Persona 5 Royal: A Review (2024)

It’s finally time to review one of my all-time favouritegames.

I first played Persona 5 around 3 years ago, and I’ve reallygrown since then in a few ways. A few thoughts before I begin: a) since myfirst playthrough, JRPGs have cemented themselves as one of my favourite typesof games; b) I don’t hate all turn-based RPGs except Pokémon anymore!; c) aftermy first playthrough I went to Japan, and as Persona 5 is set in Tokyo, playingRoyal was a lot of fun as I knew a lot of the locations, which meant I coulddive into the setting deeper than the first time; and d) my 250 hours ofplaytime in total across both playthroughs can most likely be attributed to theincredible writing and masterful character development.

Warning: HEAVY story spoilers

The Silence is Deafening

‘…’ – a direct quote from our protagonist, there. Our silenthero, codename Joker, is a victim of circ*mstance. Wrongfully accused ofassault by a mysterious man who is angered that a kid prevented him fromforcing a woman into his car et al., he must move away from his hometown towait out his probation period and live a normal student life. Why must he liveabove a failing café under the guardianship of the cranky owner? Not tomention: why is he banished to Tokyo of all places, somewhere verylikely much more exciting than wherever his hometown is?

Either way, Joker isn’t going to tell you. He’s quiet andlets the other many, many other characters do the talking for him—a usual tropeof JRPGs, but it is still an issue as he is also put on a pedestal as anincredibly special, talented, empathetic and all-round great guy. He’s the onlyone capable of saving the world, as he has abilities no-one else has, for somereason.

But this isn’t as bad as I’m making it out to be. Sure, itdoesn’t really make sense why you have such a huge following when you don’thave much of a personality, but that’s the beauty of the silent protagonist. You,the player, are the protagonist. The fact that you can even put your ownname in as his name is telling. You make the decisions, you make the friends,and you carve out your own destiny from the choices you make. It’s always thesekinds of games that, when I talk to my friends, I say ‘I messed up with Sojiro’or ‘I went to the arcade today’—and it is me. Because even though I’mnot a woefully silent Japanese male teenager with glasses, for the time I’mplaying Persona 5, I am.

So, you are the protagonist. You learn that there aremental shutdowns all over Tokyo, making people go crazy and kill lots ofpeople, such as a conductor crashing his train, or simply killing people on thespot. It’s weird, but what can you do? You’re just a student with hisown problems: not only do many of the students avoid you because you are adelinquent, but the volleyball coach, Kamoshida, seems to be harassingstudents, from the ones on his team who seem terrified of him, to girls thatare being hit on. When a strange app appears on your phone, you accidentallyfind yourself in the metaverse, along with Ryuji, who also has a good reason toget revenge on Kamoshida.

I Am Thou, Thou Art I

What teenager doesn’t have a rebellious self hidden deepwithin their subconscious? Well, these teens can utilise that hidden self past itsusual constraints to overcome the crappy adults that suppress them and makedetrimental decisions for them. Once Joker and Ryuji, and later many otheryoung adults, realise this potential and recognise that these adults need to bestopped, they are awakened to their Personas. A Persona is a manifestation of apersona user’s personality, which the individual can use to face hardship andovercome injustice, even if just in the Metaverse, the collective unconsciousworld.

But, really, there’s no ‘just’ about it. Here in this world,which take the form of Palaces, the Phantom Thieves (you and your friends) candefeat the ruler of the Palace (the adult with a distorted desire) to convincethem to change their heart. In this way, the ‘real’ them in the real world willatone for their actions and justice can be served. So, really, your actions arevital to solving crimes, dealing justice and, eventually, saving the world.

These Personas are like Pokémon for adults. You are special,as you can catch and wield multiple Personas, allowing you to have a wholearray of powers, but your friends have one that they train and evolvethroughout the course of the story. Catching them is a skill: you have to learntheir weakness, and use a skill that takes advantage of it to ‘down’ thePersona. This gives you a chance to either: perform an ‘all out’ attack whichsees all your allies fight them at once for increased damage; ask them formoney or an item; or negotiate with them to convince them to become a part ofyou (and thus catch them for use later). This gets harder when there aremultiple different Personas to battle at once, all with different weaknessesand strengths that means you must time your combat precisely to ‘down’ them atthe same time.

