Should You Buy Persona 5 Royal? 

Funniest thing about Royal is that Yoshizawa and Maruki were introduced and integrated into the story better than Haru.

Personally I think they did alot to smooth over Akechi's character and give him a satisfying arc.

When Persona 6 comes out i'm just gonna wait 3 years till Persona 6 Champion comes out.

‘Jose isn’t that game changing.’ The primary xp and farming method in the game would say otherwise

"A re-release, really?" P3FES, P3P, P4G It's a pattern and was very much expected.

"It was too easy, even on hard mode" Me: *goes cry on a corner after getting my ass kicked during the whole game on normal

"Jose isn't that game breaking" Me, at level 84, without grinding, just because I spent a little time in Mementos. All before 12/24.

Dude You played Noctune without buffs I THINK ANY GAME FOR YOU IS EASY

"why is there a cartoon cat following me around?" ... First time, huh?

Speaking of DLC. How the hell is Kasumi's costume bundle 15$ when you only get to use her for 1 palace? If i gotta mod the game to get use out of DLC it's not worth buying

5:28 “honestly Jose isn’t really that game changing” tell that to my wallet every time I collect at least 700K on a quick mementos trip

I wholeheartedly enjoyed the 3rd semester for a plethora of reasons; The "final boss" (keep this spoiler free) had close ties to you, the protagonist, and the group as a whole like Kamoshida and Shido did (y'know, the good villains of the game?), making the fight feel personal; the reasoning behind the final boss's motives weren't sinister or conniving but driven by good intentions, however, much like how Akechi found such a world to be disgusting, Final Boss's desires were so...hubristic it irritated me at points -- especially during the fight in which he speaks to the cast (another plus is how that dialogue shows their steel resolves) and the whole palace and final fight truly hammers home the Freedom Vs. Security motif; Akechi got padded out both through his confidant and the 3rd semester where he allows his true self to show without reserve and I LOVED it (His and Joker's Showtime is my fav, especially with the signs in the background like "Two Sides of The Same Coin" -- I eat that shit up); Kasumi was a welcome addition and I felt really bad for her, it was a cool twist that I really didn't see coming for her character; and finally the Lovecraft made me nerdgasm and the final fight as just...hype. A real man's fight toward the end. Downside to the 3rd semester is its playtime -- it's sooooooo shoooooort! The game cucks you pre-Shido where Kasumi offers aid and you HAVE to say no. Was total BS. So you only get to play as her for a little over 20 in games day, which is not long. And are you guys telling me I was the only one who wanted to fly around Mementos in Mona's new form?! Lot of things to love, lots to invoke ire, and I'm glad there's someone who can review a game they like without the rose-tinted shades. But I LOVED this addition.

IMO NG+ should've given us access to all party members including Dark Skin Akechi and Yoshizawa from the start just to make up for the fact that those two are in your party for so little time. No need to explain how they're there, either. Just a gameplay thing. This can be accomplished with a save editor, but it shouldn't have to be.

The final arc of Royal is probably one of the best story arcs in the entire series.

"jose is not game changing" one word: stamps.

“Persona 5 royal is too easy” (Laughs in Okumura)

There is one thing that i dont like about new portraits: Front-facing Panther. Somehow, it disturbs me

>you can pet morgana alright I'm heading out to walmart with my face mask to buy the steel book edition rn brb

I found that when I was playing through Persona 5 Royal, each little change was significant enough to make the game seem new or unique. While I don't really think that it completely changed the game, it more smoothed it over and made Royal the better version to have. Being able to see Akechi be an actual character was pretty damn nice too.

Yeah the dlc is trash. WHY THE HELL IS JOKER'S 3RD TIER PERSONA DLC?!

I think this version is a massive upgrade to the OG P5. Like you said, this is the definitive version of the game. I love all the improvements, the new characters, it's all just great. But yeah, just get the free DLC. It's really all you need.

I learned my lesson from FES I waited 3 years to save $60

“If you’re someone who wants to play casually on a low difficulty. There’s no shame in that.” At last. I found someone who doesn’t assume everyone plays on the hardest setting while wearing a blindfold.

As someone who, despite its flaws, loved P5 I adored Royal. The new characters and story of the third semester were highlights for me. 1000% the biggest issue for me was the difficulty. Merciless was a cake walk.

