The Phantom Thieves of Hearts (Starting Members [Joker] | Later Members [Goro Akechi | Kasumi Yoshizawa])
Confidants (Sae Niijima) | Targets - Palace Rulers / Endgame Antagonists (The Dreamer) / Minor | Other Characters
Spin-Offs: Strikers (Jail Monarchs) | Tactica | The Phantom X
This is the character sheet for all characters introduced in Persona 5 Tactica. For a full index of characters from the Persona series, go here.
Just like the main page, spoilers for the original Persona 5 are left unmarked. Spoilers for Royal will however be marked.
Note: Due to Plot Twists that happen as early as both the first and second Kingdoms, this character page contains several Self-Fullfilling Spoilers for Tactica's plot. For the sake of simplicity, all spoilers for the game's story are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
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The Revolutionaries (All Spoilers Unmarked)
Toshiro Kasukabe
Toshiro Kasukabe
Voiced by: Tomoaki Maeno (Japanese), MacLeod Andrews (English)
A member of the Japanese National Diet who mysteriously disappeared. Unbeknownst to the public, Toshiro was transported to the Kingdoms and captured by Marie. Shortly after being rescued by the Rebel Corps and the Phantom Thieves, he joins their ranks in the hopes of finding a way back to the real world.
- Absurdly Powerful Student Council: During high school, he made himself student council president because it would look good on his college resume and his father encouraged him to take that position. This led to him meeting Natsuhara, who turned his own student council into some sort of counseling room and prefect organization. At its apex, Toshiro and Natsuhara even managed to launch a full-blown investigation against a corrupt vice principal and put him to justice.
- Ambiguous Situation: Is his relationship with Eri Natsuhara purely platonic? Given that Erina, a personification of his hidden courage modeled after Eri, was first met in Marie's Kingdom opposing a cognition of his arranged fiancée that he has no good feelings with, and the post-credits reunion between the two, there might be some romantic subtext between them. Adding to this is when you complete one of the quests in Nakabachi's Kingdom, he reveals that he received a love letter from an unknown admirer and kept it hidden from her, and Toshiro insists he did that because he doesn't want her pestering him about it and finding out who sent him that letter.
- Amnesiac Hero: While he has most of his memories, Toshiro mentions chunks of his memories are missing, including how and why he ended up in the Kingdoms.
- Arranged Marriage: He was forced to marry Marie Anto by his father Yoshiki so he could secure his son's premiership. Given Marie is a bossy and commanding Jerkass (and depending on situation he might be in love with Natsuhara instead), he's not too happy about it.
- Beneath the Mask: He initially claims that his relationship with the Phantom Thieves is Teeth-Clenched Teamwork. In reality, he's a huge fan because their epic calling card aimed at Shido impressed him enough that he regained some degree of Heroic Willpower, creating Erina from his reignited idealism.
- Butt-Monkey: Gets this worse than Ryuji, which is understandable given that he's a non-fighter who frequently cowers away from potential harm and chaos and lambasts the Thieves for their own recklessness. This slowly lessens over the first and second Kingdoms as he shows more of his tactical mind and charisma, becoming an asset to the Phantom Thieves even without entering the fray. Then it disappears entirely when his courage finally crystalizes, and he awakens to his Persona.
- Clothing-Concealed Injury: From his first appearance, Toshiro wears a white glove on his right hand, but not his left; in the Third Kingdom, the glove comes off to reveal a large scar. It's heavily implied he got it during the tragedy at the train station.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Toshiro has shades of this throughout the game, mostly shown for his poor penchant for naming things. But there's also the part where he initially mistakes Morgana for a catfish, followed by an eel.Morgana: I'm not an eel either! What's wrong with your eyes!?
- Dark Secret: The Kingdom rulers all accuse him of having committed some horrible crime in the past, which Toshiro conveniently doesn't remember. The "crime" they speak of is the Nakabachi debacle in which Toshiro's friend Eri Natsuhara was hospitalized after Nakabachi pushed her and got her run over by a train, which Toshiro feels directly responsible for despite it being in no way his fault.
- Distressed Dude: He's first encountered in the depths of Marie's dungeon, and is rescued while the Phantom Thieves are pulling a prison break. Given all the supernatural events happening to him on top of being the unwanted groom of Marie's dream of a "perfect wedding", he's naturally distressed and frazzled by everything going on.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: When he was a young boy and teenager, he let his hair down in a bowl-like fashion, highlighting his youth. As an adult, it's been swept up and slicked-back, making him look more like a proper and charismatic politician, even though he's a bit of a coward.
- Extreme Doormat: While Toshiro does have a spine, he has a bad habit of letting people steamroll right over him. Marie even intends to exploit this, stating he's too weak and cowardly to do anything meaningful by himself. After Eri Natsuhara's hospitalization and his father sinking his claws into him, Toshiro began to exert himself less and less as he held himself responsible for what happened to his friend. This made it easy for Yoshiki to press his son into an Arranged Marriage with a woman who saw him as her personal plaything and mold him into his personal political tool. By the end of Tactica, Toshiro manages to regain his confidence and resolves to do better, starting by airing his father's dirty laundry and having both him and Marie Anto arrested for their corruption.
- Foil: Toshiro shares some similarities with a few the Phantom Thieves. The Phantom Thieves in turn uses their own experiences to help him overcome his own personal traumas.
- In Futaba's case, both believed that they are responsible for their mothers' death and that their mothers died hating them for it. However, Futaba became suicidally depressed whereas Toshiro became unwilling to act on his own. Furthermore, Futaba's mother was murdered by an utterly depraved madman through a proxy killer using fantastic means (who also blamed her for her mother's death For the Evulz), while Toshiro's mother died to a mishap that he blamed himself for because he was the one who asked her to go to the balcony park with him.
- In Haru's case, both of their fathers intended to use them as a political pawn to up their standing, by marrying them off to Jerkasses they don't love. However, while Haru's father was arranging the marriage simply to satiate his greed for power and her fiance can act as blatantly abusive as possible, Toshiro's father arranged his marriage with Marie to grant his son enough power to attain premiership, since he does not want the power for himself. Marie also didn't have much of a desire but to marry the prime minister of Japan and she could probably only "abuse" him in a way where she would play political games using him as a front.
- In Makoto's case, both of them were student council presidents who wanted to do their school a service. However, Makoto was unable to do anything without Kobayakawa's permission and was thus barred from investigating Kamoshida. Kobayakawa also forcing her to investigate the Phantom Thieves while holding her scholarship for a college of her choice over her head did her no favors, either. Toshiro, on the other hand, was able to make the student council at his school into a veritable force with his friend Eri Natsuhara's help, even having enough power to get vice-principal Nakabachi fired after exposing his corruption.
- Foreshadowing: In Marie's Kingdom, he's able to use Erina's flag to expunge Marie's corrupting influence from Yusuke and Makoto. Even though said flag seemingly manifested in response to Erina's own will to continue fighting against a corrupt ruler, she developed this power after encouraging Toshiro to stand up for himself after Marie disparages and talks down to Toshiro. Given how it's later revealed that Erina is part of Toshiro and embodies his feelings of hope, Erina's flag is an extension of Toshiro's own abilities.
- Giver of Lame Names: Just like with Erina, the name he gives to the Rebel Corps and Phantom Thieves' operation against Lord Yoshiki leave much to be desired. "Operation Sneaky, Sneaky, Bang, Bang" isn't the coolest name for an operation to begin with. Takes on a more tragic light when the game reveals he got the habit from his late mother, and also gave his father's tasks silly names in order to tolerate and complete them.
