I have referenced this tons of times in the past, but one of my many favorite video games of all time is Persona 5. Developed by P-Studio and published by Atlus, this was the fifth mainline installment to the Persona franchise. A lineup of JRPGs where you dove into the minds of the corrupt and tried to free the world from corruption. What was originally a spinoff to the well acclaimed Shin Megami Tensai series ended up blowing up bigger than expected. Around the third game did the Persona series really begin to make haste, and ever since there has been mass levels of unbridled praise. The fifth game spent a lengthy time in the works and was anticipated as the ultimatum of the Persona series. When Persona 5 was released worldwide in 2017 people were wondering if it would blow up or fade into obscurity. Due to the amount of high budget Triple A titles at the time it seemed like Persona 5 would be left in the dust, but it turned out the opposite happened. Persona 5 was a big change for the time and did something a lot of JRPGs were struggling to achieve as time went on. Tell an engaging story and remember to be fun. It was weird, stylish, and the right mixture of entertainment to help pull us out from the misery the video game industry had given us with previous years. Persona 5 definitely lived up to the hype and is not only considered one of the best JRPGs of the current decade, but one of the best games of all time . Turns out all you needed was a little heart and dedication to make art.
I played Persona 5 for the first time back in 2019 and originally I was really skeptical because I wasn’t used to these sorts of games. Wasn’t a huge fan of visual novels, turn based combat, and the time management that was the daily life cycle. Folks online were warning me of the dangers the community had stirred up since 2017, and the flaws nobody was willing to bring up since that’s how critics work online. Your job is to pick things apart and find the cracks. Not get down on your news and start bowing like it’s the second coming of the lord. The only reason I picked Persona 5 up was because it was on sale, and some of my friends recommended to me saying it was similar to another one of my favorite games of all time. Octopath Traveler, another turn-based JRPG. I really love Octopath Traveler despite a couple crippling flaws and once I started getting used to Persona 5 my mind would remain occupied for the next three weeks. I fell in love with the characters and world of Persona 5, and the game did an excellent job to keep me fixated for what was to behold. It convinced me along with God of War that storytelling in video games had made their place today, and that sometimes we just have to sit back and enjoy rather than complain whether we’re having fun yet. One year later I picked up Persona 5 Royal the week of release and loved it even more than my first playthrough back in 2019. I stated it was the definitive way to play Persona 5 and that it had cemented as one of my favorite games ever made. My heart was shimmering at that moment and nothing was bringing me down.
It’s been more than two years since I’ve played Persona 5 and since that time my opinion hasn't changed. I have begun to spot some cracks in the game that I didn’t originally notice. How the villains get weaker as the game goes on, one character being way more annoying than she should be for relatability to a modern audience, another character being introduced so late into the story that she is only there to drive the plot, the ending scene which the original version nailed but Persona 5 Royal toyed around with, and a dating system that could have been expanded with the updated version and tries to justify age gap relationships. None of these are real deal breakers for me, because I still love Persona 5 and everything that it got right. It’s a one hundred hour long game and by the end you wish you could have stayed around longer to spend more time with the characters you fell in love with the moment you met.
Persona 5 still is a tremendous game which I highly recommend even to non-gamers, and since it’s the highest selling game Atlus has released they are bound to capitalize off the success. You know the drill. Merchandise, novel adaptations, a television adaptation, musicals oddly enough, crossovers with other famous games, sponsorships with other companies, and of course there are the spinoffs. There’s those weird dancing games they had, but the main focus of today is the most recent one. Beginning development back in 2018, way before Persona 5 Royal, the team planned to make a spinoff that would follow up the events of the original. Giving us more of the Phantom Thieves we grew to love and see how life has been for them since. P-Studio partnered up with Omega Force, another team of Japanese developers who worked on Dynasty Warriors. A franchise of hack n’ slash action games putting satisfaction over everything else. Reveals for the spinoff came out in 2019 along with reveals of Persona 5 Royal, and the title for this game was known as Persona 5 Strikers. Not many gamers were excited for another Dynasty Warriors esque styled game due to how repetitious these games get after awhile and the disastrous release of Dynasty Warriors 9, but hardcore Persona 5 fans were excited to be served up more action with the Phantom Thieves. Cause that’s how easy people are to trick, wait a minute. Anyways, hype was building up for Persona 5 Strikers which came out first in Japan in early 2020 before being published worldwide one year later. The game was met with great reception and fans certainly got the follow up they wanted as well as what was more than just a spinoff.
Persona 5 Strikers was an odd game to get excited for. On the one hand it’s Persona 5 and I love to see what happened next in the storyline, but on the other hand it was a spinoff and it was being made by the people who make Dynasty Warriors a franchise I am not a big fan of. A couple months prior I tried playing Age of Calamity and ended up failing to get into the repetitive gameplay loop. I thought of trying Persona 5 Strikers instead thinking it would serve as an easier introduction to these types of games. Turns out it mostly achieved this goal. Let me clarify with you right now. Did I enjoy Strikers? Yes. However, this is a really hard game to recommend because there’s more crippling flaws with this game than the game it was based off of. I will try not to compare the two so much, because mechanically and gameplay wise they play differently and it would be unfair to do so. However, due to it's predecessor's legacy it's hard to ignore the extremally high standards that Persona 5 Strikers has to live up to. Today we’ll be talking about why I enjoyed Persona 5 Strikers and why it may potentially be worth your attention. You’ll never see them coming. Those Phantom Thieves of Hearts.
