The original Persona from 1996 was the first Megami Tensei game to receive a release outside of Japan and be localized in English, bringing new fans to the franchise. Persona 3 from 2006 was the first time the franchise achieved huge international success as a unique jRPG (however broad this genre name is). Persona 5 from 2016 was the first time the franchise reached a success that went beyond the genre boundaries.
Of course, the process wasn’t that rapid and sudden and this “every 10 years” view is incorrect – each new game built momentum, gradually growing in popularity. And it’s not even that every odd release of Persona games is meant to be an important milestone, because then we will have to discuss many re-releases, spin-offs or even the fact that there are 2 games called Persona 2, one of which is a sequel to another. What is important, however, is that Persona 5, in its Royal release now finally available on most platforms, is the first time I wouldn’t have any trouble recommending a Persona game to absolutely anyone. With no asterisks, links to wikis and complex explanations. Persona 5 Royal is just that easy to get into. And also really hard to stop playing.
Just like Persona 3 (in any of its versions, including the upcoming remake) and Persona 4 (also in any of its versions), Persona 5 (in any… you get the idea) is a very unique blend of turn-based story driven jRPG with dungeon crawling and life simulation gameplay. And as usual, the story and characters are new and can be experienced completely independently of any other main games. You are once again a high school student, who must manage his time during the day that is usually divided into the Afternoon and Evening periods. And decide when to study, build friendships and relationships, have part time jobs and also find time to do the dungeon crawling. One aspect of this life benefits the other, so its always just a question of how you plan the day, with more and more options and abilities to optimize the time appearing with the story and with the choices you make.
As in previous two games, the protagonist and his team are Persona users, being able to call upon special spells and physical abilities and traverse layers of reality that are invisible to normal people. And also returning is the idea that the protagonist isn’t limited to one inner Persona, but can have a potentially unlimited number of them to switch on the fly. You can merge them to create new ones, gain them in battles, upgrade them and all that usual stuff, although there are countless quality of life improvements for basically every aspect of gameplay that was first introduced in Persona 3.
Battles remain a highlight so even people like me, who don’t like turn-based combat, find them entertaining. Every fight is about smart manipulation of strengths and weaknesses of enemies and your team abilities and the simple “attack” command is usually reserved for enemies weak to it or emergencies. But dungeon crawling and battles are also the biggest improvement over the previous titles gameplay-wise. For the first time since Persona 2 you fight shadows that represent a Persona directly and additionally an ability to negotiate with them, if all of them are knocked out but not defeated, is added (which is a recurring mechanic in other Megami Tensei games). A lot more nuances and abilities to knock out enemies are also here, more tactical play between party members too, so fights are an even more fun “puzzle” to solve. Since your goal is to focus on how to end the fight as quickly as possible, but also in the most beneficial way possible, instead of just fighting until enemies run out of health.
Dungeons themselves are now unique and full of puzzles, ideas and mechanics, instead of being a collection of randomly generated corridors with a theme. Well, there is a dungeon like that as well, but it takes far less time in the overall playtime and is in itself an improvement over slow and boring exploration of dungeons from the previous entries. There’s a very simple, but extremely fun stealth added to the exploration of the story dungeons as well so you can choose how to approach some problems in different ways. Also helped by the additional traversal options, as you can jump, climb and do all kinds of stuff instead of just running around. Dungeon crawling used to be boring and saved only by the presentation, the music and fun fights, but now even running around locations is extremely fun.
Oh and speaking of that – I know people have been speaking about it ever since 2016, but holy crap how cool and stylish this game is. Everything about its presentation is leagues ahead anything I’ve seen in other games. Every transition, every detail, every bit of the UI simply oozes charm and after looking at it for 80 hours, I could look at it for 80 more. The only real blemish on this overall presentation are the pre-rendered cutscenes using in-engine visuals that were added for the new Royal content, but everything else about this game looks perfect. The soundtrack is, unsurprisingly, fantastic as usual. Very unlike the previous two games (which were somewhat close in their sound) but unforgettable in its own right and fitting the tone of the game perfectly.
The story and the tone are also an extremely strong point, though not in the way I was hoping for. Let me explain. Persona 3 had an amazing premise, but also super long stretches of nothing and most social links were unlikable or boring. Persona 4 had a simpler story, but it was more consistently delivered, more characters were memorable, yet it suffered from extremely predictable tropes and the fact that the (usual for the franchise) plot point of god-like beings revealing themselves to be the cause of all issues in the final act didn’t fit the rest of the story. I was hoping that Persona 5 would be just the best of both approaches, but instead it’s good because while it still has the bad elements, it balances them out far better than the previous two titles. So the main story is slightly less impactful than Persona 3, but it’s also delivered far better and there’s nary a boring moment in the storytelling. Some of the main characters are still insufferable and predictable, being more of a caricature of a character than a proper character, but some are great and the rest are good enough. And even the whole big god-like machinations stuff is delivered well and fits the tone, which is closer to how it felt in P3, but still not as natural as it could’ve been. And some of the plot twists are way too convoluted for their own good and serve no real purpose other than “being cool”.
There’s almost nothing I could think of to criticize that feels worth mentioning. One boss fight felt poorly designed as it’s a damage race and if you have not overleveled or developed the team in a specific way, you simply cannot win. Some of the more “cinematic” boss fights last longer than you’d hope they would even if you’re damage output is optimal. The fact that new elements from Royal release for that randomly generated dungeon are also random is more of a frustration than a challenge. It’s a shame that one of the key characters from the Royal’s extended ending is the worst and most caricaturish character from the main story, but they’re not irritating enough to make it a problem. I can’t even say that the game was too long, even though it is very long, because it is one of very very few titles I’ve played that feel like they deserve that length. As they have enough meaningful experience to give you during those hours.
I still cannot believe just how incredible Persona 5 Royal is. And while it is an extremely easy recommendation for anyone, I feel that if this is your introduction to Persona, it would be very hard to play earlier games afterwards. Which is a bit of a shame as I feel that Persona 4 is still worth checking out, despite how flawed it is. And I also don’t know if the franchise can top this entry with the inevitable sequels without feeling like a repeat. But whatever the future holds, if you have not played Persona 5 Royal and you can spare 80+ hours on a game like this, you simply owe it to yourself to play it.