- Hero with Bad Publicity:
- After the incident that led to Natsuhara being ran over by a train, Toshiro became The Scapegoat for Nakabachi's fallout because the students want someone to blame for their woes. According to him, it went so bad that he was unable to go to school for a while until it died down one day, heavily implied to be a result of Yoshiki using his status to silence the students.
- At the start of the game, he's extremely popular with the public and is considered an ideal choice to be Prime Minister. During the epilogue, he confesses to the media about his father and Marie's crimes, causing both of them to be arrested. Despite bringing down two major Japanese criminals who were essentially trying to rig the election, Toshiro doesn't get off scot-free. Between Yoshiki's tampering and Tokyo still reeling from the Antisocial Force's corruption being exposed, Toshiro's own reputation goes down the drain in the process and has to work to regain the public's trust, with many online messages in the epilogue showing how he's viewed as a bit of a disgrace.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: He remembers who he is, but doesn't know how he ended up in the Kingdoms and large portions of his life. Specifically, he doesn't remember he knows the real-life versions of the Kingdom rulers and why he's afraid of them. It's implied that Salmael removed them when he dragged him into his world, given the real counterparts of Marie and Yoshiki are literally still around and he has no way to forget what they did or forcefully conceal his memories out of trauma.
- Leeroy Jenkins: During his high school days, he spotted a group of pickpockets trying to mug another student and rushed in directly to stop them without thinking. It led to him being beaten. However, Natsuhara was also present and saw him trying to stop the pickpockets, so she went into the student council room to meet Toshiro unprompted and kickstarted their friendship with each other.
- Lovable Coward: He's a Non-Action Guy and he knows it, being the first to panic at the supernatural crap around him, can brag how quickly he can run from his enemies, and constantly pressures the Phantom Thieves into less dangerous plans. Since he's doing it for their sake as well, the Phantoms are never worse than moderately annoyed and snarky with him. His Fatal Flaw is that his same lack of confidence is why he's easily talked into the schemes of other people he's afraid of, but he never enjoyed it enough to be considered a true Dirty Coward. After he finds his confidence and will to rebel, he becomes a full Cowardly Lion.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: After Toshiro awakens his Persona Ernesto, he effectively becomes a locked-in fourth party member to the three-man Phantom Thief party, and unlike the rest of the playable cast, he functions much differently than the Phantom Thieves and Erina. Since he's unarmed, he has no access to melee attacks or traditional gun attacks; instead, all his attacks come from Ernesto, with whom he can cast a free Gun magic attack as well as a few other powerful Almighty attacks, but at the cost of not being able to utilize melee attacks at all. Also, since he and Erina are basically the same being, any buffs one gets will apply to the other.
- My Greatest Failure: When Nakabachi terrorized his high school with a spy network of students, he teamed up with Natsuhara to expose him, eventually succeeding after arranging a group of his victims and presenting to him recorded evidence of his schemes. Unfortunately, after they kicked Nakabachi out, he was harassed by a lynch mob formed by the student body to the point of insanity, at which point he stalked him and Natsuhara to a train station where he attempted to kill Natsuhara by pushing her into the on-coming train. His reputation tanked to the point that he couldn't return to school until (what was suggested to be) Yoshiki silenced the students using his political status. This incident traumatized him and to an extent, he believed he ruined Natsuhara and regretted meeting her.
- Non-Action Guy: Unlike the Phantom Thieves or Erina, he lacks the power to directly participate in combat, though he's not The Load since he stays away from the fighting or manages to pull his weight when the going gets tough. Towards the end of the game, however, he officially joins their ranks after Erina turns into his Persona.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: The Savvy Guy to Erina and Eri Natsuhara's Energetic Girl. He often is the one being dragged along with Eri's schemes despite his introversion, and was inspired by her multiple times.
- Seven Deadly Sins: He's the closest thing the Kingdoms have to a master of a Palace, though they are a creation of Salmael rather than his distortion — however, he has Sloth in its incarnation as despair and apathy; rather than being lazy, he's had all self-confidence beaten out of him and is easily bullied into doing things that are morally wrong out of lack of faith in his own moral sense. Downplayed, however, in that he never completely lost hope that his ideals were good things, meaning that he retained his sincerity as a politician, eventually leading Salmael to directly intervene due to Toshiro's refusal to abandon his virtues completely.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Back in high-school, he wore a pair of oversized rim glasses while keeping his hair down, which compliments how he is a rather neurotic and intelligent first-year student and became the student council president. As an adult, he's still rather smart, but has ditched them for presumably contacts, though a flashback shows that he wore rectangle-framed glasses when he visited Leblanc.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He's similar to Toranosuke Yoshida in that he's an upstanding politician, so much in fact he's considered a shoe-in for Prime Minister. His reputation also takes a massive hit when he reveals his father and fiancée's crimes to the public, putting him in the same position as Toranosuke after his "three strikes".
- Survivor Guilt: He believes that he killed his mother by asking her out to a balcony park. His father further reinforcing this belief doesn't help him either.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: While Toshiro admits he understands the goal of the Phantom Thieves, he finds their methods a tad extreme. He's not thrilled to be working with them at first, but the Marie arc helps soften his stance since they're his best shot at getting out of the Kingdom. It's later revealed to be subverted; Toshiro has been a fan of the Phantom Thieves ever since their calling card against Masayoshi Shido. In fact, both this and Guernica's latest piece are what reignited his ideals and passions.
- Token Adult: He is a new adult-aged member of the Phantom Thieves following Zenkichi.
- Took a Level in Badass: Joins the front lines after Erina is revealed to be his Persona, Ernesto.
- Uniformity Exception: Unlike prior members who joined the Phantom Thieves, Toshiro does not get a new outfit nor codename upon awakening his Persona, though his mask is briefly seen during his awakening.
- Villain Takes an Interest: The whole reason Tactica happens at all. Salmael believes that Toshiro's "spark" of rebellion will lead the people of Japan to suffer if he becomes Prime Minister and attempts to extinguish that "spark" by trapping him in the Kingdoms to break his spirit.
Erina
Erina
Click here to see her alternate form (Spoilers)
Voiced by: Rie Takahashi (Japanese), Leeanna Albanese (English)
"We fight so we can regain our freedom! We fight for our very lives! You are with me just as I am with you! Please, lend me your strength and we will all be freed!"
The leader of the Rebel Corps. Having lived in the Kingdoms for as long as she can remember, Marie's sudden arrival and tyranny led her to rally the citizenry and establish a resistance cell. After saving Joker and Morgana from Marie, she agrees to help them in exchange for ousting Marie from the Kingdom.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: She's the embodiment of Toshiro's hope, fittingly taking a form that resembles Toshiro's high school senpai Eri Natsuhara, who always stood up against injustice no matter what.
- Armed Legs: Ernesto has revolvers in place of legs and are capable or shooting bullets.
- Artificial Limbs: Ernesto's right foot is a semi-automatic Tokarev pistol and her left leg is a much larger revolver that goes all the way up her thigh. This corresponds to how Natsuhara ends up being crippled during the train station incident. On the other hand, her base form has a metal greave on her left leg that she seemingly can remove as shown during a cutscene.
- Bad "Bad Acting": So bad of an actor that she's absolutely not fooling anyone. Futaba even compares Ann's acting favorably to hers.
- Big Damn Heroes: She's first seen saving Joker and Morgana from being captured and killed by Marie as the rest of the Phantom Thieves are placed under her thrall.
