I don't care p3 is my favorite, P5R is objectively the greatest Persona game, no contest. Every aspect is turned up to 100. If you hold on, life won't change.
Just like the other two Persona games, a true masterpiece. The best thing about Persona 5 other than the usual top-tier music, characters, story, artstyle, UI, and combat, this game adds even more depth to the day-to-day life mechanics.
This review contains spoilers
Persona 5/Persona 5 Royal is another legendary JRPG and has been on my JRPG bucket list to play. Much like the previous review of Chrono Trigger, Persona 5 needs little introduction. It is considered a modern classic and a must play JRPG for many and I’m sure was an introduction to JRPGs to many as well. And for good reason. Persona 5 Royal is radiating with style and is sure to catch anyone’s eye by visuals alone. But P5R packs so much more than just outstanding stylized visuals. It packs a powerful punch of music, style, story, soul, and the heart of rebellion in one cohesive package. While the game is a massive undertaking, (My playthrough finishing at 193 hours), it is well worth it in the end. While not my personal favorite JRPG I’ve ever played, it is certainly up there and I easily see why this game holds a special place in the hearts of many.
TLDR at the end
Please note, this review will contain spoilers. I will make it clear before post any spoilers, but if you’re sensitive to any spoilers, I recommend jumping down to the TLDR
History
I have a somewhat unique history with Persona 5. I started my original playthrough of it in December of 2018. The month Joker got announced in Super Smash Bros Ultimate and before Persona 5 Royal was released. I had streamed it and never finished it. I don’t exactly remember why I never finished it. But at the time, I did struggle with some of the more visual novel/life sim aspects of the game. I’m personally not much of a life sim gamer. Other than Persona my main life sim games I’ve played were Animal Crossing and Sims and very casually. I ended up putting it down for a combination of not feeling it exactly and also likely just another game I was really looking forward to coming out. It was always a game I had wanted to come back to. But never had the motivation to restart.
Fast forward and we come to the release of SMT V on the switch. I played and absolutely loved SMT V. The pacing balance of the game felt much better to me. SMT V is largely combat and exploration focused. Once I finished SMT V, I was under the impression that maybe I’m more of a SMT person than Persona when it comes to this series. And this year, after SMT V and some of the original Persona 5 under my belt, I thought it was time to return to Persona 5 with the Royal version. My girlfriend and I had also just moved in together and she was interested in Persona 5. So I thought there was no greater time! And I’m happy to report back that I was correct! This time Persona 5 Royal hit and it hit hard!
Premise
The premise of Persona 5 is that you play as the Phantom Thieves of Heart, who steal the hearts of criminals. The Phantom Thieves are a group of misfit kids who have been wronged by society and are trying to make it better. Led by Joker (Who I named SNICKELS SNUCKLES because I didn’t find the lower case letters) who is arguably the most wronged. He was persecuted for a crime when he was attempting to defend someone. You’re then sent away to live in a cafe attic and go to a different school as your probation. You and your crew discover a world made out of human cognition which allows you to infiltrate criminals' “Palaces”, which are places manifested out of people’s distorted desires, so that you can change their heart in the real world. While at the same time you’re trying to live a regular life as a student in the real world and conceal your identities.
Within the cognitive world, which is called the metaverse(Much cooler than the Zuck’s metaverse), your crew awakens to their powers to call upon their Persona. Their Persona is the other selves within them and allows them to fight in the metaverse. Joker is in a unique position where he is able to obtain multiple Personas which plays an important role in the story.
Gameplay
The gameplay, much like the story, is largely split into 2 parts. There’s the life sim part where you live as a student in the real world, improving relationships with your confidants, go shopping, improve your social stat and more. The second part of the game takes place in the metaverse where you become the phantom thieves, infiltrate palaces, (which to put it simply are this game's dungeons) participate in turn based battles and collect/fuse personas.
Life Sim/Visual Novel
The game takes place in a fictional version of modern day Tokyo. So you get to explore a lot of various parts of Tokyo such as Shibuya, Akihabara, Shinjuku, and more. A lot of this part of the game is time management. The game starts off pretty slow in terms of what you’re allowed to do. But once the game picks it bombards you with options. Almost to the point where I felt overwhelmed at times. You’ll have so many things to do and be pulled in so many different directions on what you feel needs to be done. You’ll have access to a total of 24 different confidants, which are your friends and allies that have friendship meters. Meeting certain bars on their friendship meters unlocks various skills that are used in helping you in the other half of the game. These skills aren’t the only motivators though. Many of these characters have really interesting stories to pursue. From the goth doctor who runs the local clinic, the school counselor who’s wanting to help everyone, your father figure in LeBlanc who I lovingly call coffee dad, the politician who’s trying to raise awareness and run for office to help lead the country in a better direction and more. However there are some of the confidants who just aren’t aren’t as interesting or offer weaker skills. They aren’t all equal. But what their story has in store or what skills they provide can largely depend on what you find interesting or helpful. But there are for sure some fundamentally weaker skills on offer from some of them. Sometimes to proceed with these stories, the game will require you to have certain social stats at a certain level. There are 5 different stats and you can have 5 different levels. Part of the game is training these stats so you can get past the roadblocks the game has set for you. Other things to do in the life sim part includes visiting new locations and giving characters gifts, you can shop at stores, which to be honest half way through the game didn’t feel super helpful as a lot of the items/armor you get from the metaverse are better, and eventually work your way to going on dates with your favorite character! Unfortunately there are only female romance options for Joker. So there can’t be any Akechi x Joker action happening although if I could’ve I would’ve.
JRPG Dungeon Crawling
The other half of the game takes place in the Metaverse and while in the metaverse Joker and crew become the phantom thieves. There’s 2 primary reasons to go into the Metaverse. There will be story dungeons that you’ll need to traverse. And there’s Mementos, which is a dungeon that is the public's palace. The story dungeons are much more elaborate and detailed than Mementos. In the story dungeons you’ll be traversing fighting shadows (Which are what they just refer to the enemies) and collecting Personas. The combat in Persona, if you haven’t played any or any of the SMT games, is the signature press turn system. It’s a little different in Persona vs SMT though. There’s a list of elements that exist in the game, and enemies have a variety of resistances, immunities and weaknesses. The game is all about focusing weaknesses. You want to hit an enemy's weakness and doing so knocks down an enemy and gives you an extra turn. The extra turn also allows you to perform a baton pass, which allows you to give the extra turn to a different party member. This is useful in case the party member doesn’t have the other spell that matches the enemy weakness but another does. Enemies are also able to be knocked down if they are hit with a critical hit. Which can happen randomly but there’s moves with increased chances or moves that just flat out increase the chances to crit. If you’re able to successfully knock down all the enemies in a fight you’re able to pull off an all out attack which does massive damage. For most fights this is where a fight will end, but with mini bosses and bosses the fights will usually go on. While in combat though, after you’ve knocked down enemies you’re able to talk to them and recruit them. Which is one way in which Joker can collect more Personas. You can also merge Personas to create even more powerful Personas. Something that I find really cool about the game is that the Personas are all actual demons/deities from various cultures around the world. It’s really cool to see Kelpies, Angels, Pixies and more all mixed in and it feels very cohesive.
