Introduction:
Okay then. This was a long time coming since I wanted to do something like this for a while now aka since April 2020. These posts were supposed to come out during April of this year and was going to be the 2021 version of Zane's Abilities, Attacks, Combos, Forms and their abilities, Other, Powers, Spells, Techniques, and Weapons but things happened. I mentioned why there has been a delay between posts ain Zero Episode 147 and that applies here.
I say Zero Episode 147 since well, Fairy Legion Royal author notes can be real meaty like a crustacean's claws so you'll miss some details. In the time of social distancing aka 2020, I've managed to finally play Persona 5 Royal and wanted to talk about it in length afterwards. I also wanted to do this for Pokemon Shield as well but I still need to play the DLC. It looks interesting to me and just like Paper Mario: The Origami King, I'm going to judge those games off personally rather than what the internet tells me.
The delay for this was because of me working on Fairy Legion Royale which is going good and Zero which is starting a brand new arc. It's also 2020/2021 so taking longer to put things out is a given for most creators. This post is similar to the Best to Worst MCU Movies and Ben 10 vs Green Lantern Rant I did in 2019 but different for a simple reason. One of them I agree with them still and the other one is pure cringe.
If you want, take a guess on which one is the one I cringe at and the one I agree with. The answer may or not shock you. Lets start from how I got to know Persona before I get into the review and like most of my stories, this will be a long one. Let me take you back to the first time I've ever heard of Persona and this was in the year 2013/2014. I'm not sure on the exact date but I know it was around this time so that's better than nothing. The only RPGs I really played around that were from Nintendo.
So I pretty much played just Pokemon and Dragon Quest 9 which I liked a lot. There were other RPGs I played but Pokemon was my main RPG. It properly still is mind you but back to Persona. I came in contact with this series thanks to a lets play of Persona 4 Golden (PSP Vita) by SuperJeenius. Do note that this isn't the one on steam so there may be a difference between these versions. Not sure between the two since well, I don't really do PC gaming.
I enjoyed my time with it but I got bored with it over time. The game is long and didn't keep my interest back then. It felt like a game I would enjoy playing rather than watching. Over the years, I grew to know more about other RPGs such as Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy thanks to Smash. I thinks that's the case for a lot of people mainly in Fire Emblem since Final Fantasy was well known once Cloud and later that white hair menace Sephiroth showed up.
While I can see that there are too many characters from FE, I don't really care since I like playing as all of them and have all of the Smash Fire Emblem Amiibo. It's also Sakurai's choice on who gets in so quit complaining. I swear. My theory about any fanbase that starts with the letter S being crazy or something is valid or something but news flash, every FANBASE is awful. There is no exception to this. Sonic and Star Wars Fans are crazy to say the very least in my opinion so my theory about this reins true.
You could probably prove this theory wrong to me but I'll never like Sonic unlike Star Wars which is something that I do find interesting in certain aspects. The blue hedgehog was ruined for me thanks to a single human being and their not stop mentions of the comics. I won't say who this person is but well, I now know more about how Sonic's runs in the comics or to be more specific Ken Penders. DO NOT look up this author since well, you'll get sick to your stomach.
This made me look at Sonic. There is also the non stop mention of how Sonic Boom, Sonic Forces, or Sonic 06 are bad. I'm not defending those games but mother of god. You don't have to keep mentioned it all the time. I get it those games are bad. You just don't need to remind me about it every god damn minute. I really hate repeating a joke so since Sonic fans keep brining up certain jokes, I don't care as much. Egoraptor is another reason why I don't like Sonic.
I did think that he was good back in high school but it's a much different story now. My tastes have changed over time and this is just one that changed. If you want a good video about why I don't like Egoraptor, check out MangaKamen's Why Sonic Games Suck. The internet made me dislike Sonic the Hedgehog and I'm not talking about the games. The games are another can for story but if I heard or see anything with Sonic in it, I'm going in with low expectations.
Lets go back to my origin with the Persona series. I did hear about Persona 5 ,the base game, when it comes around and how it was really popular especially when compared to the rest of the series which was rather obscure compared to other RPG series like Pokemon. This is just my opinion on that matter but Persona and Shin Megami Tensei aren't as popular as say Final Fantasy and Pokemon here in the west.
I would mention Dragon Quest as a series that isn't too popular here in the west but I'm not too sure about that. I mean at least Dragon Quest 1-9 did come in the west. The only one that didn't wasn't Dragon Quest 10 as of 2021. It may come out sometimes but well, most mainline Dragon Quests do come out in the west. Spinoffs don't since well, Dragon Quest isn't as popular here in the west. I did like
I think it was around March 2018 when I finally brought the game but never played it. I guess I forget I had the game and it has been sitting there ever since then but it looks nice. Persona 5 was so popular that Joker got into Smash Bros and that was a big deal since he was the first DLC character announced for Ultimate. However, this is sorta of wrong. I always personally considered the first Ultimate DLC character to be Piranha Plant.
He did come before Joker and did/does cost money in order to play as him so he counts. However, Joker is more popular and interesting as a fighter compared to a sentient plant from a series like Mario which has countless representation over the years. This is mainly due to Persona being a series whose entries are mainly on Playstation. The five mainline entries are on Playstation consoles and most of the spinoff games as well.
It's like Kingdom Hearts in that regard since all of the mainline games were on Playstation at first. This changed later on thanks to Sora being in Smash Bros but hey, what are you going to do? I really do like the plant especially when he's been depicted as a dog. I did see the Persona 4 anime and Johnny Yong Bosh made that anime for me as seen in this video. I would recommend checking out the anime mainly the dub since it's really funny and like Yu Yu Hakusho, it's really good in my opinion.
So you would think that after watching Persona 4 the anime and Smash Bros, I would finally play Persona 5. Nope. I didn't play it until April of 2020 and I played Royal. Now let me tell you how that came to be since there is a story to how I played one of my favorite games at all times. One of my favorite channel SGB was being affected heavily by the 2020 pandemic and in my opinion was killed by it.
I mean the people who were running the channel are still safe, healthy, and moving on with their lives but the channel went out with a whimper rather than a bang like they expected. I'm thankful that they are okay this. In response to this, I was looking for a new Lets Player to watch. This new lets player turned out to be Tom Fawkes. I did know about him before hand. This is due to me being a fan of Chuggaconroy and the RunawayGuys but never watched his stuff before.
Personally, I started watching him because of Saints Row 1 in fact since around this time, SGB was playing through Saints Row 2 and I've never seen the first game in action before. I played the third and fourth game with me really enjoying the fourth game. The third game is good too but well, I really like the fourth game for a simple reason. It was one of the first M rated games I really played. Wasn't a big first person shooter guy and still not to this date.
They just aren't my cup of tea. While I waited for the new Saints Row, I watched his Danganronpa streams and I was hooked on his channel. I personally believed that to truly judge something fairly, you should experience it for yourself and not have someone else play it for you. However, Danganronpa shoots that dead with a truth bullet. I enjoyed watched the first game and watching the anime so I think I could form an decent opinion on it.
You would have to take it with a massive grain of salt mind you but I can form a opinion on it. I finally saw Persona 5 Royal in action and I wanted to play it for myself. I got it the next day on April 11th and well, here's my full opinion on it. Do note that I will be sectioned this review by palaces and this will be the mindset from a third playthrough. This is due to me not writing down my thoughts between the first and second playthrough. The me from the past and the me of today are two very different people.
