Persona 5

Setting and characters

Persona 5 takes place within the Persona universe, revolving around a group of high school students who harness Personas, physical manifestations of their inner psyche. The story begins in April "20XX (2016)" and spans roughly a year. It is set in modern-day Tokyo and features several real-world locations, including Akihabara, Shinjuku, and Shibuya. A major setting throughout the game is Shujin Academy, a high school that the protagonist attends. The second major location is the "Metaverse", a supernatural realm consisting of the physical manifestations of humanity's subconscious desires. In the Metaverse, people with corrupted desires form their own unique "Palace," which is modeled after their distorted perception of a place in the real world, along with a Shadow version of themselves (their true self) possessing a "Treasure" symbolic of their desires. Returning from earlier entries is the Velvet Room, a place that exists for the growth of Persona users and shifts appearance depending on the current guest; in Persona 5, it takes the form of a prison.

The player character is a silent protagonist, a commonplace feature in the Persona series, codenamed Joker. He becomes the leader of a vigilante group known as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, who change the hearts of criminals and other malevolent people through the Metaverse. He is joined by school delinquent Ryuji Sakamoto, fashion model Ann Takamaki, and Morgana, a mysterious cat-like creature. As the game progresses, the group recruits more members, including art prodigy Yusuke Kitagawa, student council president Makoto Niijima, hikikomori computer hacker Futaba Sakura, and cultured corporate heiress Haru Okumura. Also interacting with Joker are high school detective Goro Akechi, public prosecutor and Makoto's older sister Sae Niijima, and Igor and his two assistants Caroline and Justine, who are residents of the Velvet Room.

Plot

Much of the story is told through flashbacks while Sae Niijima interrogates the protagonist. After preventing an assault, he is framed for assaulting the man responsible and put on probation for a year, resulting in expulsion from his school. He is sent to Tokyo to stay with family friend Sojiro Sakura and attend Shujin Academy during his year-long probation. After his arrival, he is drawn into the Velvet Room, where Igor, alongside his assistants, Caroline and Justine, warns him that he must be rehabilitated to avoid future ruin and grants him access to a supernatural mobile app. This leads him into the Metaverse, and the Palace of the school's abusive and lustful gym teacher and volleyball coach Suguru Kamoshida, along with a fellow student, Ryuji Sakamoto, who had been labeled as a troublemaker due to having been provoked by Kamoshida into assaulting him.

After the protagonist and Ryuji are captured by the corrupt manifestation of Kamoshida, also known as his Shadow Self, he awakens to his Persona, Arsène, to save Ryuji from being executed. The two escape to the lower levels of the Palace, where they meet Morgana, a mysterious, small cat-like creature who knows much about the Palaces. Morgana informs the protagonist of the ability to change wicked people's hearts by stealing their "Treasure," the emotional root of their behavior and desires, from the Palaces ruled by their Shadow selves. Not long after, upon discovering the truth about Kamoshida's abuse towards other students in the Palace dungeons, Ryuji awakens to his Persona and resolves to stop Kamoshida. The protagonist later confronts other fellow student Ann Takamaki, who was forced into a relationship with Kamoshida in exchange for her friend Shiho Suzui being on the volleyball team. When Ann doesn't come to Kamoshida's house one afternoon, he takes it out on Shiho in an implied sexual assault, causing her to attempt suicide. After which, the group finally decides to steal Kamoshida's heart and force him to confess his crimes, with Ann awakening to her Persona after accidentally stumbling into the Metaverse.

The protagonist assumes the codename Joker, and after changing Kamoshida's heart, he along with Morgana, Ryuji, and Ann form the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, to steal corruption from the hearts of adults to reform the city, and slowly learns of a broader conspiracy to influence the hearts of Tokyo. They are joined along the way by Yusuke Kitagawa, an art student whom they help to reform his corrupt teacher, Ichiryusai Madarame; Sae's sister Makoto, the president of the school's student council who is assigned to spy on them but joins after being blackmailed by a mob boss, Junya Kaneshiro, who they also reform; Sojiro's adopted daughter Futaba Sakura, an expert hacker who became a depressed hikikomori after the conspiracy murdered her mother and framed her using a forged suicide note; and Haru Okumura, a corporate heiress who rebels against her rich father, Kunikazu Okumura, and his attempts to control her life and mistreatment of his employees. Over time, the Phantom Thieves attract the attention of the public and the police, including Sae and celebrity junior detective Goro Akechi.

