Everything we know about Persona 5 Royal, the enhanced version of the smash-hit JRPG

Who doesn’t fantasize about dropping everything to live life as a Japanese teenager rebelling against the corrupt and repressed portions of society? It’s just a few button-clicks away in Persona 5, which stands to get even better in the very near future with the upgraded and expanded version, Persona 5 Royal. There are even a few extra changes for Western audiences.

Here's everything you need to know about the new features and characters to judge whether it's worth picking up.

When is the Persona 5 Royal release date?

Persona 5 Royal will release for PS4 on March 31, 2020.

What is Persona 5 Royal?

It’s an enhanced edition of Persona 5 with over 20 hours of brand-new content. Previous Persona series enhanced editions include Persona 4 Golden for PlayStation Vita and Persona 3: FES on PS2.

What is the story in Persona 5 Royal?

If you’ve played the original Persona 5, you already know the general strokes of the story. You still play as the Phantom Thieves, a ragtag group of high school students, attempting to rid Japan of corruption. However, there are more than a few changes in the new title in combat, story, location, confidants, and the like. There are enough alterations to make Persona 5 Royal completely fresh, even amongst those who enjoyed the original game.

What’s the difference between Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal?

Amongst the numerous additions, the most affecting is Kasumi Yoshizawa, the newest member of the Phantom Thieves. She’s introduced in the first act as a new student at your school. Kasumi will remain as somebody you interact with throughout the story until taking center stage during the newly added “Third Semester” arc, which will be filled with weird occurrences like Morgana turning into a teen boy! There’s now a “True ending” to the game, finally capping it out!

There are also a few North American specific changes like altering homophobic dialogue that was present in the original Persona 5 and the anime adaptation. The original game presented two gay men as predatory towards Ryuji, a high school student. These two predatory men are the only direct reference to same-sex relationships in Persona 5, causing their presence to imply Persona 5 as a whole a negative stance on LGBTQ+ identifying people.

What Confidants are new to Persona 5 Royal?

Other than Kasumi, Persona 5 Royal will see the addition of Maruki, a guidance counselor who has been hired at the protagonist’s school. Akechi will also have an expanded storyline, gaining personal events where he hangs out with the Protagonist, opposed to the first game where his confidant ranking increased automatically.

There’s a whole litany of changes set for Persona 5 Royal that can be found on the series’ dedicated Wiki.

Do I need to re-buy Persona 5 DLC?

Persona 5 vanilla edition has a lot of DLC, tons of costumes for the Phantom Thieves to put on their varied bodies. Atlus, the world’s most benevolent company has stated all who purchase Persona 5 Royal will receive costumes featured in the first game free of charge. Nobody has to re-buy a single thing! Score one for wallets everywhere!

Is this the end of Persona 5?

With this, Persona 5 Dancing and Persona 5 The Animation, there’s been a lot of support for the Persona 5 franchise. Even five years out it feels like the characters are still going strong, but all things must come to an end, right? Persona 6 is allegedly on the horizon.

Despite all the odds being in favor of this being the chapter that closes Persona 5, it’s not. Persona 5 Scramble, a full-on sequel to Persona 5 is right around the corner, seemingly releasing later this year. It’s possible that Atlus has further plans for Joker even after that!

Does Persona 5 Royal have a trailer?

Does that answer your question?

Persona 5 Royal comes to PS4 March 31.