This will be my full opinion and more in-depth than those two I hope could be. The titles to these chapter aren't too good. Oh and to make sure, this will be a very SPOILER HEAVY review. Nothing will be left hidden so if you don't want to spoiled, leave right now. I would say to scroll down to my overall thoughts but the best recommendation for this to leave. I think Persona 5 Royal or the base game of Persona 5 is a game you truly need to experience for yourself.
A lets play could do the job perfectly fine but I would personally recommend playing the game for yourself for reasons I will be stating in this review and overall thoughts. If you want an in-depth review on the characters and story, you won't be getting that here. I would recommend looking somewhere else like 3Waifu, Nam's Compendium, Oziach, and Trash or Treasure? just to name a few. Just don't look at Cvit's video on the original game.
I like his Yugioh context but this isn't the same with his Persona video. If you want a great analysis on why his review isn't very good, check out Mangakamen's series of videos on it. I will be mentioned Mangakamen later on in a later post down the road so stay tuned for what video I'm talking about. This review is coming from the perspective of a very casual fan and newbie to the series who enjoyed the game at a base level. If you're still here, welcome to my Persona 5 Royal review! It's showtime!
Chapter 1: Prologue.
Now how should I begin this review? Oh I know the perfect start. Lets talk about the opening cutscene between Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal. Thanks to the Thieves Den which will be discussed at a later point in the review, I was able to see both of them. I could have done this on Youtube as well but nah. I wanted to see it in the game. I can say this with absolute confidence. I think I like Persona 5 Royal's opening just a bit more. Don't get me wrong.
I really do like P5's opening mainly with the figuring skating through the empty city scene which probably means something symbolic but I'm not really interested in what an opening to a game really means to the game or in general. Not really my thing but the song of P5R's opening is good. Music is subjective after all. Easily one of my favorite songs from the game hands down even though that the song played here isn't the fullest version of the song.
Another thing I liked is the colorful theme the opening has and the entire main human cast members of the P5 cast destroying some buildings more than being in an empty city more. It's all a personal thing mind you but there are some things I like about P5's opening. I do like how Morgana got thrown into a sign. No reason. Another reason why I'm not a big fan of the P5 Opening is that we don't seeing both Haru and Makoto doing anything beside sitting in their chairs alongside Futaba.
That is an insult to their character in my opinion. Both Haru and Makoto are great characters but if you ask me what they do in the game from just that opening alone, I don't think I could give you an answer that would do them justice. There is also the Strikers opening which has the entire class doing something so maybe it's better than P5's opening but that comparison will be for another day. With that out of the way, lets talk about some math.
Everyone's favorite subject. I'm sure that most people don't care about that kind of stuff and you probably wouldn't expect that from this post but I do. My first playthrough's total time was 116:31 and my second playthrough's total time was 251:45. Do note that your new game+ playthrough's time will have your first playthrough's total added on. By that logic alone, my second playthrough's time should be 135: 16 given or take. I could be wrong about this but lets begin Playthrough 3.
Do note that this playthrough is a DLC added playthrough so I will be talking about that as well since it did factored a good amount into my enjoyment of the game. I do think that the DLC in the grand scheme isn't needed to enjoy the game but it does help out in the case of a certain boss fight. We will be talking about that boss fight in due time. I also never played the original Persona 5 like I mentioned before so I didn't get any bonuses from that.
To start things off, I like how you can switch between either English and Japanese at any time. I usually picked English because I like to know what my character are saying in my preferred language. I mean no offense to the seiyus who worked on this game but to me, I like hearing English more. Personal thing. Our story begins with a typical This is a Work of fiction and well, I don't think that's worth talking about but it does have a meaning.
If you played the game, you would see what I mean and let me show you what that means. The actually story begins at a robbery at a casino with a certain theme and this theme will come into play but for now, enjoy the start to an amazing opening. We meet our main character and he seems to be the one responsible for robbing the casino. We need to escape and fast. While we try to escape, we have the song Life Will Change playing in the background.
We learn that the main character is named Joker and talking with his allies through their coms I presume. These allies shall remain nameless for the moment with one of them being known as Inari and the other one being named Skull. Clever names and I presumed that every member of Joker's group all had codenames that only had five letters. By the end of the game, I was proven wrong very early on in the game.
Before you get too far, the guards appear and these guards aren't exactly your normal guards. This is due to one of them turns into a strange creature going by the name of Sacrificial Pyrekeeper. By pressing the triangle button, you summon your own strange creature while covered in blue flames and its appearance is unknown like your allies. After taking out the strange creature, more guards show up and its time to get the hell out of dodge.
In P5R, something different happens as you're trying to escape and you're able to use some kind of rope to reach a different area. Upon doing this, you're caught by guards. However when things may look bad a savior arrives. It's a female around Joker's age and she is dressed in a similar manner to him except it's more focused on gymnastics. You could argue ballerina as well but that outfit screams gymnastics to me. Once she stabs one of the guards with her weapon, a new song begins to play.
This song is Take Over which is an amazing theme as well. She's able to handle these guards with ease and like the guard from before, they begin to transform. Your savior seems to rely on a great deal and calls you her senpai. The two of you begin to fight off the transformed guards. These guards are a single Arrogant Vulture and two Cruel Leopards. Like you, she is able to summon a creature from body and she's able to knock all of them down using said shadow creature.
She was able to kill all of them with a fancy finishing move. Even after taking them, enemies are still coming. The savior says that she'll hold them off for Joker and says that there is something he need to as a Phantom Thief. We don't know what that reason is just yet. She says that she won't stop them due to her not being part of the Phantom Thieves. Before leaving, she tells Joker not to forget the promise that the two of them made prior to the casino heist gone wrong.
After that, Joker tries to escape from the casino with the entire casino focused on finding him. Our game of cat and mouse eventually ends with Joker jumping out of a stained glass window, being a reckless showoff. I mean shards of glass go everywhere and I'm pretty sure that some of the glass will end up inside of Joker if this wasn't a video game. Upon landing on the ground, things are looking good until Joker is covered in light as the police show up to capture him.
It looks like Joker is about to escape but thanks to a rifle to the face, the police capture him. A man walks up to the captured Joker and claims that a teammate of yours sold you out. I guess this is Game over right? Not just yet. The unmasked Joker is held in a interrogation room being abuse by the police officers who captured him and claim to have drugged him. Totally relevant am I right?. You're woken up thanks to some cold water and try to escape but to Joker, there is no chance of escape.
Even with the room's security camera aimed right on, there is no chance of escape. The copy decides to list just some of your crimes. These crimes that are given to Joker are the obstruction of justice, blackmail, defamation, possession of weapons, and manslaughter. Yeah, Joker is a Nasty Crimeboy. To the interrogator, he seems to enjoy beating the crap out of the man/teenager who led all these crimes and he's a total sadist.
However, Joker seems to be unaware of the crimes done thanks to the drugs. This is where you can pick the difficulty. To stop with the narration for just a bit, I like how you can pick and change the difficulty whenever you want except for Safe. I like that. For my first playthrough of a game I've never played before, I picked Easy like I normally do. I've played RPGs before but from what I seen, Persona is a different yet similar beast compared to Pokemon.
If you pick Safe, I presume that this is for people who don't want any challenge at all and just enjoy the story since you're allowed to retry as many times you want. While I tend to pick the easiest difficulty, I do like a little bit of challenge. If you want another comparison to another RPG franchise, just look at the Casual or Phoenix option from Fire Emblem. For this playthrough, I selected normal because I want to make sure that I don't blame the game for me messing up instead of myself.
