Developed by Omega Force, it takes place four months after the events of Persona 5 and sees the Phantom Thieves on vacation. Unfortunately, after encountering an up-and-coming idol named Alice Hiiragi, they venture to a Jail, a mysterious version of Tokyo separate from the Palaces. With the help of Sophia, an AI, the group tackles the Monarchs and attempts to solve the mystery of the Jails.

While Persona 5’s combat is turn-based, Strikers is real-time, with players able to ambush enemies, summon Persona to exploit elemental weaknesses and launch All-Out Attacks. Each character has unique skills and play styles to combo in over-the-top ways. Check out our review for more details.

Atlus isn’t done with Persona 5 yet, as another spin-off, Persona 5 Tactica, launches on November 17th for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch. Check out the latest gameplay trailer here.

In a new recruitment page with comments from various staff members (translation by Persona Central), Atlus managing director Naoto Hiraoka talked about the large amount of support needed to make Persona 5, which provided a “sense of accomplishment.” “But we can’t stop there,” said Hiraoka. “When we created ‘Persona 4,’ there was pressure that it had to exceed ‘Persona 3.’ Now, we will have to create a ‘6‘ which exceeds ‘5.’ However, exceeding ‘5‘ will be difficult with the current staff.

“I would like to surpass this tall hurdle with everyone who joins us in this recruitment. The workplace is perfect for those who want a creative challenge when it comes to bringing games to the world.” The positions that the company’s second production team, better known as P Studio, are hiring for include a System Planner, Scenario Planner, Designers for 2D Artwork, Motion Design and much more.

This isn’t exactly confirmation that Persona 6 is in active development but at least indicates that planning is going on for the same. With such a large window to celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary, there’s more than enough time for Atlus to put out a teaser trailer to confirm its existence. In the meantime, stay tuned for more details and updates in the coming months.

In Persona 5 Strikers, much like its predecessor, money is important. It’s used to purchase consumables, health items, weapons and armor to outfit the entire crew with. Farming money thus becomes very important but fortunately, there are several methods.

First, you’ll want to pick up some Bond Skills. We’ll go into detail on raising Bond Levels below but right off the bat, Extortionist is a must-have. It increases the money earned after each battle, which stacks with other skills that increase item drops. At some point, Painful Past requests – which allow for rematches with bosses – will pop up. In tandem with Extortionist and other money-stacking skills, this can lead to a huge pay-out.

There’s also the Bond Skill Treasure Hunter which is good since it causes Treasure Demons to spawn more. Since they provide a substantial amount of XP and money, it’s easy to roam around different Jails and farm them continuously with this skill.

How to Raise Bond Levels

The Confidant System is gone in Persona 5 Strikers, replaced instead with the Bond System. As you earn XP, different Bond Skills will be unlocked and provide either bonuses to passive abilities or stats like HP and SP. Each costs different amounts of points and some require completing side quests to upgrade.

If Bond leveling is your goal, then Bondmaker is a good Bond Skill to start with. This causes Bond Level to increase at a faster rate. Level this up twice and the returns will be even more substantial.  You’ll see the biggest gains when completing requests. Once the Request System is unlocked, simply complete the different side quests alongside the main story and you’ll receive some quick and easy Bond Levels.

Otherwise, it’s encouraged to battle enemies at every turn and complete story missions for the biggest increases. You could also take a break from combat and cook different dishes – these also contribute to raising Bond Levels. Last but not least, specific locations provide tasks which provide Bond Level experience. For example, the Omikuji Shop in Sendai provides a Bond Level boost depending on the fortune, and the Odori Park Garden in Sapporo has a quest that involves locating a four-leaf clover.

In Okinawa, visit the Utaki Sacred Ground and pray in the ground at Morgana’s request. Finally, in Osaka, head towards the Billiken Statue and examine it for even more Bond Level gains.

While playing through Persona 5 Strikers, you’ll be tasked with investigating different rumors. This can be done by speaking to NPCs and gathering intel, thus progressing the story forward. Though it sounds easy enough, you might find yourself wandering around, talking to everyone multiple times for the necessary info.

