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Persona 5 Tactica is locking two of the best Phantom Thieves behind DLC

Bad news for Akechi and Kisume fans

A screenshot from Persona 5 Tactica, showing a chibi version of Joker surrounded by paintballers in an alleyway.
Image credit: Sega

The Phantom Thieves are taking their stylish fits and supernatural powers onto a turn-based grid with Persona 5 Tactica. Set sometime during the events of Persona 5 Royal, the strategy game’s latest trailer shows our chibi heroes leading a revolution against vaguely French demons and a newly unveiled big bad. Akechi and Kisume stans might notice they aren’t in the shenanigans below, but that's because both characters have been sadly paywalled behind day-one DLC. For now, check out the new trailer.

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Spending more time with our favourite demon-bullying high-schoolers is always nice, but as mentioned before, two core characters are locked behind DLC bars. Atlus have announced that Akechi and Kasumi are included in the "Repaint Your Heart" DLC, a paintball-themed challenge pack available to buy at launch. That’s definitely a shame, but I’m just happy that best boy Ryuji isn’t paywalled after his dismal placement in the character popularity polls.

Otherwise, yep, that sure looked like Atlus plastered an XCOM-like with Persona 5’s seemingly effortless style. My eyes were pretty much fluttering every time a menu showed up on screen, and the cool transitions to All-Out team attacks make the jump, too. There’s some new stuff to chew on here as well. Our heroes, now in chibi form, are helping to overthrow villains across several Kingdoms which may or may not be related to the alternate dimension of the Metaverse. Cleaning out corruption and helping strangers is pretty much what the gang was up to in modern-day Japan, so it’s just another day on the job.

Persona-fusing duties have been passed onto an adorable blacksmith here, meanwhile, the duty of evilness has been taken up by an angry green (sometimes red) guy. Previous trailers boasted more about the game’s tactical chops, namely the fact that there’s one ability to stagger foes and another ability that deals high damage to those staggered ones - two moves that complete any RPG.

Persona 5 Tactica comes out on Steam on November 17th for £55/$60. It’ll also be available on Game Pass if you're a subscriber, as will the upcoming Persona 3 Reload.

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