Persona 5 Royal Review

Another neat addition – and my personal favourite – is the all new area of Tokyo to explore, Kichijoji. It’s real-world equivalent is one of my favourite places in all of Japan, just down the road from the hip and otherworldly Koenji. It all feels genuine and cool here, too, packed with quirky little details and fun places to visit. There’s even more additions and suprises waiting in store within Royal’s newly expanded 130+ hour adventure, but I think a lot of them are best experienced like that: as surprises. If you’re on the fence about whether Royal is worth checking out all over again, I’d say there’s plenty of reasons to do just that. You won’t be able to enjoy them all straight away – indeed, I didn’t feel the impact of all these new additions fully until I’d sunk about 30-40 hours into the game already – but diehards will know whether or not this is a worthwhile investment for some fantastic new content.

Presentation:

I don’t think I’ve ever played a game as perfectly put together as Persona 5 Royal. There’s a slickness and fluidity to everything here: from the menus to the loading screens and every scene transition in between, nothing appears on screen that isn’t an absolute joy to look at. Persona 5 boasts a distinct style that is striking and cohesive throughout, its red and black palette brings everything together and its seemingly limitless expression of Japanese culture is wrapped up in a poppy, snazzy, far-too-cool-for-school package that never stopped surprising me throughout it’s lengthy campaign.

Persona 5 brought me back to my time in Tokyo in a big way. There’s a great balance of down-to-earth representation and ever-so-slightly over the top Japanese wackiness to really sell this as a living, breathing, and enjoyable city to explore.

As anyone who’s played a Persona game before will attest, the soundtrack (and voice work) is absolutely paramount to the lasting success of these games. I’m thrilled to say Persona 5 delivers. Every single track on the OST is catchy, hummable and wholly unique compared to anything you’ll find in other games at the moment, and its not something I’m going to be able to adequately put into words so I’m not going to attempt it. I’ll simply say this: you’ll sing along to every track every time it comes on. Even the tracks I wasn’t sure about the first time round, on their fiftieth I was absolutely smitten. The music in these games commands a serious following, and Atlus knows how to please them.

The voice acting is also great, with every main character delivering a nuanced and emotive performance. I understand some people are sensitive to dubs, especially American ones, and some simply prefer to listen to a game or movie in its native tongue, and for you guys there’s a Japanese language track. Whilst there’s no way for a non-Japanese speaker like myself to know for sure, I’m comfortable in saying that to my ears it sounds great as well.

Conclusion:

As a stylish, slick and sexy videogame, Persona 5 Royal is without equal. This polish extends to the title’s various mechanics, with nothing in this game feeling like a rough spot on its mirror sheen. This isn’t to say the game has no faults – indeed, I’d have liked a little more freedom in the battles and a little more comradery between my teammates – but these issues (both of which are very subjective) never stopped me from falling in love with Persona 5 the first time round.

Royal adds a whole lot to that existing package, tightening up some of the original’s mechanics whilst slathering on a heaping helping of brand new content. If you’ve never played a Persona game before, this is absolutely the place to start. If you’re already a fan, and have given hundreds of hours to P5 already, I’ve still got to recommend this one. Atlus have really outclassed the competition in making an expensive double-dip absolutely worth it. There’s a lot here that is completely unmatched in the genre, and I’m confident most of that will go unmatched until Persona 6. So bring on Persona 6.