Phantastic.
It seems like an eternity since Persona 5 first released on the PlayStation 4, but in reality it has only been 3 years. My favorite game of 2016 (only just beating out Uncharted 4) Persona 5 took up over 100 hours of my life, and it was worth every minute. Now it is back in a new form, Persona 5 Royal, and it wants to steal my heart again.
The story takes place in Tokyo, and is centered around a group of high-schoolers at ShujinAcadamy, one of whomwas sent there after he was involved in an altercation with a mysterious adult and falsely accused of assault. This young man, our protagonist, immediately gets involved with another student, Ryuji, when attending his first day at his new school, and after finding a strange new app on their smart phonesthey get sucked in to a strange dream-like world called the Metaverse and find themselves inside a Castle which is located exactly where the school should be. It is here that they bump in to a taking cat called Morgana and their adventure begins. It turns out the app has taken them in to the subconscious mind of particularly nasty school teacher called Kamoshida, a gym instructor who sees himself as the king of the castle at school, hence the reason why the building is represented by a castle in the Metaverse. Although Morgana cannot seem to remember his origins, he does hold a lot of helpful information regarding the Metaverse, so our two reluctant heroes allow him to assist them in exploring the castle.
Platform: PlayStation 4
Price: $59.99
Genre: JRPG
Meanwhile in the real world, the students start to uncover information that points to Kamoshida abusing, both physically and sexually, students and forcing them to stay quiet. It is then that Morgana suggests that if our heroes can steal the treasure at the heart of Shadow Kamoshida’s castle, then maybe the real Kamoshida will have a change of heart and confess to his crimes. Thus the Phantom Thieves are born with the goal of stealing his heart and bringing him to justice. Along the way they are joined by another student called Ann, who Kamoshida had tried to coerce into sleeping with him, and together they take him down. But they soon realize that Kamoshida was just the start, and it becomes their mission to change the hearts of evil-doers and give hope to the down-trodden and abused, all while trying to solve the mystery of the Metaverse and Moragana’s past. While mostly light-hearted the story does tend to bash adults a little too much.
The main theme is that these teenagers are being held back and manipulated by adults, and it does try to hit you over the head too hard with the message. It also alludes to all adults being the same and not being trust-worthy, which just is not the case in real life.It also mishandles the subject of sexual abuse; with it shying away from it in some parts of the story, while pushing hard on the crime in others. It is a very serious issue that is faced by many, many people, and while I think that there definitely room in video games to explore it and its effect on people, I don’t think it was handled with much finesse here.
Much like the previous four mainline Persona games, combat is turn-based and involves the main character, who has taken the moniker of Joker, collecting the persona of the monsters they fight. This is accomplished by holding up the enemy when they get in a weak enough state. Each persona fits in to a certain category and have abilities based on that profile, along with weaknesses to along with them. Much akin to many RPGs that involve elemental attacks, things like fire, water, air, and physical all have a counter weakness. The trick is to swap out Joker’s persona to suit the type of enemies. To begin with Joker can only carry a few personas at a time, but this gets increased through the course of the game with the help of Igor.
Fans of the series with immediately recognize Igor as a mainstay of the series. He runs the Velvet Room, which in this game takes the form of a prison and offers guidance and assistance to Joker in his rehabilitation efforts. This also includes the ability to fuse together two or more personas to create brand new ones, carrying over some of the stats from the fused personas and increasing their power. It is here that the game’s other big mechanic comes in to play, Social Links. When not fighting demons in the Metaverse, Joker must navigate the difficult world of teenage socialization and grow the bonds with not only his peers, but other people scattered through Tokyo who may have skills that prove useful in the Metaverse. This is done by spending time with these people after school and in the evenings. The more you spend time with the people, the stronger your bond becomes.
The stronger your bond with a person, the stronger your persona become. It may sound silly to have to socialize, but not only is it integral in beating stronger demons, but it is also where a lot of the character development takes place. Just like in real life, the more time you spend with someone, the more you get to know and understand them and their own internal struggles. There are several social links to explore and team-mates to recruit to the Phantom Thieves, and juggling them all is a demanding challenge. Not only are there social links to manage and the Metaverse to explore, but there is also Mementos to deal with. Mementos is a collective version of a Metaverse palace. Instead of it being the warped sub-conscious of one person, it is a place where the shadows of less disturbed dwell. It takes the form of an underground station, and it is the Phantom Thieves’ job to delve deep and change the hearts of the general public. How far it goes down is not really explored until the endgame, but it acts as a way to grind out experience and Yen, while also playing a larger part in the story as a whole.
Because time is limited in Persona 5 the player has to decide what they want to do. Social links and battling in Mementos eat up valuable time, as does taking part in activities that help increase your stats; such as reading, watching DVDs, going to the Bathhouse and eating massive burgers. Persona 5 also imposes a time limit on how long the player has to complete each palace, so time management is vital. I found it best to get all of the palaces done as soon as possible and then spend the rest of the allocated time limit to boost my links and stats. But there is no hard and fast rule, only that the palace must be completed by the set date.
So, what does the Royal version add to the experience? Well first of all there are two new main characters to interact with, and with them are two new social links to develop and storylines to explore. But while these new characters and their social links are introduced early on in the game, their storylines cannot be undertaken until the main game has been completed. And as there are new social links, there needs to be new personas to fight and add to your roster. Because of this added content, the game adds more time to the school year, allowing players to explore this new content without the fear of not having time to build up their other links enough. As one of the new characters becomes a Phantom Thief, a new palace has been added as well, and many of the original palaces have been re-worked, not only to streamline gameplay, but also to take advantage of a new Hook-Line ability Joker has been given.
That isn’t all though. Mementos also holds a new character in the form of a strange young boy. He asks the thieves to collect flowers and stamps in the Mementos in return for powerful items and boosts. He also oversees the new Thieves Den, which is an area where the player can go to and unlock artwork, music and even play card games. A small distraction, but something novel. The music has also been slightly remixed, but nothing that ruins the experience; in fact, the music is still as amazing as it always was. It just means players of the original game will have their ears prick up from time to time.
Persona 5 Royal is the definitive version of the game, and unlike the recent Tokyo Mirage Session re-release on Switch, the new content adds a lot to the experience. It may be a big commitment to play through the whole game, but there is no better reason for old fans to re-visit this world or new fans to get their first taste.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