Honestly now I’m questioning is it even worth getting persona 6 on launch or just wait until the Insert Version here

To be honest in regards to your thoughts on Persona 5 Original. I feel like the myriad of delays the game went through, caused your expectations to become a little too lofty. Which tends to happen when games are in development for too long.

I agree with your opinion with the third semester, I wish Atlus expand it to at least the end of February/Start of March so you can work on your last moments with your confidants before the final showdown to change reality against Maruki.

Yeah, the Dlc pricing blows. Admittingly, I had to cave Cuz I needed Izanagi no okami and the challenge battles. But a costume bundle for a character we barely get to use? Mr. Krabs could learn so much from Atlus Fucking hell. With her practically being one of if not THE poster child for Royal, you'd think we would get more time to play as her. Instead, that's regulated to phone games during special events. Smh...

People really got to stop rewarding game developers or publishers when it comes to DLC or micro transactions.

Third semester is like a tearjerker though. FR there has never been a better villain, or boss song for that matter.

“Hard mode is too easy” Eh I play on Merciless so I wouldn’t know. *remembers playing hard mode on p5 vanilla* Yes...we don’t talk about those times

As someone who hadn't played P5 since I beat it back in 2017, I thought P5R was a worthy purchase. It's a funner, more fulfilling version of the original game and I've gotten about 200 hours out of it, which is good value for a $60 purchase.

I'm just disappointed they couldn't belay their greedy hands long enough to release P5R, PQ2, and Scramble before they made P5D. The new music would be great for a rhythm game.

And the really sad part about the DLC is that they did all that and still didn't include Naoya, Tatsuya and Maya as optional bosses given that there is no excuse in that context.

One of the things that bothered me is: Kasumi and Akechi gets their most OP amazing attacks on the very last day.

I saw nyarly upload and was thinking it was part 2 of smt nocturne but this is still good

The guillotine in the Velvet Room had more screentime than Haru in both games combined.

I played the original P5 for over 100 hours but got burnt out at Shido’s Palace, but then I got Royal which took 173 hours. Besides the game being too easy, I’d say it was absolutely worth it cuz that last story arc was so magnificent that it gave me post-game depression once the credits were through and didn’t wanna play anything else while I just thought of the ramifications

P5R is great, and I love the QOL improvements they made to the game. Those QOL changes made the game too easy though, so it would have been nice if they'd upped the difficulty of the game to compensate.

Will be waiting for a price drop, I already have played the original P5. What I'm really excited for is Persona scramble localization for the west since it something new..

The thing I have about P5R is that I feel it brings a clearer theme and message to P5 that wasn’t present in the original release. It originally felt messy without a true message. With that in mind, I wish this was the original release of P5 because this feels like what the story SHOULD have been. P4G and P3P forced a lot of stuff that took away from its original releases, but not the case here

I haven't even gotten to the third semester and this game is worth all the money I spent for it. (I'm halfway through shido if anyone's curious)

Did anyone else run out of things to do in the third semester?

The only big downgrade for me is the opening. Colors Fly High is a great song but the animation and what's going on just don't feel right.

Honestly what would've been interesting or kickass is that we get to fight against Tatsuya Suou, Maya Amano and Naoya Toudou from Personas 1+2. Though its kind of shame that we never got that and Persona 5 was made around persona's 25th anniversary.

14:27 I knew about the hissing, never knew about the purring.

One thing I know for sure: Persona 6 will happen some day but this time I'll wait to buy the definitive edition. It's really not fair all that new content isn't available for original P5 as an update or paid expansion.

You forgot to mention that Jokers 3rd persona is DLC

"Dlc personas your not going to need" Izanagi no okami-**AM I A JOKE TO YOU?!**

Seriously, a talking cat is your problem after Teddie and Koromaru?

I was gonna buy this at $30 or $20 not $60. Already bought the first edition.

