This review contains spoilers
Crunching down an 82 hour experience into a short review is going to be insanely hard. I already know I'm going to re-read this in a few weeks time and say "Oh I forgot to talk about this". So I'm sorry in advance.
Persona 5 was already one of my favorite games of all-time. It did have a problems though. The main problems I remember having was Mementos being a bit of a chore and the game taking its time to kick into gear, as well as having too many times where you were "on rails", with Morgana ordering you to sleep for example.
Persona 5 Royal doesn't necessarily fix these problems, but it does make those weak points better. The addition of José to Mementos is easily the best fix to one of the base game's problem, as he gives you a reason to go to Mementos. In Mementos, you can now pick up flowers and stamps. The first ones allow you to buy (very useful) items from José, and the stamps allow you to "change mementos' cognition", basically meaning that you can apply boosters to how much money, items and XP you get while in Mementos. This may seem like nothing, but it made going to Mementos feel worthwhile. In the base game, I explored Mementos because the game told me to first and foremost, and I found comfort in knowing I would at least be getting some XP and money. In Royal, I went because I felt like it would be an easy, less grindy way to get XP, items and money, all thanks to José. It's a simple fix, but it's very efficient.
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Apart from these small tweaks, Persona 5 Royal adds a ton of content to the base game. mainly, it adds the Thieves' Den, new combat mechanics and an extra story-arc.
The thieves den may be my favorite addition to the game. After long play sessions, I would often go and visit it, just to chill and enjoy the jazz music and play some tycoon. It's a great idea, basically a virtual museum where you can expose statues of the foes you defeated, of the personas that helped you along the way and remind yourself of great memories through photos or cutscenes. I will say though, I would've liked more spaces to put statues and getting to choose where to put the different pieces of art you bought. Having the possibility to have statues of the second and third personas of everyone would've been nice too.
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The new combat mechanics are pretty great. The best change is that now, guns have limited rounds per battle instead of rounds being limited per infiltration, which is such a game changer. I found myself using them way more often in this playthrough.
The hookshot is amazing, really helps the game feel more epic and makes Joker so much cooler than he already is. It's also used to ambush enemies, with the "chainé hook", which gives you a chance to inflict an ailment to an enemy before even starting the fight, which is incredibly useful if you're going against a foe that doesn’t have a weakness.
The will-seeds also have a direct effect on combat. The most apparent one is, of course, the amazing crystals they morph into. The Okumura and Shido crystals spring to mind as particularly good accessories. But they also allow you to use more magic, as collecting them restores a good amount of SP per will seed (I'd say somewhere around 10%, but I'm not sure). Given that there's three per palace, that makes around 30% SP being restored, which is a game changer, as it allows you to use more magic attacks, and not be as shy about tackling a strong foe that what you could be in the past.
Also, you can now get more SP by doing Baton Passes, as long as you have maxed out that party member's baton pass stat, which you do at the all new darts and billards hangout spot. Darts is an extremely fun minigame in of itself, and is very useful, as it boosts HP and SP recovery through baton passes and increases the attack buff, as well as making you deepen your bonds with the other phantom thieves. Billards allows you to increase the usefullness of technical attacks as well as deepen your bond with your teammates. Once you reach the max level at billards, a technical attack will guarantee you to down the enemy, as well as inflicting a lot more damage. Darts and billards may be the best change to the overall balance of Persona 5, as it allows you to try very different strategies to what you're used to, and also allows you to not use as much SP, not only because you recover some with baton pass, but also because physical attacks become a viable alternative to exploiting a foe's weakness thanks to the baton pass. So instead of using Ann to target a fire weakness, then baton pass to Ryuji to target and electrical weakness, you can just use one to target a weakness, and use the other to use a physical attack on the other enemy and take off a huge chunk of health. In this scenario, you’ve done as much damage as in the base game, while using half the SP. Sure, you don’t use the all-out attack as often, but all-out attacks were maybe a bit too useful in the base game.
