Persona 5: The Phantom X finally has a global release date, with Atlus’ free-to-play spin-off coming to PC and mobile on June 26. It’s been available in China, Taiwan, and South Korea since April 29, 2024, with next month’s release marking the first time it will be playable in not only North America and Europe, but Atlus’ native Japan as well. It’s a weird release model, and the more I see this gacha-laden take on the metaverse, the more I’m worried about the future.

Gameplay in Persona 5: The Phantom X is largely faithful to the base game it takes much of its influence from. You still attend classes, hang out with friends, and enter the metaverse to explore dungeons and defeat enemies while progressing the main narrative. It is Persona in all the ways that matter, but its existence as a mobile game means there are going to be a few major concessions. You will need energy to complete certain activities which recharge naturally over time or can be circumvented by spending money.

Persona Doesn’t Feel Right As A Mobile Game

Prior to its release, it felt like Persona 5 was destined to take over the world. Ever since the arrival of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 and the myriad releases that followed, it was very clear to see that the spin-off series was slowly but surely eclipsing its progenitor. The idea of a JRPG where you attend school during the day and fight demons at night was fresh and exciting, made even cooler by its incorporation of typically mundane activities like part-time jobs and hanging out at after-school clubs.

But it’s these boring nuggets of relatability that made the series so compelling, juxtaposed with stunning character designs and stories that touched on the counterculture of growing older in societies where everyone is seemingly out to get you. Persona 5 saw Atlus hit the big time with a game that was bigger, better, and more ambitious than anything that came before. But since then, it appears to have hit an unexpected plateau.

I’m obviously not forgetting the excellent Metaphor: ReFantazio, a game that takes the Persona formula and builds on it in a series of fascinating ways. Its changes are so massive I’d struggle to play another entry in the series without them.

Ever since the release of Persona 5 back in 2016, Atlus returned to the red and black well for Royal, Dancing in Starlight, Strikers, Tactica, a complete anime adaptation, and The Phantom X. It’s grown into a media brand all its own with an iconic aesthetic, characters, music, and more. It’s a cash cow no company would want to abandon.

But it was the fleeting nature of its past entries that made them so special, and sticking around past their due led to the very same feeling of fatigue I have now. Just look at Persona 4 with its similar number of spin-offs and side projects that diluted the original game into a shadow of its former self.

But In The Modern Landscape, There’s No Escaping It

Unfortunately, when Persona broke into the mainstream and became a name that could be seen on the same ground as Final Fantasy or The Elder Scrolls, it was always going to head in this direction. It was always going to embrace re-releases, spin-offs, and mobile titles over spearheading new games or innovative experimentation, because that’s where the money is. Don’t get me wrong, there is so much to love about Golden, FES, and Royal, but many of the others could never have existed, and Persona 5 would still have the same impact.

Strikers is another expansion considering it’s essentially a sequel to Persona 5’s narrative, albeit within a different genre.

Persona 5: The Phantom X feels like someone in a boardroom acknowledged there was an incredible amount of profit to be made from the mobile market, especially from fans who had been waiting years for new content. I’m not taking away from the potential character stories it could have to tell and the creativity of its design and mechanics - although most of them feel like pale imitators so far - but the fact they are executed within a mobile framework designed to put profits over player experience every single time makes it hard to care.

While not primarily developed by Atlus - The Phantom X is developed by Black Wings and published by Perfect World in a number of territories - its blessing was given. When it comes to Persona, it feels like once you cross that bridge that allows you to water down the formula for platforms and mechanics it wasn’t originally intended for, there is no going back. At least titles like Fire Emblem Heroes acknowledged the fact that it was a mobile title first and foremost, and there was enough history across the series to draw from, but Phantom X is Persona 5 in all the ways that might end up hurting it.

With little word on Persona 6 and Metaphor: ReFantazio now in the rearview mirror until some sort of enhanced edition comes around, it sucks that the future of this high school dungeon crawler is confined to a polarizing mobile game that could make or break its reputation.

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Persona5: The Phantom X

JRPG RPG Adventure Systems 8.0/10 Released April 12, 2024 Developer(s) Black Wings Game Studio, Atlus, Sega Publisher(s) Perfect World Entertainment, Atlus Engine Unity
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