Persona 5 Royal is the re-imagining of the original game, Persona 5. Since its announcement, Atlus has been dripping feeding more and more information to us regarding this enhanced, updated re-release. From what we already know, this game has received some major changes which won’t only affect the minute to minute gameplay, but the over-arching story as a whole. New social scenarios mean we have more time with our favorite characters, an additional semester will change the end game events, and the game’s newest character, Kasumi Yoshizawa, will play a critical role in the story, which will obviously change the entire narrative as a whole.
All of this is just a taste of what Persona 5 Royal is doing to deliver an entirely new experience. Since the initial announcement, a video series titled “Morgana’s Report” has been continuously releasing more information about the upcoming title. It’s even filmed in a way that makes it seem like Morgana stole all of this intel from Atlus without their knowledge. Consistent updates to the Japanese P5R site and publications in the well known Famitsu gaming magazine have also given us fresh details to translate and sift through. Thankfully, translators like Lettuce Sauce and MysticDistance have done most of the leg work so we can just soak in all of the new exciting details without needing to visit Google Translations.
Everything We Know About Kasumi Yoshizawa
In the reveal trailer, we were able to see Kasumi’s “awakening scene”, the moment in the game where a character embraces their inner-rebel and summons their personal Persona to fight alongside them in the Metaverse. Being a rhythmic gymnast, her scene fittingly involves a performance space, which might hint at a new Palace? It’s also interesting that Joker and Morgana are the only other characters in the following “All out attack” scene, so either Atlus is playing things close to the vest, or perhaps we’ll be getting our new character relatively early in the game.
We also meet Kasumi’s Persona, called Cendrillon, which is the French name for ‘Cinderella’ as well as the name of a four-part opera/ballet; convenient.
A lot has been revealed regarding this newcomer’s background and role, but little has been shown regarding her effectiveness in combat, until now. Kasumi seems like a physically based fighter if her small SP gauge is anything to go off of. She sports a rapier-like sword and seems to focus on primarily physical attacks going off of the footage. However, when she is forced to use magic, it seems the Bless element is her specialty.
Speaking of the Bless Element, each character has their own Tarot card, which designates the type of Arcana they specialize in. Like all other primary P5 characters, Kasumi will have her own social link that lets you get closer to her character. Kasumi’s Arcana seems to be “the Faith”. Be sure to check out her reveal trailer below!
New Partner Attacks
In a recent character trailer, Ryuji Sakamoto is shown with Yusuke who is treating Ryuji to a delicious looking beef bowl, when all of a sudden, they’re attacked by an Orobas. The duo begins blasting into the enemy, with Ryuji whipping a grenade at it while Yusuke places a perfectly timed shot that ignites the grenade right as it flies into the Orobas’ face.
We’ve also been given so looks into other partner attacks that involve Morgana turning into a bus while Haru rides on the roof launching grenades at enemies. Makoto has a cool attack with Ryuji as well, it involves hundreds of punches laying into the enemy all at once. These over the top partner attacks certainly bring a change of pace to the battle system, and we can’t wait to see other awesome match ups.
New Persona Evolutions!
In the same trailer that showcased Ryuji’s new partner attack, we also saw a third Persona evolution available. In P5, players could evolve their persona once they achieved a Rank 10 Confidant level. Ryuji’s persona transformed from Captain Kid into Seiten Taisei. Now, we see these two evolutions combine to form a new, third evolution to create William Kidd. Sadly, we don’t know what the requirements will be to obtain this third evolution. This feature was initially introduced in Persona 4 Golden, but then you needed to catch up with the appropriate party member after they achieved Rank 10 in order to initiate the late game social link evolution. Since there is a convenient extra semester being thrown into P5R, I’d imagine this new end-game stage will be where we get the chance to obtain these new, final evolutions.
You can check out Ryuji’s team up attack as well as his new Persona evolution here!
New Music!
While Persona 5’s “Last Surprise” is one of the catchiest battle themes, ever, P5R will be introducing some new tracks that will surely continue the game’s incredible upbeat vibes. Beginning a fight with a preemptive attack will start a new track called “Take Over”. This is a reverse of what they did in Persona 4 Golden, where an ambush attack would treat players to the game’s regular “Reach out to the Truth” theme song, while normal encounters would prompt an alternate track, “Time to Make History”. In an RPG that encourages stealth approaches to combat, we’ll surely be hearing this new track a few times. To be fair, “Take Over” is just as strong of a track, so for those that don’t enjoy change, have no worries, you’ll be humming this one just as easily.
The full reveal trailer for P5R also debuted another new track that will be the game’s new opening theme, titled “Colors Flying High”, which replaces the original “Wake Up, Get Up, Get out There”. These are just a few new tracks that we know about, but Persona 5R is slated to release with at least 20 new songs we can all rock out to. Lead vocalist, Lyn Inaizumi, is returning for these tracks as well!
Other Important Tidbits…
- Joker gets a grappling hook upgrade which can be used as a new way to Ambush enemies.
- Takuto Maruki, the School Counselor, will be a new Confidant, after the arrest of the game’s gym teacher, Kamoshida.
- A new Palace collectible will be added. Finding all of the “Ishi” within a palace will reward the player with very rare, extremely powerful accessories.
- A new enemy type, which is a more beefy version of existing enemies, will make an appearance. These new “Kyouma” types counter-attack every time they’re hit, but defeating one earns you more rare loot!
- Goro Akechi will receive some much deserved new scenes that will flesh out his character more.
- The Baton Pass mechanic is getting revamped as well. Apparently now Baton Passes will be heavily encouraged thanks to a new buff that increases damage the more you switch between characters. A colored flame will indicate the level of the buff.
- Gun Customization is getting deeper. Things like status effects and accuracy can now be added or enhanced. After each battle everyone’s ammo will be replenished, a major improvement over the original.
- Every party member will get new outfits.
- A “Gallery” function is being added, meaning we can rewatch the game’s cutscenes as many times as we want. Which is great news considering Persona 5’s story isn’t always the easiest to follow. A lot happens in Persona 5, now each event will be easier to keep track of.
While this might not be everything new coming to the highly anticipated re-release, this is a TON of new content that will surely breath new life into one of the greatest RPGs of this generation.
Persona 5 Royal is going to be a PlayStation 4 exclusive. It is expected to launch in Japan on October 31, 2019, and eventually worldwide sometime in 2020.
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