The most apparent change in gameplay is probably showtime attacks, and I'm personally very mixed on them. They look great and fit the tone and presentation of the game very well, but they are a tad too OP, because they trigger in these circumstances (not all circumstances are listed here, just the problematic ones): Joker is in danger (ailment or low health for example) / a party member has been killed / the party member whose turn it is has just gotten back up from being downed and wants his "revenge". Basically, showtime attacks trigger when you're in trouble and about to possibly lose the fight, which is so dumb. you may say that in that case, I should say that Oracle's interventions, or Harisen recovery or a party member sacrificing himself for Joker is dumb as well. Good point, but there is a major difference here. First, on the scale of the fight, showtime attacks nearly always kill the enemy they're targeting, meaning you went from losing the fight to winning the fight with a simple button press. The other passive skills I mentioned only rebalance the fight, by no means have you won by avoiding Joker's death or getting a stat buff, you only avoided losing. Secondly, on a larger scale, unlocking the aforementioned passive skills requires you to deepen your bonds with the phantom thieves and select them in your party. There's a strategy to it, you may choose a party member over another because they have this passive skill. In the meantime, every party member has a showtime attack, and they unlock through story progression, so they feel like the game giving me the win, rather than the game congratulating me for understanding the relationship mechanics by giving me a second chance. Overall, I'm happy these showtime attacks are here because they look great, It's just a shame that I had to restrain myself from using them, as I only allowed myself to use them when I was pretty much certain I would win the fight.
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And finally, the added story content. The game features a new location, that being Kichikoji, which is very cool, as it has the aforementioned darts and billards, as well as a jazz bar you can buff party member's stats at. The temple gives more SP to joker, but given that hanging out with Doctor Maruki does that as well, it isn't very useful.
The biggest changes are the apparition of three new confidants and, of course, the playable third term. Let's go by ascending order of who I though was best.
Yoshizawa-san is amazing at first, but in my opinion gets pretty insufferable by the end. She was my favourite confidant until the story starts focusing around her. Hanging out with her is fun, as she is a lovable character that's full of charm. But once the third term starts, her ark feels like it just stops. I swear there are at least three moments in her arc that are basically the same beat over and over again. This is tagged spoiler so I'm going to spoil : her awakening, when she helps out in Sae's palace (which really builds intrigue when you first play through that section at the start of the game but is really out of place when you place it in the context of the story at that moment tbh), and her "second awakening" after she fails to bring forth her persona during the second infiltration of Maruki's palace. When she first awakens to her persona, I was so hyped because it felt like she had finally properly arrived in the main plot rather than just being a new confidant... then she disapears. Then she comes back in Sae's palace ! but she disappears again from the final act of the base game because "it's too dangerous for her". So by her third "big character moment", I wasn't really interested. She does have pretty good confidant skills though, as she is the one that unlocks chainé hook.
Next, Maruki. Hanging out with him grants you 5 extra SP, which is very useful, and gives you « Flow » and « Detox ». The first gives a random chance for Joker to have a big attack boost at the begining of a fight, the latter allows him to cure any ailment, again with a random chance. These are very useful. Also, his arc is very interesting, both as a confidant and a palace ruler. He asks really interesting question and his character is a very mature, interesting and uplifting vision of what it means to grieve and get back up, as well as the importance of fighting back when life fights you, and not let yourself die in the gutter of destiny.
Finally, best boy Goro Akechi, the singe best character in this game. He was great in the first game, but his relationship with Joker felt forced. I never really bought their twisted rivalry/friendship. In short, I felt like Akechi was a great character, but did not buy his relationship to Joker. Having him as a confidant fix this problem. You really feel that Akechi loves having a rival in the form of Joker which makes the latter a friend, but hates that he's better than him, which makes him public enemy number one. Having to beat him in a one on one fight to grow closer to him is a prime example of this weird relationship the pair have. If you liked Persona 5, I'd say this extended focus on Akechi on its own is a good enough reason to go back. I love the fact you get to have his evil version as a party member. His all-out attack animation changing to read « I decide the truth » after it reading « I shall bring forth the truth » is amazing characterization.
