Turn-based RPGs are a genre of game that never really clicked for me. I used to find the prospect of real-time control in fights more appealing than slower, methodical encounters that rely on a deep understanding of multiple party members, a plethora of abilities, and what I always thought would be a lot of grinding. Persona 5 Royal proved me wrong. If you’re one of the lucky souls yet to experience this game for the first time, or someone looking to make the jump to the bigger Royal edition of the P5 base game, then I have a treat for you, because this hundred-hour RPG epic is the cheapest it’s ever been on Steam.
Persona 5 Royal puts you in the teenage shoes of a boy heading to a new school. By day you’ll make your way through a calendar year attending classes, making new friends, and doing what you want when the bell rings. Once you’re free of the classroom through, you and the friends you meet along the way can all don leather-bound outfits, masks, and the titular personas to steal the hearts of malevolent adults. This is a turn-based RPG game that even has a talking cat. So everybody wins.
That’s the elevator pitch, and it’s one punctuated by bright red UI elements and an acid jazz-infused soundtrack. When I first played Persona 5, this style brought me in, but the game’s clever ways of keeping me engaged with turn-based combat, like it’s a fluid action game, is what saw me through the 150-hour runtime.
You’ll control up to four party members at once, and after you figure out an enemy weakness, as though they’ve got a Pokemon type, Persona 5 Royal suddenly becomes less about turn-based combat, and more about how quickly and flawlessly you can win a battle before your opponent can even blink. You alone can swap personas for any situation, and hitting on a weakness to knock an enemy down will even let you pass the same turn to another party member, helping you wipe the floor with them.
Apart from the incredibly tough bosses, Persona 5 Royal makes it easy to succeed in fights by rewarding you for making the right choices. The number of ways you can sweep enemies not only makes for entertaining fights but also keeps you engaged in ways most other turn-based RPGs can’t.
Outside of Persona 5 Royal’s excellent combat, you’ll use your time during and after school to build relationships with characters to help your work in the Phantom Thieves, while preparing for your adventures with new items, weapons, and armor. There’s a truly special symbiotic relationship between the turn-based fantasy action and real-world teenage drudgery in Persona 5, and it’s something I don’t want to say much more about for fear of spoiling a lot for new players.
Persona 5 Royal also enhances Atlus’ original game in a number of ways. There are new characters, more of the school, more to each of the palace dungeons, more combat mechanics, new real-world locations to explore, and even multiple new endings. Almost every corner of the original Persona 5 has been expanded with Royal, making it the ideal way to play.
Persona 5 Royal is available for 60% off until Monday May 6, so expect to pay $23.99 / £19.99 on Steam until then. You’ll find P5R right here. This is the cheapest the game has ever been in a Steam sale, with plenty more games from the series discounted on Valve’s platform too.
If you want even more like P5R we’ve got your back with the best JRPGs, alongside some upcoming PC games you’ll want to keep an eye out for.
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