This review contains SPOILERS! Click to expand.
Having never played a Persona game before and having never played a lot of JRPGs, I can say with full confidence, Persona 5: Royal is one of the best games of this generation, if not potentially the best if not for the genre's nicheness in the mainstream market. That being said, this game is long, I mean LONG. We're looking at a finishing time well over 100 hours if I include
Having never played a Persona game before and having never played a lot of JRPGs, I can say with full confidence, Persona 5: Royal is one of the best games of this generation, if not potentially the best if not for the genre's nicheness in the mainstream market. That being said, this game is long, I mean LONG. We're looking at a finishing time well over 100 hours if I include the content added in the Royal re-release, more on that later.
First, I'll begin with story and gameplay as they're somewhat tied. You play as Joker, a stylishly chic silent protagonist who's a regular high schooler by day and a leader of the Phantom Thieves of Heart by night. To not spoil anything, I'll just say that due to various circumstances, our silent protagonist ends up transferring to Shujin Academy, an elite prep school, where he'll meet a color cast of characters whom you'll befriend, romance, or simply just have a disdain for. You also gain the ability to hang out with your confidants, people whom you rely on as a student and as a phantom thief, in various classic locations around Tokyo. This includes, Kichijoji, Akihabara, Shibuya, and much more. In these locations, you'll be able to shop, dine, and do a plethora of activities including darts, billiards, and fishing. When talking to NPCs or confidants, you'll be presented with dialogue choices. These choices sometimes matter and sometimes are just how you, the player, express how Joker acts. As you progress through the story, you'll encounter important characters whom you'll recruit to the Phantom Thieves. Now you might be wondering, what is a Phantom Thief? To put it simply without spoilers, they enter the hearts of corrupt adults in positions of power in order to reform them. This is where the gameplay takes a drastic turn.
When you enter the "heart" of one of the adults, you enter into what's called a palace, a manifestation of the ruler's distortions and desires, which is a part of the Metaverse, which is in-turn, another world that is formed through the collective unconscious. A bit complicated but it all makes sense in the scheme of things. This palace is where you, along with your fellow compatriots, turn into Phantom Thieves (Literally, as your clothes automatically change here and you get cool codenames). Story-wise, you get here through the use of a special app on Joker's phone. Here, you can infiltrate the palace by utilizing a cover-based stealth system or by fighting everything in your way. Each palace has a unique setting and will usually take some time to beat with the end goal being to get the treasure of the palace ruler. Along the way, you'll encounter puzzles and battle enemies in instanced turn-base combat. In this instance, you, along with 3 party members, battle shadows using personas. Joker, the protagonist, can use wide array of personas which utilize specific elements (Fire, Ice, Lightning, etc). Joker can obtain more by getting them in combat with the shadows, or by creating personas by fusing 2 or more together. The game also contains a few special elements such as Curse, Bless, Nuclear, Wind, and Psychokinesis. Your party members will only use one specific persona unique to their character but you can switch out members while in the palace. Personas have weaknesses and strengths pertaining to the elements as well. There's also another area called Mementos, which is like the palace for society. Here, you can steal the hearts of less important people in society through taking requests as the infamous Phantom Thieves from a messaging forum, basically side quests. Mementos is important to the story so I won't explain further.
Now, let me discuss the Royal re-release content. The Royal re-release content adds a whole lot content, almost 30 hours worth I believe. However, to access the content, you have to fulfill a few requirements regarding confidants. To keep this spoiler-free, I'll just say that confidants have ranks that increase when you hang out with them. For a certain couple confidants, you'll need to max out their confidant rank in order to access the Royal content. You'll have to make a decision as to whether or not you want to know this info as it's potentially a spoiler (There are spoiler-free guides for this game though). There are also multiple endings depending on choices you make through dialogue.
The reason why I believe that this is one of the best games of the generation is that everything seems to mesh so well together. Not only do you get to experience an intimate, but at the same time, witty story, you get to experience it with a vibrant cast of characters. The characters and the interactions they have with Joker and the world is some of the best I've seen in video games; With light-hearted banter reminiscent of early Bioware games mixed with Japanese-style humor. A part of the game that doesn't get much credit is inadvertently learning a few things about Japanese culture, a nice plus. The turn-based gameplay involving personas and the elements is addicting and enjoyable, completing the whole package. As I've stated before, in this long review for an equally long game, I've never played a Persona game before and I haven't played too many JRPGs, but Persona 5: Royal is truly, without a doubt, a generational masterpiece.