As for the extra semester and palace... It's good. I must admit, going from fighting a god to fighting your therapist isn't exactly the best story structure. Of course they didn't want to change the base game's story and ending, so they had to do this weird thing, but I would've preferred if you fought Maruki a few months after the god of control. You could, for example, let the original ending play out, and then have Joker come back to Tokyo a few months later and discover that everyone is living in Maruki's reality. I feel like that would've been better. The palace was very big, which is good. i do have to say though, I would've appreciated it if the developer's had introduced an adaptative difficulty to this final palace. See, I was level 88 when I started Maruki's palace because I had fought the Reaper earlier on (which I highly recommend doing, as it he gives you like 5 extra level sin one fight and makes Shido your b*tch during his fight), which made me a lot stronger than almost every enemy in the palace, making it so that I didn't even have to fight them, as I had unlocked the insta-kill ability through Ryuji, allowing you to gain XP, money and items from a fight, without doing said fight, as long as you're at least five levels more powerful than the shadow and you run at them while also ambushing them. So I would say it was too easy for someone who had put effort into doing every fight in the game. The boss fight is cool though, and the ending is magnificent, and does feel worthy of replacing the original one, even though it doesn't feel as climactic.
Persona 5 Royal is still Persona 5 at the end of the day, it's just been made better in every way. I see no reason to replay the base game after this one. Should you buy Royal if you played through the base game ? Yes. Absolutely. Not for the story content, or any other addition this game makes. You should buy this game because you should replay Persona 5, as I felt it was much better than it already was on a second playthrough, when you know which confidants you like, which are useful, what activities are worthy of your time and so on. And if you're going to play Persona 5 again, might as well play the best version of it. Just prepare yourself to be as heartbroken as you were the first time you left your virtual best friends behind.
Persona 5 was already one of my favorite games of all-time. It did have a problems though. The main problems I remember having was Mementos being a bit of a chore and the game taking its time to kick into gear, as well as having too many times where you were "on rails", with Morgana ordering you to sleep for example.
Persona 5 Royal doesn't necessarily fix these problems, but it does make those weak points better. The addition of José to Mementos is easily the best fix to one of the base game's problem, as he gives you a reason to go to Mementos. In Mementos, you can now pick up flowers and stamps. The first ones allow you to buy (very useful) items from José, and the stamps allow you to "change mementos' cognition", basically meaning that you can apply boosters to how much money, items and XP you get while in Mementos. This may seem like nothing, but it made going to Mementos feel worthwhile. In the base game, I explored Mementos because the game told me to first and foremost, and I found comfort in knowing I would at least be getting some XP and money. In Royal, I went because I felt like it would be an easy, less grindy way to get XP, items and money, all thanks to José. It's a simple fix, but it's very efficient.
————————————————
Apart from these small tweaks, Persona 5 Royal adds a ton of content to the base game. mainly, it adds the Thieves' Den, new combat mechanics and an extra story-arc.
The thieves den may be my favorite addition to the game. After long play sessions, I would often go and visit it, just to chill and enjoy the jazz music and play some tycoon. It's a great idea, basically a virtual museum where you can expose statues of the foes you defeated, of the personas that helped you along the way and remind yourself of great memories through photos or cutscenes. I will say though, I would've liked more spaces to put statues and getting to choose where to put the different pieces of art you bought. Having the possibility to have statues of the second and third personas of everyone would've been nice too.
————————————————
The new combat mechanics are pretty great. The best change is that now, guns have limited rounds per battle instead of rounds being limited per infiltration, which is such a game changer. I found myself using them way more often in this playthrough.
