This is by no means a bad game, and like most of the Persona spinoff titles, does an admirable job of translating the staples and mechanics of the RPG games into a wholly new genre. However, I will say that 1) I'm not a huge fan of tactics titles and P5T doesn't offer up anything to turn me around on the genre, and 2) as much as I adore the Persona 5 cast (P5 is one of my all-time favorite games), I'm kinda over these characters now. Strikers was a fantastic game and a solid sendoff to the Phantom Thieves, and when it came to an end I was ready to move on to the next generation of Persona.

That was almost three years ago; P5 itself was seven years ago. I know they got a good eight years of milking out of Persona 4 too but to see them do it again...I'll be honest, it kind of sours me on the gang the longer this drags on. Persona 5 Tactica makes zero arguments for its existence; it's a dull, super non-canon sidestory in a style of game no one was really asking for. Please, let this be the last one Atlus. LET US BE FREE.

With the game having so much going against it, from an admittedly strange art style change to much different gameplay, as well as P3Reload coming so soon. Despite this, the game is still great and the style grew on me hugely. The gameplay is great, albeit maybe slightly too easy (a recurring issue with persona 5, apparently) as well as the story dropping off towards the end, but for the vast majority of the game keeps up the momentum with two great new characters, Toshiro especially is fantastic.
Definitely worth playing, don't sleep on it.

A familiar cast, though with less room to shine, and a story with familiar themes (rebellion, revolution, liberation).

Overall, a pretty competent spin-off title, but definitely not for everyone. The story doesn't really grip you until you're in the latter half of the game and you start to unravel the mystery behind the new characters, but I did enjoy the gameplay. It's like a puzzle game since stages feature moving parts like elevators and such, and these levels of elevation play into the combat. As for Personas in this game, they now have debuffs and effects for every element, such as wind launching enemies across the stage, which can be used to combo with another party member, giving you another consecutive turn. The point being you are always trying to chain attacks together between your party, then lining them up in a triangle formation for an all out attack. They made it so everyone can equip a sub persona instead of the main character having the wild card ability from the main game.

That's the core gameplay loop, and there's even unique boss battles thrown in. I think the new characters are actually pretty likeable too, and the final ending scene between them left me feeling satisfied.

So, should you play it? If you really want more Persona 5, sure, but otherwise I'd say wait for it to go on sale.

Once you get past the jump scare of this being a Rabbids-like, this game has a lot of really interesting ideas on display.

It's notably light on story, and I think the promise of Persona + tactics might set expectations higher than this game is aiming. But so far, I've found it really charming and fun!

I hope Atlus keeps experimenting with this mashup of genre because I could see this growing into a great spin-off series.

Not a perfect game, but a fun one indeed.

I do think the first half was dragged a lot, but the last half was good and overall i liked the (again) new way to bring the P5 style to another genre.

Like i said in my Strikers review: i will be there for every last drop of milk Atlus get from P5... See you next year my fellow thieves!

this is definitely one of the Persona 5 games of all time.

idk how to eloquently describe my likes and dislikes without a simple bullet list so here goes

likes:
• the first half of the game was enjoyable to play through
• toshiro and erina are fantastic characters, they really put their whole atlussy into them.
• I liked the art style mostly because it was sort of a lankier style of chibi compared to PQ2.
• the gameplay was engaging, albeit a bit easy, and the mechanics kept the game decently fresh throughout the story
• I found the story to be entertaining and some of the twists were cool as fuck.

dislikes:
• the music in this game doesn't really hit as hard as I'd like it to and it ends up just being pretty forgettable compared to the crazy soundtrack that Strikers dropped
• the latter half of the game's mission structure was pretty repetitive
• the first kingdom is too long, in comparison to the other kingdoms, and it skewed my perception on the length of the game into thinking it would be longer/spread out more.
• the final boss fight, and the music that played during it, was rather underwhelming
• futaba got so annoying with the navigation to the point where I was just wishing she'd shut up, lol. she did not have to congratulate my controlled character every single time they got into cover or land an attack.

overall, this game can be a hit or a miss depending on your interests. (it was right up my alley as I liked Mario + Rabbids and that's what drew me to the gameplay the most.) try this game out on game pass if you like tactics games and Persona 5. also, spoilers if you haven't played either base Persona 5 or Persona 5 Royal (if you plan on buying the DLC) as this game takes place after the events of P5.

Me surpreendeu!

A história, apesar do baixíssimo orçamento e os clichês de Persona, é EXCELENTE! O Toshiro e a Erina são personagens FANTÁSTICOS! Eu comparo a estrutura bastante com Persona Q, só que bem mais focada já que temos bem menos personagens.

