Persona 5 Tactica is a new spin-off featuring a completely different experience (and look) to the main game.
If you're getting Persona Q vibes from the art style, you're admittedly not alone. In a recent issue of Weekly Famitsu, P Studio general producer Kazuhisa Wada revealed that during the testing phase of the new turn-based strategy game, the team actually applied "character designs directly from the Persona Q series". In the end, the team decided to redraw everything (via Persona Central).
"We decided that adjusting the proportions for the characters specifically for this game would make a significant difference, so as you can see, we completely redrew everything."
Tactica's art director Hanako Oribe actually touched on this as well in the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu, reiterating how 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 Persona Q series, and the game genre is also different, so we aimed for artwork that would be most fitting for this game."
Although Persona 5 Tactica might look like it has a "chibi style" similar to Persona Q, according to Oribe, the proportions in Tactica have been increased to place emphasis on "the size of the hands and feet", which has resulted in a more like "comic book-like" look. The reason behind this idea is to help characters stand out more in battle.
"If we view the battles from an overhead perspective, characters with the usual tall proportions would appear thin and stick-like. Additionally, it’s challenging to depict dynamic gestures and movements with the proportions from Persona Q."
So, there you go - although 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 on 17th November 2023.