Persona 5 Tactica used character designs from Persona Q during the testing phase

Persona 5 Tactics is a new spin-off that features a completely different experience (and look) than the main game.

if you are receiving person Q art style vibes, it’s true that you’re not alone. in a recent issue of Weekly FamitsuP Studio General Producer Kazuhisa Wada revealed that during the testing phase of the new turn-based strategy game, the team actually applied “character designs straight from the Persona Q series.” In the end, the team decided to redraw everything (via Persona Central).

“We decided that adjusting the character proportions specifically for this game would make a significant difference, so as you can see, we completely redrew everything.”

Tactica’s art director Hanako Oribe also touched on this in the latest issue of Weekly Famitsureiterating that the new game is not a sequel to Persona Q or anything similar just because of the art style.

“This is not a sequel within the person Q series, and the genre of the game is also different, so we aimed for the illustrations that would be more suitable for this game.”

Although Persona 5 Tactica may appear to have a similar “chibi look” to Persona Q, according to Oribe, the proportions in Tactica have been increased to put an emphasis on “the size of the hands and feet”, resulting in a look more like the “comic book” look. The reason behind this idea is to help the characters stand out more in battle.

“If we look at battles from an aerial perspective, characters with the usual tall proportions would appear skinny and stick-like. Also, it’s difficult to depict dynamic gestures and movements with the proportions of person Q.”

So there you have it: while the two games look the same, Persona 5 Tactica is doing its own thing and even uses its own unique art style. It will be released later this year for Nintendo Switch in November 17, 2023.