In a recent interview, the developers of Persona 5 Tactica talked about adapting the series to the SRPG genre. They also discussed the reason for choosing that genre and their experience developing the Atlus title. [Thanks, 4Gamer!]
Persona 5 Tactica is the first strategy RPG in the Persona series. Composer Toshiki Konishi also noted that it is the first Atlus simultaneous worldwide release on multiple platforms. Director Naoya Maeda said that the development of Persona 5 Tactica lasted approximately four years.
Business Producer Atsushi Nomura said that the developers wanted to focus on showing the Phantom Thieves acting as a team when they started the project. The developers then concluded that the most appropriate genre to deliver the feeling would be a strategy RPG.
Since some members of the development team weren’t fans of strategy RPGs due to their perceived high difficulty and the time-consuming element of leveling and managing so many different units, Maeda revealed that a lot of effort went into streamlining some of the game’s most challenging elements, while maintaining the sense of progressing and growing each playable unit.
Maeda added that a turning point in the development of Persona 5 Tactica to make the game feel different from other SRPGs and emphasize elements of the Persona series was the implementation of the Triple Threat mechanic. Another cited element was the inclusion of free-form movement of the playable characters during their turn instead of selecting units and tiles for movement.
When asked about composing for an SRPG, composer Toshiki Konishi said that it was drastically different from composing for a more traditional RPG. Furthermore, they added variations to the tracks for each battle stage because they wanted to adapt to the player’s emotions as the game’s story progressed.
Persona 5 Tactica is now available for the Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC via Steam.
