing for 25 years. The second you enter in though it’s way different from the others. Typically Persona takes a long time to get you captivated. They have long sets of cutscenes and little gameplay, typically not even letting you fight for 5+ hours. This game is different, as soon as you enter you’re greeted by a casino heist.  About ten or so minutes in you hit your first enemy encounter. This is a very refreshing take on an old concept that persona has been using.

One of the main strong suits of Persona 5 Royal is its dungeons (palaces). Unlike the auto-generated dungeons of its predecessors, this game has hand-crafted dungeons with branching paths and things to find. While the Tartarus and the midnight channel of Persona 3 and 4 had collectibles, they were just random things such as healing items or SP recoveries. Persona 5 Royal has all those things, but it also has Will Seeds. The Will Seeds can be turned into useful items via Jose in Mementos.  These are great items that can increase stats, heal the party, or add stat buffs (with sukukaja, tarukaja, or rakukaja). 

While Persona 5 Royal may have hand-crafted dungeons it still has its own take on the randomly generated dungeons found in the other games. Mementos is a place introduced early on. During days that you don’t have a palace to go to you can go to mementos (you can go on a palace day, but you probably shouldn’t). It’s a great place to grind, especially after you unlock Ryuji’s “Insta-kill” ability, and get healing items for free! 

The strongest part of Persona 5 Royal (and every other Persona game) is the characters. The Persona games are known for the great mix of social sim and JRPG elements. They have a system known as confidants, this allows you to hang out with characters aside from the main story. It costs valuable time, but it’s typically worth it. It allows you to unlock abilities, and in Royal, the third semester. If you max out a confidant then the character’s heart grows three sizes and gains a new persona, some designs are better than others. It’s still always better to max out the confidant so if you have the chance, take it!

The game isn’t perfect though. Some palaces feel way more complete than others, but they’re all still solid. Some characters could definitely use more screen time. For example, Character spoiler Haru can be completely forgotten about after her debut. While Ryuji steals the show from beginning to end.

In the end, I’d give this game 5/5 stars. It is far and away the best entry in the Persona series and maybe even the entire Shin Megami Tensei Series.