You'll see why I did this at a later date. Both Hard and Merciless are there for pros and I'm in no way a pro or masochist. Back to the narration for a few more sentences, the sadistic interrogator/callous detective frees you from the cuffs holding you and tells you to sign your name. You can either answer honestly or not. I picked the latter and got a foot slammed into Joker's knee for my actions. Don't being a smart ass with this kind of man interrogating you and there is no hope for serving in one piece.
He tells you a important lesson where you should take full responsibility for ones action. A good lesson to learn but not from someone like him. So this is where you sign your name and well, it's different from say Pokemon. The first set of eight "_/-" are for your given name/first name and the second set of eight "_/-" are for your family/last name/surname. Your middle name isn't important at all. For my first playthrough, I went for Zane Alvarez.
I know real original considered what I do here but I really like the name. The second playthrough, I went with Akira Kurusu. It is Joker's manga name and I was going to with the anime name of Ren Amamiya for this playthrough. However, this changed. I decided to go with Akira Amamiya because double AA and the origin of his name sounds cool. I could be wrong but his name would mean "A killer kills in a palace of rain.". That sounds really cool right?
If you want to the origin of the name, check out this site. I did this for Persona 5 Strikers as well and before you ask, I didn't know about Japanese Tony Stark from that game at the time. Never looked up anything from the game until it came out. It was a very funny coincidence when I found this out and wouldn't change it for the world. If you ask me which name I prefer between Akira and Ren, I'm going to say Akira without any doubt. My reason for preferring it is focused around Fairy Tail.
Yeah. Lets find out why. In Fairy Tail, there is a character named Ren Akatsuki and that is whoever I think of when I heard the name Ren. I also think of Ren from the Ren & Stimpy Show or Kylo Ren from Star Wars. Yeah, I don't mind that most people prefer and used Ren which I sometimes do too but I just like Akira more for my personal reasons. I tend to call him Joker since well, it does work. This case of which is the right name other than Joker is just like a certain alien from Ben 10.
In Ben 10, there is an alien Ben has called Blitzwolfer but that wasn't his name initially. Like the duo of Frankenstrike and Snare-Oh, this alien's name was Benwolf. Unlike the rest of Ben's Aliens, these three really needed new names in my opinion since they weren't all too creative. I mean Four Arms and Heatblast aren't exactly winning awards in a clever name but it's pretty obvious that the Horror Trio's names weren't given the most time to develop.
The webcomic 5 Years Later uses the name Benwolf and they aren't wrong for making that choice. Both names are terrible but I prefer Blitzwolfer mainly. I also don't like Kai. I didn't mind her when I was a kid but after rewatching Omniverse and how they handled Ben's relationships in that show, I wasn't a big fan of her character since I like Ester and Julie a lot more. We can talk about how Ben 10's relationships in that series another day.
I'm not sure if the protagonist from Persona 4 have to deal with this as well since well, I think most people call him Yu Narukami. The Megami Tensei Wiki refers to him as Yu Narukami in his own article unlike the Male and Female Protagonist from Persona 3 and Joker. Another great name for Joker is Sir Osis of Liver. For the sake of this review, I'll be calling the main character Joker since well I don't think you can go without a surname in this game. If you can, I didn't know at the time of writing this.
This will hopefully please both sides right? Anyway let us begin the adventure of Joker and back to the narration. After writing your name, a seemingly serious and all business no pleasure type of woman with silver hair shows up outside the place where you're getting beaten I mean interrogated. She may be beautiful but well, I highly doubt that she isn't here for a conjugal visit. She's here to do her job. Her name is Sae Nijima from the Public Prosecutor's Office.
She is demanding to see Joker for a confirmation but the police block her out. Her director/boss is given the very clever name of SU Director helps her get in. However to the police, this is nothing more than an inconvenience. Sae says that she's responsible for her case and how she isn't allowed to interrogate him. She needs to know if what happen is the truth by taking with Joker himself. The SU Director gives into her plea/demand even though he expects little from her.
An older/superior detective says that the interview/interrogation will be short but like Dragon Ball Z and really any kind of story especially Shonen, this interview/interrogation will be a long one. Time is irrelevant after all. He claims that this is for her due to how unknown his method are compared to other criminals but that's a lie. She enters the room with Joker waiting inside for her. The two of them are all by themselves and she seems to know our hero.
Sae tells him that you'll be answering her questions and noticing the drugs on the floor. I think it's truth serum but I could be horribly wrong. Perhaps clean up your drugs so you don't get caught using them for getting results in a not so legal way. She says that there is nothing she can do to stop them and needs Joker to answer her honestly due to the lack of time. She wants to know what his objective was and why did he cause a major incident. To her, it wasn't a prank because she didn't know why it was being done.
You can either answer like a smart ass or be a good boy and tell the truth. I tend to pick the smart ass answer most of the time. Whichever answer you give her, she has trouble believing in the strange world according to the reports. I mean that's a rational response. She wants to know who you found out about that world and how to steal another's heart. She wants to hear his side of the story from the very beginning. As Joker tries to recall it, a blue butterfly appears and talks to him with a feminine voice.
Not to say that I know what the insect's gender is because I really don't want to look up the gender difference between the two. She says that she's held captive as well but she's a prisoner of fate to a future that has been set in stone. This is slightly better than being a prisoner who gets drugged and beaten up by the police. She claims that it's an unfair game and winning is impossible but hearing her voice that there is a possibility open to you.
She begs you to overcome this game and save the world before flying off. The key to victory lies within the memories of your bonds and the truth you and your friends grasped. The game has started half a year ago or April. I would give the year but honestly, I have no idea what it is. I think it's 2016. This is due to the days of the week matching up with the year or go with 20XX. Both work. So you may be wonder how Joker got himself into this. Lets find out.
Chapter 2: Suguru Kamoshida, the Fallen Olympic Lustful Scumbag. April 9 to May 2. Twenty Four days in game.
With Chapter 1 done, the narration ends. I could do a narration for the whole thing but that would get boring rather fast and not at all personal in my opinion. If I did that and note every single detail, this mega post would take even longer to write. I only did it for the opening since well, it would be a great way to start the post. I probably did it wrong. I may go back into it if I want. Another reason why I go with Joker for the main character since that is what Smash calls him.
After another cutscene involving Joker's past with a bald man who oddly sounds like Speedwagon, we finally begin to play the game. The first thing I noticed beside the subway announcement is the lack of portraits on characters who don't have any kind of important to the story. They don't really matter to Joker. It's used to expand the world mainly. Main characters also dress different compared to the background characters. There is a meaning to that I'm sure but I'm not smart to know that.
If you're on new game plus, you can't go straight to Café Leblanc or explore anything around the area. If you could, you would break the story after all but the game is another story. Once you let the story play out, you met Sojiro Sakura or Bean Daddy at the Café. Sojiro is easily one of my favorite confidants due to him being a great character who you grow to love over time and easily a man I can respect. His voice is also great too.
At the end of this post, you'll see my ranking from best to worst confidants in the game. This could be me wrong but I think the Parcel Deliveryman you met on April 9th was voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch but that's just what I heard. I'm also seventy five percent sure that the elderly male customer that visits Leblanc is Todd Haberkorn. I know my voice actors especially when ones from Fairy Tail. Did you know that you can go back downstairs to the café before you start cleaning? The more you know.