Personas are one of the best parts of the game, as you cansee.

Not happy with a persona’s moves, or you want to createstronger ones? Go to the Velvet Room, where Igor and the Twin Wardens Justineand Caroline will fuse two or more Personas together to create new ones.

This is where the Pokémon element is better and worse. Youcan get completely new and stronger Personas immediately, which is cool, but ifyou are particularly drawn to one it doesn’t make sense to keep using them asthey will level up far quicker if you fuse them than if you keep them. Istruggled with this at first, as Arsene is your first ‘official’ Persona, and Icouldn’t quite believe you are only meant to have him for the first few hours.It’s like Ash giving up Pikachu after defeating Brock!

Also, have you seen how you have to fuse them? It’s so darkand unnecessarily vivid! You have to guillotine, electric chair or hang them inorder to create these new Personas, which is so different to Persona 4 wherethe Personas are cards, making it less gruesome to get rid of your companions. Itdefinitely made me feel bad for fusing them, but that didn’t stop me!

Take Over, It’s Time to Put You Down

Using these Personas are a lot of fun, too. The moves areelemental as well as physical, they can inflict ailments such as ‘sleep’ and‘fear’, and evolve as you and your Personas level up. Personas all havestrengths and weaknesses, and by fusing them, you can create Personas withstronger moves and resistances that, as you get towards the end of the game,means that you can fuse some incredibly powerful Personas that can fight anyand all enemies, if you’re smart with the moves you inherit.

This all sounds very similar to Pokémon, right? Well, thereare other more showy, fantastically fun elements that integrate beautifullywith the stunning graphics to make every battle (which have the potential tobecome very repetitive) exciting and challenging. When a character manages to‘down’ an enemy by using a move that is strong against it, they can either doanother attack or choose to Baton Pass to an ally, chaining super-effectiveattacks to down multiple enemies in one round, which is useful if there are alot of different enemies with different affinities and weaknesses. Then, onceall enemies are downed, all allies can come together for an All Out Attack foran extra boost of damage.

As much as this is useful for the player, if the enemy downsone of your allies, they can also do a secondary attack, which means that theyhave the potential to wipe out your team very quickly. Plus, some moves are onehit kills, which may have low accuracy but is still extremely frustratingsometimes, particularly in regular 5 where I found the combat more challenging.The worst boss fight was Haru’s dad, where I actually had to change difficultyfor the only time throughout the game—who decided it was a good idea to revivethe robot shadows if you didn’t kill them in three moves?!

The Showtime moves, new for Royal, bring a fresh new elementto the game. As you progress through the story, your allies start formingbonds, which will then be reflected in combat. At seemingly random times, theycan join up with fantastic new animations (such as Yusuke cooking Ryuji someyummy food at a bar, who get interrupted by a shadow coming in the door, andthey both take it out) and inflict massive damage. I was sad that Joker doesn’tget one, until the Royal section where baes Akechi and Sumire both team up withyou respectively for new Showtimes. It made me wonder whether Joker just wasn’tas close to the rest of the team as he becomes to Akechi and Sumire, whichactually also made me glad that I focused on both of them heavily in myplaythrough!

Adulting is Hard

The story of Persona 5 is deeply gripping, and keepsyou invested and interested the whole way through. It didn’t absolutely destroyme like other JRPGs have done (see: Final Fantasy XV), but fun, emotiveand has huge repercussions if you don’t succeed in your mission, includingpeople dying and the world ending. No pressure, then.

