Persona 5 Tactica Review: A rebellion worth investing in

You know, it’s almost funny at this point how meta Atlus’ flagship series is at this point. Between Megami Tensei, Shin Megami Tensei, Persona as a whole, and the subseries formed around the three “modern” Persona titles, we’re what, four layers deep at this point? It’s honestly pretty incredible. What’s even more incredible, however, is the fact that they’ve actually been able to make all of this work. Despite the unimaginable number of moving parts, Atlus has continued to successfully split up its series further and further without missing a beat—and Persona 5 Tactica is yet another example of how far they’ve come.

When One Door Closes…

Oh, come on, Ryuji. You should be used to this by now.

Taking place shortly long after the ending of Persona 5/P5 Royal (and seemingly before Persona 5 Strikers), Persona 5 Tactica sees everyone’s favorite group of rebellious, heart-stealing highschoolers partaking in their favorite activity—hanging out in a small, dusty coffee shop known for its bizarrely wonderful combination of coffee and curry. As exciting as their time together as the Phantom Thieves was, that time has since passed—leaving Ren & co. nervously discussing their latest shared enemy… graduation. Before they can begin getting too mopey, however, they suddenly find the world changing around them—and themselves being flung headfirst into a brand-new adventure, the likes of which they’ve never seen.

Persona 5 Tactica’s story is unique in that it serves as a kind of balancing act in terms of lore and world-building. On one hand, it does its best to create a fresh, new experience for players to enjoy. On the other hand, however, it also does its best to incorporate previous lore from the core Persona 5 game. The ultimate result of this is a sequel that feels like an incredibly natural extension of the pre-existing P5 world. Given how much had already gone on, it would have been easy to either 1.) re-tread the same, tired ground, or 2.) jump the shark entirely. P5T does neither of these things.

While this might sound a bit obvious, it’s important to remember that P5T is technically a spinoff, not a proper sequel. It’s certainly no Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, and it doesn’t try to tout itself as such. When it comes to spinoffs, it’s largely easier for developers to create something that doesn’t attempt to rock the boat regarding pre-existing canon—which Atlus has already done twice, with Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, and Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth (and there’s no shame in that whatsoever). Not only does P5T mark the second time that Atlus has decided to extend the continuity of the world of Persona 5, but, in terms of world-building, it’s taken a much more aggressive stance regarding its decision to doing so—a decision that played out incredibly well.

They’ll Never See it Coming

Always keep an eye on where each of your units are!

Persona 5 Tactica isn’t Atlus’ first-ever foray into the world of Megami Tensei SRPGs. It is, however, the first-ever Persona-themed SRPG. And, as it turns out, that distinction makes quite a bit of difference. Despite having many of its core gameplay mechanics with the likes of Majin Tensei and Devil Survivor, P5T remains incredibly faithful to Persona 5 itself, and, surprisingly, shares some major gameplay components with games like XCOM.

When it comes to combat, all you need to remember is the two C’s: cover, and combos. While using cover was, technically speaking, optional for the bulk of Persona 5, ensuring that you’re never out in plain sight is vital in P5T. Using what could honestly be called an oversimplified version of Persona 5 mechanics, scoring critical hits and, subsequently, Once Mores, is (almost) entirely reliant upon hitting foes that aren’t properly covered. This can be done by either forcing them out in the open—either via melee attack or scenery alteration—or inflicting a status condition upon them. Doing either of these things will—just like in P5—down the enemy, allowing the active character to take another turn to move and attack as they please.

Once Mores are also important because they allow characters to do something they normally wouldn’t otherwise wouldn’t be able to—execute a Triple Threat. Working as Persona 5 Tactica’s version of an All-Out Attack, Triple Threats inflict severe (and, assumedly, Almighty aligned) damage to every enemy caught up in it. Being a tactical RPG, however, these do work a bit differently than you’re used to.

Rather than automatically hitting every enemy within the battle, players are instead tasked with triangulating their three active Phantom Thieves in such a way that the downed unit is somewhere within the triangle. The character who downed the opponent is then able to execute the attack and wreak absolute havoc on any baddie caught up within your triangle. All-in-all, Triple Threats are an incredibly clever manipulation of pre-existing core Persona mechanics and helps to make combat feel satisfying overall. It’s also worth noting that there is an exception to everything that I’ve just said. And, for the sake of the review, I would like to say that said exception is a very neat one! Unfortunately, going any further than that will be diving straight into spoiler territory—so we’ll just end things with that vague compliment.

