Timestamps for mobile users: Introduction - 0:00 Take Your Heat - 3:05 Student by Day, Thief by Night - 6:42 Combat - 10:40 Additions in P5R - 12:30 Should you buy it? - 19:26 Also, another thing I wanted to clarify: I said in the video that the main story to Persona 5 is unchanged. What I meant was that the base Persona 5 narrative is the same; nothing was cut or changed from that game. However, there are additional events that pertain to the main story. But, I don't consider those changes; I consider them additions. I just thought I would clarify this because it seems like it could easily confuse people.

Your the first or only person I seen this far that made a balanced and critical review on persona 5 Royal and the difference between the original or new one . Great content

The music of this game is so great...love it so much

While you may never see this, I feel like I need to put down some of my thoughts. On the whole, I agree with most of your points, including that I vastly prefer the original ending. However, I do have to disagree with your assertion that 'the new target doesn't have a grounded position of power'. Spoilers on the new target below~ Maruki, as a counciller/therapist I feel has a position of enourmous power - a therapist is trusted to be a professional, impartial ear to their patient's deepest personal troubles, to have shared with them every sordid secret and secret fear, and to help their patient find methods to overcome these troubles. A therapist is trusted to be there to support someone at their moments of greatest vulnerability, and both that and the knowledge they are freely given provide them incredible personal power - think of the amount of blackmail an amoral therapist would have. Maruki excellently demonstrates the corruption of this power with his paternalistic Palace, a world in which he, and he alone, decides what is best for everyone, forcing his solution to their problems upon them. It is a therapist abusing their power to mold his 'patients' at their most vulnerable to fit Maruki's ideal of who they should be, rather than helping his patients find ways to be the person that they want to be instead. However, at it's core, this also raises the question of if the phantom theives are any better - they too forcibly change people's cognition, just like Maruki does, just on a smaller scale. What gave the PT's the right to forcibly alter another person mind, the very nature of who their targerts are? Maruki shows the extreme end of the slipperly slope of correcting people 'for their own good', a stance which inherently implies that they are incapable of determing that good for themselves. He is the antithesis of the overall themes of P5 of personal freedom and empowerment, of seizing your own fate, and making your own destiny. That ending still sucked tho.

Great review! I just want to share my opinion about the royal content, spcificly the 3rd sem. Spoilers but still I try not to. I love the new casts of characters, they implement it better than Mary in P4G. The last palace really makes me think about a lot stuff irl. And I can really related to the Dr so much. But the royal ending is unsatisfying because it didn't put a good closure for the characters. I love that all of the members are persuing their dreams, but the ending give me more questions than answers. They use the ending as a gimmick to show how the Dr is doing, while making Joker take the train instead, and the after creadits, is clearly to satisfy the detective fans. I mean just put a full stop on the story, and don't make me confuse man, I like the addition a lot but, the closure trys to satisfy a lot of different fans yet doesn't satisfy the story itself

When I finished P4G, I’m going to get P5 and then play P5R when I’m done

Dude i liked a lot your content, the way you edit your videos and talk about the things you like about. I would love to hear more stuff you like if it is from videogames, tv shows or anime! Keep up the great work!! Also thanks for the review i already played P5 when it came out and was very interested on playing P5R, but i think ill better watch a walkthrough on the new content 👌

Bro, your editing is 👌🏾👌🏾

Amazing video, I will hold on to my money for a while then, having already played the original Persona 5 a year and a half ago. I think I might play another Persona game like 3 so I don't feel compelled to buy anything. Congratulations on your content, hope your channel grows! Looking forward to more.

good review - comes across as quite honest and I am happy to see that you do not gush p5r with praise. So many other youtubers did that and I couldn't quite agree with them. Especially concerning the story and the new ending, I really share your opinion.

Thank you so much I was wondering should I buy persona 5 royal because it’s on sale now I know thank you some much you deserve more subscribers man your really helpful I’ll be sure to come back here ones persona 5 strikers comes peace

I really do not agree with your opinion on the last palace, new characters and ending but I respect it and you make some damn good videos. Hope you come back.

