Persona 5 Tactica: A new spin on the franchise

It’s been a few years since Atlus released Persona 5, and to say that it was a success in the franchise would be the least of it. Not only was it one of the strongest titles in the franchise, but it also had a series of spin-offs in which the Phantom Thieves played an important role, such as Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight and Persona 5 Strikers, taking the characters and the franchise into other genres. On this occasion, and while we await details about the next installments of the franchise, comes a version that puts us in a different perspective.

Once again to the metaverse

Persona 5 Tactica is a strategy game that puts us in control of the Phantom Thieves at a point near the end of Persona 5. Preparing for their upcoming graduation, a strange door appears in Café Leblanc, leading the protagonists to a world within the metaverse where their vigilante personalities reappear. There, in search of a way to return home, they meet Erina, leader of the Rebel Corps, who are waging a war against the authoritarian government under which they are subjugated. By forming an alliance, the adventure of these two groups begins, first to meet again after their first failed encounter, and then to investigate how to return home. Without giving too many details, this is the beginning of an adventure that takes many of the elements of the RPG on which it is based and adapts them to a completely different combat system.

One of the elements that separates Persona 5 Tactica from other strategy titles is that it keeps the formula as simple as possible, although this does not mean that the game itself is simple. In this installment, we find a game that mixes grid strategy with RPG elements. Each character has its own stats on attack, defense and how many squares it can move, preferably looking for places where it can take cover from enemy attacks. Unlike other titles, the characters do not have intermittent turns against the other team, but we move our team first (limited to three characters per encounter) and then give way to the enemies. The game gives you some freedom, allowing you to move the characters within the grid, where they can move as many times as you want, as long as they do not perform their attack.

The Phantom Thieves retain many of the elements of the title from which they are derived, being able to perform ranged attacks with their weapons, melee attacks, and the use of certain magic thanks to the Personas they have equipped. There will also be certain elemental details where attacks will be weaker or stronger, or where you will be able to use a special charge to unleash the power of your Persona. Certain attacks will have the ability to hit an area and damage more than one enemy in an area.

An important part of the strategy in Persona 5 Tactica is to cover our characters as much as possible to reduce enemy damage. On the other hand, trying to push enemies out of cover makes them easier to kill, and this creates one of the game’s more entertaining dynamics. As in Persona 5, if we catch one of these downed enemies within the perimeter of our 3 characters, we can perform a collective attack. The advantage is that other enemies can enter this triangle, allowing the player to do more damage. Performing this move is entertaining and in many cases, along with a good strategy, it is the way to advance faster in the levels.

One of the problems with the title is that the design of the combat areas doesn’t shine as brightly as one would like. There are repetitive elements with cover and a few other elements like climbing or jumping structures, as well as explosive elements. It’s not like we’re seeing the same scenarios over and over again, but a lot of the design falls on the enemies and objectives rather than the other elements. Sometimes it is more fun to accomplish a specific mission, such as escaping, than to constantly eliminate enemies, but even so, the challenges included in each level also make the player look for the best strategy when it comes to combat.

In addition to the missions that advance the story and level up our characters, Persona 5 Tactica has a series of side missions that will be unlocked one at a time, and in addition to giving us more details about the game’s story, they also provide a great challenge that tests what we have learned so far. The challenge is not so much in the difficulty, but in the fact that it is a puzzle that uses the strategy and mechanics of the game itself to test the player’s skills and understanding to the maximum. Without getting too far ahead of ourselves, one of these first missions is to get from one point to another in a single turn, using the basic mechanics of combat correctly.

A versatile Persona

Although the game format is the one that changes, it is striking how well Persona 5 adapts to this tactical version, and if you have already played the title from which this spin-off is derived, it will surely be an experience. The RPG elements remain very similar to the original game, being able to increase certain statistics and improve them either by buying items such as new weapons, as well as using the skill tree. This allows us to unlock items that modify the active and passive skills of our characters, as well as those of their Personas, through points that we earn by completing each of the missions.

On the other hand, we have brought back the Velvet Room, where players can merge people that they get in battle to create a higher level and stronger persona. These personas are also part of the elements of our characters and therefore part of the strategy of the game.

While there are many staples of the Persona series, such as exceptional enemies, bosses with huge egos and quirky personalities, a very particular sense of humor, and others, don’t expect the social, life simulator, or research components found in the original. For better or worse, much of the game’s exposition (especially in the early part of the game) falls into long sequences of dialogue, and those are part of those moments in Café Leblanc where the characters rest or move on to other missions.

On the other hand, we have the new characters in the story. While it helps to have a fairly large and well-known cast with their own personalities, these new characters are extremely interesting and have a different personality than the ones we already know. The way they all interact, both known and new characters, brings a good balance and makes the long dialog more digestible.

A visual metaverse

One of the most pleasing details of the game is the aesthetics of the characters, which have a chibi design with a very cartoonish look, giving them a personality of their own. The game easily adopts the art direction and interface of Persona 5, making the game’s presentation and menus very visual. This also allows the game to run quite smoothly, making the dialog scenes easier to see, with very slight changes to the characters. When it’s time to enter the battle arena, it’s the same, with extremely fluid movements. The version we played was the Nintendo Switch version, where there were almost no frame drops, the only problem being loading times.

Persona 5 Tactica offers fans of the series a new opportunity to encounter the Phantom Thieves in a different way, increasing the number of hours invested in the story of this group of young people. Although this is not an extremely complicated strategy game, the system is varied enough to provide a highly entertaining gameplay experience. The story has several twists that keep you engaged, and although the dialog is extremely long, it is a clear part of the franchise experience. For now, it remains a spin-off that knows how to adapt and remains as the game for those who want more of Persona, which it is worth remembering that we have a remake coming in 2024.