I really like how the tutorial makes it clear that time in this game is limited and careful schedule management is important. Do note that this is for most of the modern Persona games as well but Persona 5 was my first Persona game. Another thing I like about this is that you get to relive the day you got arrested by Speedwagon who has a nice pair of glasses instead of a razor sharp hat. I will be giving characters in this game nicknames until we learn the character's name in game or I just want to.
Most of these nicknames will be from different characters that the English voice actors portrayed in the past. After reliving that night, you wake up in a prison cell aka the Velvet Room and this is where you meet three characters. Two members of this trio I liked from the start and one I grew to distrust over time until the big reveal. These three are Caroline, Justine, and a man whose nose could pierce your eye out and break the fourth wall at the exact same time Igor.
If I had to pick my favorite twin, I would have to go with Caroline. I just love her reactions to pretty much anything mainly when Justine gets involved. Just look at their interactions in Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight if you want to see some interactions between the twins. They just work better together rather than separate. Oh and do note that Sojiro rocks that hat during his off time and he should wear it more often I'm just saying.
When you go to Shujin for the first time, I noticed that something about the school and my dumb brain noticed it on my first playthrough. Said school is the Aoyama district and whenever I heard Aoyama, I think the My Hero character. The school itself looks depressing like a prison even more than normal schools do especially after a break. Principal Kobayakawa is fat, bald, and a total asshole so he is someone I really don't care about.
Sadayo Kawakami is Rukia from Bleach and if you've played through the game once or know Anime tropes, you know what her on the side job is thanks to that pamphlet. Kamoshida is a tall man with a chin that can probably open cut through a safe door, rivals Igor's pointy nose in terms of length, and likes to play the worst sport out there. Yeah. My bias is showing. I really don't like Volleyball since I had a bad experience with it during High School.
Both teams just stood around and did nothing but argue with each other for an entire match. That was not the best experience and is one of the reasons I haven't read or watch Haikyuu. I heard it's good but my dislike toward volleyball and the fact that I don't read sports manga in general are the reasons why I haven't given a chance. Neither reason is good I'm well aware. So I got to ask. After seeing another mental shutdown case involving a derailed subway, we meet a male.
Since he has a face and unique outfit, he is important to the story and we learned that he isn't a fan of conveyor belt sushi which yes. It's something important to mention. Not really but it's interesting to know. I've never been to Japan before but I'm going to guess that it's like eating at a Mcdonalds instead of eating from a fancy burger palace or something like that. Not a hundred percent sure on that but that's what I got from it.
Once Joker heads back home, we get our diary which probably has some really messed up stuff written it and hear Bean Daddy talking to a certain someone. Who could this someone be? We'll just have to wait and see. I mean I know who it is but did I know my first playthrough? Nope. Once you start your first day of school, I'm pretty sure that most players got lost due to them wanting to explore their environment after not being able to do for a good period of time.
It's totally understandable. We also get railroaded into following a certain path. I did have the first couple of hours shown to me thanks to Tom and I still got lost. Thanks memory. If I ever go to Japan or onto a complicated Subway system, this may happen to me in real time. You still have to go a certain way but well, you can explore a lot of things while going on this path. Here's a little tip. If you look up at the signs, it gives a general idea on where you should be going.
Not the best way of doing this but it's better than nothing. Also seeing Joker all squished in the subway car makes me feel uncomfortable and I'm not even there. It would also be a social distancing nightmare by the way. No one ,beside a few background characters, are wearing masks. On your way to the train station, you met a certain woman whom I'll be talking about since she has a portrait unlike the station attendant.
After getting caught in the rain and hiding an awning to stay dry, you met a certain blond duo one after enough. You get to know one member of the blond duo very well and it's a boy. The other blond is a girl whose name we don't just yet and the boys name is Ryuji. Kamoshida may be a piece of dog shit toward anyone who disagrees with him but at least, he was being nice at first to Joker. I try to look at the positives when it comes to most things before ripping them apart.
Once the duo says some selective words, Joker and Ryuji enters the first level of the game which is a castle where males are getting tortured and the females. I would say what's happening to the females but well, it makes Kamoshida even more of a monster. There is a whole lot of evidence to show that Kamoshida is a piece of shit. Do note that this guy is the first bad guy you take down and the game is just getting started.
Humanity is filled with piece of shits like this guy and this game exposes some of them. It may be exaggerated since this is a video game but I could be wrong. I mean what happens to a certain character involving Kamoshida is bad enough but I'm a hundred percent sure that this isn't the first time he's done something like this over the years. After seeing a grown man in a speedo that leaves nothing to the imagination alongside a crown, you finally awaken to what the game is named after.
Arsène is a pretty good starting Persona among the Phantom Thieves in my opinion. Not the best starting Persona among the Phantom Thieves but not the worst either. Joker has a good Awakening. It's a damn shame that you have to fuse it with Pixie to form Agathion later on. I mean he's cute and all but Arsène is badass. I rather have a badass Persona than a cute one. After exploring the cells, you met up with the feline simp himself Morgana.
Thanks to him and the internet, I learned what the word Simp means. Morgana's voice actor in English Cassandra Lee Morris also played Yubel from Yugioh GX. Yeah. Bet you didn't know that. You'll see where I put Morgana on the character ranking and explain why once we get to a certain chapter much later on. Even though he's a monster cat, I really want to pet him. Morgana's starting Persona Zorro may sound similar to Zoro from One Piece but he isn't my favorite one of the bunch.
His upper body looks like it was puffed up by an air pump and looks like a cartoon character. Fitting for the chibi cat but still. This may be because you're stuck with him for most of the game until the near end of the story while the rest of the casts gets new Personas over time. I also can't take Morgana seriously mainly when he has the dancewear outfit on him. That is something I did throughout the playthrough since because mother of god, it makes me laugh every time.
Oh and the graphic that's used for entering and leaving the metaverse is Giygas Mickey Mouse. I got that from Tom's playthrough and well, it changed me forever. I can't unsee the Mouse who will own the entire world calling it now. Also the oh so cleverly named SIU Director is not at all suspicious. Nope not at all. I wonder if he along with the three bald men are connected somehow. If they are, I shall dub them as the Bald Man Squad.
This group consist of the high school principal aka the fat one, the one with the nose whose rival Usopp's nose in terms of length, Speedwagon, and the SIU director. This is something I called this group during the first playthrough and the name has stuck with me every since. Spoiler alert. I totally called it. Kamoshida is later to revealed to be an alumnus of Shuji and a Olympic medalist. It was either for volleyball or being a piece of shit.
Either reason is good enough for me to be honest. I mean he's the reason why Joker's record got leaked to the school due to him bullying Mishima into leaking it. After introducing yourself to the class, we met with the other blond from this morning Ann. Her name is one that I pronounced two different ways. I either pronounced it the way that the game does or the way I would do if I never played this game. It isn't obvious through text but I switch between the two pronunciations all the time.
We also see Principal Egghead outside of his office and well, he's a big boy. He really does remind me of an egg and next to Kamoshita/Kamoshida, his weight sticks out even more than it already does behind the desk. Kamoshida is also the only boss who isn't directly involved in the conspiracy in some regard I'm pretty sure. He isn't the only one mind you but that character is only in Persona 5 Royal not the original game. I'm not sure if that should count.
On your way to the rooftop, we get a glimpse of a character in a pink sweater and has fluffy hair. She is a character who is important since she has a little portrait compared to the portrait-less teacher she is talking to. I wonder if she's important to the story or something and I really hope she is important. We'll talk about her later. I'll make sure to do my best and mention every time I see her since this is something that Royal added from what I recall.