Your actions, then, are crucial to making the world a betterplace: and the villains that you encounter are integral to succeeding. In truerevolution fashion, it’s the kids that need to stand up to the adults to ridthem of their distorted desires—but it’s not all random. The adults are trulyabhorrent (the first one, Kamoshida, sexually assaults female students andphysically abuses members of his volleyball team) and they continue a runningthread from first to last—that is, the ones who you think aren’t connected atall seem to be connected to the final villain by the end. It’s very clever, andkept me gripped the whole way through—something that’s needed with 80+ hours ofgameplay.

The writing is absolutely fantastic. All characters havetheir own distinct mannerisms, personalities and stories, which you get toexplore with the Confidant mechanic (see below). The voice acting is great, andas I progressed through the Confidants, I really started to feel like they werebecoming my friends, and that every time I turned on my PS4 I was hanging outwith my pals again. It’s the way games should make you feel—like you actually careabout what will happen to them.

This does make the game quite stressful (in a good way), aswhat you do has actual repercussions. It’s a bit frustrating sometimes thatsome of your dialogue doesn’t affect the game at large, as well as your romancechoices. None of the characters acknowledge you have a girlfriend, and if youdate Ann, for example, she won’t act any differently than if you decide to noteven become her friend. While that’s disappointing, other dialogue choices cancompletely affect your game so that you always have to be very careful withyour decisions. Will you get the ‘bad’ ending, where you fail to stop the finalvillain; the ‘good bad’ ending, where you accept his distorted view of theworld; or the ‘true’ canon ending, where you revert the world to normal? A lotof choices throughout this lengthy game affect what ultimately happens, so youdo feel like you’re affecting the story a lot more than, say, Pokémon. In fact,in Royal, you can even miss out on a whole section of the game…

Ascending to Royalty

As long as you max your Confidant links with Akechi (therenegade teen detective), Kasumi (the new gymnast freshman at your school) andMaruki (the school counsellor), you get to experience the 30+ hours that Royaladds to Persona 5. And—major spoilers here—once you’ve defeated the Godof Control and exposed Akechi for the unhinged betrayer that he is, you shouldgo to juvenile detention and your ability to use Personas should be gonefor good, as Momentos has been destroyed.

However, in Royal, Maruki has figured out how to usecognitive psience—and you’re the reason why. His sessions with you has helpedwith his research, and so now he can make the world a better place by grantingeveryone’s desires in the collective unconsciousness.

As you can see by his actions, he’s not your typicalantagonist. His heart is completely in the right place: he wants to makeeveryone happy by granting their desires for them, such as bringing backFutaba’s dead mother and helping Ryuji recover so he can get back on the trackteam. I resonated with that, and actually wondered whether it would be worsefor certain characters, particularly Futaba and Haru who get to spend time withtheir respective dead parents, to reject the “blissful ignorance” reality thatMaruki had created for them in favour of the truth.

By this point, I had grown rather fond of the deranged butentertaining firework that Akechi has revealed himself to be, and once Ilearned that Akechi would die (as he did in regular 5) if Maruki’s reality wereto be revoked, I almost chose to accept it. But Akechi being adamant that hewas going to stop Maruki no matter what as he didn’t want to live under anyoneelse’s rule helped make that choice for me. It was difficult, though. Akechi’sis a motive that is simultaneously selfish and noble: selfish as he doesn’twant anyone else to control him, even if that means other people are happy, butnoble because he values the truth above all else. Plus, the fact that he wasone of the main villains throughout the story up until this point made mequestion whether we should continue to trust him, even though he had decided tohelp us, even if it were primarily for his own gain. I think my fondness forhim (perhaps because he is a fully-fledged Confidant in this game, unlikeregular 5) and the wildcard elements he brought to the game made me feel acertain brand of loyalty towards him, and so I chose to honour his “dyingwish”. And, of course, this path led to the ‘true’ ending!

