Persona 5 Tactica Producer On The Game's Chibi Style And The Challenges Of Introducing New Characters To The Cast

12.01.2024 - 09:17 / gameinformer.com / Brian Shea

More than six years after the original Persona 5 arrived on U.S. store shelves, the RPG is still spitting out successors and spin-offs that capitalize on how beloved that title is to this day. The 2020 update, Persona 5 Royal, is the best-received successor, but both 2021 Musou hybrid Persona 5 Strikers and the recently released turn-based strategy RPG Persona 5 Tactica gave players plenty to love.

Among the reasons players love those games are the new additions to the cast. Each of those aforementioned titles gives the core Phantom Thieves new characters with whom to interact. Royal gave us Kasumi and Maruki, Strikers gave us Sophia and Zenkichi, and most recently, Tactica gave us Erina and Toshiro. With chemistry serving such an important role for the casts of these games, bringing in new additions could be a tricky proposition. However, the Persona teams have historically done a great job with these delicate balancing acts.

We had the chance to ask producer Atsushi Nomura, who has worked on the series since Royal, about this process with regard to Persona 5 Tactica. You can see the full interview below.

What is the thought process of deciding to introduce new characters into the Persona 5 universe in a game like Tactica?
We were at first concerned that some players will focus mainly on the Phantom Thieves characters in a Persona 5 game and might not share a similar connection with newly introduced characters. We wanted to help connect players with these new characters, so we spent a lot of time working on various elements to build this connection with strong character design and dialogue. 

We put one of the new characters, Erina, at the forefront of the battles to help connect her with fans as they progress with her through the game. We think players will create a bond with her and enjoy how seamlessly she and the new characters fit with the game.

We’ve seen other new characters join the Persona 5 roster through Royal and Strikers before. What do the new characters in Persona 5 Tactica bring to the group that previous new additions did not? Were there any archetypes or gaps in the roster that the team identified and wanted to fill with Erina and/or Toshiro?
In Persona 5, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts fight for the purpose of changing the hearts of adults with warped desires. However, the other new character appearing in Persona 5 Tactica, Toshiro Kasukabe, disagrees with how they achieve that goal. So, in this game, there are views that were not expressed in the original that highlight how you may see things a different way depending on your perspective, and we hope you don’t miss them.

In Persona 5, one of the goals is rehabilitation, and in this work, one goal is to achieve revolution. What this