Persona 5 is a very popular JRPG (Japanese Role Playing Game) loved by many fans. The original game was released on September 15, 2016 on the Playstation 3 and 4. It was well received by many fans who played the previous iterations of the game, as well as newcomers to the franchise. Atlus, the studio behind Persona 5, released a remastered version of Persona 5 known as Persona 5 Royal. It has updated graphics, more Personas, a post-story, and more. (This review will contain minor spoilers to Persona 5 Royal, but don't worry: I'll only spoil the first 20 minutes of the game.)
This player starts at the peak of the story as Akira Kurusu, also known as Joker (the person who you are playing as and the leader of the Phantom Thieves), is escaping a casino. I really like how you start in the action, unlike most games where you start slow and build up to the action.
You dodge the enemies within the casino as you make your way to the exit. Your teammates are guiding you through it, and you appear to have escaped–or have you? You ultimately get captured, sentenced, and placed in jail.
This is where the majority of the story is told. You see, it is told through flashbacks, as Akira is explaining everything that happened up to that point to Sae Niijima. Niijima is a prosecutor who was assigned to interrogate you. The goal for the Phantom Thieves is to change the hearts of evil or corrupt people who are preying on the weak. However, the Phantom Thieves have been accused of many crimes such as obstruction of justice, blackmail, defamation, possession of weapons, murder, etc.
This game typically has the odds against the player, as people have mixed feelings about the Phantom Thieves. The game consists of the Phantom Thieves exploring many different dungeons to change the hearts of evil adults. There are a variety of different puzzles that challenge the player’s thinking as well as their capability to think outside the box.
You dodge the enemies within the casino as you make your way to the exit. Your teammates are guiding you through it, and you appear to have escaped–or have you? You ultimately get captured, sentenced, and placed in jail.
This is where the majority of the story is told. You see, it is told through flashbacks, as Akira is explaining everything that happened up to that point to Sae Niijima. Niijima is a prosecutor who was assigned to interrogate you. The goal for the Phantom Thieves is to change the hearts of evil or corrupt people who are preying on the weak. However, the Phantom Thieves have been accused of many crimes such as obstruction of justice, blackmail, defamation, possession of weapons, murder, etc.
This game typically has the odds against the player, as people have mixed feelings about the Phantom Thieves. The game consists of the Phantom Thieves exploring many different dungeons to change the hearts of evil adults. There are a variety of different puzzles that challenge the player’s thinking as well as their capability to think outside the box.
Combat is extremely important in the game. The main way that the player will defeat their opponent is through the use of their Persona. A Persona is the manifestation of the user’s rebellious spirit. Each Persona user gets access to one Persona; however, Akira is different. He has the power of the wildcard, which allows him to wield more than one Persona.
As you progress through the game, you can collect more Personas. The way you get Personas is through negotiations with Shadows, which are the enemies that inhabit the game. Circling back to obtaining Personas, you would obtain the option to initiate conversation by knocking all the shadows down by targeting their weakness or getting a critical hit. Once they are all knocked down, you can do one of two things: an all out attack or initiate conversation. Conversation allows you to do more things that range from getting an item, more money, or even obtaining a new Persona. This method of obtaining Personas is well implemented because of how you have complete control over dialoguee.
In addition, Persona 5 Royal has personality types that influence the direction of conversation with the Persona. There are three personality types that a Persona can have: Upbeat, Timid, or Irritable. This makes an amazing addition to Persona 5 Royal, as this feature wasn’t in the original game. Depending on the personality, the Persona could guide the player to picking the right dialogue choices to obtain the Persona.
Each persona has an affinity to a type within the game. There are nine different elemental types and two physical types. You have fire, ice, wind, electricity, psychokinesis, bless, curse, nuclear, and almighty (which is basically a damage type that is unblockable) as the nine elemental types. You also have physical damage and gun damage as the two additional types.
The stats of a Persona are split into five: Strength, Magic, Agility, Endurance, Luck. They can make or break whether or not a Persona would be viable to use or not. Physical moves use HP, but they tend to be more damaging than spells that use SP. You only have a limited amount of SP, so you have to manage your spell usage. SP management is huge in this game because a lot of your most damaging skills will come from spells. Without SP, you don’t have access to strike the enemies’ weakness or free healing. Your SP can be restored through healing items, but they are extremely rare to come across. HP can be regained through healing items or healing spells.
Later on, you get access to the Velvet Room in which it allows you to store, summon, or fuse Personas. Most of them are typically better than the ones you’d encounter. Once you fuse them, they inherit aspects of the previous Persona like some moves or traits. Traits are passive abilities that can increase damage to a specific type or increase the efficiency of healing skills. You can also turn Personas into items that can boost your stats in battle. Personas are based on various religious cultures and folklore. There’s a little description that gives a brief backstory on each Persona. It’s pretty engaging to learn about the different mythological creatures that exist around the world.
