Revisiting Persona 5

So I haven’t been replaying the original Persona 5 but rather the enhanced Persona 5 Royal! P5R came out earlier this year and I was definitely interested in playing through the newly added content, especially since this was not only my favorite game of 2016, but also one of my favorite games of all-time. I really wanted to jump in right away, but I thought it would be better to wait for a price drop or for a time when I had a lull in games I was playing. After recently finishing Ghost of Tsushima I decided that it was finally time to delve back in to the world of Persona 5 for another 100+ hour romp!

I’m not gonna, lie I was a little hesitant as to whether or not I would be able to get immersed in this story that is largely unchanged for the majority of the experience. The game starts out in the same way as the original, with some new characters peppered in here and there, but before long I didn’t care and I was right back in the groove of things and feeling engrossed in the story once again. As of writing this I am a little less than halfway through the game, just starting the Medjed arc of the story.

So what’s the difference between this game and the original? Well, so far, the only big difference is that you have two new characters/confidants that each have their own side stories that you can explore. These two are super interesting and I’ve really enjoyed interacting with them so far. Getting one of their confidant levels up to 9 before a certain date is also required in order to unlock the new post game palace (which is required in order to achieve the platinum trophy), so that’s an added incentive to spend your free time interacting with these new characters. The rewards you get for increasing these confidant ranks also really helps you get stronger for battles.

The other changes up to this point have been smaller, quality of life changes. There are new things that can happen in battle, for example there can be corrupted shadows that will explode upon defeat and will damage the other shadows in the battle with them. You can also, eventually, unlock new showtime attacks. These attacks are ones that require two of your party members to partner up for a special attack to finish off an enemy. They will unlock as the story goes on and are basically an even more flashy version of the team up attacks that come when you knock down all the enemies normally. The fact that they were able to come up with an attack that adds even more style to a game that was already the most stylish game of all time is amazing to me.

Now that I have spent about 40 hours with this game I can definitely say that the Royal upgrade is worth it. So far I have enjoyed all the changes that have come along, and it really helps that the base game still holds up as one of my all time favorites and P5R is making me realize that this really is the best jrpg I have ever played.

The game was on sale when I decided to get back into it, and I can recommend anyone to buy it not only on sale, but even for full price. This is the definitive way to play Persona 5 and if you were itching to get back into it, this is easily the best way to do it. If you’ve been considering playing this one, I say go for it!

As always, thanks so much for reading! I’m planning to do a full-fledged review of Royal when I eventually finish it, but I just wanted to let you all know where I was at with it thus far. Let me know if you played the original or if you plan on picking the Royal version up in the comments below! Check back (at least) every Wednesday and Saturday for new posts and sign-up via email to make sure you never miss a thing! Be safe and have a great day!