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Persona 5: The Phantom X – My Honest Review

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INTRODUCTION

Persona 5: The Phantom X is an role-playing game by Perfect World Games. The game is a spin-off of the Persona series by Atlus, itself a part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise. It is set to be released in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, and Japan. An open beta test for Android, iOS, and Windows

Persona 5: The Phantom X takes place in modern-day Tokyo, the same setting as Persona 5 (2016), and follows a group of characters that wield the power of Persona. It combines elements of social simulation, as the protagonist uses his free time to raise stats and forge bonds with characters, and dungeon crawling in the alternate world known as the Metaverse. The cognitive versions of the people met in the city, including the Phantom Thieves of Hearts from the original game, can be summoned for use in the Metaverse through a gacha system.

Some Persona 5 staff were involved in the development, including series producer Kazuhisa Wada as project supervisor, artist Shigenori Soejima deg the protagonist Wonder and his Persona, and Ryota Kozuka composing the main theme performed by Lyn.

Persona 5: The Phantom X – My Honest Review

GAMEPLAY

To accommodate the format of a free-to-play game created primarily for mobile devices, Persona 5: The Phantom X adapts the Persona mechanics with various changes. Like the main titles, it combines elements of social simulation and dungeon crawling. However, in place of the Calendar system, both activities now require energy that replenishes over time or is restored using currency, similar to other mobile games.

As the male silent protagonist (who is named by the player but also given the codename Wonder) attending the school in modern-day Tokyo, players experience the story events, answer questions in class, and freely explore the city after school or during days off in order to engage in various activities. Some help Wonder earn experience points or money, while others improve his social stats, such as Knowledge or Courage, which affect the gameplay in other ways. Additionally, players can consult the "City Schedule" feature to see the list of suggested activities and available rewards.

The game also features multiple characters that Wonder can interact with in Tokyo using the "Confidant" system. Compared to the main series, it was heavily reworked: the number of ranks has increased, but not every rank results in unique dialogue conversations. The cognitive versions of Confidants also appear as special units that can be summoned using the gacha system.

Like Persona 5, the dungeon crawling portion takes place in the Metaverse, a realm created from subconscious desires that consists of Mementos and Palaces. Mementos is the procedurally generated location consisting of multiple floors that is primarily used for grinding and completing daily quests, while the Palaces are the story-related levels ruled by various bosses.

The battle gameplay remains faithful to the Persona series, using the turn-based system with the "1 more" mechanic when striking enemies' weaknesses. However, unlike the main series, activating "1 more" is always followed by specific skills instead of giving the player complete control over their additional action, and not all enemies can be "downed" in one turn, as some were given a meter that dictates the necessary number of attacks. When all enemies are down, the player can perform a powerful "All-Out Attack"

What's the story?

Joker, the protagonist of Persona 5, is not the main character. The new main character's code name is Wonder, and a primary theme of Persona 5: The Phantom X is "a lack of desire." From the trailers, it appears that Wonder--you get to name the protagonist, but we'll refer to him as Wonder for convenience's sake--encounters P5X's new mascot, an owl named Luffy. Wonder will then meet a man who is "twisted by desire," and he'll enter the man's baseball-themed palace to steal his Treasure.

Wonder's persona is Janosik, a hero who "robs the rich but doesn't kill innocents."

Combat

P5X's combat is largely the same as P5 and is still turn-based. However, there are a few changes. (Thanks to YouTube Faz for ing recorded combat gameplay):

One More mechanic: Triggering One More still works as it did previously. But in P5, players could choose which abilities to use in the extra turn. In P5X, One More is a specific attack and players can't choose.
Weakness "meter:" In order to achieve knockdown, players need to trigger weak a certain amount of times to reduce a weakness "meter"--somewhat similar to Persona 5 Striker's combat--to zero before the monster is knocked down.
Highlight: Showtime has turned into Highlight. This is triggered when all enemies are knocked down. Players can choose one character to Highlight, and the Highlighted character can deal a lot of damage of a specific attribute type. The attribute that a Highlighted character will deal is shown on the Highlight "wheel."

Pros & Cons – The Good & The Bad

✅ Good Things:

✔ Amazing graphics – Looks like a real anime.
✔ Great music – Very stylish and fun.
✔ Fun combat – Strategy is important.
✔ Lots of things to do – School life, friendships, battles.

❌ Bad Things:

✖ Some battles feel too long – Fights can be slow.
✖ Too much talking – Some scenes are too long.
✖ Story is confusing at first – Hard to understand for new players.

Final Thoughts – Who Should Play?

If you love Persona games, or if you like anime-style RPGs, you will enjoy Persona 5: The Phantom X. But if you want fast action and simple story, you might not like it.

For me, I like the game, but sometimes I feel tired from too much talking. The combat is fun, but I wish it was faster.

⭐ Final Rating: 7.5/10

Posted on 03/29/20251.2K Views