Site News: Where's Our Persona 5 Royal Review?

If anyone's got any questions about Persona 5 Royal I can try to answer them. Obviously this isn't the full review but I can still talk about what I've played — just let me know.

@ShogunRok ive played and competed the original persona 5 but I'm interested in the extra story arc and characters, will I find any differences to the original dungeons like new places/layout, new puzzles or maybe new enemies

@playstation_king The dungeons are mostly the same, but all of them have been changed to some extent, with either new areas or reworked gameplay mechanics. New enemies have been added as well in the form of smaller boss battles here and there.

The dungeons don't feel completely new, but the additions make them better, in my opinion.

@ShogunRok Thanks for the info, one last thing is all the original persona 5 dlc automatically unlocked at the start?

@ShogunRok My absolute biggest problem with the original game was it's pacing and how that combined with it's length to make what I found to be a pretty bloated JRPG. Now that even more has been added, how do you feel it affects the overall pacing of the game? Does the added content break up some of the otherwise slower points of the game? Thanks

@playstation_king No, Royal doesn't include the Persona 5 DLC automatically. I think you have to get it from the PlayStation Store, but I'm not sure how it works since the game isn't out yet.

@tabris95 Funnily enough, I do think some of the new story content breaks up the slower parts of the original plot quite nicely. The new characters are sprinkled into the existing timeline really well.

That said, if you found it bloated before, I don't think Royal will change your mind. The story is a little more varied thanks to the new stuff, but it doesn't make a huge difference to the point where it feels refreshed.

@ShogunRok Thank you!

@johncalmc Morgana keeps sending me to bed early.

Hang on a sec, A man who's job is to play games never played enough games to get a review out 😉 What happened to the time honoured tradition of crunch in the game industry??

Take your time, I already preordered it, don't need the review lol. I still read it though

@ShogunRok Will there be spoiler free guide on pushsquare?

My dilemma is this...

I played about a dozen hours of the original. Since I was new to JRPGs, I set the difficulty down to "safe" mode. However, I soon realized that the massive amount of hours spent outside of the dungeons are sort of pointless if battles are super easy and impossible to lose in this mode.

Because of this, I stopped playing the game. I really loved it, but didn't feel motivated enough to restart immediately on normal difficulty (or even "easy").

Now that this is coming out - should I splurge on the new version or just replay with the current one that I already own? Playing the best version appeals to me, but not sure the $80CDN is justified!

@wiiware We will have some guides, but we're still finalising what those guides will actually be about. If we can avoid spoilers in them, we will. And if a certain guide needs spoilers, we'll be sure to point it out. (Spoilers will never be in headlines either.)

@Alstil That's a tough call. I'd recommend Persona 5 Royal over the original Persona 5 if you're new (or relatively new), but if you're not quite sure about it, I'd also recommend waiting for a price drop.

Even if it is the best way to play it, full price is still steep if you own but haven't played through the original, in my opinion. I'd say sit on it for now, see how you feel once Persona 5 Royal is out.

@ShogunRok Thanks, that's nice. I still remember kotaku headlines that casually told about major character death in games, that's one of the reason I'll never go to that website again

@ShogunRok What is the bonus for P5 save data? (main question)
And how much different is it? Are there a lot of little or medium alterations to the story with some events added or extended throughout?
And lastly, is it easier to get all of the social links maxed out in one playthrough this time? That's my main worry as I couldn't do all of them in the base game.

@Jaz007 If you have P5 save data I believe you get some additional money near the start of the game... And something else I can't quite remember.

The main story is exactly the same, for the most part. There are additional little scenes here and there, and I think there are some slight alterations in places. A lot of the new stuff, though, with the new characters and other bits and pieces, is woven into the story progression. If you've played P5 already, you'll notice them right away, but I think it's all put together rather well.

Then obviously there's the new semester that happens after the main story. That's completely new.

As for social links, I still think you'll struggle to max everyone out in one playthrough — you really need to plan ahead if you want to do that.

HOWEVER, it is actually easier to build your social links in Royal. You have more free time than you do in P5, and you're given more opportunities to increase confidant ranks. For example, after most meetings with confidants in Royal, they'll give you a call afterwards and you can gain additional confidant points. So overall, you should find it a bit easier to max out more ranks, even without planning ahead.

@ShogunRok Thanks. ahhh. This is why I was upset about no new game Plus. I just want to max out social ranks in one playthrough after having played it through once. This is really a bad move from Atlus not making it easier for people playing through again. Man, I wish cheat codes were a thing so I could just max out my social stats at the start of the game.
I will try to plan ahead though and take advantage of the new features that make it easier though.

Kudos for the transparency. The respect this site shows for it's readership is why I visit daily.

@johncalmc There's a new battle theme that plays when you ambush an enemy. You get the regular P5 battle theme if you don't get the ambush.

@johncalmc I think it's pretty rad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ2KB5LVdqA

@johncalmc Rad