This indecision is shown most clearly in Maruki’s palace,where you have to deduce what decisions in certain situations Maruki wouldthink is the ‘right’ one. It really helps you understand where he’s comingfrom. For example, his question ‘if your friend is being attacked, and youdon’t have much time before they get seriously hurt, would you a) run to gethelp but you might not make it back in time, or b) join the fight to help butyou might get hurt yourself?’ Neither answer is necessarily wrong, but b)is correct as Maruki simply wants you to look out for yourself over others. Thecrux of his viewpoint is that you should endeavour to make yourself happy orsafe, even if that means others may not be. It’s a very interesting conundrum,and one I enjoyed debating philosophically whilst playing.

The concept of right and wrong and mental health was alsotackled in this game through Kasumi/Sumire. Ultimately, even though Marukiwanted to help her by allowing Sumire to pretend to be her dead sister, as sheblames herself for her death, he ultimately did her more harm than good. Withthe support of Joker and the others Sumire was able to overcome her delusionsand grow into a strong, confident young woman. This cemented for me howbackwards Maruki was and that reality is the most important thing, even if it’snot always what we want, because that’s life. In this way, I feel that Royaladded something to 5. Even though going into someone’s mind palace was aboutmental health, I never really considered it until Royal dealt with an innocenttraumatised girl and a misguided man attempting to heal her. I applaud Atlasfor tackling something so difficult pretty well.

Confident in my Confidants

It’s a good thing the player can really get into the story,because it’s heavily dependent on personal decisions and making friends.

In order to get stronger within the Metaverse, Igor, the maninside the Velvet Room, tells Joker that he needs to strengthen therelationship with his friends first. This is absolutely true—not just with yourteammates, but with other individuals who live in Tokyo too, in the form of theConfidant mechanic. For example, while your teammates all get skills such ascuring afflictions and taking fatal hits for Joker, others give just as much ifnot more valuable perks, such as Kawakami giving you more free time or Mishimaallowing all teammates to gain experience even if they don’t contribute to thebattle once you max them out.

The way you level them up is through socialising. Thispasses time, but is also incredibly interesting, as each Confidant has agripping story (except Ohya!). You can’t downgrade a Confidant, but picking theright dialogue choices can make leveling them up much quicker in a game wheretime is everything. It’s also necessary to level up your stats, such asknowledge, kindness and charm, to allow you to progress with some Confidantsand be empathetic or charming enough to deal with the situations thrown at you.I loved the dual play style of dungeon battles and social simulation—in a lengthygame, it broke up gameplay and kept it fresh.

As this was my second playthrough, I already knew thatmaxing certain Confidants would yield the best results, such as Kawakami andYoshida who eventually allows you to negotiate with and catch shadows of ahigher level than you. But in Royal, the new additions of Counselor, Faith& Justice—Maruki, Kasumi & Akechi—freshened things up. Technically,Justice isn’t new, but you can now hang out with him instead of his progressbeing facilitated purely by story.

Time to rate my friends from worst to best!

21: Ichiko Ohya
Devil Arcana

I found this alcoholic journalist very annoying. Her storyisn’t that interesting, she isn’t very nice, and the skills that she gives youto allow you to sneak around Palaces easier aren’t worth it either. I onlymaxed out her story near the end as I had time, but honestly, she shouldn’t bea priority.

20: Iwai Munehisa
Hanged Man Arcana

Didn’t think anything of him until Royal, where I had moretime to learn about his time in the Yakusa and his son. Useful for guns (whicharen’t even an integral part of combat, really), but other than that I barelyused his shop—plus you have to have high Guts in order to progress. Definitelybetter Confidants out there.

19: Tae Takemi
Death Arcana

The fact that this doctor is a sexy goth is probably thebest thing about her. You can level her up quite early on, so she is quiteexciting at the beginning as she’s one of the only adults you can turn into aConfidant at that point, but after a while she stopped being interesting to me.In my Royal playthrough I found I didn’t need many healing items—SP was farmore important!—and in the end I didn’t max her out. A fun outfit, but canleave her.

18: Shinya Oda
Tower Arcana

Definitely annoying (but what little brother isn’t?) butthere’s a sad reason for that—his mum is emotionally abusive, even if shedoesn’t mean to be. In the end I wanted to max him out to save him from thatlife, but I never quite got that far. At least I managed to change his mum’sheart before I finished the game.

