I played this game 4 times, 2 times on switch and 2 times on PC (playing it for 5th time on PC as of writing this). I can say for sure that this game is the best Persona game ever.

I loved everything about the game. OSTs, Story, Characters, Gameplay, Social Links and even the visuals.

[OSTs +]
I love that they made this game's theme be a Jazz, cozy/relaxing/chill and Pop themed. I have always loved these type of music / songs; it just makes my mood turn from a bad to good. I always listen to P5 and P5R's theme. My favorites and probably the most notable are: "Beneath the Mask (all versions), Ideal and Real (all versions) and Our Beginning. You can even get costume fighting music, by changing your costume too. Compared to P4, the OSTs don't get annoying, if anything I just turn off the Music most of my playthrough on P4 especially on Dungeons; It is very bad compared to P5. P3 was good unlike P4.

[Story & Characters +] (spoiler)
Some people would say that the story is just about Teens who hate adults and sending agendas to the players, for me I disagree. The story of P5 is centered on the experience these teenagers had with the adults, the protag's parents dumped him and did not believe him, now he only has Sojiro to trust and other few adults. Ryuji the experience he had with his dad and Kamoshida and other characters who had it bad.

Characters's story, backgrounds and social links were never boring to me, and it never got irritating to talk to them or hangout with anyone! compared to p4 and p3 social links were an utter garbage with all meaning (p4 had few good social links, mainly your teammates, but the rest are very bad). All of them are interesting on their own.

[Gameplay +]
It's really fun, no matter how many times I play this game. I never got tired of the gameplay. They added showtime and also made "All-Out-Attack" useful rather than it dealing low damage. Farming EXP and money is very easy if you know how to properly fight shadows on mementos faster. Also you can get the confidant rank that makes you just kill the shadows instantly without even the need of fighting, making it easier and more efficient for farming. They added "Show-Time" attack, you don't need to put both partners on the party, you just need one of them, making it easier to strategize and dealing with enemies faster.
While just wondering on Mementos you can see your party member chatting which is really nice.

[Visuals & Places+]
Nice visuals even though I sometimes get drop frames when there are lots of NPCs around in an area, but overall it's good. In rains the graphics is top tear for me, and I just love to wonder around the city with it.
Compared to P4 and P3. P5 is taken on Shibuya which has lots of life in it. in P3 areas were very soulless, but in Reload they fixed it, but it still wasn't as lively as it is in P5, P4 on the other hand takes place in the country part, so it's understandable that it's not that lively (even thought you can't even talk to any of them other than them telling you stuff". The way made all of P5 areas are very good. Palaces are very good built too.

Persona 5 Royal is the best Persona game. Yes, I said it again I know, but it's something lots of people don't realize... I see lots of people saying P3Reload is better than P5Royal for the stupidest reasons, and when it comes to comparing both as WHOLE GAME (and not just story or tiny parts ALL OF IT) P5R always win. P4G is also a very bad Persona remake/expansion... in P5R you are forced to interact with Yoshizawa! But in P4G you have to do it all by yourself. It's so damn lazy P4G's devs I don't care what anyone say.

Rant: Yosuke (p4) is always the best buddy in all of Persona games, then comes Ryuji and finally below trash comes Junpei.

All P5/P5R's OSTs are better than all of the rest games.
Social Links are better in P5R.
Story, writing and character are better in P5R.
P4 had a good story, but the filler events ruined it.
P3 had a shit story, shit characters, shit at everything.
P3's Protag is just a depressed anime femboy, I don't understand why people like him.

This was an attempt to broaden my horizons, It was my first ever experience with a turn based game. While I found out I do not like this gameplay style, I did not play 140 hours so I could say I played one. It was genuinely a compelling narrative with interesting themes and diving deep into Society as a whole and what is Justice and what is our Distorted Desires. The gameplay on the other hand was not my cup of tea and I found the boss fights frustrating more than anything. Lots of bs with puzzles and poorly designed pacing as well. Although I did not like the gameplay, I am thankful I saw the journey through and got what I got from this experience that’s considered peak jrpg

I have my problems with Persona 5's bloated story, its cheesy and weak writing, the fact that the game peaks with the first palace narrative wise, the game's themes and messages being frequently contradicted to tell an unfunny joke or a strangely inappropriate sexual one, and the characters being done kind of dirty in the narrative many times. I don't think this game is a masterpiece as I once did back in 2018.

