Chumps Preview is a special kind of post where we unofficially preview games in Early Access, Beta, or are otherwise “unfinished.” This kind of preview is meant to be a first impression rather than a definitive review where we provide a rating to determine a game’s value. As such, we fully expect a game covered in a Chumps Preview to have room for improvement, some bugginess/incompleteness, and other features associated with similar games in the category.
Last year, Persona 5: The Phantom X was released in East Asia, developed and published by Perfect World (the same group who made Tower of Fantasy). I originally became aware of it when it was teased in 2021(right when I had become deeply engaged with Persona 5, its spiritual older sibling), but there’s been little mention of a global release until recently. A few days ago, we got access to Persona 5: The Phantom X just to see what the remaining players across the globe can expect from the ATLUS and Sega team.
As a Persona player, it’s strange for me to envision how a Persona live-service title might play. ATLUS has succeeded in cementing itself as a developer of deep, emotional, beautifully designed, and complex single-player RPGs that are best played in a single-player format. To the point where its decades-old games are getting rereleased in the form of remasters, it’s clear to me that there’s an expectation of single-player greatness that players have become accustomed to seeing.
The strange thing about The Phantom X is that it plays just like any other modern/remastered Persona title, from its beautifully animated cutscenes, to its jazzy vibes, to its consistent approach to party/creature management. It’s a live-service game that’s taken the additional steps to exist within the Persona universe and gameplay loop even though it’s not a mainline title.
It’s a notable feat, that’s for sure.
Persona 5: The Phantom X is centered around the classic silent high-school aged protagonist archetype. This one is known as Wonder, and he has an owl companion named Lufel who shows him the ropes of the shadow-slaying universe. If you’ve played Persona 5 prior to today, The Phantom X should feel relatively similar but restricted within the confines of energy consumption. When not dungeon crawling and fusing personas, the player is given the option of befriending NPCs and exploring Tokyo. Of course, the dungeon crawling and turn-based combat are where Persona shines.
It’s rare to see a live-service game like this have fully realized story. The Phantom X has a unique story told across a handful of chapters. Wonder, Lufei, and some of the other characters exist on their own without being carbon copies of well-known Persona characters. As a result, The Phantom X feels like its own Persona game capable of attracting its own audience while simultaneously bringing in guest characters from previous Persona games to appeal to longtime fans. It’s a happy medium that successfully blends the best of both worlds.
It remains to be seen about the future of The Phantom X. That is, it’s hard for me to predict what types of content Perfect World, ATLUS, and SEGA will incorporate into The Phantom X’s worldbuilding beyond what currently exists. Thanks to its original release in China and other countries, there’s a year’s worth of previously-released content that the rest of the world gets to experience before reaching parity with what’s available now. But again, what comes next and the nature of its support while additional mainline Persona titles are released/remastered leaves quite a bit to imagination.
I’ve seen some users online discuss the generosity of The Phantom X in providing free energy, content/Navis, and other cosmetics that other live-service titles would otherwise lock away behind egregious gacha paywalls. While this may be true of some players’ experiences in other parts of the world, it does not reflect how much content will cost going forward, how much one needs to spend to acquire powerful characters to keep up with power creep, and how long that generosity lasts to keep folks logging in every day. Like Tower of Fantasy and Honkai: Star Rail, be mindful of the nature of the gacha system and how that might impact your enjoyment in the long term.
Beyond the gacha and live service elements, The Phantom X holds up quite well as a satisfying and pretty RPG that’s clearly built to celebrate some of the best aspects of the Persona series. It’s refreshing to see the turn-based action in an uncompromised state, expertly centering me within the best bits of Persona’s stylish yet complex gameplay loop.
I’m curious to see how other players react, because The Phantom X has quite a bit of disruptive potential to positively change how live-service games on Android, iOS, and Steam operate. In the short term, it gives players a stylishly accessible means of playing Persona for the first time, even if it comes at the cost of repeatedly pulling for a strong card or paying for an energy boost. In the long term, it scratches the itch of having to wait for the next Persona game, assuming Persona 4 Revival sticks to its timeline of being released next year on XBOX and PC.
For the low cost of free, it doesn’t hurt to try out Persona 5: The Phantom X on Android, iOS, and/or Steam. I can’t wait to see how The Phantom X fares in this hyper-competitive mobile market, especially knowing that it merges the engaging Persona gameplay with live-service mechanics.
