At long last, after more than two years of waiting, the phenomenal Persona 5 Royal has stepped out of the bounds of the PlayStation 4 and come to PlayStation 5, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. It’s a big day for JRPG fans who don’t own a PS4, and indeed many more gamers, as P5R is one of Metacritic’s best ever titles.
See the trailer for Persona 5 Royal here
I’ve loved Persona 5 Royal ever since I reviewed it back in 2020, where I gave it GAMINGbible’s first ever 10/10 score. More than two years later, I’m even more assured in my opinion that this is a perfect game.
Everything about it is just right, from the anime-inspired aesthetic, to the combat user interface, to the character interactions and social gameplay, to the flawless jazz soundtrack. Honestly, it’s hard to conceal my fan status here, but then why should I have to for a review when a game is this good?
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The gameplay loop of dungeon-crawling, turn-based combat and dialogue choices, with slice-of-life high school simulator elements combines into a title that, despite taking roughly 130 hours to complete, never gets old. For a more detailed breakdown, be sure to click the above review link.
The main thing to report here is that P5R runs even better on Xbox Series X than it does on PS4, which will be no surprise, I’m sure. The emphatic colours pop and the loading times are nice and short, so your momentum is never at risk. We can’t confirm if it’s as silky smooth on Nintendo Switch because we haven’t sampled that port yet.
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The even better news is that developer Atlus isn’t stopping here, with Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden both coming to modern consoles on 29 January, 2023. That leaves ample time to play through P5R - maybe even twice if you have the stamina - before its predecessor titles. Also, don’t worry about spoilers or continuity as each mainline Persona game is its own standalone thing.
Whether spinoff titles like Persona 5 Strikers will ever grace Xbox is currently unknown at this time, but it’s clear that Atlus listens to fans, as proven by a survey asking about bringing Persona games to other platforms.
The future is filled with possibilities for Persona fans then, and the present is full of sumptuous fruit, but even someone who enjoys P5R as much as I do is ready for Persona 6 now. However, until then, I’ll be grinning ear-to-ear as I drink coffee in Café Leblanc, listen to exquisite tunes and steal the hearts of villains all over again.
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Persona 5 Royal is available on Xbox Series X (version tested), PC, Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 on 21 October 2022. Code for the game supplied by the publisher.