Do you need to play Persona 5 before Persona 5 Tactica?

polygon.com:

Persona 5 Tactica is the latest non-JRPG spinoff in Atlus’ celebrated JRPG series. Tactica is a tactics game that takes place in the same world as Persona 5 and includes the original game’s core group of heroes: the Phantom Thieves. As a spinoff, it’s natural to wonder: Do you need to play Persona 5before Persona 5 Tactica?

With the Persona series being so story-focused, it’s a good question. In this Persona 5 Tactica guide, we hope to answer just that question, and will break down whether or not you need to play Person 5 — plus Persona 5 Royal and Persona 5 Strikers— before playing Persona 5 Tactica.

Persona 5 Tactica takes place after the establishment of the Phantom Thieves, the crew that Joker (the main character) puts together to change the hearts of baddies all over Japan in the main game.

Based on the dialogue at the start of the game, Tactica takes place before the third year students (Makoto and Haru) graduate, which is before the main storyline of Persona 5wraps up. So, think of Tactica as a big side quest that takes place before the end of Persona 5.

Yes, you should play (or have played) at least a few hours of Persona 5 before you play Tactica.

Because of where Tactica is set in the timeline, you’re going to be very confused If you didn’t play any Persona 5. The game’s opening assumes you already know who these characters are, what the “Metaverse” is, and why the cat (who isn’t actually a cat) is talking.

That said, you’ll really just be missing the context of the world and characters by skipping Persona 5 and diving right into Tactica. While the plot of Persona 5 Tactica involves the same characters, in the same world, it tells its own, contained story and you don’t need to understand the plot ofPersona 5