Persona 5 Royal

analyzed 2026-08-14 · sample of 407 English reviews across the whole review history

Players consistently single out the story and characters as the game's strongest draws, with praise appearing far more often than criticism in both areas. The art style, music, and emotional impact are mentioned almost entirely in glowing terms, with reviewers describing the soundtrack as "Inescapably catchy" and the overall experience as "Truly once in a life time experience". The UI and world design also receive uniformly positive mentions, and several players note the game runs well on the Steam Deck. Opinion splits most sharply around pacing and length. While some players celebrate the sheer amount of content and find the game "addicting through the end", others report that it "kind of dragged on near the end" or that the tutorial "literally goes on for nearly 30 hours". The palaces draw mixed reactions, with some calling them tedious to explore. Writing also divides reviewers, with a few criticizing specific dialogue choices or companion characterization. Romance comes up as a recurring theme in player discussions. The game's length is frequently framed as a commitment, though many who mention it do so positively, and a handful of players describe wanting to replay it, with one mentioning a "fifth 200 hour playthrough".

quotes copied verbatim from reviews · plain text is the language model's own wording

Aspects

share of sample, axis to 20% · ± is the sampling uncertainty around each share

  • positive
  • mixed / neutral
  • negative
  • story

    48 positive · 7 negative · 2 mixed · 0 neutral

    • enjoying the story and the characters as written, only complaint is there is too much important things to do on certan days to choose, and timing is super tight with certain events.
      positive · Oct 31, 2022 · review 124734670
    • Great storytelling , great characters , impressive turn-based gameplay.
      positive · Oct 31, 2022 · review 124746535
    • Amazing story, entertaining gameplay.
      positive · Nov 30, 2022 · review 127649721
  • characters

    43 positive · 7 negative · 2 mixed · 0 neutral

    • enjoying the story and the characters as written, only complaint is there is too much important things to do on certan days to choose, and timing is super tight with certain events.
      positive · Oct 31, 2022 · review 124734670
    • I like the goth girl and sadistic princess
      positive · Oct 31, 2022 · review 124741965
    • Great storytelling , great characters , impressive turn-based gameplay.
      positive · Oct 31, 2022 · review 124746535
  • gameplay

    32 positive · 7 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral

    • EDIT: Nominated for Steam Awards, and also I'm 70 hours in and don't want it to end.
      positive · Oct 31, 2022 · review 124725951
    • This is still one of if not, the best JRPGs you can play right now, if you're looking for a great JRPG to play then look no further than Persona 5.
      positive · Oct 31, 2022 · review 124733594
    • A great update on the base game of P5.
      positive · Nov 30, 2022 · review 127624497
  • combat

    30 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 1 neutral

    • Great storytelling , great characters , impressive turn-based gameplay.
      positive · Oct 31, 2022 · review 124746535
    • A heartwarming game filled with friendship, semi-creepy adult/child relationships that don’t really fly in America, an interesting Pokémon-esque combat system, some of the best music in a video game in years, and a talking cat.
      positive · Dec 31, 2022 · review 129801221
    • What, a turn based strategy game that is actually fun?
      positive · Jan 31, 2023 · review 131963851
  • music

    30 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral

    • nc music
      positive · Nov 30, 2022 · review 127644985
    • +Inescapably catchy soundtrack.
      positive · Nov 30, 2022 · review 127660619
    • A heartwarming game filled with friendship, semi-creepy adult/child relationships that don’t really fly in America, an interesting Pokémon-esque combat system, some of the best music in a video game in years, and a talking cat.
      positive · Dec 31, 2022 · review 129801221
  • game length

    12 positive · 7 negative · 1 mixed · 4 neutral

    • If you want a game that takes a long time to complete with multiple things to learn and amazing graphics you're at the right place Persona 5 Royal is an all time favourite of mine.
      positive · Nov 30, 2022 · review 127638815
    • Length: This game is LONG. Like, LONG LONG. I've been minimally grinding, doing a few "side requests" here and there, and generally trying to play the game very linearly, and I'm still nearly 70 hours in(!
      positive · Jan 31, 2023 · review 131968705
    • 160 hours for one playthrough and man I don't regret even a minute.
      positive · Oct 31, 2023 · review 149267160
  • art style

