Winner of numerous game awards, Persona 5 has grown into many forms: action-RPG (Persona 5 Strikers), dungeon crawler (Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth), and rhythm game (Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight), as well as the original JRPG. Now, Persona 5 Tactica, the first strategy-RPG in the series, is coming on November 17.
This new game combines the original’s turn-based battles with the fast-paced elements of strategy, where the location and coordination of allies and enemies are crucial. The game takes place in a new Metaverse called the Kingdoms. Players form a party of three from among the members of the Phantom Thieves of the Hearts and Erina, who is a newcomer for this title, and conquer missions while developing their characters through skill trees and Personas.
Battles are just as satisfying as you would expect of the Persona series, with gameplay elements like shooting enemies while taking cover, downing enemies with Persona attacks to get One Mores, and launching All-Out Attacks with your party. It has a greater pace than the usual strategy RPG, and we believe that you will feel like you are playing Persona 5 in a whole new way.
However, the story is just as interesting as the gameplay. Many are wondering if the tale this game tells is set between Persona 5 and Persona 5 Strikers.
Persona 5 Tactica is not a story that fills in two blank periods between the two games. The story will be a selection of points throughout in the Persona 5 timeline, told in a new way. If the original Persona 5 is a serialized drama that depicted a long period of time, Persona 5 Tactica is like a theatrical version that condenses it into a single event, told from a fresh perspective. It’s not a canon new story in the Persona 5 timeline, but a fascinating retelling.
The reason that the Phantom Thieves of Hearts operated in Persona 5 was to change the hearts of adults with twisted desires. However, another new character in Persona 5 Tactica, Toshiro Kasukabe, disagrees with that approach. He is a politician who has wandered into another world and is rumored to be the next prime minister in the real world. Different standpoints may lead to having different perspectives, so ideas and themes that have not appeared in the original title may be seen. Since the Persona 5 series has featured a variety of adults, Kusukabe has also been the focus of a lot of attention from the fans – but you’ll have to wait for release discover more about this intriguing new figure.
One other character making their debut in this game is Erina, the leader of the Rebel Corps within this new Metaverse. The Phantom Thieves and Erina form a deal, in which she asks for their cooperation with her revolution in exchange for helping them return to their original world. Therefore, although she works together with the Phantom Thieves, she does not become one of them. At the beginning of development, Erina was envisioned as a highly independent person with strong passion and energy. This is because the character symbolizes “revolution,” which is the keyword of this game. However, we realized that there was a possibility that she would not mix well with the members of the Thieves if we left her character as that, so we tried to strike a balance with that bold personality by also adding facets to her that are easy to like, such as her sometimes charging into a situation without thinking or drawing things with a very unique style.
Even with lots of focus on Erina, we were afraid that the original Persona 5 characters may take the spotlight regardless. In other words, the major challenge was for the new character to be loved in the same way. We spent a lot of time adjusting the character designs and lines, but that is not enough to overcome the challenge.
Our goal became to make Erina a playable character. Instead of simply having the new characters push the story forward, we wanted to put them at the forefront of the battle. Naturally, we needed to create all elements from scratch, including her animations and traits in battle, just as we did for the members of the Phantom Thieves. We thought it was necessary for the character to grow with the player to be loved.
The story will take a major turn when the Phantom Thieves, Erina, and Toshiro meet. Are you ready to run through the revolutionary world with them? The revolution is about to begin!