This game surprised the hell outta me. Persona 5 Royal is my favorite game of all time and all I really wanted from this game was a memorable adventure with the Phantom Thieves and it delivered and then some.

The story isn't as good as it's predecessors but I really like it for what it is. The beginning three Jails in this game will remind P5 fans of similar situations in the main game. A lot of people didn't like this because it felt too similar but I personally I love it. I think it was a really intelligent move because we've seen these characters have grown and get to see more of that side in this game. With Alice's Jail we get to see that she's not gonna back down and let people be manipulated and hurt after her experiences with Kamoshida. With Natsume's Jail you get to see Yusuke being reminded of his troubled time with Madarame but he eventually overcomes that and gives Natsume a harsh lesson. Not telling him to give up on writing but try again and make something you can truly be proud of. I really liked this part of the game because Yusuke's character shines so brightly here. I wasn't the biggest Yusuke guy in Royal, I didn't hate him or anything but I didn't have a strong feeling about him. Then to top it all off it has a banger boss fight.

In Mariko's Jail, Haru finally gets the spotlight she has deserved for so long and only made me love her even more. I love that Mariko has a history with Haru and you get to learn more about her past. Another thing I like is that the game isn't afraid to talk about Okumura, Haru's dad. In general the game does that very well which I appreciate since some spin-offs don't like referencing the source material very weirdly.

After that it's the obligatory Beach episode which was pretty fun. After that there's a cool scene where all the residents of Okinawa are out with pitchforks looking for the gang which was really eerie but also really funny in retrospect. The atmosphere was just great. Anyways the Jail is quite short but you start learning more about the games mysteries so it was nice to get some answers. The final boss of this area was pretty underwhelming but we did get that now iconic moment with Ryuji finally saying Fuck out loud, so that was pretty hype.

After this is one of the most memorable passages of the game. Akane, Zenkichi's daughter's Jail. This was just executed so damn well. From Zenkichi and Akane having a real heart to heart moment trying to figure out where it all went wrong to the final boss where we fight shadow versions of ourselves. It was just amazing. I love when Futaba and Zenkichi have to storm the Jail by themselves since the rest of the Phantom Thieves were caught it was just really cool. Zenkichi's awakening was also badass.

After this is another high point in the game. Akira Konoe's Jail. This was just a blast through and through. The theme and setting of the Jail is really great and iconic. In my opinion Konoe's is one of p5's best villains, he was just so memorable and a great character. Now I do like Shido but I feel like this is what Shido should've been. Shido is ultimately a mustache twirling villain which isn't necessarily a bad thing but a little bit disappointing as a final boss. The mech fight with Konoe is awesome but that's not even the best part. The next part of the battle opens with Konoe's mech blowing up but he manages to get out and walks away from the explosion Power Rangers Style and it fits so well thematically and is just badass, especially with Counterstrike starting up at the same time with Lyn killing it. It's just such an incredibly hype moment. Overall this was my favorite part of the game by far.

The last two dungeons were really short and just meant to wrap up the story. From a gameplay point of view they're extremely disappointing with them being very short but just filled to the brim with enemies, no puzzle to solve just a straight shot to your destination. From a story point of view it's quite good. You find out Ichinose is the creator of Sophia (who didn't predict that) and fight God Emma which was actually really cool. The final boss for this game is just awesome with every single party member playing some sort of role to bring down the big bad. I also really like the final blow cutscene as opposed to P5 Vanilla or P5R. In those two it's just Joker dealing the final blow but here everyone comes together to do a combo attack and was just hype.

The characters new and old are all pretty good in this game. Everybody has their moment some are big some are small but they do get it. Ann has the Alice arc, Yusuke has the Natsume arc, Haru has the Mariko arc, Futaba has her moment when she and Zenkichi raid the Kyoto Jail, Zenkichi has his own with the Akane arc, Sophia has hers with the penultimate Jail, Makoto has hers with Zenkichi as she frequently explained how Akane might be feeling having been in a similar position, Morgana and Ryuji both have theirs in the Okinawa Jail where they defend Sophia and pop off on the warden.

Zenkichi is a big favorite of mine and Sophia was another wonderful addition. Ichinose and Konoe are both top tier villains.