Ryuji mentions that no one says anything bad about Kamoshita because he took the volleyball team to national. What I and hopefully most players noticed at this point, Shujin cares a great deal about their reputation. I wish I was kidding about but you'll see what I mean by that. So there is something that a New Game+ allow you to see if you didn't notice it your first time around or miss the obvious not subtle hints about what's going on.
I was that player who ignore the not so subtle hints. In your second plot meeting, Igor says that he has high expectations for you and one of your answers is that's not my concern. Normally, you wouldn't be able to answer it due to a lack of guts but if you max out your stats on your first playthrough and come back around, you can answer it. I just find that to be an interesting reward to raise all of your stats. It also makes unlocking certain confidant ranks easy.
The next day, we met the new girl of Persona 5 Royal Yoshizawa and I'll say this. She is a character whose true self you don't really learn until the last section of the game and I romanced her for my first playthrough. It was mainly because I literally knew nothing about the differences between P5 and P5R until after finishing P5R. My opinion over the girl has changed thanks to the second playthrough and time. I'll mentioned who I romanced for the second and third playthrough in due time.
Lets just say that I'm waiting for the perfect moment to say this. If I say it now, wars will begin. I don't want to start World War 3/III. That job belongs to the Quintenssinal Quintuplets. Yeah. That was a thing that happened. One of the best thing about new game plus is always dodging Mr. Ushimaru's ,who I call Japanese Hank Hill thanks again to Tom, chalk of death. This is also the first day where you get to know about some really complicated stuff.
Such as the Devil's Dictionary and for these questions, I looked it up. I should have just learned it the hard way but looking it means easy points added to your knowledge and every point counts mainly when you want to rank up all of your confidants in a single playthrough. I'm not a super genius. After this lab question, we see Kamoshita and Ann talking with him trying to hit on her even though he is several years older than her.
Don't get me wrong. I really think that age doesn't matter when it comes to who you should love but only if both partners are ADULTS. Weird restriction but here me out. When both people are adults, they have to deal with the consequences of their actions. It's also just more acceptable but we do have things that involving the age difference between two adults. Lets not talk about that and move on. If you can recall, I made it clear that I don't like when a high schooler dates a middle school in Zero.
This is why since well, it's weird to see a teenager date a elementary schooler. It isn't pedophilia to my knowledge but it could be seen as that. This one of the reasons why Kamoshita ,which is really fun to write by the way, is a piece of shit at least to me. I mean there are countless reasons to why he's a piece of shit and this is just one of them. Pick your favorite. After some investigation which was the duo walking around in circles, the two return back to the castle.
After some more investigation with the help of Morgana, Ryuji awakens to his Persona when he was being reminded of his tragic past and how Kamoshita was involved. To make a long story short to an extend, Kamoshita destroyed the track team because he didn't wanted them to have all of the spotlight showing that the piece of shit likes to be the center of attention. Oh and Morgana and Ryuji's bickering begins here with it leading to a certain point that will be discussed later.
Ryuji's Persona Captain Kidd's theme would be either this song or this song. I can't decide which one to use but I do know that it wouldn't be this one. This is also due to this song being both a happy and sad song. We also learn about Palaces and well, this kind of stuff is more for eggheads. So did you ever noticed that Morgana's head looks like a mask. I didn't think about this until I saw this comic. If you don't want to be frighten by this and scarred for life, don't look.
So fun fact, I didn't know that a palace's security level goes down by days going by. That's just something interesting to know. We also learn how to use Joker's neutral special aka a gun. I also don't know how it was like in Persona 5 but having the ammo be restored after every battle is nice right? I mean it takes up time in game and that's precious. We also get introduced to All-Out Attacks and my favorite one is from Persona 5 Strikers near the end of the game. You know the one.
You know the one. After all of that, we can see Kamoshita's criminal actions and just another reason for me to hate volleyball. I mean just look how it could abuse innocent teens. I do like the volleyball cannon since it would be a unique way to defend a castle but abuse students isn't cool. The treadmill is okay but not as painful as the one from the Jetsons. After Ryuji's awakening, we get to see a cognition version of Ana and this begins the start of the Morgana Simping running gag.
Yep. This and the Ryuji and Morgana bickering are just some of the running gags in Persona 5. I'm not the biggest fan of running gags after all so yeah, a minor problem with the game. It's all personal preference mind you but it doesn't bother me too much. The whole Morgana claiming to be a human thing is something that gets annoying but honestly, it isn't the worst running gag in the game. That belongs to the Ryuji and Morgana thing.
I also never noticed this until I started writing this but Ryuji's Phantom Thief outfit is totally a metal pirate cosplay of Fred from Scooby Doo. I mean the blond hair and the ascot around his neck. Am I the only one who sees this? Is it like how I compared Droy and Jet from Fairy Tail to Fanboy and Chum Chum? I really hope not with this one. After forming a partnership with Ryuji, we get thrusted back to the interrogation room and this happens almost EVERY time you unlock a new confidant.
Not all of them do this such as the Fool Arcana but a good amount does. Sae's reasons for each confidant gets silly in my opinion and makes you wonder what she would say if you unlock a confidant with a ice cream vendor or something else that makes no sense. Ryuji is a good bro and while he may be the best boy to me, he's like a golden retriever. Loyal to a fault and that's nice to have even though this dog has trouble keeping things a secret and won't say fuck but every other swear.
I did see a comic about this so if you want to see it, check it out. Eventually, he is allowed to say fuck but not until Persona 5 Strikers. Great moment by the way without or without context. As for now, he can say everything but that. While this is going on, we met Shiho who is one of Kamoshita's favorite victims. Mishima is another one but well, Mishima isn't female but Shiho is. Yeah, it isn't pretty and one of the reasons why I considered him to be a great character to hate.
You also learn about how you grow stronger by making friends. See? Fairy Tail isn't the only series that relies on the power of friendship to become stronger. So the Volleyball Rally. I'm not a hundred percent sure about this but do real life schools actually do this? You know before lockdown and all. I mean I know about pep rallies but actually cancelling an entire afternoon's classes for sports or just one of them? That sounds so stupid to me and having students vs teachers isn't that much better.
It's like having pro athletes play against newbies. No contest here. I mean Kamoshita may be a piece of shit but his strength isn't something to take lightly. Just look at the Volleyball Team. On the walk to school that day, one of the students wants to get spiked by him so he may be a masochist. I know why they didn't do this but well, I wish Joker could have shown Kamoshita a taste of his own medicine. One spike is all I'm asking for and if that ball just happens to break his chin, it would be perfect.
For me, it would be like when Luffy punching the Celestial Dragon Charlos or when Donquixote Mjosgard clubbed him. It's cathartic. So Ryuji's plan of talking to the members of the Volleyball Team may sound good on paper but execution is another story since no one is going to talk about the abuse. If they squealed, Kamoshita may give them a volleyball directly to the face or something worse like ruining your future.
Just look at Ryuji and what happened to him. There is also the fact that both of them are considered to be delinquents. So during the investigation, you can talk to Ann and Shiho with you learning a little about the two of them. Thanks to the duo talking about Kamoshita and how much of a threat he is, no one is going to talk to any of them. I'm also sure that teachers aren't supposed to call their student crappy. I'm just saying.
