The latest issue of Famitsu includes new information on the upcoming updated version of Persona 5, The Royal.
Also see: Persona 5: The Royal- May 2019 New Information and Developer Interview
New Personas
New Personas for Ryuji, Ann and Yuusuke are shown:
- Ryuji: William, taken from Captain Kidd’s real name
- Ann: Célestine, taken from the first person to play the role of Carmen
- Yuusuke: Gorokichi, taken from Ishikawa Sazaemon’s childhood name.
Places and Activities in Kichijoji
- Billiards can be played to increase bonds with other characters, as well as increase the protagonist’s stats or damage dealed by technical attacks.
- Darts can be played to increase baton pass ranks (see new battle elements) and include a minigame which uses the Dualshock 4’s motion controls.
- The jazz club increases bonds with other characters, and strengthens their personas.
- Meditation in the Buddhist temple lets you increase your maximum SP.
- The used clothing store lets you collect points while selling certain equipment found in dungeons, which can be exchanged for special items.
- A suspicious merchant searching for certain items can be found lurking in a back alley, and you can give him the requested items to get special equipment.
- Other stores allow the player to buy food items as well.
The third school semester
The third school semester added to The Royal has, in addition to other things such as winter-related events, individual “surprising events” for all members of the Phantom Thieves. Famitsu shows examples with Ann’s friend Shiho returning to school, Ryuji being scouted for a college sports team, and Yuusuke’s mother’s painting on display at an art gallery.
New battle elements
The Royal makes changes to Persona 5’s battle system as well, with new features such as:
- Raising baton pass ranks via the dart minigame makes baton passes more powerful such as by increasing power or restoring SP. Additionally, if a baton pass through the entire party is carried out, the last member’s skills cost 0 SP/HP.
- Accessories with skills attached allow characters who equip them to use the associated skills, allowing characters to use skills they otherwise would not learn.
- Unique characteristics such as “SP cost for a specific element are reduced” or “single-target attacks are stronger” are added to all personas, and these can be passed on when combining them.
- Special cinematic combination attacks called “Show Times” carried out by specific party members are added, unlocked by story progress when bonds between characters grow stronger. Unlike all-out attacks, they only deal damage to singular targets.
- New personas aside from the party members’ are also added to the game.
Persona 5: The Royal will be released in Japan on the PS4 on 31st October 2019, and in the west in 2020.
