Persona 5 Royal has multiple different conclusions, with some specific requirements that must be met to unlock the best ending. Since the whole appeal of the definitive Royal edition is its extra content, you really shouldn’t miss out on anything.
The game’s enormous length means you probably don’t want to make a mistake and play through the entire story again. It’s definitely better to be safe than sorry, so this Persona 5 Royal endings guide will provide all the information to reach the best ending.
With no spoilers, here’s everything you need to know to unlock the Persona 5 Royal true ending.
- RELATED: Persona 5 Royal Review
How many Persona 5 Royal endings are there?
There are six different conclusions though it’s debatable whether they all count as separate endings since many of them are incredibly similar. We’ll cover these off later in this Persona 5 Royal endings guide, but it’s all about the true ending for now.
Is the Persona 5 Royal true ending missable?
Yes! If you don’t hit the necessary criteria by the specific dates, you will be doomed to replay the game, or even worse – swallow your pride and watch it on Youtube.
Also, even though you can technically unlock the true ending without unlocking all of Persona 5 Royal’s extra content, this guide is for the true ending and all additional content.
How to get the Persona 5 Royal True ending
You will need to meet all of the following criteria to unlock all content as well as the true ending:
- Reach Rank 9 with Maruki, the Councillor Arcana before 18th November
- Reach Rank 5 with Kasumi, the Faith Arcana before 18th December
- Reach Rank 8 with Akechi, the Justice Arcana before 18th November
- Provide the correct answers during a few dialogue exchanges
The latter requirement isn’t anything to worry about, since the answers are pretty obvious. Essentially, you should reject all offers or deals from all antagonists. These offers always involve compromising the Phantom Thieves’ beliefs or selling out companions, so you should have no problem picking the right ones.
Just in case, we’ll give the specific answers further down without spoilers. Here is some further advice in relation to each requirement.
Reach confidant rank 9 with Takuto Maruki, the Councillor Arcana
Your deadline is 18th November. To be clear, the last day you can achieve this is 17th November (11/17). Maruki is outside his office after school, and provides Joker with some mental exercises that boost SP and also bestow some useful battle abilities.
There is nothing particularly difficult about this, as there are no social stat requirements to progress the confidant arc (unlike Akechi). However, you’ll note that Maruki has the joint-shortest deadline of anyone on the list and has the highest required rank. As such, you should make sure you prioritise Maruki in general and tick this one off as quickly as possible.
The tenth rank will be achieved automatically on 11/18, so your confidant level will be maxed.
Reach confidant rank 5 with Kasumi Yoshizawa, the Faith Arcana
Technically this isn’t required to reach the true ending itself, but this greatly enriches the extra content and also unlocks an extra scene within the ending, so you should definitely do it.
Kasumi’s deadline is slightly more generous at 18th December (12/18). You have an entire extra month, and only need to reach rank 5.
This is easy to achieve, even though Kasumi doesn’t show up quite as often as some other confidants. Kasumi will be hanging out after school at Kichijoji, near the entrance to the Velvet Room in the Shopping District. Again, there are no social stat requirements so this won’t cause any trouble.
Reach confidant rank 8 with Goro Akechi, the Justice Arcana
Akechi is a bit tougher to level up, but with the deadline of 18th November you should be able to manage. The issue here is that there are several personality stat requirements along the way. Akechi is outside Pengiun Sniper in Kichijoji at evening.
If you notice that Akechi stops turning up, don’t panic. Once you hit certain ranks, he disappears until specific dates are reached. The chances are if you haven’t seen Akechi for a while, your rank is probably as high as it can get for now. These are the milestones to look out for:
- The confidant unlocks on June 10th (6/10)
- Rank 3 requires both Knowledge and Charm at level 3
- Rank 6 cannot be reached until September 3rd (9/3)
- Rank 7 cannot be reached until November 2nd (11/2) and will require Knowledge level 4
You will then have a few weeks to reach rank 8. This is during a palace countdown – on this occasion, securing an early route to the treasure will result in the team deciding to wait until the last day to send the calling card. Therefore it’s no problem and you still get the free time to level up Akechi’s confidant. Without spoiling anything, rank 8 will result in a tricky solo fight that you must win to level up the confidant, so be prepared.
If you lose the fight at rank 8, you can keep returning on further days to try again. This is a waste of precious time, so it’s best to reload if you are defeated.
Like Maruki, the rest of his arc will be completed automatically which will be another Arcana ticked off the list.
Select the correct dialogue options
Like I said, these are the answers you’d likely pick anyway, but for the sake of completeness here is what you should select on each date.
November 20 (11/20) dialogue choice
There are three questions relating to a deal being offered:
- The answer to the first question doesn’t matter
- You must answer the second question “No” or “Never heard of them”
- You must answer the third question “There were no such people”
There are some further questions but the answers to these don’t matter either.
December 24 (12/24) dialogue choice
When the dialogue option offering a deal comes along, pick “I refuse”.
If you’ve hit everything so far, you’ll unlock the third semester which comes with its own palace and story arc. Once in the third semester, you end up with some further choices that you have to nail.
January 9 (1/9) dialogue choice
After playing a segment of the new palace, select “I can’t accept this reality”
February 2 (2/2) dialogue choice
There is a first dialogue choice that doesn’t matter, before a second one where you must select “We’re stopping [spoiler]”.
The exact wording of the required answer is a spoiler, so I’ll be abundantly clear – do not take the offer.
Once you’ve correctly answered all of these questions, all that’s left is to complete the final palace and complete the game, which will finally leave you with the Persona 5 Royal true ending.
Is the true ending worth it?
You should definitely focus all of your energy on obtaining the true ending. This comes with a huge amount of extra playable content, and a finale that tops anything else in the game. I’ve seen the actual ending cut-scene itself receive mixed reactions, and some prefer the original. However, I think the three relevant confidants mentioned above are definitely among the best in the game, so it’s all definitely worth it overall.
How do you get the other endings?
We are not overly interested in the other endings here, but we’ve got them covered in case you’re wondering. Here’s how each of the other Persona 5 Royal endings are obtained:
- Early bad ending – take the deal on 11/20
- Second bad ending – take the deal on 12/24
- Normal ending – refuse the above deals correctly but fail to sufficiently level up Maruki’s confidant to rank 9
- Final bad ending – take the deal on 1/9 or 2/2 – for the record, the ending isn’t that bad! This one may be worth watching on Youtube once you’re finished
- True ending-lite – Meet all the criteria but fail to sufficiently level up Akechi and Kasumi’s confidant levels – this will just deny you some extra scenes and content within the new semester and the ending cut-scene
There you have it. That’s everything you need to know about the Persona 5 Royal true ending. By following the guide, you’ll be able to reach the best ending without any problems.
Check out some of our other advice below in order to max all Persona 5 Royal confidants:
