In a year that produced Atelier Sophie 2, Rune Factory 5, Soul Hackers 2, and Star Ocean: The Divine Force, the best 'JRPG' might have been an indie project by a German developer. Outside of Palaces, Persona 5 Royal transforms into a social sim, where players attend school, work part-time jobs, and go on dates. Once inside one of these creatively-designed Palaces, the heroes must steadily carve a route to an epic boss fight, all the while facing off against Personas that the protagonist can recruit to his cause. The game follows the Phantom Thieves, a group of teenagers who acquire the ability to change people's hearts by invading their subconscious.

The same cannot be said about Persona 5 Royal, the latest mainline entry in the franchise. RELATED: Things You Never Knew About Persona Localization

Their storytelling and social sim sections hold up well, but their dungeons can be somewhat boring to complete. They are an easy recommendation for fans of the genre, provided they go in with the knowledge that these are relatively old games by this point. Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable are both among the best single-player JRPGs on Steam. While the main SMT titles are still largely console exclusives (with one exception), Atlus' Persona spin-off series has started to make its way to PC. Once upon a time, JRPG fans needed to pick up a PlayStation or Nintendo console if they wanted to play most of the Shin Megami Tensei games however, that is beginning to change.

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