112 hours and 34 minutes played of Persona 5 Royal (P5R) and as the credits roll and the post game cutscene plays I am left with two slightly conflicting feelings: relief and frustration. 

The former of those feelings is easy to explain, it’s the relief that it’s finally over. As I get older and my spare time grows ever more fleeting, game length is becoming a more important metric of how I measure a game. The ideal playtime for a great game is similar to that of a good shag i.e. as lengthy as it is engaging. Whilst you certainly don’t want a 5 minute job that’s over as quick as it started, something that lasts hours but after 30 minutes has you daydreaming about what you’re going to have for tea later is equally as bad. P5R certainly doesn’t fall into the former of these categories but whilst the latter is more applicable it it may be slightly unfair to paste the entire game with this particular brush.

No, P5R is rather unique in this respect because if you play your cards right then the game is effectively split in two. The first part takes up the majority of the runtime and by the end of this section I was definitely reaching for a towel and checking uber prices. But then P5R drags you back in for a surprise second round that does really well to re-spark your interest and, in my opinion, far surpasses the first bout. But despite the reinvigoration there is a good two hours of cutscenes and busywork following the final boss fight which felt much like the awkward post act cuddle that you never wanted or asked for but seemingly can’t escape. Ultimately finishing a game should leave you with a sense of accomplishment or fulfilment, not relief. 

The second of my feelings; frustration, is less easily explained. Stating that I came out of a game with a feeling of frustration might give the impression that I didn’t like it; but in reality the opposite is true. I am frustrated because I actually really enjoyed playing P5R, I think it’s a fantastic game and my frustration is born from choices made and opportunities missed by it’s developers ATLUS that prevent it from going down as one of the greats. 

First it’s necessary to explain why I think P5R is such a good game. I can not tell you how refreshing it is to play a game where the sole objective is for it to be fun. In a sea of brown and grey realism obsessed cookie cutter games P5R’s bold and wacky visuals stand out for all the right reasons. The premise of some aspects of P5R are absolutely ludicrous and rather than attempting to water this down with realistic visuals, P5R leans into the ridiculousness with gusto. And don’t even get me started on the soundtrack, banger after banger. From ‘’Take Over’’ and ‘’Last Surprise’’ keeping combat exciting and enjoyable through the entirety of the game to the absolute bop of the century ‘’Price’’ that plays in the third palace. That song actually made me stand up and dance in my living room, controller in hand, getting down. The combat is nothing spectacular, a pretty standard turn based, ‘exploit the weakness’ affair but the visuals, music and goofy ‘showtime’ special moves means it’s never a chore. The mix of dungeon crawling and high school/life sim also helps to keep things refreshing throughout.

The main source of my frustration is that LGBT storylines are conspicuous by their absence. With this I can’t help but feel like ATLUS missed an open goal. Each game in the Persona series is centred around a single theme, for P5R the theme is freedom and almost all confidant paths feature said confidant overcoming some kind of internal struggle and the pressure of society to liberate their true self (sound familiar fellow queers?). I don’t think all games necessarily need some sort of LGBT+ representation, in fact I have often said i’d rather games not include same-sex romance options with characters that are playersexual rather than a fully fleshed out queer character. However the themes that run through each confidant path are absolutely congruous with the struggles of queer people and the experience of coming out. In fact the connection is such an obvious one to make that I think it’s fair to assume that it was a conscious decision by the writers not to include any LGBT+ storylines. 

This issue is compounded by the lack of options for those who prefer male romantic partners. Whilst this isn’t a game ruining issue there are certainly questions to be asked about why ATLUS believe that it is more acceptable for the protagonist, who let us not forget is a minor, to develop a romantic and inferred sexual relationship with his homeroom teacher (who visits his bedroom dressed as a maid) than it would be for him to have feelings for a boy his own age. It also doesn’t help that the two inferred homosexuals you do actually meet in the game are painted as at best cheap caricatures and at worst predators.

I loved Persona 5 Royal and I think that had a few of the issues i’ve hinted at been addressed it could have been an all time favourite, but there is a bitterness in me over what could have been and the paths not taken. There is probably a wider conversation to be had about the perception of queerness in Japanese society as a whole that definitely plays a part in this topic but I’m not the right person to be commenting on that. All in all I remain conflicted and I don’t think that will ever change. Even if the next game in the series addressed the issues that I’ve mentioned I feel the omissions in this iteration are so glaring that the damage has been done. What could’ve been a crowning glory fell royally short.