- But Now I Must Go: After the final battle, she returns to being part of Toshiro's heart, but not before saying goodbye to him and the Phantom Thieves.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Oddly enough, to Metis from "The Answer" epilogue of Persona 3 FES. Both are brand new characters who become involved with the main party after they get wrapped up in a new incident after their story concluded, though their importance and roles differ: Whereas Metis is a central figure to The Answer and allied with S.E.E.S. to help dispel the Abyss of Time and said alliance was Teeth-Clenched Teamwork due to having previously tried to kill them, Erina allies with the Phantom Thieves and enlists their help in overthrowing Marie before deciding to continue assisting them when she learns other Kingdoms are suffering under the control of brutal tyrants. Metis is initially presented as being an Anti-Shadow Weapon like Aigis, but is later revealed to be the embodiment of Aigis' repressed emotions and feelings of self-loathing after her failing to protect the protagonist. Erina is the exact opposite, representing Toshiro's feelings of hope and rebellion from both his high school days and his reignited passion after witnessing the downfall of Masayoshi Shido.
- Foreshadowing: The game subtly hints that Erina is Toshiro's Persona well before The Reveal toward the end of the game.
- In the first Kingdom, Erina's spear becomes a flag that not only expunges Marie's influence from the corrupted Phantom Thieves, but also rallies her comrades and boosts their abilities as her Voltage skill. Erina only gained this power after she encouraged Toshiro to stand up for himself. Later on, Toshiro is shown using Erina's flag himself even though it seemed as if that power was unique to Erina.
- Occasionally, Toshiro and Erina come to some very strange conclusions, such as mistaking Morgana for a catfishnote . They're also both Givers Of Lame Names when it comes to naming their operations.
- In Yoshiki's Kingdom, after Toshiro theorizes the Kingdoms are tied to his cognition and is responsible for their creation, Erina wonders what role she has to play since as far as she and the others know, she has no connection to Toshiro unlike the cognitive tyrants. In Nakabachi's Kingdom, however, the party discovers Erina bears an uncanny resemblance to Eri Natsuhara, Toshiro's friend from high school who acts suspiciously similar to Erina herself. The injuries she sustains from being run over by a train also match Erina's eye-covering bang and armored leg. The Wham Episode finally clears things up and reveals that Erina is not only based off of Eri Natsuhara, but is also Toshiro's feelings of hope and his "spark" of rebellion made manifest.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Why is Erina unable to summon a Persona, much less equip a sub-Persona like the rest of the Phantom thieves? Because she's a Persona herself.
- Giver of Lame Names: She calls the Rebel Corps's final operation against Marie as "Operation: BOOM! Explosive Panic", then "Operation: Sneaky Sneaky Bang Bang". These aren't the best names to begin with.
- Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Her right eye is never seen as it's always covered by a portion of her hair. The person she was made after was heavily implied to have used her hair to cover for a lost eye after her accident.
- Identical Stranger: Shortly after arriving in the third Kingdom, the Phantom Thieves discover that Erina bears an uncanny resemblance to Eri Natsuhara, Toshiro's friend from high school. The reason for this is because Erina is modeled after Eri herself.
- I Hate Past Me: A very weird example in that Erina is the past self in question. Erina embodies Toshiro's hopes and desires from his high school days, which he's since come to disdain in the present day due to a belief that his ideals are what nearly led his friend Eri Natsuhara to her death during the Nakabachi debacle. In hindsight, this also makes Toshiro's criticism of Erina come off as him criticizing his "foolish" younger self.
- Jeanne d'Archétype: A female revolutionary figure with a strong sense of justice that rallies and inspires her fellow citizens and rebels into overthrowing tyrannical despots and protecting Toshiro's mind from Salmael's attacks.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Just like the actual Natsuhara, she has a tendency to rush herself into dealing with unjust situations without thinking. Toshiro often admonishes her for her Chronic Hero Syndrome and rushing into battle heedless of her own safety. Given what she represents, this is him subconsciously lashing out at his past self for the exact same reasons, or his belief that Natsuhara's sense of justice only led to her getting hurt.
- Made of Good: She is actually Toshiro's subconscious desires to resist Salmael's attacks against his mind, taking a form similar to his upperclassman and friend Natsuhara. She managed enough of a resistance that Salmael had to directly drag him into his world instead.
- Meaningful Name: Her English name is the first 5 characters of the name of the person she's based on, Eri Natsuhara. Her Japanese name is the first two katakana letters of "Ernesto", her persona form.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Much like Zen and Rei before her, Erina is unique in that she's the only party member who cannot equip sub-Personas, and thus cannot benefit from the extra HP/SP or bonus skills they offer. To compensate for this, she has higher base HP and SP by default and a very powerful showtime attack that makes all nearby enemies vulnerable to crits even if they're behind cover. This is because she's the physical embodiment of Toshiro's hope and his Persona.
- Significant Birth Date: Erina birth date is stated to be December 17, the same day where the Phantom Thieves send the calling card to Shido. This indicates that she was born from Toshiro's heart after the broadcast hijack against Shido.
- Spanner in the Works: When Toshiro saw the Phantom Thieves' Calling Card to Shido, Erina was born as Toshiro's rebellious spirit reignited. Erina's mere existence as Toshiro's budding Persona prevented Salmael from brainwashing Toshiro, as Erina fought back against all of Salmael's attempts. This forced Salmael to physically kidnap Toshiro when its attempts to break him mentally failed thanks to Erina.
- Terrible Artist: When she draws to explain Salmael to the rest of the Phantom Thieves for Lavenza, her drawings are pretty... interesting, to say the least.
- Tomato in the Mirror: During a skit in the first arc, she tries to practice summoning a persona to no avail. Turns out she is a Persona herself, specifically Toshiro's.
- Wrong Context Magic: While she represents a repressed emotion within Toshiro, like a Shadow, she embodies his hope. Fittingly, she becomes his Persona after Toshiro finally confronts Shadow Toshiro.
The Kingdom Rulers and their Real-World Counterparts
Marie
Lady Marie
Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (Japanese), Cat Protano (English)
The tyrannical ruler of the Marie Kingdom who wishes to have a grand wedding.- Amazing Technicolor Population: She has bright pink skin.
- Bridezilla: To an exaggerated degree. All she wants is to get married, but she wants the whole Kingdom to witness her wedding. As such, she takes over a town in Metaverse, brainwashes its inhabitants into mindlessly worshipping her, and forces them to work to make it absolutely perfect. Not stopping at just a regular cake and wedding car, Marie rides around in a tank with spiked tracks and uses anyone who rebels against her as ingredients for the cake.
- Charm Person: At the start of the game, she brainwashes all of the Phantom Thieves bar Joker and Morgana via a magical kiss. The latter two are only spared because they dodged the attack and were saved by Erina, who says Marie had used said trick on her allies in the past. A large portion of the first arc is spent on snapping the other party members out of their brainwashing.
- Control Freak: Her real-world counterpart's haughtiness and possessive attitude towards Toshiro was exaggerated into outright tyranny, in addition to having a broken bear plush based on him that only yearns for Marie to control him more.
- Exotic Eye Designs: She has heart-shaped pupils, though they become deformed when she gets very angry.
- Flat "What": When Toshiro declares that he's done with her, Marie's response is initially this, followed immediately by a livid Big "WHAT?!".
- God Save Us from the Queen!: A sadistic queen who wants to brainwash everyone in the kingdom to fulfill her whims, and isn't afraid to kill anyone who dares defy her if they prove too troublesome to enslave.
- Large and in Charge: One of the tallest tyrants in the game, mainly to show her being a towering, dominating tyrant in comparison to the Super-Deformed and underdog Phantom Thieves and rebels.
- Mundane Wish: The sole goal of her tyranny in the Kingdom is simply to enthrall the entire populace to help create the perfect wedding. That said, there is nothing mundane about it as it's made blatantly clear the unfortunate "groom" will be little more than a trophy husband at best and a plaything at worst.
