In a new, mysterious, rebellious world, the Phantom Thieves find themselves stuck in a TRPG debacle: Persona 5 Tactica (2023). Here are some thoughts on the Metaverse-esc dungeons known as the Kingdoms. There are minor spoilers (up to the first Kingdom) in this Persona 5 Tactica review.
About Persona 5 Tactica
Persona 5 Tactica is the third spin-off game in the line of Persona 5 games, beginning with the original RPG, Persona 5 (2017). Themed off of events in Persona 5 Royal (2019), Persona 5 Tactica presents a non-canon story with the same lovable characters fans know and love. Confronted by a natural transition into the tactical role-playing game formula, the cast is transported into a new world between the events of the second and third semesters of Persona 5 Royal (2019). This world with a few new characters and an inspiring array of mythical tricksters at the player’s disposal takes on a more chibi-esc art style, with the same banging music the series is known for. It also includes similar preparation segments to both the original game and Persona 5 Strikers (2020), with a split between the active battle and day-to-day life segments. Overall, players can expect more of the Phantom Thieves they already know and love.
Playing The Trickster’s Game
The core gameplay of Persona 5 Tactica takes a spin on the Tactics RPG, with a system centered around 3-unit combat. Unlike a lot of titles under the genre, it promotes splitting characters up and spreading them across the map. This idea may seem intimidating at first, but it’s proven to be the best part about the formula. Especially with the defense and height mechanics, it’s a lot easier to adapt to a new playstyle that may seem to put playable characters at risk. It was a lot less like Fire Emblem, and a lot more like Mario Rabbids Kingdom Battle, with a cover-based formula and a spice of Persona combat the fans have come to know and love.
Since the Phantom Thieves already have specialty elements, it’s only natural that the next entry carries over their styles. In this regard, each unit (excluding the new character Erina) holds the same moveset from the base Persona 5 titles, but their moves are adapted perfectly into a grid-based system, along with a larger emphasis on inflicting ailments. The technical system is seemingly missing or reduced, yet the infliction of these statuses gains a new benefit with the “1 More!” system. Especially with mechanics such as follow-up attacks, there’s a ton of ways to add flavor to the tactical puzzles.
The system is both streamlined and subtly unpredictable, especially since it’s the first game to not require the protagonist in the party. There’s way more motivation to truly experiment with units. More so when there are SP and HP bonuses granted to characters absent from the last round of combat. Even when a unit is in full cover, the player has the arsenal to push them out and take them into a “Triple Threat,” the new All-Out-Attack equivalent. Using a unit such as Morgana who can send attackers flying with Garu skills is useful when you can follow up with a shot from a long-ranged attacker like Yusuke. Yet the real process comes when the player has to decide if it’s worth sacrificing Morgana’s turn, or if Yusuke would be able to capture them in the triangle of a Triple Threat effectively.
The gameplay mix is efficient in delivery, easy to pick up, and hard to master. From a non-canon spin-off, it goes surprisingly in depth with specialties and skill trees. Especially when there’s only so much allowed in a single turn, it’s ideal to maximize character movement, team upgrades, and buffs when put in a sticky situation. Though at first glance it’s simple, the challenges and significant battles prove how much time was put into making sure this simple system had room to expand.
Welding Wild Personas
One of the more interesting changes in Persona 5 Tactica was the Persona fusion system. The Wild Card abilities played a smaller role in Joker’s arsenal, but now plays a role in all of the Phantom Thieves’ repertoire. Fused or obtained personas can now be applied to any unit, (with the exclusion of Erina) and grant them another move, background upgrades, or buffs that were previously unavailable. For the first time in a Persona 5 franchise title, it’s possible to give a fire user ice attacks, or a nuclear user psychokinetic attacks.
But to its detriment, there’s not too much to the system. Yes, it’s beneficial when crafting the perfect unit, and good to check into Lavenza’s new Velvet Smithing Room every few levels, but the role it has is much more on the backburner. Though, it’s not a bad thing that it’s not at the forefront of the player’s mind.
The weapon benefits and skills overtake personas in this game, since each phantom thief already has a predetermined set of skills that craft their skill tree and playstyle. Though it is nice to add a few more bits and bobs to their setup, the skill tree already provides that in a much more streamlined way. When players want damage upgrades, it’s easier and quicker to go into the shop to buy a new weapon, since that’s what each unit attacks with most of the time.
The Velvet Room is still a nice inclusion for the completionists and perfectionists of the game, allowing deeper control of the gameplay experience, but more often than not it doesn’t stand up to the benefits you can get elsewhere. It’s always a nice touch to do a bit more damage, though, so it’s not completely out of the picture.
Stories of the Revolutionary Army
The story isn’t tremendously groundbreaking, but is a nice little reference to past revolutions while digging into the corrupted brain of one of the new party members. Each of the four base-game kingdoms reference a previous revolution in history. It’s nice to see a phantom thief spin on each time period.