However, the Phantom Thieves' popularity plummets after a masked assassin frames them for the death of Haru's father. While pursuing the conspiracy, Akechi joins the group and convinces them to change Sae's heart in order to prove their innocence. After infiltrating Sae's Palace, Joker is captured by the police, and Sae interrogates him despite being removed from the case, at which point the story comes full-circle. Joker convinces Sae of the truth. Akechi is revealed to be the assassin and attempts to kill Joker but the Phantom Thieves pull Akechi back into Sae's palace, where he kills Sae's cognition of Joker instead. It's also revealed that the Phantom Thieves knew Akechi's true nature all along and only agreed to infilitrate Sae's palace so that this deception could work. Aided by Sae and Sojiro, the Phantom Thieves go undercover and learn the conspiracy's leader is politician Masayoshi Shido, who was the one who framed and pressed charges against Joker, resulting in his probation. He has been using Akechi's Metaverse ability to remove obstacles in his path toward becoming prime minister and imposing his twisted reforms on Japan. When the Phantom Thieves infiltrate Shido's Palace, they face Akechi, who reveals himself as Shido's illegitimate son and that his collusion with him was part of a plan to get revenge on Shido for abandoning him and his late mother. Once defeated, Akechi sacrifices himself to protect the Phantom Thieves from a group of enemies (including Shido's cognition of Akechi himself) and allow them to defeat Shido. Despite Shido's arrest and confession, the public's opinion of him remains unchanged, and Shido may be released due to the manipulation of the public by his allies.

The Phantom Thieves infiltrate the depths of Mementos, the public’s Palace, to steal the Treasure at its core, believing that changing the general public's hearts will cause them to realize and accept the truth. Inside, they discover that the public is in chaos and has given up their free will, believing that it’d free them. The Phantom Thieves are ejected from Mementos by the Treasure itself, manifested as the Holy Grail, and vanish after the Metaverse merges with reality. Upon awakening in the Velvet Room, Igor proclaims Joker has failed to prevent the ruin and orders Caroline and Justine to execute him. Realizing that they’re not killers, Caroline and Justine regain their memories and integrate into Lavenza, their proper form. Lavenza reveals that the Igor in the Velvet Room until this point is actually Yaldabaoth, the God of Control, who imprisoned the actual Igor. Yaldabaoth, the Holy Grail made sentient, was created from humanity's wish to be ruled and not act for themselves. Through a wager made with Igor over humanity's goals, Yaldabaoth had given Joker and Akechi their abilities but ensured that Joker would fail to prove that living with ambition is useless.

Yaldabaoth offers Joker to return the world to its previous state at the cost of the world's freedom. If Joker accepts the offer, an alternate ending happens where the Phantom Thieves return to fame at the cost of humanity's free will. If Joker rejects the offer, he reunites with the rest of the Phantom Thieves in the Velvet Room, including Morgana, who was revealed to have been created by the real Igor to lead Joker to the depths of Mementos. The Phantom Thieves attempt to fight Yaldabaoth again, and as Joker's confidants rally the support of the people, they rebel against Yaldabaoth's control and allow Joker to awaken his ultimate Persona, Satanael, to destroy Yaldabaoth and the Metaverse. After Yaldabaoth's defeat, Joker turns himself in to the police for Shido to be prosecuted. While Joker is incarcerated, the rest of the Phantom Thieves and his confidants help secure evidence of his innocence in the assault charge, leading to his conviction being overturned. By spring, Joker's friends drive him back to his hometown.

Royal

In Persona 5 Royal, two new characters interact with the Phantom Thieves: Kasumi Yoshizawa, an accomplished gymnast who transferred to Shujin Academy the same time as Joker, and Takuto Maruki, a counsellor hired by the school after Kamoshida is exposed. Kasumi awakens to her Persona after discovering a new Palace in Odaiba with Joker. Maruki, in turn, talks to each of the Phantom Thieves throughout the main story and learns their deepest wishes and regrets via their counselling sessions with him.

