Persona 5 Tactica Review – Return Among Friends

If you are in tempo, you are ipsum vince.

When the latest game in the series, Persona 5, was announced, I was somewhat suspicious of it. This was mainly due to the noticeably different “chibi” art stylization, which at first glance appears to be a “cute version for children”. Then, when it was announced that the game would be rated “teen” (the original Persona 5 was, of course, “mature”), my concerns increased even more. Oddly enough, I was more interested in this than a complete change in genre/combat style to turn-based strategy, because as great as the Persona games were in terms of gameplay, what I always liked most about them was the characters, their relationships, and the story. While Tactica does come across as a little frivolous in this aspect, I can happily confirm that it’s not nearly as bad as I feared. The Phantom Thieves are back and they will make you laugh and move as efficiently as ever.

• Platform: PS5 (review) PS4, X1, XSX|S, PC, Switch
• Publication date: 16/11/2023
• Manufacturer: P-Studio (Tokyo, Japan)
• Genre: Step-by-step strategy
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: No
• Download data: 24 GB
• Game time: 40+ hours
• Price: CZK 1,469 (Steam)

Old friends and new heroes

Like Persona 5 Strikers (our review here), this game’s story also ignores the additional chapters, characters, and new epilogue from the excellent re-release of the original Persona 5 Royal (our review here). Luckily, we’ll meet at least some of these additional characters (Akechi and Kasumi) in a DLC with separate story and game mechanics, released on the same day as the game itself – unfortunately, this DLC was not available for review. goals. The main reason for ignoring the royal epilogue seems to be its impact on the story and the fates of the characters. In short, it’s easier to follow the original game, in this case even before its initial conclusion, which is the stage when the Phantom Thieves are more or less at the peak of their activity and fame.

If you haven’t played Persona yet, you can definitely immerse yourself in the game’s story, but you’ll be missing out on some of the best party formations and formations in video game history. I highly recommend playing Episode 5 first if you want the best experience. In any case, Tactica is a standalone adventure and includes its own encyclopedia of characters, places and events, so even beginners can find their way around. The main stars are, of course, great characters who are superbly written and acted and will easily win your heart. While meeting at a popular café, this group of high school students are transported to a mysterious kingdom reminiscent of medieval Europe, where they must don costumes and take up weapons (think of it as stepping into the Matrix) to fight the dictatorial regime of the local Legionnaire organization. I’ve written about this in other reviews and I’ll say it again, but the story of desperate civilian resistance to military attack takes on a completely different dimension this time thanks to events in our real world.

The story of desperate civilian resistance to military attack.

Thanks to the writers and actors, this gang of guys and gals (plus a magical cat) is just as good as the original game and is absolutely guaranteed to keep you laughing and moving as always. As with the royal encore, here, quite surprisingly, the spotlight is gradually taken over by new characters who are beautifully introduced, and the revelation of their roles and the twists and turns of their journey not only amused me, but also shocked me on more than one occasion. It’s just a shame that when the story dares to throw you for a loop with an unexpected and unexpectedly brutal twist, it then finds a way to lighten things up a bit – this would have been a much more powerful experience if the writers had dared to follow through. these things with all that it implies. However, I’m sure that if you liked the original Persona 5, you’ll like this game too. Including thanks to absolutely excellent music, including both new compositions and songs, as well as excellent remixes of the original ones. Again, the menus, including the animation, are very stylish.

Chess, grenade launchers and crossing monsters

While you spend a huge portion of the game talking to characters and cutscenes (you can skip them all, of course), the core is the tactical strategy on the battlefield itself. It’s very easy to compare the game here to, for example, the later entries in the XCOM series or, more accurately, the Mario + Rabbids games. This way, you view the battlefield from an isometric perspective (you can rotate and zoom the camera) while your characters and enemies take turns, and the game space is divided into “squares” that you can move around according to characteristics this character. . Individual characters have unique weapons, spells and perks (there are skill trees for each character), and of course the game offers a number of more or less unique mechanics that you gradually learn.

This game can easily be compared to the XCOM series or the Mario + Rabbids games.

The best way to learn game mechanics is through so-called “Quests” side missions, which are clearly structured in such a way that they cannot be solved/completed unless you understand and apply advanced game mechanics such as “One More”. or Triple Threat. So in practice, these side missions work almost like puzzles rather than classic combat missions. I’m sorry to say that I found myself stuck on some of them for maybe an hour or even ten or more tries, although the end result is that the mission can be completed in a few minutes once you figure out the solution. In the main campaign, the difficulty is adjustable, and you also have the ability to “farm” already completed missions (your entire party’s levels together, which is good for a variety of character rotations), so avid turn-based strategy fans and those just looking for a story will find something there place.

Although the game has a simplistic art style, it is narrative driven, and most of the time I felt like I was just playing another big, epic, modern Persona. The creators supposedly wanted to not only try to launch a new game genre within the series, but also tell a new story – they paid a lot of attention to both, and the result is in many ways comparable to the best that came out of this highly successful series. given in the past. Above all, I enjoyed experimenting with new weapons and most importantly, crossing monsters and demons is just as fun here as in any Persona – plus Miss Lavenza has perhaps the nicest voice of any video game character. It probably won’t surprise you that the game not only looks and sounds great, but it also technically runs perfectly, at least on the PS5 console. Although there were some softening of the plot that froze me here and there (see above) and some quests could have used better help, the game gradually wrapped me around its finger and completely engrossed me.