The dungeon crawling mentioned above takes place in the main story dungeons which are much more guided and elaborate. You are timed on how long you can take to finish these dungeons and at the end you have to send a calling card to the person in the real world so that you can steal their distorted desires. The other half of the dungeon crawling is through a place called Mementos. The dungeons of Mementos are a distorted version of Tokyo’s subway system and is a randomly generated dungeon. There’s many floors to this dungeon that open up through various points in the story. Mementos is a massive randomized dungeon but it’s also got a very important role to play in the story.
There’s a lot more to each of these parts of the game than I can list. But this is the major breakdown of the games system. I’ve had a love for JRPGs for a long time and have played a lot of them. The Press Turn system is a really fun take of turn based combat. And as mentioned above I’m not super into Life sims/dating sims/or visual novels. But this does a really good active blend of it all. I love that they actively integrate into each other beautifully. It can be really addictive to rush through a dungeon just so you can go back to talking to your friends every day getting more and more boons and buffs.
Story
The story of Persona 5 Royal is pretty good if not a little long winded and somewhat predictable. I’m not sure if this is from an aversion to visual novels (I think Digimon Cyber Sleuth really did a number on my tolerance of VNs) but it can be a little slow at times. But never actively bad or disinteresting. And I’m not sure if it’s me replaying a good bit (I originally got to the 3rd dungeon) but I did catch on to some foreshadowing and I called out and nailed some plot twists. I also accidentally got spoiled to some later plot points, somehow only while actively playing though and this games been out for a long time now. All that to say, these are all very active and valid reasons it could’ve left me feeling less engaged. But in spite of all that, the game still had me yowling and screaming at parts that I won’t spoil in this section. Even despite seeing through some of the story, having some spoiled and my disdain of VNs, I absolutely loved the story. It’s heartfelt, soulful, and I think strikes at the heart and soul of disenfranchised youth. I think if I were to have finished this game when I was in my teenage years up to my early 20s this would’ve had an extremely profound effect on me. There’s something about a game that’s set in modern times, taking down corrupt criminals with the power of friendship that strikes the soul. Is it cliche, especially for a JRPG? Yeah of course. Does it fucking rock? You bet your sweet bippy it does.
Difference Between P5R and base P5
Now before I get into talking about some of my favorite bits and then some gripes, I wanted to note that there’s some differences between P5R and base P5. Primarily it’s quality of life improvements. For example, one of the pieces of equipment you have is a gun, in base Persona you had 1 whole magazine for your gun per dungeon run. Which may not sound like much but when each gun has like 8 bullets or less, you’d find yourself needing your gun and not having any ammunition despite it not making much sense. In Royal, you have 1 mag per fight. So now it comes back each fight. Which in my opinion just makes sense. There’s various other improvements like that, I may not know everything that was improved/changed because I never finished base Persona. But another big part is that there are new characters added and a whole additional segment of the story. You have to meet certain criteria to access this additional content. Which I won’t tell you what the criteria is here, but if you want to know there’s an excellent spoiler free guide for that
Spoiler Free P5R Guide
But this is genuinely the best part of the game. It’s kind of astonishing to me that it can be missed since it’s just that good. But it goes to show Atlus confidence with the game as a whole.
Favorite Parts & Characters (CONTAINS SPOILERS)
All that leads perfectly into what is surely just going to be me gushing about some of my favorite parts of the game. For those looking for a spoiler free experience this is where I recommend you stop reading and jump to the next section or TLDR.
My favorite characters are easily Sojiro and Futaba and the found family relationship they have. It is incredibly heartwarming and the moments where I made Sojiro happy are some of the only moments I cried at the game. Something about how Sojiro and Futaba are written is absolutely wonderful to me. I think found families are important, especially for those who may not have the best relationship with their actual families. To have Sojiro go from a coffee dick head kind of ladies man to be revealed as a loving caretaker to the daughter of the woman he clearly loved was so wonderful. Such a touching part of the story and is one of my overall highlights.
I do also really like Yusuke, much less of a reason behind that one than Sojiro, I just kind of like how he’s a weird lil art kid and says unhinged shit.
I didn’t really like Akechi at first. To be honest I’m not sure if I even do currently. But the transformation he has is really cool to see in the extended royal part of the story. That being he’s an absolute psychopath and there’s clearly some sexual tension between him and Joker. Clearly. But I also really like how he’s such a good foil to Joker. Joker is the scrappy gentleman thief who’s persecuted by the law, and Akechi being the highly composed ace detective seeking to take him down, only to be revealed as a homicidal maniac. And honestly I only like that after the Royal part. If the addition of the Royal story hadn’t been there I think a part of me would’ve been disappointed. Because throughout the game Akechi was the only real push against the Phantom Thieves and their vigilantism. To have the only real moral opposition to turn out to be a psycho kind of dulls the moral question
However ALL of the Royal expansion answers that. And it is truly the absolute best part of the game. The reveal of Dr. Maruki being a villain and him having the power to solve all the world's problems but he re-writes reality. Rewriting people’s hardships and struggles that define them. To erase people’s memories to make them happy. Happy living in a false reality. It’s so compelling after the playtime of the game. It’s hard to imagine this game without this part added to it. It is the perfect ending to it and puts up an actual moral question. What it is that they fight for, what does it mean to have what you fight for erased to make life happier? Does one singular person deserve to have such power? So good.