After defeating Yaldabaoth, a still-living Akechi turns himself over to Sae in Joker's place. At the beginning of the following year, Joker finds reality distorted; Akechi was released without reason, and each Phantom Thief has had their deepest wish granted, including some deceased people being brought back to life. Joker, Akechi, and Kasumi investigate the Palace in Odaiba and learn that its owner is Maruki, who is revealed to be a Persona-user that can alter reality by forcefully changing people's cognitions. After Yaldabaoth's defeat, Maruki assumed his role since the public embraced the Phantom Thieves, who in turn had previously wished for Maruki to remove their past trauma. Through meddling with Mementos, Maruki later brainwashed the Phantom Thieves into accepting into a reality that he believes is perfect for them. However, this causes them to stagnate and lose the will to fight for a better reality. "Kasumi" is also revealed to be her twin sister Sumire, who had been impersonating her to cope with the former's death due to the influence of Maruki's powers although only the Phantom Thieves could see her as "Kasumi". Maruki gives Joker time to choose whether to accept his idealized reality. Joker reminds the Phantom Thieves and Sumire of the strength and growth they gained from their real lives, and they agree to change Maruki's heart before he makes the idealized reality permanent by fusing reality with Mementos.

Joker later learns from Maruki that Akechi is alive in the altered reality because of Joker's desire to save him, and that whether Akechi lives depends on Joker accepting Maruki's world. Akechi convinces Joker to refuse the offer, stating he would rather disappear as himself, than live under Maruki's control. The Phantom Thieves then defeat Maruki the following day, and reality returns to normal. With Akechi gone, Joker finds himself back in prison as he was meant to be before reality was altered, but as with the original game's story, he is cleared and released thanks to his friends and allies. At their final meeting, having reflected on their rejection of Maruki's reality, each member chooses to pursue their own futures, separate from one another in order to make their wishes come true under their own power. On the day he is due to return home, Joker escapes tailing government agents with help from both the Phantom Thieves and a reformed Maruki, who is now a taxi driver. At the station, Sumire finds him and bids him farewell. A post-credits scene achieved by reaching Rank 8 of Akechi's Confidant before November 17[6] shows a person resembling Akechi passing by the window on Joker's train ride home.

Similarly to the original game, an alternate ending happens should Joker choose to accept the idealized reality, instead of resisting and attempting to change Maruki's heart. The ending shows the other Phantom Thieves, including Akechi and Sumire, who is now "Kasumi" permanently, who are seemingly unaware of the true nature of reality, while Joker appears uncomfortable and unsure of his actions.

Story and themes

The original story concept was written by Hashino, while the scenario was co-written by Shinji Yamamoto and Yuichiro Tanaka. The initial concept was for a storyline that diverged from the established paths of Persona 3 and 4, with "self-discovery" and "journey" being its keywords. Originally using the concept of a backpacking trip around the world as a framing device for the story, Hashino decided to refocus on Japan in the wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. More specifically, it has been noted that the Japanese government's actions in response to the earthquake and tsunami's fallout, along with Japanese citizens' reactions to how the government acted during that time, may have served as partial influences on the game's themes.[7] Following that crisis and seeing how people were bonding in the face of it, Hashino decided to have the story take place solely in Japan, with the journeying being done through the ever-shifting (dungeon-like) Palaces. Ultimately, the story's central concepts were inspired by equivalent social changes he saw in modern society, particularly in Japan. Hashino also described the central theme of the game as being about freedom and how the characters attain it. He wanted to make the game more "thematically approachable" for newcomers to the series, and to be an emotional experience that left its audience with a strong sense of catharsis and the inspiration to take on problems in their lives.

