Persona 5 Royal reworks the original game with an additional storyline, new personas, an extra semester for character development, and improvements on many existing elements that made the original title such a resounding success in the series. One of the original elements, Mementos, features a very different play style from raiding Palaces or spending time with friends in town.
This element of the Atlus JRPG boasts a variety of features that could carry over from Persona 5 Royal to later entries in future games. Mementos may well inspire an even more open, accessible exploration area that can deliver meaningful progress while still allowing the game’s story to develop at the ever-forward, time-sensitive pace expected of Persona games.
Persona 5 Royal’s Hidden Depths of Mementos
One of the most notable elements of Mementos is how well it works at depicting a hellish environment brought forth from the nightmares of mankind. The procedurally generated maps seem teeming with enemies and encounters with plenty to accomplish, yet measures are in place to limit overall progression. Hidden, cracked walls break away to reveal the secrets of Mementos. Even the organic, often demonic landscape seems filled with mystery and brimming with anticipation. In one quip, characters recognize that it seems to even be breathing and growing on its own.
To keep players from making future battles trivial through acquisition of loot and levels, impassable doors open only as the plot progresses. Persona 5 Royal added even more music to Mementos, expanding its original soundtrack to keep players engaged and feeling as if they were making new discoveries instead of revisiting procedural maps and enemies encountered elsewhere. This type of expansion is a sure benefit for future games, as smaller soundtracks in larger areas tend to detract from the experience.
How Persona 5 Royal Plots Entangle with Mementos
Many pathways through Mementos don’t feature impassable doors, but they offer hallways that lead to the minds of specific people in the game’s regular-world setting. As the story unfolds, players gain access to Requests that require them to enter Mementos and overcome the mental obstacles of minor antagonists who are affecting their companions or even major characters in a negative fashion.
Completing these Requests often grants minor boons to characters and can help resolve some of the major outstanding companion events, dramatically increasing social link ratings and unlocking ever-higher tiers of friendship. Even some Persona 5 Royal hangout spots are hidden until players complete specific Requests in Mementos. This gates optional content in a way that makes it even more memorable once unlocked and adds to the allure of New Game+ playthroughs.
Mementos Loot and Rewards
Much of the loot to be found in Mementos follows the same cycle as that of the Palace of the same level. This keeps players from becoming too powerful through acquiring items that should remain beyond reach at lower levels. It also gives them a way to farm level-appropriate items without being tied to the security ratings of the Palaces or the constraints of the Persona calendar system that dominates almost everything in the majority of the games.
Mementos offers one of the greatest ways for characters to gain experience in Persona 5 Royal. Treasure demons can appear multiple times in a Mementos instance, granting major experience points to players who know or can ferret out the weaknesses of each. The bosses found at the end of many Requests also grant large amounts of experience. This type of open-play area combined with multiple experience bonus options is sure to make a comeback in future titles as it dramatically enhances character level-up opportunities.
A mysterious boy named Jose makes an appearance in the Royal edition of Persona 5’s Mementos, unlike earlier versions. He scoots around in his tiny car waiting for players to find him and redeem the stamps and flowers he spreads throughout the levels. These bonus collectibles grant powerful items or let players transform the very nature of the Mementos experience to suit their needs, whether money, experience, or items. This level of customization brings further depth to Mementos, and makes it one of the top improvements Persona 5 Royal made to the base game.
Mementos’ Drop-in-Anytime Design and The Test of Persona 5 Royal’s Reaper
The true hallmark of Memento’s gifts to Persona 5 Royal lies in its drop-in-anytime design. Using any of the afternoon (or later, evening) time slots, players can head down into the depths for massive experience gains or item farming. Since the levels reform during each excursion, it’s a different adventure each visit. This stands in contrast to the Palaces of the game, the other dungeon element. Mementos delivers a bit of freedom otherwise unavailable and rarely seen in Persona titles and helps fans make the absolute best use of their Persona 5 Royal play time in the area.
A final element of note in the case for future Mementos-style inclusion is the test of the unbeatable boss. Because Mementos has so much allure to players, they may find themselves spending too much time there for their own good. The game developers thought of that, too, and put in an optional boss that can hunt down and wipe out the Phantom Thieves for most of the adventure. While it’s possible to actually beat Persona 5 Royal’s Reaper, he’s harder than in earlier iterations and cheap mechanics that worked in earlier versions now fail.
The sheer number of players clamoring to beat the Reaper in the title - and earn the vaunted trophies on their consoles as a result - speak to this element being a fan favorite. Hopefully a haunting, ferocious, and completely optional challenge like this Mementos-only boss is included in a future Persona game's successor to Mementos.
Persona 5 Royal is currently available for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
