Persona 5 Royal saw the inclusion and enhancement of a number of features in the critically acclaimed JRPG Persona 5, including new characters, battle mechanics, social activities, and plot. But one additional (and very interesting) feature that was added is the ability for the player to pet Morgana. That's right - you can actually pet the cat in Persona 5 Royal. And we're not just talking about in the game. Nope - you, the player, can actually pet Morgana yourself.
Confused? That's fair. Want to know how it works? TheGamer's got you covered.
When players decide to venture to Mementos (the name for the palace that houses society's collective assembly of hearts that can be accessed after the completion of Kamoshida's Palace), Morgana transforms from his anthropomorphic cat-like appearance into a van that the Thieves use to get around. While gamers who played Persona 5 will remember that the joysticks are what move Morgana around, there's been a new addition to controlling the Morgana van.
If a player strokes their controller's touchpad while he is a van, Morgana will literally purr, as if the player was actually petting him. Additionally, if the player wants to mess with Morgana, simply pressing down on the touchpad will initiate a meow and yelp in response.
Note that petting Morgana through the touchpad only works in Mementos when he's in his van form. So if you suddenly have an urge to pet him while at a different palace or even hanging out in Leblanc, messing with the touchpad won't prompt any sort of response from the cat.
It is certainly a strange new feature, one that was not heavily advertised before the game was released (and ended up taking many players by surprise when they accidentally discovered it during their initial playthroughs of the game). But regardless of the reasons why Atlus thought this would be an imperative enhancement to the original game, the feature is there.
So, the next time you're in Mementos crossing requests off of your list, why not give Morgana some attention? Just don't mess with him too much; he gets enough of that from Ryuji.
Persona 5 Royal was released in the West on March 31, 2020, for the PlayStation 4. It was originally released back in October 2019 in Japan.