The narrative of Persona 5 was designed like an omnibus, with the antagonists pursued by the party changing regularly. The development team has cited three main stories as inspiration, the Chinese novel Water Margin, the Japanese crime movie Hakuchuu no Shikaku, and the Spanish novel Lazarillo de Tormes. Furthermore, the setting and style was compared to picaresque fiction; the team originally asked the question of how a character like Lupin III might win appeal in modern society. This picaresque theme was carried over into the aesthetics of Persona fusion and sacrifice, which were themed after styles of capital punishment. Having a more "stereotypical" theme enabled the team to create surprising story developments, mixing contemporary drama with the setting of the Persona series. The series' recurring motif of "masks" was used more overtly in the game's plot than previous entries as well, and the game's main locations were based heavily on their real-world counterparts.

The main characters, according to Hashino, share a mindset that they "no longer have a place where they belong in society", though the events of the game give them a sense of belonging. Hashino stated that while the last few games were about the protagonists chasing the antagonists, Persona 5 would instead more prominently feature the antagonists and phenomena caused by them chasing the protagonists during the latter's activities. The characters have been described as "juvenile academics," with their activities as thieves being part of the way they break from societal norms and express themselves. Adhering with this concept, the game's main aim was to show the characters finding the courage to go outside the normal limits of society as set by previous generations. In contrast to previous Persona casts, the party of Persona 5 willingly embrace the unfolding unusual events in their role of masked vigilantes rather than being dragged into them. The cast was originally going to be larger with character Hifumi Togo becoming a Phantom Thief, but as the story was already very large, she was relegated to an optional role as part of the Confidant system. Technological advances such as smartphones and the use of social media were integrated into both the story and gameplay due to their growing prevalence in modern society and how the public responds to real-world scandals.[7]

The characters' initial Personas (Arsène, Captain Kidd, Carmen, Zorro, Goemon, Johanna, Necronomicon, Milady, Robin Hood, and Cendrillon) were themed after outlaws and picaresque heroes to reflect the function and dominant suppressed passions forming the Palace, and also represent aspects of their owners' personalities. Joker's initial Persona was originally the German demon Mephistopheles, but was changed to Arsène as the latter character better fit the game's themes. The cast's ultimate Personas (Satanael, Seiten Taisei, Hecate, Mercurius, Kamu Susano-o, Anat, Prometheus, Astarte, Loki and Vanadis) were based on mythical beings who act as tricksters or rebels. The three main inspirations behind Joker's alter ego were Arsène Lupin, The Fiend with Twenty Faces, and Japanese outlaw hero Ishikawa Goemon. The name of Joker's high school, "Shujin", was chosen because it was a homonym of Shūjin (囚人), the Japanese word for "prisoner". Following a trend from earlier entries, the Velvet Room assistants are named after characters from the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

The use of adults as antagonists was a more overt expression of narrative elements previously explored in Persona 4. The relation to police activities was also carried over from Persona 4, but this time with the role of protagonists and antagonists reversed. Several writers have highlighted the parallels between the game's various antagonists with real incidents and figures in different sectors of Japanese society (e.g. political, corporate, academic), and how the game's story and characters serve as social commentary on life in Japan.[7][8] The game's villains and protagonists were also constructed to be parallels of each other, both groups being misfits trying to shape a world they saw as unsatisfactory or corrupted. This was intended to create moral ambiguity about the Phantom Thieves' actions, causing the player to question their concept of justice and their mission as a whole. In addition, the way a vocal minority online could draw attention to and shift public opinion on events and scandals in the news was cited as an inspiration for the ambiguous nature of the Phantom Thieves' actions.

Art design

The art director was Masayoshi Suto, whose most notable work on earlier games included the user interface (UI) displays. Shigenori Soejima, who had worked on the last two main-series Persona games, returned as character designer. The art design reflects the picaresque theme aimed for by the rest of the team. Aesthetically, the team felt that they were picking up where Persona 4 left off. Its styling presentation was an unintentional reflection on the hurdles the team needed to overcome during development. The teaser image used for the game's announcement was designed to convey a sense of the main characters' being chained down by the rules of the modern world. Soejima designed the logo to convey the high-speed existences of the young cast, while elements such as Joker's Persona Arsène were designed to appear old-fashioned by comparison. This presented challenges as Soejima needed to balance this with a strong sense of style.