Gripes/Nitpicks
There’s not a whole lot that I have to say that is super negative but I do have some thoughts. My primary complaint is that the game is sometimes just too wordy and long. I think there’s just some parts where there doesn’t need to be as much talking. There’s multiple points in the game where you’ll have a discussion in a cutscene, then you’ll have a discussion about the same thing via the game's text chat system with the characters. And sometimes it does that but with an additional talking scene about the same exact topic right after that. And sometimes the stuff said is not super interesting. It’s enough and I don’t want to call it filler because I don’t feel that strongly about it but I feel like there are definitely moments it could be more succinct
My other primary complaint is that sometimes the game is just too handholdy. There’s a lot of times in dungeons where it’s what I would consider a pretty basic puzzle mechanic (which to be fair it’s because I’ve played a lot of JRPGs with dungeons) and it gives me a play by play on what to do. Not entirely invalidating the puzzle but a lot of times just not letting me give it a chance to figure it out. Which I like figuring puzzles out in games. It wouldn’t be as bad if it was largely held off for the earlier parts of the game. But this goes all the way into the final dungeon of the game. It explains the puzzles just way too much. And while the final puzzle of the final dungeon made me push my brain a bit (for a will seed, not even the door to proceed) it largely just explains away its puzzles.
My final issue is that I just find some of the characters to be annoying or not super interesting or compelling. Characters like Ryuji or Mishima I find to be particularly annoying. There’s an arc in the game where Ryuji just feels excessively horny and is like “I wanna tell babes I’m a phantom thief to get some pussy” And Mishima is also a horny dude. The weird horny characters just didn’t do it for me and I find it to be generally more annoying than funny. Morgana has this aspect too but Morgana gets less annoyingly horny as the game goes on while Ryuji and Mishima get more. And then some of the side confidants I just find kind of uninteresting. I’d go more into it but it’d be listing some spoilers so I won’t. But some of them I just didn’t get super invested into which made doing their side stories for their buffs a little tedious.
TLDR
Persona 5 Royal is an absolute wonder of a game. It is really no wonder why this is so many people’s favorite game. I think this game is an excellent JRPG and an excellent way for people to get into the genre. The biggest issue I think this game would hold for most people is that it’s just a pretty long game and at times can feel a little drawn out. But none of that stopped me from loving the game. I would record myself yelling at the screen at character reveals and send it to friends who have already played the game. I was truly addicted to this game. The game instilled me at the end with the feeling only a fun loving Ghibli movie can give you at the end. This game easily earns its spot as one of the best JRPGs made, especially of the best JRPGs of modern times. (even if it is almost 10 years old). I highly recommend you play Persona 5 Royal if you’re at all interested. Just know that it can be lengthy and there’s some anime tropes in there that could hinder your enjoyment of the game if you have a low tolerance for that kind of stuff.
TLDR at the end
Please note, this review will contain spoilers. I will make it clear before post any spoilers, but if you’re sensitive to any spoilers, I recommend jumping down to the TLDR
History
I have a somewhat unique history with Persona 5. I started my original playthrough of it in December of 2018. The month Joker got announced in Super Smash Bros Ultimate and before Persona 5 Royal was released. I had streamed it and never finished it. I don’t exactly remember why I never finished it. But at the time, I did struggle with some of the more visual novel/life sim aspects of the game. I’m personally not much of a life sim gamer. Other than Persona my main life sim games I’ve played were Animal Crossing and Sims and very casually. I ended up putting it down for a combination of not feeling it exactly and also likely just another game I was really looking forward to coming out. It was always a game I had wanted to come back to. But never had the motivation to restart.
Fast forward and we come to the release of SMT V on the switch. I played and absolutely loved SMT V. The pacing balance of the game felt much better to me. SMT V is largely combat and exploration focused. Once I finished SMT V, I was under the impression that maybe I’m more of a SMT person than Persona when it comes to this series. And this year, after SMT V and some of the original Persona 5 under my belt, I thought it was time to return to Persona 5 with the Royal version. My girlfriend and I had also just moved in together and she was interested in Persona 5. So I thought there was no greater time! And I’m happy to report back that I was correct! This time Persona 5 Royal hit and it hit hard!
Premise
The premise of Persona 5 is that you play as the Phantom Thieves of Heart, who steal the hearts of criminals. The Phantom Thieves are a group of misfit kids who have been wronged by society and are trying to make it better. Led by Joker (Who I named SNICKELS SNUCKLES because I didn’t find the lower case letters) who is arguably the most wronged. He was persecuted for a crime when he was attempting to defend someone. You’re then sent away to live in a cafe attic and go to a different school as your probation. You and your crew discover a world made out of human cognition which allows you to infiltrate criminals' “Palaces”, which are places manifested out of people’s distorted desires, so that you can change their heart in the real world. While at the same time you’re trying to live a regular life as a student in the real world and conceal your identities.
Within the cognitive world, which is called the metaverse(Much cooler than the Zuck’s metaverse), your crew awakens to their powers to call upon their Persona. Their Persona is the other selves within them and allows them to fight in the metaverse. Joker is in a unique position where he is able to obtain multiple Personas which plays an important role in the story.
Gameplay
The gameplay, much like the story, is largely split into 2 parts. There’s the life sim part where you live as a student in the real world, improving relationships with your confidants, go shopping, improve your social stat and more. The second part of the game takes place in the metaverse where you become the phantom thieves, infiltrate palaces, (which to put it simply are this game's dungeons) participate in turn based battles and collect/fuse personas.
Life Sim/Visual Novel
The game takes place in a fictional version of modern day Tokyo. So you get to explore a lot of various parts of Tokyo such as Shibuya, Akihabara, Shinjuku, and more. A lot of this part of the game is time management. The game starts off pretty slow in terms of what you’re allowed to do. But once the game picks it bombards you with options. Almost to the point where I felt overwhelmed at times. You’ll have so many things to do and be pulled in so many different directions on what you feel needs to be done. You’ll have access to a total of 24 different confidants, which are your friends and allies that have friendship meters. Meeting certain bars on their friendship meters unlocks various skills that are used in helping you in the other half of the game. These skills aren’t the only motivators though. Many of these characters have really interesting stories to pursue. From the goth doctor who runs the local clinic, the school counselor who’s wanting to help everyone, your father figure in LeBlanc who I lovingly call coffee dad, the politician who’s trying to raise awareness and run for office to help lead the country in a better direction and more. However there are some of the confidants who just aren’t aren’t as interesting or offer weaker skills. They aren’t all equal. But what their story has in store or what skills they provide can largely depend on what you find interesting or helpful. But there are for sure some fundamentally weaker skills on offer from some of them. Sometimes to proceed with these stories, the game will require you to have certain social stats at a certain level. There are 5 different stats and you can have 5 different levels. Part of the game is training these stats so you can get past the roadblocks the game has set for you. Other things to do in the life sim part includes visiting new locations and giving characters gifts, you can shop at stores, which to be honest half way through the game didn’t feel super helpful as a lot of the items/armor you get from the metaverse are better, and eventually work your way to going on dates with your favorite character! Unfortunately there are only female romance options for Joker. So there can’t be any Akechi x Joker action happening although if I could’ve I would’ve.
