Highlights
- Persona 5 Tactica joins the Xbox Game Pass library today, showcasing Sega and Atlus's continued support for the subscription service.
- Early reviews of Persona 5 Tactica are in the high 70s, with many critics praising its enjoyable gameplay and impressive production values, although opinions on its story vary.
- Although not the highest-rated Persona spin-off ever released, Persona 5 Tactica still seems like a compelling proposition for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.
A November 17 Xbox Game Pass update saw its library expand to Persona 5 Tactica, the latest Atlus title that has been getting some pretty good reviews in the days leading up to its launch. This day-one launch is yet another example of Sega and Atlus's growing support of Microsoft's subscription service, which was most recently underlined by the arrival of Soul Hackers 2 on Xbox Game Pass.
The day-one release of Persona 5 Tactica on Xbox Game Pass was originally leaked by Atlus in June, before the project was even announced. The game itself is a strategy RPG similar to the mainline Fire Emblem series, but naturally starring Persona 5's character cast.
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The initial critical reception of Persona 5 Tactica has been rather promising, with its aggregate review scores compiled by Metacritic being in the high 70s. The Switch port is currently the highest-rated of the lot, boasting an average score of 79, based on 24 reviews. Meanwhile, 17 PC reviewers rated the game 78 on average, while the aggregate scores of its PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions now sit at 76 and 77, respectively.
Persona 5 Tactica Aggregate Review Scores by Platform (on Metacritic)
Platform | Average Score (out of 100) | Review Count |
|---|---|---|
PC | 78 | 17 |
PS4 | 0 | |
PS5 | 76 | 23 |
Switch | 79 | 24 |
Xbox One | 0 | |
Xbox Series X/S | 77 | 20 |
All | 77 | 84 |
- The overall score is not an average of platform averages, but a true average taking each individual review into account.
Many reviewers praised Persona 5 Tactica for its enjoyable gameplay loop, content-rich campaign, and impressive production values. Its story and overall handling of the series' lore appear to be a more polarizing topic among the critics, with opinions ranging from them being great to uninteresting. While there have been some notable complaints about the game's combat lacking depth, most of them appear to come from hardcore strategy RPG fans. In contrast, Atlus was seemingly seeking to deliver an accessible SRPG that's closer to something like the Mario + Rabbids games than the XCOM series.
Persona Spin-Offs Metacritic Review Scores History
Game | Year | Genre | PC | PlayStation | Xbox | Nintendo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Persona 4 Arena | 2012 | Fighting | 86 | 83 | ||
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax | 2014 (global) | Fighting | 77 | 80 | 85 | 81 |
Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth | 2014 | RPG Dungeon Crawler | 83 | |||
Persona 4: Dancing All Night | 2015 | Rhythm | 76 | |||
Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight | 2018 | Rhythm | 73 | |||
Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight | 2018 | Rhythm | 72 | |||
Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth | 2019 (global) | RPG Dungeon Crawler | 81 | |||
Persona 5 Strikers | 2020 | Action RPG | 76 | 83 | 81 | |
Persona 5 Tactica | 2023 | Strategy RPG | 78 | 76 | 77 | 79 |
- For cross-generation titles, only the score for the newer console is displayed.
Looking at the bigger picture, Persona 5 Tactica is currently enjoying a better critical reception than all of the series' rhythm game spin-offs. It's also not far off from the 3DS-exclusive Persona Q2. The fighting spin-offs that Atlus co-developed with Arc System Works and the original Persona Q have both enjoyed noticeably better reviews than this day-one Xbox Game Pass release, as did Persona 5 Strikers.
While these reviews don't necessarily imply that Persona 5 Tactica is a must-play at full price, they certainly suggest it's worth trying out for Xbox Game Pass members. Atlus and Sega plan to follow up on this release with multiple new Persona games in 2024, including Persona 3 Reload.
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