10 Greatest JRPGs Of All Time

Taking what was considered one of the best games of its year and somehow making it better, Persona 5 Royal is the purest example of a flex.

Royal isn't just a re-release of the game with a new expansion pack, it's a full retooling from top to bottom. New gameplay, new mechanics to the boss fights, multiple new story areas and so much more. The story is kept the same as the original, featuring a boy named Ren being framed for a crime he didn't commit and, in retaliation, forming the Phantom Thieves to bring some much-needed comeuppance to those who often go without consequence. However, the expansion pack to the game, The Third Semester, is where Royal beats out the original for this list.

The Third Semester is the culmination of all the new characters and story details introduced throughout the game, from new companion/love interest Kasumi, to Ren's dorky therapist Dr. Maruki. After the main story, Maruki somehow gains the ability to telekinetically alter reality itself. He does this to bring back the dead, make Ren's criminal record completely go away, let him have a certain character back, and various other huge things I won't spoil.

Persona 5 was already a thematically and philosophically rich experience, but The Third Semester takes it to a whole other level. Hearkening back to Camut's meditations on the nature of the absurd, Jeremy Bentham's concept of utilitarianism and the potential pitfalls in such a philosophy, plus the responsibility people have to their fellow man, it is the perfect culmination of the story of Persona 5. At what point does forcibly helping people become a different form of tyranny?