The hookshot is amazing, really helps the game feel more epic and makes Joker so much cooler than he already is. It's also used to ambush enemies, with the "chainé hook", which gives you a chance to inflict an ailment to an enemy before even starting the fight, which is incredibly useful if you're going against a foe that doesn’t have a weakness.
The will-seeds also have a direct effect on combat. The most apparent one is, of course, the amazing crystals they morph into. The Okumura and Shido crystals spring to mind as particularly good accessories. But they also allow you to use more magic, as collecting them restores a good amount of SP per will seed (I'd say somewhere around 10%, but I'm not sure). Given that there's three per palace, that makes around 30% SP being restored, which is a game changer, as it allows you to use more magic attacks, and not be as shy about tackling a strong foe that what you could be in the past.
Also, you can now get more SP by doing Baton Passes, as long as you have maxed out that party member's baton pass stat, which you do at the all new darts and billards hangout spot. Darts is an extremely fun minigame in of itself, and is very useful, as it boosts HP and SP recovery through baton passes and increases the attack buff, as well as making you deepen your bonds with the other phantom thieves. Billards allows you to increase the usefullness of technical attacks as well as deepen your bond with your teammates. Once you reach the max level at billards, a technical attack will guarantee you to down the enemy, as well as inflicting a lot more damage. Darts and billards may be the best change to the overall balance of Persona 5, as it allows you to try very different strategies to what you're used to, and also allows you to not use as much SP, not only because you recover some with baton pass, but also because physical attacks become a viable alternative to exploiting a foe's weakness thanks to the baton pass. So instead of using Ann to target a fire weakness, then baton pass to Ryuji to target and electrical weakness, you can just use one to target a weakness, and use the other to use a physical attack on the other enemy and take off a huge chunk of health. In this scenario, you’ve done as much damage as in the base game, while using half the SP. Sure, you don’t use the all-out attack as often, but all-out attacks were maybe a bit too useful in the base game.
The most apparent change in gameplay is probably showtime attacks, and I'm personally very mixed on them. They look great and fit the tone and presentation of the game very well, but they are a tad too OP, because they trigger in these circumstances (not all circumstances are listed here, just the problematic ones): Joker is in danger (ailment or low health for example) / a party member has been killed / the party member whose turn it is has just gotten back up from being downed and wants his "revenge". Basically, showtime attacks trigger when you're in trouble and about to possibly lose the fight, which is so dumb. you may say that in that case, I should say that Oracle's interventions, or Harisen recovery or a party member sacrificing himself for Joker is dumb as well. Good point, but there is a major difference here. First, on the scale of the fight, showtime attacks nearly always kill the enemy they're targeting, meaning you went from losing the fight to winning the fight with a simple button press. The other passive skills I mentioned only rebalance the fight, by no means have you won by avoiding Joker's death or getting a stat buff, you only avoided losing. Secondly, on a larger scale, unlocking the aforementioned passive skills requires you to deepen your bonds with the phantom thieves and select them in your party. There's a strategy to it, you may choose a party member over another because they have this passive skill. In the meantime, every party member has a showtime attack, and they unlock through story progression, so they feel like the game giving me the win, rather than the game congratulating me for understanding the relationship mechanics by giving me a second chance. Overall, I'm happy these showtime attacks are here because they look great, It's just a shame that I had to restrain myself from using them, as I only allowed myself to use them when I was pretty much certain I would win the fight.
————————————————
And finally, the added story content. The game features a new location, that being Kichikoji, which is very cool, as it has the aforementioned darts and billards, as well as a jazz bar you can buff party member's stats at. The temple gives more SP to joker, but given that hanging out with Doctor Maruki does that as well, it isn't very useful.
The biggest changes are the apparition of three new confidants and, of course, the playable third term. Let's go by ascending order of who I though was best.
