Update (2019-09-13): During the Persona 5 Royal special talk show at Tokyo Game Show 2019, Atlus showed off gameplay of the Challenge Battle, with the video added to this post.
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YouTube page Mirai TV has uploaded a 5-minute video showing off the Persona 5 Royal demo being exhibited at Tokyo Game Show 2019.
The demo features the new “Challenge Battle” feature announced in Morgana’s Report #5. Challenge Battle is a score-based Velvet Room feature, where players must defeat enemies in certain ways to earn a high score and exceed the target score. Achieving high scores reward players with items.
Various themes for the different Challenge Battle segments are provided by the Velvet Room twins Caroline & Justine, with the only theme available at the TGS 2019 demo being “Trial.” This theme revolves around the fundamentals of combat, which are hitting enemy weak points, support, and Baton Touch. The playable characters available were Joker, Ann, Yusuke, and Morgana.
Point bonuses will be given by defeating enemies within a specified amount of turns or defeating enemies with specific characters. Some examples of the points allocated in the demo are “+15,000 points if the enemies are defeated within 28 actions,” “4x score bonus for using nuclear attacks,” or “7x score bonus by defeating enemies with Yusuke.”
To obtain a high score here, it is vital to make use of the Baton Touch system to increase attack power, with one of the solutions to the puzzle here consisting of using a powered up Yusuke to attack with a nuclear attribute attack Freila (probably usable due to a new P5R element where characters can equip items granting them specific skills).
There were selectable difficulty levels for the Challenge Battle in the demo. The Famitsu writer, confident in his skills with Persona 5 at first, started the demo on Hard and was defeated by the enemies Black Ooze, Thoth, and Decarabia after their attacks were reflected by Tetrakarn.
Switching to Normal, the enemies which appeared were the following:
1st Battle
- Shiki-Ouji
- Rakshasa
- Leanan Sidhe
2nd Battle
- Anzu
- Orthrus
- Fuu-Ki
3rd Battle
- Take-Minakata
- Raja Naga
- Sui-Ki
The usual attributes for these enemies have been changed from when they appeared in Persona 5.
An important thing noted is that even if all of the enemies are knocked down in this Challenge Battle, the All-Out Attack does not initiate. The key is to rely on attacking enemy weak points and increasing attack power using Baton Touch to defeat enemies.
A note the Famitsu writer had is that the responsiveness of the battle UI felt better in Persona 5 Royal than in the original 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 general 2020 release in Asia.