I knew I had to get the absolute best ending and complete absolutely everything I wanted to in this game before committing to writing this review, and that is what I've done. Persona 5: Royal if by far one of the best games I have ever played, and perhaps one of the best pieces of art to ever reach the medium that is gaming. This was an absolute delight to play, for all 174 hours that I've played. I acknowledge this type of game might not be for everyone but at least hear me out.


Pros:

•Amazing Music
•Incredible Art Style
•Excellent Story
•Incredible Writing (Characters, World-building etc.)
•So much to do

Cons:

•Very long (honestly a pro imo but could easily be a con to many)
•Can be a little tedious in certain segments


I could go on forever about this. In my 174 hours I managed to get through the story twice in order to get the true ending that I wanted, and I was never too upset to be replaying a story I'd already witnessed. Every moment of this story is engaging and exciting, and I would play it all over again. It follows a group of rebellious teens as they face the evils of the world and vow to change the world for the better. Through forces much beyond them, they are granted the power to do so and are given rebellious forms that can be used against the evils of the world, and turn them good. I don't want to spoil too much, but it's full off emotion, humour and plenty of intense action sequences too. I cannot talk this games story up enough, and it might just be the best video game story I ever have and ever will experience.


This is where this game is probably most divided. I understand that turn-based combat is not the most engaging type of combat system in the world but It's something that I think Persona 5 has done better than any other game before it. It's not simple turns as you would have it, sure it can be but it can help to look turns ahead, to make sure you're exploiting enemy weaknesses and making the most out of the games system such as baton passes, technicals and the ability to swap personas at will. The combat system is only as interesting as you want to make it. Sure, you can just spam strong moves and nothing else, but in higher difficulties that will not get you far at all, and it just isn't a good way to play.

Outside of combat there is an entire side of Japan waiting for you too explore and run around in. Based off of real parts of Japan, these beautiful areas are stocked full of things to do, people to talk to, things to buy and stories for you to experience. There is never a dull moment in this game and I felt myself looking forwards to things constantly such as hanging out with a certain person next or finally being able to visit a certain location with a character I liked. Running around in the world is incredibly entertaining and although it isn't seamless, it certainly feels so. The beautiful music and overall UI design in this game is completely unmatched by anything I've ever seen before. The love that went into this soundtrack and the overall feel of the game is something that you can feel every second that you're playing. It's absolutely beautiful and makes you want to keep playing for as long as you can, it was hard to accept that it was late and hop off this beauty some nights.


I've already talked this up enough in other segments but I think it deserves it own section here. The game employs a mix of 3D gameplay, cinematic in-game footage, 3D rendered cut scenes and it's very own 2D cut-scenes straight from the anime. The blend together flawlessly and it's never a jarring moment when the game switches from any one. The overall look of the game can be quite bland if you focus too much on certain spots, but overall it's make with just enough love and detail that it can look amazing when it's all blended together with the voice acting, scenery and beautiful music. The modes, boss palaces and pretty much all of Japan that you are able to explore look absolutely stunning, especially the models for characters and personas. Despite this game not being the best in terms of graphic fidelity, I would say that it more than makes up for that with it's incredible unique design and art style, and that alone is able to solidify this as one of the most beautiful looking and feeling games I've ever picked up in my entire life.


This is not a game that I am ever going to forget for as long as I live. I will be listening to this soundtrack till the day I die and I will not forget this game nor this series until the day I die. The third semester of this game might be the best Persona experience I've ever had and it was an absolute joy to experience, wrapping up this amazing game absolutely flawlessly. 10/10 this is a masterpiece that I hope will never be forgotten in the world of gaming and that I hope only continues to receive even more love and support as the years go on. If you're hesitant to try this game, don't be. If you're scared of the long playtime, don't be. Go at your own pace and experience every step of this masterpiece as you see fit. If i could play it all over again for the first time, I would do it in a heartbeat.

TL/DR: An incredible game that everyone needs to try, and with Iceborne out now it couldn't be more worth it. So many things to do and discover, and if you're not just in it for the Monster Hunting there's hundreds of other little activities to partake in. Play it with friends though, its a 100 times more fun.

This is easily my favourite game that I've played in a long time and since I'm enjoying it so much I figure that I might as well spend the time to type up a legitimate review to pay homage to this incredible game. This is my first entry in the Monster Hunter series, although I did play a trial for Generations on my 3DS a while back, but I couldn't get into it. It didn't seem like my game.

I was hesitant to spend the big $80 toll on this game, but I eventually gave in, and I was launched into a brand new world unlike anything I'd ever expected. The game can start off extremely confusing and overwhelming, but once you've played around 20 hours, you should get the hang of everything and how this world works.