Looks Can be Deceiving

Each skill type has a unique effect, so be sure to use them all to your advantage!

While I’ve already briefly touched upon it in the last section, it’s worth noting just how unique of an approach was made regarding what Persona 5 Tacita’s approach to mechanical complexity—or lack thereof. I’ll be the first to admit that, at first glance, P5T almost seems worryingly simplistic. The number of different character stats has been reduced to five (Melee Attack, Gun Attack, HP, SP, and Movement), and leveling itself has even taken a step back in complexity, with character levels being done away with in favor of a cumulative “Phantom Thieves Level” that affects all party members simultaneously.

Magic also functions noticeably differently in this game as well. The removal of the Magic stat sees that spell damage is determined almost entirely by the spell being cast (which might be a series first, unless I’m mistaken). Even more interesting, however, is the fact that magic—which are literally skills defined by their elemental properties—have had their corresponding elements removed. Instead, they’re classified by the stats condition that they inflict—with “Curse” changing to “Despair,” “Fire” changing to “Burn,” and so on. These status conditions are also guaranteed to be inflicted in all but a select few circumstances. Under normal circumstances, this would turn out horribly. But these aren’t normal circumstances. Because of its emphasis on setting up complex combos and insisting on players battling an ever-increasing number of enemies at once as they progress, Persona 5 Tactica has somehow taken something that would be otherwise be overpowered and turned it into an interesting (and fun!) mechanical necessity for players to master.

Just Another Cog in the Machine

Not everything involving fusion is the same, but at least we still have “Fuse by Result!”

Before wrapping things up, I’d like to talk about one more mechanic—the personas themselves! Being a Persona 5 spinoff, parts of how Persona 5 Tactica deals with its cast of “other selves” work just how you would expect it to, with players collecting, fusing, and equipping various personas as they grow stronger. The personas, in turn, are responsible for bestowing stat bonuses and skills—with both kinds of bonuses becoming more potent the stronger the personas come.

Despite the core mechanics of Persona 5 Tactica’s personas working similarly to most other Persona games out there, it shouldn’t come as a surprise at this point that not everything works the same. Harkening back to the Persona Q series (which P5T also borrows its stylized graphics from!), P5T disallows the use of persona swapping by protagonist Ren and instead implements a “sub persona” system usable by every character—with each persona functioning as equippable cogs (I don’t totally get it, either). Despite the name, sub-personas’ importance is anything but subservient.

As explained in the first paragraph of this section, sub-personas function as a vital part of growth for every member of the Phantom Thieves (Erina, a non-persona-user, functions differently). In fact, there’s really only one thing that sub-personas seem to be lacking—skill diversity. Rather than the normal 6+ skills that we’re all used to, sub-personas always can only have a maximum of two—a primary skill, and an inherited skill (bestowed via fusion). Really, this was the only major gripe that I had with the game. Building a diverse line of personas has always been as fun as it is important, and I miss not being able to do that in this game. While Persona 5 Tactica does mitigate this somewhat with the inclusion of an honest-to-goodness skill tree for each character, the overall lack of customization complexity offered to the player never stopped being a downer (if only just a little bit).

¡Viva la Revolución!

The latest Persona 5 spinoff could be called a lot of different things. Strange? A bit, yeah. Minimalistic? Compared to the rest of the series, definitely. But you can also, undoubtedly, call it creative. And, most importantly, you can very easily call it fun! So long as you can get past its slightly odd presentation in the beginning, Persona 5 Tactica promises an enjoyably unique experience that only serves to build upon the world of Persona 5 established by its predecessors. Regardless of whether or not SRPGs are normally your thing, any self-respecting Persona fan owes it to themselves to snag a copy of P5T as soon as they’re able.

Final Verdict: 4/5

Available on: PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC; Publisher: SEGA; Developer: ATLUS; Players: 1; Released: November 17, 2023; ESRB: T for Teen; MSRP: $59.99

Full disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher.