If you loved Persona 5 to the point you wanted it to never end, Atlus might have something for you. Like many Japanese companies, Persona’s publisher is chasing Genshin Impact’s success with the free-to-play model and has adapted Persona 5’s universe in the process. Hence we now have the fifth Persona 5-branded game, called Persona 5: The Phantom X, which is a free-to-play RPG for smartphones and PC.

People familiar with Persona 5 will be immediately at ease with Persona 5: The Phantom X, since both titles share the exact same universe; The Phantom X is, after all, another spin-off of the 2016 game. Yet I certainly didn’t expect it to be so close to the original in terms of narrative and progression. The protagonist of The Phantom X becomes a Phantom Thief after falling in the Metaverse, and from there goes by the name of Wonder. After meeting a strange owl mascot called Lufel, he realizes that an unknown force is taking away the desires of people, leaving society in disarray. Notorious evildoers commit crimes in the general indifference, which motivates Wonder to fight their alter egos in the Metaverse, which are "Shadows" hidden in giant dungeons called Palaces. As in Persona 5, defeating the boss Shadow makes the person connected to it in the real world admit to their crimes.

Interestingly enough, the first antagonist in this free-to-play title is again a former athlete who goes against the law to fulfil his wicked ambitions. This will surely ring a bell for Persona 5 fans, not least because the events unfold almost exactly the same way as they do in Persona 5's opening chapter. Despite this curious parallel, playing The Phantom X feels like you're re-discovering Persona 5 while having it constantly in your pocket. It’s not original per se, but it provides a similar experience again with new team members, new personal stories, many colourful NPCs, and fresh cutscenes. The pace of the narrative is better than in the Hoyoverse games, making it very pleasant so far. However, it’s nowhere near as spectacular as, for instance, Honkai: Star Rail. 

The graphics and animations are even better than the Royal re-release, this without any hiccups in terms of frame rate on my iPhone 12, and the device doesn’t heat up too much either. To be fair, Persona 5: The Phantom X doesn’t include a large world like its big competitors, and the dungeons aren’t anything special in terms of design, falling quite far short of the artistic feat seen in Persona 5 Royal. The soundtrack has also been disappointing so far, as it directly reuses original Persona 5 music. I expected exciting new tracks coming into the game, but I don't think I've heard any.

The battle system is back, almost identical to the original. It's entirely turn-based, with a team of four characters fighting the usual Shadows of the series. Every ally has a set spirit called a Persona granting magic and skills, while Wonder has three of them that you can choose freely. Each Persona deals damage related to its element (the usual fire, ice, and holy, but also uncommon types like psychokinesis or nuclear). Like before, you need to hit the elemental weakness of the opponent in order to stun it, trigger an additional strike from an ally called One More, and ultimately launch an all-out attack to do massive damage. 

Since it’s a free-to-play game, there are many more characters than on console and a more diverse array of possibilities. Characters such as Yukimi bring defensive strategies that are helpful for difficult fights, and beyond that each of the 20 currently playable allies have unique active and passive skills. It’s worth noting that Navigator type characters now have active skills and are better integrated into battles than ever before in the series. There are also different Navigators that you can choose between. So far there are two, but more are expected in future versions, including one that will be free. This is a huge plus as far as I’m concerned, as I’ve always disliked the way the Navigator character is sidelined in actual combat. Consequently, this spin-off seems to be the richest so far in terms of battle gameplay.

Yet I reckon The Phantom X missed a few things in going free-to-play. First, the game includes many elemental types, and most Shadows have only one weakness. Despite Wonder having three Personas, it’s difficult to cover everything, and it’s way too restrictive in terms of team building. To make matters worse, The Phantom X actually loses an important strategic element compared to Persona 5: you can’t swap party members anymore, which means falling back if you can't cast the right element at the right time. Wonder also can’t be removed from the team, which is normal for a Persona game, but hardly acceptable in a free-to-play one.

While a console release like Persona 5 is story-driven, a free-to-play one will always be character-driven, making it essential to give maximum freedom to the player in using his favourite characters (which, by the way, can cost a lot of money given the economic model used here). I also deplore the lack of a female protagonist. The first character trailers shown already feel like the title is some sort of harem-building game for Wonder, which I find annoying. Equivalent free-to-play RPGs all let you choose a female lead, and I think Atlus should keep up if it wants to compete in this market.

Another noticeable difference with the console release is that there's no time limit set to clear dungeons. True, that can’t be helped; the developers can hardly put time limits in a permanent universe they want to keep going for years. But we can’t pretend that doesn’t affect the gameplay. Time management is a key part of the Persona experience, and having all the time you want inevitably makes the adventure less thrilling. Full recovery also seems to be the norm in dungeons now, whereas HP and especially SP recovery has been a very challenging factor so far in every other Atlus release. Victory just doesn’t have the same taste here, although The Phantom X is more difficult than the other free-to-play RPGs I currently follow. In short, the level of challenge is less than in the original console title, but more intense than The Phantom X's free-to-play competition.