For Alice Hiiragi and the Shibuya Jail, you’ll have a number of choices. There’s the Level Headed Girl in Shibuya Central, between Ann and Haru; the Dedicated Woman in front of Big Bang Burger; the Passionate Young Man, who hangs out across from the Level Headed Girl; and the Apparel Shop Manager near Passionate Young Man and the restaurant. You can also head to Ryuji’s location (near the airsoft shop “Untouchable”) and witness a conversation that will raise the Intel significantly.

For the Sendai Jail, start with the girl near the station, near Makoto and the protagonist. You can then head for the Fan Girl near NEON Supermarket; a skeptical girl in Arcade City located near Ann; and the General Store Owner, who’s just across from the skeptical girl.

For the Sapporo Jail, there’s a woman close to the East Side Walk, chilling near some bicycles; a man in Suzushino who’s hanging out near the campaign board (just south of Ann’s location); and an old man near a vending machine to the east of the main road. Look for the Bad Public Servant near Akagire Drug Store in Suzushino to complete the investigation.

For the Okinawa Jail, you only need to locate Zenchiki in Okinawa Ferry Station. Simply head north and then east to find him. No intel is required for Kyoto Jail and Osaka Jail only requires traveling to the New World District before venturing to the tower.

Persona 5 Strikers is currently available for PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch. Check out our review for the game here.

The Western release of Persona 5 Strikers draws near and to celebrate, Atlus has a new launch trailer. Along with outlining all of the critical praise garnered by the action RPG, it also provides a bit of context on the Phantom Thieves’ newest mission. Check it out below.

Set several months after Persona 5’s ending, Strikers sees the Phantom Thieves dragged into a strange version of Tokyo called a Jail. It’s here that they must battle Shadows and ultimately find out what’s going on. Developed by Omega Force along with P Studio, Persona 5 Strikers’ combat plays out in real-time. All-Out Attacks, pausing to issues commands with Persona, and Persona fusion are still included though.

Persona 5 Strikers is out on February 23rd for PS4, Nintendo Switch and PC. However, those who own the Digital Deluxe Edition can start playing it early. For more details on the game and how it fares, check out GamingBolt’s official review here.

Persona 5 Strikers is the first time that hasn’t held true. While I’m not going to go as far as to claim that Strikers is every bit as accomplished and great as a numbered Persona series game, it feels very much like it belongs alongside them. The quality of writing (for narration and characterization alike) is about on par with Persona 5 (though the story obviously does feel like it has to set up several contrivances to justify a continuation of a story that was concluded in the original game, of course), and while the gameplay is so many ways not like Persona, it feels like it is channeling it – and that’s the important part in making a game like this feel authentic, which none of the previous Persona spin offs have truly succeeded in doing.

"Omega Force and P-Studio have done such a remarkable job in thoroughly Personi-fying the game (so to say) that it feels more like a real time action take on Persona than a Persona take on Dynasty Warriors."

It’s actually a feat that Strikers manages this. Its conceit is supposed to be Persona Warriors – in that, yes, it’s a Persona take on the Dynasty Warriors series and formula – but developers Omega Force and P-Studio have done such a remarkable job in thoroughly Personi-fying the game (so to say) that it feels more like a real time action take on Persona than a Persona take on Dynasty Warriors. Battles are real time, but rather than indiscriminately fighting large mobs, they are still contained encounters within dungeons in the Metaverse. Physical attacks are present, and when you’re using just those on enemies is when Strikers feels the most like a Warriors game. But you can also instantly summon your Persona (and in keeping with Joker’s Wild Card ability, even switch between multiple ones when you are playing as him), use their attacks (each with their elemental affinities), use guns, cause 1-More attacks by exploiting elemental weaknesses, launch All Out Attacks, tag team a party member (yes, there are party members) with Baton Pass, and launch the spectacular, battle ending Showtime attacks that debuted in last year’s Persona 5 Royal. So yes, the battle system is real time rather than turn based, but it feels like such a natural translation of the Persona battle system into a more action driven style that you can even see elements of this leaking back into the mainline Persona games in the future.

