My friends introduced me to Persona a few months before Joker was introduced into Smash Bros. and I was interested due to the characters and combination of dungeon crawling and life simulation. This was my first full-fledged 100+ hour RPG, being that I mostly played shorter ones such as Mario and Luigi or Pokemon before this one. The game did not disappoint. I spent about 170 hours on my first play-through and prioritized doing as many social links (confidants) as I can. Those social links gave me a deeper understanding of the other characters in the game while also helping me in dungeons and with fusing Personas. It also made it a challenge to do everything in the game since I also had to get the appropriate social stats up or complete certain other side quests to advance in some of them. In addition, the dungeon crawling felt satisfying. Being able to sneak attack an enemy or negotiate with an enemy for items or to take their mask (to summon them as a Persona) added to this satisfaction. The story itself, if sometimes predictable, is enjoyable, covering dark themes at times while also having fun with the dialogue and characters throughout, and ends off in the best way it could have if you clear the third semester. I played the game on a PS4 Slim. Even though the game looked good in general, I couldn’t help but notice some pixelation in some of the shadows on the over world sometimes. Not a big issue, though. I also would have liked to see a 60 FPS mode, but for this kind of game, that’s a bonus. I also felt as if the fifth dungeon was rushed and would have liked to have a little bit more time at the end of the game to complete social links since there is barely any time to do them during the third semester. There’s not too much else I can say through this kind of review panel, though, so I’ll leave it at this: If you are a fan of JRPGs and have a PS4 (or PS5 if this game becomes backward compatible), Persona 5 Royal is a must buy.