He’s also quite useful in buffing gun attacks and bonusesfor downing and negotiating, so definitely useful for combat. I just ended upfeeling bad for him, but he was also a bit of a sh*t, being a bully to hisclassmates; his big bro Joker helped with that!

17: Hifumi Togo
Star Arcana

I never got to know her in my first playthrough, and Ididn’t realise how useful she is for battles. She eventually allows you to swapplayers in combat, hastens escapes, improves money hauls, and allows back-upmembers to do follow up attacks. I’d definitely give her a shot for just thosebonuses, even if you don’t want to romance her—but she is sweet, if verydetached from the rest of the story.

16: Chihaya Mifune
Fortune Arcana

I maxed her out pretty quickly so I could get the fortune readings;affinity was especially useful, as you can level up Confidants a tiny bitquicker, for a price. And, after she takes 100,000 from you near the beginning(!) and eventually gives it back, she’s lovely. Nothing special, and definitelynot one to romance, but nice.

15: Twin Wardens Justine & Caroline
Strength Arcana

Their Confidant path was slightly different: you have toshow them Personas with specific moves, and they will level up. This was veryinteresting, and also put a natural brake on their relationship, as somePersonas can’t be made until you are a certain level. They are also very usefulas you eventually unlock group Persona fusions and can fuse Personas of ahigher level than you, for a price. Always fun to get the ridiculous Personas abit earlier on! Also, their story was super interesting, due to the mysterythat surrounds their identities…

Also also, Royal gives a new element to your relationshipwith them. You can now take them out of the Velvet Room to show them ‘humanthings’, like aquariums and cinemas. I didn’t utilise this much as you only getskill cards, and no actual level progress, but I wish I had more time, as thedialogue in these sequences is hilarious as they try to understand why humanswould do certain things. The fact that I’ve ranked them so low is telling—thereare so many fun and useful Confidants that mean they rank this low.

14: Yuuki Mishima
Moon Arcana

I actually think you’re a bit mean to him—he’s definitelyyour friend, but every time you are asked to clarify this the dialogue choicesmake you seem like a dickhe*d when you say he’s only ‘sort of’ your friend!He’s helped you so much, stop being such a dick, player. Plus he helps increaseEXP, as well as allows EXP to be given to back-up members so it’s definitely agood thing to max him earlier. Plus, he’s sweet, and gives you Momentosrequests. Justice for Mishima!

13: Takuto Maruki
Councillor Arcana

Lovely. What a gent. Shame he turned out to be distorted bydeciding to change people’s realities by interpreting their vague wants insteadof actually asking people if they’d WANT their realities changed or not. Soundsa bit like Thanos to me, but with a better reason to be evil.

The bonuses of Maruki though are: he’s interesting; he’slovely; and his bonuses are mainly SP based, which is always hard to recover inPersona, especially in the early stages of the games. He raises your SP, givesyou a chance to instantly recover ailments, gives you a chance to becomefocused and therefore raises your attack, and gives you a chance to recoveryour SP when low. Very useful, and you can’t play the Royal storyline withoutmaxing him out before November 18^th anyway.

12: Haru Okumura
Empress Arcana

Again, I wasn’t too much of a fan of Haru on my firstplaythrough (perhaps because she’s quite a late addition to the team), but thistime round, I had more time to get to know her. I really wanted to save herfrom her awful fiancé, and hoped I’d be able to say ‘don’t marry him, marryme!’ if I chose to romance her, but alas. I was also quite surprised with howbusiness-orientated she is, which was a surprise. However, she was just tooprim and proper for me, and even after her story showed her to be evolving intoa confident woman, she didn’t evolve quite enough for me to be interested.

She’s useful, though, as all the Confidants are who are yourteam members, so leveling her up is a must, for help in combat and to evolveher Persona.