- Noblewoman's Laugh: Marie has an appropriately pompous laugh, which the brainwashed Thieves occasionally mimic.
- One-Steve Limit: Both Marie and her real-world counterpart, Marie Anto, share a first name with Marie from Persona 4 Golden. Unlike Persona 4's Marie, her name is pronounced as "Maar-ee-eh" instead of "Maar-rie".
- Projectile Kiss: The way she brainwashes the Phantom Thieves is through blowing a kiss at them, which lands on their masks and takes control of them.
- Starter Villain: Outside the DLC campaign, she's the first villain the Phantom Thieves run into in the game. That said, she's still way more dangerous than Alice or Kamoshida, since she manages to brainwash all of the Phantom Thieves bar Joker, Morgana, and Erina, something that no other villain could even try to do.
- Sadist: She really revels in dominating others in exceptionally humiliating ways. The game's report menu even outright calls her "a sadistic tyrant".
- Tennis Boss: The first phase of her boss fight involves knocking her exploding bouquets back at her.
- Thememobile: Rides around in a wedding getaway car (with a "just married" banner and all) covered in spikes and with tank treads in place of wheels, so as to reflect her aim to host “the perfect wedding” as well as her ruthlessness, particularly the joy she takes from subjugating others.
- Voice of the Legion: Anyone affected by Marie's brainwashing will speak with her voice overlapping their own. Sometimes she can even speak through them.
Marie Anto
- Abhorrent Admirer: Subverted. Toshiro is the unfortunate soul whom Marie has picked to be her groom, except it is not out of any sort of romantic feelings. Marie explicitly sees Toshiro as little more than a puppet and a valuable political asset who can do nothing without her approval, and it's heavily exaggerated by her cognitive copy who views him as an outright plaything.
- Jerkass: She's a rather haughty woman who sees Toshiro as a submissive puppet.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: In the epilogue, once Toshiro announces the details of her crimes and breaks up with her, she is taken into custody while throwing a fit live on TV.
- Meaningful Name: She's named after the last queen of France, Marie Antoinette. Fittingly, she's angling to become the future first lady to the Japanese Prime Minister.
- Ojou: The daughter of the CEO of a corporate conglomerate, whose Arranged Marriage with Toshiro can secure enough power for his premiership. As a member of high social standing, she treats commoners with as much disdain as possible.
- Unwanted Spouse: It's clear Toshiro hates her guts and his relationship is a mere political marriage for his father to ensure his son becomes prime minister, and she does absolutely nothing to change his opinion of her.
Yoshiki
Lord Yoshiki
Voiced by: Chafurin (Japanese), Brent Mukai (English)
The ruler of the Yoshiki Kingdom who claims to love all his citizens. In actuality, his so-called "love" is nothing short of oppression.- Believing Their Own Lies: He genuinely believes that his actions are for the sake of his citizens, despite his actions being so blatantly oppressive that they say otherwise. This mirrors his real-life counterpart, who probably thought that he dictated his son's career path for his own good.
- Big Brother Is Watching: His real-world counterpart's Control Freak tendencies towards his son was exaggerated into outright surveillance spycams all over the place looking for people who speak ill of him.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Claims that he loves all his citizens and his actions are all for the sake of love. In actuality, he sets up spy cameras to look for anyone who speaks ill against him and sends them to labor camps. This is even part of his character design: On the surface, Yoshiki looks like a gentle Buddha, only for the face to open and reveal an angry, more demonic visage.
- Cardiovascular Love: His Kingdom has a love motif to it, and his design invokes love and heart imagery. This represents that the real Yoshiki probably still cared about Toshiro as a son rather than an asset, but his methods of controlling his career path and resorting to corrupt methods to ensure his premiership are utterly warped.
- Faux Affably Evil: He claims to love all of his citizens and often speaks like a serene Big Fun. However, he does not hide that he's a dictator who constantly monitors anyone who speaks against him and sends them to labor camps.
- Happiness Is Mandatory: How he runs his kingdom. All the citizens are required to be happy at all times, any showing of unhappiness results in the citizens "disappearing."
- Knight Templar: He thinks that he's genuinely a benevolent ruler even if his spycams, oppression, and labor camps say otherwise. After his defeat, he also blames the Phantom Thieves and rebel corps who started a tragic war in his country without a solid conviction rather than him oppressing his people.
- Lost in Translation: Downplayed; He installs spycams all over his kingdom while claiming constantly to be a champion of love because the Japanese word "Ai" (Love) rhymes with the English word "Eye". This is never noted in the dub, turning it into a Stealth Pun.
- Mood-Swinger: When Yoshiki confronts the Phantom thieves for the first time, he constantly switches from being affable to screaming when speaking to Toshiro.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Lord Yoshiki is obviously furious at the belief that Toshiro will expose him of his corruption, but according to Toshiro after that encounter, his real-world counterpart will not fear him exposing his corruption to the public since he is very confident that he will not. This is the Phantom Thieves' first hint that the Kingdoms are built directly from Toshiro's worst fears and the residents there have nothing to do with their real-world equivalents.
- Penal Colony: He has a series of labor camps that he calls "Labors of Love" that he puts citizens that he doesn't like in. It's likely an exaggeration of the real deal's overly strict methods in raising his son to become an upstanding politician.
Yoshiki Kasukabe
- Abusive Parents: Of the Knight Templar Parent sort. He will subject his son to corporal punishment if he fails to meet his demands, and constantly controls his future career path, doing any means necessary to ensure Toshiro climbs to the peak of the political ladder. He also holds Toshiro responsible for his mother's death despite it being an accident.
- Affectionate Nickname: He's known as "Buddha Kasukabe" by the public due to his seemingly serene and low-profile nature. It's incorporated into the design of his cognitive form, which resembles a gentle Buddha, only for the face to open with a demonic version of his head.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Much like his cognitive form, he's a corrupt, power-hungry and opportunistic politician with many scandals under his belt who hides behind a veneer of serenity, good publicity and a long-standing career. While not as exaggerated as his cognitive form, he's not a particularly intimidating-looking man, but he's extremely draconian towards his son.
- Control Freak: Towards his son Toshiro, which he frequently forces his career path through a strict regimen.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Discussed. When Toshiro told some of the Phantom Thieves about his daily life with Yoshiki, Yusuke speculates that Yoshiki was a strict parent that still cared about his son to fulfill a promise with his dying wife, but in his own, warped way. Toshiro doesn't know either since he does not have the guts to speak with him upfront.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: In the epilogue, once Toshiro announces the details of his crimes and breaks up with Marie, he is taken into custody while throwing a fit live on TV.
- Knight Templar Parent: He will make sure his son climbs to the top of the political ladder by any means necessary, be it political corruption, blackmail and embezzlement.
- Lone Wolf Boss: Despite being a corrupt politician himself, he was never affiliated with Shido's conspiracy. In fact, he took advantage of the resulting chaos following Shido's downfall to jockey Toshiro into position to become the next Prime Minister so that he could further his own political goals.
- Manipulative Bastard: On the surface, he's a serene and long-running politician with a prestigious reputation. Behind the scenes, he's playing all sorts of shady political games in a bid to turn his son into the future Prime Minister.
