Persona 5 Tactica Review – Back to the Metaverse

Despite its lukewarm reception in the West with the first few entries in the series, the Persona series has turned into a worldwide phenomenon with the third and fourth entries in the series, further solidifying its popularity with the fifth entry in the series. This game, in particular, seems to have resonated the most with fans, as the story of the Phantom Thieves did not end with the main game, getting expanded with Persona 5 Royal, an enhanced version of the original game, and with a few spin-off titles like Persona 5 Strikers, an extremely competent mix between the mechanics that have powered the series since Persona 3, and action gameplay reminiscent of the Warriors series by Koei Tecmo and Omega Force.

The Phantom Thieves have now been around for over six years, but their story is far from being done, as it continues with Persona 5 Tactica, a blend of Persona and tactical role-playing game mechanics that, while extremely enjoyable and well put-together, will only appeal to fans of the
Phantom Thieves.

Persona 5 Tactica, much like Persona 5 Strikers, doesn’t take the events of P5 Royal into account (if we ignore Kasumi getting added to the base game with day one DLC), taking place after the base game, but before its real ending. Following a strange incident, Joker and his friends find themselves thrown into a mysterious realm surmised to be part of the Metaverse where its citizens are living under tyrannical oppression. Joining forces with Erina and her revolutionaries, Joker and Morgana set out to save their friends, who get mind-controlled by tyrant Marie, going on to discover the true nature behind the Kingdoms they have found themselves thrown into.

The Persona 5 Tactica story is one of the game’s best features. While it isn’t exactly a very good entry point, as the events of the original game are mostly left in the dark and the main characters have already been established, the story is extremely enjoyable, thanks to the charming banter between the Phantom Thieves and the further development of the main themes seen in the original game. New characters Toshiro and Erina, who are both central to the story, are quite likeable and fit almost perfectly with the Phantom Thieves, who don’t really get much development over the course of the game, which, while not too surprising, is still a little disappointing. Additionally, lacking any side-outing like the Confidant sequences of P5, the story moves at a very good pace, which ultimately makes the experience more compact, clocking at around 35 hours, and enjoyable. It is undeniable how, sometimes, Persona 5 drags a bit and feels overwritten, but thankfully, none of that is found in this tactical spin-off.

While playing Persona 5 Tactica for its story would already be a good idea, the game offers much more than yet another fun romp in the Metaverse, as its mechanics are extremely solid despite lacking a little bit of depth.

Unlike Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal, Persona 5 Tactica is a full-on tactical role-playing game with little to do outside of combat. The game’s flow is straightforward, from dialogue sequences and cutscenes rendered using the chibi-like aesthetics seen in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth to preparation and battles. As tactical combat is the main focus of the Persona 5 Tactica experience, the development team clearly put a lot of care into it, creating a system inspired by games like the X-COM series that streamlines some of the most complicated mechanics of the genre.

Controlling a party of up to three characters, which can be picked from the full roster of the Phantom Thieves and the new character Erina, players will have to navigate a variety of maps featuring different enemy configurations and gimmicks, move safely towards them while using environmental elements to cover themselves and then defeat them using ranged gun attacks, melee attacks or Persona abilities. While defeating all enemies is the most common mission objective, the game manages to spice things up rather often, featuring a variety of mission objectives that keep things fresh, especially if one wants to challenge themselves and complete all Awards, side objectives that involve clearing a mission in a set amount of turns and without getting any unit knocked out. Enemy variety if also solid, although not massive, which forces players to adopt different strategies to take them out effectively.

One thing that Persona Tactica 5 does particularly well is how it successfully brings most of the mechanics of the original Persona 5 into a tactical turn-based experience. The Press Turn combat system that has powered most Shin Megami Tensei games since the release of the third entry in the series is not actually used in the game, but many of its staples remain, such as the ability to knock enemies down for additional damage, which can be done by attacking an enemy that is out of cover and exposed, and to get a One More action, and Baton Pass, which is used in Persona 5 Tactica to switch defeated party members a set amount of time which varies depending on the difficulty level. Adding more options to the system is the ability that melee attacks and select Persona skills, like the Garu family of spells, have to blow away enemies, which can be used to launch enemies onto one another and knock multiple units down.  Positioning is also extremely important not only to avoid getting the Phantom Thieves knocked down and susceptible to massive damage but also to be able to defeat multiple enemies in the same turn using the mechanics outlined above. By surrounding enemies, it is possible to unleash a Triple Threat attack, the game’s unique take on the All-Out attacks of the mainline games, that deals tons of damage. Another example of cooperation attacks are Follow-Up attacks, which allow one of the party members to deal additional damage to an enemy that is launched from above.