Take, for instance, the ability to use your environment in battles. Now, use of the environment by the Phantom Thieves is something that Persona 5, and especially Royal, emphasized. You could grapple to traverse the dungeons, you could use the layout of the room to take cover and hide, and launch into ambushes against enemies, and so on. But you could never actually use anything in the environment in the battles themselves, something that Strikers allows, from letting you grapple to a high point and launch down on enemies from there, to causing destructible objects to break and dish out massive damage in the process. And this, while not being a part of the original title, again feels like such a natural and effortless extension of that game that you would easily be forgiven for thinking that it had been there in some form or another. A few months ago, I marvelled at how authentic Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity felt to Breath of the Wild, and it did, but it is honestly nothing compared to what Strikers manages on that front.

The impressive thing is that Strikers manages this while still retaining some of the Dynasty Warriors DNA. I’ve already mentioned how taking on mobs with purely melee attacks recalls the Warriors games a lot, and so it does, but there are also the big boss enemies with shields, which must be broken by exploiting their elemental weaknesses repeatedly, before finally launching into an All Out Attack. So even fans of the conceits and mechanics of the Dynasty Warriors games still have something to enjoy here – but the impressive thing is that the substantial number who don’t care for those games don’t have to worry about putting up with anything from those titles they may find off-putting.

"Strikers manages to do an admirable job of keeping the game friendly to newcomers who may not have played the original (a necessity, when you consider the game is also on Switch and PC, which as of right now do not have Persona 5 or Royal) – while a lot of the references to the original, and smaller details, will be lost on newcomers, Strikers is a reasonably standalone story that can be enjoyed without having played Persona 5."

In other ways, too, Strikers feels right at home as a Persona game. The calendar system, with its time management and social simulation aspects, isn’t quite here except for superficial lip service paid to it, but you still get the ability to spend time with your friends, increase your bond with them (to gain benefits in battle, in true Persona fashion), there are still activities (though not quite as many as in Persona 5 or especially Royal), side quests in the form of requests for you to complete, Persona fusion to create newer and stronger Personas in the Velvet Room, and even investigations of your target in the cities as you try to gain crucial intel on them before you go plumbing into the depths of their psyche in the Metaverse.

In terms of the presentation aspects, too, Strikers could pass for being Persona 5. It has that same effortless and fluid sense of overwhelming style, in everything from character design to art style to the goddamn menus, that that game came to be known for. The music, which is a mix of remixes from the original game, and new compositions, is very decidedly Persona (and expectedly fantastic). And while I noted before the calendar system is gone, you still get to see the time of day and date progress in a very distinctly Persona 5 style UI.

As I previously noted, the story and writing is great too – if not quite as great as the original game, obviously. The characters in Strikers feel authentic to the people you cane to know and love in the original game, rather than representing flanderized caricatures that the Persona 3 and 4 spin offs often turned their characters into, which makes their return here feel more meaningful and substantial.

It actually does feel like you are getting to spend more time with them, rather than fan fiction takes on them. The story itself is a pretty compelling continuation of the original, though it does suffer from having to explain how a continuation exists at all when the plot was so thoroughly wrapped up by the end of Persona 5. Surprisingly, however, Strikers manages to do an admirable job of keeping the game friendly to newcomers who may not have played the original (a necessity, when you consider the game is also on Switch and PC, which as of right now do not have Persona 5 or Royal) – while a lot of the references to the original, and smaller details, will be lost on newcomers, Strikers is a reasonably standalone story that can be enjoyed without having played Persona 5 (though obviously, it is preferable that you do play that game, if only because it is one of the greatest games ever made).

"While it makes several missteps, then, Persona 5 Strikers is a decidedly great game, and a compelling addition to its series canon on its own merits."

Graphically, while Strikers executes Persona 5’s art style with aplomb, it does ask for compromises from the player. On the Switch, the image quality is obviously lower and softer, and the game runs at a (surprisingly consistent) 30fps; on PS4, you either get the option to get a clean image in a graphics-focused mode, but cut down the framerate to 30fps, or to keep the gameplay at 60fps, but get a much jaggier image in return. On PC, of course, the image quality will be contingent on your machine.

Strikers also has surprisingly long loading times (another relic from the Dynasty Warriors games, it seems). On PS4, these can be 5-10 seconds for a fair few transitions (which can be awkward when you’re entering or leaving the Metaverse). On Switch, import impressions seem to indicate the loading times can go as north of 20 seconds in the most extreme cases. On PC, again, your experience here will be dependant on what the specs of your rig are.