- Minor Major Character: His cognition was only a simple Arc Villain and he himself only has a few lines during the beginning of the game and the ending cutscene, but he ends up being the one who shaped most of Toshiro's life (bar Natsuhara, and even then he did inadvertently encourage Toshiro to put himself in a position where he would meet her by circumstance) and it's suggested that he even saved his son from the fallout caused by Nakabachi's outing through silencing the school's students using his status.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He's similar to Okumura in that he's an ambitious and shady father figure who desires for more power, up to arranging their children a political marriage to someone who doesn't care about them and participating in political corruption. However, Okumura clearly wants all the power for himself, but Yoshiki has an established image of being serene so he has his son do it for him instead. Furthermore, while Okumura clearly considered Haru as a political pawn to sell off for his political ventures by the moment she joins the Phantom Thieves, Yoshiki probably cared about Toshiro in his own warped way to fulfill Yuki's dying promises.
- Vicariously Ambitious: He was obsessed with power, but he did not want to become prime minister to preserve his image. Therefore, he molds his son into a prime minister candidate behind the shadows.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Not as much as a villain in-game, but he's still a corrupt politician and a borderline Abusive Parent who's widely regarded by the public as an upstanding political figure.
The False Tyrant (Major Unmarked Spoilers)
Nakabachi
Voiced by: Katsuhisa Houki (Japanese), William Salyers (English)
The supposed tyrant of the Nakabachi Kingdom. A vicious principal who sets up an extensive spy network among his fellow students.- Manipulative Bastard: His real counterpart's manipulative tendencies are exaggerated into full-blown spy networks.
- Orcus on His Throne: Unlike the first two tyrants, he doesn't show up on his own and only communicates through a speaker. The Phantom Thieves' goal is to find the four keys to his room and confront him. Subverted, it turns out he's a cut-out — the true ruler of the Nakabachi Kingdom is Shadow Toshiro, who was following you all along.
- Out of Character: The ruler Nakabachi is very out of character even when compared to the ruler Marie or Yoshiki. The first thing he says when being confronted is to reprimand Toshiro that he doesn't believe in his convictions and only briefly going back to character once he actually does fight the party. This is likely because he's a cutout that Shadow Toshiro uses to hide behind, and he's a manifestation of Toshiro's guilt of going against him and causing lots of people to be hurt and arrested.
- Puppet King: He's just an easy scapegoat to be disposed of by Shadow Toshiro.
- Shadow Dictator: Unlike the fake Marie and Yoshiki who frequently come out in the open, Nakabachi mostly hides inside his room and encourages his fellow students to snitch at each other for him.
- The Unpronounceable: When a Rebel tries to say his name, it's replaced by a scratching sound effect and the subtitles show a line of circles. This is not simply for the player and is noticeable by the Phantom Thieves. It's suggested that it's an effect of Nakabachi's blackmail, but it's implied that the real reason is because they're saying "Toshiro".
Ichiro Nakabachi
- Asshole Victim: Deconstructed. As horrible as Nakabachi's manipulations against his fellow students are, even Toshiro and Natsuhara believed that the students barging into his house to harass him after he got kicked out of their school is way too overboard. Even worse, Toshiro's actions against Nakabachi would bite him in the back hard when he went so crazy that he tried to take revenge on Natsuhara by pushing her into the path of an incoming train. It ends up with her being hospitalized and crippled for life.
- Blackmail: Was very fond of using his student's private lifes as stakes for their reputation, allowing him to control them very easily.
- Evil Teacher: The newly-appointed vice principal of Toshiro's school who catapulted his way to there through fraud, and is a master of blackmail. He's also coming just that close to becoming an Evil Principal.
- Hated by All: Deconstructed. Once his crimes are made known to the public, all of the students despised him so much that they started blaming him for petty grievances that have nothing to do with him and started a lynch mob that would go as far as raiding his house. This drove him so insane that he absentmindedly tried to kill Natsuhara as revenge and causing her to slip into the train tracks and getting badly injured. It led to Toshiro having regrets about standing up against him, even though the incident wasn't his fault (and was in fact, an unfortunate accident that nobody really saw coming).
- Manipulative Bastard: Once he became vice principal, he encouraged students to dig up each other's dark secrets and blackmailed the victims into giving him more victims. The first victim who reported to Toshiro and Natsuhara was snitched for working at a nightclub, at which Nakabachi took advantage of to try ruining her track record.
- Sanity Slippage: The constant harassment he got from the students after his crimes were revealed ground away his mental health until there was basically nothing left. It went to the point where he became completely delirious and tried to kill Natsuhara.
- The Scapegoat: After being outed by Toshiro and Natsuhara, Nakabachi became so hated that the students began to blame things that are completely unrelated to his blackmailing onto him. This does not do anything good for his mental health.
- Smug Snake: The guy is convinced that he's utterly untouchable and he could ruin anyone as he pleases. Unfortunately for him, Toshiro and Natsuhara prove him wrong by gathering a group of his victims and bringing a voice recorder with them in their final confrontation. His pride unfortunately broke so badly that he went completely insane and tried to kill Natsuhara.
The True Tyrant (Major Unmarked Spoilers)
Shadow Toshiro
Click here to see him transformed
Voiced by: Tomoaki Maeno (Japanese, as Shadow Toshiro), MacLeod Andrews (English, as Shadow Toshiro), Rie Takahashi (Japanese, as Eri Natsuhara), Leeanna Albanese (English, as Eri Natsuhara)
The Shadow Self of Toshiro. He is the representation of his subconscious belief that his attempts to do good will only bring harm to others, and the true tyrant of Nakabachi's Kingdom.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: He is the personification of Toshiro's guilt and regrets of ruining Eri through his investigation of Nakabachi.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: His One-Winged Angel form is a corpse of Eri Natsuhara that's around half the size of the entire school complex itself.
- Body Horror: His second form, titled "Eri Natsuhara", is a hideous, blood-stained corpse of the girl with the same name with a missing right eye, likely a reflection of the injuries Natsuhara endured when Nakabachi pushed her in front of the moving train.
- The Cynic: The personification of Toshiro's belief that any attempt of his to do genuine good will only hurt people and that he can't help but be part of the same corruption his father is.
- The Man Behind the Man: He's the true ruler of Nakabachi's Kingdom, with the cognitive Nakabachi being an easy target for his fellow rebel corps.
- One-Winged Angel: After being defeated once, he transforms into a massive, bloodied and disfigured corpse of Natsuhara to psychologically attack Toshiro.
- Tennis Boss: During his second phase (when he's taking the form of Natsuhara), if you get his HP low enough, he will charge up a powerful attack and spawn four energy spheres and several Legionnaires. Destroying the energy spheres bounces the attack back at him, taking out a huge sum of his HP and render him downed for a long amount of time.
The Mastermind (Major Unmarked Spoilers)
Salmael
Voiced by: Toshihiko Seki (Japanese), Brandon Keener (English)
The true mastermind of the world, a god born from humanity's instinct to avoid pain. Upon seeing the spark of rebellion in Toshiro's heart, he created the kingdoms and the people as representatives of his past as a way to break him.- Assassin Outclassin': He essentially attempts to assassinate Toshiro to preserve human tranqulity and is thwarted by the Phantom Thieves.
- Big Bad: The major antagonist of Tactica and the one responsible for bringing Toshiro into the Kingdoms in the hopes of snuffing out his "spark" of rebellion, seeing him as a threat to human safety.
- Breaking Old Trends: Unlike other Persona "godly" entities, while Salmael has plans that involve humanity, he primarily focuses his efforts on a single human. Whereas previous antagonists would use specific humans as pawns, Salmael specifically targets Toshiro because he views the politician as a legitimate threat, if only under the belief that Toshiro becoming Prime Minister will bring suffering to the masses.
- Condescending Compassion: Salmael is literally made of this, seeing any change to the status quo as being too much for humanity to handle.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Salmael's intentions for humanity are similar to what Yaldabaoth intended, but for completely different reasons. Yaldaboth outright robs humanity of their free will because, in his view, free will will only lead to pain, but Salmael attempts to rob Toshiro of his willpower (then escalates to try killing him outright once this fails) since he believes that Toshiro will lead the public to mass suffering.
- Create Your Own Hero: All the events of Tactica are its efforts to snuff out Toshiro's budding Persona since its ability to let Toshiro resist Salmael's control posed a threat to its ideals. However, its attempts to snuff it out by attacking Toshiro's mind only led to that power manifesting as Erina, and its attempt to bring Toshiro in physically to torment him when mental attacks failed gave him the chance to confront his traumas and strengthen his heart, allowing Erina to awaken as a true Persona.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Jerri mentions how her Lord would be quite displeased with her if he ever found out the lengths she was going to with Guernica in order to create a World of Silence. Just as she predicted, Salmael isn't happy, and sends her to the void where she suffers Cessation of Existence.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Of the "Repaint Your Heart" DLC campaign. He's all but implied to be Jerri's "Lord" as she winds up in the same cog-filled location that he resides, and Jerri's goal was to create a world of silence (despite the brutal means she employed with Guernica).
- Heroes Act, Villains Hinder: He literally is the hinderance to heroic and bold action.
- Made of Evil: He is made from humanity's primal desires of self-preservation.
- Mask of Sanity: Literal case. His facade of calm and controlled god breaks after the first phase of his final battle, showing his true self into a psychotic being who wants nothing but to kill Toshiro and the Phantom Thieves.
- Misguided Missile: During the second phase of the boss fight with Samael, destroying the tower with a Triple Threat attack allows Futaba to redirect its guided missile attack back at him.
- Nightmare Face: After he's defeated once, the mask on his disembodied head breaks and reveals a face with a wide, maniacal grin and large, red eyes.
- Status Quo Is God: The literal god of the status quo. He was born from the masses' desire to live in eternal tranquility. The reason he wants to snuff out Toshiro's spark of rebellion is because he believes Toshiro's ideals will violate that status quo and invite suffering.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: His main body somewhat resembles Yaldabaoth, being a headless, angelic being. Salmael also sounds like "Samael", the shadow form of Masayoshi Shido and a pseudonym of the Gnostic Yaldabaoth. Similar to Yaldabaoth, he's even able to influence the Velvet Room; while he doesn't take outright control of it like Yaldabaoth did, he was able to remove it from Igor's influence, leaving Lavenza its temporary proprietor.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: He's the embodiment of the belief that any change at all is bad and will only cause destructive conflict, so he crushes people who are getting ideas about large-scale reform.
- Villainous Breakdown: For all his calm façade, once he's been beaten by the Phantom Thieves and Erina and Toshiro he loses it. Just as he's about to be defeated, all he can say is "Destroy".
- Villain Song: "Revolution is a Blade
", the theme for the first phase of his fight, is sung from his perspective. Its lyrics claim rebelling only brings pain and suffering, and that only living passively will lead to peace. - Well-Intentioned Extremist: Unlike Yaldabaoth, Salmael sincerely cares about humans beyond his ability to control them - he believes that Toshiro's ideals will only cause pain to the world.
- The World Is Not Ready: Deconstructed. Salmael is the paternalistic viewpoint that says this and means it, but in his viewpoint, the world is not ready for anything, so he crushes everything that threatens to change it.
- Your Size May Vary: In the first cutscene where he shows up, he's large, but still way smaller than the Holy Grail or the EMMA-Demiurge. When the party meets him in the final Kingdom however, he's around the same size as the Ark of the Covenant.
The Rebellion's Supporters
Kingdom Citizens
The Citizens of the Kingdoms
Small citizens of the Kingdoms, who are the victims of the rulers' tyranny.- Heroic Willpower: Despite being repeatedly beaten down by Marie, and an initial moment of confusion after Yoshiki's tyranny is revealed, they (even if they often need encouragement) never let fear keep them down.
- Redshirt Army: Played with. They aren't capable of fighting the Legionares on their own, because they seem to be physically incapable of killing them. They still serve as information-gatherers, however, and do manage to help the Thieves at a few crucial points.
- Token Heroic Orc: In sharp contrast to most denizens of the Metaverse, they're outright helpful and friendly to the Thieves, serving as backup and aiding them numerous times against the rulers of the Kingdoms. When the second half of the third Kingdom rolls around, they turn on the thieves, due to the real Tyrant presence.
Yuki
Yuki
Voiced by: Reina Ueda (Japanese), Abby Trott (English)
The leader of the rebel corps of the Yoshiki Kingdom, saving whatever few of its citizens she can.- Died in Your Arms Tonight: After sustaining a fatal blow dealt by Yoshiki, a tearful Toshiro holds Yuki in his arms.
- Relative Error: The Phantom Thieves mistake her closeness with Toshiro for Ship Tease. She's actually the cognitive form of his mother.
- Taking the Bullet: Saves Toshiro from a final attack by Yoshiki, taking the blow herself and succumbing to her wounds.
Yuki Kasukabe
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Mrs. Kasukabe was way less controlling of Toshiro compared to his father, who would do anything to make sure his son becomes a prestigious politician like him no matter how unpleasant. Therefore, he likes his mother a lot more since he had more freedom to do things he wanted to do rather than following a fixed path set by his father. It's made even worse when he believed that he led her to her death and his father reinforced such thoughts.
- Delicate and Sickly: She was suffering from a terminal illness and was constantly in and out of a hospital. One fateful day, it got her.
- Last Request: One of the last things she said to her husband Yoshiki was to ask him to raise Toshiro to be strong. Yusuke speculates that Yoshiki raised his son very strictly and orchestrated all of his political manipulations as a dying promise towards her and his own warped way of caring about Toshiro.
- Pinky Swear: The last the Phantom Thieves hear from Toshiro's memory about her is the two making a pinky promise for Toshiro to never regret doing what he thinks is right, and the two sing a small tune together about it.
- Posthumous Character: She succumbed to her illness and died long before the story even began.
Toshiro's Friend (Major Unmarked Spoilers)
Eri Natsuhara
Voiced by: Rie Takahashi (Japanese), Leeanna Albanese (English)
Toshiro's senpai and Erina's real-world counterpart. Natsuhara is a young woman with a strong sense of justice and will not hesitate to take inaction in front of injustice.
- An Arm and a Leg: After the fallout with Nakabachi, she was no longer capable of walking on her own and had to use a walking cane for movement. This likely corresponds to Erina's left leg, which is usually covered with a full-leg metal greave, as well as Ernesto's revolver legs.
- Book Ends: Toshiro first met Natsuhara during high school when she spotted him being beaten by pickpockets and sneaked into the Student Council Room to meet him. She meets Toshiro again in the present day by approaching him from behind.
- Break the Cutie: After almost dying from a train accident, the once confident and energetic Eri is left crippled for life and her spirit nearly broken. Thankfully, she gets better.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: She will absolutely fight back and stand for the side of justice if someone wronged her or other people. She developed this mindset after she was targeted in a framing incident and her homeroom teacher encouraged her to stand up for herself.
- Eye Scream: It's heavily implied that she lost her right eye after the fallout with Nakabachi. The game does not speak it out loud, but she covers that eye with her hair after getting hospitalized, Erina covers her right eye with her bangs, and Shadow Toshiro's second form (which takes the form of Natsuhara) has a hollowed-out eye socket in place of her right eye.
- Hiding Behind Your Bangs: After being hospitalized, she starts hiding her right eye using her hair just like Erina's. It's implied that she can't see with that eye after being severely injured trying to run from Nakabachi.
