New Persona 5 spin-off game revealed

A new Persona 5 spin-off game has been revealed, coming to mobile courtesy of Chinese developer Perfect World.

Persona 5: The Phantom X will be a brand new game set in the same world as P5, with an original Phantom Thief group.

Gameplay will faithfully follow that of Persona 5, but optimised for smartphone users. It will be free-to-play, with item-based in-app purchases.

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There's no word on a release date yet, but according to the game's website (in Chinese) the first playtest will begin on 29th March.

The website also reveals a couple of the game's characters. The protagonist is a young boy in the second year of high school, Kiba Academy, who's living alone due to his parents travelling abroad. He leads a double life when his persona powers are awakened. So far, so Persona.

There's also an animal character, this time an owl, who can transform into a delivery van, and a cheerful young girl who's popular and good at sports.

Judging by the gameplay trailer (above), Persona 5: The Phantom X (or Phantom of the Night as it seems to translate to) will be very familiar to fans of the main game. Expect animated cutscenes, the Velvet Room, Tokyo exploration and school life, the Mementos dungeon, turn-based battles, and the flashy UI the series has come to be known for.

This time it's in the palm of your hand, which is fitting when the characters enter the metaverse through a smartphone app. This looks to be a fully-fledged game, though, which Persona fans won't want to miss. I'm already quite taken by the owl.

That said, it's unclear if this will be a global release or China only.

Oh, and watch until the end of the trailer for a surprise...

This isn't the first spin-off of Persona 5; the excellent Persona 5: Strikers released in 2020 but with musou style battles.

And if you're yet to play the original game, it was recently released across all platforms.