Persona 5 Tactica is making the tactics genre more approachable than ever

After being a beloved series in the RPG community for almost 15 years, Persona 5 finally launched the wider Persona franchise into the mainstream in 2017 thanks to its over-the-top, slick, and stylish presentation. Since then, developer Atlus has tastefully built off that success. We’ve received an updated version of Persona 5 with its Royal edition, Joker joined the fight in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the Phantom Thieves starred in a variety of spinoffs that dipped into the action-RPG and rhythm game genres. Now, the Persona 5 crew is taking on the tactics genre in the fittingly titled Persona 5 Tactica. While my PAX West demo of Persona 5 Tactica was brief and did not contain any story content, it still showed me how the strategy game is making itself approachable for casual players in a way that’s not so different from what Persona 5 did for RPGs so many years ago. I love tactics games, but I’m admittedly not very good at them. I almost always enjoy a good challenge, but the genre tends to be heavy on complex management that can leave me overthinking every choice. Battles can be long and slow too, so if I end up losing, I feel like I lost a lot of time. That said, I love the strategy behind many tactics games, which usually lets me push past that friction. If you’re like me, then Persona 5 Tactica is definitely an upcoming tactics title that you should put on your radar. It makes combat straightforward with a singular goal of unleashing a “Triple Threat.” Tactica is a cover-based tactics game where hiding behind walls will lower the chance of being hit. If an enemy is caught out in the open and hit with a weakness, they will give the other player a powerful resource called 1more if hit. The Triple Threat loop calls back to Persona 5’s “all-out attack” system. In that game, constantly hitting each enemy with their weakness allows the party to unleash an absolute assault on them to deal massive damage. Atlus is implementing a similar mechanic to Tactica, in the form of Triple Threat. A Triple Threat can happen when three party members create a triangle formation around an enemy after obtaining enough 1mores. It plays out similarly to an all-out attack with a red splash screen and each party member dealing out damage. Despite how little playing time I had with the game, Persona 5 Tactica was able to teach me quickly what steps were needed to achieve victory. The gameplay loop boils down to obtaining a 1more, positioning your team, and unleashing a Triple Threat. Rinse and repeat. For those who struggle with tactics games , this simplistic, yet powerful system allows Persona 5 Tactica to easily onboard new players while still making them feel like a master strategist. Atlus continues to prove that it can nail just about any genre it tries its hand at, and Persona 5 Tactica could continue that trend. I can see it appealing to several different audiences, from Persona die-hards to fans of tactics games in general, or even strategy newcomers looking for an easy entry point. Persona fans will always be up for anything the series has to offer, but Tactica’s satisfying combat loop could successfully sneak attack newcomers and draw them to the series. Persona 5 Tactica launches on November 17 for PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. I had never played Persona 3 until almost exactly one year ago. I remember loading up its Switch rerelease during a long, cross-country plane ride and finally digging in after years of curiosity. I adore Persona 5 and love the vibe of 4, so I figured I knew what to expect when I started my save file. I was dead wrong. The vibrant, plucky world I’d grown accustomed to shattered the first time I watched one of my characters put a gun to their head and pull the trigger. Persona 3 is a dark game. It’s pitch black compared to the entries that succeeded it. That makes the idea of its modern remake, Persona 3 Reload, a bit of a challenge for Atlus. It’s clear that the goal of the project is to create parity with Persona 5, bringing its signature style to the game that paved the way for the series. But can you really slap one game’s spirited panache onto a much more haunting story? It’s out with the old and in with the new for the PlayStation 5, as Sony has replaced its old 2020 model with a slimmer redesign. The new model fixes one of its predecessor’s biggest issues thanks to its 1TB storage upgrade. As is the case with any console, not all of that space is actually usable. In testing our own review unit, we’ve been able to break down just how much of an upgrade it actually is. When popping into the storage menu, the new PS5 says it has 848GB of space. You’ll find that some of that is already taken up by a few things, including Astro’s Playroom, which comes installed on the system out the box. That’ll leave you with 830.6GB, though you can delete the game to get 11.06GB back. The only thing you can’t cut is 6.33GB of system files. All in all, that means you have roughly 842.2GB of usable space. With Baldur’s Gate 3 now out, I can’t help but feel a surge of excitement. A game that I have been playing, –and loving — since its early access back in 2020 is finally in the hands of the general public. Its reception is overwhelmingly positive and it is truly great to see people sink their teeth into such a fascinating and complex game. That is, if they aren’t too intimated to start. Computer role-playing games (CRPGs) are notorious for being a complicated and daunting genre, especially one like this that draws so heavily on Dungeons & Dragons rule sets. I couldn’t blame anyone unfamiliar with the genre who just feels too intimidated by its scope. That being said, don’t let Baldur’s Gate 3 scare you off; this is the best introduction to CRPGs ever made.
Start small, start slow
The CRPG genre has a bad reputation for being unwieldy for new players thanks to all of the intricate layers of systems that tend to populate them. You usually have to deal with spells, weapon attacks, environmental stats, verticality, and so much more. It can give a new player stage fright as soon as they are given control of their character. Baldur’s Gate 3, on the other hand, does an excellent job of onboarding new players to the genre with its streamlined rules and systems.