JRPG Dungeon Crawling
The other half of the game takes place in the Metaverse and while in the metaverse Joker and crew become the phantom thieves. There’s 2 primary reasons to go into the Metaverse. There will be story dungeons that you’ll need to traverse. And there’s Mementos, which is a dungeon that is the public's palace. The story dungeons are much more elaborate and detailed than Mementos. In the story dungeons you’ll be traversing fighting shadows (Which are what they just refer to the enemies) and collecting Personas. The combat in Persona, if you haven’t played any or any of the SMT games, is the signature press turn system. It’s a little different in Persona vs SMT though. There’s a list of elements that exist in the game, and enemies have a variety of resistances, immunities and weaknesses. The game is all about focusing weaknesses. You want to hit an enemy's weakness and doing so knocks down an enemy and gives you an extra turn. The extra turn also allows you to perform a baton pass, which allows you to give the extra turn to a different party member. This is useful in case the party member doesn’t have the other spell that matches the enemy weakness but another does. Enemies are also able to be knocked down if they are hit with a critical hit. Which can happen randomly but there’s moves with increased chances or moves that just flat out increase the chances to crit. If you’re able to successfully knock down all the enemies in a fight you’re able to pull off an all out attack which does massive damage. For most fights this is where a fight will end, but with mini bosses and bosses the fights will usually go on. While in combat though, after you’ve knocked down enemies you’re able to talk to them and recruit them. Which is one way in which Joker can collect more Personas. You can also merge Personas to create even more powerful Personas. Something that I find really cool about the game is that the Personas are all actual demons/deities from various cultures around the world. It’s really cool to see Kelpies, Angels, Pixies and more all mixed in and it feels very cohesive.
The dungeon crawling mentioned above takes place in the main story dungeons which are much more guided and elaborate. You are timed on how long you can take to finish these dungeons and at the end you have to send a calling card to the person in the real world so that you can steal their distorted desires. The other half of the dungeon crawling is through a place called Mementos. The dungeons of Mementos are a distorted version of Tokyo’s subway system and is a randomly generated dungeon. There’s many floors to this dungeon that open up through various points in the story. Mementos is a massive randomized dungeon but it’s also got a very important role to play in the story.
There’s a lot more to each of these parts of the game than I can list. But this is the major breakdown of the games system. I’ve had a love for JRPGs for a long time and have played a lot of them. The Press Turn system is a really fun take of turn based combat. And as mentioned above I’m not super into Life sims/dating sims/or visual novels. But this does a really good active blend of it all. I love that they actively integrate into each other beautifully. It can be really addictive to rush through a dungeon just so you can go back to talking to your friends every day getting more and more boons and buffs.
Story
The story of Persona 5 Royal is pretty good if not a little long winded and somewhat predictable. I’m not sure if this is from an aversion to visual novels (I think Digimon Cyber Sleuth really did a number on my tolerance of VNs) but it can be a little slow at times. But never actively bad or disinteresting. And I’m not sure if it’s me replaying a good bit (I originally got to the 3rd dungeon) but I did catch on to some foreshadowing and I called out and nailed some plot twists. I also accidentally got spoiled to some later plot points, somehow only while actively playing though and this games been out for a long time now. All that to say, these are all very active and valid reasons it could’ve left me feeling less engaged. But in spite of all that, the game still had me yowling and screaming at parts that I won’t spoil in this section. Even despite seeing through some of the story, having some spoiled and my disdain of VNs, I absolutely loved the story. It’s heartfelt, soulful, and I think strikes at the heart and soul of disenfranchised youth. I think if I were to have finished this game when I was in my teenage years up to my early 20s this would’ve had an extremely profound effect on me. There’s something about a game that’s set in modern times, taking down corrupt criminals with the power of friendship that strikes the soul. Is it cliche, especially for a JRPG? Yeah of course. Does it fucking rock? You bet your sweet bippy it does.
Difference Between P5R and base P5
Now before I get into talking about some of my favorite bits and then some gripes, I wanted to note that there’s some differences between P5R and base P5. Primarily it’s quality of life improvements. For example, one of the pieces of equipment you have is a gun, in base Persona you had 1 whole magazine for your gun per dungeon run. Which may not sound like much but when each gun has like 8 bullets or less, you’d find yourself needing your gun and not having any ammunition despite it not making much sense. In Royal, you have 1 mag per fight. So now it comes back each fight. Which in my opinion just makes sense. There’s various other improvements like that, I may not know everything that was improved/changed because I never finished base Persona. But another big part is that there are new characters added and a whole additional segment of the story. You have to meet certain criteria to access this additional content. Which I won’t tell you what the criteria is here, but if you want to know there’s an excellent spoiler free guide for that
Spoiler Free P5R Guide
But this is genuinely the best part of the game. It’s kind of astonishing to me that it can be missed since it’s just that good. But it goes to show Atlus confidence with the game as a whole.
Favorite Parts & Characters (CONTAINS SPOILERS)
All that leads perfectly into what is surely just going to be me gushing about some of my favorite parts of the game. For those looking for a spoiler free experience this is where I recommend you stop reading and jump to the next section or TLDR.
My favorite characters are easily Sojiro and Futaba and the found family relationship they have. It is incredibly heartwarming and the moments where I made Sojiro happy are some of the only moments I cried at the game. Something about how Sojiro and Futaba are written is absolutely wonderful to me. I think found families are important, especially for those who may not have the best relationship with their actual families. To have Sojiro go from a coffee dick head kind of ladies man to be revealed as a loving caretaker to the daughter of the woman he clearly loved was so wonderful. Such a touching part of the story and is one of my overall highlights.
I do also really like Yusuke, much less of a reason behind that one than Sojiro, I just kind of like how he’s a weird lil art kid and says unhinged shit.
