Weekly Famitsu magazine #1613—or the November 14, 2019 issue—will be released tomorrow on October 31, 2019. This issue of Famitsu will include a Persona 5 Royal launch feature, which also contains an interview with the P5R development team.
Some details from the interview have leaked, and can be read below.
Development
(Update: 2020-01-08): While the source stated that P5R’s development had started before P5D, Wada actually states in the full interview that the development for P5R had begun before he started working on it in earnest, since he was producing P5D which was released in May 2018. Wada says that Ito had been with P5R’s development since the start, so Wada had a lot to review on when he joined the project actively.
- Development for Persona 5 Royal began before development started for Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight.
The planning for both Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight began after the release of Persona 4: Dancing All Night and during the development of Persona 5, in the middle of 2015.
Relatedly, active development for Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth began after the development for Persona 5 had ended in May 2016.
Gameplay Changes
Update: Previous point about “Famidrive” changed to the diner, as it was a typo from the source.
- You’d be best off resetting your knowledge from clearing Persona 5 (certain things that were true in P5 may not be true in P5R).
- After the developers looked over the whole game, the diner was made unavailable at the beginning of the game because they did not want players to be overwhelmed with options at the start.
- If you want to MAX all your Confidant ranks during the first playthrough, you’ll need to focus on how you answer your calls.
- There are Confidants that cannot be advanced after you’ve entered the third semester.
- You can give presents to the guys too this time.
- You can move through cover points even if there’s an enemy in-between them.
- As announced in Morgana’s Report #4, the period of time where the PS4 Share functionality is supported has been extended to December in-game.
Persona 5 Royal will be released on The PS4 in Japan on October 31, 2019. It will be released in the West in Spring 2020, with a Traditional Chinese and Korean release on February 20, 2020.