As you progress through the game, you can collect more Personas. The way you get Personas is through negotiations with Shadows, which are the enemies that inhabit the game. Circling back to obtaining Personas, you would obtain the option to initiate conversation by knocking all the shadows down by targeting their weakness or getting a critical hit. Once they are all knocked down, you can do one of two things: an all out attack or initiate conversation. Conversation allows you to do more things that range from getting an item, more money, or even obtaining a new Persona. This method of obtaining Personas is well implemented because of how you have complete control over dialoguee.
In addition, Persona 5 Royal has personality types that influence the direction of conversation with the Persona. There are three personality types that a Persona can have: Upbeat, Timid, or Irritable. This makes an amazing addition to Persona 5 Royal, as this feature wasn’t in the original game. Depending on the personality, the Persona could guide the player to picking the right dialogue choices to obtain the Persona.
Each persona has an affinity to a type within the game. There are nine different elemental types and two physical types. You have fire, ice, wind, electricity, psychokinesis, bless, curse, nuclear, and almighty (which is basically a damage type that is unblockable) as the nine elemental types. You also have physical damage and gun damage as the two additional types.
The stats of a Persona are split into five: Strength, Magic, Agility, Endurance, Luck. They can make or break whether or not a Persona would be viable to use or not. Physical moves use HP, but they tend to be more damaging than spells that use SP. You only have a limited amount of SP, so you have to manage your spell usage. SP management is huge in this game because a lot of your most damaging skills will come from spells. Without SP, you don’t have access to strike the enemies’ weakness or free healing. Your SP can be restored through healing items, but they are extremely rare to come across. HP can be regained through healing items or healing spells.
Later on, you get access to the Velvet Room in which it allows you to store, summon, or fuse Personas. Most of them are typically better than the ones you’d encounter. Once you fuse them, they inherit aspects of the previous Persona like some moves or traits. Traits are passive abilities that can increase damage to a specific type or increase the efficiency of healing skills. You can also turn Personas into items that can boost your stats in battle. Personas are based on various religious cultures and folklore. There’s a little description that gives a brief backstory on each Persona. It’s pretty engaging to learn about the different mythological creatures that exist around the world.
Running back to Palaces: this is where half of the game takes place. Palaces are the dungeons that the Phantom Thieves go through. Palaces exist within a separate reality called the Meta-verse. Each Palace is different, as they exist inside the hearts of people with a strong desire. Think of a Palace as the physical manifestation of a strong desire that takes form. The main goal is to take the treasure of a ruler’s Palace. In Persona 5 Royal, there’s a deadline in which you have to change the Persona’s heart or else it’s game over.
Now what if you changed the Persona’s heart within the palace early and you still have time left? This is where the second half of the game takes place. Akira is still a high school student, so he has to study as well as manage his relationship with his friends. It’s basically a life sim where you can increase your social stats in order to conversate and spend time with your friends.
You have 5 social stats you can increase: kindness, guts, proficiency, knowledge,and charm. You can increase the level of these stats by reading books, playing video games, doing part time jobs, answering questions in school, (yes you have to go to school in the game as well), etc. The game moves on a calendar in which you really can only do two things per day. You can only enter the Palace during the day, as Akira will be too tired to enter in the evening.
Entering the Palace will automatically move time forward to evening. You can only do certain things in the evening. Some activities may not be available during specific days out of the week, while some might only be accessible on one specific date. The dungeon exploration and Akira’s social life happens simultaneously, so you’d have to balance both. This part of the game is like a double edged sword. It can get extremely repetitive doing the same events in order to increase a social stat by 1, which can burn out the player quickly. However, this game gives the player freedom to choose how they would like to spend their day, which leaves less repetitiveness.
You can also spend time with your friends, too. I’d like to consider this to be the main appeal to this side of the game, as each individual character has their own interesting story. They each have their own Arcana, which plays a big part when it comes to fusing a Persona. Each Persona has a set Arcana. If you have a Persona that has the same Arcana with the person whom you are going to spend time with, you’d get additional points to their confidant. A confidant is basically just how the game refers to these characters’ friendship rank. The higher the rank of the person who you spent your time with, the more exp you’d get to the product of the fused Persona that has the same Arcana.
You also get special perks that can help you in and outside of the dungeon. These can range from getting access to better stuff in shops or allowing you to enter the Palace in the evening. I have mixed feelings about this, as this makes the game too easy. By completing the confidant of the new character, Takuto Maruki, you can automatically heal yourself of status ailments or even restore hp and sp for free. That is insane when you don’t have to waste a turn healing and instead you can attack.
Once you max out their confidant, you unlock the ultimate persona of that confidant. If it’s your teammate’s confidant, you evolve their persona. Specifically towards the female characters, you have the option to date them if you so choose to. It gives no special perks besides the fact that you can go on dates with them. It has no effect on the story, but it’s a nice feature.
