Persona 5 Royal

When I first reviewed Persona 5 back in 2017, I loved it. In fact, I called it "easily one of the best Japanese role-playing games I've played this entire generation." I've been reflecting a lot on that three-year-old review while playing through Persona 5 Royal, a just-released version of the game that adds a bunch of new characters, story threads, locations and more. It's the definitive version of a stellar RPG, there's no question about it. This is the same epic adventure that I loved all those years ago, only now with a lot more content. But will that be enough to entice new players? And, more importantly, is Royal worth buying if you've already played the original game? Well, those answers are surprisingly complicated.

No matter if you're new to the game or a close acquaintance of the Phantom Thieves, the story remains the same: Persona 5 follows the journey of a teenage boy who is shipped off to live in Tokyo after getting into some legal trouble back home. Hoping to avoid the stigma of the trial, he shacks up with a cranky old man who runs a failing restaurant with zero patience for a delinquent kid. With no friends, a criminal record and only a storage room to live in, things are looking bleak for our hero.

But life begins to improve once he meets Ryuji, a former track star who has a troubled past of his own. The two hit it off immediately and quickly become close friends, thanks in large part to a shared experience where they end up getting transported into a mysterious castle run by one of the school's creepy teachers. This sets up a fun mystery where they not only attempt to bring the teacher to justice, but also figure out why they are able to seemingly jump from one reality to another and summon magical creatures known as personas.

It won't take long for our hero's circle of friends to expand and form into a group called the Phantom Thieves. This name is derived from the fact that they are literally jumping into a person's metaverse and stealing the thing they desire the most. Without getting technical, this will force a change of heart and make the wrong-doer confess their sins and accept responsibility for their acts. It's an addictive little power that proves to be too enticing to do just once, so the rag-tag team of wannabe superheroes constantly finds themselves on the hunt for more adults committing evil acts.

The truth is, this only barely scratches the surface of what's going on in Persona 5 Royal. There's a story early on about weird car and train accidents that keep happening throughout Tokyo, a famous artist with a shady past, the existential crisis of a talking cat and a school principle that will seemingly stop at nothing to find those pesky Phantom Thieves. And did I mention that most of the game is told through flashbacks, since we see at the start that our hero, codenamed Joker, has been arrested by the police and is being interrogated deep underground in a windowless room. This is a game juggling so many stories and characters that it's no wonder it took me well over one-hundred hours to finally see the brand-new ending.

Believe it or not, Royal actually adds to the madness by including two new characters -- a fellow student named Kasumi and Maruki the school counselor who has been brought in after tragedy befalls Shujin Academy. These two seamlessly blend in with the rest of the cast, quietly building onto the story and waiting for just the right time to reveal their secrets. Kasumi is a star gymnast who can teach the Phantom Thieves a few new tricks, while Maruki offers Joker and his friends a safe place to vent their teenage angst.

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While things may be spiraling out of control in the real world, the same cannot be said inside the metaverse. It's here that the Phantom Thieves have all the power, thanks to their powerful personas and ability to wield guns, swords and all kinds of other weapons. The combat in Persona 5 is fast and streamlined, giving us a system where things like attack, guard and items are all mapped to face buttons and most battles happen at a rapid pace. Royal also adds a new cinematic move called Showtime that pairs some of your favorite characters together in a cool animated sequence.

What I love about Persona is that instead of sticking with the orcs, goblins and other role-playing cliches, this franchise has always taken a more stylish approach. The story is based in what seems to be present day, but the dungeons are the very definition of unpredictable. We start out fighting through a giant castle, which quickly leads to jumping in and out of paintings at a warped art museum, fighting through space in a sci-fi level and fighting off giant birds on the top of a pyramid.

And that's the thing about Persona 5 -- it's full of ideas you rarely see in role-playing games. In fact, there are long stretches of this game where it barely feels like a JRPG. So much of this game has you trying to juggle the dungeon crawling with the everyday responsibilities of being in high school. You'll have to study for tests, socialize with friends, go on field trips, take on part-time jobs, keep up with the texts you get and even date. And with only a limited amount of time in each day, you'll have to make sacrifices in order to get everything done and steal the treasure in time. Royal is constantly pulling you in a bunch of different directions, which helps to remind you what it's like to be a teenager with an active social life.

As somebody who played through the original game three years ago, I found this version of Persona 5 to be compelling and frustrating. Don't get me wrong, everything I loved about the vanilla release is back and better than ever in Royal, but there's a catch. I spent a large chunk of the time wondering what Kasumi and Maruki were up to and what it had to do with the story. I patiently waited to see what the game was building up to, all while worrying that there wouldn't be any payoff. The good news is that the game definitely pays off the introduction of these new characters. Unfortunately, it takes beating the original game all over again for you to see the meat of the new content.

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This is the point where I feel the need to remind people that Persona 5 was not a short game. It took me close to 100 hours to get to what used to be the final boss and kick its ass. But instead of giving us the original ending, Royal shakes things up and adds another 15 hours to the adventure. This includes a new palace to explore, new enemies to fight, more dates to go on and an even tougher end boss to deal with. Best of all, it doesn't feel like filler. The twists and reveals actually help to reshape my thoughts on the original story, to the point where I doubt I'll ever be able to look at Persona 5 the same way. But, again, that comes after a 100-hour adventure that largely plays out exactly the same way.

This is a tricky situation for the developers, because Royal is more than just a simple DLC pack. You need to play through the full game and get to know these new characters in order for the added content to make sense and be satisfying. What's more, it's hard to talk about what makes the new palace and characters so interesting without revealing major spoilers, which I'm not going to do here. Replaying the game in full is a big commitment, and I can imagine a lot of returning players looking at this and wondering if they would even have the time to see the new content. All this benefits the people playing Persona 5 for the first time, as they will be too wrapped up in the story to care about the differences between versions.

And yet, I feel like the new content is designed not for the new player, but rather the hardcore fans. The people who have already played through the game. The ripple effects brought by introducing new characters is fascinating to watch and the new ending works because it knows what you're expecting to happen. There's also a lot of fan service that feels like it was put in there to shut up the fanatical shippers on Reddit. This is the definitive version and is easy to recommend for new players, but Persona 5 vets will need to be ready for a major time commitment before getting to the new content.