The Best PlayStation Game Every Year 1994 - 2024
6. 2019 - Persona 5 Royal
With Persona 5 releasing to critical and commercial acclaim across 2016 and 2017, it’s inevitable rerelease (ala Persona 4 Golden) was one that could be met with suspicion. After all, Persona 5 had been - both in terms of the size of the game and its reaction - huge.
P5 had brought the franchise a new level of mainstream attention in the West and its 100+ hour campaign was universally praised. Adding more content to this could surely run the risk of damaging or overstuffing the experience. And yet, Persona 5 Royal - with a new dungeon, multiple new major characters and a whole new ending - became the definitive version of the experience and, in many ways, the genre at that time.
Persona 5 Royal represented a more complete experience; perfect for newcomers and rewarding for returning Phantom Thieves on every level. Bosses are reworked, dungeons had more content and traversal options, and the rogue-like Momentos was fully fleshed out.
There was also far more to do with your teammates in your free time and the way that this then folds back into the combat was more rewarding than ever. Allies that you’ve gotten to know would support you better in battle; able to tag in, snap you out of a status ailment and perform impressive combo moves.
In an era where classic genre giants were losing their identity and becoming part of a very non-specific “action RPG” moniker, Persona 5’s boldness to commit to turn-based battles, monster collecting and deep character interactions rewarded JRPG fans for their patience. Persona 5 seemed to sharpen the series’ strengths to a point, and Royal showed that there can always be more of a good thing.