I always tried to play games like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, but I was constantly bored by the overall turn based mechanics. As you can see, I’m not a turn based RPG guy, but the Persona series made me think otherwise. Persona 4 Gold was my first game of the series and I became a fan after experiencing the World created by the game. I was concerned about the battles and dungeons, but I ended up loving it. The Weakness system is super intuitive and really fun to play. After finishing it, I started to experience different turn based RPGs that I always wanted to play.

Persona 5 Royal is in many ways a natural evolution of the previous games. The game screams aesthetics, its art direction is something that was never seen before in a Persona game. The combat is great, the dungeons are no longer randomized and the music is outstanding. The tracks don’t get annoying and there are multiple variations of the same song. The first time you listen to “Last Surprise” you WILL jam with the music.

I only have 1 issue with the game and it’s something that can be quite disappointing: the events aren’t bad, but they are forgettable. Persona 4 does much better in that part: the characters are better developed and the events are mostly fun and wholesome. In Persona 5 the events are always the same, and even when it’s different, it’s short and always something to do with the Metaverse (with little development of the characters lives outside of the Phantom Thieves). That rule doesn’t necessarily apply to the Confidant Events, but the other ones that happen during the main story aren’t the best in the series. All of this can be explained by the game tone in comparison with the 4th game: while in Persona 4 there’s this upbeat feeling, Persona 5 keeps the things more grounded.

Overall I think this one problem doesn’t affect the experience that much and it’s still a great (and maybe the best) Persona game. If you want to start playing the series I highly recommend Persona 5 Royal.