Persona 5: Persona 5 Royal

1. Summary

Nearly every reviewer here recommends Persona 5 Royal, and the praise keeps returning to the same things: the cast and their confidant stories, the soundtrack, the comic-book menus and art direction, and the Royal-only third semester with Maruki as its antagonist, which players who reach it often call the best part of the game. Some reviewers say the ending made them cry or left them feeling empty, that the game helped them through a bad stretch of life, or that it was their first JRPG and changed their mind about turn-based combat. Some bought it again on PC after finishing it on another platform, and newcomers often recommend it as a place to start the series.

Length and padding run through the complaints. Even fans call it "too much game", and thumbs-down reviews describe a slow tutorial opening, dialogue that repeats each plan several times, and a mid-game that drags through Mementos and the Okumura palace. Players disagree about whether the length is a strength or a flaw, and about whether combat stays satisfying or turns too easy once the bundled DLC personas and Royal's new mechanics come into play. A handful of reviews carry a practical warning: the third semester is missable. Reviewers say you must raise Dr. Maruki's confidant before a November deadline, and that the game never says so plainly. Smaller groups report stutter and crashes on PC, lost progress because there is no autosave, and a Denuvo check that stops the game from launching offline.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

The soundtrackHigh

About 960 reviews mention the music, soundtrack or songs, usually as praise. Players single out "Beneath the Mask", "Life Will Change", "Rivers in the Desert", "Last Surprise" and Lyn's vocals, and a few say the songs ended up on their Spotify playlists. A recurring joke is that the soundtrack comes with a free game: "LWK amazing soundtrack crazy that it came with a game". A few longer reviews find some tracks repetitive over 100+ hours.

Characters, confidants and the found-family storyHigh

Story and characters come up in more reviews than the music, and the tone is personal. Some reviewers describe the Phantom Thieves as friends they miss, others praise how confidant arcs feed into combat perks, and favourites get named everywhere (Makoto, Futaba, Akechi, Takemi, Yusuke, Ryuji). The interrogation framing and the plot twists get credit too. Criticism is narrower: a few reviewers find the later villains generic, and a minority call the characters one-dimensional or the writing juvenile.

Style, menus and presentationMedium

The red-and-black UI, transitions and animated cutscenes are treated as a benchmark. One long review puts it this way: "The menus in this game are literally responsible for the protagonist being put into Smash Ultimate." Several thumbs-down reviews still praise the art style and UI. The dissent is practical: one player finds the menus deeply nested, one prone to motion sickness found the camera and animations a bit much, and another gets headaches from long sessions and blames the colours.

Turn-based combat, Baton Pass and fusionMedium

Players who usually avoid turn-based games say this one won them over. One More, Baton Pass, All-Out Attacks, Showtimes and negotiating with shadows make fights feel quick, and persona fusion becomes a hobby of its own ("spent half my playtime in the velvet room"). As one convert put it: "For someone who hated turn-based before, Persona 5 Royal is somehow top 3 on best game I've played in my 20 years of gaming." This praise is for how combat feels; its difficulty is a separate, divided topic below.

The third semester and MarukiMedium

Royal's added final act gets more praise than any other new content. Players call Maruki one of the best villains in the series, say the moral question of his painless false reality lifts the whole game, and credit it with fixing their issues with the base ending and with Akechi's arc. "I'm a better person for experiencing the third semester." A few reviewers pay tribute to the late Billy Kametz, Maruki's voice actor.

An emotional, sometimes life-changing experienceMedium

Some reviews describe crying at the ending, feeling empty once it was over, or wishing they could play it for the first time again. Others credit it with getting them through depression or a lonely time, and one says it got them reading more, studying and going to the gym. These reviews are short and heartfelt, and they turn up across the whole period.

A great first JRPG and Persona entry pointMedium

Many reviewers say this was their first JRPG or first Persona, some of them arriving after Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or Metaphor: ReFantazio, and that it sent them on to Persona 3 Reload and Persona 4 Golden. They point to Royal's quality-of-life features and clear tutorials as reasons to start here, though a few series veterans suggest playing Persona 4 Golden first because Royal will make older entries feel clunky.

Value for moneyMedium

Reviewers who talk about price point to 100 to 200 hours for one playthrough, and some bought it on sale for under $20. "Perfect JRPG! 150+ hours for that price, it is unreal!" A few say full price is fair; others advise waiting for a discount.

Runs well on modest PCs and Steam DeckLow

Some players report smooth play on laptops, older GPUs and the Steam Deck. Most reviews never mention performance, and the stutter reports below come from a similarly small group.

Where players are split

Length and pacingHigh

Some positive reviews say the 100+ hours flew by, and one argues "The best part is that the game absolutely rejects the concept of filler." Others love it and still call it "Good but overstays its welcome." Length and pace come up in 138 of the 443 thumbs-down reviews, which call the game too long, slow, boring or repetitive. One of them sums it up: "Persona 5 Royal is a 20 hour game that takes 60 hours to play." Reviewers point to the opening, the middle palaces and an ending some feel runs on, and several who gave up say they stopped during or soon after the first palace.

Difficulty, DLC personas and Merciless modeMedium

Some players say the game is too easy, even on the hardest setting. The bundled DLC personas get much of the blame: "the game just casually hands you a level 80 Izanagi-no-Okami that can be summoned for free", and a few reviews warn newcomers not to use them early. Others report that Merciless can feel easier than Hard because it triples weakness damage for both sides. Other players describe sharp spikes at specific bosses (see Okumura below), and casual players say the normal curve feels fair. One reviewer could not opt out: "I can't even deactivate the DLC."

