Preview: Persona 5 Tactica Is a Twist on the Familiar

Atlus decided to take the Persona series in an entirely different direction with at least with one of its spin-off titles. Persona 5 Tactica is exactly what you’d expect from its title. It’s a tactical game set in the universe of Persona 5. Featuring an entirely new story with a returning cast of characters, it’s a new spin on something familiar. And while it being a tactics title may turn some off, it’s more than accommodating to those unfamiliar with the genre.

Persona 5 Tactica features a wide range of difficulty modes, which makes it approachable to players who are otherwise unfamiliar with tactics games. The easiest difficulty is more focused on story, allowing you to clear stages with ease even if you don’t play the game as intended. Which is great, since Persona 5 Tactica is a lot deeper than one might expect.

Instead of traditional tile based movement, players can move their individual party members freely over a set radius. While your end point will always be a title, the game provides a decent illusion of being more dynamic than other games that share the genre, like Fire Emblem or Tactics Ogre. Additionally, line of sight will be important when attacking foes, especially at a distance, because if your line of sight is broken by a party member you will not be able to attack an enemy. This makes unit placement your primary concern, along with taking cover.

The cover mechanic is something all players will want to keep in mind, as taking cover can either reduce or completely negate damage. This goes both ways, as any enemies behind cover will take reduced damage. Your party will need to use melee attacks to knock enemies out of cover and strategically push them around the field to deal the full amount of damage with your ranged attacks. Additionally, lining up your characters into a triangle formation will allow you to perform a Triple Threat attack (which is the game’s All Out Attack), with any enemy caught in the triangle taking significant damage.

You can also use your Personas to perform special attacks. These vary between characters, with some providing debuffs and others performing area of effect attacks. These are mostly situational and do require some positioning to use effectively. There is also an entirely new character introduced in Persona 5 Tactica, Erina. I wasn’t given the opportunity to really get to know her, outside of her melee skill which knocks enemies back a few tiles and was useful in positioning enemies in later fights.

And Persona 5 Tactica is just as stylish as Persona 5, with menus consisting of slick motion graphics and loading screens awash in swirling patterns of red and black. It’s everything you would expect from a Persona 5 spin-off, even if the visual style is more in line with Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. Characters are still incredibly animated, and the 3D style works well with the simplified designs of Persona 5’s colorful cast of characters. The environments I saw were sparsely detailed, but were effective in their design — mostly because they served as battlefields over explorable areas where you could interact with NPCs.

Major cutscenes are in 3D and are cel shaded, and works well with the style. There are of course dialogue boxes that pop up when characters are communicating with one another, and these are accompanied by small illustrations. I was given a small glimpse into the narrative as well, which focuses on the disappearance of a political candidate for the Japanese Diet. The Phantom Thieves are then sucked back into the Metaverse, now tangled up in this new mystery.

Overall, Persona 5 Tactica is a great entry for those new to the genre, and is a treat for returning fans of Persona 5 specifically. The combat is snappy and fun, and if you put in enough effort feels extremely rewarding. It’s a game that will definitely take some time to master, but feel rewarding if you do. And while I wasn’t the biggest fan of Persona 5, I’m actually willing to give this game a spin based on what I played.

Persona 5 Tactica is in development and will come out on November 17, 2023 for the PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PC via Steam.

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