Thanks to Mishima, it's revealed that EVERYONE knows about the abuse and how there is nothing that can be done. The next day on the way to school, we learn that the PE faculty office is a forbidden place to go. There is a rumor about you can heard weird sounds like screaming when no one is there. Either the school is haunted by ghosts or something really bad is going on in that room. Oh and that rumor-loving student from the day has a very unique voice for a high schooler.
He sticks out to say the very least. After that, we meet up back with Ryuji who has failed at getting information once again. In the conversation, you have to pick "We should call the cops". You can try option B but it won't work and after mentioned the king, we see a Black Cat appeared and it's Morgana but he looks like a real life cat who came to the real world either by the plot or he secretly has a cellphone but doesn't tell anyone about it.
I mean he could and it would be hidden under his collar. We'll never know and don't run this head canon for me. When Ryuji is holding Morgana and when it looks like he's dancing, it's hilarious. Oh and Persona 5 reminded me a lot of Kingdom Hearts on my first place since it has to deal with a heart and by destroying a palace, said ruler would have the need to confess to their crimes. However, this gets rid of all of the ruler's desires not just the bad ones.
The ruler would turn into an emotional husk of themselves. On your way back home, we met up with Ann and how Kamoshita forces her to have relationship with Ann in order to keep Shiho on the staring lineup. It's really hard to not eavesdrop on a person when they're screaming into their phone or you're nearby them. You hopefully get my point here. After chasing Ann throughout the underground walkway which wasn't that hard, we eventually have a chat with Ann and how they're not dating.
No duh. It was also easy to find her since she has blond hair in a sea of black and brown. She sticks out for that reason and another reason. He wanted to have relations with her and blackmailed into this "relationship" for Shiro's shake. This is just one of the reasons why I didn't mind erasing Kamoshita's palace the first time around since he had it coming. After a nice heartwarming conversation between Joker and Ann, Mishima asks Shiho to the PE Facility office because of Kamoshita.
It isn't shown what's happen to Shiho but well, we soon find out what happened to the poor girl and it isn't pretty. I really don't want to say what it is because I don't like it whatsoever. So before we get to that plot point, lets look at the scene on Joker's way to school for the fifteenth. Two volleyball players are talking about Shiho or Suzui missed an important meeting with Kamoshita. Yeah I wonder why that happened. This conversation isn't what I'm here to talk about.
Look at the upper left portion of the screen and with the word "Early Morning" blocking the brunette's face for reasons, do you think she's important? We'll be talking about her later since she is a unique character. After this scene and a lesson from Japanese Hank Hill which tells you something, we let about the branches of the government, we see Morgana hiding in your desk and we learn about the true hero of the game aka the guy who sits behind you in class.
I'm sure that he can see Morgana since Morgana's head sticks out of the little hole that your desk has so what is his story? We need to know this. Thanks to a male student, we see Shiho on the roof and she jumped off the roof of the school. Yeah. This game shows a character actually jumping off a roof to end their life much to Ann's shock and worry. Doesn't pull its punch. Do note that on your way to the courtyard, it is possible to go into a circle if you're not familiar with the school.
I did during my first playthrough since the school blends together on your first playthrough for me at least. You will learn it in time but trust me, getting lost is a given and no one should judge you for it. And like with the fluffy hair student from earlier, you can talk with the brunette I mentioned before. The more you learn on repeated playthroughs I swear to gods. One thing to notice is that while the students are gawking at this scene, not a single teacher steps up to help Shiho to the hospital.
They all leave it up to Principal Egghead. Ann steps up and learns why Shiho jumped which sets Ann into a righteous and fiery fury. Prior to this game, I knew of Ann's English voice actress thanks to several series. One of these series is Yugioh Abridged. She played Rebecca Hawkins. Mishima knows something about Shiho and the boys try to figure it out with Ryuji being bad cop, Joker is the silent but good cop, and Morgana is a cat.
He also can't talk with Mishima unless Mishima knows how to speak cat. We don't know if he can but I highly doubt it. We learn what Kamoshita does to anyone he calls to his room. Whenever he is in a bad mood, he selects a "lucky" student to get hit and Shiho didn't get abused like normal. Lets just say that there is a reason why men are considered to be piece of scum to women in fiction and Kamoshita doesn't help change that stereotype whatsoever.
After Ryuji bolts off to find that piece of shit teacher, we get Mishima as a party member but I doubt he would tell us any new recipe or point out any ingredients. Thank god since one of those options would have driven me insane. Pick one which I'm talking about. After catching up with Ryuji, Kamoshita is calm and doesn't care about what happened to Shiho in the slightest. Ryuji gets pissed ,which is one of his common emotions, and Kamoshita gets ready to show him another example of "self-defense".
This involves breaking his other leg. You have to stop Ryuji from punching the shit and well, revenge will become to the gym teacher very soon. Kamoshita being a very cocky piece of shit makes the revenge I'm about to give him even better in my mind. The piece of shit is ready to get the group of Joker, Mishima, and Ryuji expelled. Morgana is safe since he is an expert at stealth or no one is paying attention to him.
It's probably the latter and the obvious fact that he is also a cat not a student of this high school. They could have animal students but it isn't that type of world. Through Kamoshita, we learn about Mishima leaking Joker's criminal records. It was probably under Kamoshita's order. The power that a teacher even a gym teacher is frightening. If the teacher doesn't like you, he/she can ruin your future. That may be a thing in Japan but I could and probably wrong about that.
Before we can go make Kamoshita pay greatly for his crimes and teach him a lesson that he won't forget, Ann shows up and asks if we're being expelled since everyone knows about it. I have to ask. So how fast do rumors travel in this school? I think it was Kamoshita or the power of social media. Ann decides to join us because of what happened to Shiho. On my first playthrough, I wasn't against her joining, Ryuji does since she doesn't have a Persona.
Ryuji is trying to protect her and she runs off. The advice Morgan says about women being more bold than men at times makes sense. We learn about the trio of cat, blond, and frizzy hair becoming Phantom Thieves. The perfect team. Before leaving, Ann shows up and she joins the trio because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Due to their Phantom Thieves outfit being well absolutely terrible at disguising their wearer, Ann is EASILY able to figure out who they are.
It is pretty obvious who is under the mask thanks to their hair. It isn't like Danny Phantom who changes his hair color but keep the same first name. There is also Superman being Clark Kent but there is a reason for people not knowing. Danny Phantom on the hand doesn't. Oh and Ann calls Morgana a monster cat much to his dismay but this doesn't stop the cat from simping. Nothing can stop that cat from simping since well, love is a very blinding force.
After the trio escorts Ann out of there, we get the codenames of Joker for your player character, Skull for Ryuji, and Mona for Morgana. Not a great name but not the worst Phantom Thief name in my opinion. We get that name in Strikers but while I really like that character a lot, her codename isn't the most creative out there and I'll talk about that whenever I review Strikers. Perhaps after Shin Megami Tensei V comes out.
We then learn how to holdup and gain the power of Pixie to use at our disposal. Do note that I'll be getting rid of Pixie really soon but I'll be explaining what is good about collecting all of the Persona at your disposal. If you want to get all of them, I highly recommend checking out this site. I say this because reading social ques or understanding the deeper layers of a story and its's characters isn't something I'm the best at.
I try to at least get the basics. The game tells you about Shadow Personalities but honestly, I don't know what the difference is between a jokey answer and vague one. The name of Joker makes sense since he's a wildcard due to his ability to have a diverse move set or loves to play jokes on people. My head canon is on the latter even though it's most likely the former. Even after sending her away, Ann comes into the castle thanks to the app getting onto her phone like a virus and she gets easily caught.
