Persona 5 Royal

Persona 5 Royal is an expanded version of the acclaimed JRPG about a group of Tokyo students who transform by night into the so-called Phantom Thieves of Hearts and infiltrate the symbolic underworlds of corrupt adults in order to steal their distorted hearts and force them to publicly confess their sins. The game combines a social simulation, in which the player spends time with friends, studies for exams, and develops the skills needed to progress through the story, with tactical turn-based battles in elaborate dungeons built on the Persona system and exploiting enemies' elemental weaknesses. The Royal edition adds a new playable character, Kasumi, an entire new spring semester period, and another extensive dungeon on top of the original 2016 content, extending the playtime by dozens of hours.

The Xbox Series X/S version, released in 2022, brought the game officially to Microsoft's platforms for the first time and offered smooth performance and fast loading, which shows especially during quick transitions between the open city of Tokyo and the individual floors of the dungeons. The game's art style, built on a striking black-and-red palette and stylized animated transitions between menus and battles, ranks among the most distinctive in the entire genre and, together with Shoji Meguro's jazz-inflected music, creates an unmistakable atmosphere of urban rebellion against adult hypocrisy. The daily routine alternates with nighttime forays into dungeons at a pace the player themselves controls, deciding how much risk they are willing to take before the next school day.

Persona 5 Royal is now commonly ranked among the best JRPGs of its generation, and its arrival on Xbox Series X/S and Game Pass significantly broadened the circle of players who encountered the series for the first time. Its elaborate story about rebellion against a corrupt system, memorable characters, and dozens of hours of content make it a title that, even years after release, holds a reputation as one of the pinnacles of the genre. It also serves as a textbook example of what an expanded edition of a game should look like, rather than merely padding out the playtime cosmetically.

Why play it: Thanks to its elaborate story about rebellion against a corrupt system, unforgettable characters, and dozens of hours of content, it ranks among the best that the JRPG genre offered this generation.