    23 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral

    • +Amazing style, design and overall A E S T H E T IC S
      positive · Nov 30, 2022 · review 127660619
    • Amazing story, amazing characters, great gameplay and perfect visual style and music.
      positive · Jan 31, 2023 · review 131968705
    • Also the art style and flare of the game is something else
      positive · Jan 31, 2023 · review 131970938
  • emotional impact

    16 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral

    • Truly once in a life time experience.
      positive · Nov 30, 2022 · review 127648266
    • I shed a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tear after i finished the credits.
      positive · Nov 30, 2022 · review 127652767
    • it also made me cry like a little baby :)
      positive · Jan 31, 2023 · review 131960078
  • pacing

    2 positive · 9 negative · 3 mixed · 0 neutral

    • First few hours are slow but once you get going you'll find you get a good number of achievements just by playing.
      negative · Oct 31, 2022 · review 124739261
    • I did feel like it kind of dragged on near the end, but then it turns around and finished off strong.
      negative · Dec 31, 2022 · review 129801221
    • Its Slow burn, decent combat not too complex to be mindless, The music and art style is a 10/10 for me
      negative · Jul 31, 2023 · review 143153368
  • addictiveness

    11 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral

    • Guess that's not happening anymore
      positive · Oct 31, 2022 · review 124732511
    • The combat is fun, the story was great, the music was incredible, and the whole thing is addicting through the end.
      positive · Dec 31, 2022 · review 129801221
    • It will fully take over you life for like a month tho, lol
      positive · Jan 31, 2023 · review 131968705
see more
  • graphics

    8 positive · 2 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral

    • If you want a game that takes a long time to complete with multiple things to learn and amazing graphics you're at the right place Persona 5 Royal is an all time favourite of mine.
      positive · Nov 30, 2022 · review 127638815
    • This game is beautiful
      positive · Jan 31, 2023 · review 131958060
    • The story, the gameplay, the visuals, and the music oh my god the music.
      positive · Jan 31, 2023 · review 131962646
  • price value

    6 positive · 2 negative · 1 mixed · 1 neutral

    • Worth it, now onto 4 and 3
      positive · Nov 30, 2022 · review 127643331
    • ) This, to me, is quite a good thing, as it means the game is fully worth its price and more game = more fun.
      positive · Jan 31, 2023 · review 131968705
    • also buy it, its worth it
      positive · Jul 31, 2023 · review 143144024
  • content amount

    8 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral

    • Tons of content in this game.
      positive · Dec 31, 2023 · review 154931352
    • One thing I found myself saying to my friends was that ATLUS would have probably made a boatload of cash if they had just re-released P5 with no changes, yet put actual work into making a new content and new systems (and new music) for said re-release.
      positive · Jan 31, 2024 · review 157282948
    • The story is engaging, combat is fluid, art and design are great and so much things to do that you can't do everything.
      positive · Sep 30, 2024 · review 176103399
  • progression

    7 positive · 2 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral

    • From the amazing characters, To the world building and also the power systems, This game will keep you up for hours.
      positive · Dec 31, 2023 · review 154929720
    • An incredible RPG timesink, with an amazing story, well-rounded characters with good arcs, and lots of quality of life JRPG improvements that might just ruin the rest of the genre for you.
      positive · May 31, 2024 · review 166417209
    • The intertwining story is the main focal point and grinding in mementos is worthwhile.
      positive · Sep 30, 2024 · review 176103399
  • writing

    4 positive · 5 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral

    • the constant use of word pooped is def 0/10.
      negative · Aug 31, 2023 · review 145407479
    • Also it doesn't help that certain companions have lackluster writing or have personalities so bland that they barely pass even as fanservice.
      negative · Oct 31, 2023 · review 149273700
    • -characters overtalk for no reason: you are taught in the first 10 hour tutorial that in the dungeons you can find some safe zones in which you can rest, save the game, quick travel.
      negative · May 31, 2024 · review 166407872
  • level design

