In a brewing controversy in the gaming community, Persona 5: The Phantom X, the newest free-to-play gacha game of the extremely successful Persona franchise, is coming under attack from a wave of negative user reviews, so-called “review bombing,” reported by PC Gamer. The international backlash, as seen on platforms such as Steam and the Google Play Store, would seem to be in reaction to gamer outrage at what players feel are unbalanced disparities in rewards within the game between the global and Chinese markets.
Globally launched on June 26, 2024, after its initial release in China and South Korea, Persona 5: The Phantom X experienced the early popularity, even beating that of Persona 5 Royal’s highest Steam player bases. That early success has been eclipsed by the rising tide of criticism. On Steam, the game is at “Mixed” reviews, with approval recommendations from only 49% of players. Things are more dire on the Google Play Store, where the game has dropped as low as 2.1 out of 5 stars.
The cause of this dissatisfaction is an impression by overseas players that they are being offered much less gratifying rewards than Chinese players. Several reviewers have reported feeling treated as “second-hand citizens,” with threats of withholding monetary aid until fair reward frameworks are put in place. This is supplemented by a fan-generated report, which allegedly records these discrepancies between the gacha systems.
Specific instances mentioned by players include disparity in pays for server maintenance downtime, where foreign players were supposedly offered a paltry 100 gems while Chinese players received 300. Further, supposedly, there were redemption codes provided only to the Chinese players. Another key area of controversy is the lack of new characters added on the base banner on international servers after the initial launch, and a practice that is claimed to be being continued. on the Chinese version.
Black Wings Game Studio, the game developers, have not yet given any clear explanation of these differences. Speculation is that the differences are linked to the global content rollout timing schedule. The studio has recently disclosed changes to the global roadmap, which would allow players outside China to switch more easily, and then delivered Update 1.1 to Western players on July 10. How the player complaints influence the game’s popularity in the long run and whether or not the developers will balance the rewards is a major watch point for the gaming world.
