Persona 5 Tactica sees the return of the Phantom Thieves in a brand new, original story. While the characters may be familiar, Tactica takes bold steps away from the familiar formula of its esteemed franchise, making for a game that stands out from its predecessor. While many of these changes work, returning fans of Persona 5 and the greater Persona series might find this title too much of a departure from the games they’ve come to love.
Persona 5 Tactica opens up with the Phantom Thieves gathered at the Leblanc discussing their college plans and how they’re going to miss each other when they head off to school. To their surprise, they don’t get the chance to be very sentimental about the prospect of splitting off before they’re wrapped up in another Metaverse fiasco. This time, the antagonist in question is a sadistic tyrant named Marie, and things don’t function quite the way they’re supposed to.
One of the first things returning Persona fans are going to notice about this title is how different it looks. The 2D and 3D art takes on a totally different style, going for a more cartoonish chibi look instead of the more mature anime style of the Persona franchise. As far as I’m aware, this is the first time a Persona game has made such a drastic change to the art style, and it’s safe to say not all fans are going to love it.
Personally, I adore it. I think the style works really well for the tone of the story, which has a lot of the same tones and vibes as a Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt or Kill la Kill episode, while still maintaining the Persona identity. It’s also really fun to see familiar characters in this new, dramatically cuter art style. I think part of the reason it works so well is because the cast is so familiar, and so we’re seeing beloved characters in a new style, which might not have worked so well if it was introducing a totally new group of protagonists.
The antagonist Marie is a huge source of those PAWSG and KLK feels. This sadistic queen brings a big style to the game, and I really enjoyed her inclusion and the twist that comes with a deeper exploration of her character. Her army of goons brings a sort of cartoonish Napoleonic army look that fits in perfectly alongside any other cast of Persona monsters.
Another big standout character for me was the newly introduced friend of the Phantom Thieves Erina, a brave and at times adorable leader of the rebellion against Marie. I think this is my new favorite character in the Persona series, which is saying a lot considering how much wonderful character development there has been. I took Erina with me into every battle and party setup and took every chance I could to learn more about her in the hideout.
I enjoyed Persona 5 Tactica’s story, but it isn’t anything especially spectacular compared to other Persona games. The game also lacks many of the social building and character development of Persona 5, focussing hard on the new battle gameplay.
Persona 5 Tactica plays like an XCOM-style tactical turn-based shooter, even down to the cover mechanics you might expect from other games in the genre. Taking cover and trying to force enemies out of theirs while shooting and firing Personas at them is the main mechanic the game is built around. Tactica makes some changes to genre stables that are really great and some that aren’t so good.
Characters can move freely within their movement range during their turn, which means you have tons of freedom to plan your strategy moving forward. This is probably the biggest and most impactful change to the genre’s formula that the game makes. Changes to Persona 5’s mechanics, like everyone getting a sub-persona and elemental weaknesses being changed to interesting status effects, are also great changes that you can feel in the gameplay.
Some less phenomenal aspects of the gameplay are the cover system and the AI. Taking cover – or ending your turn next to a block of terrain – reduces damage you take from shots or outright blocks them (thankfully, there is no dreaded hit chance percentage in this game.)
Most fights will see you trying to knock enemies down and out of cover using your Personas or other effects so that you can negate their damage reduction and take them out with ranged attacks. For some reason, however, flanking is utterly nonexistent. If you are shooting an enemy in the back, the cover in front of them will still negate the damage they take even if isn’t between the two of you at all. Most of the time it’s better to just wipe enemies out with one-shot using Jester or Morgana’s Personas.
For a game all about clever positioning, I found that the AI got bottlenecked in pretty much every encounter. This led to missions being incredibly short, to the point where I could spend ten or so minutes in in-between conversations and about two or fewer actually fighting enemies, before triggering another cutscene. When missions weren’t super short, they had victory conditions that required such meticulous levels of planning that I would end up getting stuck on them for way longer than I should have.
Though I loved the new characters, the art direction, and the soundtrack (which should go without saying in a Persona game), what this game really accomplished was making me want to play Persona 5. Despite Tactica’s improvements over XCOM, I wasn’t convinced by its gameplay to become a fan of the genre. The most fun I had in the game was spent in pre-battle preparation, reading the dialogue, and watching the great cutscenes and mid-battle animations sprinkled generously across the experience.
The Final Word
Persona 5 Tactica features all of the great styles and characters that fans of the Persona franchise have come to love, and even adds a few new ones. The new look works surprisingly well for the series, but returning fans might be disappointed with the underwhelming gameplay and the lack of the franchise’s famous social features and deep storytelling.
7
Try Hard Guides was provided with a PC review copy of this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website! Persona 5 Tactia is available on Steam, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch.