Persona 5 Tactica

Persona 5 Tactica was provided by SEGA/ATLUS for review. Thank you!

In general, Persona is known for its great story, unique presentation, fantastic music, and more generic turn-based JRPG combat. ATLUS has mastered this over the years and it shows with each entry, with each one still feeling just as great and memorable as it did on release. In between these mainline releases, we have had spin-offs or sequels to tell more stories with these memorable characters with different styles of gameplay. Persona 5 Tactica is no exception, and like other games in this series, it is fantastic.

Persona 5 Tactica relies on a completely different form of gameplay for the majority of the game. It is a top-down strategy game, like Fire Emblem. It isn't as in-depth, but the streamlined gameplay and Persona-esque style make it a ton of fun. You will start each match by choosing three teammates who will run around a grid-style field, taking turns, and using attacks and abilities to squash your foes.

The game is more forgiving than other strategy games. There is a skill tree where you can easily equip and change your skills on the fly and a "Baton Pass" system to bring in other members of the Phantom Thieves if any of your team dies. But there are some interesting elements too like follow-up attacks and Triple Threat attacks. Once you put everything together, it keeps the loop very interesting.

One of the more interesting aspects I ended up loving was the Persona system. As you play, you will get more Persona that can level up, each having its own different abilities, and provide you with stat buffs. Instead of using an elemental weakness system, you have different status effects and damage output. You can use the Velvet Room to fuse and create new ones, but I had a blast playing around with different status effects and figuring out how to use them with my other teammates to maximize efficiency.

Then, we have the story. I loved it, and it felt just like other stories in the series. It wasn't as immersive as the mainline games, but it isn't supposed to be. There are some great moments with different twists I wasn't expecting, and it is told further with little side conversations you can have at your home base. They also give some skill points for you to use to upgrade, so going through them is definitely worth it.

I also did enjoy the change in visual style from the original Persona games, the Chibi characters play well with the type of game, but I can see why others may not like it as much. And if you want to play Persona 5 Tactica on the Steam Deck, you won't have much trouble overall.

Persona 5 Tactica - Steam Deck Performance

For the most part, Persona 5 Tactica is extremely easy to play on the Steam Deck. Without any changes, it runs through conversations at around 7W - 8W battery drain and most levels around 11W. All of this is at 60 FPS and feels fantastic, but there are two weird issues I noticed. First, the Velvet Room, where you go to fuse and summon Personas, kills the battery. It will go up to 20.5W drain and stick to an uneven 40 FPS. Luckily, most of the game isn't taking place in this area, but it is a bummer.

Then, we have the settings. Oddly enough, I noticed better performance without changing any settings over pushing the settings down. For example, I was getting 59-60 FPS in a stage when I was testing TDP limits, but when I turned Shadows to low, my framerate went down to 49. It is a bit weird, but with how well the default settings runs, I didn't lose any sleep over it.

Recommended Settings

For a good balance of visuals, smooth gameplay, and battery life, I recommend just sticking to the default settings with a TDP limit. ATLUS did an exceptional job optimizing most of the game, which shows. While a lot of the stages will run at the lower battery drain, there are a few with tons of enemies and bigger areas, so to make sure the battery drain doesn't run wild, I recommend a TDP Limit of 9. With this, the game will primarily run at the lower drain and keep the bigger levels in mind.

Quality Build

While the game runs fantastic at almost max settings, it can go even higher with a 200% render scale. Persona 5 Tactica does run exceptionally well in most areas but is prone to some instability and drops. To minimize battery drain and keep things stable, I would recommend a 40hz/FPS lock. This keeps it looking phenomenal while also sticking to a stable framerate.

Accessibility

As for the different settings Persona 5 Tactica offers, you can toggle vibration and camera shake, invert and change camera speed, automatic Persona registration, Fire direction indicator, and control sensitivity. You can also change audio settings, subtitles, and captions, as well as rebind controls in-game.

The game doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, so there are black bars at the top and bottom, but it does support cloud saves and gamepad controls.

Conclusion

Persona 5 Tactica is a fantastic strategy game and a welcome spinoff into the franchise. The style of gameplay is simple, yet enjoyable, while the new visual style fits well. The new story is great, even if it is less immersive than the rest of the games in the series, and I like how streamlined it is overall. It also runs great on the Steam Deck, not requiring any changes to enjoy the game fully, and I couldn't be happier.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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