Like super easy. She enters the castle and gets caught. Worst thief ever am I right? Mona goes out to find out about Ann and well, we need to save her because of her unique prison. It's very kinky and the candles doesn't exactly help it not be kinky. I mean it's straight out of an S&M dungeon. While she's about to be killed by one of Kamoshita's guards, the boys see what the king thinks of the girls on the volleyball team.
Kamoshita ,at least the shadow version of him, says that Ann's fault for what happened which is total bullshit by the way. Ann eventually awakens to her Persona Carmen who is a fiery woman and a total seductress. Her Persona also has little servants attach to her as her slaves so I wonder if Ann has a sadistic side to her. Food for thought. After awakening her inner seductress, Ann also cut down the Princess Ann which makes no sense with context.
Her Phantom Thief outfit is definitely shows off the most of her out of the group in the main game since well, her skin is exposed. How lewd. Thanks to the power of New Game +, I was able to beat the toilet demon with a single fireball and All-Out Attack. Upon emerging from the world, you may notice a man with a brown coat. It was a total blink and you miss it moment but like with the duo of pink shirt girl aka Haru if it wasn't obvious and the brunette aka Makoto, he plays a role in this story.
After getting Ann to join the party, we gain another new confidant in the forms of the Lovers Persona which is fitting given this series. We also get our first of many hideouts in the form of the school rooftop mainly because of Morgana with you at all times. This is an issue but not until much later. You'll get my full opinion about this later on and not until about forty hours plus of game play. We also met the head doctor of a nearby clinic and you know what that means.
She is an important character due to her having a portrait and unique look to her. That's how you can tell when a character is important since everyone one is a nameless face, no portrait, and looks rather generic in my opinion. The power of having a portrait does help you. Morgana was able to convince bean daddy to let him stay with Joker and the bean daddy wanted to name him instead of Joker. What name do you think he would have come up with?
Probably something to do with coffee or something. We form another bond with Morgana and like the Fool Persona, this one is special. It's plot related meaning it goes up whenever the game wants to. The next day is when you have the ability to dodge the death chalk once again since the power of max out social stats is powerful. Before we can go to the palace, we need to do some preparations aka drugs and weapons. I mean really what else do you need for raiding a palace?
We also get to meat Tae Takemi whose clinic has a really good song playing in her clinic. Personal opinion on that. I do recommend getting some medicine for HP if playing on hard mode and if you want the status healing items, I'm not saying that isn't a wrong way to play. This is something I truly believe that since there is no wrong way to play Persona especially if it's your first time. You don't know what is the best way to do things are until later in the game.
So on your way to get guns, we see a politician. I'm not smart enough to see if this is a joke in our current society. At the gun shop, we are able to buy weapons of the melee and ranged variety. We can also buy protector and accessory. For my first playthrough, I always went to buy the best weapon that there available at the time since I liked to remain at my best. I didn't know about the power of making items using Persona yet and I really liked the song when you go there.
Not as much as Tae's clinic but a good song regardless. After buying some weapons, we can make infiltration tools. I do like these tools but honestly, I only made lockpicks. I did make some other tools but that was on my second playthrough. So the next day is a P5R, we get a scene with Yoshizawa. These types of scenes do happen a lot but to be honest, I did like her on my first playthrough but I wish she showed up more. Another girl is the exact same.
I mean you would have to REWRITE the entire story to fit her into but you should have her show up here and there. I wouldn't suggest her joining the team early on because of plot reasons but have her interact with the characters more and make her feel like part of the friend group. This applies to that other girl as well Even with that, we get started with the palace infiltration and I'll say this now. Every single palace is under a time limit and it usually involves the group getting in trouble.
So I ignored this on my first playthrough back in the day but if you have ABSOLUTELY no idea what you should do, hit the black rectangle or touchpad interface on your controller for a good idea what you should do. The main thing you should know is that there is no wrong way to play Persona 5 in my opinion. It's like Pokemon being that there is no wrong to play a game but to play it yourself. One thing I would recommended is going out your way to get SP items.
The clinic does sells healing items but there are much cheaper items out there. Where do you find these items you may be asking? You just needs to head to the vending machines at the school's courtyard, the bathhouse near Leblanc which gets restore every week, and the arcade on Central Street. They are more locations that sell SP items but they don't unlock until much later in the story. Upon starting the infiltration mission, you have freedom to explore Aoyama-Itchome, Shibuya, and Yougen-Jaya.
You can do this to unlock every place that's available such as the clinic since you have there to go a second time to unlock it. You really don't have to start the palace on the first day and it's possible to complete it on the first day. You just need to be smart with your time movements and item usage. For New Game+ plus, you can do this no problem. You got your left over items from the last playthrough which includes money.
For my third playthrough, I decided to go talk with Tae so I can unlock her as a confidant. In my first playthrough, I fully unlock her as a confidant so this allowed me the full medical usage at the start of the first palace. With over two million yen, I was well prepared for Kamoshita's place. To fully complete this confidant, you need to say the right thing and having a certain type of Persona. I would recommend using a guide for it if you're bad at reading the room like I personally am.
After ending the first day, you have the ability to go into the bathroom. This is helpful if you want to improve all of your social stats. It tells you which stat you're closest to leveling up. By doing certain things throughout the game, you can check how much Charm, Guts, Kindness, Knowledge, and Proficiency you have. One such activity is doing the crossword that can sometimes appear in Leblanc or reading the books you get at the book store on Central Street.
You should always go to the bathroom whenever you can to check on this stats and it takes a fair bit of time to fully complete these stats. Complete these stats will allow you to get full access to every confidant since some of them require you to be a certain level of Charm or Knowledge. Fun fact which I didn't noticed until this playthrough. When you see the loading screens for this part of the story, you can sometimes see Ann and Ryuji walking with the crowd of nameless faces.
It's like with that brown coat wearing man, white shirt wearing brunette, and pink shirt girl. I did mention the two girls names above but the man won't be revealed until later. I should mentioned that from here on out, I will be mentioning things that interest me and the story. This is mainly so I'm not detailing everything in the story. You really should experience this game for yourself. One major advice you should know is that certain personas are connected to certain confidants.
By having these personas, they help raise up your ranks with confidants. For example, the Hell Biker Persona or as I called him on my second playthrough Anime Ghost Rider is connected to the Death Arcana and the Death Arcana is connected to Tae. Oh and Mona calling Panther a cougar isn't exactly leaving the best impression on her. I'm just saying Mona and you're clearly wong. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of Agathion, I really like how you create these fusions.
It also gets more graphic with each new upgrade. Do note that if you play a new game, you have the ability to use high level Personas at the cost of a pretty high fee to do so. I'll get into why that isn't a big problem at least for me. When you lie on the bed in your prison cell, you can hear a mysterious voice. I didn't know this until my second playthrough and watching Tom Fawkes's run. This is a nice little detail in the game that probably will go unnoticed by most.
Buying higher lever Personas cost more HP and SP to use but if you do certain events in your earlier playthrough aka working out or going to the temple, this isn't that big of an issue and something to keep in mind if you decide to hold nothing back. To have a good amount of money, smash anything that's a gold color and this is shown off with the Third Eye. Do remember the power of the Baton Pass and how it can truly help in a certain boss fight.
If you know anything about Persona 5 Royal, there is a certain boss who I'll be talking about since my opinion on it changed it thanks to a second playthrough and a video I watched which I will mention at that time. Did you know that you get from the Castle Gate from up to the second floor of the Central Hall? I honestly didn't learn about this until right now and well, it's good to know. This palace is also the introduction of this comic.