The game-play consists of tracking and hunting monsters, fighting them, killing or trapping them, looting the corpses for profit, then turning their skin into new weapons and armour to help you take on stronger monsters. It is a bit of a grind at times, but the game itself has never felt too grindy to me. In fact, I don't enjoy grindy games such as Destiny or Warframe, but there's something about this game that hits different, and it is so much more enjoyable. It has around 14 weapons or something, and each one feels very fun in its own right and can make the game a whole new experience. Throughout the base game I stuck with a trusty Hammer, and it is quite satisfying crushing the skulls of giant monsters and flipping through the air like sonic, but it does get quite old after 200 hours. For Iceborne I decided to take a different route and started using the Switch Axe, which is a little bit more complicated and allows me to dig my axe into the sides of monsters heads and drill their skulls out until they explode (♥♥♥♥ is crazy). Using a different weapon feels like I'm playing an entirely new game and that's another thing that I love so much about this game. Every weapons play-style is extremely unique and its always fun trying out new play-styles. So mix it up every now and again for a better experience (although I wouldn't juggle more than like 5 weapons, because you're going to run out of materials pretty fast if you hope to craft a very strong weapon/armour set for each category)

The world itself is very beautiful, interactive, and overall very immersive. Nothing from the plants, bugs, monsters, or wildlife feels out of place in this big world. The monsters range from giant lizards, giant pulsating pickles with legs, flying fire lions, to lightning powered unicorns, and not a single one seems as though it shouldn't be here. Each monster fits its appropriate environment accordingly and the way that each monster interacts with these environments, from having nests and feeding grounds, only adds to the immersion of this game, and shows just how dedicated the team behind this game is. The different layers to some of the maps, the spots where monsters get stuck, and the boulders around the maps that you can drop on monsters for massive damage are incredible and really make the player feel apart of the world.

The story overall isn't anything too exciting and as said in a popular review; is realistically just more of a glorified tutorial. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's nothing interesting though. I'm not exactly knowledgeable on Monster Hunter lore, but the story was still quite engaging to me, and every new monster introduced made me thrilled to fight it and see what its armour and weapons might look like. Its definitely worth the money on it's own, and i finished it at about 100 hours or so (including having done a few optional missions and what not).

So if you like to show off achievements you'll love this game, and Iceborne even more. There's tonnes of little side objectives such as optional missions, trying to catch rare endemic life, collecting treasure, taking photos for research, exploring to discover and befriend secret cat tribes, fishing, collecting mini and large crowns for your monsters, and so much more. This can all be shown off on your spectacular Guild Card, and this can be customised however you wish with titles such as "Spread for Papa" or mine, "Commander of Cute" which is pretty stupid but I'm not really that creative. You also have your own personal room where you can choose to display your rare fish and other creatures, but now with Iceborne you can catch and display a much larger range of rare creatures, edit your entire house and even have 16 whole people inside your room, around a table drinking and passing out. I once spent around 10 minutes just floating around with 3 strangers in the Hot Springs and doing nothing, before we all left and went on a mission together. If these other aspects of the game aren't enough, just get it for the community because I've never played with anyone toxic in my entire 400 hours, nor have I ever seen a negative community post. The community for this game is amazing.

The crossovers for this game are also lots of fun, such as the mission for Geralt, and being able to use Igni whilst dressed up as Geralt or Ciri, it's all really fun and something that not a lot of other games let you experience alongside the base game like nothing is wrong. There are a few console exclusive crossovers which is quite unfortunate, but lots of games have console exclusive content so we just have to learn to deal with it. A lot of people would also argue that the developers of this game do not care as much about their PC audience due to late releases etc, but I'm considerably patient and don't tend to hold grudges so it doesn't necessarily bother me. Also, seeing as the Iceborne updates are going to be caught up with consoles in about March, then every update after that will be in sync across the board, I give extra credit to Capcom and I think that this disproves a lot of these claims. How can you hate them when they let you dress up your cat as an 8-bit Mega Man?

Overall I love the ♥♥♥♥ out of this game and that's why I've taken the time out of my day to write this. It's been a long time coming. The world, the characters, the monsters, the weapons, the armour. Everything in this game is absolutely beautiful to me and I want to thank Capcom for not only bringing me this incredible game, but for introducing me to the world of Monster Hunter. A world that I would now consider myself a part of, and a world that I'm more than happy to be a part of. :)


My original review: (At about 35 hours)

you hit barroth and he goes back to poo lair, he love poo he loves poo i collect his poo for research poo