Soejima was working on prospective designs for the game while Persona 4 was still in development, with his designs evolving as the story for Persona 5 came together. The first character sketches were submitted in 2012. Soejima worked closely with Hashino so the characters and environments reflected the game's themes. Due to being high school students, Soejima found it difficult to make each main character's uniform design distinctive, so he expressed their individuality through their thief costumes. Joker's design was cited by Soejima as his most challenging recent work. Joker needed to both convey a taste of the game's overall art style and to act as an avatar for the player. As the main theme and narrative of Persona 5 revolved around crime and vigilantes triggered by Joker voluntarily choosing that path, Soejima needed to convey this while allowing the character to suit whatever dialogue choices the player decided upon. Due to these difficulties, Joker was given multiple designs in a trial and error process to find the best one. As the "phantom thief" premise was a common stereotype in fiction, Soejima initially drew Joker and the main cast in a style similar to shōnen manga, but these designs were scrapped as they clashed with the Persona series' realistic aesthetics. As with previous entries, the protagonist is a silent character, so Soejima had to work out a way Joker could communicate without dialogue. His solution was to imagine him as the type of person who made plans but did not share them with others. The Persona designs, being based on characters from literature, were intended to evoke both familiarity and surprise from players. Once the names were chosen, Soejima designed the Personas based on that character. The main aim for the game's environments was to create a sense of realism, with its version of Tokyo being modeled after real world locations.[9]

As the team considered previous Persona games to be "fun" but not well marketed, the UI was designed in such a way as to attract a larger, more mainstream audience. When creating the UI, Hashino wanted to demonstrate how a shift in perspective could alter a dull life into an exciting one in the context of the story. Early UI designs were so "aggressively animated" that it obscured what was happening in the game. As a result, the animations were toned down and text orientation was altered, toning down the UI's graphical elements to present a balance between user-friendliness and style. Following the respective thematic coloring of Persona 3 and 4 blue and yellow, Persona 5 uses red, which was chosen to evoke a harsh feeling. Because of this, Suto tested multiple font colors until settling on black and white, as it stood out best against it. Rather than the use of sub-colors like earlier entries, the UI uses only the primary red, black and white colors aside from health and magic point meters, with the menus using a special moving 3D model of Joker which changes position depending on the selected menu.

The game's animated cutscenes were produced by Production I.G and Domerica, and were directed and supervised by Toshiyuki Kono. Kono was contacted three and a half years before the game's completion by Hashino. Faced with the project, Kono felt a great deal of pressure in his role. Persona 5 was the first time Production I.G had worked on the series, though many staff at the studio were fans. Despite this, the studio did not change their standard animation process, focusing on characters as they had done for many of their previous projects. The most important part of the cutscenes was getting the character's expressions right, particularly when it came to the general-mute protagonist. The animated opening sequence was directed by Sayo Yamamoto. The concept behind the characters figure skating around the environment was done as a visual symbolization of the overall theme of breaking free of an oppressive force, and was similar to her work in Yuri on Ice. The scene where Joker first summons his Persona was requested by Atlus to appear "wild", which was difficult as Joker's purpose is as an extension of the player. The blue flame effects related to the Persona were not created with CGI, but hand-drawn by the animators. All the anime cutscenes together were estimated to consist of over an hour of footage.

Music

The score was composed, performed, and produced by series sound director Shoji Meguro. Further contributions, among other general sound design, was handled by Toshiki Konishi, Kenichi Tsuchiya, Atsushi Kitajoh, and Ryota Kozuka; all of them having previously worked on the series as well. Meguro was given full creative freedom to work on the soundtrack and over a roughly three-year period produced about 80% of the total tracks. Seven tracks were performed in English by Lyn (Full Name: Lyn Inaizumi), a jazz and soul music singer. Her first performance in a video game, Lyn claimed that the most difficult part of her contributions was performing a rap segment in the opening theme, "Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There". The lyrics were written by Benjamin Franklin, while the ending song, "Hoshi To Bokura To", had lyrics written in Japanese by Shigeo Komori.