MorganaMedium

Morgana draws a steady stream of jokes and complaints. Reviews mock the cat for sending Joker to bed every evening, for commenting nonstop in palaces and battles, and for his crush on Ann. A smaller group genuinely likes him. Most of it is affectionate teasing, though at least one player says Morgana is why they could not keep going.

Is it better than Persona 3 Reload or Persona 4 Golden?Medium

Comparisons with the other modern entries are common. Reviewers who compare them often credit Royal with the most polished combat, palaces and presentation, while some prefer Persona 4's characters or Persona 3's story and atmosphere. A few longtime fans say the older games mean more to them.

How well the Royal additions fitLow

Kasumi divides the players who write about her. Some find her shoehorned into the story or annoying before she finally joins the party, and one player who romanced her wrote that "her arc lacks basic emotional closure." A player who first played the original at launch liked the new content but felt "the way it's tacked onto the end just doesn't work well for me." A few say they still like the original ending.

What frustrates players

A ten-hour tutorial and over-explaining dialogueMedium

The slow opening draws complaints from early players: "Enormously long tutorial of 10 hours when game seriously restricts what you can do." Players describe tutorial pop-ups still appearing well into the game, long cutscene stretches with no control, and group chats that restate each plan several times. One reviewer who still recommends it wrote that "Persona 5 desperately needed an editor to cut out some of the fluff dialogue." Several reviewers say the game opens up after the first palace, and some who quit early say the opening is where they stopped.

PC stutter, frame drops and crashesMedium

A small number of players report micro-stutter or frame drops, including on recent graphics cards and in crowded areas: "this game will constantly have massive FPS drops on RTX cards in crowded areas". Shared fixes include Special K, setting the game's CPU priority or affinity, making Steam overlay log files read-only, and replugging controllers. Crashes are rarer but costly because of the save system below.

The Okumura boss and other spikesMedium

The fifth-palace boss is the fight reviewers single out. They describe waves of enemies that respawn unless killed in the same round, a timer, and a one-hit kill you have to waste a turn guarding against. "whoever designed the bossfight in that robot area can never be allowed to touch game design again." One thumbs-down review calls the Okumura palace itself the low point of the game.

A true ending you can miss without knowing itMedium

Reviewers say the third semester only opens if Dr. Maruki's confidant reaches rank 9 before he leaves in November (some add Akechi and Kasumi), and that the game does not make this clear. Fans warn each other in their reviews: "If you don't have a save for this, say good bye to dozens of hours of gameplay you've already done." One player who missed it put it plainly: "they really should have made it more obvious i was supposed to max out that confidant".

Mementos grindLow

Mementos, the randomly generated dungeon, gets called dull and repetitive, with floors that look alike and a mandatory full descent near the end. One player who otherwise had no complaints wrote: "god did it feel like a chore sometimes." Some players say Ryuji's instakill and requests tied to confidants make it tolerable.

Denuvo and offline playLow

Only 37 reviews mention Denuvo or DRM. The problem they describe is that the game will not launch offline, which breaks Steam Deck travel play: "Every time you want to start the game, you have to have a functional internet connection." Others quote the error "Currently your game purchase cannot be re-validated successfully, please wait 24 hours and try again."

No autosave and long stretches without savingLow

A few players report losing hours to a crash or a lost fight because there is no autosave, and one describes a story sequence that ran two hours before they could save: "This whole BS ordeal literally took me 2 hours before the game finally lets me use the save feature." Another, chasing a trophy, wiped their progress by pressing Save instead of Load.

Sexualization of teenage characters and adult romance optionsLow

A minority of reviewers object to how Ann is treated after her abuse arc and to the option of dating adults (a teacher, a doctor) while playing a high schooler. One put it this way: "when previously sexually abused characters get constantly objectified and treated as pieces of meat". A smaller group wishes for same-sex romance options.

3. The player conversation

The conversation is warm and mostly short: "peak", "absolute cinema", "looking cool Joker", pancake jokes and best-girl arguments. Players who write at length are usually finishers reflecting on the ending, or veterans replaying it on PC after earlier versions, sometimes to use mods. Some arrived after Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or Metaphor: ReFantazio, and most of them recommend it, while a few expected a turn-based RPG and found long stretches of story and dialogue instead.

Who raises what follows the game's structure. Players who quit early talk about the prologue, the tutorial and the talking cat. Players in the middle talk about Mementos, Okumura and drag. Finishers talk about the third semester, Akechi and Maruki, or about discovering too late that they missed it. Technical complaints come from a scattered minority on PC and Steam Deck, most of whom still praise the game.

Sentiment barely moved over the period. Review volume was highest around New Year and in early May and early July, with no wave of new complaints tied to a specific change.

4. What the developers could do

1. Signpost the true-ending requirement in-game. Fans pass the Maruki deadline around as a warning in their own reviews, and players who miss it describe replaying dozens of hours to reach the third semester.
2. Add autosave and break up the long unsaveable stretches. A few players lost hours to a crash, a game over or a two-hour story sequence with no chance to save.
3. Fix PC stutter and frame drops without third-party tools. Some players report stutter that only Special K, CPU priority tricks or overlay file edits fix.
4. Let the game launch offline. Reviewers who mention Denuvo say it blocks play without an internet connection, including on a Steam Deck away from Wi-Fi.
5. Trim the opening and offer a way to skip repeated dialogue and tutorials. Several thumbs-down reviews describe the long tutorial and repetitive group chats as where they lost interest, and even fans ask for an editor.
6. Rebalance the Okumura fight and Merciless mode. Reviewers single out the wave fight as a difficulty spike, and some find Merciless easier than Hard.
7. Let players disable the bundled DLC personas and items. Reviewers say the free high-level personas break the early game, and at least one could not turn them off.
8. Shorten Mementos runs. Players ask for faster floor skips or shortcuts for a dungeon they call a chore, especially the mandatory late descent.