I've finished Persona 5 Royal! Here are my notes up to the end.



I love that you can say 'I'm sorry' to Maruki before you fight him. His intentions are good, after all; you just have different stances.

I hugely enjoy that, when all our other teammates are expressing their determination and friendship in the final battle, Akechi just shrieks 'DO YOUR GODDAMN JOB' at us.

I did think, after completing the original game, that Akechi showed some potential to be interesting in our final encounter with him. But, between the original and Royal, I'd played over two hundred hours of Persona 5 without really caring about him, and I still can't entirely process my sudden transformation from 'I just find Akechi sort of grating' to 'I'm going to marry Akechi and he's going to hate it, I can't wait'.

Akechi holds Sumire back from running into danger to help Maruki! Akechi, you caaaaaare. (Or possibly you just really want Maruki dead. But I think you care.)

'I'm here for you' is a fascinating thing to be able to say to the villain before our final fight.

Maruki's delivery of 'I gave up everything!' is just wrenching.

Given that we and Akechi both know Akechi's about to lose his extended life, I was hoping for some sort of final conversation with him, but no; Akechi's last words are a complaint that the cat helicopter is too small.

'We... came back, right? We're in the real world this time?' Makoto asks on Valentine's Day, a good ten days after they returned to reality. After their experience with Maruki's false reality, are the characters persistently haunted by the question of whether their world is real? I'm intrigued.

Sae doesn't know I'm dating her sister, which makes this scene with her the morning after Valentine's Day extremely awkward. You're right, Sae; I did get chocolates from someone special. No further questions, please.

There is no way I'm going to be able to eat all this chocolate.

Everyone's moving away! I miss the reality where we were all together forever and my hateboyfriend was still alive.

I'm very tickled by Morgana calling records 'giant CDs'.

Absolutely love that we're asked 'You're friends with Akechi-kun, right?' and we can respond with '...I don't know.'

I strongly prefer the ending cinematic in the original game, which is a bit of a pity! The Royal ending isn't outright offensive, but it's nowhere near as charming or satisfying. Why would you take 'roadtripping home with your friends on a beautiful day for one last adventure together' and replace it with 'getting on a train alone'? I'm glad I experienced the original ending first.

But I enjoyed the alternate-reality storyline, I think Maruki is a really interesting villain, and I absolutely love what Royal does with Akechi, so overall I've had an extremely positive Royal experience. I did have to rewatch the original ending straight afterwards and pretend that's how it ended, though.

You know, that or the fucked-up false reality ending. I would accept the fucked-up false reality ending.



And that's Persona 5 Royal! It took me a hundred and fifty-seven hours of gameplay to finish, as if Persona 5 weren't already long enough. I had a great time.