- Intrepid Reporter: She wanted to become a journalist in high school, traveling the world, talking to people, and speaking out against injustice wherever she can see it. It never gets mentioned again after she gets injured.
- Jeanne d'Archétype: Just like Erina, she's a girl with a strong sense of justice and is the one who convinced Toshiro to use his student council president constructively. She was also later responsible for rallying Nakabachi's victims to stand up against him.
- Meta Twist: If a public transport runs over somebody in an anime or Eastern-made video game, they are guaranteed to die instantly. Erina surviving the train station incident is actually a surprising twist.
- Minor Major Character: Only shows up in flashbacks and a single post-credits scene taking place in the present day, but ends up being likely the most important person in Toshiro's life.
- New Transfer Student: Joined Toshiro's school between years. She later mentions that the fallout from her standing up for herself after being framed forced her to leave her old school.
- Old Flame: The game is not entirely clear about it, but it's implied Eri was either Toshiro's old girlfriend from high school or the two might have had a mutual crush on each other but didn't act on their feelings. After Toshiro dumps Marie on live television, he is seen greeting her fondly, implying they may restart their relationship, romantic or platonic.
- Red Herring: After she was pushed into the incoming train by Nakabachi's attempted murder, the game makes it looks like she succumbed from her injuries and died after being hospitalized. During a post-credits scene, she shows up in front of Toshiro as a grown woman, although the incident at the train station did irreparably cripple her and she has to use a walking cane.
- Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: She had this dynamic with Toshiro, being the energetic one to Toshiro's savviness. She served as a driver for his duties as Student Council President despite his natural introversion.
- Truth in Television: Although getting run over by a train is typically fatal, survival cases are common enough that it is plausible, though generally with permanent life-changing injuries (permanent nerve damage, loss of mobility, reoccurring pain, loss of limbs). During the epilogue it is revealed that Eri may indeed be permanently disabled, and now uses a cane to walk.
- Walking Spoiler: Knowing the person that Erina is made after and the one who is most integral to Toshiro's past is definitely of this trope. Even more so about The Reveal that she actually survives the train station incident, which isn't even revealed until you reach the post-credits.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Toshiro tends to claim that her upfront personality and her tendency to exaggerate trivial things as "torture" was annoying, but his behavior suggests otherwise. It's even discussed as one of Joker's possible responses to that conversation is it reminds him of Ryuji and Morgana.
Repaint Your Heart DLC (All Spoilers Unmarked)
Guernica
Guernica
Click here for her true form
Voiced by: Fairouz Ai (Japanese), Maya Aoki Tuttle (English)
A talented, yet highly controversial graffiti artist infamous for blatantly defacing public buildings. She was captured by Jerri and brainwashed into an Omnicidal Maniac pawn carrying out her will in the Metaverse. Her real name is Tao.
- Angsty Surviving Twin: After her elder sister Luca died of starvation, she snapped and resorted to mass vandalism of public buildings to express her wrath.
- Animal Motifs: Surprisingly, Mice, representing her background as a Street Urchin. The graffiti mural on a public building at the start of the DLC campaign depicts three mice leashed in chains, the Portal Picture that acts as the entrance to the other world depicts a mouse devouring Arsene, and the "Mouscots" she's slaughtering and the copy of Luca inside her Kingdom wear mice costumes, and her outfit even has a small rat-like tail on the bottom. According to Luca, they also fought with rats for food after being abandoned.
- Ax-Crazy: While being influenced by Jerri, she is a horrific madwoman who wants to incite mass chaos and delights at the sight of whipping up more blood and chaos.
- Base-Breaking Character: In-Universe example. Guernica's artworks are exceedingly popular with their themes of oppression and freedom, but said artworks also deface government properties. One side wants her murals taken down and the other wants them preserved.
- Big Little Sister: Based on the flashbacks, Tao was at least a head taller than her big sister Luca.
- Blatant Lies: She tries convincing Kasumi, Joker and Crow to let her kill them by saying that anyone who dies in the Streets will automatically come back to life. While Kasumi briefly falls for it, Crow very quickly points out the claim is bullshit.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Jerri brought her into The Streets (implied to be a Kingdom-esque realm created by Guernica herself) and started screwing with her mind, exaggerating her anger at the world for taking away "the one thing precious to her" while also actively scrubbing her memories of Luca, her beloved big sister. While under Jerri's brainwashing, Guernica comes off as violent, sadistic, and foul-mouthed. The real her, while still pretty darn foul-mouthed, is considerably more friendly and lacking in hatred at the world.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Is seemingly a Distaff Counterpart of Sho Minazuki. Both of them are misanthropes with an utterly horrible childhood who are introduced as depraved and vulgar Omnicidal Maniacs as a result of a godly entity manipulating them to annihilate mankind and make a Heel–Face Turn against the beings who enslaved them.
- Sho was used by Ikutsuki as a lab rat to develop artificial Persona users and there's no evidence that he was scraping by, as he was left a large sum of money by Ikutsuki himself. Meanwhile, Tao was dumped directly on the streets alongside her elder sister Luca and had to scrape for waste in the backalley to survive.
- Sho's destructive impulses is fully organic courtesy of Ikutsuki's horrible treatment against him and his beliefs that people cannot be relied upon, turning him into a raging maniac who seeks to destroy everything so only he can exist and allowing Hi-no-Kagutsuchi to manipulate him to join his cause without much issues. Guernica dealt with the death of her sister and the unfairness of society though vandalizing public buildings, which was still a marginally healthier way to cope than what Minazuki did, and her destructive personality is a result of Jerri outright brainwashing her and removing her heart.
- While Sho is a capable Persona user of his own regard who loves to fight, Guernica doesn't have a Persona and her role in the final confrontation against Jerri is in assisting the party by creating tiles they can walk through, allowing them to reach Jerri. She also directly defaces Jerri, heavily weakening her at the final act of the fight.
- Evil Costume Switch: When being brainwashed by Jerri, her hair and the apron wrapped around her waist is white, wearing a gas mask in battle. When she's freed, she reverts to her usual appearance, her skin becomes less pale, she regains her cobalt blue hair like Luca's, and the color of her apron becomes black.
- Given Name Reveal: Her real name was later revealed to be "Tao".
- Heel–Face Turn: Once snapped completely out of Jerri's control, Guernica counters the impassable black tiles on the battlefield by covering them with blue tiles. At the end of the battle, she also defaces Jerri herself and the entire floor, allowing the Phantom Thieves to easily defeat her.
- Leitmotif: "Artist of Death," an ominous ambient noise track that also acts as the Street's main theme.
- Malevolent Masked Woman: While battling Joker, Akechi, and Kasumi, she wears a black gas mask and becomes completely unhinged. When she falls under Jerri's control, she brandishes the mask.
- Omnicidal Maniac: When being influenced by Jerri and having her memories wiped, Guernica is a bloodthirsty sadist who wishes for nothing but complete and utter world destruction. This is absolutely not the case with the real Guernica.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: "Guernica" isn't her real name, having chosen it for herself when she got into art. When Joker, Akechi, and Kasumi ask what to call her, Tao insists they keep calling her Guernica.
- Portal Picture: At the start of the DLC, Kasumi shows Joker one of Guernica's murals. To Joker's surprise, the mural depicts a mouse about to sink its teeth into Arsene. This same mural is what drags Ren, Kasumi, and Akechi into The Streets.
- Recurring Boss: You fight her a total of 4 times in the DLC campaign.
- Red Baron: According to Akechi, she's called "The People's Punk" in reference to her ability to create murals in a single night in places she otherwise shouldn't be able to, with said murals often supposedly invoking her feelings of anger and discontent with society.
