Persona 5 Royal added the Thieves Den — a secondary HQ separate from Leblanc where Phantom Thief memorabilia can be displayed, a card game called Tycoon played with confidants, and a gallery of animated cutscenes unlocked through gameplay milestones. Most of these are cosmetic. One is not.
The secret confidant interactions available in the Thieves Den — specifically the end-of-day conversations triggered by reaching maximum ranks with specific confidants before a story milestone — produce scenes not available in any other context. Several of these scenes directly address narrative gaps in the original game: a Ryuji scene about what the track team’s recovery meant to him, an Ann scene about Shiho’s long-term outcome, a Futaba scene about Sojiro’s awareness of her Metaverse entry.
The Metaverse Navigator secret in Royal: the application used to enter Palaces was not developed by Futaba or Akira. Its origin is revealed through a late-game conversation with Lavenza that most players miss because it is triggered by exhausting her dialogue options in the Velvet Room across multiple visits. The Navigator was placed. Its placement connects to the Yaldabaoth revelation from the base game in a way that adds pre-meditation to what was previously implied as coincidence.
Stumbled across this on a late-night session and couldn’t believe it. Your explanation finally made it click.
The attention to detail the developers put into this is insane. Most players will never see it but it makes the world feel so much richer.