I cannot tell you how hard it was to write that title. I have played so many RPGs over the years. So many. And to think, a series I had never heard of until it was released on the Sony Playstation Vita has risen up to take my number one spot. Not just in RPGs but I think I can say all games, period. Of course that is all my personal opinion.
I have written recently about my trials with getting my Vita back up and running. That was to play Persona 4 Golden as I had played it originally. Before I played through P4G I never thought an RPG could so almost completely pull me in and make me care for every single character in a game. But Persona 4 Golden managed to do that. I had so much respect for Final Fantasy previous to this, until the game we’ll be talking about momentarily came around, was my go to franchise. The characters, music, story and game-play up to Final Fantasy XIV (minus XII and XIII) had been the definitive RPGs to beat. Of course Persona 4 was originally released in Playstation 2 days. I don’t know how I missed it.
I have never played a game that actually made me care for every character in the game. Every, single, one. Yeah, there are some I don’t like, but I still care about them and their affect on the story.
Graphically the game is unique to itself with a kind of cell shaded graphics that are different than any game I have ever played.
The music, the music is, the music is incredible. It makes me sad that the composer has moved on though he says he will still work on contract to Atlus. This is good. I can’t imagine a series without him.
The battle system. Perfect. Square-Enix keeps claiming that turn-based battle systems are not what people want but time and time again games like this and Octopath Traveller and so many others keep trouncing it’s main Final Fantasy releases. It’s embarrassing how much Square-Enix is out of touch considering they were the go to for the best RPGs out there.
I am of course talking about Atlus’ Persona 5 Royal.
P5R is the best game I have ever played. It beats Final Fantasy X. I beats Mass Effect 2. I beats Final Fantasy 7. It beats them all.
That’s not to say that there aren’t faults. Futaba’s Palace is still terrible. At least the end boss is. According to Atlus they made changes to that boss to make it better but it is still broken for many who play. I had to restart that boss several times. In fact, I almost quit the game over it. That’s how much I dislike that boss.
I am so glad I hung on because the game progresses so well beyond that part of the game.
The original end boss is a bit of a let down but the real ending boss added for Royal is so good.
You’ll notice I am being vague about a lot of the game. This is because I want you to experience the game yourself if you haven’t played the game. It is worth the 131 hours I put into it. It was a lot of late nights when I should have been sleeping. And I cannot thank Valve enough for making the Steam Deck. I would never have been able to do this without the Deck.
Shoji Meguro, composer of the series, you have surpassed my favourite composer Nobuo Uematsu. This game would not be the same without your soundtrack. And that’s not to say it would not be good. It just would be a 9.8/10 instead of a 9.9/10.
Atlus, please take your time putting Persona 6 together. I want a game that is well thought out and has deep characters like it’s predecessor. Honestly, I don’t mind if I have to wait until I’m 40. It’ll be depressing but I also know it will be the next best game I will get to play.
Yeah, I did a terrible job writing this. It has been so hard because there is so much I like about the game and want to talk about but unless you’ve played the game, you just won’t understand.
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