Persona 5: The Phantom X Review – A Stellar Mobile Experience
▼ Summary
– Persona games are lengthy, often taking around 100 hours per playthrough, with much time spent building relationships and exploring the game’s world.
– Persona 5: The Phantom X is a new spin-off for PC and mobile that closely mirrors the original game, serving as both an introduction and a re-entry to Persona 5’s world.
– The Phantom X features a new cast of teenage vigilantes who battle evil forces using Personas, while retaining the original game’s turn-based combat, music, and visual style.
– The game is free-to-play but uses a gacha system with in-game purchases, encouraging daily play with planned content updates and currently offering only Japanese voice acting.
– The Phantom X is the first traditional JRPG-style Persona game on mobile, featuring touch controls and seamless gameplay suited for short sessions and dungeon crawling.
Persona 5: The Phantom X delivers a polished mobile adaptation of the beloved JRPG, blending familiar mechanics with fresh storytelling. Fans of the series know that Persona games demand serious time investment, often stretching beyond 100 hours per playthrough. These sprawling adventures balance high-stakes supernatural battles with slice-of-life activities, creating deep emotional connections between players and the cast.
The latest spin-off, Persona 5: The Phantom X, brings that signature formula to PC and mobile devices. Developed by Atlus, Sega, and Perfect World, it retains the core DNA of the original, turn-based combat, stylish visuals, and social simulation, while introducing a new protagonist and storyline. Players step into the shoes of Nagisa Kamishiro, a high schooler unraveling a mystery where people’s desires are mysteriously vanishing. Alongside a fresh crew of Phantom Thieves, he navigates the Metaverse, battling distortions to restore free will.
What sets The Phantom X apart is its accessibility. Designed for shorter play sessions, it adapts Persona 5’s systems for touch controls without sacrificing depth. Dungeon crawling feels intuitive on mobile, and the UI remains functional despite smaller screens. However, the free-to-play model incorporates gacha mechanics, offering randomized character and item pulls through microtransactions. This approach may frustrate players accustomed to the series’ premium structure, but daily rewards and planned content updates encourage steady engagement.
Currently, the game supports only Japanese audio with English subtitles, which might limit appeal for some. Yet for those eager to revisit Persona 5’s world or experience it for the first time, The Phantom X proves a compelling option. Its seamless transition to mobile demonstrates how JRPGs can thrive on the platform, offering both nostalgia and innovation in one sleek package.
(Source: Wired)
