I can barely form a coherent thought about what I just finished but I feel weirdly seen by Final Fantasy VIII and its protagonist in particular as this understanding of specific feelings of capitalist alienation that I've been unable to articulate for the longest time. I don't have any official diagnosis and especially do not want people I barely know armchair diagnosing me online but Squall's struggles to process the most basic social interactions in terms of anything other than capitalist obligations like school or work, "shut up and get the job done" mentality, and specific jaded outlook are core parts of myself I never expected to see reflected in this fashion. While I narrowly prefer the basic bitch choices of VI and VII in terms of Final Fantasy games, this surreal response to the cultural zeitgeist of the latter game and weird as fuck (complimentary) use of Marxist theory (specifically the "annihilation of space by time" described in Grundrisse and expanded upon over a century later by David Harvey) in the same way that most RPGs use religious/mythological concepts solely because it sounds cool is a game that will no doubt have a special place in my heart from now on.

Undoubtedly one of the best monster tamers of all time, its mechanics are so varied and creative that one playthrough will probably only scratch the surface of just what is possible to do in this game. Combat is extremely challenging yet satisfying. I think this game's biggest downsides are a lack of small QoL changes to make battles faster, the post-game content becoming way too repetitive, and one of the last super bosses is simply just not fun to fight. The plot and characters are also great, and the monster designs are spot on.

i am not immune to akechi goro or kitagawa yusuke

can't tell if it's just the time between me playing p5 initially as a teenager and playing royal now or if there are that many changes to the experience (playing with the female protagonist mod probably helped a bit), but royal made me fall in love with persona 5 again.
the game still has its issues; ann and ryuji are treated terribly, morgana is still not nearly as compelling of a character as the game seems to think he is, the okumura arc is still not great, and haru/makoto are still without much substance, etc. etc. likewise however the game still hits a great stride with sae's palace onward, and the new third semester content makes that stride even better.
akechi was already the best character in base game and giving him more of a spotlight was one of the best choices atlus has ever made. maruki and the story and themes of the third semester in general are also some of the best work atlus has put out in a long time as pretty much anyone will tell you, but sadly yoshizawa does not hit that same mark at all. she's definitely at least somewhat compelling near the end of it all but i really don't think she was important enough to be like the biggest head on the boxart and i do think i would've preferred her as just a female protagonist option or something.
playing royal honestly made me stop feeling insane seeing people i know talk about how great persona 5 was after my impressions of vanilla made way for me not really caring all that much, and while it isn't the best persona game (it isn't even the best out of the modern trilogy lol) it's a really great time and i'm glad i wasted 100+ hours of my life again on this one. you really just have to take modern persona for what it is instead of what you want it to be and you'll end up enjoying yourself a lot, i think