    3 positive · 4 negative · 1 mixed · 0 neutral

    • The combat is boring and easy to exploit once you learn the mechanics and the palaces are tedious to explore.
      negative · Jun 30, 2023 · review 141008519
    • game good palace bad gibe back my 100 hour back atluser plsbbbb
      negative · Feb 29, 2024 · review 159553582
    • The palace explorations were a bit of a drag sometimes but what can you do?
      negative · Mar 31, 2026 · review 222201838
  • ui

    7 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral

    • Every menu is fun to look at, which is kind of weird to say, but they really did a good job at making it fun to look at your stats and change equipment.
      positive · Dec 31, 2022 · review 129801221
    • Awesome OST, great characters, heist-related plot (which I love) and a really cool combat system and UX/UI design.
      positive · May 31, 2023 · review 139340164
    • Best UI's ever.
      positive · Sep 30, 2023 · review 147386215
  • world

    7 positive · 0 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral

    • Now - more then a hundred hours in - I'm so immensely enamoured by the story, the setting, the palaces, the dungeons, the enemies, the combat and its depth, the humor, and - wow - the characters.
      positive · Jan 31, 2023 · review 131968379
    • From the amazing characters, To the world building and also the power systems, This game will keep you up for hours.
      positive · Dec 31, 2023 · review 154929720
    • - Tokyo [Setting]
      positive · Feb 29, 2024 · review 159559261
  • performance

    4 positive · 2 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral

    • S the game runs fine on steam deck, but anti-aliasing suffers greatly, probably the didn't have 720p screens in mind when testing it or the engine just couldn't handle it and they decided to ignore it :( looks gorgeous at 1080p, though.
      positive · Aug 31, 2023 · review 145407479
    • I have played this on the Steam Deck OLED on High settings at a solid 90 FPS and haven't had any major issues.
      positive · Feb 29, 2024 · review 159558569
    • In addition, everything looks and plays great on the Steam Deck.
      positive · Feb 28, 2025 · review 188988713
  • platform access

    4 positive · 2 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral

    • the PC port is very good, and well executed.
      positive · Oct 31, 2022 · review 124734670
    • P5R is one of my favorite games of all time, so it's great to finally be able to play it on PC and portably via the Steam Deck.
      positive · Oct 31, 2022 · review 124735007
    • bug free to a surprising degree, the better ease of access desktop gaming provides makes persona 5 royal shine; this is a wonderful port
      positive · Oct 31, 2022 · review 124740056
  • learning curve

    1 positive · 3 negative · 0 mixed · 1 neutral

    • " Anyways, other than that, I would say that the game has a number of mechanics that get buried in the tutorial section and you're just told, "Go read it in there on your own time.
      negative · Feb 29, 2024 · review 159558569
    • The tutorial literally goes on for nearly 30 hours.
      negative · Nov 30, 2024 · review 181141110
    • You do kinda want someone to help you at the start tho, it is easy to miss things.
      negative · Jan 31, 2025 · review 186862531
  • replayability

    4 positive · 1 negative · 0 mixed · 0 neutral

    • Can still recommend as it's one of the few games that makes you want to go through it again.
      positive · Oct 31, 2022 · review 124744026
    • Lots of things to collect giving the game big replayability and characters you care about 10/10
      positive · Nov 30, 2022 · review 127638815
    • Strong replay value,
      positive · Aug 31, 2024 · review 173908776

Emergent themes unvalidated

topics reviewers bring up that are not on the validated list; raw counts only, no error bars

