Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal is widely considered to be one of the best JRPGs (and RPGs as a whole) of all time. As of this year, Persona 5 Royal is still in the top 10 for best RPGs of all time according to Metacritic scores. No game is absolutely perfect, though, even if it receives a 10/10 or equitable review score. Even Persona 5 has its own disappointing qualities, despite being an exceptional game. With Persona 6 presumably on the way, there’s a few aspects of Persona 5 that its sequel should be aware of.
Some of the inherent problems to Persona 5‘s story pacing and characters still persist in the Royal version of the game, despite doing a fantastic job of making the problems less obvious. There’s a few aspects of the game that get so close to being perfect, but still feel like they don’t go far enough to be impactful in any way. Whether it’s not enough screen time or care for certain characters, the pacing and presentation of the story, Persona 6 would benefit greatly from recognizing and improving these features of Persona 5.
With every Persona game comes a blank-slate protagonist, a largely adaptable character to which players can imprint their personalities on to. Persona 5 players took control of “Joker,” the shamed adolescent to which players can flesh out the character’s attitude and choices throughout the playthrough. What’s interesting about Joker is that his character design places him in a confounding middle ground between stepping too far into having his own personality, and not having enough versatility for players to imagine what his personality is like.
The intro scene of Persona 5 shows he’s confident/suave with a hint of carelessness, but then players choices in game don’t necessarily need to reflect that at all. Obviously every game has some semblance of ludonarrative dissonance, but for a game like Persona 5 that allows you to customize the protagonist’s social stats and make dialogue choices that shape the way he acts. Joker’s character design never steps too far in either direction, he has just enough personality to make him less adaptable while also not being his own identifiable traits that make him his own standalone character. Persona 6‘s protagonist is better off either way, but needs to either be their own character or less iconic traits.
Any JRPG that has a litany of playable characters isn’t a bad thing, especially for Persona. JRPG series like Suikoden have a litany of party members, each with their own screen time and personalities for players to get attached to. Persona‘s character building is just as good, despite having far less playable characters than Suikoden, but there is one problem especially prevalent in Persona 5. Some characters in the game just don’t receive enough time in the spotlight, mostly because they’re introduced too late in the game’s story to express their individuality.
Ironically enough, Persona 5 Royal introduced characters late in the game that do and do not get enough screen time. As much of a meme as it is, Haru definitely gets introduced way too late in the game to get any proper expression of her personality. Her moments with Morgana after he breaks off from the Phantom Thieves show off her personality the best, and yet much of that is lost after Okumura’s palace. Even the other six Phantom Thieves get more screen time than Haru after she joins the main party. At least with Akechi joining late it makes sense for story purposes, but even Kasumi got integrated more into Persona 5 Royal‘s story more than Haru, who was already in the base game.
Persona 5 Royal partially resolved this issue with more character scenes and voice acting, but the game did struggle in one aspect of its storytelling. There’s a significant portion of the game dedicated to expository dialogue scenes, adopting a “tell, don’t show” approach in ways previous Persona games have also done before. Some of the biggest examples of this were in Persona 5‘s villains like Akechi and Shido, who as a detective and political strongman, have no semblance of subtlety in their actions at all. There’s even an entire scene in Shido’s office dedicated to the two characters hashing out their schemes like stereotypical cartoon villains explaining their plans.
The Royal ending of the game doesn’t particularly have this problem, as Maruki showcases a far more nuanced take on villainy who’s motivations are far more complex compared to Shido. Even still, Maruki has the problem of having to over-explain situations like Kasumi/Sumire’s identity crisis, even after an entire specially animated cutscene very clearly showcases her backstory. Granted this has been an issue with Persona games previously, but those would have potentially been chalked up to technical limitations at the time. Persona 6 should look to enact more subtlety in its storytelling, rather than batting players over their respective heads with explaining the story.
Again, this is just nitpicking one of the greatest JRPGs of all time, but these are the kind of improvements to be expected from the highly anticipated sequel. With Persona 5 Royal‘s major success and Persona 6 presumably in development for next-gen consoles, the P-Studio development team has plenty of room to expand and improve the Persona franchise’s next debut.
Persona 6 is rumored to be in development.
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