Persona5: The Phantom X - Phantom Thieves Lite

Say what you will about the genre, but this summer's been quite a time for gacha game releases. Umamusume is incredibly popular, with even the most unlikely gamers diving into the fray. Hoyoverse continues to dominate the field with updates to Genshin Impact, Zenless Zone Zero, and Honkai: Star Rail. I've dabbled with several of these in the past few weeks, but the one consuming most of my time is none other than Persona5: The Phantom X. 

That's right, a new Persona game is out, and it's another offshoot of Persona 5. If you're like me and get engrossed in this series' narratives and hooked on the day-to-day, slice-of-life elements it offers, Persona5: The Phantom X can easily grab your attention and pull you in. 

Familiar Combat with a Mobile Twist

Much to my surprise, Persona5: The Phantom X is quite the ambitious title. It's easy to write it off as being a mobile game, but with Persona 5's signature art style and gameplay elements, it feels very high quality.

Players take control of a protagonist who, due to certain events, gets involved with the Metaverse, much like Joker from Persona 5. The narrative is front-loaded with exposition to get players up to speed with how the whole Metaverse world works, so it might feel repetitive for players familiar with the series. Due to all this exposition, Persona5: The Phantom X feels very similar to the opening hours of Persona 5. 

This also means it takes quite a while to get into actual gameplay, which comprises day-to-day life elements, making friends, exploring Mementos, using Persona in battle, fusing new Persona, and the like. Once you get into the meat and potatoes of it, Persona5: The Phantom X has quite a bit going on. 

Turn-based combat will also click pretty fast for those familiar with Persona mechanics. You'll primarily fight demons from the Megami Tensei franchise, each with their own elemental weaknesses and strengths. Paying attention to demons' weaknesses and exploiting those is essential in order to succeed.

Exploit a weakness, and enemies are downed. Party members can do a "One More" attack (essentially the Baton Pass from Persona 5), and that character can attack a second time. If all demons are downed in combat, you can do an All-Out Attack and deal massive damage to every enemy on the field.

Characters also have their own special attack gauge that fills up over time. These "Highlights" have a wide range of benefits, like dealing massive damage, buffing allies, debuffing enemies, and more, so there are a lot of tools at your disposal. The tutorials for combat and, well, almost every other mechanic aren't that great, but you'll catch on quickly as a veteran of the series. 

Attacks also work a little differently in Persona5: The Phantom X. You have your regular melee and gun attacks, but Personas have fixed and unique skills. There's a bit more depth with these abilities, so rather than using "Assault Dive," Ryuji has "Pirate Tactics" which deals a set percentage relative to his attack stat, and is buffed if his "Rebound" mechanic is activated.

My intent is not to bog you down with tons of jargon, but just know that characters' abilities are fixed, and you can't change them around. There is one exception to this rule, and that's the player character Wonder.

Much like Joker, Wonder can command multiple Persona. You're able to fuse new Persona in the Velvet Room, assign new skills to them, and customize them to fit in certain combat situations. It's not quite as deep as base Persona 5's fusing mechanics, as there are restrictions, but folks will be happy to see the return of this mechanic.

Persona5: The Phantom X -- Gacha Hooked?

To address the elephant in the room, Persona5: The Phantom X is a gacha game. All of these mechanics I mentioned, including fusing Persona as well as upgrading characters and their abilities, are tied behind an absurd amount of in-game currency. I play a lot of gacha games, and these currencies pretty much always confuse me, so there's a learning curve. 

Of course, party members are locked behind gacha mechanics. You can pull for either new characters (like Joker from Persona 5) and powerful weapons suited only for them. Everyone has their own limits when it comes to gacha, so just know what you're getting into. 

The best characters will, of course, be locked behind limited banners, although you're gradually given currency to pull for new characters, and there are a few characters you gain from the story that will also be helpful. 

It's worth noting that Persona5: The Phantom X has a clever way of handling characters like Joker and Morgana being playable. These party members are called "Phantom Idols" and are products of the Metaverse rather than their real-world counterparts. And while Persona5: The Phantom X is technically canon, the ongoing theory is that this game takes place within an alternate universe. 

There are also so many different modes in this game; after all, you have to find ways to keep the player engaged. So, on top of exploring palaces and living out your daily life, there are various challenges that'll absolutely put your builds to the test. By doing this, of course, you get more currency for gacha pulls. 

The Silly Saga of the Subway Slammer

I swear, my Twitter feed has been nothing but the Subway Slammer since Persona5: The Phantom X's launch. If you're wondering who that is, well, you'll learn pretty quick by playing through the story. Like in Persona 5, some characters need a change of heart, and our first target is ex-baseball player Takeyuki Kiuchi, aka the Subway Slammer. 

The Subway Slammer is a guy that just loves slamming into women on the subway. His habits are purposely misogynistic and actually stem from a social issue in Japan. There are reports of people slamming into others on the subway in order to satisfy some sick perversion. 

Even though it's a real-world issue, the Subway Slammer's saga is written in such an unintentionally funny, over-the-top way. Kiuchi is outrageous with his dialogue, so the whole situation turns into something more akin to parody than real-world commentary. And of course, the police can't do anything, despite him severely injuring a high school girl apparently, so of course, The Phantom Thieves are on the case. 

Through Mementos, players infiltrate various rulers' Palaces in order to steal their treasure. This triggers the ruler to confess their crimes and have a change of heart. Again, this is the same deal as Persona 5.

The first palace, Kiuchi's domain, is my favorite part of Persona5: The Phantom X. It's the meat and potatoes of this game, so to speak, and the palaces are truly massive. There are puzzles, plenty of enemies, narrative exposition, and more. They're truly enjoyable to explore and find every bit of treasure you can.

Besides changing hearts, much of the story is how you decide to spend your day. You can choose to partake in various activities around the city, like working a part-time job or attending a club at school. These increase your social stats, but I'm still not really sure how these factor into Persona5: The Phantom X's gameplay.

The fact of the matter is, this is a live service title that originally launched in China only, so we're behind on content. Will my social stats come into play later? Who knows. It also remains to be seen if the story picks up beyond The Subway Slammer. The second palace's ruler is a bit more despicable, but it doesn't hit the same way that Persona 5's villains did.

I am, at the very least, invested in the main party. Wonder is your blank slate protagonist like Joker, but the sporty Motoha Arai and the trusty animal companion, Lufel, are very likable, as are later additions like Shun Kano. Various side characters also have eye-catching designs and engaging personalities, so I'm hoping things pick up!

Persona5: The Phantom X Review | Final Thoughts

This is a mobile and PC title. The mobile elements are very evident if you're playing on your computer. Using a controller would have been my favored method in playing Persona5: The Phantom X, but the control scheme is obtuse and unresponsive. Even with the mouse and keyboard, it's clear that a touch screen was the priority here.

The UI and interface, by the way, is extremely cluttered. Persona is known for its incredibly artsy UI, and while it's often bold in its presentation, it isn't obstructive. There are so many different buttons flashing at you on the screen at any given time, it can be quite annoying to deal with as you're trying to immersive yourself Tokyo or somewhere in the Metaverse.

There are a lot of smaller issues that prevent Persona5: The Phantom X from realizing its true potential. The UI and controller issues definitely hinder my enjoyment, and the story just doesn't hit the same way... yet. Even still, I'm hooked, since Persona5: The Phantom X boils down to being more Persona, and more Persona can't be a bad thing, right? 

Persona5: The Phantom X was reviewed on PC with a copy provided downloaded the reviewer over the course of 30 hours of gameplay - all screenshots were taken during the process of review.