For better or worse, I will play anything related to Persona 5. Persona 5 Royal is my favorite game, so this is simply how it must be. In the case of Persona 5 Strikers, it ended up being a very nice follow-up, with great new characters and gameplay that got me engaged in a genre I tend to shy away from. Unfortunately, the same did not occur with Persona 5 Tactica.

My experience with tactics games was almost non-existent before starting this. I had dabbled in a couple early Fire Emblem games but that was pretty much it. From the start of this game, I enjoyed all the different stylistic choices that made it feel right at home with other Persona 5 games. There’s a new graphical style which is super cute, but not out of place with the various ways these characters have been depicted. Attacks in battle, especially guns and melee, have a great sense of impact. When you’re at the hideout, you can see the party sitting around and just being themselves while they relax. I always love details like that; the original game did the same with its hideouts and safe rooms, and it’s a nice way to make the characters feel more realized.

The story took an interesting direction. I like seeing how games like this and Strikers build their plots to work within shorter timeframes compared to the sprawling hundred-hour original. Rather than each section being dedicated to an entirely new subplot, each part is now exploring a different aspect of one character: Toshiro Kasukabe. I liked him well enough. They went with an amnesia story which can be annoying, but I didn’t mind it here. Everyone’s blunt remarks about his cowardice, including his own, were pretty funny, and I appreciated that his arc brought him to a place of confidence by the end. Erina is also a decent character. It was fun to see her interactions with the rest of the party, but her best moments were always her interactions with Toshiro, which makes sense.

As for the actual plot, I’d call it mostly serviceable with a few interesting twists. Erina being a cognitive being who’s also Toshiro’s Persona was cool. The corrupt politics of Toshiro’s life were alright, but not the most interesting when compared to the stuff you see in Persona 5. Of course, there’s a lot less time to flesh anything out here, but it’s inevitable that the two stories will be compared anyway.

I have to say that I didn’t love how they handled the big reveal of how Toshiro’s school days ended. Maybe I missed something, but how did not a single one of the party members say something to the effect of “it wasn’t your fault” regarding Eri’s injury and the behavior of the other students? Yes, technically it was the movement he started which caused the whole series of events. But he was a student, and he was working for a just cause. Other people took things too far and tried to exploit it, which he didn’t really have control over. An adult man PUSHED SOMEONE IN FRONT OF A TRAIN. Toshiro blames himself for her injury, and that makes sense for the character. But all anyone can say is “you can’t let the past control you.” That’s a fine message, but NO ONE is going to even try to tell him that he shouldn’t blame himself? This isn’t a “Peter Parker causes Uncle Ben’s death” situation. Toshiro’s actions were selfless and the attack was one EVENTUAL consequence, many steps removed, of what he started. I could be overthinking this, but it bothered me during my playthrough.

Here's where I complain about the battles. Despite all the positives I’ve discussed thus far, the general experience of playing this game was an absolute slog. It’s just a constant loop of conversation and battle, conversation and battle. I realize that on the surface this just sounds like a general description of what many RPGs are, but there was just nothing to break up the tedium. Most of the battles felt exactly the same, as there wasn’t a huge variety of battle goals. They introduced different gimmicks in the new areas, like the “school rules” restricting skill usage, but those just extended fights that were already uninteresting because there’s not much room for different strategies. You just need to knock over an enemy and then make a triangle for an all-out attack. This is your best bet in your early battles and it never stops working. The maps don’t seem designed to force you to think outside the box. The obstacles aren’t a fun challenge; they just feel like a waste of time because you know exactly how every interaction is going to go.

And the boss battles are the absolute worst offenders. The first one is fine, but the others involve painstakingly approaching and slowly chipping away at their oversized health bars without anything to make them truly engaging. I will say that I played on a lower difficulty, which could be an explanation for why the opposition in these fights wasn’t particularly threatening. However, the map navigation was the biggest issue. And these fights already took forever on easy, so I can only imagine how much time they would take if I also had to manage my health even more closely.

I was so burnt out on these battles that I took a break partway through the game and played Fire Emblem: Awakening. I want to keep this review focused on Persona, and I know it’s not exactly fair to play a highly acclaimed staple of the genre back-to-back with this spinoff. However, all the complaints I’ve discussed here were already problems for me before I took that break. If anything, playing Fire Emblem when I did only reassured me that there was more fun to be had in tactics than I was getting here.

I enjoyed the story and characters well enough to give my opinion on this game a boost, but overall Persona 5 Tactica is very flawed. Once I finish the DLC (which I very smartly paid for before the game even released) I don’t think I’ll ever revisit it.