About five hours into Persona 5 Tactica, the tactical RPG spin-off of the Phantom Thievesā supernatural adventures through corrupted Tokyo, I find myself thinking about Persona 5 Royal more than whatās going on in this groupās latest adventure. This is less a condemnation of Tactica than it is the broader handling of Persona 5 and all its spin-offs and extended media since the original game launched in 2016.
Tactica is fine enough so far. As we talked about in our last preview, the tactical combat riffs on Personaās established turn-based mechanics by retooling them for a position-based, strategic battle system that is a bit simple at first, but ramps up a few hours in. The soundtrack is full of bangers, including new songs performed by Persona 5ās signature vocalist Lyn and remixes of old tracks. Plus, itās always a delight to see Joker, Ryuji, and all their friends once again.
Much of what Iāve played in the first five hours is what I saw back in August, save for a few more story beats. The mysteries arenāt that juicy thus far, but I wonāt spoil them here. Instead, Iām reflecting Persona 5ās family of spin-offs, and how Tactica falls into the same traps every game before it fell into, but Iām hopeful it might crawl out of it by the end.
Pre-order Persona 5 Tactica: Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop
With rumors of Persona 6 floating around, every time I see the Phantom Thieves feels like it could be my last, and that means wrestling with what I want out of a Persona 5 spin-off, and wondering why they havenāt hit the same as the original.
Persona 5ās spin-offsā story struggles
Tactica ignores the new conclusion added in Royal by conveniently taking place during the original story, rather than adding onto it. ItĀ doesnāt go as far as the Strikers does by pretending Royal never happened, but it does seem hellbent on not acknowledging anything that came from the ādefinitiveā ending of the beloved RPG so far. Persona 5 Royal launched three years after the original and is the version that was ported to every other platform under the sun. Its new finale put the Phantom Thieves on different paths that felt like a profound way to conclude the original story, introduced characters who added to the Phantom Thievesā tale, and added a redemption arc for a villain the base game only hinted at.
After all that setup, Persona 5ās spin-offs have done everything in their power to push Royal, its new characters, and new arcs out of the collective consciousness. The series has found ways around moving Persona 5ās story forward, whether that be through Strikers not taking place within the Royal timeline or, Tactica, Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth, and Dancing in Starlight all slotting within a story thatās already been told. Why did I play another 120 hours if we were all just going to forget it happened?
Persona 3 and 4ās casts got farewells in spin-off games that gave us a sense of who they would become, whereas Persona 5ās cast feels frozen in amber, unable to be more than they were at the end of base Persona 5. And Royalās ending has been pretty much relegated to a profound āwhat ifā scenario. Seeing the Phantom Thieves in Tactica is like meeting up with friends I havenāt seen in a long timeābut thatās like every time I get to play a new Persona 5 game (of which there are now five), so itās starting to feel like seeing friends who Iām slowly running out of things to talk about with. Nothing has changed since we last saw each other, even if their chibi art style is different and the standard turn-based combat has been replaced with a tactical battle system that feels overly simple in the shadow of Baldurās Gate 3
Persona 5 Tactica may have some of that story progression waiting at the end, and given that Akechi and Royal add-on character Sumire are stars of the gameās day-one DLC Repaint Your Heart, it at least confirms that Tactica takes place within Royalās canon. But it, once again, slotting into the margins of Persona 5ās story instead of being additive has reignited this particular frustration. It also has me wondering what I want out of a Persona 5 spin-offāand if I even want more of them.
For the last decade, Iāve been perfectly content to eat up whatever Persona spin-off Atlus and P-Studio wanted to crank out. I adore the Dancing games, Persona 4 Arena is an all-timer, I would have loved a Persona 5 fighting game, and the Q games were a low-stakes, fan-servicey romp through some really well-designed dungeons. But Persona 5ās spin-offs are caught in a weird placeāthey feel like theyāre just offering more of fan-favorite characters without ever actually doing anything with them, locking them in an eternal stasis, a prison of perpetuity.
Am I outgrowing a cast developer Atlus refuses to let grow up? I hope not. But it does make me wonder if itās maybe time to just move on to the next thing, as much as I donāt want to say goodbye yet.
Weāll have a full review up ahead of Persona 5 Tacticaās November 17 launch on PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch.
Pre-order Persona 5 Tactica:Ā Amazon | Best Buy | GameStop
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