Persona 5 Royal is similar to Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 The Golden: it's an enhanced version of the base game but with a sequel included (except for Persona 4 The Golden, which doesn't add a sequel).
The most important changes at a glance:
- A sequel in the form of a third semester. The third semester can only be accessed if you managed to meet the requirements before November 17.
- A new playable character and confidant: Yoshizawa Kasumi of the Faith Arcana.
- A new confidant: Takuto Maruki of the Councilor Arcana.
- A new supporting character: Jose.
- The story has been slightly tweaked to accommodate for the additional characters and the new third semester.
Additional changes include:
- 4K 30 FPS support on the PS4 Pro.
- The "Thieves Den" as the protagonist's palace. It is a recreational area unrelated to the story.
- New songs.
- Slightly different Playstation Trophies.
- New costumes.
- New dialogue portraits.
- Lip sync during voiced dialogue scenes (Japanese voiceover only).
- Some unvoiced scenes are now fully voiced.
- Additional scenes (from Persona 5 The Animation).
- Some characters have new voice actors.
- A scene (where one character is being harassed by two men) has had its dialogue slightly modified for the English localization.
- The international release now has Japanese audio included (was a DLC before).
- The international release now has French, Italian, German, and Spanish subtitles.
- A new font to support the additional languages. Some names have been updated as a result, e.g. "Arsène" and "Café Leblanc".
School Life
- A new location in Tokyo that can be visited: Kichijoji.
- A couple new hangouts: An aquarium in Shinagawa, and the Nakano shopping district.
- New activities, such as darts, billiard, or drinking.
- The protagonist can increase his max SP by visiting a temple.
- A clothing shop has been added, where the protagonist can buy new outfits.
- Goro Akechi's confidant (Justice) is no longer automatic.
- Existing confidant abilities have been modified, and can grant new perks.
- The protagonist can hang out with Caroline and Justine to gain Skill Cards.
- The protagonist can now give gifts to his male confidants as well.
- The protagonist's free time has been slightly rearranged.
- It takes longer to improve the Guts and Kindness Social Stats.
- Most of the daily activities have been modified or expanded.
- There's a new "Daily Assist Command" to help the player during day time.
- The Valentine's Day event has been updated with additional content.
- There is now a White Day event.
Phantom Life
- New Personas.
- Some Personas and Shadows have their attributes, move sets, or Arcanas altered.
- Party members have their skill pool slightly tweaked.
- New skills, and the effects of some existing skills have changed.
- New enemies.
- Accessories can grant active skills in addition to passive effects.
- A new palace for the third semester.
- A new area in Mementos.
- New ultimate Personas for the third semester.
-
- New Mementos Requests for the third semester.
- The Velvet Room can sometimes enter a Fusion Alarm state, which allows for the fusion of more powerful Personas, but increases the risks of fusion accidents.
- A new Challenge Battle mode, where the player can battle various enemies. The protagonists from Persona 3 and Persona 4 are available as DLC boss fights.
- Merciless difficulty is now included (was a DLC before).
- Difficulties have been tweaked.
- Unison attacks, called: "Showtimes".
- New types of Shadows: Savage Shadows and Disaster Shadows.
- New collectibles, called: "Will Seeds".
- There is a rare chance to stumble upon "Deviations", special areas with different layouts within Mementos.
- A Grappling Hook.
- Futaba has her own Finishing Touch, a special animation that plays after an All-Out Attack defeats all remaining enemies.
- The behavior of all major bosses has been altered or expanded.
- Lavenza can be fought in Mementos during a New Game Plus.
- Baton Pass is unlocked for all party members from the beginning. There is now a Baton Pass Rank instead. When maxed out, the Baton Pass is now more powerful than before.
- The party members' Shadow Negotiation ability (during Hold Ups) now always works, but only under specific circumstances, which differ for each party member.
- Technical attacks (attacking enemies afflicted by a certain status condition with certain elements) can be ranked up by playing billiard and has a chance to down enemies.
- New status-element combos for Technical attacks, as well as the ability to learn combos from books.
- Guns reload after every battle. You are no longer limited to a certain amount of ammo every time you visit a palace.
- When frozen, enemies temporarily lose resistance to Physical and Gun skills.
- Some status ailments now end upon getting hit. Additionally, Confusion ends 1 turn earlier than other status ailments.
- The Reaper is now immune to the Despair ailment, and is therefore no longer vulnerable during Flu Season.
- The Security Meter in palaces now starts at 40% instead of 0%.
- Treasure Demons can now appear among random Shadow guards.