The Persona series has always felt like the digital equivalent of comfort food for me. Sure, the subject matter can get rather intense and boss encounters might raise the ol’ blood pressure a tad higher than usual, but it’s the moments in between the action that do most of the heavy lifting. The world, characters, soundtrack, and unique art direction all contribute to the overall charm the series has become well-known for, and it’s remarkably easy to find yourself so engrossed with the franchise’s universe and storylines that it becomes all you can think about at any given moment.

Developed by P-Studio and published by Sega outside of Japan, Persona 5 Tactica, a spin-off of the latest mainline entry, Persona 5, mostly nails everything mentioned above, while taking the combat experience we’ve all come to expect and throwing it out the window - instead focusing on a more tactical approach to its core gameplay with mostly successful results. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to deny, however, that the Phantom Thieves’ escapades are starting to wear a little thin.



It’s unclear when exactly the events of Tactica take place, although the opening dialogue sequences seem to indicate sometime towards the ending of the original title. This doesn’t really matter in the long run, as we’re dealing with a spin-off here and not rock-solid canon. Timeline specifics aside, our rowdy gang of Phantom Thieves once again find themselves inexplicably thrust into the Metaverse while inside Café LeBlanc (of all places). Alongside a few new supporting characters like the Rebel Corps leader, Erina, and amnesiac Diet member, Toshiro Kasukabe, Joker and friends will have to find a way back to their world while dealing with the nefarious forces of Legionnaires and their maniacal rulers oppressing the inhabitants of the various Kingdoms within the alternate reality - uncovering the truth behind this strange turn of events along the way.

Sound director and composer Toshiki Konishi absolutely nails the score here, by the way.

And they’ll do it all while rocking a vibrant and adorable chibi aesthetic, accompanied by the usual mix of visual novel-esque conversations complete with some impressively emotive 2d sprite artwork, still images, and animated cutscenes of both the 2D and 3D variety. Environmental assets bear the same simplistic, cartoonish qualities displayed in the character design and it works in the game’s favour – you’d be forgiven for mistaking Tactica for a high-budget and exceptionally polished mobile game, though, because of the fact. Sound director and composer Toshiki Konishi absolutely nails the score here, by the way, and the return of the instantly recognisable vocals of Lyn Inaizumi on a small number of tracks makes for one truly authentic Persona 5 connection, tonally speaking.



While still turn-based, combat this time around places greater emphasis on strategic thinking and utilises a grid-based navigation system within each level’s map. Up to three characters can take to the field at a time (Joker is not mandatory), with the option to swap out, or Baton Pass, any KO’d ally with another benched party member waiting in the wings. Taking cover behind any of the surrounding environmental objects is crucial for mitigating incoming enemy attacks and places your character in a “resist” stance. Getting attacked twice here counts as a critical hit - dealing extra damage, downing you in the process and netting the attacker a “1 More”, or another free turn. The same goes for if you ever find yourself staring down the barrel of an enemy firearm while out in the middle of nowhere, with nary a box or table to cower behind in sight, except it only takes one attack this time, as you aren’t in that precious “resist” state.

All of these rules apply to your party’s offence as well, and the key to your victory lies in remembering these basic concepts and exploiting the hell out of them for your own personal gain. For massive damage, surrounding a group of enemies with all three units lets you unleash a Triple Threat, or All-Out Attack – just make sure that at least one of your party members is currently in the “1 More” phase. If you’ve played a mainline Persona title before, this combat strategy (minus the targeting of the enemy’s elemental weaknesses) and these terms will no doubt ring a few bells.



Every attack landed (and every attack taken) also contributes to filling up the Voltage meter on the bottom right of the screen, allowing for the usage of more powerful unique skills once the star-shaped icon is filled to the brim, emptying it entirely afterwards. Interestingly, in addition to every Phantom Thief’s default persona making a comeback, including their respective abilities, a bonus sub-persona can be equipped to each party member – widening their available pool of abilities to draw from. Now Ryuji, too, can wield the power of the wildcard, albeit in a severely neutered form compared to how it appeared in Persona 5.