Sobre a gameplay tática, eu não quero elaborar muito porque é o primeiro RPG tático que levo a sério na vida então não tenho nada pra comparar, mas o jogo é MUITO fácil. Só 2 missões principais me complicaram. As mecânicas no geral são bem satisfatórias, maneiro fazero all-out-attack e tudo mais.

Eu entendo quem esteja cansado já de P5 e etc, mas o Tactica é um jogo que sim, merece ser jogado! Estando no game pass e rodando em qualquer computador mixuruca ainda? Recomendação muito boa pra quem gosta da série!

Persona 5 Tactica is a weird game. Atlus had a myriad of quirky marketing tactics to stir up hype for it--like sand art and cakes--but even though I found myself pretty interested in the idea of a new strategy title within the SMT franchise, the excitement for it pre-launch was pretty sparse across the internet. A mere hour or two into Tactica was when I started to feel pretty lukewarm about it myself.

A lot of my complaints come down to one root problem; the price. Everything in and surrounding this game feels as though Atlus was clawing for any small justification over the full 60 dollar price tag, but nothing the game has to offer screams 'full price'. Padding is a noticeable issue throughout a majority of its runtime--most of the dialogue seems to either repeat already established plot points, or serve as fluff simply to allow every member of the Phantom Thieves equal opportunity to voice their thoughts. The first of the four Kingdoms--similar to the Palaces of Persona 5--hosts double the missions of any of the remaining three. Even before I knew the average mission count per Kingdom, I felt my interest in the first one slipping. The first and second Kingdoms, by comparison, felt the most interesting, as they seemed to contain the real brunt of the story that Tactica was trying to tell.

And make no mistake, it is an interesting story. Toshiro and Erina are the two new not-quite members Phantom Thieves, and the story centers very much around them both and no one else. When new aspects of their narrative were being revealed, I was definitely itching for more, however they're very stingily sprinkled between large swathes of same-y missions. The worst of this is within the final Kingdom, where you're made to fight through some of the longest missions in the game, and rematch each of the main bosses you've fought so far. There's no new story during any of this, it's just an excessive leadup to the final boss that had no place in being there save to justify the price tag.

Most of Persona 5 Tactica just had me asking... Why? Who is this game even for? It's not for strategy game fans, as the game is far too easy, even on it's harder difficulties. Fans of Devil Survivor will be yawning just as much as I did through most of it's gameplay. Then is it just for fans of Persona 5, and the Thieves? ... Maybe?? I couldn't shake this feeling of it being a middling game simply wearing the flayed skin of P5. The cool UI is there, but any further interaction with the Phantom Thieves is shallow at best. As for the music... When Persona 5 collabs with now dead mobile games have had tracks that go ten times harder than anything in your Persona 5 spinoff game, I think it's time to reevaluate.

I don't hate Persona 5 Tactica, there were fun times I had with it. Toshiro and Erina are likable, the story--when it's moving--is definitely cool. This is just another case of Atlus greed. I feel like if the 3DS were still alive, this could have legitimately been one of the crazier games on it. I just wouldn't pay more than 30 bucks for it, and sadly, I did!
Now more than ever, I think it's time to move onto other Personas. Unless it's another multi-cast game, I'd be happy if I didn't see the Phantom Thieves for another 40 years.

I went into P5T with mixed feelings. This is the 4th or 5th spinoff and it's been about 6-7 years since we first met the cast. For a game that was originally about 'taking your time' and letting time and experience change you, every new release aside from Royal has flattened the characters more and more. I wasn't expecting a ton of character development, nor is there any to be found.

As a Persona game there's a requisite amount of storytelling and visual novel elements so even when there's not much to say, half or more of the game takes place in dialogue exchanges. The character interactions hit all the familiar beats and the humor is there, but it never feels fresh. Ryuji and Morgana are at each other's throats, Yusuke is aloof, Haru is naive, etc. All of this feels like it's weighing the game down a bit, and I don't think the new characters or their troubles particularly carry the game. I like Erina and Kasakube well enough but there's not much substance to work with.

As far as gameplay, this game is very easy on Hard, and on Merciless it just seems to add more enemies to the point where it feels tedious instead of like a real challenge. Each character gets a "1 More" every time they knock down an enemy, and additionally you get an overpowered triangle attack, so it feels very easy to exploit these things. The only real challenge comes from beating these little puzzleboxes in as few turns as possible. It never feels like you're in any danger of actually getting killed or a game over. Instead its like the game wants you to eventually win, and come back later to get a better score. I understand some people may like gameplay loop but I think it takes the stakes out of the game.

Even if a character gets KO'd there's a baton pass so that they get replaced by someone with full HP and SP, so it can be advantageous to kill your own character. The game also has a cool spin on elemental attacks, where they work as status effects, so things like Bufu freezes, Garu knocks enemy back, and Psio hypnotizes the enemy... but it doesn't really get more complex than that and adding a few exploding barrels to the maps.

