I know my reviews are long and I appreciate the time you taking the time in reading them.

I own Persona 5 on the PS3 and PS4, Persona 5 Royal on the PS5 and on PC. Look I’m fully aware that by buying every re-release of a game I’m part of a problem in today’s gaming industry. Gamers being squeezed for every last penny they’ve got, more so with fans of a particular game or series. “They love it, so they’ll buy it anyway”. And Atlus certainly has proven itself to be part of that side of the gaming industry that wants their fans to pay the absolute maximum, because they know that we’ll buy it anyway.
It's just that most of their games are some of the absolute best ever made, and Persona 5 Royal, for me, is probably on top of that list. It’s everything I hoped a game would be as a kid and here’s why.


When I was a kid I used to read tons of comics, hundreds of them a year. My parents bought me a little tape-player (yes, I’m that old) and every last cent of my pocket money was spent on either comics, music, or audiobooks on tape. It was much cheaper than buying a CD and the selection they had on certain events was just insane. Laying in bed listening to every story over and over again, my eyes closed and imagining I was part of every journey. No matter if I was Tintin, Spiderman, Wolverine or Asterix, I loved every story and I’ve been a part of many of them.

I wasn’t all too familiar with Atlus-games in 2016, but I saw a trailer for Persona 5 and immediately added it to my wishlist on the PS-store. The more I checked out some early-on impressions on YouTube and read about it, I became aware of the huge passion the fans of the series had. Apparently the Persona series (and ofcourse Megami Tensei as a whole) had quite the legacy, which only made me more excited to play the game.

In April 2017 I was sitting on my couch, watching the download of Persona 5 crawl along. I felt something that I felt when unwrapping a new comic or tape. A mix of anticipation, excitement and a hint of nervousness. It’s done. The Atlus logo is displayed, the music starts, goosebumps. And suddenly I’m not sitting on my couch anymore, I’m part of the Persona universe, each morning I’m waking up in an attic, I’m Ren/Joker.


Ren’s a high school student accused of assault and therefore put on probation, his parents decide that he’ll go to another school and stay with their family friend Sojiro Sakura. There he’ll become part of a story where adults are taking advantage of their (social) positions, most of the time to the detriment of children/young adults. Ren/Joker gets to know these victims, befriends them and starts to form his own social circle in this new city. Adults who become so distorted by their own (wicked) desires form a so-called palace. A place where they are the rulers and anything what they want to be in real life becomes reality, influencing their behavior in the real world. Ren and his friends infiltrate these places (palaces) and try to take away the thing that feeds these adults to behave the way they do (a treasure).

Persona 5 does an impeccable job sucking you in their world. The way the story unfolds is on a level I’ve experienced maybe a handful of times in gaming. Yes, it’s a slow burn the first couple of hours but with good reason. The game starts in the middle of the story and after you are introduced to the stories’ setting you are thrown back to the beginning. So many questions arise: Why was I there, what was I doing in a casino of all places, who betrayed me?

When you get to the free roam part of the game you’re several hours in. It’ll definitely be worth it, but if you’re more into the ‘dive straight into the action’-type games, be aware of this. But I hope you can find the patience because otherwise you’re missing out on one of the greatest stories ever told.

Persona, for me, feels like I’m reading a comic and all of a sudden I’m part of the story and certain choices have an impact on MY friends, on MY town, on MY family. I don’t want to disappoint any of them, which make some of the choices so hard and so genuine. Who to spent time with? Who to date? Who to deepen your bond with? To balance all these choices while also trying to improve your own (social and combat) skills feels just like real life. I don’t want to say no to any of them, but I’ve got to think of myself as well you know? I am Ren/Joker, these choices are mine and I must deal with the consequences.


P5(R) stays true to the turn based genre and to earlier Persona and to most of the Megami Tensei games. If you’re familiar with them than P5R brings very little new stuff to the table, but it’s probably also the reason you’ll love this one. The game is divided in 2 forms of gameplay.

First the dungeon crawling, action focused gameplay takes place in palaces/Mementos. Here you’ll face ‘shadows’, fight them, gain new (fighting) skill and collect new additions to your team. Second is social part of the game, here you can explore the city, train social/life skills and socialize with a wide variety of people struggling with society. These social connections are a large part of what makes P5R so great. Each of the social connections has their own backstory. Some struggle with past mistakes, some with financial issues, are being bullied or are even unaware of who they really are. With each step you get to know them more and just like a real friendship they try to help you along in life, just like you‘re helping them.

The balance between the 2 gameplay types is great. Whenever you reach the limitation of certain confidant/social storylines the main storyline advances. Giving you several hours of action-filled gameplay, which advances everyone’s story and gives you a new purpose to focus on when the social aspect again becomes the main focus. This ebb and flow of different kinds of gameplay keeps you invested, interested and makes it hard to stop. There’s always something new to see, learn and love just a couple of minutes away.

In the last 6 years I’ve played P5 (including Royal) 7 times. Depending on the difficulty setting and your interest to explore every part of each confidant, it should take you anywhere from 70 to 120 hours to complete. New game plus lets you keep items and social skills from the previous playthrough, which gives you more time to deepen the relations with the people around you and encourages you to choose an increased difficulty.

The amount of times I’ve had goosebumps from profound emotional moments is insanely high. Moments where you can’t help but yell at the screen be it from happiness, anger of sadness. And when the story reaches it’s inevitable peak and conclusion it felt like I was saying goodbye to my own friends and family. You know that feeling when you’re watching the last scene of ‘Friends’ (or another series that’s close to your heart), ‘Embryonic Journey’ by Jefferson Airplane starts playing and you feel the tears welling up in your eyes. You’re torn somewhere between a feeling of love, loss and happiness to have been part of something truly special.

P5R does that to you. It makes you want to instantly play the game again but also to keep a distance for a while because it takes time to recover from something that you so deeply love but eventually has to end.