The lack of a time limit means you can enjoy all of the side content as you like. The Phantom X already includes a significant number of side quests, activities, and important NPCs. Like always in Persona, you need to grow Wonder’s social skills (knowledge, charm, kindness, etc.) by taking part-time jobs, cooking, reading, and meeting friends. Numerous challenges, including the recurring labyrinth Mementos, are great for testing your characters and strategies. There’s a compelling amount of content between dungeons, so this title certainly lives up to the Persona brand in that field. I was delighted to see my personal favourite activity - the morning class - return here, with more eccentric teachers and more incredible questions!

Speaking of friends, The Phantom X does something unusual with its cast. Most playable characters aren’t considered Phantom Thieves but rather Phantom Idols. A Phantom Idol is a character in the Metaverse that may look like someone in the real world but has no connection with that person. For example, Tomoko Noge is a confidant in the real world, and there's a Phantom Idol called Tomoko in the Metaverse, but Tomoko Noge doesn’t know about the Metaverse, nor that she has an alter ego in it. So except for the four protagonists and returning Phantom Thieves from Persona 5 Royal, every character you will own is disconnected from his or her real self. There are literally "Units" with no consciousness, a bit like in Disgaea.

Frankly, I think this is a bad idea. I understand Atlus not wanting a hundred Phantom Thieves in the long run, but the end result feels so lacking in terms of characterization and narrative potential. Persona 5 has been all about the characters finding their reasons to fight, face the Metaverse, and awaken their Persona in a terrific cutscene, and now they’re scrapping this for 90% of the characters? Underwhelming would be an understatement here.

The result is that the two current Phantom Idols on limited banners right now have absolutely barebones, mundane, and boring personal quests when there’s potential for so much more. In Honkai: Star Rail, which is The Phantom X's most direct competitor right now, every playable character has a considerable amount of screentime in the main story. I’d say Atlus has missed the point in the way it manages its characters for this game. Still, there are at least really good character designs and there's a lot to look forward to, but I really wanted this aspect of the game to be more ambitious.

So far, The Phantom X might sound like a typical console RPG, but when it comes to leveling up your characters it suddenly becomes very much a typical free-to-play release. Character level, weapon level, accessory level, and Persona skills all require different materials to be obtained in different challenges located in what's called the Realm of Repression. On top of that, Wonder’s Personas need a different type of material than the other characters’ Personas to level up. Personas are also surprisingly scarce in dungeons, meaning you actually need to fight them in the Realm of Repression to acquire them.

And since you then fuse them to create high rarity Personas (several times to get the rare Persona to max level), managing your Personas is both lengthy and tedious. I’m personally OK with that (especially at launch, since you get lots of characters at once), but there's definitely a lot of grinding. Fortunately, other aspects are more user-friendly. For example, the level carries over when you replace a weapon! There have also been continuous campaigns since launch to help players with their stamina or earn bonus rewards. Due to its free-to-play nature, The Phantom X is more demanding in terms of time commitment and grinding, but it remains as compelling as its console counterpart.

Last, but certainly not least, we need to look into the economics of Persona 5: The Phantom X. Following the traditional free-to-play model, characters of four and five-star rarities are obtained via random pulls on permanent and limited banners. The permanent banner has several five-star characters, who are mostly returning Phantom Thieves from Persona 5. Note that the game offers one of your choice between Ann, Ryuji, and Morgana, which is definitely cool. You can try to obtain characters from time limited banners for one month (as of now). The guarantee is set at 80 pulls to get a five-star character (and 50% chance for the limited character), and 160 pulls to be sure to get the limited character. This is on par with Wuthering Waves, which has the most favourable system right now.

The daily missions and the rather economical monthly pass grant 180 crystals per day, which is more than the competition. Microtransactions also seem less expensive compared to other titles, so provided you don’t want every character, I doubt The Phantom X will cost you a lot in the long run. It’s worth mentioning that rewards for the global version have been partly reduced compared to the Asian version, which released quite some time ago and is very much ahead of us. That's stirred quite some anger in the community over the last few days.

Persona 5: The Phantom X is essentially a new Persona 5 that fits in your pocket, but which requires a lot more grinding. Visually appealing, well paced, full of content, and well balanced in terms of challenge level, it’s a good long-term RPG for those who are ready to invest the time (and a bit of money) in it. Still, a relative lack of effort and freedom in terms of character development places it behind notable competitors in this field like Honkai: Star Rail. While it doesn’t have the sense of grandeur of the latter, it definitely provides an entertaining time and is de facto the best Japanese free-to-play game that I know of right now.