- Significant Double Casting: In the Japanese dub, she shares a voice actor with Luca, as Guernica is her younger sister, and Luca is a being born of Guernica's memories of her.
- Skyscraper Messages: She's infamous for defacing public buildings overnight with massive graffiti murals, which caught the awe of the media and the government.
- Small Role, Big Impact: She has little to no involvement in Tactica proper as the DLC takes place before the events of the game. In fact, her only scene is in a post-credit scene after completing the DLC where Toshiro watches a broadcast discussing what will happen to Guernica's latest mural. It's heavily implied that Guernica's mural invoked the "spark" of rebellion within him, with the Phantom Thieves' exploits against Masayoshi Shido fanning the flames to re-ignite his passions and sense of justice from his high school days.
- Street Urchin: She was abandoned alongside her elder sister Luca at a very young age and had to salvage for scraps to survive.
- Tattooed Crook: She's a serial vandal with elaborately tattooed arms and hips.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Implied. The post-credit scene of "Repaint Your Heart" shows Toshiro watching a news broadcast of Guernica's newest mural, possibly awakening the "spark" of rebellion that caught Salmael's attention.
- Villain Song: “Quiet Storm”, the song which plays during the fights against her. The lyrics express her childhood abandonment, sorrow due to losing Luca and being left alone, and her overwhelming, “unstoppable” rage against society.
- White Hair, Black Heart: When under Jerri's control, Guernica has white hair, bleach-white skin and violet eyes and is a frenzied maniac. After being restored back to normal, she has cobalt-blue hair, darker skin and dark-red eyes.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: She initially just defaced public buildings in order for society to feel her rage at what they stole from her. Jerri later wiped her memories and played on her grief to unleash tranquility on earth by wiping all life out from it.
Luca
Luca
Voiced by: Fairouz Ai (Japanese), Grace Lu (English)
A mysterious girl dressed in a mouse mascot outfit who saves Joker, Akechi, and Kasumi from Guernica. Upon learning they are the Phantom Thieves, Luca requests their help in changing Guernica's heart and return her to her old self.
- Big Little Sister: Based on the flashbacks, Luca was shorter than Tao (Guernica's real name).
- Clone Angst: Subverted. She's not the real Luca, but rather Tao's memories of her. Luca herself is fully aware of this and isn't bothered by it, instead trying to get Guernica to remember her older sister. Guernica herself treats Luca as if she's the genuine article and is openly sobbing as she holds Luca's body while it slowly disappears.
- Idiot Hair: Luca has an ahoge sticking out from her head, while Tao doesn't.
- Made of Good: She was made out of Guernica's subconscious memories of her elder sister with the same name. As such, Jerri cannot directly remove her from The Streets.
- Posthumous Character: The real Luca is long dead and the one Joker runs into is a copy made of Guernica's remaining memories.
- Significant Double Casting: In the Japanese dub, she shares a voice actor with Guernica, as Luca is Guernica/Tao's older sister, and Luca is a being born of Guernica's memories.
- Street Urchin: She was abandoned alongside Tao at a very young age and had to sell scraps and eat leftovers from trash to survive. According to her copy, they even had to fight with rats in the back alleys for food.
- Support Party Member: Luca acts as the trio's navigator in the DLC, filling in the same role as Morgana and later Futaba from the main game, though she doesn't provide any passive buffs or healing like Futaba does in the main game.
Jerri
Jerri
Click here to see her alternate form
Voiced by: Atsuko Tanaka (Japanese), Susanne Blakeslee (English)
Guernica's sidekick pink cockatoo who can speak human language. In actuality, she is a powerful God of Evil serving a "lord".
- Big Bad: The archvillain of the DLC story Repaint Your Heart, who brainwashed Guernica to annihilate mankind and is heavily implied to be a servant of Salmael.
- Blatant Lies: She claims that the carnage Guernica is unleashing in the Metaverse and will unleash in the real world is her own will stemmed from her wrath. According to Luca and Guernica's own Report entry, however, she outright wiped Guernica's memories by stealing her heart's core (which takes the form of the first statement piece mural she and Luca completed) and breaking it into three pieces, then conditioning her into an Ax-Crazy mass murderer.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Is seemingly one with Hi-no-Kagutsuchi. Both of them are gods of evil who team up with humans to bring forth the end of humanity. However, Kagutsuchi's plan is to manipulate all Persona users and Sho Minazuki into giving him a body so he can encroach into the human world and obliterate it himself to enforce eternal solitude, while Jerri wants to enforce eternal tranquility by molding Guernica into an Ax-Crazy omnicidal maniac and release her back to the real world so she would cause people to kill each other through influencing their emotions with her graffiti. Furthermore, while Hino Kagutsuchi is an independent entity that answers to no one, it is implied that Jerri is a fellow shadow that serves Salmael.
- The Corrupter: Once she got her hands on Guernica, she took whatever time she could to encourage her into causing mass chaos as she desires, and even plans to have her encroach into the real world to rally the masses into killing each other.
- Depending on the Artist: Her 3D model has four toes like a real parrot, but her dialogue sprite only has three.
- The Dragon: She's serves an entity she calls "Lord." Her motive of enforcing tranquility upon mankind and the cog-filled place where she meets her boss implies that said "Lord" is Salmael.
- Face Death with Dignity: While she left Guernica's mind with an insult, she happily greets her master, admits she went against his wishes, and calmly wishes them luck as she's sent to The Void.
- Feathered Fiend: An utterly horrible God of Evil taking the form of a pink "parrot" (actually a cockatoo). Her One-Winged Angel form is a avian statue made of marble.
- Final Boss: The final enemy fought in the Paint Your Heart DLC campaign.
- Graceful Loser: For an arrogant god of tranquility who desires the eradication of mankind, she takes her defeat and failure surprisingly well. Even when she reports to her boss (implied to be Salmael) and returns to the void as a result, she gleefully accepts her fate and bids them good luck.
- Made of Evil: Just like Salmael, she is a being manifested from mankind's yearning for eternal tranquility.
- Manipulative Bastard: Takes every opportunity to prod into Guernica's darkest desires so she will encroach into the real world and obliterate humanity as she desired.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Seeks to outright annihilate humanity through inciting mass chaos using Guernica's graffiti artwork.
- One-Winged Angel: When fighting the Phantom Thieves and Guernica, she transforms into a massive bird statue made of monochrome marble.
- Starter Villain: Retroactively. As the Repaint Your Heart DLC campaign takes place prior to the main story of Tactica, Jerri is actually the first villain the Phantom Thieves (or rather, Joker, Akechi, and Kasumi) fight chronologically in the game. She would also retroactively be the first god Joker would face in Persona 5 as a whole, given Repaint Your Heart takes place some time before Sae Niijima's palace in November, and way before the Phantom Thieves would fight Yaldabaoth in December.
- Straw Hypocrite: She takes glee on the carnage Guernica unleashed and essentially claims that the carnage she will unleash upon the world is the finest art, but when she's actually fought, it's made very clear that she believes that human art forms are inferior and she's only really there because of the carnage rather than Guernica's talent.
- Tom the Dark Lord: Though a servant of Salmael with an angelic form reminiscent of his own, the game never gives her an ancient, divine-sounding name appropriate of a god when she reveals her true form. She's just Jerri. That said, Jerri in Hebrew does mean "the Lord is exalted," which is indicative of how despite her being a god, she is beholden and reveres her master, Salmael.
- You Have Failed Me: Upon returning to Salmael's realm, she is informed that she will "return to the void" for her failures (as well as having gone to extreme lengths to fulfill his goal). She takes this in stride and instead apologizes for her failures before wishing for her Lord's success.