: Even on hard mode persona 5 was and extremely easy game Me who turned on easy mode to beat shadow madarame do I suck that hard Hoo boi I never even got over a 100 likes thanks

I loved the small improvements to battles such as automatically having the baton pass and the different rankings. It makes me dread playing vanilla P5 again just for the sake of getting the platinum trophy lmao Maruki is definitely one of my favourite persona characters now but I can’t say the same for Kasumi. To me her character felt awkwardly shoehorned in. I feel like this could’ve been improved if she interacted with the rest of the thieves throughout the game instead of them only acknowledging her when you’re already 3/4 of the way through the game. It felt like she didn’t have any chemistry with the rest of the team when she eventually joined. Heck, even Minako had better chemistry with the PTs in PQ2

I honestly think this is one of my favorite games of all time. I usually hear gushing praise for this game so it was interesting to hear your take

I absolutely love the original P5; one of my favorite games period. I had incredibly unreasonable expectations for Royal. I have some nitpicks and personal biases such as liking the original ending sequence and song more than Royal's, but I like Royal's opening and integration of new characters and story elements better. The new quality of life/improvements to combat and fusion as essential IMO. While I wanted a more definitive and hopeful resolution to one character in particular, along with a few other small changes to character resolutions, I definitely enjoyed it. I've struggled with the mixed feelings it's left me with over the last year and a half. It's only compounded by how good P5 Scramble/Strikers is in story and character. Considering it follows the original P5's story ending, does this create two timelines? I love the new characters in Royal and Scramble. I can only hope a new P5 game, such as a fighting game, will come out to tie both game's stories together and create a definitive timeline including all characters in a meaningful and satisfying way. Honestly, I think a PC port and/or a mod/DLC to allow me to use Yoshizawa and Akechi throughout the entirety of Royal would help that nagging sense of longing I get from how short the 3rd semester turned out.

"Please don't buy the DLC. This is not right." Me: "...Ok but the Featherman customes tho."

Best addition: Morgana no longer calls Kamoshida "a scum." 10/10, best Persona re-release ever.

When playing royal I remember fusing black frost when I was in Kamoshida’s palace, then never using him.

This is my first persona game. Without knowing much and only going off a friend recommendation, I got original P5. I have a little bit of FOMO, but the increased difficulty of P5 over P5R is something I enjoyed. I want with hard because I have played many JRPGs, but since this was my first Persona, it gave a good difficulty to me. While the ease of P5R doesn't thrill me, I think whenever my next playthrough of P5 happens, I'll upgrade to this one. Loved the base game!

I'm mostly in agreement with you, except I had a more positive opinion of P5 and P5R.

I agree with most of your statement and to be honest if they're focused enough, they might be even better than the SMT story. But this is Atlus so i don't think that's gonna happen for a while.

I stumbled onto this and have to say I like the point of view and breakdown from a long time fan. Persona 1 and 2 on ps1 introduced me into rpgs aside from FF. I got royal but havent spent anytime playing, yet.

I remember when I got the free dlc and all the outfits and just putting on the p3 school outfits on everyone. I did not expect to enter a battle and hear BABY BABY BABY BABY

one thing I think needs to be taken into account when a full price re releases of a game releases is that it's not an easy thing to recommend value wise as part of that 60 dollars is the whole original game, and it's not like DLC where you're only paying for the new content. so if someone has never played persona 5 and doesn't own it they're basically just paying for an entire game of content, and then some where someone who has already played it is paying for the same entire game and then some. it's a difficult thing to really determine if it's a good value or not cuz in an objective sense it's inherently a better value than the original but there is this weird line where to some people this may as well be a way above average content and quality wise DLC. that being said I think it's easy to recommend this to someone who's never played P5 but for someone who has it really is a person to person preference of if it's a good enough value for them personally. like as an objective assessment this game is a fantastic value but that changes on a subjective level.

Thanks for giving us yet another video, Nyarly, but I kinda just already bought it 10 minutes ago, so, yeah. Patiently waiting for the 2nd Part of the Nocturne Run.

I'm really glad you answered the one question I needed an answer for! :) As a fan of P3 and P4, and having played most other SMT games, I wasn't sure wether I should get the vanilla one or this one. I'm just secretly hoping they will release it on the Switch because I stopped getting the PlayStation after 2 and buying a whole new system for one game is a little silly, no matter how good a game is.