Though it’s easy to believe that the rating may hold the writing back a little, Atlus did a great job of adapting to it. Each antagonist feels just as maniacal as the last, and twists reality in such a way that the thieves are given something new to tackle each time. There’s a lot of dialogue that references events from the middle of Persona 5 Royal (2019), and it helps recharacterize the cast fans have grown close to. Though, without the previous context, it may be hard to understand the subtle references that make this game better as a spin-off sequel. Each character isn’t held back by trying to be reintroduced, and is instead allowed to flourish in a new setting.
What makes this game’s story intriguing is without a doubt the new characters. Erina, the first revolutionary fans meet, is the embodiment of justice and determination. Being the head of the revolutionary army in Marie’s kingdom, she is a confident leader that welcomes the phantom thieves to her cause. It’s no doubt that her personality meshes well with the group, and her lack of real world knowledge provides some great dialogue opportunities during side-quest conversations.
The crown jewel of the new cast is Toshiro Kasukabe, an amnesiac politician who’s been roped into his own worst nightmare. He starts out as this scaredy-cat type, looking to run away and hide behind anything he can in order to protect his own skin. As is such with the thieves, they take on hating politicians due to their detailed past in corruption. Toshiro is no exception.
Yet it’s their continued comradery, and realization that Toshiro is the crux of the plot, that really drives the story. Toshiro’s development as a character sees him shedding his fearful side in turn for that of a confident leader. In tandem with the title, he becomes the tactics manager and strategist for the group while discovering who he is. It’s this development that roped the entire game together, and made it a joy to unravel.
A Stylistic Triple Threat
As is with any game in this long-running JRPG legend, the sense of style is impeccable. At first glance, this chibi style seemed very reminiscent of two other Atlus titles with cutesy art direction, Persona Q (2014) and Persona Q2 (2019). In a similar fashion, Tactica is a fan-service-esc title, giving a side story of some loved characters. Yet it differs in the fact that it takes itself a bit more seriously, focusing less on the crossover aspect and more on making this simplistic cell-shaded tale look more refined.
It’s beneficial for the gameplay, being able to pin down exactly where everything is, and gives the development team a wide range of creative ideas that are seen through to fruition in the amazing array of adversaries. Yet where it falls is in the cutscenes, which lose some of the suspense. It’s nonetheless satisfactory, but it feels like there’s some lost potential in the climactic moments. This style allows the characters to be more expressive, but similarly doesn’t make their emotions feel as real. Fear not though, because most of this game feels homely because of how comfortable the character designs transitioned into this style. It still has the persona flair, just with a much more cartoony feel to play off of. Morgana’s crazy faces definitely benefited from it.
The one thing that didn’t change though is the quality of music. Lyn and the team at Atlus never disappoint, with no exception here. The music feels smooth and methodical, much like the gameplay. The experimental synths, bass, guitar, and other instruments experiment with the Persona sound, but still make it feel as soulful as the rest of the series.
Some of the stand-out songs included the opening song Revolution in Your Heart, the second kingdom’s battle theme Truth or Dare, and the surprisingly more relaxing rendition of Beneath the Mask, titled Beneath the Mask -Tactica-. All of them cover all bases fans would expect from the series, with a new feel that couldn’t be achieved without the sound team thinking outside of the jazzy box of Persona 5 (2017).
Another one of the stylistic choices Persona 5 got was for its menu and user interface. Of course, Tactica intends to match up to it. The bright reds still contrast with a great black and white color scheme, with a tad bit of yellow to symbolize Erina’s flag of freedom. This carried symbolism is consistent throughout the whole game and just as lawfully chaotic as its predecessors.
Till Next Time, Phantom Thieves
Persona 5 Tactica had an interesting release, having one of the worst opening weeks of a Persona franchise game. Yet as people have bought and played the game, there’s no doubt that this is another good entry into the Persona 5 series. There’s so much content already with the phantom thieves, so it’s a good place to end off on a fun, alternate timeline game.
The gameplay was a welcome switch, and many qualities that make these games special carry over into a new format. The music is still impeccable, the style is still as great as ever, and the new characters are a perfect fit for the well-known group of mysterious misfits. There’s a few notches that twist it down, such as the persona fusion system, chibi-styled visual novel cutscenes, and slight imbalance in upgrading power, but the fresh switching system makes this game a confident title from Atlus.
Though games like Fire Emblem: Three Houses (2019) and Advance Wars: Reboot Camp (2023) have a very refined war-like system that fans expected, the triple combo of Tactica makes itself stand out. The simple social simulation aspects may be lesser in this title, the central gameplay loop is no doubt the game’s best quality. The style, music, combat, and characters rope fans back in for a fitting bit of fun with the phantom thieves. No doubt, it’s worth raising a flag of freedom for.
Where to Find Persona 5 Tactica
Interested in joining the revolutionary army? Join the Phantom Thieves in this new, tactical role-playing game from the Persona 5 franchise now!
Persona 5 Tactica is available for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam now, along with the Repaint Your Heart DLC. The soundtrack is also available now on Spotify.
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