With so many games in the Persona 5 family, it’s not the easiest thing to keep track of all the events or even know if they’re all canon in the first place. The newest addition presents a solid story, but in the end, is Persona 5 Tactica canon?
Is Persona 5 Tactica Canon?
The truth is that, yes, Persona 5 Tactica is not only a canon event within the main Persona 5/Royal storyline, but it also takes place at a specific point in the story. It’s not like Strikers, which is a direct sequel to the main events of Persona 5 (because the events in Royal are nonexistent in that spinoff). There’s a narrow window of when the events in Tactica can fit.
The first cutscene featuring the Phantom Thieves gives us a hint: they mention Makoto and Haru’s graduation and Joker’s return to his hometown happening soon. Futaba also mentions that “they have had enough.” This places the story after Shido’s Palace but before the end of the school year in March.
In Tactica, the Phantom Thieves get transported into yet another version of the metaverse where there are “Kingdoms” and not Palaces. There, they meet Erina, who becomes an honorary group member. We won’t go into major details about Tactica’s story, but one important aspect to highlight is that the one that helps us in The Velvet Room is Lavenza. That makes it safe to assume that the final battle in Persona 5 has also already happened, and it narrows the time window of when the events are happening even more.
If you consider Royal’s story, it becomes a lot more specific. The story in Persona 5 Tactica’s DLC is unrelated to the main one, and it only features Akechi and Kasumi as Joker’s teammates, so the best bet is to place Repaint Your Heart somewhere after January 12 but before February 2. Yes, Joker, Akechi, and Kasumi go into their little Tactica adventure while in the middle of solving Maruki’s Palace.
The events in Persona 5 Tactica don’t seem to alter the ones in the main Persona 5/Royal, but the opposite is not true. Many jokes and comments throughout the conversations between the Phantom Thieves make it clear that they are aware of what has happened before and how odd this version of the Metaverse seems to be. So yes, in a nutshell, Persona 5 Tactica is very canon.
