Persona 5 Tactical pleasantly surprised me.
I’ve been looking forward to a good tactical RPG all year. Fire Emblem commits did not live up to its titleending in a shallower channel Three houses. (Yes friend, to commit actually came out This year.) And THE Advanced Wars restarts Bored me to tears. Even though I wasn’t really looking to Persona 5 Tactical to fill the hole Marvel’s Midnight Suns left behind – please go play this game, just…please! — nevertheless, the first hours of play were a delight.
Persona 5 Tactical is a tactical RPG that builds on your love for Character 5 and his Phantom Thieves. If you played Character 5 / Royal / The strikers, you already know what you’re expecting: characters, melded characters, coffee, curry, a bunch of adorable characters, and a bitchy soundtrack. What is new is the setting and the combat. Instead of Vanilla’s turn-based RPG battles Character 5or the hack n’ slash 1 against 100 fighting in The strikers, Tactical takes a strategic approach with flair and flavor P5 fans will know him.
Fight in Tactical takes place on a map divided into tiles like any other tactical RPG. Your units have a set number of tiles they can move, and they can take advantage of a map’s particular layout to hide behind barriers or detonate explosive barrels and any enemies that might be nearby. ‘they. Each unit is equipped with a pistol that can knock enemies back – earning them a “one more” or second attack phase – and a melee weapon that can knock enemies out of cover. Summon monsters called Personas return armed with abilities that support your allies or inflict status debuffs on your enemies.
I think about what I didn’t like Advanced Wars Or Fire Emblem commits were the relative insensitivity of both games when it came to combat. They both operated on a sort of “rock, paper, scissors” model that made fighting trivial. Tacticalwith its wealth of Character 5-specific mechanics tailored to the RPG strategy model – “one more” attacks, Persona status issues, triple threat attacks, etc. » offer fights that require a little more brainpower to complete. The game’s quest feature is currently my favorite aspect of the game for this reason. Instead of story-advancing missions, quests are short combat scenarios that require you to defeat all enemies with a specific team composition, map layout, and turn limit.
On my first quest, I had to fight two groups of healthy enemies surrounded by impassable barriers in just two turns. Although the task seemed easy at first, after a few failures, I had to deepen my knowledge. Character 5-user knowledge base (and the game’s tutorial menu) to determine the best course of action. I had to think very carefully about ally placement and use of personal abilities in order to create the circumstances necessary to win within the strict time limit. I love that kind of video game problem solving. That kind of “good brain scratch” feeling is why I enjoyed Viewfinder And Cocoon so much, and there are elements of that in the pieces of Tactical I have played so far.
In Tactical, the Phantom Thieves have been transported to a new cognitive world in which they must fight a tyrannical and oppressive bridezilla with the help of a rebel army of freedom fighters heavily influenced by the revolutionary atmosphere of France. The game’s chibi art style and wacky villain designs, coupled with themes of revolution and violent struggle against oppression (themes that are currently prescient in AF) create an engaging environment. At one point, Erina – the newest addition to the Phantom Thieves – possesses a spear that transforms into a banner reading “Si vis pacem, te ipsum vince”, which roughly translates to “If you want peace, overcome -YOU “. Oh yeah, this game is really my shit.
I appreciated how much Tactical builds on the stories that came before it rather than doing what other spinoffs tend to do and treating its original property like it never happened. I expected a small portion of the game’s story to be spent explaining to new characters what a Phantom Thief is, and I was excited to see a new character already in the know.
I also appreciated how the Phantom Thieves themselves acknowledged the passage of time and each character’s circumstances. Makoto, one of the thieves, will graduate soon, while Joker will have to return home. Futaba, although rehabilitated after being locked up, still remains uncomfortable around new people. Tacticalas The strikers before that, allowed these characters to grow instead of remaining in suspended derivative animation.
I should be annoyed with Atlus and its steadfast refusal to vaguely hint at anything. Character 6-formed in favor of remakes, reissuesAnd genre reboots Character 5. But if he continues to create not-quite-quality sequels like Persona 5 TacticalI can just wait a little longer.
Persona 5 Tactical is now available on consoles, PC and Xbox Game Pass.