The music bangs in classic Persona 5 fashion with Lyn especially popping off. The opening theme "You are Stronger" was stuck in my head during the long months we were waiting for this game and rightly so. The Voice Acting is really good with special mention for Zenkichi and Sophia's VA. Zenkichi's personality popped off the screen and Sophia progressively sounds less and less robotic which was a nice touch and this is especially apparent during her confrontation with Ichinose. The only issue with the audio is some of the mixing. I realize that recording had to be done during the Pandemic with everyone having different home studios but it can be a little jarring. Sometimes Ryuji is going at full blast but I can barely hear Morgana. Nothing major given the circumstances but a little off putting.

This was my first experience with a Musou game and I loved it. It was a wonderful collaboration with the traditional Musou formula mixed with the turn based combat of Persona. The level design was very fun and open. Lot of very nice combos and movement options. Overall I had a good time with it and I'm interested in getting into some other games of this genre.

This was an extremely memorable Summer with the Phantom Thieves and I'm glad I played this game. Made me love some of my favorite characters even more while introducing me to new ones. It had very satisfying gameplay and made me appreciate a new genre.
9/10

This will be my first review that will contain spoilers, so just keep that as a warning.

Well, it's now the 4 year anniversary since the release of Persona 5 in the west so I thought I'd celebrate with a full review of the game and give my thoughts. To some, a 7/10 might seem like heresy, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this game. Unfortunately, I just didn't enjoy it as much as a lot of other people even though I still think it's pretty good.

So I'm actually going to first talk about when I received this game. It was a birthday gift I got on October 2019. I honestly had no clue what this game was about at the time and had barely heard of it even though I was into Smash at the time when Joker released as DLC. My friend that gave it to me hadn't even played the game either, he just heard it was good. I played the intro, thought it was cool, then I didn't touch it again until February of 2020 and I was kind of on and off with it around that time and eventually finished it in June with an overall positive experience.

Now let's start with the story. To be frank, it starts off pretty good. It kind of just throws you into the mix of teaching you the mechanics early on pretty briefly with this cool casino setting and mysterious characters talking in your ear. You learn about interacting with the environment, stealth, and combat. The visuals in the intro and cutscenes it shows are very stunning and very well animated. It all leads up to the interrogation scene for which it allows you to pick your characters name (I chose Nate Higgers lol) and it introduces the interrogator who is a pivotal character throughout the story as she explains to the main character, and to an extent the player, their background overall. In general, it's a pretty good narrative hook.

Eventually the story continues introducing more characters as the story is explained through sequences that are in context supposed to act as flashbacks as the Joker is supposed to be telling the interrogator, Sae Nijiima, the events leading up to his interrogation. As the story continues, more favorites are introduces suck as Sojiro, Ryuji, and Ann as well as some not so favorite characters like Morgana. The whole first arc surrounding the villain Kamoshida is pretty good. He's a good villain and seeing characters such as Ryuji and Ann grow was pretty nice. However, there is one very big glaring issue with this first arc and it's not really the story. It's the constant damn tutorials. This is the most aggressive game I've seen when it comes to tutorials and it never even lets you turn them off. It's so obnoxious and to my knowledge it doesn't even turn off during NG+. Though despite that problem I have, it's a pretty fun first part of the game.

The second part with Madarame is also pretty good. It's one of my favorite parts of the game. I honestly really like the dungeon and it also introduces by far my favorite character from the game. Yusuke. I just love the guy. He's so eccentric, weird, and he's just a cool dude. I'm really glad the writers didn't decide to give him a generic pretentious artist personality. I thought Madarame was also a decent villain. Not really many complaints from this part of the game, it's honestly pretty great.

The third part of the game revolves around the new villain Kaneshiro and new party member Makoto Nijiima. Gonna be honest, this is where I think the story starts to go down hill for a few reasons. The first reason why I find this part of the story to be a lot weaker is that unlike the previous two villains, Kaneshiro barely has any connection to Makoto that feels natural. Kaneshiro is kind of just some random mob leader who isn't even well developed that Makoto just gets involved with because of her obsession over catching the Phantom Thieves. This arc feels a lot less personal to Makoto's character whereas Kamoshida and Madarame had a far better relation to each respective character from the previous arcs. Kaneshiro is just a weak villain overall. The dungeon and level design itself at least is honestly pretty great and fun.

