Persona 5: The Phantom X Review – A Phantom Adventure Trapped in a Gacha Loop

I've been playing Persona 5: The Phantom X since its release on June 26, 2025. Initially, I wanted to write this review as soon as possible, but I decided to give it some time to see how things progress over the first month of its launch. I'm glad to have made that call. As the honeymoon period got over, I found the cracks that made me not much of a fan of IP-based gacha games.

The game is not bad, per se, but certain decisions and changes from the Asian servers have left me with concerns about this title's future. Let's get into this review of Persona 5: The Phantom X, and by the end of it, you may be able to decide or agree with me.

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Persona 5: The Phantom X - Stylish, Addictive, and Surprisingly Fun

Plot

The first thing many people will look for in a Persona game is how good the story is. ATLUS is known for writing some of the best narratives, and especially this game being a Persona 5 spin-off. While it doesn't touch the nuances that P5 dealt with from start to finish, The Phantom X's plot is not that bad.

It's subway slammin' time (Image via Sega)

The two kind of big misses were the Protagonist and the very first antagonist. Wonder's motivation doesn't make much sense, as he doesn't share the struggle Joker goes through. He's just a normal kid who somehow got entangled with the power of the Metaverse and basically became the protagonist.

The first antagonist, Kiuchi, aka the Subway Slammer, also failed to slam through the greatness that was Persona 5's first major villain, Suguru Kamoshida. The writers failed to establish Kiuchi as his own character, gave him a weak motivation, and essentially made him a second Kamoshida.

Despite a comparatively weak start, P5X picks back up on the second Palace, and from what I've read and heard, the plot keeps on getting better. While it lacks a strong start, Persona 5: The Phantom X has a good story you will be able to enjoy.

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Gameplay

Gameplay-wise, Persona 5: The Phantom X follows the same formula of the original P5 or the Royal re-release, while improving on many aspects to better restructuring others to fit into the gacha game roots. You have your standard day-to-day loop where you can engage in City Life activities or dive into Mementos or the Palaces.

Combat is also the same turn-based system Persona is known for, with some tweaks. There are a few minor changes to some of the existing systems, but that works in the favor of the game.

Combat remains great as the original P5 (Image via Sega)

Firstly, you will notice quite a few improvements when it comes to the auto battle system compared to the original Persona 5. The characters use skills or even put up guards in case the enemy can nullify their weakness. This is quite a big improvement when it comes to an autoplay system, as the original only had your party using their weapons and not their personas.

Secondly, the ability to activate your Navi's abilities on the go is also a blessing. I mostly used Okkyaan as my Navigator, and her buffs work so well with my party, which consisted of Joker and Rin. The game also has a varied exploration as now Palaces can be explored for additional rewards and collectibles you've missed even after you defeat the boss.

Persona 5: The Phantom X features new areas (Image via Sega)

The map of Tokyo has also been expanded to include new areas related to Wonder. You can also now travel between Shibuya Station and Central Street directly. Another great change that Persona: The Phantom X brings to the table is the fact that you can claim rewards multiple times by challenging a stage once. This is definitely something more gacha games should implement.

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Music

Credit where credit's due. Despite Persona 5: The Phantom X reusing many soundtracks from the original Persona 5, it still has a great set of OSTs. BlackWings Audio teams up with Ryota Kozuka to bring another fantastic set of electrifying jazz tracks that were able to capture the magic and essence of Persona 5.

Lyn also gives us another reason to love her even more, as she delivers a fantastic performance on the vocal tracks.

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Visuals, Artstyle and Performance

While Persona 5: The Phantom X has the same aesthetic of Persona 5, the graphical department definitely sees some improvements. Reflections have been added, and the streets of Tokyo look gorgeous when it rains.

The game looks stunning during rain (Image via Sega)

Performance is also well optimized, mostly, except for a few frame drops I saw at times. To be fair, it's still fine, given how good the game looks despite being a mobile title ported to PC.

Here is the machine on which I played Persona 5: The Phantom X:

• Ryzen 5 5600X
• AMD RX 6600 8GB VRAM
• 32 GB RAM DDR4

While I generally love Persona UIs, The Phantom X suffers from the mobile game HUD system where the User Interface is full of icons, making it extremely cluttered and unpleasant to look at.

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Shadows lurk in the Metaverse: Rebellion Reloaded, with Microtransactions

Recently, I replayed Persona 5 Royal, and reaching Kaneshiro's Palace made me laugh at the irony. The entire plot of that arc, which revolves around greed and the obsession with money, is extremely hilarious when considering Persona 5: The Phantom X's monetization.

Let's take a look at where Persona 5: The Phantom X drops the balls on the Global Side of things.

Gacha System

The banners of Persona 5: The Phantom X, while not the worst, certainly leans toward the predatory side. We are slowly moving toward a new age of gacha games, where many developers are going for a 100 percent character guarantee, at least for the first time.