While it makes several missteps, then, Persona 5 Strikers is a decidedly great game, and a compelling addition to its series canon on its own merits. It is not only the best Persona spin off so far (though that isn’t a high bar to clear), it is also great enough to warrant people playing it for what it is, rather than just being fan service for people who liked the original game, like most other spin offs are.

It’s a remarkably good translation of Persona tropes into an all new format, and it presents some intriguing possibilities for what a future Persona game might offer. It feels like a full fledged, mainline sequel to Persona 5, which is what Atlus bills it as – it earns that moniker, unlike the previous spin offs. Even with its issues, Persona 5 Strikers is a great game, and an excellent continuation of the Phantom Thieves’ story. Hopefully this indicates a brighter future for the quality of Persona spin offs.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

The surprising thing here isn’t that Atlus and P-Studio succeed. That they were going to succeed was a given to anyone who played Persona 4 Golden, which elevated a very good game to being an all-time great one. The truly incredible thing here is the extent to which Atlus has succeeded. Persona 5 Royal comes off the press as an idealized version of Persona 5, cleaning up the base game’s litany of minor grievances, brushing off niggling flaws, and adding and changing things, always for the better. The end result feels like a work of creative genius at the top of its game, delivering a masterful title that engages you on a narrative and mechanical level equally and entirely.

A lot of Persona 5 Royal’s merits are those that it owes to the base game. The central gameplay loop, of living out the life of a high school student over the course of one year, and managing his time, makes the transition wholesale into Royal. You still have to balance being a regular student, going to classes, studying for exams, doing homework, hanging out with friends, having a job, playing games, watching movies, reading, having a girlfriend – everything – on a day to day basis, making for a potently enamoring social sim that itself is worth the price of admission.

"Persona 5 Royal comes off the press as an idealized version of Persona 5, cleaning up the base game’s litany of minor grievances, brushing off niggling flaws, and adding and changing things, always for the better."

But as is always the case with Persona, the student life side of things is only half the story told, and Persona 5 presents a particularly unique take on the series’ tradition of paranormal twists. The protagonist and his friends find themselves able to enter a dimension where the collective unconscious materializes in substantial form, and they decide to use this ability to alter the consciences of criminals and evil and corrupt people who are shackling society’s progress and potential. This core loop at the heart of the Persona series is present in Persona 5 Royal in its best incarnation yet, with a whole spate of other major and minor improvements that polish the formula to a sheen.

These improvements permeate quite literally every part of the game. The slice of life side of things gets more activities to take up your spare time, more locations to visit, more things to do with your friends, more date spots, the ability to gift all your friends gifts, new Confidantes, and entirely new ways for you to spend your all too precious time. The changes here all take the form of additions to what we already had, not rocking the delicate balance of perfection that Persona 5 had already achieved, and only giving us a whole lot more of it.

Changes made to the dungeons and battling side of things, however, are far more dramatic, and can lead to the game having a completely refreshed pace and flow. These include redesigned dungeons (often to a substantial degree). In a lot of cases, these changes are very dramatic, in some cases completely altering the layout of several dungeon locations, and removing a lot of existing mechanics and puzzles that slowed things down, and adding new, better, quicker ones in their stead. Dungeons have also been redesigned around the enhanced mobility and stealth abilities of the protagonist, who can now not only grapple with a grappling hook, but also has far more useful stealth abilities that can help him keep the upper hand. These changes to the form of the dungeons, as well as how you navigate them, serve to make them feel far more engaging and fun than they did in the base game, where a fair few of them went on for what felt like an eternity.

"Changes to the form of the dungeons, as well as how you navigate them, serve to make them feel far more engaging and fun than they did in the base game, where a fair few of them went on for what felt like an eternity."

Similarly far-reaching changes have also been made to Mementos, the procedurally generated dungeon in the Tokyo subway that you enter, which represents the broader public’s subconsciousness in Persona 5. Since Mementos is randomly generated, its design can’t be improved, per se, but P-Studio has added a bunch of hooks and mechanics to make traversing Mementos, and exploring its depths, feel actually fun, including new collectibles that you can either exchange for rare items, or use to alter Mementos itself, in the guise of multipliers for loot, money, or EXP.

