Persona 5 Tactica is the latest in the long line of games Atlus have made instead of Persona 5 Arena. More like Persona 5 Tantalus, am I right? For now though we have this; essentially Persona 5 XCOM with a more cartoonish art style where everyone has giant hands and feet are often a mere suggestion.
So the Phantom Thieves have entered into a mentally constructed world with a despotic ruler, as is their shtick, but there are two twists here. Firstly, they can’t leave, and each new map has a version of Leblanc they use as a hideout. Secondly, there’s a young woman named Erina spearheading a rebellion, so they join up with her to set about toppling the local dictator; a giant, pink woman called Marie (Marr-Ee-Eh, not Mah-ree) who’s obsessed with the perfect wedding. Along the way they find verbose, cowardly but determined to be responsible politician Toshiro Kasukabe, who recently vanished from the real world. It quickly becomes clear this is his story, and as the game goes on the bosses of each area are all closely tied to him and his miserable life and backstory. For the most part the story is good: Toshiro is likable and his development into a more confident, active person who learns from the Phantom Thieves and Erina is well done. Erina herself is charming and scrappy, and has good chemistry with the more responsible Toshiro, particularly early on when he’s desperate to run away and masks it as a tactical retreat, in contrast to her tendency to sprint headlong into danger. Toshiro’s backstory is grim and harrowing, and culminates in a really cool boss for what should be the final fight, having remembered the secret those who wish him harm insist is some terrible crime he committed. It should be the final boss, but it isn’t, because Persona 5 Tactica plays the same card the other games in the series do, as if it’s inextricably bound to the trope regardless of how tired it is. You beat that boss and confront Toshiro’s past, then it turns out it’s all down to the machinations of a god who wants to control how people think and feel for “The greater good”. Again. Four times this has happened and there’s only one of them I genuinely like. To add insult to injury, the game acts like you’re going to confront it for a final showdown only to be met with a boss rush, something I personally hate by the way, including that aforementioned really cool one, with all the weight and impact removed. I understand that a series about rebelling against injustice and those who seek to control others for nefarious purposes lends itself to a big bad who’s trying to control all of humanity, but I’m tired of it, and I really felt like it damaged the pacing and overall quality of the plot in this one.
Gameplay wise, it’s a lot like XCOM but with some key differences. Rather than a series of brutal, tactical skirmishes it feels more puzzle focused; you can move freely until you act, and scoring a critical hit on an enemy resets your movement range, letting you move indefinitely until you don’t get a crit. Said crits are guaranteed on enemies in certain circumstances; if they’re out of cover, if they’ve just been attacked with a Persona skill, things like that. There are a variety of enemies that have to be tackled in different ways, and every character other than Erina can have precisely one Persona in addition their own. These additional Personas have access to a variety of abilities but can only have two equipped and there are no items, so having a balance of attack, support and healing skills is key. The game also integrates height into combat; anyone on a higher level automatically gains the benefits of partial cover to anyone attacking from below, and if you melee an enemy off a high ledge towards an ally on the ground they’ll follow up by shooting them, gaining a “One More” extra turn. Speaking of cover there’s partial and full but it’s directional; full cover completely negates damage but only head on, if you’re flanked then it acts like partial cover. So that’s how it works, but how does it feel to play? The shift towards a less punishing, more puzzle-focused approach separates it from XCOM, but it feels enough like it to satisfy me, as someone who loved XCOM 2. It’s fun, and crucially still feels like Persona; the turn-based gameplay and implementation of skills, melee and firearms suit the IP more than the musou approach Strikers took. It’s not a patch on proper Persona combat but it’s an interesting approach that’s enjoyable and satisfying, and although easier and far more forgiving than XCOM (dying is a slap on the wrist; you can swap in fresh phantom thieves and all that happens to the dead ones is they start the next level without a buff), has enough good ideas to scratch that particular itch.
So then, how does the fifth (not including PQ2) Persona 5 game stack up? Better than Strikers, not as good as Dancing In Starlight, P5 or P5R. It’s an interesting choice of gameplay mechanics that are less punishing and tactical than XCOM but make up for it with a more puzzle-focused approach, and apart from the final act it has a good story with likable characters and well-done revelations and arcs. I have no idea how long they’re going to keep making games about the Phantom Thieves or if they’re going to make P5 Arena, but I’ll keep playing them. Don’t forget about Persona 6 though, yeah?
By James Lambert
@jameslambert18
The Reviewing Floor 