Persona 5 Royal — Localized Version
Here we are again…
So first, to start off — if you haven’t already, PLEASE read my article about the Japanese release, linked here. This piece is a direct follow-up to that one, focused on a full playthrough of the localized release of Persona 5 Royal.
Whether or not to recommend buying P5R in English is actually really tricky. A very non-nuanced way I could express it is with a very reductive flowchart like this:
So…what’s probably most interesting about the localized release of P5R, and I assume the primary reason many are reading this article, is because it was reported prior to launch that content would change with regards to the homophobic caricatures that harass Ryuji at two separate points in the game. To start, I’ll share the video I made of the two scenes and how they appear in the English release of P5R. Please note that it contains very minor spoilers for the main story of P5.
So, I’m not going to use this as a soapbox to talk about my personal feelings towards drag. Suffice it to say, the team at Atlus West was put in a weird position where they wanted to change it (and actually, shockingly, got permission to!) but the character models were as-is. In terms of how it ended up, it definitely is an improvement, but…it’s still not great.
Not even going into the fact that Atlus West had to convince Atlus Japan to LET them change it, it’s still not exactly an apology to change a scene for your upcoming $60 rerelease and to make the changed content a selling point to customers by carefully publicizing it in advance. An actual apology would look closer to spending their own money and resources to patch the content for base Persona 5 on PS3 and PS4 for existing owners. It would take a lot to do, but it’s because it wouldn’t be profitable that it would feel sincere.
Also there is still text around the edges, such as when you listen to them as NPCs in Shinjuku after the first scene, that still make it clear that they have a sexual interest in Ryuji, an underaged student. Whoops.
In terms of the quality of the localization itself, the base Persona 5 release is a dark spot on the usual high bar of quality that Atlus West is known for. For the localization of P5R, they did actually adjust most of the most criticized sections, including rerecording voiced dialogue. At many times it actually feels like a complete relocalization. The interrogation scene throughout the game is the best example, clearly having been redone from the ground up for the new release. Even dialogue that wasn’t called out in the original release has been punched up to give the characters more flavor and actually put it more on par with the other games in the series.
That said, there are still little goofs that found their way in.
Overall the translation and localization quality difference is night and day, which is what makes it actually very interesting in terms of a recommendation. The original Japanese release of Persona 5 Royal had its new, less-than-motivating new content as the primary reason to convince players to rebuy the game. The Western rerelease’s biggest selling point? It’s actually localized much better now.
(It’s still not perfect. There are still some sections that come off very dry and stilted, but it’s a drastic improvement over the original game, which frequently mislocalized things to actually have the opposite meaning, or ended up leaving the English script as unintelligible gibberish.)
- An important footnote is that reviewers were told alongside receiving advance access to the game that “there will be some minor bugs and text fixes with the Day 1 Patch, releasing on March 31.” I’m unsure if any of these specific or general examples will be updated, but I can only really talk about the version of the game I had access to, which is version 1.00, the version printed on discs.
Also, while I’m at it, here’s the infamous new Kamoshida boss fight scene in a few easily sharable pictures:
Anyways, I played through the entire fucking game front to back again, this time in one week to hit the embargo. While playing Animal Crossing. And working multiple jobs. Writing this piece literally on my birthday. I deserve some kind of award.
Anyways, hit me up @syrennemcn on Twitter if you have any specific questions. Between this piece and the last one, I think I’ve given this game pretty exhaustive coverage.
Also if you are going to buy it wait until it gets cheaper because it will.
