AlthoughPersona 5: The Phantom Xcarries the name of Atlus' popular JRPG series, it breaks several traditions that fans have come to expect from aPersonatitle. The nature ofPersona 5: The Phantom Xas a mobile gacha spin-off lends itself to a slightly different gameplay loop from a traditionalPersonagame. As a result,P5Xflips the script on a key part of the originalPersona 5’s approach to its in-game activities and Metaverse dungeons.
P5X’s mix of traditionalPersonagameplay and gacha elements can be a double-edged sword for some fans. While many will feel at home with its core gameplay mechanics, likePersona’selemental skills systemand daily life activities,The Phantom Xreframes these features in a way that will take some getting used to for longtime fans. In particular,P5Xplayers will find that tackling the game’s Palaces is far different from the original game, and that’s largely due to the removal of an in-game deadline for completion.
Persona 5: The Phantom X’s Lack of Time Limits Removes a Major Barrier
The Original Persona 5 Revolved Around a Time Limit
Planning activities around a calendar system is a core part of themainlinePersonaseries, andPersona 5raised the stakes by giving players a deadline for completing Palaces. The original game only allowed players to complete two daily life activities per day, one after school and one in the evening, and entering Mementos or a Palace took the place of both activity slots. With the limitations of a specific deadline that players needed to steal the target’s heart and defeat the Palace’s ruler by,Persona 5required strategic planning to maximize the in-game time allotted.
Persona 5 Royaladded the ability to perform one task inside Leblanc at night on days when players enter Mementos or a Palace.
There’s No Incentive to Blast Through a Palace in Persona 5: The Phantom X
As a side effect ofPersona 5’s in-game time limit, it became an unwritten rule for players looking to play the game as efficiently as possible to rush through a Palace in a single day so that they could spend the rest of their time before the deadline improving their social stats, hanging out with Confidants, or doing side quests in Mementos. However,The Phantom Xmakes this rule obsolete by removing deadlines for Palace completion, offering players no benefit for speeding through the dungeon. Part of this design is likely due to the pick-up-and-play nature of mobile games, where players typically only have time to engage in short bursts of gameplay during their daily logins. However, it requires players who are used to the classicPersonacalendar systemsome time to adjust.
The Phantom X Introduces a New Type of Time Limit
Even without having to worry about deadlines for completingPersona 5: The Phantom X’s Palaces, players will still need to deal with a different time limit. A standard feature of mobile gacha games is their reliance on real-time events and gates to keep players coming back to play each day, andP5Xis no different. Limited-time banners for specific characters are a part ofThe Phantom X’s gacha mechanics, and daily login rewards require players to spend a part of their real-life schedule opening the game if they want to claim these freebies.
Additionally,P5X’s Urban Life activitiesthat can increase social stats or synergy with companions are still limited by real-life time gates.The Phantom Xallows players to spend Action Points to participate in these Urban Life activities, with five total slots for each in-game day.
2
Night
1
After all five Action Points are spent, the in-game calendar will advance to the next day, and the activity slots open up again. However, players will still need to carefully consider how they spend theirAction Points inThe Phantom X, as they refresh in real time once per day at 8 pm UTC. So, whileP5Xdoesn’t have a deadline for when players need to complete its dungeons, it still asks players to be mindful of how they spend their in-game time and requires longtimePersonafans to rethink their approach to the traditional calendar system.