  • romance 8

Review timeline

monthly peak 8,339 reviews · all languages

review volume 5,000 0 positive review share 100% 50% 0% 2023 2024 2025 2026 Oct 2022 · 6,405 reviews (6,224 up · 181 down) · 97% positive Nov 2022 · 8,339 reviews (8,166 up · 173 down) · 98% positive Dec 2022 · 3,601 reviews (3,466 up · 135 down) · 96% positive Jan 2023 · 3,824 reviews (3,671 up · 153 down) · 96% positive Feb 2023 · 1,995 reviews (1,938 up · 57 down) · 97% positive Mar 2023 · 1,685 reviews (1,606 up · 79 down) · 95% positive Apr 2023 · 1,348 reviews (1,292 up · 56 down) · 96% positive May 2023 · 1,431 reviews (1,377 up · 54 down) · 96% positive Jun 2023 · 903 reviews (863 up · 40 down) · 96% positive Jul 2023 · 2,155 reviews (2,077 up · 78 down) · 96% positive Aug 2023 · 1,223 reviews (1,190 up · 33 down) · 97% positive Sep 2023 · 1,216 reviews (1,173 up · 43 down) · 96% positive Oct 2023 · 1,021 reviews (997 up · 24 down) · 98% positive Nov 2023 · 1,315 reviews (1,282 up · 33 down) · 97% positive Dec 2023 · 1,686 reviews (1,606 up · 80 down) · 95% positive Jan 2024 · 2,146 reviews (2,071 up · 75 down) · 97% positive Feb 2024 · 2,583 reviews (2,495 up · 88 down) · 97% positive Mar 2024 · 2,217 reviews (2,147 up · 70 down) · 97% positive Apr 2024 · 1,708 reviews (1,637 up · 71 down) · 96% positive May 2024 · 2,457 reviews (2,220 up · 237 down) · 90% positive Jun 2024 · 1,468 reviews (1,408 up · 60 down) · 96% positive Jul 2024 · 1,981 reviews (1,894 up · 87 down) · 96% positive Aug 2024 · 2,475 reviews (2,355 up · 120 down) · 95% positive Sep 2024 · 2,119 reviews (2,022 up · 97 down) · 95% positive Oct 2024 · 1,825 reviews (1,738 up · 87 down) · 95% positive Nov 2024 · 1,800 reviews (1,703 up · 97 down) · 95% positive Dec 2024 · 2,150 reviews (2,053 up · 97 down) · 95% positive Jan 2025 · 2,160 reviews (2,088 up · 72 down) · 97% positive Feb 2025 · 1,812 reviews (1,737 up · 75 down) · 96% positive Mar 2025 · 1,501 reviews (1,440 up · 61 down) · 96% positive Apr 2025 · 1,112 reviews (1,066 up · 46 down) · 96% positive May 2025 · 1,564 reviews (1,473 up · 91 down) · 94% positive Jun 2025 · 1,274 reviews (1,228 up · 46 down) · 96% positive Jul 2025 · 2,092 reviews (1,983 up · 109 down) · 95% positive Aug 2025 · 1,485 reviews (1,417 up · 68 down) · 95% positive Sep 2025 · 1,141 reviews (1,090 up · 51 down) · 96% positive Oct 2025 · 1,265 reviews (1,210 up · 55 down) · 96% positive Nov 2025 · 1,080 reviews (1,031 up · 49 down) · 95% positive Dec 2025 · 1,667 reviews (1,587 up · 80 down) · 95% positive Jan 2026 · 2,062 reviews (1,980 up · 82 down) · 96% positive Feb 2026 · 1,463 reviews (1,394 up · 69 down) · 95% positive Mar 2026 · 1,384 reviews (1,319 up · 65 down) · 95% positive Apr 2026 · 1,427 reviews (1,344 up · 83 down) · 94% positive May 2026 · 2,249 reviews (2,121 up · 128 down) · 94% positive Jun 2026 · 1,810 reviews (1,743 up · 67 down) · 96% positive Jul 2026 · 2,090 reviews (1,998 up · 92 down) · 96% positive Aug 2026 · 690 reviews (663 up · 27 down) · 96% positive

