It definitely is possible. We'll just have to wait and see

beautiful

Just finished Royal; the new content is a wonderful addition to what was already a stellar game. Kasumi and Maruki were both fantastic characters that naturally fit in with the existing cast, and I loved the direction P-Studio took with Akechi's character.

My only real criticism is that the new story arc feels a little thematically disconnected from the rest of Persona 5, but maybe I just need to think on it a bit more.

It feeling disconnected from the rest of Persona 5 was the best part, it had completely different vibe

Finally a villain basically saying, f\*\*\* waiting for a calling card

That’s not really what I was talking about; I’m more concerned with big picture storytelling, and was specifically referring to theme. In terms of storytelling, theme refers to the idea that is being communicated by the narrative; outside of the emotional context (i.e. the exploration and development of character), the thematic context is what gives meaning to the events of a story.

Thematically, Persona 5 is all about fighting against injustice, whereas the Royal content (as I understand it) is more about how suffering is an inevitable part of the human experience. Plenty of stories explore multiple complementary themes and those of Persona 5 and Royal aren’t completely unrelated, but I just finished the game and am still forming my thoughts about it.

Royal Madarames palace tomorrow

Bought Persona 4 Golden on PC. I’ve already played the standard version of the game but not Golden. Excited to eventually replay it since Persona 4 is a top 5 game of all time for me.

You don’t need to use a psp anymore lol

Or was that p3

Persona 4 Golden was ported to PC. I think Golden was a Vita exclusive originally.

Oh it was vita then. I bought golden on release day for pc but still haven’t touched it

Just sitting in my steam library

Was gonna get P4G on Steam because I assumed it was gonna be on sale during their Black Friday Sale, but it was only discounted 4 bucks

Is the royal worth it if i played and beat the original persona 5

absolutely

It was only $16 though, definitely worth it

I think you should just reflect a bit more on it. Royal's new content absolutely bolsters and reconteztualizes the themes found in the main game.

Also, while P5 is certainly a game which deals with fighting back, I think that only viewing its themes through the lens of "fighting against injustice" is a bit reductive. In a broader sense, P5 deals with themes of Freedom, Ostracization, and the Collectivism so deeply ingrained in Japanese society. And of course with this, it kind of tackles everything in between. Now onto the Royal content:

During the third semester, I think the biggest motivator is freedom at any cost. During the main game, the Thieves pursue freedom even if it hurts. More importantly, each major character's arc deals with taking back their own futures. For Ann and Ryuji, they had to stand up and rebel against the future that Kamoshida chose for them. For Haru, she chose to carve her own path instead of submitting to what her father told her to. So on and so forth.

Despite the fact that they risk their lives to do this, they never truly grapple with the consequences of this until they see Yaldabaoth's world. And even then, the Holy Grail is just a stand-in for the conflict the thieves are fighting against. It has no humanity and this somewhat contributes to the original ending falling flat for some people. Yaldy didn't challenge the Thieves', or the players' ideals effectively

Maruki is different, but he really isn't. His world is arguably no different from the Holy Grail's. The only major difference is intention. Under Maruki's rule, while it may be fun, it ultimately isn't free. There is STILL a mastermind watching over and passing judgement without the people's consent. But this time, instead of it being an a\*\*\*\*\*\* god, it's a deranged, well-intentioned man who was wronged by the crooked people in power. Injustice struck Maruki too. Remember that not only did he lose the only woman he cared about, with the only positive future for her being one where he didn't exist in her life. Not only that, but Shido stole his work and halted his cognitive psience research. If he were a bit younger, he probably could've been a phantom thief. Or in a more extreme case, he would've been just as disturbed as Akechi

Basically, if the Thieves' motivation during OG P5 was: "I'm going to take back my future no matter the cost", what the Royal arc does is challenge them with the question: "Really? No matter the cost?"

This makes a ton of sense and I hadn’t considered this angle before; freedom is definitely an underlying theme of Persona 5 and the Royal content does complement it in that way. I guess freedom is a more abstract idea, and I was getting hung up on the concrete themes of fighting against injustice and inevitability of suffering.

I see that happen a lot. With P5 I feel like the idea of freedom is such a broad topic to cover that it's easy to get caught up on the little things that it encompasses. Chalk it down to the good, but not great localization maybe.

On somewhat related note, I feel like westerners tend to have a really shortsighted view of the series, reducing P5 to just being "about rebellion", P4 to being "about truth", and P3 to being "about death"

So when they handles topics that don't necessarily pertain to those things, you see a bunch of critiques calling them thematically incoherent, basically just missing the point. That's one of the biggest issues with the discourse surrounding this game on places like Twitter and ResetERA imo.

Obligatory

how yall feel about this

What would you say is the main theme of Persona 4? I also see people saying it's about "truth" and I find that to be too nonspecific.

I see Persona 4 as being about people trying to gain an understanding of themselves and the world around them; that's the common thread that ties together the main character arcs and the social links, and it's also the point of division between the protagonists and antagonist.