One of the weirdest gacha systems (Image via Sega)

Take Neverness to Everness or Duet Night Abyss, for example. These games featured a 100 percent guarantee for their limited characters at least during the closed beta tests that the developers conducted.

I am not asking to remove the 50-50 system completely, but having no soft pity while all other major games do hurt Persona 5: The Phantom X's reputation in the current gacha market and damages the relationship with a player.

Also, should I say that the outright removal of a guaranteed 110 banner, which was a thing on the Asian servers, seems a bit weird? The game lacks a soft pity system as it is, as I have seen many of my friends requiring a complete 80 pulls to get a 5-star, and on top of that, you have to deal with the 50-50 system.

Having a system that forces you to go 160 pulls given you lose the 50-50 coin toss is just not acceptable in the current gacha market, despite having a higher drop rate, which I should add, is not that much compared to big guns like Genshin Impact.

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Pop-ups

One of the biggest issues that Persona 5: The Phantom X currently suffers from, which I think is unnecessary, is the constant ad pop-ups the game decides to put on your face often. Every time you travel to the real world from Mementos or the Thieves Guild, a promotional pop-up will be forced down your face.

It is 2025, and why do we need these promotional pop-ups in a game that comes from a well-established IP? If people really like the game, they will spend money on purchasing the packs to support the development cycle.

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Removal of Rewards

Version 1.1 was one of the most anticipated updates of Persona 5: The Phantom X, and it has disappointed the entire community. For some odd reason, the development team decided to remove and replace rewards that were there in the other servers.

Version 1.1 has been a disappointing update (Image via Sega)

From being able to obtain Minami's Awareness and weapons from the Lufel Plans as free rewards to the complete replacement of receiving 10x limited-time character banner currency with that of 7x weapon banner ones, it honestly feels like global players are getting the short end of the stick.

On top of that, the developers announced that the global versions will see an accelerated schedule, which will try to integrate them with the Asian servers. There is nothing wrong with that, but shouldn't the global players also be entitled to more rewards then?

I play Kuro Games' Punishing Gray Raven, which is also facing a similar integration, but the developers aren't reducing or removing the rewards. In fact, they are doubling or tripling the daily and weekly currency you earn based on how many combined patches are released as one.

On top of the removal of rewards for the global version, the team decided to reduce the amount of Gems that you receive from Persona 5: The Phantom X, when the servers were down temporarily for maintenance. While the Asian version has received 300 gems, the global players got 100, which is not even enough for a single pull.

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Lack of Communication

The global developers at SEGA for Persona 5: The Phantom X honestly need to clarify the state of the game if they want to retain players. Version 1.1 has already broken player trust, with the game getting review-bombed on the Play Store and Steam.

I don't think the players are in the wrong here, as it is honestly disappointing that SEGA is taking a while to respond to the criticisms. The developers did announce they will address some of the issues during the 1.2 release, but it's not known which ones will be fixed.

Communication is the key to maintaining trust between a company and its consumers, and I do feel like the damage has been done in this case.

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In Conclusion

Persona 5: The Phantom X deserves a better treatment (Image via Sega)

Currently, with the release of the 1.1 version of Persona 5: The Phantom X, I cannot recommend the game. Several issues are plaguing it at the moment, including shady monetization and FOMO-inducing tactics, and the removal of player rewards. If you love collecting characters and are a player who loves the meta of any gacha game, Persona 5: The Phantom X is not the game.

I want to love this game, but it does so many things wrong on the global side that I cannot, in all honesty, recommend it.

Persona 5 Royal is one of my favorite games of all time, and honestly, I think that despite The Phantom X's glaring issues, there is a genuinely fun game underneath it.

But the clear lack of communication, or in some cases a delayed response from the developers, feels like the global release lacks proper management. Sega needs to address concerns on time and properly explain its point of view regarding the changes soon if the developers want this game not to lose players.

Given the developers can revert these decisions and implement a proper response going forwards, Persona 5: The Phantom X's future might look bright and even establish it as one of the best IP-based gacha games. But it will all come boiling down to the 1.2 livestream and how the developers handle the ongoing issues and rewards distribution in the future.

If you are looking forward to getting into the series, please buy and play Persona 3 Reload or Persona 5 Royal. The global side of Phantom X currently has a lot of issues, and I don't think you should experience this game as your first step into one of the best JRPG series of all time.

If you are a fan of the series, you can genuinely get a good experience from Persona 5: The Phantom X for a while, but I will suggest that you wait and see what the situation boils down to before investing your time and effort in this game.

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Persona 5: The Phantom X

Persona 5: The Phantom X Review (Image via Sportskeeda)

Reviewed on: PC (Build provided by Sega)

Platforms: PC and Mobile

Developer: BlackWings Game Studio, ATLUS

Publisher: Sega

Release Date: June 26, 2025