When Persona 5 launched back in 2017, nobody could have predicted just how much of a phenomenon it would turn out to be. Not only was the game itself well received by both fans and critics, but it also wound up getting a fair amount of traction in the realm of internet pop culture. Thanks to its stunning art direction, cool character designs and catchy music, there was no escaping the Phantom Thieves of Hearts for at least a good six months. The hype did eventually die down of course, but that hasn’t stopped Atlus from bringing Joker and the gang to every genre it can. The Thieves have brawled it out,crawled through crazy labyrinths,boogied downand now they’ve geared-up for tactical, turn-based action in Persona 5 Tactica. One might be tempted to think that this would be a poor fit, but just like with all of its predecessor spin-offs, Atlus has once again managed to craft a decent experience. Unlike withPersona 5 Strikers, when exactly Persona 5 Tactica takes place is somewhat unclear.
It’s some time before the end of Joker’s first year at Shujin Academy, but after the conclusion of the main events of Persona 5 Royal. At the outset of the game, everyone is remarking about how it’s still cold outside, so it’s likely that it’s set sometime between late February and early March. The gang is sitting around in Leblanc when they’re all suddenly pulled into another world, one that resembles the Metaverse but operates on somewhat different rules. Eventually they learn they’re in something known as a “Kingdom” and that they’re best chance of returning to reality is to help their new ally Erina to liberate it from its tyrannical ruler. More wrinkles arise as the story progresses with Erina and a certain other character eventually taking center stage and events taking on greater significance, but the goal at each juncture remains the same: defeat the ruler and hopefully get back home.
Fans hoping to learn more about their favorite characters might be disappointed as this story isn’t really about the Phantom Thieves, but the plot is strong enough to hold one’s interest, and the new lore and new characters, Erina in particular, are interesting enough that most players probably won’t mind. In other words it’s a decent enough tale for the kind of game that Persona 5 Tactica is. The game is also decent as far as its presentation goes. It doesn’t have the same impact as the original game, but much of that same flash and flair is still present here. The menus and new, cartoony character designs in particular stand out the most. Just like with the other games, a lot of care was put into the menus to make them easy to use and fun to navigate, with plenty of animations and visual flair added to make sure that interacting with them doesn’t get old. As for the thieves and other major characters, all of their portraits and poses are expressive, exaggerating their actions and emotions in ways that are always fun to look at…for a while.
Honestly, it doesn’t take long to see all of everyone’s poses/reactions, so they start to wear by the halfway point. Additionally, while the worlds and battle maps look decent, they nonetheless wind up feeling bland and boring overall. The second half of the game in particular suffers from this, as the maps look more like simple collections of cubes and platforms than they do spaces within a dream world. It’s kind of the same problemthe original Persona 5suffered from during its home stretch.
The same can more or less be said for the soundtrack. Players probably aren’t going to bop along with the music here like they did with Persona 5’s tracks, but it’s all still fun to listen to and goes well with whatever is happening on screen. That said, though, certain themes do wind up feeling overused by the end, the ones that support conversations in particular. There’s a lot of talking in Persona 5 Tactica, so one can get a bit sick of hearing those same themes over and over, especially when a conversation isn’t terribly interesting.
Fortunately, where Persona 5 Tactica shines brightest is also where it matters most: its combat. Just about everything revolves around the mainline tactical combat, and there’s little to do outside of it. There’s no map to explore, no time to manage, no studying, no social links, no grinding and little (if any) persona farming. All one does is as a player is play through a map, prep for the next and repeat. There are extra conversations to listen to and some puzzle-like quests to complete in each chapter, but players will be spending most of their 20 to 30 hour run in combat.
Each scenario presents players with a main objective and three bonus ones to complete. Main objectives typically just ask players to eliminate all enemies, but will sometimes change things up with asking them to do things like reach an objective, finish the encounter within a certain number of turns or simply endure for a certain amount of time. Bonus objectives are almost always the same: finish within a given number of turns, suffer no KOs or defeat a certain number of enemies.
Clearing the bonuses are usually worth it, as they award additional experience and personas. Players have the option of replaying encounters as much as they want, but there’s little need to do so on Normal difficulty or lower as they’ll get all the experience they need by just playing the mission and completing the quests.
At the start of each encounter, players can select any three playable characters to form their squad and they’ll also have the option to update their equipped personas and skills to should they wish. There isn’t a huge need to tweak skills and such on Normal or lower, though, as enemies typically aren’t that tough and have no innate weaknesses or resistances.
Actually, they don’t have those on the Hard or Merciless difficulties either; instead they’ll just hit harder and do more to exploit any positioning mistakes made by the player. At any difficulty, though, the basic strategy remains the same: keep the party protected in cover as much as possible while also trying to expose and surround as many enemies as possible. Movement is THE most important resource players have, and most fights hinge on how well one can exploit and flank enemy positions. The goal is always to knock enemies out of cover or otherwise expose them so that one or more members of the squad can down them and get a “1 More.”
Earning a “1 More” allows a party member another chance to move (and move further) and grants them another attack. This can be used to further damage the downed enemy, expose another one for another party member to down for their own “1 More,” or most importantly, to launch a “Triple Threat” or “All-Out Attack.” See, once an enemy is downed, the player can move their characters around that enemy to create a triangular area between them.
All enemies within this area, regardless of whether or not they’re standing on the same level as the squad takes heavy damage once the attack is launched, much more than any normal attack. As such, setting up these attacks will typically be the main means of eliminating enemies and clearing stages. Persona 5 Tactica gives players many different methods for doing this, so doing so never gets old.
This is especially true of each Kingdom’s quests, which typically impose strict turn limits and/or push players to squeeze as much as they possibly can out of each character’s turn. All in all, while it won’t push players in the same way that something like XCOM does, it’s still nonetheless engaging and manages to remain so for its entire run.
Supporting the combat are small skill trees for each character and the persona fusion system from the original game. So long as a character has enough experience points they can equip and unequip any combination of skills at will, allowing players to play around with different buffs and ability bonuses. There’s not enough here to make actual builds, but it does allow enough flexibility to feel worthwhile.
As for the personas, all they really do is grant additional attacks and buff stats like HP, SP and damage. The type of attack doesn’t matter at all since, again, enemies don’t have any weaknesses/resistances, and most debuffs result in the same thing: preventing an enemy from moving or attacking for a turn. As such, there isn’t much, if any, need to attempt to fuse specific personas. Some might be helpful on higher difficulties, but they’re not essential in the same way that they are in sayPersona 5 Royal.
Closing Comments:
Persona 5 Tactica isn’t something that’s going to blow anyone away, neither Persona fans nor fans of tactical RPGs. Its story is decent and interesting enough to see the players through to the end, but it likely won’t leave much of any lasting impact. The same goes for its overall presentation and music. Much of it is fun to look at and listen to, and there’s genuine enjoyment to be had, but none of it is anything one will remember for long after putting it down. Atlus did manage to craft a fun and interesting combat system here, though, one that’s simple and easy enough for genre newcomers to enjoy and which also offers enough depth to give those familiar with these sorts of games a few fun hours. Persona 5 Tactica is nothing genre defining, but it’s fun enough, especially for those who’d like another chance to spend some more time with the Phantom Thieves.
Persona 5 Tactica
Atlus' Persona 5 Tactica drops the Phantom Thieves in a Medieval Europe-style world as they are dragged into an ongoing revolution by a mysterious figure. Rather than a traditional turn-based JRPG, the Persona 5 spin-off falls within the tactics genre.