On the other hand, the battle system doesn’t see as many alterations. What it does get, instead, is a smaller number of additions, but with far wider-reaching impact and consequences. Changes to the battle system range from minor (such as the ammo for your guns recharging between battles) to extremely major, such as “Traits” for your Personas that activate latent abilities in battle, and a redesigned Baton Pass system, that adds more payoff to engaging with it, and makes battles feel even more dynamic and exciting – with the latter quality also emphasized by the entirely new tag-team “showtime” finisher moves Royal adds to the package.

The butterfly effect of the network of changes and additions in Persona 5 Royal is immense. This isn’t simply a case of taking an existing game and addressing its flaws – it’s doing that, but then also doing more, while getting all that extra stuff perfect the first time around. Persona 5 Royal is mechanically absolutely flawless, with no down time whatsoever, and no part in the game that loses your interest. Everything just flows organically – from the dungeons to the traversal and stealth mechanics to the battles to the social sim slice of life stuff, Persona 5 delivers pitch perfection when it comes to its mechanics, and delivers a unique combination entirely unlike anything else in gaming.

That uniqueness bleeds over into the game’s setup and story as well, which is an unusual blend of slice of life, paranormal urban fantasy, and a superhero story, with its central themes of a world getting worse by the day, and a group of youths who take charge to change things for the better, feeling particularly pertinent given the relentless negativity we see in the news cycle on a daily basis.

That story, which felt a bit too ambitious in Persona 5, with several contrivances, and scenes that undermined its own themes, has been cleaned up substantially in Royal. This is not only in the form of a new localization, which fixes numerous mistakes that peppered the dialog of the base game, but also entirely new additions to the story – some, which are ancillary to existing content, serve mostly to smooth out some of its issues (the most notable of these being making a certain character whose introduction felt abrupt in the original game more prominent in earlier chapters of the story). These new scenes, which mostly append to existing ones, serve to help improve the original game’s pacing, by spacing out similar dialog, and also introducing some fun events and light hearted breaks from the almost dour and single minded obsession the original game’s characters have with the Phantom Thieves’ exploits.

"Persona 5 Royal manages to stick the landing almost entirely with the new stuff it brings to the table, including a scene that is bound to go down as one of the best and most hype-inducing in the franchise’s history. "

Other story additions are far more dramatic, including new characters (who start participating in the story pretty early on), changed stories for some of the existing ones, and a new chapter that adds heightened stakes and an entirely new conflict for the Phantom Thieves. The new content is resoundingly excellent, with literally all of it not just standing out on its own due to how great it is, but also greatly enhancing what we already got in the base story.

It’s very rare that appendices, additions, and alterations to an already complete story go well – just ask George Lucas how his changes to the original Star Wars trilogy were received by the fanbase, for example. It’s something even Persona fans are familiar with, with a lot of the new content in Persona 3 FES or Persona 4 Golden having been met with a decidedly more mixed reception than the base game (such as The Answer in Persona 3 FES, or Marie’s entire character in Persona 4 Golden). Persona 5 Royal, however, manages to stick the landing almost entirely with the new stuff it brings to the table, including a scene that is bound to go down as one of the best and most hype-inducing in the franchise’s history.  The exact range of impressions of the new content will, obviously, vary from person to person, but I feel very confident in saying that almost everyone will at the very least find the new content great, which only serves as additive to what we already had.

In general, that appears to be the approach that Royal has taken on everything: take, for example, the game’s overwhelming sense of style, which is something that Persona 5 became particularly well known for. Persona 5 Royal makes it even more impossibly stylish, adding little flairs and flourishes that make this game achieve its singular sense of aesthetic. Or consider the soundtrack. Persona 5’s acid jazz rocking music was already in the pantheon of the all time great video game soundtracks. Persona 5 Royal adds to that with a bunch of new songs, which range from very good to quite possibly the best song in the series – which, again, when your series is so accomplished at delivering great music, is saying something.

"That’s what Persona 5 Royal does – where possible to improve things, it does, and makes a great thing better. Where making something better is not possible – mostly because Persona 5 already struck perfection with those things to begin with – Persona 5 Royal just gives us more of it."