Shortly after, we get the power of a grappling hook. So after collecting three special books, you see a room that's rather disgusting. It shows all pictures of Shiho and well, Kamoshita is going down. If you find the beefcake book and put in the bookshelf that's in the hallway, you get an item for doing this. The castle has a church which in reality, it's the gym. The ego on this man is massive. I sure that this man's ego will be the biggest one seen in the game maybe.
If you go for every treasure, get used to the characters talking about that. It does get annoying. After some exploring, you'll come in contact with a door covered in vines. This room is home to one of three will seeds. These are P5R exclusives and give off some pretty good abilities once you get done with this palace. The only will seed reward that you don't get is at the very end of the game but we'll get there when we get there.
In the room where the Will Seeds are, you can heard voices from the palace's owner talking. It's fascinating but a bit hard to hear at times. In the castle tower, you'll see a lot of stone breasts and butts mainly of the female variety. It does get a little distraction and can make you hate a character more. If you didn't like Kamoshita, check out this picture and you will hate him even more I swear to god. On your way to the third will seed, you meet the Torn King of Desire or Mara.
This demon is a very unique one to say the very least and this clip fits it perfectly. This palace is one of lust and well, this game is rated M after all. Upon getting the three skulls, they combine to find the Crystal of Lust. This item's main usage will come into play later. After collecting the eyes of a Kamoshita statue by chasing down guards, we finally reach the treasure and a but load of gold. I like how all of the treasure shown in the game aren't the normal definition of treasure.
So after completing the palace and on 4/20, we see our first sighting of Haru. Oh and do pay attention to any red text that the game says. It's mainly because once you secure the route to the treasure and send the calling card, you will have to do it the very next day. No exceptions. Before I sent the calling card, I started up the Hierophant Persona Confidant and the next day you can see Makoto. I'm not going to do this every single time but that would be silly and repetitive.
After doing some last minute things, we send out the calling card and hopefully it doesn't go like this timeline's version did. Oh yeah, the first calling card is definitely a work in progress mainly by the writing and logo. So whenever the chapter's boss aka Kamoshita sees the calling card, their Shadow Self shows up and those with Personas can see them. That's the case with Kamoshita. Once you enter the palace, you can either warp up to the boss room or do some last minute grinding.
The latter should be done in case you're not sure about the boss and want to make sure you're prepared in terms of dealing damage. New Game+s players won't have to worry about this but it doesn't hurt to be careful. Once Mona sees the treasure, he goes crazy for it and ends acting more cat than simp. After Ryuji jinx the group by saying that there won't be a trap of some kind, we leave with the treasure and run into Kamoshita who spikes the treasure out of our hands.
We also see his version of a superhero landing and he has the force. I'm sure that he did the former wrong and the latter is just because he's the king of his castle. After some fighting words from the group and the pervert, Kamoshita begins to transform into Asmodeus. Not the one from Welcome to Demon School Iruma Kun but something more disgusting. When I first saw this boss fight, I knew that I would like this game since he sticks out like a sore thumb.
His tongue may be too big for my liking but well, I like memorable first bosses. After easily destroying his trophy of Obsession which he uses to regain health by ingest cognitive female volleyball students that are inside of the glass, Cognitive Mishima shows up and helps prepared for Asmodeus's kill shot. However by guarding and setting up a certain ability, it does little damage and he decided to bring out Shiho in a bunny suit. Both her and Mishima are Persona 5 Royal exclusives by the way.
So one thing about Cognitive Shiho Suzui. She's weak to pretty much every type of attacks except for one so take her done before letting Kamoshita get in another shot. After taking down Shiho with the power of lightning, the next step is taking the crown. I sent Mona in my third playthrough due to him having the weakest amount of health compared to Panther and Skull. By beating the crap out of Asmodeus using our weapons and ending him with Joker's neutral B, he went down.
The crown also shrunk and Kamoshita returns after Asmodeus falls. He takes the crown and runs but can't due to him being back into a corner. Panther tells him that he has two options either jump off the balcony or die by fire. However, Panther doesn't kill him since that won't solve the problem and make him unable to admit his crimes. The group eventually escape from the castle of Lust with an Olympic medal in hand.
You may wonder where the crown went but in the real world, that medal from Kamoshita's past is very important since he was unable to move on from his past. The next thing I did was buying something from the shopping channel. Do note that these items sold on Sundays are really good and should be bought whenever you have a chance. Also and taking a bath on Sunday does help boost up one of your social status by a good amount so if you want.
On 4/25, you can see Kawakami running by and learn about watching movies. This is important to building your social status alongside answering Kawakami's questions. You also get a boost in Ann's confidant and I'll explain how that Kawakami lady is important in due time. We also learn that after taking down Kamoshita, he decided to place himself under suspension and this means that this heart changed. After hearing this, you're given a task in improving your kindness.
You could do this or improve your confidants. It's up to you and what you want to focus on. The next day aka the twenty seventh of April, they remind you about how important it is to raise your social status. After this, I spent the next couple of days just living my daily life. Boosting up my confidants or trying to hit a homerun. After missing the shot at least a hundred times but hitting the ball at least eighty percent of the time, I left.
I also got a part time job working at the flower shop and Triple 7 or Persona 5's version of 711 here in the USA. Working at these places give you some extra spending money and help boost those important social status. However, May 2nd eventually arrives and we get a morning assembly. One may think that it was about Shiho and it is but something else happens. Kamoshita shows up and he looks completely different.
The reason for him being different is the fact that his eyes are completely closed and he plans on confessing everything. It's mainly about his crimes that he has commit as a teacher in the forms of physical, sexual, and verbal abuse toward minors. According to Wikipedia, Japan's Age of Adulthood is eighteen years old and this is rather recent too. I mean it was done within the past ten years so I considered that to be recent. He also says that he's the reason for Shiho trying to kill herself.
By saying this, the crowd goes into a panic and Kamoshita isn't done there. He says that the school is nothing more than his castle. He also mentions how he has sentenced students to expulsion due to him disliking them and I'm pretty sure that he's talking about Joker and Ryuji. It could have been before the two of them showed up but I'm not a hundred percent sure. He also wants to kill himself to make amends which Ann stops from happening and Eggman doesn't.
After that, Kamoshita decides to turn himself into the police and this is the end for the Olympic scumbag Kamoshita. Lets talk about Kamoshita's English Voice Actor since that's the voice I listened to for the past month in game. In English, he's voiced by D.C. Douglas whom I mentioned before in Fairy Legion Royal. He's the voice actor I chose for of Dulroch Clover aka Discord who is the guild master of the Resolute Revenants.
Some of the roles I mentioned in that post are Albert Wesker, Naberius Kalego, Shoot McMahan, the obvious role of Surguru Kamoshida, X Drake, and Yoshikage Kira. I also wanted to mentioned another one that caught my eye. He has been one of Deathstroke's voice actor. Out of these roles, I think the weirdest role for me is Yoshikage Kira since it's weird to hear him as the usually calm and collected Kira.
I say usually calm and collected because there are moments where that calm and collected demeanor goes away, exposing his rather unique side to him. With this, we're done with Part 1 of this massive review and I hope you stuck around for the rest of it. Do note that these posts will come out whenever I get a chance to play the game and write them out so stay tune. I'll have a massive post consisting of all four once it's all done.
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