WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for Persona 5 Royal. Proceed at your own risk.
Highlights
- Persona 5 Royal's final boss battle showcases the theme of acceptance and moving forward, as the antagonist, Takuto Maruki, learns to let go of his ideal world and find a new way forward for himself.
- The final confrontation between Maruki and Joker is a powerful scene that transforms the typical Persona scene of growth, with the two characters engaging in a messy, untrained fistfight. It highlights the difficulty of change and Maruki's choice of hope over despair.
- Maruki's transformation from antagonist to someone who learns the importance of genuine connections and not manipulating others is a refreshing take in the Persona series. It sets a hopeful example for future antagonists to embrace hope and build earnest relationships.
Persona games vary wildly in terms of tone and plot hooks, especially when comparing the first three games to Persona 3 and its successor, but overall, they still share a variety of central themes. One of the most important themes is learning to confront life's challenges head-on, whether that means accepting inelegant parts of one's personality, casting aside societal expectations, or living life to the fullest in the face of death. Persona 5 Royal is all about that too. However, while Persona games often focus on teaching these lessons to the protagonists, the Palace rulers from Persona 5 Royal learn some of these lessons too.
The Phantom Thieves from Persona 5 are high schoolers like their Persona protagonist peers, but they differ in that the game largely frames them as vigilante superheroes. They defeat a variety of human antagonists by looting their Palaces, and in turn, each of these Palace rulers own up to their dark deeds, rather than continuing to live false lives. However, the final Palace ruler in Persona 5 Royal's third semester learns a lesson in a more direct way. A moving final confrontation in Persona 5 Royal's true final boss battle shows a sympathetic antagonist learn to accept loss and move on with his life, rather than cling to the past.
Maruki and Joker's Fistfight is the Perfect Culmination of Persona 5's Message
The bulk of Persona 5 Royal's final boss battle is filled with ideological clashes between the Phantom Thieves and Takuto Maruki, but it's the very end that arguably says the most about Persona's themes. While Maruki's Palace collapses and the Metaverse retreats from reality, Joker and Maruki have one last honorable fistfight where Maruki vents about his plans' failures. By the end, he has fully accepted his failure, and seems resolved to find a new way forward for himself, whatever that may look like.
This final scuffle with Takuto Maruki is great because of how it completely transforms a typical Persona scene with a totally new context. Every Persona game is littered with characters grappling with inconvenient truths, but ultimately deciding to keep moving and growing, rather than wallowing in their misery. Here, Maruki has no choice but to accept that he has failed to fix Rumi's life and create his perfect world, and with Joker's help, he expels the last of his rage about his circumstances. Unlike the more tender moments of confiding in a friend or uplifting Persona awakenings that serve a similar purpose, this scene is a messy, scripted fight where Maruki and Joker stumble to throw untrained punches at each other. It's a visceral way to show just how hard it is for Maruki to change, but his final choice of hope over despair is classic Persona.
It is unique in that this moment of acceptance and epiphany involves an antagonist, rather than a teammate. Most Persona antagonists are either unrelatable godlike horrors or people who define themselves by their selfish intentions, neither of which generally turn over a new leaf. Seeing Maruki learn to hold his head high is therefore a refreshing way to drive home a central tenet of Persona: no person is an island. Maruki failed to heal his grief through research or magic, but his friendship with Joker and the tenacious, rebellious will of the Phantom Thieves taught him to get back up when he's knocked down, rather than crawl away in defeat. Confiding in Joker through one final duel is an unorthodox but memorable first step in Maruki's choice to treasure what he has, rather than obsess over what's lost.
Persona 5 Royal wraps up Maruki's story nicely, but hopefully he'll be an inspiration for future antagonists who learn to live lives full of hope and foster earnest connections rather than manipulate or hurt others. Persona 5 Strikers is an encouraging sign that that'll be the case. In that game, several of the Jail rulers publicly resolve to take better care of others and build genuine relationships. Maybe Persona 6 will have its own Maruki-like villains who learn to see the light at the end of the tunnel like he did.
Persona 5 Royal is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