Now extending on from Kaneshiro's arc, I'm going to talk a bit about Makoto's character. I personally don't like her very much. Now, she's not the worst character and she does have her moments, but her writing is inconsistent. She's first presented as an assertive, no-nonsense, and serious kind of girl and I honestly liked that. She could offer a potentially interesting dynamic to the team and she does for a little while, however when her part of the story ends she just becomes another yes-man for the main character and offers nothing interesting to the group. For a character who's supposed to be student council president, her role is just disapointing. It would have been great if she provided some semblance of conflict with the group or main character if there were disagreements for plans and such. Also her whole arc during the Kaneshiro part of the game about her being told she's "useless" just felt very shoehorned into the story to make the player feel bad for her. In the end, she honestly just feels like another character for Joker to date. There's also a really stupid scene later on where Makoto and the rest of the team were inside a house and the power randomly cut out. For some reason Makoto gets all scared and clings to Joker's leg because she's afraid of the dark? So you're telling me a 17 year old student council president badass is afraid of the dark, really? The scene overall was just really stupid. At least other characters I don't like such as Morgana and Akechi are somewhat consistent.

The next part of the story is a bit better. It introduces Futaba, Sojiro's adoptive daughter, and she's a likable character. I do think her whole constant video game references thing gets really annoying, but other than that I think she's pretty good. It makes for a neat narrative twist that Futaba is actually the antagonist of this story arc where it's more about her trying to face her own demons and the Phantom Thieves have to help her overcome it. It gets pretty sad at times. It's just a shame that the actual dungeon surrounding Futaba kind is very mediocre. It's just really boring and not that fun to playthrough and it's mainly the story part that carries the section. However, I do think later on the reveal behind Futaba's depression is kind of dumb. It makes sense at first though. She's obviously depressed that her mother is dead, that would make anyone sad of course, but Futaba basically believes that she's responsible for her mother's death and we don't learn why until later on. Apparently the Japanese government that Futaba's mother was working for had some scientific breakthrough relating to the metaverse and the government wanted her silenced, so they decided to frame her death and blame it on Futaba? It doesn't seem realistic at all. Why would a government blame the death of one of their workers, on their child? It's painfully forced because the game is trying so hard to push this "adults bad" theme. Overall though, this section was decent.

The fifth part of the game is by far the worst. Pretty much everything about it is awful. The story, the writing, the dialogue, the dungeon, the shoehorned themes are even worse. For some reason they deicide to open this arc with Morgana making fun of Ryuji for no reason and the only time Ryuji really bites back he called Morgana useless. Then, Morgana runs off like a little bitch because his little feelings are hurt. Then, as typical Persona 5 writing happens, everyone bullies Ryuji for doing something that wasn't even in his control. Then there's this really boring section where you have to go looking around for Morgana. Then, you discover a palace that belongs to this businessman named Okumura. Father to Haru Okumura, the next party member. I don't really have too much of a problem with Haru, but she's just extremely underdeveloped no thanks to the writers putting the focus on Morgana instead. Haru for some reason already found Morgana while he was in the middle of his tantrum and somehow Haru already has the appearance of a thief with no build up. Then a few minutes later, she has her persona awakening and at that point it was just forced in with no build up. I'll say though one of the best parts about this arc is watching Morgana get kicked in the ribs by Haru's fiancé. He's honestly just hilariously stupid and I kind of love it. He's a mini boss in the game, but he's so cliche that I can't help but find it entertaining. The actual level design of Okumura's palace though is just downright one of the worst levels I've ever played in a video game. Extremely long and boring hallways with very arbitrary and poorly thought out puzzles with a really stupid maze. The boss was also just really terrible. Now, Persona 5 doesn't really have amazing bosses per se, but they get the job done and are well designed for the most part. But Okumura's boss is one of the worst. They also try to shoehorn in this theme where all of the employees under Okumura are overworked and underpaid, so they're presented within the palace as robots. It's not subtle with its message in the slightest. Morgana also got this pointless character arc that should have been saved for Haru since she had like no development at all.