Long story short: combat is addictively engaging and never once felt stale or repetitive throughout my playthrough.

As with any title containing traces of Shin Megami Tensei’s blood running through its veins, buffs and status ailments (like despair and burn) are still present and can obviously be used by enemies as well as your crew. Every Phantom Thief’s persona focuses on inflicting one specialised ailment – Yusuke, for example, can freeze an enemy in its tracks and force it to skip a turn. Haru’s hypno ailment, meanwhile, compels any struck enemy to move towards her. Equipping sub-personas holding abilities with differing debuffs from a party member’s default offerings is a good way to cover all bases within a fight. Long story short: combat is addictively engaging and never once felt stale or repetitive throughout my playthrough.



When you’re not out there dealing with the hordes of enemies seeking to impede your quest progress by any means necessary, you’re relaxing inside a reconstruction of LeBlanc. In the case of the first Kingdom, or chapter, this haven of coffee and curry has been repurposed as a base of operations for Erina’s rebellious organisation and serves as a hub in between battles. From here, you’re able to purchase and equip weapons provided by (a surprisingly hilarious) Lavenza, fuse personas and equip sub-personas inside the Velvet Room (also usable immediately before jumping into the level proper), save your progress, or just kick back and watch the amusing looping animations of the team hanging out and chatting.

Side quests, or challenge maps, as I prefer to call them, appear at varying story moments and are accessible from the LeBlanc hub as well. These brief diversions from the ongoing narrative throw you into a scenario where level completion is dependent on meeting specific criteria using pre-selected characters, like defeating all enemies or reaching a designated location within a set number of turns. These are identical to the optional objectives tied to the replayable campaign battles, which can be treated as an added incentive for rewards or as an optional series of goals. While the gameplay itself doesn’t ever become too difficult, hitting some of those bonus checkmarks will be made a lot easier by increasing your Phantom Thieves level – which will naturally happen through plot progression, side-questing, or simply revisiting past maps.



The Phantom Thieves level replaces individual experience bars for all party members, improving all stats with every attained rank and dishing out GP (or Growth Points) used for upgrading character skill trees. Spending this currency on unlocking new abilities and extra HP and SP boosts is something you’re going to want to prioritise before heading off to the next skirmish and advancing the story. The café menu makes it clear as daylight whether moving forward will result in an actual battle, or simply trigger one of the many conversations thrown in between the levels.

I found myself itching to skip the majority of the dialogue here, minus major plot points, as there’s just so much of it that feels unnecessarily bloated and poorly paced.

Speaking of which, while copious amounts of text are nothing new for long-time Persona fans, myself included, Tactica really lays the back-and-forth repetition on thick. For the first time in any Persona game, spin-off or otherwise, I found myself itching to skip the majority of the dialogue here, minus major plot points, as there’s just so much of it that feels unnecessarily bloated and poorly paced. Not all of it is tedious, thankfully, and most of the genuinely entertaining exchanges tend to come from the humour found within the numerous optional conversations initiated at the café. Plus, they pay out a small GP bonus upon completion.



Another minor annoyance lies in the repeated playback of introductory dialogue at the start of each level, even after hitting the retry button. I understand why P-Studio decided to leave this in, and not treat the establishing scenes as a one-off moment but it really starts to drive you up the wall when you’re restarting a map multiple times in quick succession because you keep making stupid mistakes, pre-emptively mashing the skip button to just get to the fight as quickly as possible.

Despite its occasionally dragging storytelling, the enjoyable gameplay of Persona 5 Tactica makes the overall experience worth a playthrough for any franchise die-hard. If you’re feeling even slightly fatigued at the prospect of another Phantom Thieves-centric adventure, however, it’s likely that not even a switch-up in combat design and art style is going to inspire newfound wonder and excitement here.

*PS5 Review code provided by Sega | Reviewed by Ryan Pretorius