I didn’t really like Akechi at first. To be honest I’m not sure if I even do currently. But the transformation he has is really cool to see in the extended royal part of the story. That being he’s an absolute psychopath and there’s clearly some sexual tension between him and Joker. Clearly. But I also really like how he’s such a good foil to Joker. Joker is the scrappy gentleman thief who’s persecuted by the law, and Akechi being the highly composed ace detective seeking to take him down, only to be revealed as a homicidal maniac. And honestly I only like that after the Royal part. If the addition of the Royal story hadn’t been there I think a part of me would’ve been disappointed. Because throughout the game Akechi was the only real push against the Phantom Thieves and their vigilantism. To have the only real moral opposition to turn out to be a psycho kind of dulls the moral question
However ALL of the Royal expansion answers that. And it is truly the absolute best part of the game. The reveal of Dr. Maruki being a villain and him having the power to solve all the world's problems but he re-writes reality. Rewriting people’s hardships and struggles that define them. To erase people’s memories to make them happy. Happy living in a false reality. It’s so compelling after the playtime of the game. It’s hard to imagine this game without this part added to it. It is the perfect ending to it and puts up an actual moral question. What it is that they fight for, what does it mean to have what you fight for erased to make life happier? Does one singular person deserve to have such power? So good.
Gripes/Nitpicks
There’s not a whole lot that I have to say that is super negative but I do have some thoughts. My primary complaint is that the game is sometimes just too wordy and long. I think there’s just some parts where there doesn’t need to be as much talking. There’s multiple points in the game where you’ll have a discussion in a cutscene, then you’ll have a discussion about the same thing via the game's text chat system with the characters. And sometimes it does that but with an additional talking scene about the same exact topic right after that. And sometimes the stuff said is not super interesting. It’s enough and I don’t want to call it filler because I don’t feel that strongly about it but I feel like there are definitely moments it could be more succinct
My other primary complaint is that sometimes the game is just too handholdy. There’s a lot of times in dungeons where it’s what I would consider a pretty basic puzzle mechanic (which to be fair it’s because I’ve played a lot of JRPGs with dungeons) and it gives me a play by play on what to do. Not entirely invalidating the puzzle but a lot of times just not letting me give it a chance to figure it out. Which I like figuring puzzles out in games. It wouldn’t be as bad if it was largely held off for the earlier parts of the game. But this goes all the way into the final dungeon of the game. It explains the puzzles just way too much. And while the final puzzle of the final dungeon made me push my brain a bit (for a will seed, not even the door to proceed) it largely just explains away its puzzles.
My final issue is that I just find some of the characters to be annoying or not super interesting or compelling. Characters like Ryuji or Mishima I find to be particularly annoying. There’s an arc in the game where Ryuji just feels excessively horny and is like “I wanna tell babes I’m a phantom thief to get some pussy” And Mishima is also a horny dude. The weird horny characters just didn’t do it for me and I find it to be generally more annoying than funny. Morgana has this aspect too but Morgana gets less annoyingly horny as the game goes on while Ryuji and Mishima get more. And then some of the side confidants I just find kind of uninteresting. I’d go more into it but it’d be listing some spoilers so I won’t. But some of them I just didn’t get super invested into which made doing their side stories for their buffs a little tedious.
TLDR
Persona 5 Royal is an absolute wonder of a game. It is really no wonder why this is so many people’s favorite game. I think this game is an excellent JRPG and an excellent way for people to get into the genre. The biggest issue I think this game would hold for most people is that it’s just a pretty long game and at times can feel a little drawn out. But none of that stopped me from loving the game. I would record myself yelling at the screen at character reveals and send it to friends who have already played the game. I was truly addicted to this game. The game instilled me at the end with the feeling only a fun loving Ghibli movie can give you at the end. This game easily earns its spot as one of the best JRPGs made, especially of the best JRPGs of modern times. (even if it is almost 10 years old). I highly recommend you play Persona 5 Royal if you’re at all interested. Just know that it can be lengthy and there’s some anime tropes in there that could hinder your enjoyment of the game if you have a low tolerance for that kind of stuff.
one of the best games of my life
The game revises alot of the same ideas from persona 4. Some things better, some worse. Love the last act of the game.
Man where do I Even start with this,this game was over 80hrs long and I loved every single moment(and some rage from boss fights).
First of all the ost of this game is phenomenal from your everyday theme to the palaces and boss fights so much that I was singing the ost while fighting bosses probably butchered it tho.
The social life part makes up about 70% of the game and oh boy your gonna need that time.i couldn't see through all the characters confidants but the ones I have seen were so well written it make you understand the character thoroughly in just a few hang out sessions and their story conclusion is satisfying af(some more than others but still)
And its not just for show either the more characters you max out the more will support
You.the main cast is very well written and their character development and relationship with the mc feels so good to experience.
The story while being Nothing too mind boggling is amazing for some reason I can't really explain how but it feels good especially its execution and some moments just are out of this world(iykyk).
Gameplay is how you would expect any turn based rpg would be with a unique mechanic
Fusion is fun too.its not too difficult but there are few bosses which ehhh you might wanna scream at(looking at you okumura)dw not a spoiler.
I wanna say more but I don't think I can without spoilers so TLDR:this game definitely deserves all the praise it gets.
Now excuse me as I go cry in post-game depression.
First of all the ost of this game is phenomenal from your everyday theme to the palaces and boss fights so much that I was singing the ost while fighting bosses probably butchered it tho.
The social life part makes up about 70% of the game and oh boy your gonna need that time.i couldn't see through all the characters confidants but the ones I have seen were so well written it make you understand the character thoroughly in just a few hang out sessions and their story conclusion is satisfying af(some more than others but still)
And its not just for show either the more characters you max out the more will support
You.the main cast is very well written and their character development and relationship with the mc feels so good to experience.
The story while being Nothing too mind boggling is amazing for some reason I can't really explain how but it feels good especially its execution and some moments just are out of this world(iykyk).
Gameplay is how you would expect any turn based rpg would be with a unique mechanic
Fusion is fun too.its not too difficult but there are few bosses which ehhh you might wanna scream at(looking at you okumura)dw not a spoiler.
I wanna say more but I don't think I can without spoilers so TLDR:this game definitely deserves all the praise it gets.
Now excuse me as I go cry in post-game depression.
A maioria das coisas que eu tinha de nitpick com o original, melhoraram e MUITO nessa versão. O novo trimestre é sensacional de bom e adiciona muito pra história. E a arte desse jogo é FODA e em trilha sonora persona sempre manda só banger, bom demais.
I love Maruki
i love honkai star rail’s penacony
Obras primas no mercado atualmente sao extremamente dificeis, os desenvolvedores tem medo de fazer algo com muita personalidade. todavia, Persona 5 Royal nao teve!
arte absolutamente marcante juntamente com a trilha sonora... o vocal daquela mulher pqp, tem suas partes chatas e tem erros, porem soube trabalhar perfeitamnete tudo que tinha. no final é absolute cinema sem duvidas !!!
arte absolutamente marcante juntamente com a trilha sonora... o vocal daquela mulher pqp, tem suas partes chatas e tem erros, porem soube trabalhar perfeitamnete tudo que tinha. no final é absolute cinema sem duvidas !!!