I don’t get the “A re-release? Really?” comment, there’s FES and Golden, what’d you expect?

the final boss is absolutely GODLY but it’s all up to preference. i really can’t wait to see what they do with SMT V after this

[SPOILERS AHEAD] I didn't play og P5, so when i got my ps4, i decided to buy Royal because of the new content. Even tho there are issues with the game that you pointed out in the video (Bad pacing towards the end of the original story, too easy), it still doesn't prevent it from being my favorite game. I love the gameplay even if it's easy. It feels way smooter than P4. The new soundtrack is godly, especially "ideal and the real" and "another ideology". I like thieves den for all the little character interactions. And for the third semester... To put it simply, Maruki might just be my favorite character of all fiction. I loved him from the moment he first appeared to that last moment in the Taxi before the end credits. I loved how he wasn't portrayed antagonistically. He doesn't want to fight you, he just wants to help you, even if his methods are wrong. The old tapes that let you explore his past makes you feel bad for him. That fist fight on the decaying palace was hard to go through, even tho you know what he was doing is wrong. The dlc thing, i agree is kinda fucked, especially with the challenge battle. I would comprehend if the Door-kun and Yu Narukami fight were dlc, but the rest of them? TL;DR I loved the game, Maruki is best boy, the dlc are fucked, everyone has their opinions

I’m still playing through (and have yet to get to the third semester) and right now it feels pretty good. I do really wish there was maybe something like Persona 3 Portable, as I do enjoy getting to see how the story would work from a different perspective. I do regret buying a bundle with the dlc (I literally don’t use it, unless I’m vibing with some P2 outfits cause damn they pop)

I think this game is such a great improvement from the original. One of my favorite games of decade and Royal makes it even better for me

I just want to lay this out there. I love the amount of effort you put into all your videos. It's so nice you go in-depth with boss mechanics and attacks. Not just say "yeah the boss does this and that yadda yadda". You keep my attention and I dont just play your videos in the background like most others. Your Orpheus only for P3 made me play it again to relive my memories. And it reminded me how much P3 means to me. You've helped my depression a lot. So thank you for your time and effort. Thank you for making videos. I'll have to get a PS4 so I can play Royal, I just beat 4 Golden not too long ago so next is 5R in time!

I wished the charcters were more properly introduced, the third semester was an ACTUAL 3rd semester, and that it was harder. Other than that, a total upgrade and definitely worth the money

So I guess this is the version to get. I was interested in both (especially the vanilla version since it’s now $20) but that extra content had me interested. The difficulty thing threw me off though. How hard (or easy) is this game compared to the other mainline persona games? I’ve been playing through 3 portable (with no giving direct commands so as close to the original as I can) and it’s fairly easy. I know Nyarly comes from SMT which is a way harder series but his comments on how easy it is make me wonder if the game is worth it for style AND a challenge.

I'll gladly buy this with DLC. In a few years I'm a patient gamer and the original was my first persona and emulated on a pc.

"should you buy persona 5 royal" if you loved persona 5 yes, if you didn't love or even just liked persona 5 than prob not

SPOILERS: The part that pissed me off specifically is I feel like the advertising for the game is extremely misleading. Specifically the 3rd semester and new party member portion of the advertising. Is there a third semester? TECHNICALLY yes but its not a whole third semester its more like 25 days lol. If you advertise it as a third semester I think in my head "Oh wow thats gotta be like atleast 2 more palaces" or atleast more than 20 something days lol and the worst part about the extra time is that half of that extra time needs to be spent leveling Kasumi's confidant. And what pissed me off is right at the beginning of the third semester you gotta spend a week walking around the city and talking to party members for no real good reason other then to just tick up the time. Then my personal biggest problem with the game is Kasumi. Firstly, I'm just not fond of her demeanor I think she's just kind of annoying (this is just my opinion its okay to like her) and she was put in just to be a kouhai character because we didn't have a single one and we needed a Rise/Kanji/Naoto character to call us senpai to make us feel good. I don't hate her but I think she's not great. Secondly, SHES ONLY AVAILABLE FOR ONE FUCKING DUNGEON. The game also slaps you in the face because right before Shido's dungeon she asks if you if she can join the phantom thieves and your only option is NO because they were too lazy to put her in cutscenes or write her dialogue for that point the game. Thirdly, In my opinion she is very shoved down the player's throat and gets way too much importance put on her especially since i feel like she's actually not that important to the "third semester" storyline unlike the other new character... Maruki is fucking awesome I think he's an awesome addition to the story and the cognitive psience stuff. I think its great cause although he is a bit shoved down your throat he's not shoved down your throat nearly as much as Kasumi is and also I'm personally just really fond of his design and character (opinion). Personally my problems with Royal boil down to: Kasumi is lame because she doesn't join the squad early enough. This may be a personal problem but in RPGs if a character joins that late I don't want to use them. I like to use the characters i've already built up and built a connection to. The game is WAYY too easy even more so than OG P5 specifically because of the strength confidant (imo), and I'm mad Merciless wasn't made into a sick new difficulty it still sucks ass. I loved the game I loved the original P5 and this game is literally just more P5 so its awesome. Is it worth $60? Imo not really but as someone who loved P5 I feel like the original game got me more than double a game's worth of price so paying another full $60 for a little bit more content I was fine with doing personally and I still had a lot of fun playing it again. Jose is the best.

