Persona 5: The Phantom X Makes Smart Changes to the Traditional Persona Formula

Persona 5 was released almost a decade ago in Japan. Since then, we've had many spin-offs: Persona 5 Strikers, Persona 5 Tactica, Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight, and Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth. I'm surprised we haven't had a Persona 5 spin-off fighting game. While the whole world is waiting for even the slightest crumb of Persona 6, there's yet another Persona 5 spin-off coming.

Enter Persona5: The Phantom X, a free-to-play mobile spin-off of Persona 5. It follows a brand new cast of characters as they go around, taking the hearts of villains like the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.

Persona5: The Phantom X has many elements that Persona fans have come to love, including the social simulation aspects and the deep turn-based gameplay. However, it also added some new features and tweaked existing ones to fit its mobile foundation. Anime News Network spent two hours playing Persona5: The Phantom X and was impressed at how well the titanic RPG adapted to mobile platforms.

Persona5: The Phantom X follows a young man whose codename is Wonder. During my time with the demo, the villain I was up against was a disgraced former baseball player who took his anger out on women. While his villainous motivations in the grand scheme of things don't carry nearly as much weight as the ones in the original Persona 5, I think the smaller-scaled crimes fit the scope of a mobile game. However, what I want to get into is the battle system.

In the Phantom X, individual characters are given additional depth. For example, Kotone Montagne's special attacks involve stacking ice crystals onto enemies to increase her damage output multiple times. Another example is Motoha Arai's electric elemental attacks, which, when used on enemies, can enhance the party's electric elemental attacks. In the original Persona 5, many attacks don't have these secondary effects. So this change immediately makes gameplay much more tactical and engaging. It's the kind of synergy that takes Persona's combat to the next level, and I hope it carries over to future entries like the next mainline game.

One drastic change in the Phantom X is the lack of the traditional calendar system that other mainline Persona games have. While it may initially seem puzzling to remove such a core aspect of the series, it makes perfect sense from a mobile game perspective. Many mobile games often have seasonal events coinciding with major holidays worldwide.

Producer Jun Matsunaga told ANN that taking away the calendar lets the Phantom X sync with real-life dates and drop seasonal content. For example, during the winter holidays, the Phantom X could receive Christmas-themed events. Calendar system removal gave the game a unique identity amongst Persona 5 spin-offs.

As a free-to-play mobile game, I do have some reservations. By the time I was done with the demo, I was still confused about how microtransactions functioned. There were at least three or four different kinds of currencies, and the game hardly, if at all, explained each one. What I've played so far was fun, but I'm still concerned as to how predatory the microtransactions could potentially become.

Players can unlock more characters and weapons by rolling for them, similar to how other games like Genshin Impact operate. These pulled characters are called Phantom Idols, which are cognitive versions of people that Wonder has had some sort of contact with in reality. It's a cheeky way of continually adding more and more characters over time.

Players can also pull for Persona 5 playable characters. The chance of pulling one as strong as Joker is enticing. For those introduced to the series through Persona 5, this is a strong incentive to draw them and spend money.

Despite the Phantom X's mobile nature, a PC version was also added. Matsunaga said that through cross-progression, both platforms would allow players more freedom in how they want to play the game. While away from home, players can play it on their phones and then pick up where they left off on the computer screen when at home.

The developers strongly desire to bring the Phantom X to other platforms, such as PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox, but there are currently no plans to do so. Something else worth mentioning is that there are also no plans to implement an English dub for the game, so that's a bummer for those like me who prefer English voice acting.

It's been a low-key 2025 for Atlus so far, especially compared to 2024 when it released the juggernauts of the likes of Persona 3 Reload, Metaphor: ReFantazio, and Unicorn Overlord. With the Raidou remaster coming later in June and a Persona 5 spin-off, it seems like Atlus is taking it a bit easier. Still, I'm excited for both games, and I can see myself jumping into the full version of Persona5: The Phantom X to see what it has in store later.

Persona5: The Phantom X launches on June 26 for PC and mobile.