GAME REVIEW: Persona 5 Royal

As a lifelong fan of RPGs, the Persona series holds a special place in my heart. I“ve been a fan of Persona since the PS2 era, where the series truly began to take shape into what it“s become in modern times. It always had strong relatability because of how it contrasts the ordinary high school students with cosmic horror and deep psychological concepts. However, Persona 5 was a landmark and generation-defining JRPG, mainly because of its strong use of themes, characters, and a modern art style reminiscent of films like The Matrix. The idea of bringing the “phantom thief”“ archetype into modern Japan, then working that into the Persona formula was a brilliant one, and it reaped rewards for the developers at Atlus.

Persona 5 Royal is an updated re-release of the original Persona 5, though in practice, it feels like an entirely new game. Though remakes have become the latest games industry trend, mainly because of titles like Resident Evil 2 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake, this is business as usual for Atlus. Atlus has a history of making strong updated re-releases for their titles, most notably with Persona 4 Golden for the PlayStation Vita and last year“s Catherine Fullbody. However, those games are nothing compared to the complete overhaul that Persona 5 received this year. This game has been improved and redesigned on virtually every level, and the result is perhaps the definitive version of one of the great PS4 RPGs.

Firstly, the game looks excellent and always has, but this version is even better. The graphics were already quite impressive in Persona 5 vanilla, but Royal makes a number of visual improvements. The core look of the characters and their world is largely enhanced, but with various small graphical and artistic changes designed to enhance the experience. Subtle visual tweaks like adding gold elements to give a shinier and more polished look to the graphics is a distinctive touch that makes Royal stand out more. The Metaverse sections look even stranger and more visually compelling than they did in vanilla; this is perhaps most notable in Mementos, where various sections have evolved from the originals in color palette and aesthetic flavor. Royal maintains its usual standard of great character designs, and Kasumi looks like a natural fit among the original Phantom Thieves. This game also looks especially good when played on the PS4 Pro, where the graphical enhancements shine through in a way it doesn’t on the PS4 Slim. Though it doesn’t compare with graphical powerhouses like Resident Evil 2 Remake, the game is so stylish and slick that it’s visually arresting regardless.

Though this is intended to be a spoiler-free review, it“s difficult to evaluate the merits of any RPG without discussing its story. Persona 5 vanilla already had a very strong story, built on the themes of freedom, self-empowerment, and social change. It“s a game where the protagonist isn“t just an ordinary high school student, but a young man who has been unjustly treated by the Japanese legal system. Because of the burden placed upon him by fate and a game played by cosmic beings, he becomes the phantom thief known as Joker. The cast of characters is deep and well-rounded, not just the main party members, but even the various confidants that Joker encounters in his journey. Likewise, the villains are deeply layered opponents with well-thought agendas and motivations, and even the most evil of them are truly compelling. Royal keeps the foundation of Persona 5 vanilla in all those aspects, but instead offers much more.

Persona 5 vanilla players will probably find the early hours to be familiar territory, only for the game to gradually take off in its own direction as the game goes on. The main story changes come about because of its new characters””a young gymnast named Kasumi Yoshizawa, and the school“s counselor Dr. Maruki. Their story is gradually interwoven in the early eight months of the game, and if you max out your Social Links with them and Goro Akechi, you“ll be rewarded with how their story plays out. While awaiting this game, I had honestly wondered how the developers could add an extra month of gameplay considering how vanilla P5 ends. However, there is a good explanation for how this happens, and while the basic scenario is hardly original, it“s well executed and affects each of the Phantom Thieves in interesting ways. At the same time, the new endgame scenario also fits perfectly with Royal“s larger narrative, working with the themes of freedom and personal growth in a different context. In addition, there are different endings and paths you can take in deciding how the story plays out. The antagonist of the new scenario is interesting precisely because he isn“t a typical villain; he has a well-defined vision and argument, and you can agree with him if you wish to. In the end, it“s a game that allows you to decide your own fate, and your Joker can be the kind of hero you want him to be.

Moreover, the combat has been completely revamped for Royal, and the end result is a massive improvement. In P5 vanilla, I never used skills that inflict status ailments because they would usually miss and do no real damage even if they hit. It was simpler just to spam attacks that target enemy weaknesses, since it was easier to knock down all opponents and set up the game“s signature All-Out Attacks. In Royal, it isn“t that simple, because many of the game“s enemies don“t have easily exploitable weaknesses. The only way to get around that in Royal is to use the status attacks to inflict Technical damage, which allows for knockdowns and improved damage. The Baton Pass system is also massively improved; no longer is it dependent on Social Links, and you get them from the moment you get your party members. Instead, the Baton Passes are improved through playing darts with your companions at night, and they can now improve health, damage, and SP with each use. There are also new enemies called Disaster Shadows that explode when destroyed, inflicting damage on the entire enemy party. The result is a much more tactical experience, forcing the player to adjust their plans and devise a new approach to winning encounters in the Metaverse.

This isn“t to say that Royal is a perfect re-release, and there are still some flaws in the game even with its many improvements. While Royal has done a good job of softening the hard edges of the hot-tempered Ryuji, it left one of the worst character moments from P5 vanilla unchanged. The brief falling out with Morgana in September remains completely intact, including the characterization of Morgana, who was difficult to like or sympathize with during those scenes. While it“s a necessary segment to bring Haru into the Phantom Thieves, Royal was a missed opportunity to at least address fan concerns over how Morgana was handled, or even perhaps explain his actions in a better light as was done with Ryuji. Likewise, Royal takes far too long in bringing Kasumi into the team, and you only really get to use her in a brief mission before the endgame content and the extra Palace dungeon. She could have easily been inserted into the Shido mission, and it feels like she“s only excluded for artificial reasons. There are also moments where time balance for advancing Social Links isn“t well paced, particularly with the new additions; some characters are unavailable for long stretches of time, and when you do get opportunities with them, the player must seize on them quickly or miss the extra content. Still, this game adds so much to the vanilla experience that it“s easy to forgive, and the last playable month of Royal makes all of the small frustrations worth the experience.

Without hyperbole, Persona 5 Royal can honestly be considered the royal treatment for Persona 5 fans. There“s so much more to this game than I“ve outlined here, and I encourage anyone who“s a fan of the series to discover them. There are hours and hours of content for players to find and explore, between story content to gameplay changes to special Challenge Battles to Thieves“ Den extras. The result is the definitive version of one of my favorite RPGs, and one that“s well worth the time and money that you“ll invest into this game. If you need some good quarantine gaming, Persona 5 Royal is the perfect time sink if you’re a fan of anime or JRPGs.

Score: 5/5

Publisher: Atlus/Sega
Platform: PS4

Author Profile

Steve Sellers

Steve Sellers had been a fan of superheroes ever since Superman: The Movie. But it took the JSA, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Dragonlance, Lord of the Rings, Twilight Zone, and Chris Claremont's legendary run on the X-Men to make him a writer and a longtime fan of comics, fantasy, and science fiction. Steve is the co-creator of WHITE DRUID & MICHAEL NERO and GUARDIANS OF ELAYIM for Omen Comics, and he is also the creator of BLITZ and SHOCKWAVE for Revelation Comics (an imprint of Omen Comics).