Persona 5 The Phantom X is back to raid our wallets with well-overdue changes

The Persona 5 The Phantom X operations team for Sega's global and Japanese servers has penned a letter to fans promising major changes to the besieged gacha-fueled spinoff. This follows months of discontent and a flurry of negative reviews on Steam over its seemingly stingy pull rates, and a dizzying update cadence that was making it hard for players, myself included, to keep up. While not everything on my wishlist has been tackled, it's a marked improvement that could save it from the Velvet Room's guillotine.

I love Persona, almost to an unhinged degree. Persona 5, one of the best turn-based RPG games ever, remains the only 100-hour marathon I've bound through multiple times. Suffice it to say, I was cautiously optimistic about the launch of the alt-universe gacha spinoff, Persona 5 The Phantom X. However, I had bounced off Black Wings' subway slammin' take by the 20-hour mark. It wasn't the gameplay that gave me the ick, though (Lufel is my boy), but I couldn't hack the pace with which the Sega-run global version (Sega also operates the Japanese server), was attempting to catch up with the other Asian servers - P5X initially launched in China, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, and Taiwan last year.

In isolation, this isn't so bad, but notable changes between the two versions of the game compound the issue. Firstly, there's a perceivable lack of extra resources to help compensate for the fact that character banners are being rifled through quicker than usual. What's more, P5X uses a gacha system called 'Contracts' that, ostensibly, has a much more unforgiving soft pity system than what many are used to. This means you're going to be hitting the pity cap more often on average than some of the other best gacha game staples, and it happened to me when pulling for Joker. Together, this witchy concoction of slugs, snails, and puppy dog tails make for a brew too bitter to swallow.

While this is the nature of the gacha Godzilla, Sega's handling of its servers has gone down like a slime slushie with players. According to SteamDB, at the time of writing its peak concurrent player count is barely a tenth of what it was pulling at launch; its recent Steam reviews have averaged out as 'Mostly Negative.' Now, two months after P5X threw open its doors to the west, the ops team has finally responded in an open letter.

"Greetings, Thieves," it begins. "Thank you for your patience and ongoing support. Since launch this past June, we've received a significant amount of player feedback. We've heard your feedback, and while some aspects haven't met expectations, we're committed to making meaningful improvements.

"In this letter, we hope to answer your questions and concerns based on the feedback we have received so far, especially regarding the differences with the Chinese/Asia versions, the Contracts system, as well as shed some light on future updates."

The changelog is extensive, and overall a huge positive for players. The current 80/80 pity system is being replaced with the 110 pity system that was introduced to China et al. six months after P5X launched there, and it's coming much sooner. Under the current system, there's a 50/50 chance to hit the premium banner five-star thief by the time you reach 80 pulls. If you lose the coin toss, you're guaranteed it within the next 80. At best, you get the character you want in 80 pulls (freak 0.8% rolls aside), but at worst you're shelling out 160. Now, you will get the 'Most Wanted' thief within 110 pulls, provided you don't hit a five-star earlier.

In theory, this is far more free-to-play friendly on average, unless you have god-like luck. Sega remains coy on if ramping soft pity will be present, as well as how aggressive it is. PCGN has reached out to the publisher for comment, and will report back if we hear anything.

Elsewhere, Sega says it'll be adding new ways to stock up on tickets and currency to offset its speedy patch cadence. Additionally, you'll be able to get Minami's Cognitite and five-star weapon from "a special campaign," creating parity with the China and Co. bros who already received them.

Speaking of Minami, Sega's retaining its stance on adding Minami and Yumi to the standard banner six months after their limited banner run. It's an unnecessary delay in my book, but at the very least it does mean we have longer to save our Gold Tickets for the best sustain character on the Persona 5 The Phantom X tier list.

You can read the full letter here, which also gives us a glimpse of what Sega's cooking up for future versions; most notably the upcoming addition of Thief's Cognitite Shards, which can be traded for extra thief Awareness levels.

All things accounted for, this is an incredibly promising update that, if executed properly, could see the global and Japanese servers ride out the severe post-launch criticism they have come under. P5X has a lot going for it, and I'd hate to see it sabotaged by questionable decision-making. It's a positive display of intent from Sega, and it has me seriously considering dipping back in once the changes have come through.

If you've been having fun with P5x, make sure you're staying on top of all the latest Persona 5 The Phantom X codes. Or, check out more of the best JRPGs you can play if you're still not quite ready to come back.

Has Persona 5 The Phantom X stolen your heart? Or has it left you wandering Mementos in despair? Come over to our community Discord server and let us know your thoughts on the dev letter.