11: Morgana
Magician Arcana

Morgana was the most useful as the support hero—I alwayswanted him in my party, particularly in hard battles, just to keep me and myallies alive. Plus, who doesn’t love a talking cat? Though, at one point, hedoes get moody and very annoying. While Morgana as a character was never thatexciting past being the initial reason they can become Phantom Thieves and themystery surrounding where he comes from, Royal switched that up by turning himinto a dreamboat with piercing blue eyes when Maruki made his dream of being ahuman come true. They kept saying throughout this sequence how beautifulhe was, which was amusing. A nice twist on the original game.

10: Toranosuke Yoshida
Sun Arcana

I learnt to level this fallen-from-grace politician upquickly from my first playthrough as, once you max him out, you can negotiateeasier with shadows of your own level, and negotiate with higher level shadowsand add them to the compendium—absolutely necessary. Also, he’s basically amassive socialist leftie, so he rocks.

9: Yusuke Kitagawa
Emperor Arcana

I didn’t like him much in my first playthrough, but now Iappreciate him far more—he’s flamboyant, artistic and, best of all, happy to bein his own mind and be himself, no matter what people think of him. He’s a bitstuck up sometimes, but all in all he’s an outsider who fits in better than hereally should. And he provides funny dialogue, particularly when interactingwith Futaba. I also love his Showtime moves with Ryuji and Ann.

8: Ann Takamaki
Lovers Arcana

I’m quite surprised she’s this low down for me, but eventhough she’s the first girl you befriend and she’s hopelessly beautiful toeveryone who meets her, she doesn’t quite push past the ‘ditzy girl’ trope. Thestory does try to make her more nuanced, and to an extent it works—she’s alsofun, thoughtful and empathetic—but there’s just too many misogynistic and ditsyjokes that even only a few years later don’t land anymore. Saying that, sheliterally uses her sexuality to break free of the misogyny that surrounds herbody and the sexual abuse and prejudice she experiences, at the most from thevolleyball teacher, and at the least from everyone around her. It’s a steephill to climb, but she’s doing it.

I drew the picture below!

7: Sadayo Kawakami
Temperance Arcana

Kawakami’s your teacher—what could possibly go wrong? Well,she’s also a sexy maid who comes over to clean up, though she won’t go anyfurther as you’re her high school student. Yet. It’s a bit dodgy, especially asshe acts like your mum, but even so, the forbidden fruit angle is fun. Herstory is also compelling. Not only is she an interesting Confidant, but one ofthe most useful ones for the amount of extra time she gives you when you levelher up. Why on both my playthroughs did I not level her up immediately?

6: Sojiro Sakura
Hierophant Arcana

He’s your guardian who takes you in when you have to movefrom your hometown after your alleged assault to live out your probation. Hestarts out cranky, but has an absolute heart of gold. He ended up being one ofmy favourite Confidants—plus, he’s one of the most useful, as he is one of theonly ways to get SP in the early game by making coffee and curry. You need tounderstand the pride I got from making coffee that met his expectations!

5: Futaba Sakura
Hermit Arcana

Sojiro’s adopted daughter is so much fun that I romanced herin the first game. While some may think she’s more like a little sister, she’sjust a bit more immature because of her hermit lifestyle and Arcana. She’sfunny, loves games, and has great references; she is one of the only instancesof a game that has a young girl who doesn’t sound like 40-year-olds trying tosound like teenagers. She has a heartbreaking story, but her personality keepsit light. She says it how it is, no matter what anyone else thinks. She’s great.

4: Kasumi/Sumire Yoshizawa
Faith Arcana

I chose to romance the gymnast honour student in Royal,because how can you not romance the new girl? Though I wasn’t sure at first, asI found her quite twee at the beginning. However, she became a lot more nuancewhen she became Sumire, which is to be expected. Plus, she is really wellintegrated into the story and really makes you feel she cares about you. Shehas an amazing costume when she is Codename: Violet, and gives you some trulyuseful abilities, such as ambushing from a distance and avoiding beingsurrounded by shadows. She’s a great addition to an already great game.