I LOVE AKECHI!! I consider this number 3 on my top persona games but it is excellent nonetheless. I loved the gameplay, the game mechanics, the characters, and the music.
Alright, so I really don't care for the new battle song that plays every single time you sneak up on an enemy, but being able to switch your party's outfit to the Demonica and getting to listen to this banger instead makes up for it.
its peak
I love the cat
third sem akechi saved me
i love this game to death but oh my god the writing ruins some parts of this game
Does anyone happen to know what foods are poisonous to cats?
One of the best looking games ive ever seen, this game is so smart and got me hooked on the Persona franchise, Persona 5 is a landmark title in gaming history, I would recommend it to any Rpg fan for sure
This review contains spoilers
What can I say about this game that people haven't said already in these past years?
Persona 5 Royal is a masterpiece, and while I'm a P4 fanboy till the day I die, even I can see that this IS the best Persona experience thus far.
Presentation-wise, it's without saying that this game is extremely pleasing to the eyes AND to the ears. Every single song in this game is a delight, the calm songs work well to soothe you in the calm moments, but on the other side the battle themes help getting you pumped up when you need to be.
The gameplay is as fun as a Persona game can get, the combat is fast-paced yet it also makes you think, the big emphasis this game has on techincals and baton pass makes it a very fun time. Every party member feels useful, and the ability to swap between them mid-battle and for them to keep gaining EXP even if they're not in the party made it so they're relevant all the way to the endgame with minimal grinding (I even pulled out Morgana against the last boss, even tho I benched him at Madarame's). Confidants are also a great evolution of the Social Links, since now they aren't just a way to fuse higher level personas, they each have a gameplay benefit that will help you while exploring palaces.
Due to some scheduling issues, I got every confidant to max but The Tower, and this fact will haunt me to my grave.
Fusion is also the best it's ever been, with lots of toys to help you make whatever persona you want with whatever build you want pretty easily.
The story is extremely good, even if the whole rebellion theme can get a bit cheesy. All the Phantom Thieves (Or Phantom Freaks in my game) have compelling character arcs, and even tho some of them got on my nerves (Morgana and Ryuji), I finished the game liking ALL the playable characters, including Miss Sumire Yoshizawa. Speaking of which, the Royal part of the story was good also, having a symphatetic villain is always nice, specially when it's executed like Maruki, where you don't really feel like he's doing anything bad at first. Having extra time with Akechi also felt nice.
Needless to say, I really enjoyed this game and very happy to have finally played it. Seeing how good this game was after hearing about it for so long, it makes me excited to see what Persona 6 has in store for us!
P.S.: Shoutout to my boyfriend for buying the game for me, I love you! ♡
Persona 5 Royal is a masterpiece, and while I'm a P4 fanboy till the day I die, even I can see that this IS the best Persona experience thus far.
Presentation-wise, it's without saying that this game is extremely pleasing to the eyes AND to the ears. Every single song in this game is a delight, the calm songs work well to soothe you in the calm moments, but on the other side the battle themes help getting you pumped up when you need to be.
The gameplay is as fun as a Persona game can get, the combat is fast-paced yet it also makes you think, the big emphasis this game has on techincals and baton pass makes it a very fun time. Every party member feels useful, and the ability to swap between them mid-battle and for them to keep gaining EXP even if they're not in the party made it so they're relevant all the way to the endgame with minimal grinding (I even pulled out Morgana against the last boss, even tho I benched him at Madarame's). Confidants are also a great evolution of the Social Links, since now they aren't just a way to fuse higher level personas, they each have a gameplay benefit that will help you while exploring palaces.
Due to some scheduling issues, I got every confidant to max but The Tower, and this fact will haunt me to my grave.
Fusion is also the best it's ever been, with lots of toys to help you make whatever persona you want with whatever build you want pretty easily.
The story is extremely good, even if the whole rebellion theme can get a bit cheesy. All the Phantom Thieves (Or Phantom Freaks in my game) have compelling character arcs, and even tho some of them got on my nerves (Morgana and Ryuji), I finished the game liking ALL the playable characters, including Miss Sumire Yoshizawa. Speaking of which, the Royal part of the story was good also, having a symphatetic villain is always nice, specially when it's executed like Maruki, where you don't really feel like he's doing anything bad at first. Having extra time with Akechi also felt nice.
Needless to say, I really enjoyed this game and very happy to have finally played it. Seeing how good this game was after hearing about it for so long, it makes me excited to see what Persona 6 has in store for us!
P.S.: Shoutout to my boyfriend for buying the game for me, I love you! ♡
My first persona game, absolutely loved it. It's my least favorite of Persona 3-5, but that doesn't mean it's bad whatsover. Great characters, great gameplay, all around a wonderful time.
I have a dream that one day i will finish this game.
A significant improvement on an already perfect game. Final dungeon is my favorite arc in any game I've every played.
"Nossos erros do passado não nos definem. É como aprendemos com eles e crescemos que realmente importa."
Persona 5 Royal foi uma puta aventura, uma puta lição de vida e um puta jogo. O original já era fantástico, um dos melhores jogos de todos os tempos, e essa versão expandida só amplifica isso, trazendo ainda mais conteúdo. Além dos novos social links e do terceiro semestre, a gameplay foi repaginada, tornando-se mais fácil e divertida que a do jogo original.
A premissa é simples e formulaica: você controla um grupo de ladrões que precisa "roubar o coração" de adultos perversos para reformá-los e torná-los pessoas melhores. Embora a ideia possa parecer um pouco adolescente e edgy, os temas abordados são pesados: abuso físico e mental, extorsão, plágio, se culpar pela morte de um ente querido, transtorno dissociativo de identidade, entre outros. A forma como a história é contada introduzindo um antagonista que é interessante e um personagem novo pra te ajudar que é igualmente cativante, acaba fazendo você se conectar bastante com o enredo. Na minha visão, pelo menos, Persona 5 tem os melhores personagens da franquia, são os que mais possuem interações diferentes, as reações mais humanizadas, os dilemas mais complexos e você dificilmente não gosta de algum deles, salvo pela Haru e o Mishima que sinceramente me davam nos nervos.
