In all honesty, I'm not 100% sure this one's better than It Takes Two, these are the 2 most recent games I finished, they're basically a tie rn. But let me make my case.
I'm sure every other Persona fan is also tired of all the fucking spin-offs but I gotta say, Persona 5 Tactica is the best one. Point blank and the period. I loved this game so much it has actually opened me up to trying out an entire new genre of games. Stay tuned for a bunch of Tactics games on my 2024 list, lol.
I'd argue this game has a better story than vanilla Persona 5, honestly. This game revolves around one politician, Toshiro, and his journey to get his fucking life in order after getting kidnapped and thrown into the metaverse. His journey through the various kingdoms ruled by the people both ruling and ruining his life was awe inspiring and when you start finding out shit from his backstory, it's powerful as hell. This man starts the game out, to put it quite bluntly, a total fucking pussy, and by the end of it he's a badass who had one of the best persona awakening scenes in the entire franchise and becomes a man worthy of respect.
The gameplay is amazing. The usual Persona gameplay works SO WELL in a tactical, grid based RPG, like holy shit. Again, a game that's so good that it turns me onto an entire genre has to count for SOMETHING, no? Purely based on gameplay, this was the 2nd or 3rd best game I played this year, with It Takes Two and one game yet to be revealed up there. Very few individual gameplay elements this year were as satisfying as downing an enemy and positioning all 3 of your party members to capture the entire board of enemies in this game's version of an all out attack.
This game is also funny as hell. This game fleshes out everyone in the party, as well as the side characters, way more than any of the others. The character moments are some of the strongest in the series, or hell even on this list. Hell, they even made the usually incredibly dull LAVENZA hilarious.
Strong gameplay, strong characters, strong emotions. Fantastic game, this was another all-timer for me without a question.