Haven’t watched the video yet, but I’m about to be Madarame’s Palace, and I’d say it’s a pretty good upgrade. I really enjoy the polish of the battle system, and the quality of life improvements

"Jose is barely relevant to the plot." P5 Scramble laughs in 2021!

With the difficulty critique, I would chalk that one up with how experienced your are with SMT. But that doesn’t excuse the hardest difficulty still being easy for a seasoned player.

I think the ultimate conclusion is that this is the ultimate "Buy it when it goes on sale" kind of game, at least for people like me who played the original but aren't diehard smt/persona fans enough to have the time or money to buy and play through p5 again any time soon.

Spoilers: I know a lot of people don’t like Sumire’s character, but I personally really liked her story about how she lost Kasumi and I felt like she was as equally important as Maruki because their stories are both connected. I just feel like Sumire has more depth than people give her credit for, because the story about her wanting to become Kasumi embodies the third semester’s themes about having to face hardships and not run away from them

"And I strongly disagree." I somewhat understand. Persona 5 is incredibly great with its music, looks and all that. But to say that you strongly disagree is kind of harsh. I think that Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal are pretty incredible games.

My issue is that I just don’t have the time for another long PS4 RPG. Persona 5 was already a massive undertaking since I had to work around siblings’ play schedules as well. It would be an impulse buy if they put it on the Switch, but that’s probably not gonna happen, because Atlus wants to put literally anything P5 on Switch, so long as it’s not the actual P5

“So, we’re gonna have sixty dollars of DLC when we rerelease Persona 5! How do we wanna do it?!” “Oh, oh! Bonus fights and joker’s third persona! We give them one of the fights for free to entice them into buying them all!” “Excellent idea! You get a raise!” “I dunno...don’t you think that’s going a little far? I mean...” *gun cocking noises* “I-I mean how are we gonna filch our loyal fanbase this time!” “That’s better.”

Thank you! I was so happy to have more nights to make coffee, reading, and making tools lol

Thank you so much This video is what I really needed

You make good points but I do feel your SMT bias is showing.

I plan to get it when it goes for $20. I really liked base Persona 5.

The Morgana rubbing part is kinda cool

What makes Atlus look even worse with the Royal version is the fact that Fire Emblem Three Houses (another jrpg/strategy game) had their own expansion in Cindered Shadows and was able to implement it as a DLC rather than forcing people to pay for another full price game to play it. And they were able to incorporate all the supports for the new characters into the main story-line no problem. Safe to say I am not getting Royal until it gets to half price or below (which is gonna be a while).

I think the people who downloaded the original p5 should get a discount while people who never played it pay the same amount, but idk how else they would've sold it for less

Looking forward to the second part of SMT Nocturne no buff/debuff challenge run, Nyarly Great video as always

I’m really enjoying the game. I’m on the last place right now but really would’ve like if there were a few more palaces like you said.

For P5R I really wanted to see the new changes and while yes, I love some of the changes but for Take over, it should’ve been the boss battle theme. That would’ve been better.

I was extremely disappointed with the Adam Kadmon fight. I actually wanted to fight him not just block 3 times until the final cutscene comes up

Hey Nyarly, I know it seems like an odd video to comment this on, but thank you for getting me into Digital Devil Saga. I started playing not too long ago and I am in love. I only know it exists thanks to your channel.

Having just finished Royal, I personally think it would've been better for this to have been the original games story. The big twist that happens after you beat the original final boss, wouldve been more impactful if I hadn't seen the original games ending and know how it goes. In this new reality Joker doesn't have to go to jail, and you would have no way of knowing how that original reality was going to go. But knowing it all turns out well in the end kinda knocks down the impact.

Thanks for the review, I was planning on playing p5 but didn't know which version to get

One of the things that they should add to the enemies to make them harder without making them health sponges or just "hitting harder" is introducing back the Pierce Elemental skills and the Drain/Null/Repel Pierce only for bosses. And making their AI follow up weaknesses.