Major plot spoilers discussed, please be warned I'm kinda in shock to finally have found someone who I mostly agree with on P5R. My experience was I enjoyed Persona 5, but eventually after several playthroughs, it had a bunch of points that were a slog to get through, and eventually my hand found itself hitting the good ole "skip" button. I love the game all the way through Madarame's dungeon (mostly because Yusuke is my favorite character), then where Makoto enters in is where I start losing interest a bit (and especially for Okumura's palace, gosh that place is a nightmare in all aspects). P5R released and I said you know...screw it, I'll buy it, I'll try it out, and hopefully it'll be different enough I'll find my enjoyment of Persona 5 again. I didn't. Once again, I made it all the way through 2 dungeons, and then once I realized almost nothing in the story was changed, I fast forwarded through every story scene that was unchanged from palace 3 all the way through the end of the game (I watched the new scenes, but that was it). Hats off to the combat changes, Mementos went from my least favorite part of P5 to being one of my favorite things to do in P5R, I played my first playthrough on Hard difficulty and only died once so I didn't really find much of the game to be that difficult with all the combat additions (like baton pass charges and team up attacks). Then there's the new chapter... In my opinion, the 3rd semester chapter on its own, is my favorite story segment of Persona that I've ever seen. It has my favorite storylines, and favorite antagonist. When I first heard news of Akechi working with the phantom thieves, I was vehemently against it. However, they did such a good job with his character in 3rd semester, that I actually changed tune. 3rd Semester Akechi is his most genuine self, and that turned him into one of my favorite characters for P5. Then there's the ending... I definitely agree, the ending cutscene for P5R is definitely my least favorite I've ever seen for any game I've ever played. Every time I've played P5, I had what I'd describe as happy tears. P5R...was something along the lines of nervous laughter like "is this some sort of stupid joke?" to almost anger when I realized that it ended the way it did. I've only played Persona 5 Royal once. Just once. I tried a second playthrough, and it stalled out because I just got bored with the game. Which is weird. I don't know why, but Persona 5 is the only Persona game that I get bored with when trying to play through it. I don't have that issue with games 1-4 (and I've put over 1000 hours and 12 playthroughs on P4G). Anyway, if anyone actually read through my whole essay on this, congrats! I got nuthin else

Can do persona 1,2,and 3

I would have to say maybe this is a problem with playing a fan translated version instead of the official localization . It actually reminds me a lot of what people said of Tales of Xillia before the localized version officially came out. For context it was that the game was terrible because Jude could only focus on Milla and nothing else, where playing the game that's not the case at all. The last target 100% fits the themes of the game. The overall theme is rebellion but the point of Kasumi, Akechi, and the last target is to question what does that rebellion mean? It's questioned a lot throughout the game of whether what the Phantom Thieves does is just because their targets are not repenting willingly, they're repenting due to a forced change in their cognition. Now, if that is okay then what is done to Kasumi is also okay. But it's also not okay for a lot of reasons. And that applies to the entire third semester. The Phantom Thieves are choosing a path for humanity even though that path might make a lot of people unhappy and they're also making that choice on their own. Is that the right choice is something that's left up to the player to decide.

I really liked the new arc and thought it was the best story content in the game it reminded me of Persona 4 and got me to care about the bad guy and was not a copy of persona 4 like the old final boss

Honestly I found a lot of the gameplay changes to be too powerful. In base P5 I had to turn back, use items, or be more strategic about how I was spending my SP. In P5R I just spam the enemy weakness, due to baton passing being so powerful, or use the gun attacks to take care of every minor encounter and I'm left with an abundance of SP. Boss fights are the only time I shall use an item or two and maybe a buff or debuff, but for the most part the same strategy that I've been using works wonders. They introduce those enemies that explode as if they are a threat but even they are benefit for the player. To me it feels as though they gave the player too many boons while the enemies remain the same and it throws off the balance.

Okay. Here's my fix. I picked up P5R on a whim, at a closing down sale. I just cleared the Maderame Arc. I am over 80 hours into the game already and I love it. Right now, P5 is on sale for ridiculously cheap. While Royal brings so many improvements and additions to the story, is it worth it to go back to P5, when I'm already having a blast in Royal? I know I've barely made a dent in this game, considering how far I have left to go, but I don't know if I should go for the more streamlined experience, at the cost of losing all of the improvements that Royal added on the pile. If you made it to the end of this comment, well done. Have a biscuit, Potter. 🍪

I must disagree with you on the new target. He challenges the Phantom Thieves' sense of justice and makes you question if what you are doing is right. He is also a dark reflection of Joker.

I highly disagree that the third semester s story is bad. In the og ending the pt crew seemed self reliant on joker and stuck with him In royal you can see everyone eill be ok and move on without him. Also the third semester adds a lot of clarity to the actions of the pt crew. But at the end of the day opinions are subjective while you may hate the ending to royal i love it. While you love golden i think Marie is very usless overall

I disagree with you with certain aspects specially in the part that P5 was entirely cohesive when old Akechi was there but I give my like regardless

Honestly the only reason I love Persona 5 is the gameplay . I did not really care much about the story. I just want more challenging fights. I really like the tactical element. I am now waiting for SMT5.

So... As someone who's never played a Persona game, you would recommend the original game over Royal to me. I actually did buy Persona 5 during the last Black Friday online sale for $10, though I never got around to playing it yet (I have a massive games backlog). Should I just stick with that?

You should wait for a discount on p5r or if you have XBOX gamepass will have you cover, p5r had the base game plus royal and you are not force to beat DLC since you have to uncloked aka is optional for me there is no need to go back to vainilla persona 5

It really annoys me how Kasumi doesn't match anyone else. All the other character's personas are based on rebellion while her's is just Cinderella? I love alot of it its just that last bit where it annoys me. With her persona and the castle and everything. I wouldn't mind the story being extended, however, maybe should have put it before the original ending. Then there wouldn't be some of the bs excuses for the castle to exist. I can't even play the game and just watch people play it because i don't have the console its on

You mean maruki