Called Showtime, it's a powerful attack that unlocks when an enemy is almost finished or you're really struggling. Speaking of abilities - Persona 5 Royal introduces a really cool new special attack that unlocks as the story progresses. New bonds mean there's new Persona to catch and new abilities to gain from becoming friends, too. Scenes with both are sprinkled in throughout the main story, while an all-new storyline after the main game focuses completely on them. You can form bonds with two new characters, first-year gymnast Kasumi Yoshizawa and school counsellor Takuto Maruki. New items help in combat, such as talismans that buff several stats at once, more food and drink that replenishes SP and many new accessories, among them rings you can put on your team members so they can use spells they normally don't have access to. Persona 5 Royal brands itself as the definitive version of the game, and introduces an extensive list of improvements - if you've played Persona 5 before, you'll definitely notice how P-Studio worked to fix a few common gripes. The group of high schoolers enter these palaces to steal people's treasures, causing them to let go of harmful desires and confess their crimes. There's also Mementos, a sprawling maze of randomly generated dungeons. Joker and his friends, regular students at Shujin Academy in Tokyo, one day stumble into the Metaverse, a parallel reality that manifests Palaces where people live out their worst desires. Persona 5 Royal also adds a grappling hook to your arsenal, which you'll mostly use to find shortcuts and additional treasure.
Most importantly, in round-based combat you unleash Persona, manifestations of parts of Joker's psyche who can use different elemental attacks, healing spells and stat buffs. The first sequence of Persona 5 Royal acts as foreshadowing and tutorial all wrapped up in one, showing you everything you will regularly be doing in each dungeon you crawl through - jumping between platforms and squeezing through ducts to find a way forward, hiding away from enemies or ambushing them when they're not looking.