Cada reviravolta durante a campanha é algo realmente muito bem pensado, de outubro até o começo de fevereiro, a quantidade de plot twists e a profundidade dos vilões é enorme, você até acaba concordando com alguns deles, principalmente o vilão final exclusivo do Royal, já que ainda que você saiba que ele é um inimigo e queira mudar o coração dele, no fundo, você sente um pouco de verdade no que ele diz e até concorda com ele, tanto que em um dos finais do jogo você fica ao lado dele e não é um final ruim, é um final realmente bom, talvez até mais satisfatório do que o verdadeiro, mas não muda o fato de que o final verdadeiro é muito mais sobre refletir que a vida nem sempre é como você quer e que você precisa amadurecer e seguir em frente, não dá pra olhar o passado pra sempre.
Ainda nesse assunto de vilões, a evolução no sistema de dungeons em comparação ao P3 e 4 é gigantesca, cada palácio tem uma temática distinta, uma direção de arte única, inimigos variados e mecânicas novas que alteram a jogabilidade e nunca te deixam enjoar, tudo bem que o palácio do Okumura e as Profundezas de Mementos sejam um lixo absurdo, mas o restante é muito divertido. E nesse ponto entra a gameplay que é disparada a melhor da franquia, menos complexa, mas extremamente dinâmica para um RPG de turno. A variedade de animações, tanto de ataques como de Showtimes, é grande o suficiente para evitar que você veja as mesmas animações 99x durante dezenas de horas. Melhorias como a regeneração de munição, o alarme de fusão de Personas, a descoberta mais fácil das fraquezas e o uso do gancho também facilitaram bastante o jogo.
A gameplay não se limita apenas ao combate, a vida social do protagonista faz muito mais diferença do que nos outros jogos, se envolver com cada personagem é mais interessante, todos eles possuem uma história distinta com problemas distintos e você é recompensado por aumentar sua amizade com cada um deles, novas habilidades, fusões e funções de gameplay são liberadas, tornando o combate ainda mais divertido. Há também uma grande variedade de lugares opcionais para levar seus amigos, mais eventos de romance, opções de emprego e um sistema de provas melhorado, tudo isso em uma cidade viva, cheia de interações com NPCs e estabelecimentos.
Um probleminha que me incomodava no 4 eram as missões secundárias simplesmente ridículas e no 5 isso foi solucionado, elas envolvem pedidos para mudar o coração de outros personagens, fora os vilões principais, e são realmente divertidas, você é recompensado por concluir esses pedidos, podendo farmar e upar bastante, e cada historinha é interessante. A duração do jogo, que no Persona 4 era muito excessiva, só se torna cansativa no último palácio do 5, justamente por ele ter sido inserido "artificialmente", a história parece que vai acabar como no jogo original, mas acaba se estendendo. Felizmente, essa parte nova é excelente, com personagens como a Kasumi e o Maruki que são muito bem escritos, além de aprofundar a relação entre o Joker e o Akechi. Um jogo focado apenas nesses dois seria muito foda.
Algo de muito destaque no jogo é sua estética, os fortes tons de vermelho acabam por representar a rebelião que os protagonistas querem fazer contra um sistema que os mantém presos, seja pelos adultos malvadinhos, seja pela escola ou mesmo pela Velvet Room, o Joker sempre tá preso a algo ou alguém. Os gráficos envelheceram muito bem, nem parece que é um jogo de PS3 e as cutscenes animadas são belíssimas, melhor que muito anime meia bomba que sai todo ano e o detalhamento nos retratos de cada personagem nos balões de fala é enorme.
Persona 5 Royal não é perfeito, mas suas qualidades superam em muito os defeitos. Reconheço que não é para todo mundo, zerei e platinei com 152 horas, um tempo considerável para quem não pode ficar tanto tempo na frente da TV. Foi necessário um mês e alguns dias, mas para quem puder e quiser dar uma chance, é uma experiência que vai ficar na sua memória por bastante tempo. Você realmente vive a vida do protagonista e se envolve com cada personagem do elenco, a sensação de conclusão da jornada e a dor de se despedir de cada um deles no fim é algo bem real. E, claro, a trilha sonora é muito é massa.
Persona 5 Royal foi uma puta aventura, uma puta lição de vida e um puta jogo. O original já era fantástico, um dos melhores jogos de todos os tempos, e essa versão expandida só amplifica isso, trazendo ainda mais conteúdo. Além dos novos social links e do terceiro semestre, a gameplay foi repaginada, tornando-se mais fácil e divertida que a do jogo original.
A premissa é simples e formulaica: você controla um grupo de ladrões que precisa "roubar o coração" de adultos perversos para reformá-los e torná-los pessoas melhores. Embora a ideia possa parecer um pouco adolescente e edgy, os temas abordados são pesados: abuso físico e mental, extorsão, plágio, se culpar pela morte de um ente querido, transtorno dissociativo de identidade, entre outros. A forma como a história é contada introduzindo um antagonista que é interessante e um personagem novo pra te ajudar que é igualmente cativante, acaba fazendo você se conectar bastante com o enredo. Na minha visão, pelo menos, Persona 5 tem os melhores personagens da franquia, são os que mais possuem interações diferentes, as reações mais humanizadas, os dilemas mais complexos e você dificilmente não gosta de algum deles, salvo pela Haru e o Mishima que sinceramente me davam nos nervos.
Cada reviravolta durante a campanha é algo realmente muito bem pensado, de outubro até o começo de fevereiro, a quantidade de plot twists e a profundidade dos vilões é enorme, você até acaba concordando com alguns deles, principalmente o vilão final exclusivo do Royal, já que ainda que você saiba que ele é um inimigo e queira mudar o coração dele, no fundo, você sente um pouco de verdade no que ele diz e até concorda com ele, tanto que em um dos finais do jogo você fica ao lado dele e não é um final ruim, é um final realmente bom, talvez até mais satisfatório do que o verdadeiro, mas não muda o fato de que o final verdadeiro é muito mais sobre refletir que a vida nem sempre é como você quer e que você precisa amadurecer e seguir em frente, não dá pra olhar o passado pra sempre.
Ainda nesse assunto de vilões, a evolução no sistema de dungeons em comparação ao P3 e 4 é gigantesca, cada palácio tem uma temática distinta, uma direção de arte única, inimigos variados e mecânicas novas que alteram a jogabilidade e nunca te deixam enjoar, tudo bem que o palácio do Okumura e as Profundezas de Mementos sejam um lixo absurdo, mas o restante é muito divertido. E nesse ponto entra a gameplay que é disparada a melhor da franquia, menos complexa, mas extremamente dinâmica para um RPG de turno. A variedade de animações, tanto de ataques como de Showtimes, é grande o suficiente para evitar que você veja as mesmas animações 99x durante dezenas de horas. Melhorias como a regeneração de munição, o alarme de fusão de Personas, a descoberta mais fácil das fraquezas e o uso do gancho também facilitaram bastante o jogo.
