Overview
Persona 5 Royale is an RPG developed by Atlus in 2020 in it you play as an unnamed protagonist in Japan who is on probation for a crime he didn’t commit but after he discovers a new world him and his friends set out as the Phantom Thieves to change the minds of villain’s to make them better people and so they can admit to there crimes.
Gameplay
Persona 5 Royale has a turn based combat system that is common for RPG’s in summery this means that your team attacks, then the enemies attack, and it just keeps going like that until somebody wins. The best strategy to win these fights is to exploit the enemies elemental weaknesses. There are 10 different elements such as physical and gun which every party member comes equipped with however the rest only certain party members can learn like fire, ice, and electric but these elements specifically can cause states effects on the enemy’s which might stop their attacks for that turn and some other elements include almighty, psy, curse, and bless. With all of the these elements you should try to build a strong team that has a variety of elements at its disposal. Attacks aren’t all you can use to aid you in battle you can also use support skills that can raise you health, attack, speed, or defense for a few turns which can be a big help. Outside of combat you travel through dungeons inside of peoples minds that are based on their perception of the world ( for example if bad guy thinks of school as a place where he is the king then he might have a dungeon of a castle). The goal of infiltrating dungeons is to steal a treasure which is usually the thing that turned one of the bad guys evil in the first place. In the dungeons there are usually puzzles to solve and enemy’s to fight (which is where the combat comes in). Outside of the dungeons you have to do everyday high school student stuff like go to school, working out, getting a job, and hanging out with your friends. All of the stuff you do outside of the dungeons is still important since most of the stuff you do in the real world has direct effect on the dungeon world like for example working out raises your health points. The last big part of gameplay is the Velvet Room which is where you can fuse persona’s together to make stronger ones, get older persona’s you already fused again, and more.
Confidants
As I said before Persona 5 has the ability to hang out with your friends to help you, in combat, everyday life, and more. Below I’m just going to list some of the people you can hang out with
Ryuji Sakamoto: Ryuji is the first person you meet in the game who is actually nice to you mainly because he is also a social outcast because he punched his abusive track team coach. Ryuji is a bit of a hot head, kind of a jokester, and overall just a nice guy.
Morgana: Morgana is a talking cat with amnesia who is found in the first dungeon you visit and he knows a lot about the dungeons and serves as sort of a guide. Morgana says he’s not really a cat but he can’t remember so nobody really knows and he can also be a bit annoying sometimes.
Ann Takamaki: Ann is one of the students who is abused by the schools gym teacher (the same guy that Ryuji punched) but she eventually puts a stop to his abuse with your, Ryujis, and Morganas help. Ann is a pretty confident person, who is pretty sociable, and fun to be around.
Yusuke Kitagawa: Yusuke is the student of an artist who actually killed his mother and with the help of the protagonist and his friends takes him down. Yusuke is odd to say the least he often acts very impulsively, and he cares much about the artistic value of things.
Makoto Nijima: Makoto is the student council president at your school and she figures out that you and your friends are Phantom Thieves pretty quick but she eventually asks for your help to stop a mafia boss. Makoto is very assertive, mother like, and she also has a sister who wants to arrest the Phantom Thieves so that is a problem.
Futaba Sakura: Futaba is the daughter of Sojiro Sakura who is taking care of you while on probation however you don’t see her for awhile since she is a shut in but she asks for you help to make her less shy by going into her dungeon. Futaba as said before is a very shy person with very little social skills she also is a kind of a nerd and she is constantly making references to things.
Haru Okumura: Haru is seen throughout the game but no attention is really drawn to her until her The Phantom thieves want to go into her fathers dungeon after that she joins the Phantom Thieves. Haru is pretty shy but not as bad a Futaba. Haru also likes to garden and is over all pretty nurturing. Haru sadly doesn’t get that much screen time since she is introduced pretty late into the game which is a bummer because I like her character a lot.
Goro Akechi: Akechi is a detective who wants to catch the Phantom Thieves and bring them to justice however he is forced to team up with them due to unlikely events. Akechi usually playfully refers to you as his “rival” but he takes his it very seriously often starts competitions between the 2 just to prove he’s better. Akechi also is just generally pretty confident and sneaky.
Kasumi Yoshizawa: Kasumi is an honor student at your school who’s really just nice but after a little while she gets the ability to go into dungeons but she doesn’t want to join the Phantom Thieves. Kasumi as said before is really nice and honest person who sadly gets bullied because of her good grades. Kasumi also does gymnastics.
Sojiro Sakura: As said in Futaba’s section Sojiro is the one taking care of you while your on probation and at first he mostly just dismisses you but over time he warms up to you and Sojiro, you, and Futaba start to seem like a real family.
Ranking up these social links and others I didn’t mention can help you in battles tremendously.
Personas
Now you’re probably wondering what the persona in Persona 5 even means ? Well basically in short there the things that give you the ability to fight in the dungeons. All of your party members can only have 1 persona but you can have multiple. You’re also probably wondering how you get persona’s ? Well there are 2 ways the first is you convincing persona’s to join you this is mainly done by just choosing the correct answers to questions they ask you if you decide to talk to them. The other way is to get them from the Velvet Room which is basically the hub for getting and buffing up Persona’s. You can also fuse Persona’s in the Velvet room to make more powerful Persona’s and you can also buy back persona’s that you previously had gotten rid of.
Sound
Persona 5 Royale has great voice acting throughout it with almost everybody (Especially Akechi) giving a great performance. Persona 5 Royale also has an absolutely amazing soundtrack with catchy tunes left and right personally some of my favorites are “Wake up get out there”, “Last surprise”, and “No more what ifs”. The sound effects in Persona 5 Royale are also nice and satisfying especially the sounds in dungeons.
Graphics
Persona 5 Royale has some pretty good looking graphics but the main way the game looks amazing is due to how it uses colors. Persona 5 Royale mainly uses red, black, and white in its color pallet which can make the most simple menus a joy to look at. The games excellent color choice is even present in the character designs where each member of the Phantom Thieves having there own unquiet color to correspond with them which helps differentiate them.
Verdict
Persona 5 Royale is an amazing game with lovable characters, great tunes, and fun gameplay I think this game is one of the best in its field.
9.5/10 reviewed by Charglez
CCPL Writers' Block 