It's a very generous game if it's what you're into, and I can see why some people would love it, but it's just missing the stakes I am looking for from a strategy game.

My fucking good, what a boring piece of garbage.

I like Persona 5 just as much as the next persona but WHY ANOTHER GAME WITH SAME CHARACTERS JOKES AND STORY STYLE. it feels like atlus is a fucking slave of this game.

The gameplay and combat is just bootleg Disgaea with horrible SMT skin and the art style is just persona 5 but chibi, Erina is pretty cool tho, the 1 star is just for her.

This was a very difficult game for me to review. Overall I have to say I'm disappointed with the game. It has some great moments but is also really bogged down but a few things. First of all the gameplay as a huge tactics fan was overall very boring and easy. I will say at the end of chapter 3 the gameplay becomes way better and the tactical gameplay becomes fun, but that is way too late into the game especially when the first 2/3rds of the game are boringly easy.

The story took a long time to get going for me. The Phantom Thieves get basically no development because it takes place during P5. At least in Strikers it was after and was far more interesting. The focus is on the new characters for this game and while it's good I just didn't enjoy it as much as past Persona stories.

Overall if you are a Persona fan it's worth playing, but if you are just playing for the tactics I would recommend other games

I think to start this review one thing needs to be made very clear. I despite tactics gameplay. I do not like the challenge or the strategy involved, I do not like the difficulty, and it's just something I've personally never jived with,

I feel like Persona 5 Tactics was made for someone like me, more than the hardcore tactics fan. Someone who's a hardcore Persona fan, who maybe wants to dip their toe into something a little bit new.

Dare I say, by the end of this game, I enjoyed some of the creative style boss fights and gameplay. Not enough to try more difficult ones, but just enough to keep the experience from being Dull for me.

What really shines here for me is the story. Erina and Toshrio are fantastic characters, and just perfect additions to the persona cast. This is certainly more of a side story than Strikers (strikers was a proper epilogue really) but if I'm being honest, I think I enjoyed the story in this game even more than Strikers, based off the work by these two damn strong characters. Erina is someone so awesome I wish she was in the main cast. It's a shame she wasn't.

The music, as always is tremendous. My biggest complaints about this game (besides the gameplay being a style I don't really like), I think the side quests sucked. They were mostly puzzle based ones where you'd need a pretty exact solution to figure it out, and that just wasn't fun to me.

Overall though, This was a wonderful game, and a total surprise from me. I didn't even have plans to play it this year, but I gave it a shot and it hooked me. Persona games clearly hold a special place in my heart (from the tremendous Persona 5 Royal being one of my favorite games of all time) so I'll clearly give anything involving this cast a bit of a bump, but this one was genuinely fantastic in my opinion.

This game was a pleasant surprise, I wasn’t expecting to but I think I liked it about as much as Strikers.

Not really much to say about the gameplay- it isn’t particularly deep or challenging, at least on Normal, but it’s still pretty fun. The first few worlds are pretty good at having a decent enough variety of maps with each world and introducing new enemy types as it goes (though I do kinda wish there was one or two more, or at least some variation within the types), and the sidequests are more puzzle-like maps that test how effectively you can use the mechanics under pretty strict limitations- I kinda sucked at them, but people better at puzzle solving will probably find them a lot more fun. Story is also really good- as good as it could be Strikers often felt like “Persona 5 2”, basically just doing a lot of the same things as the original game for better or worse, but while it still kinda follows the Persona “formula” this one feels fresher with its smaller-scale, significantly more character focused story- it kind of reminds me of (pre-Ultimax) Arena with significantly more consistent writing, and that’s a great thing. The first 3/4ths of the game is really great, it’s some damn good Persona as far as storytelling goes, but unfortunately things kinda lose steam both gameplay and story wise in the last part of the game- with most of the core character work done, the story falls back into tired Persona clichés and the gameplay kinda starts repeating old concepts, battles and giving a real impression that it’s out of ideas. Still, the first three quarters of the game are good enough to generally make up for it, and the voice acting is fantastic throughout- this is probably the best-voiced Persona game ever, the veteran P5 cast kills it as usual and I really hope Leeanna Albanese and MacLeod Andrews, who play the excellent newcomers Erina and Toshiro, get a lot more attention from this- they’re relative unknowns with basically no other notable roles as of now, but they give probably the standout performances of the game. I also really appreciate its messages, especially in comparison to how Persona 5 itself depicted things; the original game basically showed the Thieves as superheroes that were the only ones fighting injustice in the world, but Tactica makes a real point of saying that ordinary people can (and should) also stand up and make a difference, and I think that's a lot more powerful than what the original game had to say.

Overall good game, would definitely recommend- I wouldn’t call it essential, the only Persona spinoff I think that might apply to is Arena, but it’s more Persona 5 and pretty great Persona 5 at that.