A gameplay não se limita apenas ao combate, a vida social do protagonista faz muito mais diferença do que nos outros jogos, se envolver com cada personagem é mais interessante, todos eles possuem uma história distinta com problemas distintos e você é recompensado por aumentar sua amizade com cada um deles, novas habilidades, fusões e funções de gameplay são liberadas, tornando o combate ainda mais divertido. Há também uma grande variedade de lugares opcionais para levar seus amigos, mais eventos de romance, opções de emprego e um sistema de provas melhorado, tudo isso em uma cidade viva, cheia de interações com NPCs e estabelecimentos.
Um probleminha que me incomodava no 4 eram as missões secundárias simplesmente ridículas e no 5 isso foi solucionado, elas envolvem pedidos para mudar o coração de outros personagens, fora os vilões principais, e são realmente divertidas, você é recompensado por concluir esses pedidos, podendo farmar e upar bastante, e cada historinha é interessante. A duração do jogo, que no Persona 4 era muito excessiva, só se torna cansativa no último palácio do 5, justamente por ele ter sido inserido "artificialmente", a história parece que vai acabar como no jogo original, mas acaba se estendendo. Felizmente, essa parte nova é excelente, com personagens como a Kasumi e o Maruki que são muito bem escritos, além de aprofundar a relação entre o Joker e o Akechi. Um jogo focado apenas nesses dois seria muito foda.
Algo de muito destaque no jogo é sua estética, os fortes tons de vermelho acabam por representar a rebelião que os protagonistas querem fazer contra um sistema que os mantém presos, seja pelos adultos malvadinhos, seja pela escola ou mesmo pela Velvet Room, o Joker sempre tá preso a algo ou alguém. Os gráficos envelheceram muito bem, nem parece que é um jogo de PS3 e as cutscenes animadas são belíssimas, melhor que muito anime meia bomba que sai todo ano e o detalhamento nos retratos de cada personagem nos balões de fala é enorme.
Persona 5 Royal não é perfeito, mas suas qualidades superam em muito os defeitos. Reconheço que não é para todo mundo, zerei e platinei com 152 horas, um tempo considerável para quem não pode ficar tanto tempo na frente da TV. Foi necessário um mês e alguns dias, mas para quem puder e quiser dar uma chance, é uma experiência que vai ficar na sua memória por bastante tempo. Você realmente vive a vida do protagonista e se envolve com cada personagem do elenco, a sensação de conclusão da jornada e a dor de se despedir de cada um deles no fim é algo bem real. E, claro, a trilha sonora é muito é massa.
I have around 70+ hours on this game and I'm still yet to pick it up again. The state of modern JRPG's have been forever changed by this monument of a masterpiece.
a rollercoaster of hardships
Years later and I can't bring myself to go back and finish the last dungeon. The game is really good in some places - but it is so damn repetitive and extremely long.
shogi girl <3
This game is a definetily genre defining, it is just an incredible JRPG (it is one of the few that i’ve played) and its amazing. The characters, soundtrack, level design and overall area design is stunning. You can really feel a connection between you and the game and its characters. It is unbeliavely good! I’ve gathered all achievements and i can say it: it is one of the best games of ALL time! definetily recommend it.
Its amazing, good charactes, good plot, amazing gameplay and persona music
The definitive experience of this game. (spoilers below)
This version expands on the subpar aspects of this game and betters the many inconsistencies the original one
unfortunately had.
Royal was more visually appealing to me as the graphics were improved compared to the 2017 version. It gave the title
a much more mature and realistic colouring.
Another important point that Royal expanded upon was Akechi's character. He was lacklustre at best in the original game, and Royal gave him a whole new aspect to his character. They gave him a proper conclusion, arc, confidant, and motives. Due to this definitive edition of Persona 5, he quickly became one of the highlights of the title and one of my favourite characters in the series.
Even the added characters were executed beautifully, Sumire & Maruki.
Kasumi's clouded view of her own life being overcast by her grief and regret of "killing" her sister was tragic and made you sympathize with her struggles. This played on another character, Maruki. He wanted to help people, and the world, with his research, cognitive pscience. He desperately wanted to save Sumire from her guilt and dismay, because he felt loss and all of the suffering that came with it. Whether what he did was just or not may vary in everyone's eyes, that's the beauty of his character, he realizes this also. There truly is no right answer because of his motives and perspective, it comes with no ill will whatsoever.
The only reason that I refuse to rate this game a 5 is due to the fact that the story was boring at points for me. This is something that a definitive edition can't change because it's the plot. I appreciate the gameplay and the story but Persona 5 just takes major dips at points and it turns me off for a while, that is why it took me 2 months to finish. I recommend this to people wanting to get into the Persona or Megaten series, it is easy, simple, fun, and has an interesting storyline.
This was fun to platinum.
This version expands on the subpar aspects of this game and betters the many inconsistencies the original one
unfortunately had.
Royal was more visually appealing to me as the graphics were improved compared to the 2017 version. It gave the title
a much more mature and realistic colouring.
Another important point that Royal expanded upon was Akechi's character. He was lacklustre at best in the original game, and Royal gave him a whole new aspect to his character. They gave him a proper conclusion, arc, confidant, and motives. Due to this definitive edition of Persona 5, he quickly became one of the highlights of the title and one of my favourite characters in the series.
Even the added characters were executed beautifully, Sumire & Maruki.
Kasumi's clouded view of her own life being overcast by her grief and regret of "killing" her sister was tragic and made you sympathize with her struggles. This played on another character, Maruki. He wanted to help people, and the world, with his research, cognitive pscience. He desperately wanted to save Sumire from her guilt and dismay, because he felt loss and all of the suffering that came with it. Whether what he did was just or not may vary in everyone's eyes, that's the beauty of his character, he realizes this also. There truly is no right answer because of his motives and perspective, it comes with no ill will whatsoever.
The only reason that I refuse to rate this game a 5 is due to the fact that the story was boring at points for me. This is something that a definitive edition can't change because it's the plot. I appreciate the gameplay and the story but Persona 5 just takes major dips at points and it turns me off for a while, that is why it took me 2 months to finish. I recommend this to people wanting to get into the Persona or Megaten series, it is easy, simple, fun, and has an interesting storyline.
This was fun to platinum.