Yoshizawa-san is amazing at first, but in my opinion gets pretty insufferable by the end. She was my favourite confidant until the story starts focusing around her. Hanging out with her is fun, as she is a lovable character that's full of charm. But once the third term starts, her ark feels like it just stops. I swear there are at least three moments in her arc that are basically the same beat over and over again. This is tagged spoiler so I'm going to spoil : her awakening, when she helps out in Sae's palace (which really builds intrigue when you first play through that section at the start of the game but is really out of place when you place it in the context of the story at that moment tbh), and her "second awakening" after she fails to bring forth her persona during the second infiltration of Maruki's palace. When she first awakens to her persona, I was so hyped because it felt like she had finally properly arrived in the main plot rather than just being a new confidant... then she disapears. Then she comes back in Sae's palace ! but she disappears again from the final act of the base game because "it's too dangerous for her". So by her third "big character moment", I wasn't really interested. She does have pretty good confidant skills though, as she is the one that unlocks chainé hook.
Next, Maruki. Hanging out with him grants you 5 extra SP, which is very useful, and gives you « Flow » and « Detox ». The first gives a random chance for Joker to have a big attack boost at the begining of a fight, the latter allows him to cure any ailment, again with a random chance. These are very useful. Also, his arc is very interesting, both as a confidant and a palace ruler. He asks really interesting question and his character is a very mature, interesting and uplifting vision of what it means to grieve and get back up, as well as the importance of fighting back when life fights you, and not let yourself die in the gutter of destiny.
Finally, best boy Goro Akechi, the singe best character in this game. He was great in the first game, but his relationship with Joker felt forced. I never really bought their twisted rivalry/friendship. In short, I felt like Akechi was a great character, but did not buy his relationship to Joker. Having him as a confidant fix this problem. You really feel that Akechi loves having a rival in the form of Joker which makes the latter a friend, but hates that he's better than him, which makes him public enemy number one. Having to beat him in a one on one fight to grow closer to him is a prime example of this weird relationship the pair have. If you liked Persona 5, I'd say this extended focus on Akechi on its own is a good enough reason to go back. I love the fact you get to have his evil version as a party member. His all-out attack animation changing to read « I decide the truth » after it reading « I shall bring forth the truth » is amazing characterization.
As for the extra semester and palace... It's good. I must admit, going from fighting a god to fighting your therapist isn't exactly the best story structure. Of course they didn't want to change the base game's story and ending, so they had to do this weird thing, but I would've preferred if you fought Maruki a few months after the god of control. You could, for example, let the original ending play out, and then have Joker come back to Tokyo a few months later and discover that everyone is living in Maruki's reality. I feel like that would've been better. The palace was very big, which is good. i do have to say though, I would've appreciated it if the developer's had introduced an adaptative difficulty to this final palace. See, I was level 88 when I started Maruki's palace because I had fought the Reaper earlier on (which I highly recommend doing, as it he gives you like 5 extra level sin one fight and makes Shido your b*tch during his fight), which made me a lot stronger than almost every enemy in the palace, making it so that I didn't even have to fight them, as I had unlocked the insta-kill ability through Ryuji, allowing you to gain XP, money and items from a fight, without doing said fight, as long as you're at least five levels more powerful than the shadow and you run at them while also ambushing them. So I would say it was too easy for someone who had put effort into doing every fight in the game. The boss fight is cool though, and the ending is magnificent, and does feel worthy of replacing the original one, even though it doesn't feel as climactic.
Persona 5 Royal is still Persona 5 at the end of the day, it's just been made better in every way. I see no reason to replay the base game after this one. Should you buy Royal if you played through the base game ? Yes. Absolutely. Not for the story content, or any other addition this game makes. You should buy this game because you should replay Persona 5, as I felt it was much better than it already was on a second playthrough, when you know which confidants you like, which are useful, what activities are worthy of your time and so on. And if you're going to play Persona 5 again, might as well play the best version of it. Just prepare yourself to be as heartbroken as you were the first time you left your virtual best friends behind.