Summary
- Persona 5 Royal has multiple endings based on player choices and relationships, ranging from hopeful and bittersweet to unsettling and dark.
- In order to achieve 100%, players will need to explore all of Persona 5 Royal's endings, good and bad.
- Each of Persona 5 Royal's endings adds another layer of intrigue to the story, entertaining "what if" scenarios every player needs to experience for themselves.
Persona 5 Royal is a huge JRPG that is absolutely packed with content. Like other games in the Persona series (and the larger Shin Megami Tensei franchise), there are a variety of Persona 5 Royal endings. Each of them depends on the choices that the player makes and the relationships they build throughout their playthrough.
Since this is an enhanced version of Persona 5 that adds new content and characters, Royal contains the original game's endings, as well as several new ones. In fact, it is entirely possible to miss Royal's brand-new third semester by pursuing the old endings. Because some Thieves Den content only gets unlocked by viewing different Persona 5 Royal endings, those who want to 100% that aspect of the game will find going through most of them worth it.
Updated on October 10, 2023, by Ajay Aravind: The Persona series began all the way back in 1996, when the first installment received a PlayStation release. Despite the numbering system, there have been seven official games in the main series since then. Further, two more games, titled Persona 5 Tactica and Persona 3 Reload, will release in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Persona 5 Tactica is a spin-off game, and Persona 3 Reload will be a remake of Persona 3. Given Persona 5 is the most recent installment, we've updated this feature with more information about all the Persona 5 Royal endings.
Royal Brings Back The Original Persona 5's Bad Endings
There are a couple of ways to receive the original Persona 5 bad endings. The first (and simplest) is to decline Igor's contract at the very beginning of the game, which will take the player back to the main menu. The rest involve actually playing through a portion (or most) of the game. Failing to complete any of the palaces before the game's deadline will unlock a bad ending, as will selling out the rest of the Phantom Thieves during the interrogation. While the exact circumstances of these endings (particularly the palace deadline ones) vary, they result in a Mysterious Man coming into the interrogation room and shooting the protagonist in the head. The game will then rewind by a week, allowing the player to try again.
The final Persona 5 bad ending can be unlocked on December 24 by agreeing to a pact with the false god. This allows him to take control of the world, though he makes it so that the Phantom Thieves are viewed as heroes by the people of Tokyo. Unlike the other bad endings, this one leads to a version of the end credits featuring the song "Freedom and Peace" from the Depths of Mementos.
Vanilla Persona 5 Ended On A Hopeful Note
Likely familiar to those who played the original, this Persona 5 ending involves the protagonist surviving the events of the interrogation room, then taking on one more palace and the Depths of Mementos alongside the Phantom Thieves. Finally, the protagonist defeats the false god instead of siding with him. After some additional events that ultimately result in the protagonist's criminal record being cleared, it's time for him to return home from his probation. However, this involves one last trip with the former Phantom Thieves.
To unlock this Persona 5 Royal ending, players will need to avoid maxing out the new Councillor confidant. Doing so unlocks the third semester and all the new story content that comes with it. The deadline for this is November 18, so anyone who wants to unlock every ending without playing through the entire game may need to create a separate save file around this date, where they don't reach Rank 10. This ending unlocks cutscenes and music in the Thieves Den.
The Persona 5 Royal Bad Ending Is Unsettlingly Nice
There are two ways to unlock Persona 5 Royal's new bad (or ideal) ending. All players have to do is unlock the third semester by maxing out the Councillor confidant, avoid the original Persona 5 bad endings, and then accept the offers made on either January 9 or February 2. In a way, this "bad" ending is actually pretty nice, as it involves all the characters getting things that make them happy — though none of that happiness is real.
Like the December 24 bad ending, this is one of the Persona 5 Royal endings that lead to the end credits, this time with a version of "Ideal and the Real," a song that is otherwise not heard. It also unlocks more images that can be viewed in the Thieves Den.
Failing To Complete The Final Palace Leads To A Bad Ending
Perhaps the darkest of the Persona 5 Royal endings, this one will occur when the player rejects the deal on January 9 and chooses to take on the third semester palace, but fails to complete it by the February 2 deadline. Unlike the other deadline-based endings, this one involves the Phantom Thieves questioning their decision to fight the false reality and the protagonist losing his rebellious will in favor of sleeping. The cobweb-filled Leblanc attic implies that he's been there for a very long time.
Persona 5 Royal's Best Ending Is A Bittersweet Goodbye
The best of the Persona 5 Royal endings requires players to reject the deals offered during the third semester and take on the final palace and boss. The result is, ultimately, bittersweet. While the Phantom Thieves don't get their ideal reality, they have the freedom to forge their own paths and the resolve to make their dreams come true for themselves. Each of them ends the game with a goal or path in mind. As for the protagonist, he heads back to his hometown with his criminal record cleared, this time taking the train. This Persona 5 Royal ending even reveals what happens to Royal's sympathetic final antagonist.
There is a bonus moment in the post-credits scene that players had the opportunity to unlock by getting to Rank Eight of the Justice Confidant in 2022. Doing so would have caused the final two Ranks to unlock automatically via story progression, and would have also caused a short scene to play before the regular post-credits scene that throws one character's fate into question.