Skip to main content

Despite frame rate dips, Persona 5's PC emulation plays perfectly well

Persona 5: Improved Graphics and Performance in RPCS3 (i5-4690K)
Thanks to the tireless work of Persona 5 fans, you can now play the PlayStation exclusive JRPG on your PC. Although technically you have been able to do so for the past couple of months, the frame rates have steadily improved over time and we’ve now reached a point where you can have a comparable experience on the PC. Since it’s unreleased officially on that platform though, playing it is technically illegal.

Persona 5 has been a smash hit ever since it was released in September last year, even pleasing many gamers who don’t traditionally like Japanese RPGs, or turn-based combat mechanics. But of course, as a console exclusive, its audience was somewhat limited, so emulation experts have been working hard to bring it to the PC, where a much larger group of gamers can don their masks and take the fight to supernatural creatures of the Metaverse.

The emulator that makes this all possible is RCPS3. It’s been in development for some time and has slowly been improving support for various games. At the time of writing, some 216 titles are considered playable from start to finish. Persona 5 is now one of them.

One of the most notable improvements in this latest version of the RCPS3 emulator and its Persona 5 compatibility, is the frame rate, but that’s just one aspect of it. Bloom and depth of field are now handled correctly, making the emulation far more like the actual game in terms of how it looks and runs.

The developers also cleaned up a few issues which could cause crashes or issues with completing the game. To make sure that is possible, too, they’ve had several people complete all 100-plus hours of Persona 5 content, to make sure just about everything works as intended.

However, the emulator developers do point out that the game is still not perfect. Frame rates are unlocked and jump around between 15 and 30 depending on how much is going on in any one scene. That means it does sometimes look a little choppy, especially to an eye not used to rougher emulations of games. However, one way to fix that is to throw faster hardware at it. These frame rates were achieved on an Intel Core i5-4690k, so overclocking or running a faster CPU will help.

Regardless of any persistent issues though, the developers have taken Persona 5 and emulated it in six months. It’s an amazing feat and has the likes of Kotaku hoping that this encourages Sega to do official ports of the beloved game franchise.

Editors' Recommendations

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is the Evergreen Coordinator for Computing, overseeing a team of writers addressing all the latest how to…
Volgarr the Viking 2 will take you back to your Ghosts ‘n Goblins days
A viking slashes a tree in Volgarr the Viking 2.

Developer Digital Eclipse is working on a surprising project: Volgarr the Viking 2. The 2D retro sequel will launch on August 6 for PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

The news is an out of left field reveal. The first Volgarr the Viking game released in 2013 and was made as an ode to 1080s classics like Ghosts 'n Goblins. Despite being a small release, it sold over 1 million copies over the past decade. As revealed during today's Guerrilla Collective stream, the series is coming back with a new sequel by Digital Eclipse, the team behind this year's Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story.

Read more
3 Days of Play PS Plus games to try this weekend (June 7-9)
Key art for Streets of Rage 4.

June 2024 is shaping up to be a pretty great month for PlayStation players. Not only are we coming off an entertaining State of Play showcase, but a new Days of Play initiative surrounding all the video game showcases this month is bringing a lot of new PS Plus additions with it. Many of those games hit PS Plus this week, and three in particular stand out to us.

For owners of Sony's oft-neglected PlayStation VR2, the first game is one of its rare exclusives that take full advantage of the headset's eye-tracking by seeing how often players blink. The next is a new PS Plus Essential game that's a revival of Sega's classic beat-'em-up series for the modern gaming era. Finally, the last title is an atmospheric and eerie fishing game that should entice fans of Lovecraftian horror.
Before Your Eyes

Read more
3 first-party Xbox Game Pass games to try this weekend (June 7-9)
Gears 5 Kait Hero Close Up

Microsoft will hold an Xbox Games Showcase and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Direct. this Sunday. These shows will provide a much better idea of what to expect from Xbox over the course of the next year or two. That's really needed right now, as Microsoft has struggled to keep online discussions around Xbox positive as it went multiplatform with some games, laid off thousands of developers, and outright shut down the developers of Hi-Fi Rush and Redfall. Based on leaks and my personal expectations for the showcase, there are three games you can play on Xbox Game Pass this weekend to prepare for the event.

The first is the latest first-person shooter in a long-running series by id Software that might be getting a medieval-set spinoff. After that, we have the fifth entry in a sci-fi Xbox series that still looks fantastic on Xbox Series X/S even though it came out in 2019. Finally, you can prepare for Avowed with the latest RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, a satirical sci-fi game where player choice is critical.
Doom Eternal

Read more