To express the game's mood, Meguro incorporated strong acid jazz elements into the score. He also wanted to make the music sound more realistic than previous entries, aiming to match the visuals. Meguro also changed the way the music flowed when compared to the last two Persona games. Instead of the opening and ending themes being conglomerates of the overall score, he described the entire score as a single continuous work. A recurring musical element was described as a "do-la" syllable; the opening uses "so la re mi" on strings as a hook, which then leads into the "do-la" syllable for other tracks, including the normal battle theme. While he was creating the music, Meguro received positive comments from Hashino when he made early tracks created for an internal demo.

A three-disc soundtrack was released in Japan by Mastard Records on January 17, 2017. Upon its debut, the album reached fifth on the Oricon charts with sales of over 29,000. The album features 110 tracks with commentary from the sound team, while the cover and liner note artwork were designed by Soejima. In addition to the soundtrack, a 19-track disc featuring a selection of the game's main themes, Persona 5: Sounds of the Rebellion, was released as part of the North American and European collector's edition bundle. The complete soundtrack later received a localized English release on iTunes on April 18, 2017, and on vinyl later that year by iam8bit.[10] In December 2025, the game's score was performed in Japan at the "Persona 5 Special Big Band Concert," and will continue to be performed at the "Persona 5 Special Big Band Concert Asia Tour 2026".[11][12]

Persona 5 Royal

Persona 5 Royal, released in Japan as Persona 5: The Royal, is an enhanced version of the game in a similar vein to Persona 4 Golden. This version features an additional Phantom Thief member named Kasumi Yoshizawa, a new Palace, a new area of the city (Kichijōji), new music, additional plot and social elements, a playable third semester, and support for the PlayStation 4 Pro, alongside many other changes and additions.[23] In a first for the series, Royal features subtitles in French, German, Italian, and Spanish.[24] It features a new opening sequence directed by Yuichiro Hayashi and produced by MAPPA,[25] and as with the original game, Domerica co-produced the new anime cutscenes. Atlus first teased the game as Persona 5 R in December 2018, with a full reveal in April 2019.[26] It was released for the PlayStation 4 in Japan on October 31, 2019, and worldwide on March 31, 2020.[27][28] The game was also released for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on October 21, 2022.[29][30][31] These versions were ported by Atlus owner Sega.[32]

Sega published Royal in Europe and Australia, taking over from Deep Silver who published the original in those regions.[33] Upon release, Royal received numerous character costume sets and Personas as paid DLC. Costumes include those based on Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight and Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth.[34] Additionally, Kasumi received her own costume bundle.[35] Personas added include those from Persona 3 and 4.[36] DLC adding additional battles against the protagonist of Persona 3 and protagonist of Persona 4 was released.[34] All DLC from the original game was also made available as a free download for owners of Persona 5 Royal.[37] The paid DLC created for Royal was included for free in the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S versions.[38][39] The game supports Xbox Play Anywhere on Microsoft platforms, but the PlayStation 5 version does not offer an upgrade path or save data transfer from the PlayStation 4 version.[40]

Royal

Persona 5 Royal received "universal acclaim" from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic, garnering an even higher score than the original. The game is the third-highest-rated PlayStation 4 game on Metacritic alongside Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Remastered.[56] IGN listed it as one of the best contemporary role-playing games.[57] Famitsu praised Royal newer elements. Michael Higham of GameSpot lauded the new music, characters, and the added third semester, saying that it solves one of the original game's shortcomings of ending abruptly. He concluded his review saying that Royal refines an already great game and builds on what was best about it with a great new story and that it is "an unforgettable and empowering RPG that should be recognized as one of the best games of our time." IGN's Leana Hafer said Royal is "a living master class in how to take an already amazing game and amp it up to the next level." She commended the improvements to the Mementos dungeons saying "The fact that Atlus has made Mementos feel so much more alive is a massive improvement by itself."