3: Makoto Niijima
Priestess Confidant

She’s bestgirl in terms of smarts, badassery, and simplerelatability. She is Student Council President, an honour student, and has beenmanipulated by evil adults for their own distorted desires. Her parents havedied, which instils her with deep guilt for being a burden on her sister. She’salso the only one whose Confidant story doesn’t actively revolve aroundherself: she changes, but it’s through helping her friend who may be a victimof trafficking rather than her own self-interests. She’s sharp, poised and evenmore badass when she awakens to her Persona, Johanna—it’s a freakingmotorcycle!

2: Ryuji Sakamoto
Chariot Confidant

Your best buddy. I’m always drawn towards these ones, whoare treated a bit dumb but are loyal to the end. He’s also hilarious, like whenhe complains the Phantom Thieves are in the shadows and not getting any credit,and I chose the option ‘I like the shade’, he says ‘what are you, moss?!’ Ireally do wish I could romance him, because I can see a lovely storyline wherehe’s unsure at first but the fact that they’re soulmates transcends gender.

1: Goro Akechi
Justice Confidant

I’m almost hesitant to admit I find him the most fascinatingand fun. Not only is he dangerous, exciting and unhinged, he’s at the centre ofan incredible twist. He’s one of the most interesting characters, and you neverknow what he’s going to do next. I would definitely date him if Japanese gameslet gay relationships happen; he has all the best attributes for a crazyromantic relationship. Not IRL, but in a game, why not?

I love that he didn’t die and teams up with you in Royal,and that . He’s also the first character that Joker gets a Showtime move with,which made it quite special. When it is revealed just how evil and crazy he is,his whole character changes, including his Persona, his Phantom Thieves outfit,and his demeanor—it’s scary how excited he is by killing, but at the sametime, he is absolutely certain of his viewpoints and won’t compromise foranyone. Many of these points would be a reason why he shouldn’t be mynumber one, but I can’t help it.

Honourable Mentions: Igor (Fool Arcana), Sae Niijima(Judgement Arcana) & Jose

Igor is the ruler of the Velvet Room, and the person whofacilitates your rehabilitation in changing peoples’ hearts. However, ‘person’isn’t quite right for Igor: he’s the God of Control, born from the desires ofthe collective masses who want to be controlled and be told what to do ratherthan make difficult decisions. It was a cool twist to realise that the God ofControl had been impersonating the real Igor; I don’t know if Igor was lovelyin the previous games, but he certainly is once you restore him at the end of5. Despite him being interesting, I never felt like I had a connection withhim, as you level up his Arcana automatically throughout the story, and henever tried to have a personal relationship with Joker.

Sae has her own palace and Arcana, but she’s not quite thesame as the others. Like Igor, you level up automatically throughout the game when youconfess to her the whole Phantom Thieves story, and while she does have aPalace, she doesn’t through any huge transformation other than realising thatlearning the truth is better than trying to win at any cost. She’s cool, andher outfit in her Palace is sexy, but you can’t romance her and can’t changemuch of what you say to her. I wish in Royal she could have been a fullyfledged Confidant instead.

Jose counts even less. A new addition to Royal, he helps youchange the cognition of Momentos by collecting stamps as you go further down,and he gives you items in exchange for flowers, so he definitely makes Momentosbetter. However, his addition is nothing world-shaking, and he only shows uprandomly, which makes him quite annoying. I could have done without him, but atleast he made Momentos more interesting than in the base game, which, comparedto Palaces, was quite boring.

A Momentous Game

Overall, this is one of my favourite games of all time. Thegameplay keeps me entertained for 100+ hours (though, to be fair, I do lovelong games) and the characters and writing makes me emotionally connect withthe story they are telling. I’d suggest playing for at least 8 hours, as it’s aslow burn, but once that hurdle is jumped the real obsession begins.

Time to go and play Persona 4 Golden, as I’m notquite ready for the fun to be over yet.