Though thank god that piece of shit was immediately followed by the BEST part of the game. The entirety of Nijiima's dungeon is like a 10/10. Not only do you have everyone on your team up to that point, but you also get to use Akechi in your team and he's very fun to use. Even though I don't like Akechi and we'll get to that later, he's still a welcome addition to the team even though it's short lived. The dungeon itself is masterfully designed, fun, the story around it is decent because it revolves around the interrogator and it eventually comes full circle with the intro of the game which feels very satisfying. It also at leads up to an admittedly neat twist at the end of Joker's interrogation. Honestly, I don't even have too much to say about this part of the game. It's just great.

The seventh and kinda final dungeon is fine. It's hard to top the previous dungeon and the main villain, Shido, is honestly pretty bad. He's not very well written at all. The actual design of the dungeon is hit or miss, but it's just way too long and boring at times. It all ends up leading to a part where Akechi confronts you and the dialogue is just awful and there's this terrible twist where it's revealed that Akechi is just Shido's son. Why? Forced drama, that's why. It offers almost no story significance and Akechi overall is just a melodramatic character. He does have a kind of cool boss fight, but after that his scene where he was killed off was just hilariously bad honestly. Shido's boss fight was also just boring at long and the only reason I kind of like it is for the memes and how similar he looks to Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising.

At the end of Shido's dungeon there's this great cutscene where Ryuji sacrifices himself to save the rest of the team. It's a great cutscene and next scene after the characters are mourning him, he comes back and it kind of invalidates what just happen. They never even address how he survived either, however that's the least of my problem in that scene. Instead, all the female characters beat the shit out of him because he lived? Shouldn't they be fucking happy he's alive after they cried? In my opinion I think Ryuji should have died in the scene. Honestly, it would have been a really interesting writing decision and could have been for some really good internal conflict within the team. I would have rather they did that.


Now, the actual final section of the game is pretty good. Mementos Depths is alright, I don't that much to say about it design wise and I didn't find it to be all that bad. The final section leading up to fighting the final boss and entering the Velvet Room with the twist of Igor actually being an imposter (sus) was pretty neat. All the characters also had this moment where you talk with them to encourage them to help you fight on to go face the final boss. It goes on for a bit too long though. The final boss is kind of mediocre, but the music was pretty awesome at least and everything after the final boss where everything is slowing down was a pretty nice break. And the actual ending cutscene was really great and it was nice to see how all the characters came all this way and it felt for a pretty satisfying ending.

Now I got the main story out of the way, I'd like to address a few other things. I don't think I really need to mention that I love the art design. It's fantastic and the character designs are also amazing and very memorable. It's a very stylish game and I can't imagine how much the artists busted their asses to get everything together to make all the menus seamlessly flow together. Mementos is an addition to the game I didn't care about, but it didn't really bother me too much. Some of the confidants are also pretty good. Some are meh, but the ones with Ryuji, Ann, Sojiro, and especially Yusuke were highlights for me personally. The soundtrack is also pretty great and chances are even if you haven't played the game you've probably heard it somewhere before. Some tracks such as Whims of Fate, Life Will Change, Wake up, get up, get out there, and more make for some great tracks to listen to while on a run. Though the music is painfully overused. Not the ones I previously mentioned, but a lot of the tracks in the game are re-used so many times that it got downright annoying. Mainly the battle theme Last Surprise and that kind of sucks since the song is actually good, but it just got annoying because of how much it's used. In my opinion, music in video games should be used sparingly and be saved for the best parts of the game. The weird part is that Persona 5 actually does this with the palace themes and the boss music. It's mainly the over world and music that plays during dialogue that gets really annoying to hear over and over again.

Despite all my many criticisms, Persona 5 is still a worthwhile experience with very entertaining characters, gameplay, levels, music and side content. I personally don't enjoy the overall story and writing, but I know a lot of people do really like it. A lot of these issues don't bother other people and more power to them. I'd recommend this game to any fan of JRPGs or someone looking to get into them. It's a lot of people's favorites.

7/10