Sales

The game received a boost to pre-order sales following the delay of Final Fantasy XV, which was originally scheduled to release the same month as Persona 5. Sales went up on Amazon Japan by 450%, bringing it to second place in their best-seller charts behind Tales of Berseria. In its first week of release, the PS4 version reached first place with sales of 264,793 units, while the PS3 version reached second place with 72,974 units, resulting in total sales of 337,767 units. This made Persona 5 the fastest-selling title in the series' history, surpassing Revelations: Persona, and together with Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 pushed sales of the PS4 up significantly over the previous week. It was later reported by Hashino that combined physical shipments and digital sales had reached over 550,000 units by September 2016. Within three weeks of its launch in Japan, the game became Atlus' best-selling game in the country.

Outside of Japan, it was the biggest debut for any Persona game to date, with packaged sales five times better than Persona 4.[58] On the PlayStation Network in April, the game topped the PS4 charts, and was third on the PS3, with Atlus announcing that it had shipped 1.5 million units worldwide. By November 2017, that number had risen to over two million, which made it the best-selling game in the series.[59] The success of Persona 5 contributed to increasing annual revenue for Sega, the owner of Atlus, in 2017.[60] At the 2018 PlayStation Awards, it received the Platinum Prize for topping a million sales in Asia.[61] Persona 5 had sold over 3.2 million units by December 2019.[62]

Persona 5 Royal shipped over 400,000 units in Japan by December 2019.[63] This brought total sales of Persona 5 and Royal to over 3.6 million units worldwide by December 2019.[64][62] In February 2020, Royal topped the Media Create sales charts in South Korea and Taiwan.[65] In the United Kingdom, Royal debuted at number five on the sales chart.[66] Royal had sold over 1.4 million units by July 2020, bringing the total sales of Persona 5 and Royal to over 4.6 million.[67][68] Persona 5 and Royal had sold over 5 million units by June 2021 (when including 1.8 million Royal units).[69]

When the game launched on additional platforms in October 2022, the Nintendo Switch version placed in second at 45,998 physical units sold, and PlayStation 5 version placed in seventh at 5,051 units during the week from October 17 to 23, according to Japanese publication Famitsu.[70] In the United Kingdom, the re-release of Royal debuted at number six on the sales chart, with 79% of the launch week sales coming from the Nintendo Switch version.[71] By November 30, 2022, the PlayStation 4 version of Royal had sold 2.3 million units.[72] By April 2023, the ports to other platforms had sold a combined 1.7 million units,[73] bringing total sales of Royal to 4 million units, and combined sales of all versions of Persona 5 to 7.2 million units.[69] The Persona 5 series including Royal, Dancing in Starlight, Strikers, and Tactica surpassed 10 million units sold by December 2023.[74] Royal had sold a total of 7.25 million copies by March 2025, bringing combined sales of all versions of Persona 5 to 10.45 million.[75][69]

Awards

Persona 5 won two awards at the Japanese 2016 PlayStation Awards. At The Game Awards 2017, it was nominated for the show's "Game of the Year", "Best Art Direction", "Best Score/Music", and "Best Role Playing Game" awards; it ultimately won for "Best Role Playing Game".[76] It won the Award for Excellence at the Japan Game Awards 2017.[77] It was named the second best game of 2017 by GameSpot, behind The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.[78] In IGN's 2017 end of year awards, it won "Best RPG",[79] and was also nominated for "Game of the Year",[80] "Best PlayStation 4 Game",[81] "Best Art Direction",[82] "Best Story",[83] and "Best Original Music".[84] The game was also nominated for "Best International Game" at the 2017 Ping Awards,[85] and for the "Best Music" and "Best Style" awards by Giant Bomb.[86][87] In 2024, a cover of "Last Surprise" by The 8-Bit Big Band was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Arrangement, Instruments And Vocals".[88][89][90][91]