And that’s what Persona 5 Royal does – where possible to improve things, it does, and makes a great thing better. Where making something better is not possible – mostly because Persona 5 already struck perfection with those things to begin with – Persona 5 Royal just gives us more of it. There is no single change or addition in Persona 5 Royal that doesn’t at least improve the experience in some way or the other, and we come away with a game that is very literally the culmination of JRPGs as a genre. It is hard to imagine we will get a JRPG or turn based game that will be better than Royal. So overwhelmingly great it is, in fact, that it is easy to see it winning over converts from people who otherwise stay away from those types of games.

Persona 5 was very near greatness and perfection when it came out. It had a list of flaws and shortcomings, but what it did well, it did so well that those flaws mattered far less. Persona 5 Royal has finally delivered on the full potential that Persona 5 hinted at. By sanding out its rough edges by addressing its shortcomings, and delivering a bunch of additions and changes that elevate the quality of an already sublime experience even further, we get a game that is just about perfect – there are no flaws that bog the experience, or if there are, they are so minuscule that they don’t even register as you are playing the game.

And so, delivering a genre- and generation-defining experience, Persona 5 Royal ends up being a home run in every regard. With its substantial spate of new improvements and additions to an already fantastic core package, this is the definitive way of playing one of the greatest games ever made.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Atlus has a new trailer out for Persona 5 Royal and it’s a quick rundown of The Phantom Thieves, their mission and their stylish means. This will be familiar territory for fans but it’s still awesome to see Joker and the crew in action with their Persona. Check out the trailer below.

Persona 5 Royal is an enhanced edition of the 2017 RPG which adds new events, interactions, a brand new location and Palace, and new story content. Players will encounter new playable character Kasumi Yoshizawa, who eventually joins the crew and awakens her own Persona. Other changes include tougher enemies in Mementos, new Shadows to battle, reworked boss fights, the Thieves Den, and much more.

Persona 5 Royal is out on March 31st for PS4 in the West. If you pre-order digitally, then a special console theme will be provided as a bonus. For more details on how the game plays, especially with English voiceovers, check out over one hour of footage here. For a breakdown on what’s new, check here.

Enhancements and 4K Support

Much like Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden, Persona 5 Royal is an enhanced version of its original release. So while it’s the same game in terms of look and feel, numerous enhancements have been made to the story, mechanics and overall quality of life. New content has also been added which will ensure a fresh experience, even for those who have completed the story. Also it has 4K support on PS4 Pro so that’s nice.

New Story Content

New animated cutscenes and a third school semester are introduced as part of the new story content. The latter features several new events which showcase developments for the likes of Ryuji, Sae, Okumura and so on. Even Valentine’s Day has been updated with new interactions. In terms of improvements, Haru is teased sooner in the story which makes her eventual introduction less weird and Akechi has a bigger role overall (along with his Social Link progression being changed). There are even two new endings to unlock depending on the choices made.

More Time for Night Activities

Right off the bat, the biggest improvement is having more time in the evening to do as you please. While Morgana will still tell you to go to bed, it won’t happen on such a frequent basis. It’s likely that the Metaverse will still take up both the afternoon and evening times, thus forcing you to level the Temperance Arcana to maximize your nighttime outings, but this is a good chance all the same.

Mementos and Velvet Room Additions

Fancy some tougher challenges? There are new optional battles to be had in the Velvet Room along with a new Challenge Battle mode for taking on waves of enemies to rack up the most points. There’s also Incense for increasing the power of Lockdown and Fusion Alarm which allows for bolstering a Persona created from fusion. Mementos has some new content as well like new side quests and random points where an entire floor is covered in darkness, causing tougher enemies to emerge.

New Collectibles

Flowers and Star Stamps can now be found in Mementos, which can be traded to new vendor Jose. You can trade Flowers for items and Star Stamps for an increased reward rate with the latter influencing how much more money and experience you get in Mementos. Jose also offers a new accessory in exchange for three Will Seeds found in Palaces. These accessories allows the use of moves akin to that Palace’s respective boss.

