Persona 5 Royal Romance Options: all romanceable characters and how to meet them

Persona 5 Royal enhances one of the best Japanese RPGs of this console generation, and one way in which it's been expanded is with some new romance options. Personal is all about getting to know people, after all - and you'll want to get closer to some than others.

You'll make lots of friends and allies in Persona 5, and more than a few enemies - but with many of the women in the cast Joker can take things a bit further if you so choose. There's ten romanceable characters in Persona 5 Royal - up one on the original release. Each is a confidant, and each can be given gifts and hung out with to enhance your relationship.

Be careful - Persona 5 won't 'lock you in' to one relationship with one character once you've decided you like someone. It is totally possible to pursue more than one romantic relationship at once. Indeed, it's possible to even pursue all ten if you manage your time very efficiently - but if you do this, it'll eventually come back to haunt you on February 14, Valentines Day. Get too greedy and you could end up with nobody!

How to Romance Characters in Persona 5

All of the romanceable characters in Persona 5 and the Royal version of the game are 'confidants'. These characters are people you hang out with who represent one of the Arcana that you use in the crafting, creation and leveling up of Persona.

Boosting your relationship with a confidant will in turn grant bonus EXP when you fuse a Persona of their associated Arcana, but roughly half of the 10 levels of friendship for each will also bestow additional bonuses. A confidant with your teacher will allow you to slack off in class and perform other tasks on school time, for instance, while a cooperation with a doctor will give you a discount on medical gear to be used to heal up midway through dungeons.

All you need to do to romance a character is get involved with their confidant cooperation relationship and get to know them. As you rank up from the starting rank of 1 to the final rank of 10, an option to pursue a more-than-friends relationship will open up - usually around rank 8.

There are three keys to leveling up a confidant quickly to get to the romance sooner: first, always carry a Persona of the arcana they represent with you when hanging out with your planned love, as it boosts how quickly your relationship advances. Second, answer the various choices in each scene in a way you think she'd appreciate. Finally, use the right gifts to make her happy - we've got a full Persona 5 gift guide to help with that.

Many times relationships will require you are a certain rank in some of P5's stats before you can continue or even begin to hang out; the game will tell you this. Keep in mind once you agree for someone to be your girlfriend you can't go back on it or break up with them - and that means then if you later change your mind, you'll end up in a sticky love triangle/square/pentagon/hexagon/etc that could upset everybody involved.

Below, we list all the characters you can romance and how to get their confidant relationship started.

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Persona 5 Royal: Romance Options in full

• Ann Takamaki
  • Lovers Arcana
  • Ann joins your team as a party member on June 15, through natural story progression. To start leveling up the relationship you'll need an enhanced Kindess stat.

• Makoto Niijima
  • Priestess Arcana
  • Makoto is the next romanceable character to join your team after Ann on June 25, a little later in the story. Makoto values Knowledge, so you'll need that stat boosted to hang out.

• Futaba Sakura
  • Hermit Arcana
  • Futaba fills the traditional Persona role of 'navigator' when you're in dungeons, so while she doesn't join the fight she is technically a party member. Futaba joins on August 31, and again requires a high Kindness stat to woo.

• Haru Okumura
  • Empress Arcana
  • Haru was the last girl to join your dungeon party in the original Persona 5, and does so in Royal under similar circumstances as the story progresses. She'll show up on October 31.

• Kasumi Yoshizawa
  • Faith Arcana
  • All new for Royal is Kasumi, who is at once a new confidant, a new playable party member and a new romance option. She'll be introduced during the story.
  • Make sure you raise Kasumi's rank to the 5th level before November 18. You'll also want to make sure you've raised the school counsellor confidant to level 8 before this date, too. After this, you won't be able to hang out for a while - but then you can pick the relationship up again and continue where you left off.

• Tae Takemi
  • Death Arcana
  • Doctor Tae is willing to provide high school students with drugs no question asked. Cool, cool. She'll first be available from April 15. Keep hanging out with Tae for the 'clinical trials' to eventually open up a romance option.

• Sadayo Kawakami
  • Temperance Arcana
  • Talk about inappropriate relationships - Kawakami is your school teacher, and is also a confidant. As the story progresses you'll learn about her double life, and after May 24 you can call her over using the phone in LeBlanc. Keep requesting her and hanging out to get to the romance.

• Ichiko Ohya
  • Devil Arcana
  • Ohya will make an appearance in the story progression, but if you want to get to know her better, return to the bar where you met in June, after the story beat that introduces her. This will enhance your relationship - keep at it to pursue a romance.

• Hifumi Togo
  • Star Arcana
  • Hifumi was actually going to be a party member in Persona 5 at one point, but the development team decided against it. Now she's just another school student - but you can still romance her. She's at the Kanda church from June 25, but you'll need to level up Yusuke's confidant to rank 2 - he'll then tell you about the Togo and the church so you can go there. Visit her to get the relationship started and then continue it. You'll need ranked-up Charm to hang out.

• Chihaya Mifune
  • Fortune Arcana
  • Chihaya is the fortune teller that you can find in Shinjuku. Once Shinjuku is unlocked, and after June 22, you can find her there at night. She'll be selling an item for 100,000 Yen. That's expensive, but buying in starts a confidant cooperation that can then blossom into a relationship. Better still, once you hit rank 10, romantic or not, you'll get the money back.