Persona 5 Tactica Review: Tactics of the Heart

The Phantom Thieves of Hearts return in Persona 5 Tactica, the latest spinoff of the hit Persona 5 roleplaying game. Developed by P-Studio, Persona 5 Tactica takes Persona 5's core cast, concepts, themes, and aesthetics and applies them to the tactical RPG genre. This isn't the first time the Phantom Thieves have embarked on a new adventure with a different gameplay style, having starred in 2020/2021's well-received action RPG Persona 5 Strikers. However, while P-Studio manages to apply some distinct Persona-like flourishes to the turn-based strategy formula, there are core Persona tenets that get lost in translation, which results in a final product that rarely captures the magic of the original game.

Persona 5 Tactica begins at the tail end of Persona 5's story, during the otherwise chill period that follows the defeat of that game's final boss. Joker and the gang convene at Café Leblanc and enjoy each other's company until the festivities are halted – literally – when time seems to freeze around them. Exiting Leblanc, they find themselves in a region or version of the Metaverse that doesn't follow all of the rules previously established about the cognitive realm.

The story eventually explains why the Metaverse seems a bit off, but it's all justification for changing how the Phantom Thieves battle in Persona 5 Tactica. Most notably, Joker's "Wild Card" ability applies to all characters, allowing each to equip a secondary persona to boost their stats and supplement their skills. Each character also has a tree of unlockable innate abilities.

Combat occurs on a three-dimensional plane, with the player maneuvering all of the fielded Phantom Thieves (three to a squad) before turning the board over to the opponent. In an odd mix, aiming ranged attacks and abilities is done via a grid but not character movement. Some aspects of Persona 5's combat have been adapted and applied to the tactical RPG format. Enemies do not have elemental weaknesses but can be knocked down if attacked while not in cover, resulting in a "One More" action for the attacker. If the Phantom Thieves surround a downed opponent, the attacker can activate a "Triple Threat." It's similar to Persona 5's "All-Out Attack" and deals hefty damage to all opponents caught in the crossfire. This encourages players to spread their characters out rather than keeping them bunched up, thus affecting the largest possible area and helps imbue the gameplay with Persona combat's emphasis on momentum.

However, it doesn't capture that signature Persona gameplay rhythm. The core Persona games divide the player's time between long bouts of narrative progression, combat-focused dungeon delving, and pursuing relationships to boost social links, with long sequences of plot development that players watch more than play counterweighted by free-form dungeon exploration and social pursuits. With social links and dungeons absent from Persona 5 Tactica, that leaves only the story and combat. The story portions in Tactica can run just as long as Persona's reputation suggests. However, the game's battles often end quickly, throwing off the balance of story and play.

Persona 5 Tactica's combat being short isn't a complaint. The few instances where the battles do extend longer feel like the game stretching for time. There are only a handful of enemy types, and the game relies on terrain features like color-coded elevators and pressure-operated doors to add complexity. However, these elements are more nuisances than challenges, making it difficult to traverse the board and get to the enemies, who mostly sit and wait for the player to come into range. Some enemy attacks and other effects will cover the terrain in a bright yellow overlay styled like a caution sign, making it almost impossible to recognize those color-coded elevators and frustratingly difficult to find door switches. It's a baffling visual design oversight from a game series known for its graphical flair.

Persona 5 Tactica's gameplay is at its tightest in the "Quests" section of the game, which are side missions players can undergo to earn bonus skill points. They're single levels that are more puzzles than outright battles, tasking the player to reach a spot on the map or defeat enemies in a certain number of turns. This requires the player to think more carefully about how they dole out their extra actions instead of steamrolling the enemy with brute force. They're much more interesting than the banal bonus challenges applied to the main missions, like "clear the stage."

Narratively, the Phantom Thieves are supporting characters in Persona 5 Tactica. In the Metaverse they meet Erina, a revolutionary leader seemingly native to the realm, and Toshiro, an amnesiac politician from the real world. Having completed their character arcs already in Persona 5, Tactica casts the Phantom Thieves as supportive friends, helping Erina and Toshiro through their journeys. It offers an interesting new perspective on the characters, emphasizing their growth, even if some of the dialogue is over-the-top, even for Persona.

The pacing of Persona 5 Tacitca's story is a problem. It keeps its secrets for too long, with some of the answers to them being fairly obvious from early on, while others only become so in retrospect. Despite the pacing issues, the story's themes compliment Persona 5's nicely. There's talk of the cost of change and revolution and consideration of when it is worth paying that price, all cast against various "Kingdoms" that display different facets of tyranny, like corruption, surveillance, and censorship. In one of the game's more commendable efforts, those tyrannical traits play out in the gameplay, with the introduction of cameras and speakers that punish certain actions, albeit with clumsy results.

When the narrative hits its climax (without spoiling anything), the story threads coalesce into a satisfying revelation. That moment is the one part of Persona 5 Tactica that generated the same excitement that Persona 5 seemed capable of conjuring regularly. It's a shame that Tactica then goes and spoils it by dragging out the finale with unnecessary battles ahead of the last showdown.

Persona 5 Tactica doesn't capture the magic of Persona 5 or even Persona 5 Strikers. It may remind fans instead of the Persona Q games, dungeon-crawler spinoffs designed for the Nintendo 3DS. Those game have their fans, as Persona 5 Tactica surely will as well. Yet, while the game has its moments, there are too many flaws to earn a full-throated recommendation. Those who live at the intersection of "Persona fan" and "tactical RPG fan" will likely find it worth at least a look and die-hard Persona 5 fans probably won't want to miss another Phantom Thieves adventure. More casual Persona enjoyers will be fine passing on this outing.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Persona 5 Tactica releases November 17th for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review, played on a Nintendo Switch OLED.