Persona 5 Royal review: still the definitive version, warts and all
Persona 5 Royal remains one of the best RPGs of its generation, but its length and pacing demand real commitment. Our full review and value verdict.
Persona 5 Royal review
One hundred hours. That's roughly how long it takes to see Persona 5 Royal's credits, and the game knows it. It opens with a casino heist, flashes back months, and then asks you to live an entire school year in Tokyo one day at a time. If that sounds exhausting, it sometimes is. If it sounds like a dream, Royal will likely become one of your favourite games.
This is the expanded version of Persona 5, originally a PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 title, and it has since found its way to more platforms. Royal adds a new playable semester, a new party member, a new palace, a reworked boss fight, and a batch of quality-of-life changes. It is, by a comfortable margin, the version to play.
What works
The style is unmatched. Persona 5 Royal is one of the most confident-looking games ever made. Menus snap and slide, battle transitions are animated like comic panels, and the soundtrack swings between acid jazz, funk, and full-on vocal pop. Almost nothing about the presentation feels like filler. Even saving your game has a flourish.
The dungeon-to-life loop is the real engine here. By day you're a student juggling exams, part-time jobs, and friendships. By night you're infiltrating the cognitive palaces of corrupt adults. The two halves feed each other: the confidants you build make your combat team stronger, and your combat success buys you time and money for the social side. It's a rhythm that's hard to put down.
Combat has real teeth. The turn-based system runs on exploiting weaknesses to trigger extra turns, and Royal tightens it with new mechanics like Show Time attacks and expanded baton passes. Boss fights reward planning rather than grinding, and the difficulty curve is mostly honest.
The new content is worth it. The added palace and third semester aren't a tacked-on epilogue. They reframe the story's central question about rebellion and free will, and the new party member slots in naturally. If you bounced off the original, Royal is a genuinely different experience.
Accessibility has improved. Royal adds difficulty options that let you focus on the story, plus a range of settings that make the game far more approachable than its reputation suggests.
What doesn't
The pacing is a problem, and Royal makes it slightly worse. The opening hours are slow. The first palace is long, the tutorials are relentless, and the game takes its time before it trusts you to make decisions. Royal adds content throughout, which means the critical path is longer than the original's. That's a selling point for fans and a barrier for newcomers.
The text volume is enormous. This is a visual novel wearing an RPG's clothes. Expect to read for minutes at a stretch, sometimes during sequences that could have been a single line of dialogue. If you don't enjoy reading in games, this will wear you down.
Some story beats haven't aged perfectly. Certain jokes and scenes land awkwardly, and the game's treatment of a few characters has drawn fair criticism over the years. Royal doesn't fully address those issues. It's worth knowing before you commit a hundred hours.
The calendar is unforgiving. You can miss confidant ranks, and some of the game's best content is locked behind choices made dozens of hours earlier. Royal is more generous than the original, but a first playthrough will still leave things on the table. That's by design, and it's also genuinely frustrating.
Technical performance varies. On weaker hardware, load times and frame rates can dip, particularly in the denser city areas. It's rarely game-breaking, but it's noticeable if you're coming from a smoother experience.
Who it's for
- JRPG veterans who want a long, systems-heavy game to sink a season into. This is the obvious pick.
- Fans of visual novels and character writing. The confidant stories are the strongest part of the package.
- Anyone who loved the original and wants a reason to return. The third semester justifies the trip.
- Not for you if you have limited gaming time, bounce off turn-based combat, or dislike heavy reading. A hundred hours is a real cost, and Royal isn't shy about asking for it.
Value for money
At full price, Royal is a substantial purchase. You're getting a game that can easily run past a hundred hours, with New Game Plus, a full slate of optional content, and a soundtrack you'll keep listening to after you stop playing. Measured purely by hours per currency unit, it's one of the better deals in the genre.
The catch is that those hours aren't all equally good. The middle stretch is excellent, the opening is slow, and the final act is long. If you finish it, you'll likely feel you got your money's worth. If you fall off at hour twenty, you won't.
Verdict: 9/10. Persona 5 Royal is one of the best role-playing games of its generation, and the definitive way to experience it. Its pacing and length keep it from a perfect score, and it won't convert anyone who dislikes reading or turn-based combat. For everyone else, it's close to essential.
What to do next
If you've never played a Persona game, start here rather than with an earlier entry. If you've already finished Royal and want more, try Persona 4 Golden for a warmer, smaller-scale take on the same formula, or Persona 3 Reload if you want a darker tone and a more modern feel. And if you enjoyed the social-link side specifically, look at Metaphor: ReFantazio, which shares a studio and a similar calendar-driven structure. Give the first palace a fair shot before deciding, since the game genuinely opens up once the training wheels come off.