Current Events > Whats the difference between Persona 5 Royal and vanilla?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I know there's an additional playable character, but is there actual expanded story, or is mostly gameplay additions and rebalances?

And is there any reason to do vanilla for a first playthrough? Like if there is new story it's bad or something?

Expanded filler bullshit story.

There's a whole extra school term of story (which is weaved into the main narrative so there are extra plot threads etc. in the time that the base game covered, too) as well as new mechanics/QoL updates.

The new story is fine but if you're playing it before the vanilla version I'm not sure what you'd think of it. There's also a whole new town to explore during the main story. The QoL stuff alone makes it worth it in my opinion. No reason to play the original over Royal.