It was ranked as one of the best games of 2017 by Eurogamer,[92] Polygon,[93] The Verge,[94] GamesRadar+,[95] and Electronic Gaming Monthly end of year lists.[96] Destructoid nominated it for "Best PS4 Game" in its 2017 Game of the Year Awards.[97] Staff of Game Informer named it 2017's "Best Role-Playing Game", as well as "Best Narrative" and "Best Cast".[98][99][100] In their reader's choice awards, it was voted "Best Role-Playing Game" and came in second for "Best Sony Game" and third for "Game of the Year".[101][102][103] During the 21st Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Persona 5 for "Role-Playing Game of the Year".[104] The game won the Tin Pan Alley Award for "Best Music in a Game" at the New York Game Awards 2018.[105] It was also nominated for the "Best Visual Art" award at the Game Developers Choice Awards,[106][107] and for "Excellence in Musical Score" and "Excellence in Art" at the 2018 SXSW Gaming Awards.[108][109] The game was nominated for "Best Game Music Cover/Remix" at the 2019 G.A.N.G. Awards.[110]

Persona 5 Royal won the award for "Best Music" at the Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards 2019, where it was also nominated for "Best RPG".[111] It was nominated for "Best Role Playing Game" at The Game Awards 2020,[112] as well as "Role-Playing Game of the Year" at the 24th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards,[113] but lost both awards to Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Critical retrospectives and accolades

Since its release, Persona 5 has been regarded as one of the greatest role-playing games of all time,[114][115][116] and one of the greatest games of all time. Writing for Nerdist in 2017, Edwin Garcia opined that the game was "one of the best RPGs of the past few years" and asserted that it "belongs amongst the greatest of all time."[114] Alex Donaldson of VG247 likened the game to other esteemed RPGs such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII, and stated that it hearkened back to the genre's golden age.[115] Citing it as "one of the best RPGs in recent memory" in a 2023 Inverse article, critic Willa Rowe claimed Persona 5 was the best heist game, praising the dungeon design's emphasis on heist planning and execution.[117] Journalists noted its influence on games such as Atlus' own Metaphor: ReFantazio (2024) and Sandfall Interactive's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (2025).[118][119] Sandfall's lead director Guillaume Broche and Japanese game designer Masahiro Sakurai both praised the game's stylish UI design as among their favorite.[120][121]

Persona 5 and Royal have appeared in various critic lists of the best games of all time. IGN included Persona 5 at #78 in its 2019 list of the top 100,[122] and ranked Royal at #81 in their 2021 iteration.[123] The publication also placed it at #50 in their list of the 100 best RPGs.[124] USA Today's gaming section For The Win listed the game at #11,[125] and GQ ranked the game at #64 in a similar list in 2023.[126] A 2017 Famitsu reader poll ranked Persona 5 as the greatest game of all time.[127]

Adaptations and media appearances

A standalone anime special, Persona 5: the Animation -The Day Breakers-, aired in Japan on September 3, 2016. Created by A-1 Pictures, The Day Breakers is set during the events of the game and portrayed as a "sub event" separate from the main narrative. A manga adaptation of Persona 5 by Hisato Murasaki began serialization online from September 15, 2016. Persona 5: The Animation, an anime television series based on the game's events, was produced by CloverWorks and began broadcast in April 2018.[130] Stage play adaptations under the title Persona 5: The Stage have been performed in Japan,[131] with original music composed by Atsushi Kitajoh.[132]

Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, a rhythm game for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, features the main cast of Persona 5 and was released in 2018.[133][134] The cast is also featured in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth for the Nintendo 3DS, also released in 2018.[135] Persona 5 Strikers, an action role-playing sequel to Persona 5 co-developed with Omega Force and featuring gameplay based on their Dynasty Warriors series, was released in Japan in 2020 and worldwide in 2021 for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Windows.[136][137][138] A tactical role-playing game spinoff named Persona 5 Tactica was released in 2023.[139] A spin-off for Android and iOS named Persona 5: The Phantom X was announced in 2023, developed by Black Wings Game Studio and published by Perfect World Games; P-Studio is assisting in the game's development. The Phantom Thieves appear as characters that can be summoned via gacha by the player character of Persona 5: The Phantom X.[140]

Joker appears as a playable character via downloadable content (DLC) in the 2018 crossover fighting game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.[141] The game's director, Masahiro Sakurai, is a fan of the Persona series and stated that Joker was emblematic of the approach that he wanted to take with Ultimate DLC, adding that he wanted characters that were unique and fun to use within the Super Smash Bros. environment.[142][143] Other characters and series elements have also made crossover appearances in various other games.