However, Persona 5 does more than enough to almost make you forget about its failings. Its got an absolute BANGER of a soundtrack, its style is unmatched, the characters are a joy to experience thanks to their great voice actors and good enough character writing, and the big one, the gameplay is MY JAM. What ultimately ends up saving P5 for me is the gameplay loop of thief by day, highschool student by night. While not all palaces hit the same high quality, it's still awesome to experience them. It's great to see what kind of narrative storytelling is done through these palaces to bolster their palace rulers, even if most are one dimensional baddies. I love the act of combat and recruiting demons to fight on my side. I love fusing personas and seeing what kind I need for the fights ahead. I love recruiting new party members because not only is it a new homie, but it's someone new that I can experiment with. I love planning my schedule to maximize my dungeon adventures and my time hanging out with some legitimately compelling characters. Both the social sim and dungeon crawling aspects of the game blend and complement each other beautifully.

Persona 5 gets a lot of stuff wrong, but it gets more than enough right to make this adventure still worth experiencing. Plus, this is the Royal edition, which makes some incredible QOL improvements and adds, and I'm not kidding here, the best section of the entire game. Even if it is at the end and extends this already bloated game.

Also! This PC port is great! Bit miffed about no ultrawide, and the 120fps cap is a bit annoying, but in the amount of time I've had with this version, it runs great on my gaming PC and on my Steam Deck.

Even though I sounded a bit negative, I still ultimately very much recommend this game!

Persona 5 is absolutely shameless.

A fun combat system cannot hide what is an ultimately mind-numbing 100 hours of some of the most callously offensive and misogynistic writing I've been subjected to in my life. If there is a woman in this game, she WILL be shamelessly objectified by protagonists, antagonists, and especially the game developers, and you will never get a moment of rest from this ceaselessly dated writing style.

I can only describe it as masterfully tone-deaf that the game's highly acclaimed visual style is borrowed from midcentry British punk aesthetics with none of the serious political meaning and actual genuine rebellion against institutions of power carried along with it.

Avoid at all costs, I beg you. This is one instance where even the best gameplay in the world could not save the writing for its own life.

And please, for the love of god, be careful who you recommend this thing to. This should be handled like radioactive waste.

God, what an experience.
I’ve been wanting to play Persona 5 for a LONG time now. I first became interested in the game from Joker being added to Smash Ultimate and being mesmerised by the game’s artstyle and music. Only problem was that P5 was a Playstation exclusive and I only had a Switch back then. Few years later, it’s announced that the modern Persona trilogy would be re-releasing on all modern platforms. I went ahead and wishlisted all the games on Steam as I thought that if I enjoyed P5, I would probably play the other games to. And that leads us to today, after I played Persona 3 and 4 earlier this year and finally played Persona 5 Royal after waiting all these years. And it was incredible.
First, I would like to go through all of my negatives with this game as I’d rather end this review on a positive note than a negative one. First issue I have is the cast of characters. This is by far the weakest cast of any of the Persona games I’ve played. This isn’t me saying they’re bad characters but they feel a lot more one-note than previous casts and they don’t really bounce off with each other like previous casts as well. It feels less like a friend group and more a group of people who happen to know each other through the MC. My other negative is that, just like Persona 4 Golden, it is painfully obvious when the original game was supposed to end and where the new content was added. I would’ve much preferred if the new content was more smoothly transitioned to from the main game.
And thats it. Those are pretty much all my negatives for this game. Onto the positives.
The story this game presents you with is incredible. There’s so many twists and turns and, despite having probably one of the biggest cast of main characters in a Persona game, each one get their own time to shine and go through their own arcs. The gameplay is the smoothest and cleanest the series has ever been, bringing back the series’s staple mechanics like the One More system and weaknesses to adding in completely new mechanics that add more strategy to the gameplay like Baton Passes, Negotiations, Gun damage, etc. This is also by far the most stylish Persona game with it’s UI. Everything pops with the game’s gorgeous artstyle with loads of detail being put into every part of the UI that makes the game a joy to look at. I also love the addition of the Phantom Thieves suits/costumes, it helps make each character that more unique and really helps exemplify their personalities. Another great thing about this game is the personalised dungeons (now named Palaces) return from Persona 4 but are even better now with them being fully designed dungeons that you actually can truly explore instead of randomly generated rooms each floor. The Palaces themselves are a treat to explore (except Okumura’s), with each having vivid imagery that gives you a great look into a character’s personality.
Persona 5 is one of the best games I’ve ever played. I would highly recommend it to anyone that is even the slightest bit interested as it is one of the best gaming experiences you can ever have.