Character progression in Persona 5 Tactica also sees some changes on top of what the series has traditionally offered. Party members don’t have individual levels, and all of their HP, SP, and Melee attack stats increase at the same time upon level-up. The current squad level also dictates the maximum level of any Persona that can be obtained via Fusion in the Velvet Room, which has seen a complete makeover to suit the game’s setting better. While every character can now equip a sub-Persona to obtain additional skills, the system is considerably simpler than that seen in the mainline games, as any Persona can only inherit a single skill from the ones used for the fusion. This doesn’t mean that the Phantom Thieves’ combat options are limited, as investing GP in the three Skill Trees each character has can unlock a variety of abilities and enhanced base ones like Charge, a special ability that every character activates by ending a turn without acting which has different effects depending on the character. To better suit the tactical turn-based gameplay of Persona 5 Tactica, many Personas come with new passive skills that can make characters more effective, such as skills that increase damage against enemies afflicted by status ailments, HP and SP restoration upon enemy defeat, and more.

To be completely honest, the Persona Fusion mechanics in Persona 5 Tactica do not feel as central to the experience as they usually do in every other entry in the series, as the game tends to be on the easy side, at least on Normal difficulty. For the vast majority of the game, any encounter against regular enemies can be won by using the Triple Threat system properly. Not only these All-Out attacks are extremely strong, they can also be enhanced so that they can heal characters, so unless you make some extremely bold moves that leave a character completely exposed, you will hardly have any trouble. Thankfully, boss battles spice things up with unique gimmicks and multiple phases, so the game doesn’t feel stale despite its lack of difficulty. Things change a bit at higher difficulties as enemies are more powerful and elements like friendly fire are introduced, giving more purpose to systems like the Persona fusion system.

Presentation-wise, Persona 5 Tactica looks considerably different from the original Persona 5. While the game retains the anime-inspired look seen in the first adventure of the Phantom Thieves, characters no longer have realistic proportions and are now rendered, as already mentioned, in a “chibi” style already seen in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth on the Nintendo 3DS, which is extremely cute and doesn’t really detract from the experience. Location design, on the other hand, is just passable, as they are on the simple side and those in the same Kingdom tend to look a little same-y. Soundtrack is solid enough with some standout vocal pieces, but it lacks sounds with distinct memorability like Rivers in the Desert. Even if the judgment is just limited to spin-offs, the Persona 5 Strikers soundtrack, for example, is vastly superior to that of Tactica in every possible way.

With such undemanding visuals, I was not surprised to see Persona 5 Tactica run so well on my system (i7-13700F, RTX 4080, 32 GB RAM). During testing, the game ran at an average of 405 FPS in a battle with multiple enemies, with a 189 FPS 1% low, which was expected, given the recommended specs. The port is generally solid, featuring no bugs or stability issues whatsoever, and a few basic graphics options, such as render scale, framerate limiter with 30, 60, 90, 120, 144, 240, and unlocked framerate, texture, and shadow quality.

At the end of the day, Persona 5 Tactica is a solid addition to the series thanks to its enjoyable story and gameplay, but its reliance on knowledge of the base game and its relatively low difficulty level gives the game limited appeal outside fans of the series. Still, it teaches the basics of tactical turn-based games rather well, so it could be a good starting point for those looking to get into the genre but feel overwhelmed by much more complex games.

PC version tested. Review code provided by the publisher.

Persona 5 Tactica

While Persona 5 Tactica doesn’t quite ascend to the peaks set by the original game and Strikers, it stands as a robust new installment in the Phantom Thieves’ saga. The narrative remains compelling, the characters charming, the presentation slick and the solid tactical rounds the package well, making the game an engaging experience from beginning to end. The game’s low challenge level, however, and the established status of the Phantom Thieves limits its appeal to die-hard fans of the series.