Atlus and Sega held today the very first live stream forPersona 5 Royal, revealing new information and gameplay. The stream included Producer Wada, MC Chiaki Matsuzawa, journalist Mafia Kajita, and virtual YouTuber Mirai Akari. Here’s everything they revealed during the stream, with timestamps for the gameplay parts. Please note this article contains spoilers if you’ve never played the originalPersona 5.
The stream started by revealing thesecond full length-trailer forPersona 5 Royal,along with recapping everything we know about the game so far. Producer Wada explained how new character Kasumi appears very early in the story. He also explained they picked Kichijoji as one of the new areas because it’s a very interesting town with both an old-school feel and new things. It’s also because Kichijoji appeared in the firstMegami Tenseigames.
Producer Wada also confirmed that Show Time attacks ignore elements and weaknesses. New Personas, which were already shown in Famitsu, were shown again. While commenting on the new personas, Mirai Akari mentioned how she never saw Mara and don’t know why it’s so popular, so Kajita joked how they could show Mara to her right now, since there’s two of them on the stream.
Futaba’s new Persona is named Al-azif. Makoto’s new persona, seen in the second trailer, is named Agnes. Agnes' artwork will be included in next week’s Famitsu.
Next, we saw Mirai Akari playing the game live, visiting Kichijoji. We first saw a popular meat and croquettes shop, but it’s always ultra busy so you can’t buy anything from it. Producer Wada mentioned you’ll be able to buy from it only on Sundays.
Producer Wada explained how Kichijoji was recreated as realistically as possible. ThePersona 5 Royalwent there multiple times, taking tons of pictures of the area.
We also saw the vintage shop and how some points obtainable items are really nice. There’s one that auto casts speed up on all allies. Another interesting place is the Incense Shop, where you can basically buy stat up items for the personas used by Joker. This means if you have enough money, you can easily max a persona’s stats.
Next, we saw Kajita playing the darts mini-game.you may either play with friends or alone. Playing with someone will increase their Baton Touch rank, something we already explained. Two other characters picked randomly will also join, and you’ll play against them.
The first duo who reaches 0 points win. You reduce your points by hitting certain areas on the board. Joker can use his Third Eye ability to steady his aim. You can use the ability without limit, but you need to time when to activate it or the target won’t be where you want it to. There’s a cool cut-in if you manage to get a Triple. If you’re about to win on the last round, the game also colors in yellow the area you need to aim for to reach zero points.
Next, we saw the Jazz Club, which increases the stats of the person you invite. Which stats increases changes depending on the day of the week. On specified days, a singer will also come to the club, triggering further bonuses, but they didn’t explain what, probably a higher stat increase.
Next, they showed the Morgana’s Report episode 4 video, explaining the new Mementos related mechanics ofPersona 5 Royaland introducing new character José.
José is a puppet-like boy who is gathering flowers in the Mementos in order to study human beings. you’re able to gather flowers by exploring Mementos and exchange them to José for items. You can also find Stamps in Mementos, and give them to José to increase the percentage of EXP, money or item drops you get in Mementos. Lastly, you can give José theVolition treasure accessoriesyou found in Palaces to strengthen them.
Mementos will also have dark areas full of powerful enemies, and there are brand new Mementos missions too. Certain missions will require you to persuade enemies by picking the right answers during a hold-up instead of defeating them.
Next, Morgana joined the stream to ask directly some questions to Producer Wada. Most notably he asked about PS Share restrictions, as many sent questions regarding this. Producer Wada explained how we’ll be able to stream and share screenshots forPersona 5 Royalup to around December in-game. Meaning that the new January to April part will be share and stream restricted. He added that more details regarding that will be published shortly beforePersona 5 Royal’s release.
They also explained how the Digital Deluxe Limited Edition forPersona 5 Royalnets you both Orpheus and the Orpheus the female protagonist used inPersona 3 Portable.
Next, they explained how they changed Ryuji’s insta-kill confident ability. In the original, this made it so you’d insta-kill enemies without fighting if they were ten levels lower than you. This was annoying for various reasons and according to Producer Wada, many fans asked them to change it. So now, the ability will only activate if you’re dashing. Walking normally won’t activate the instakill. Moreover, now when the instakill activates, you’ll still get money, experience and also get the persona.
Next, they showed this screenshot, mentioning it’s a new Palace found inPersona 5 Royal. We see this palace in the new trailer as well. Producer Wada explained it becomes accessible during the new January to April part, when the Phantom Thieves are wrapped in a new incident. Whose Palace it is and more information on it is secret.
Next, we saw more gameplay,this time showing the Mementos. First off, now when you touch the touchpad, you can make Morgana bus do cat noises. It has no gameplay utility besides getting to listen to cat noises. “Tsuchiya of the sound team” (Kenichi Tsuchiya) recorded their own cat for the cat noises.
We also got to see Ryuji and Makoto’s Show Time attack in full. José’s shop is also accessible randomly on some floors, you’ll see a short cutscene with him driving his car when he’s there. Reaching him will allow you to use his shop. Producer Wada mentioned José appears quite frequently.
Producer Wada also explained how they now basically made Mementos into an easy way to level up and get money, and how José’s bonuses still apply even when Ryuji’s instakill activates. Atlus also added even more random dialogues lines which trigger when exploring Mementos.
Next, they showed thePersona 5 Royalintroduction trailer for Goro Akechi. Joker can now hang out with Goro, and Goro has his own confident scenes. There’s a funny scene where Joker changes Goro’s hairstyle so they can hang out incognito without his fans bothering them.
The trailer also shows Goro will be playable again in the new January to April part, with his persona Loki. The trailer’s final scene shows Joker and Goro meeting up, with Goro saying “we’ll meet up again next week, unless you decide to keep living in this reality, where we all get along”. The scene, like the other trailers so far, pretty much confirms “everything is a dream” like theories for the new January to April part.
They also confirmed Goro will have new confident abilities.
At the end of the stream,they showed thePersona 5 RoyalJapanese limited edition, with an unboxing and everything.
When wrapping up the stream, Producer Wada mentioned Atlus pretty much finishedPersona 5 Royal’s development and the game is currently being debugged.
You can check the previous Morgana’s Report videos for more info. Here’s thefirst one, thesecond one, andthe third one. You can also watch the other character introduction trailers.Kasumi,Ryuji,Ann,Yusuke,Makoto.Futaba,Haru,andMorgana.
PS4 exclusivePersona 5 Royallaunches on October 31 in Japan and sometime in 2020 in the west.