You have 5 social stats you can increase: kindness, guts, proficiency, knowledge,and charm. You can increase the level of these stats by reading books, playing video games, doing part time jobs, answering questions in school, (yes you have to go to school in the game as well), etc. The game moves on a calendar in which you really can only do two things per day. You can only enter the Palace during the day, as Akira will be too tired to enter in the evening.
Entering the Palace will automatically move time forward to evening. You can only do certain things in the evening. Some activities may not be available during specific days out of the week, while some might only be accessible on one specific date. The dungeon exploration and Akira’s social life happens simultaneously, so you’d have to balance both. This part of the game is like a double edged sword. It can get extremely repetitive doing the same events in order to increase a social stat by 1, which can burn out the player quickly. However, this game gives the player freedom to choose how they would like to spend their day, which leaves less repetitiveness.
You can also spend time with your friends, too. I’d like to consider this to be the main appeal to this side of the game, as each individual character has their own interesting story. They each have their own Arcana, which plays a big part when it comes to fusing a Persona. Each Persona has a set Arcana. If you have a Persona that has the same Arcana with the person whom you are going to spend time with, you’d get additional points to their confidant. A confidant is basically just how the game refers to these characters’ friendship rank. The higher the rank of the person who you spent your time with, the more exp you’d get to the product of the fused Persona that has the same Arcana.
You also get special perks that can help you in and outside of the dungeon. These can range from getting access to better stuff in shops or allowing you to enter the Palace in the evening. I have mixed feelings about this, as this makes the game too easy. By completing the confidant of the new character, Takuto Maruki, you can automatically heal yourself of status ailments or even restore hp and sp for free. That is insane when you don’t have to waste a turn healing and instead you can attack.
Once you max out their confidant, you unlock the ultimate persona of that confidant. If it’s your teammate’s confidant, you evolve their persona. Specifically towards the female characters, you have the option to date them if you so choose to. It gives no special perks besides the fact that you can go on dates with them. It has no effect on the story, but it’s a nice feature.
Persona 5 Royal is also pretty easy in comparison to the other Persona games. There’s a nice blend of combat and socializing in the game, which keeps playing the game fresh while also improving upon concepts that are already implemented in the game.
Persona 5 Royal focuses on freedom and the spirit of rebellion then later changes to dealing with trauma. This game repeatedly expresses how society shapes who we are and takes control of who we become. We let people around us dictate our thoughts. The game shows what could happen if we don’t take back control. This is one of the reasons why I love Persona 5 Royal. The story is really addictive, as it’s relatable in today’s society. Everyone focuses on becoming someone who they aren’t instead of being who you are and staying true to yourself. We can relate to the feelings of the characters Akira interacts with, as they all deal with tragic things in their life. Akira helps them through it while building bonds with his friends. The formation of the Phantom Thieves has saved the lives of many and even the members of the Thieves themselves.
The theme of the game changes as the story progresses to focus on dealing with trauma towards the end of the game; however, I won't spoil that. I want the player to fall in love with this game just like I have. I believe that this game is truly worth playing. This game can be repetitive at times as well as just overall being too easy. These issues, however, I deem to be minuscule because the story and gameplay significantly makes up for those few issues.
Overall, I feel this game could be played by anyone, as it has things that everyone can enjoy. I give this game a solid 9/10. This game was exclusively on Playstation 4 and 5, but it can be played now on Xbox through the gamepass. I highly recommend this game, and I hope you can come to love this game like I have.
Persona 5 Royal focuses on freedom and the spirit of rebellion then later changes to dealing with trauma. This game repeatedly expresses how society shapes who we are and takes control of who we become. We let people around us dictate our thoughts. The game shows what could happen if we don’t take back control. This is one of the reasons why I love Persona 5 Royal. The story is really addictive, as it’s relatable in today’s society. Everyone focuses on becoming someone who they aren’t instead of being who you are and staying true to yourself. We can relate to the feelings of the characters Akira interacts with, as they all deal with tragic things in their life. Akira helps them through it while building bonds with his friends. The formation of the Phantom Thieves has saved the lives of many and even the members of the Thieves themselves.
The theme of the game changes as the story progresses to focus on dealing with trauma towards the end of the game; however, I won't spoil that. I want the player to fall in love with this game just like I have. I believe that this game is truly worth playing. This game can be repetitive at times as well as just overall being too easy. These issues, however, I deem to be minuscule because the story and gameplay significantly makes up for those few issues.
Overall, I feel this game could be played by anyone, as it has things that everyone can enjoy. I give this game a solid 9/10. This game was exclusively on Playstation 4 and 5, but it can be played now on Xbox through the gamepass. I highly recommend this game, and I hope you can come to love this game like I have.
Earnest Thomas
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