monthly share rated positive · 50% reference · months with <5 reviews faded

the timeline as a table
Reviews per month, all languages; months with no reviews are left out.
month reviews up down positive note
Oct 2022 6,405 6,224 181 97%
Nov 2022 8,339 8,166 173 98%
Dec 2022 3,601 3,466 135 96%
Jan 2023 3,824 3,671 153 96%
Feb 2023 1,995 1,938 57 97%
Mar 2023 1,685 1,606 79 95%
Apr 2023 1,348 1,292 56 96%
May 2023 1,431 1,377 54 96%
Jun 2023 903 863 40 96%
Jul 2023 2,155 2,077 78 96%
Aug 2023 1,223 1,190 33 97%
Sep 2023 1,216 1,173 43 96%
Oct 2023 1,021 997 24 98%
Nov 2023 1,315 1,282 33 97%
Dec 2023 1,686 1,606 80 95%
Jan 2024 2,146 2,071 75 97%
Feb 2024 2,583 2,495 88 97%
Mar 2024 2,217 2,147 70 97%
Apr 2024 1,708 1,637 71 96%
May 2024 2,457 2,220 237 90%
Jun 2024 1,468 1,408 60 96%
Jul 2024 1,981 1,894 87 96%
Aug 2024 2,475 2,355 120 95%
Sep 2024 2,119 2,022 97 95%
Oct 2024 1,825 1,738 87 95%
Nov 2024 1,800 1,703 97 95%
Dec 2024 2,150 2,053 97 95%
Jan 2025 2,160 2,088 72 97%
Feb 2025 1,812 1,737 75 96%
Mar 2025 1,501 1,440 61 96%
Apr 2025 1,112 1,066 46 96%
May 2025 1,564 1,473 91 94%
Jun 2025 1,274 1,228 46 96%
Jul 2025 2,092 1,983 109 95%
Aug 2025 1,485 1,417 68 95%
Sep 2025 1,141 1,090 51 96%
Oct 2025 1,265 1,210 55 96%
Nov 2025 1,080 1,031 49 95%
Dec 2025 1,667 1,587 80 95%
Jan 2026 2,062 1,980 82 96%
Feb 2026 1,463 1,394 69 95%
Mar 2026 1,384 1,319 65 95%
Apr 2026 1,427 1,344 83 94%
May 2026 2,249 2,121 128 94%
Jun 2026 1,810 1,743 67 96%
Jul 2026 2,090 1,998 92 96%
Aug 2026 690 663 27 96%

How this report was made

Population
all Steam reviews of the game (every language, purchase type, and verdict), walked newest-first per window; only English-language reviews are analyzed
Sample
407 English reviews, time-proportional draw over 47 windows (newest-first within each), taken from an all-language walk and kept English-only — where English is a minority the sample runs smaller than the draw, and every margin of error is computed at 407
Aspect yield
157 of 407 analyzed reviews carry at least one aspect (38.6%); every share on this page divides by all 407
Interval regime
calm: standard margins of error for a share of a sample (Wilson interval), no widening needed
Fetch paths
47 time windows fetched directly (windowed)
Language mix
1,000 fetched: english 409 · schinese 333 · spanish 70 · 19 more
Steam-marked windows
none flagged by Steam (Valve's off-topic flagging began March 2019)
Marked share
0.0% of sample inside marked windows, under the 2% floor
Narrative
passed the grounding gate first try
Evidence floor
aspects and emergent themes appear only with 5+ supporting reviews; smaller counts sit at the classifier's false-positive floor
Instrument readings
measured once on the study corpus for this model and prompt: frozen calibration, not properties of this run
· aspect tagging vs. human labels
0.766 [0.713–0.811] (F1 against a human-labeled test set; 1.0 is best)
· quotes filed under the wrong aspect
11.6% [6.6–19.6] of quotes, measured by hand on a sample; lower is better
· independent model vs. production labels
0.791 [0.772–0.810] (F1 of the production labeler against an independent judge model)
Versions
deepseek-v4-flash · prompt classify-v1 · ontology v2
Run
serve-20260814T034414Z-9398ec22 · code 6bbb8aa

full methodology in the milestone write-ups