Persona 5 Royal: Every Major Change Explained

The Persona series has a history of releasing second versions of games, with Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 Golden. Persona 5 Royal carries on this tradition, as a massive expansion to an already massive game.

Persona 5 originally started development as a PS3 game, which held it back a bit visually when it was ported over to PS4 development as well. Royal has been developed specifically for PS4, with the game’s style redone to more closely match Persona 5: Dancing In Starlight.

While it’s technically the same base game, there are a massive number of changes. These range from small UI changes to entirely new characters not present in the original. Persona 5 Royal could easily be considered a new game, especially since the story is being altered. Here’s every major change in Persona 5 Royal.

Persona 5 Royal’s New Character and Confidants

The biggest change in Persona 5 Royal comes with an entirely new character named Kasumi Yoshizawa. Kasumi is a talented gymnast who enrolled at Shujin Academy around the same time as the protagonist. She’s been worked into the story at every step, and is also a new Confidant for the protagonist to befriend, although she only has five ranks instead of ten. Kasumi becomes an integral member of the Phantom Thieves, but there’s more to her than meets the eye.

On top of Kasumi, two more confidants have been added to the game. The first is Takuto, a part-time school counselor hired in the wake of Kamoshida’s arrest. The other is a strange puppet-like boy named Jose who helps the Phantom Thieves in Mementos. Considering there are three new Confidants there will, of course, be more opportunities to further relationships throughout the game.

There Are New Story Segments and an Additional School Term

Persona 5 Royal also brings a lot of new story content to the table. Before the new content, there’s a lot that’s been simply altered or improved upon. Some Confidant’s routes have new social scenes added, Akechi’s Confidant route has been completely overhauled, some holidays like Valentine’s Day have been updated with new content, and there are new holidays like White Day.

The biggest story addition, however, comes with an entirely new third school term that takes place after the end of the original game. This semester expands on the story, loops in the new characters even more, and provides a brand new Palace to explore. There are also new animated story scenes that have been added, and more of the game will have voiced dialogue, outside of just the new content. Persona 5 Royal also adds on two new endings, expanding on the events of the original game even more.

Persona 5 Royal’s Gameplay Changes

The most immediate changes in Persona 5 Royal come with gameplay, and boy there are a lot. Each Phantom Thief now has a special Showtime Attack they can use in battle, which are highly cinematic attacks. The other biggest change comes with the Grappling Hook that Joker can use, opening up new traversal options. Each Palace in the game has been redesigned with new areas and exploration options to accommodate the Grappling Hook. On top of that, each Palace has three Will Seeds and finding all three will give players a new accessory. There are a ton of smaller changes that have also been made, and while there’s too many to mention, here are just a few.

• The Security Meter starts at 40% instead of 0.
• New demons and bosses appear in Palaces.
• There are new Persona and fusion options for Joker.
• The player now has more free time on the evenings for activities.
• Futaba has her own Finishing Touch move.
• Every major boss battle has been slightly altered.
• A new Daily Assist option will give players suggestions on which free time activities they should take.
• Each party member’s Persona has a new third form.
• The Velvet Room has optional battles with new rewards
• The Velvet Room can enter an “alert” mode randomly that lets players fuse stronger than usual Personas.
• Gun ammo restocks after every battle
• Mementos has been made even bigger, with new floors added in.
• Mementos has a shop where you can exchange a new collectible, flowers.

Persona 5 Royal Has New Areas, Artwork, and Music

A big part of daily life in Persona 5 involves exploring different locations in Tokyo and inviting friends for activities. There are two brand new areas featured in Persona 5 Royal, which both provide new options for players. Kichijoji, based on the real-life location, brings a host of new dining and activity options. A bar in the area lets players play Dartslive, which will increase the Baton Pass level of party members. Billiards can also be played, which gives the chance of increasing social stats and the potential for critical hits in battle.

There are a ton of other new areas and options as well. The protagonist can meditate at an old temple and increase their max SP, invite Confidants to an aquarium, or take teammates out for a drink at a bar called Jazz Jin. Besides these new areas, there are 30 music tracks added in, and character portraits have been completely redrawn and are now more animated and expressive.

There’s an Interactive Collectible Area Called Thieves Den

The final big addition to Persona 5 Royal is an area called the Thieves Den, which can be accessed either in-game or from the main menu. The Thieves Den works as an interactive museum of sorts, where players can go to listen to music, rewatch cutscenes, look at concept artwork, play a brand new card game called Daifugo, and more. The area will change as players advance through the game, adding new decorations based on the story. To unlock things in the Thieves Den, players will need to use P-Medals that they can unlock through playing the game. There’s also a neat little option to change who players run around as, giving a small chance to control the other Phantom Thieves in the Thieves Den.

Persona 5 Royal releases on March 31 for PlayStation 4.

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