Persona 5 certainly has an impressive list of titles under its umbrella, with both the original “vanilla” version of the traditional RPG and its upgraded Royal counterpart co-existing alongside numerous genre spin-offs, including Strikers, Tactica, and Dancing in Starlight. By this point, it only makes sense for a free-to-play mobile game based on P5 to enter the fray. But is the alternate universe gacha title Persona 5: The Phantom X simply a pale imitation of the original, or does it manage to carry a hidden spark? The answer lies somewhere in between. I found The Phantom X has a solid enough foundation to be a relatively decent standalone Persona spin-off. Still, its gacha roots hold it back, especially if you’re attempting to play without putting any actual money into it.
Persona 5: The Phantom X starts, much like the original P5, in modern-day Tokyo, only instead of focusing on the protagonist Joker and his crew of The Phantom Thieves of Hearts, a new main character and his allies take center stage. Code-named Wonder, our hero is a high school student living his life while a strange sickness spreads throughout the city, taking away people’s desires and hopes. It isn’t long into the game before Wonder uncovers a secret world of demons and shadows just beneath the surface. Together with an enigmatic talking owl named Lufel and others who become aware of Tokyo’s dangerous situation, Wonder forms a group of Phantom Thieves wielding powerful Persona in battle to steal back everyone’s hope. Is this a heist they can pull off, or are these other Phantom Thieves doomed for obscurity?
Narratively, a lot is going on in Persona 5: The Phantom X. The plot presents itself in a manner that immediately brings to mind the original P5, with a storyline conveying thoughtful social commentary and comprising a surprisingly memorable cast of characters. While the first Palace dungeon villain and his motivation are arguably the weakest of P5 thus far, even the Subway Slammer has roots in a very real and somewhat troubling issue in Japan. Fortunately, if you have the patience to advance it, The Phantom X‘s plot does improve.
Which brings me to a big caveat of Persona 5: The Phantom X. Patience plays a key role, especially if you intend to play for free like me. While the story is meaty and extensive, be prepared to hit that all-too-familiar “gacha wall” every time you advance. You gain Persona to use in battle and party members to fill out your roster by progressing in the story, and you’ll occasionally receive special tickets that allow you to try and pull for specific characters. But like with traditional Persona titles, you’ll want an assortment of party members with various elemental affinities to help you advance through the game’s dungeons—elemental weakness exploitation is often a crucial key to victory during its turn-based fights lest you face a prolonged and uphill battle. As you advance, your progress will also freeze at fights where certain character levels are required or recommended to safely proceed.
Leveling up can be tricky, as Wonder is the only character who gains experience points through certain fights, advancing through the story, or dungeons. Other party members gain experience through the use of special items procured while playing, but only up until they reach Wonder’s current level cap. There are also items for strengthening Persona abilities and a robust skill tree for Wonder to help reinforce his versatile stats. If you happen to run out of the items needed to level up characters, you’ll be left waiting for the next game day so they can replenish somewhat before beginning the cycle again.
These instances of having to wait around also bleed into the everyday activities side of things, as The Phantom X only gives you so many activity points to spend around the city in your free time from dungeon exploring and fighting. Activities encompass studying, working various jobs, and hanging out with friends, along with additional social stat meters to contend with in terms of initial gate-keeping for higher-level activities. Once you exhaust the activity points for a given game day, you have to wait once more for them to replenish.
Playing the game entirely for free simply means having to wait once you hit the “gacha wall” before you can successfully advance the story. It’s a shame that it has to be so slow-going, as the narrative itself is more interesting the further along you go. The bonding events Wonder can engage in are reminiscent of Social Links in the original P5, helping to flesh out the characters and their dynamics. You can also raise Synergy levels for certain story characters that raise various abilities and stats. Persona acquiring and strengthening, alongside the always helpful Fusion option, is certainly fitting for a Persona game. It’s disheartening that the blending of all of these gameplay mechanics and storylines behind the telltale “gacha wall.”
Visually, Persona 5: The Phantom X utilizes the visual presentation and UI of the original P5 to significant effect. This title truly feels like a spin-off in a graphics and artistic sense. The character designs are detailed and expressive, and I also enjoyed the anime cutscenes spliced throughout the game, including the fantastic opening animation. Sound-wise, the Japanese voice acting is top-notch and highly emotive, and the script’s English localization is phenomenal. I love the soundtrack, which has that distinct and bopping P5 vibe. Besides the “gacha-ness” of it, my biggest other complaint with the game is the wonky control schematics when playing on a PC, as I found myself constantly switching between a gamepad controller and mouse to access specific menus.
Persona 5: The Phantom X is a free-to-play traditional RPG Persona 5 spin-off boasting a surprising amount of depth in terms of gameplay, storyline, and characters. Besides some wonky PC controls, the “gacha wall” you inevitably run up against if you’re trying to play it for completely free is the only thing truly holding the game back. Nonetheless, in a lot of respects, it’s a strong Persona title and one of the better free-to-play RPGs I’ve tried out. I enjoyed my time with the game, and can see myself playing it for a while into the future too. For me, that speaks volumes as to how decent a game Persona 5: The Phantom X can be.
