Persona 5 Tactica makes the wait for Persona 6 a little easier

theverge.com:

By Ash Parrish, a reporter who has covered the business, culture, and communities of video games for seven years. Previously, she worked at Kotaku.

Persona 5 Tactica pleasantly surprised me.

I have been anxious for a good tactical RPG all year. Fire Emblem Engage failed to live up to its title, winding up as a shallower Three Houses. (Yes, friend, Engage did indeed come out this year.) And the Advance Wars reboots bored me to tears. While I wasn’t exactly looking to Persona 5 Tactica to fill the hole Marvel’s Midnight Suns left behind — please go play that game, just...please! — nevertheless, the first handful of hours with the game have been a delight.

Persona 5 Tactica is a tactics RPG that builds upon your love of Persona 5 and its Phantom Thieves. If you’ve playedPersona 5 / Royal / Strikers, you already know most what you’re in store for: personas, fusing personas, coffee, curry, a gaggle of lovely characters, and a bitchin’ soundtrack. What’s new is the setting and the combat. Instead of the turn-based RPG battles of vanilla Persona 5, or the hack n’ slash 1 vs 100 fighting inStrikers, Tactica takes a strategic approach with a flair and flavor P5 fans will be familiar with.

Combat inTactica takes place on a map broken down into tiles same as any other tactical RPG. Your units have a set number of tiles they can move and they can take advantage of a map’s particular layout to take cover behind barriers or blow up explosive barrels and any enemies that might be nearby them. Each unit is equipped with a gun that can knock down enemies — earning them a “one more” or second attack phase — and a melee weapon that can knock enemies out of cover. Summon monsters called Personas are back armed with abilities that either