3.5/5 ★ – JonFrost's review of Persona 5 Royal.

I have had a volatile experience with this game. Many people say that P5R is a masterpiece, while others say that it's overrated and very flawed. I'm definitely in the middle of the spectrum. To me, it's one of those games with way more hits than misses, but when it does miss it is excruciatingly painful. On the one hand, this game is one of the best turn based rpgs I've played; genuinely some of the most fun I've had with the genre. I also loved the story and the themes that were present throughout, especially the themes of the seven deadly sins. On the other hand, I don't enjoy the characters as much as other people. I really like Ryuji, Akechi, Tora Yoshida, and especially Yusuke, but then you have characters that I don't care for such as Ohya, Kawakami (which is Michelle Ruff's weakest performance, change my mind), that fortune teller lady whose name I forgot, and Haru. I especially detest Morgana; I don't think I've ever seen a jrpg character as annoying or useless as Morgana (at least in terms of gameplay, as his lack of ability to fit in is a part of his character arc), and all of his interactions with the other party members feel shallow at best and forced and cringeworthy at worst (I didn't hate him as much in the third semester, but still). However, my biggest problems with the game are two things: its pacing and lack of subtlety. The pacing is the least egregious aspect of the two, but it's still a legitimate flaw. I'm not talking about the moments where the game has its characters sitting around and talking for long periods of time, as I understand that this is how the game wants to tell its story, and that's perfectly fine. Instead, I'm referring to the slew of moments where you do literally anything, and then game stops entirely so that the characters can say "Hey look, you did the thing! Alright, let's go!" Imagine if you were playing a Mario game, and every time you picked up a mushroom, a Toad stopped the game to tell you that you got a mushroom and that you're more powerful. That's exactly what this feels like. This also leads into my biggest qualm with the game: its lack of subtlety. One could argue that video games don't need to be subtle, and I can agree with that in the right context, but this is one of those times where subtlety is 100,000% necessary. An example of this would be after the second palace, where the characters are all getting to know each other's past lives, and then after the deep conversations were done, Ann goes "A weird feeling came over me. It's almost as if I've known you all forever". This line in particular pisses me off because it's the game literally telling you "hey, the characters are growing with each other". There are many moments like this (and it's almost always Ann doing this, btw), but the worst case of this is in the game's third semester. ~~ SPOILERS START ~~ While in Maruki's palace, the Phantom Thieves come across some tapes that go over Maruki's backstory (Maruki was a fantastic villain and infinitely better than Yaohdabaoth, btw). The first tape goes over a time in Maruki's life where he was visiting his friend, Rumi, in the hospital. This is where we see the first time where Maruki becomes aware of his Persona, and where he rewrites her mind to relieve her of her pain, at the cost of Rumi forgetting about Maruki entirely. At first I was emotionally invested, but then as soon as the tape is over, Ann goes "Was that Dr. Maruki?" HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE WE ARE LITERALLY IN MARUKI'S PALACE!!! And then Akechi proceeds to explain everything that happened on the tape. I was livid after all this because need I remind you that THIS IS AN M RATED GAME I'M PRETTY SURE THAT YOUR AVERAGE ADULT COULD UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE STORY AND CAN THINK FOR THEMSELVES!!!!! This kinda thing happens three more times (although one of which makes sense because it was confirmation that Maruki did rewrite Sumire's brain into making her believe that she was Kasumi, and Sumire added some extra context in that moment). It's just times like this that tear down the whole experience for me, because I've seen games that have very similar situations and reactions to the events that happen in Persona 5, and they can explain it without feeling the need to be so on the nose with it. ~~ SPOILERS END ~~ Overall, I still love the game, but I feel that its few flaws are valid enough to warrant it from being a masterpiece. I would've enjoyed it a lot more if the game was just more subtle and didn't feel the need to halt the game's progression to tell you everything that's happening. I doubt that I'm gonna get around to playing any of the other Persona games but, still, great game. Not sure why the Persona fandom is so toxic, but I digress.