Kasumi Yoshizawa

Kasumi Yoshizawa is a new playable character and Confidant, and one that’s immediately receptive to Joker. As a rhythmic gymnast, Kasumi eventually joins the Phantom Thieves while having the Faith Arcana. Utilizing rifles and a rapier to battle, she also has Cendrillon, a new Bless Persona, at her command. That’s about as spoiler-free as we can get so let’s leave it there.

Takuto Maruki

Another new character and Confidant is Takuto Maruki who’s introduced after the lengthy introductory arc so it’ll take some time before he finally makes an appearance. Takuto is a counselor and has the Councillor Arcana tied to him. Personality-wise, Takuto is more clumsy than the other teachers, which should make for some fun interactions (and a reason to pursue him as a Confidant).

New Palace

Of course, there is also a new Palace and once again, without any spoilers, it’s pretty important to the overall story. As a side note though, navigating Palaces in general should be easier thanks to the introduction of the grappling hook, which can also be used to set up ambushes on enemies.

Combat and Enemy Changes

In terms of combat additions, there’s the new Show Time attack which allows two party members to attack a target together. Baton Pass now has increased rankings with rank 4 allowing for full skill use with no cost to health or SP. There are new enemies to fight and many of the major boss fights have been changed up in different ways. And if that weren’t enough, you can access Merciless difficulty from the beginning.

New Area – Kichijoji

Kichijoji is a new location and offers quite a lot to explore. There’s the Jazz Jin club where party members can hang out and enjoy live singing to boost their stats. Penguin sniper is a fun darts mini-game for increasing a character’s Baton Pass rank. There’s billiards to play, food places to visit, and plenty of new interactions and opportunities to increase one’s Social Links.

Thieves Den

What’s a group of thieves without a den? Persona 5 Royal addresses this with the new Thieves Den. Think of it as Joker’s Palace and allows for viewing images and concept art in the Gallery, viewing various Achievements as Awards, watching cinematics and cutscenes (including live concerts for Persona 5), a card game called Daifugo that can be played with the rest of the crew and much more. You can even listen to music from the original game and Royal along with sprucing up the joint with decorations.

New Personas

Each member of the Phantom Thieves now has a third Persona form that can be unlocked in addition to brand-new Persona to encounter as well. You’ll also find that certain Persona acquired through fusion – like Thunderbird, Chimera, Fafnir and Macabre – can now be encountered as Shadows in Mementos or Palaces. Persona like Satanael and Lucifer are also seeing some adjustments made to their attributes and moves.

Free DLC

Persona 5 has quite a lot of DLC when you factor in the copious amounts of costumes and music. While this won’t transfer over into Persona 5 Royal, the latter does come with all of the original DLC for free. It might be a bummer for base game owners who dropped money on the same but for new players, it’s a great deal.

New Music Tracks and Intro

It’s not enough that Persona 5 Royal has new content – it also has lots of great new music to listen. There are about 30 new tracks including a new battle theme “Takeover.” A new animated opening video, main menu and new effects are also included to further distinguish Royal from the base game.

Playtime

Persona 5 offered over 100 hours or so of gameplay, even if you didn’t complete everything. Persona 5 Royal is looking to be no different. It’s estimated to add an additional 20 hours of gameplay or so with all the new content (and you probably won’t experience everything that the game has to offer on the first go-around). Overall, whether you’re a new player or a veteran, Persona 5 Royal will keep you busy for a good long while.

Atlus’s Persona 5 Royal is out next month and packs some new content to re-engage fans of the original. But even if you’re a veteran, it doesn’t hurt to get a crash course on everything the game has to offer. Cue Morgana, the feline Phantom Thief, to explain everything to new character Kasumi in an extensive trailer.

Of particular note in the trailer is the Thieves Den. It’s a new hub for the Phantom Thieves and can be decorated with different items like Persona statues, Palace Rulers and even Joker’s allies. You can also listen to conversations between different crew members, bask in different awards and unlock new media in the Gallery with P Medals.

The Thieves Den also allows for viewing previous cinematics and cutscenes along with existing trailers, live concerts, music and much more. You can even play some Daifugō with your allies. Persona 5 Royal will release on March 31st on PS4 so stay tuned for more coverage in the coming weeks.