While the Japanese release of Persona 5 Royal has come and gone, Western fans only knew that there would be a Western release at all, with no dates attached. Now, Atlus has dropped the English release date for the Persona 5 follow-up in stylish fashion. This edition includes both the original game on top of the new content. But if you held out on the original, it may not be a bad opportunity to hop in — granted you’re willing to spend a near-endless amount of time on it.
In a trailer and on the official site, Atlus announced the English/Western release date for Persona 5 Royal as March 31, 2020. This makes it a pretty packed month for hot video games. Already, we have Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Watch Dogs Legions, FFVII Remake and plenty others. Now, the more intensive JRPG fans get their cup of tea.
Persona 5 is the pinnacle of the West’s interest in Shin Megami Tensei’s Persona series thus far. It came out simultaneously in Japan and globally, and it near-immediately received high sales and praises. Much like Persona 4, Atlus chose to create a follow-up edition in the form of Persona 5 Royal.
Persona 5 Royal is already out in Japan, as it was released this past Halloween. But in the West, official information about this release has been pretty minimal. Even the trailer’s preview statements on everything were pretty vague. Now that Royal is out in Japan, it’s hard to describe many of the changes without spoilers.
Obviously, it’s hard to miss the new playable character, Kasumi Yoshizawa in learning about this game. If you’re interested in Persona’s renowned storytelling, her story is highly acclaimed by fans already.
There are more new characters and confidants, plus an entire new semester to tackle. The new semester changes major details about the day-to-day life of the Phantom Thieves. Plus, it comes with a ton of little quality-of-life and gameplay changes. New endings in accordance with the “third semester” are available. You can customize a “Palace” that contains all the anime scenes, soundtrack, achievements and more.
Most importantly, in the Japanese version of Royal, the infamous Valentine’s Day scenes are fully voiced. Every single character. Yes, even the ones where you go for every romantic choice possible, which ensues in obvious chaos. Here’s hoping the English version covers that ground too.
More About Persona 5:
- Persona 5 Royal Opening Movie Unveiled By Atlus
- Persona 5 Needs to Stop Using Ryuji as a Punching Bag
- 20 Possible Things Atlus is Hinting at with its Persona 5 Royal Teasers
There are some pretty cool pre-order bonuses and packages you can get if you’re into a physical edition. The official Persona 5 site has Canadian links for some reason, but the PlayStation blog has the editions all listed out in USD. The “Phantom Thieves” edition comes with an authentic Joker mask, plus a SteelBook case, physical soundtrack, collector’s box and art book, plus the dynamic PS4 theme. This one will be $89.99.
And while it’s not up on Amazon yet, the lower-key physical “Launch Edition” comes with just the SteelBook case and the dynamic theme. This one’s definitely a “steal” (ha) given it come at the normal AAA pricing of $59.99.
If you’re interested in the DLC, there are a few bundles for that (already). Don’t sweat about the original Persona 5’s DLC — that all comes packaged in Royal. However, Atlus shows that there’ll be more paid DLC in the future. You can get that for $59.99 individually, but you can get the full digital package off the bat for $99.99, which comes with that DLC plus cosmetic DLC packages. There’s also one more smaller $69.99 pack that just includes just the Kasumi Costume Bundle.
