Persona 5: The Phantom X review - "A beautiful yet unbalanced RPG"

• Engaging turn-based combat
• Too many cutscenes, not enough action
• Steal from shadows to save humans from losing their desires

Persona has finally made its mobile debut with the new gacha RPG, Persona 5: The Phantom X. Featuring intense turn-based combat, beautiful anime-style cutscenes, and an intriguing plot, at first glance, it looks like a real gem. Unfortunately, poor balance between cutscenes and actual play mar an otherwise exhilarating experience.

Save Human Desires in Persona 5: The Phantom X

The first Persona made for mobile, The Phantom X, features a compelling storyline. You play as a student who unlocks his Persona and begins to battle shadows in the metaverse. After meeting a well-informed owl by the name of Lufel, you'll learn that shadows have been stealing human desires. Losing their desires entirely, people can lose the will to live. 

As a Phantom Thief, you'll traverse the metaverse, stealing objects that fuel humans’ dark desires and restoring hope to the community. For example, you'll need to deal with the Subway Slammer, a man whose corrupted desires lead him to push unsuspecting women in the subway. Things then get even more intense when he pushes a student onto the tracks.

Other than Lufel, you'll also meet a strange old man with a long nose and his assistant Merope. Strangely, whenever you're pulled away to converse with the odd duo, Lufel is unaware, as from his perspective, it just looks like you're zoning out. As if things weren’t bad enough already, your character is also having disturbing visions.

Persona 5: The Phantom X is Heavy on Cutscenes 

One issue I have with Persona 5: The Phantom X is the amount of actual gameplay compared to cutscenes. Yes, the cutscenes are well done, but you'll spend much more time watching them than you will fighting shadows. And it can get a bit stale watching so many of them in a row.

You can skip a cutscene or even choose to skip multiple screens at once. However, doing so can leave you lost as the narrative is nothing if not complicated. Another issue I had was that a few times while playing Persona 5: The Phantom X, the screen froze, and I was forced to quit and restart the app. While it didn't happen too often, I still found it annoying when it did.

Persona 5: The Phantom X Features Gacha Mechanics

Like in most gacha RPGs, you can use tickets to summon team members at random to fight by your side. You can manually level up team members by tapping View Stats when in a safe room, then selecting your desired character and tapping Training. To level up a character, you'll need Thief Compendium scraps, volumes, or tomes, which you'll earn as you play. To better understand which characters are worth levelling up, you can refer to our Persona 5: The Phantom X tier list.

The Phantom X features a turn-based combat system similar to one found in Persona 5. Using cover to sneak up on an enemy allows you to attack first. You can choose to attack with your melee weapon or use a Persona ability against your foe. If a team member is injured, you can also use your turn to restore their health. There are also all-out attacks, which allow your whole team to attack an enemy simultaneously. Though there is nothing particularly that stands out with the combat system, the bold colour and flashy animations keep things entertaining.

Persona 5: The Phantom X presents a distinct and complex story, featuring engaging characters. However, the cutscene-to-gameplay ratio is very unbalanced. You’ll find yourself wanting to skip multiple cutscenes to get back to the action, which will leave you confused as to what's going on. The graphics are beautiful, and the combat is very entertaining. Unfortunately, you'll be watching cutscenes far more often than you’ll be battling shadows, which is rather disappointing.