

You may not always be able to go out at night, but you’ll always have the option of watching TV, studying, reading a book, building tools, or brewing coffee on nights when you’re too tired to leave the house, giving you so much more time to raise your stats. Certain plot-important scenes that were previously silent now feature full voice acting Confidants now call you after hangouts, helping you raise their rank faster and Morgana no longer shouts at you to go straight to bed all the time. I could see how the villain thought they were the hero of their own story, which made for a more interesting narrative resolution to the game.īeyond those obvious additions, Atlus made a lot of minor tweaks to the wider game, which make its moment-to-moment gameplay more enjoyable. After spending 120 hours completing the main story and the DLC, I came away feeling like the motivation of the third semester’s primary villain was much more empathetic and relatable than that of the main game. It provides better closure than the game’s original ending, and offers really rewarding combat for those seeking a challenge. While the plot is perhaps a little predictable, it’s well presented, and worth the hours I replayed to reach it.


The third semester’s additional plot, palace, and final villain are all worthwhile additions to Persona 5. Don’t expect to be finishing social links from the early semesters past Christmas. Treat it like a stand-alone story expansion in another game: Prepare to be engaging with the third-semester tasks away from the main plot. The new semester is a separate story, with certain plot threads from the first two semesters locked off from the player. That’s because it’s possible to miss key parts of the third semester entirely if you haven’t ranked up these characters in time - something that is not communicated well to the player. It’s vital to max out all three of these new Confidants as much as possible before the end of the second semester.

He has several new scenes, which better flesh him out as a character, and offer valuable insights that for returning players are worth exploring. You now bond with Akechi in your own time, rather than via scripted events, much like the other characters in the game. While your visits to the new counselor are optional, and left for you to fit into your busy schedule, your other party members will visit him of their own accord throughout the game, providing nice glimpses of insight into the mental health struggles of a group of teens trying to change the world.Īnd while the investigator Akechi is not new to Persona 5 Royal, his social link has been totally revamped. After the events of the game’s first dungeon, in which a teacher is unmasked as having been abusing students, Takuto is brought in to provide much-needed mental health support to you and your classmates. Takuto, on the other hand, is dropped relatively seamlessly into the existing narrative.