Story
Four months have passed since the calamitous events of Persona 5. The Phantom Thieves have managed to change the hearts of the corrupt and save all of Japan from what was a world ending disaster. If you don’t know already, they are a gifted group of teenagers given the ability to travel into cognitive worlds and change the desires of individuals by stealing the desires which take the physical form of treasure in the cognitive worlds. It all started with a mysterious teenager being accused and sued for assault, and sent off to attend another high school since the one he usually goes to decided to suspend him for the time. He then had a dream and was contacted by peculiar beings who claimed the world was corrupt and that he had to do something to fix it. He then discovered this alternate reality traveling app on his phone and from there he gained new friends and formed a team of heroes. The Phantom Thieves of Hearts. They grew popular amongst the public, but after their last heist they disappeared for good. Our main protagonist said goodbye to his newfound friends, but promised to meet them again in the near future.
Cut to present day and our main protagonist is making his way back to Shibuya to spend the summer with his friends. It’ll probably be the last time he sees them, because straight after the summer they’ll all go off to do their own thing. Ryuji Sakamoto, a dimwitted boy who has a heart of gold, is still planning what to do after high school. Ann Takamaki, a stylish girl who has known Ryuji since she was little, plans to work for a magazine company and be a fashion model. Yusuke Kitagawa, a professional artist who has been training since he was little, plans to go to college and earn an art degree. Makoto Sajima, who always stays on top of her studies, plans to go to a high class college and work for the law. Futaba Sakura, an introverted nerd who is good with electronics, plans on continuing high school maybe I don’t know I kind of forgot. Finally there is Haru Okumura, current CEO of Big Bang Burger, who plans to go to college as well and learn how to run a business. All these characters will be busy for the next few years of their life, so they might as well enjoy the time they have together.
The main character enters Leblanc, a coffee shop run by Sojiro Sakura, and his friends welcome him with a big surprise. They rush in and give him a warm hug, and the protagonist is happy once again to not be alone. The group sits around a table and discusses how to spend the next few months, until one of them suggests that they all go camping. They all agree to the idea and plan what supplies to bring for the camping trip. The main protagonist and Ryuji head out to a nearby shop to find camping gear, but as they walk through the streets they find a huge crowd of people gathering around. A famous fashion designer named Alice Hiragi had come to Shibuya to announce the opening of one of her stores, and she is using a new mobile app called EMMA to help advertise it. EMMA is an artificial intelligence owned by Maddice, a company runned by the recently rising in fame Akira Konoe, and it serves to help out anyone in need and guide them to locations of interest. Keywords can be used to activate specialized functions and guidances in EMMA, and Alice Hiragi is handing the keyword on cards to advertise not only her shop but also her own popularity. The main protagonist and Ryuji conveniently get the keyword card and enter it on EMMA to see what exactly happens. Rather than get a coupon instead something else happens entirely.
The main protagonist, Ryuji, and their talking cat Morgana are transported into a world similar to the cognitive realms they use to explore. They see fans and supporters of Alice wander around as well until a giant screen above with Alice lights up. She seems to be wearing different clothing and she sounds more threatening than usual. This Alice then demands the supporters to hand over their desires, soon sending shadowy figures named Shadows to yank it right from their hearts. The Shadows then pull out their Desires, which materialize into crystals, and send them away to be kept in one place. The Shadows make their way to Ryuji and the protagonist to steal their desires, but just when the Shadows do so the main protagonist realizes that Ryuji and him still have the power to summon their Personas. A Persona is a monstrous entity that represents the wielder's inner self, and can be summoned in combat to defend the wielder. The two best friends fight off the Shadows until they manage to escape, but just when they think they are out of the gates she captures them and has them dragged to her castle.
Alice then dumps the two in a dungeon hoping they don’t escape, but Morgana manages to find a passageway out. They venture forward to find an exit, but as they continue they encounter a little girl wandering around in the sewers. Her name is Sophia, she speaks like a robot and claims to be humanity’s companion. Ryujia and the protagonist are confused at first, but decide to let Sophia tag along as she is capable of fighting the Shadows. The friends manage to escape and make it back to the real world where they tell the others what happened. EMMA has the ability to allow them to travel to a world similar to the Metaverse. Shadows with ultimate rule, named Monarchs, have formed special territories to capture desires and store them for themselves. By doing so these innocent civilians sacrifice their thinking and free will towards these Monarchs, and they aren’t let free until someone defeats the Monarchs. The main protagonist and his friends know what they have to do. They have to reform the Phantom Thieves.
They venture deeper into Alice’s jail, figure out more about the terrible deeds she has done, find out why she is doing these deeds, and soon defeat her in combat. Forcing the real world version of her to confess what she has done and changing the desires of those who unreasonably loved her. Afterwards, the Phantom Thieves rent an RV and plan to head towards a campground, but they are then approached by an official of the law. Zenkichi Hasegawa, a police officer who has been looking into the Phantom Thieves. He claims that recently dozens of individuals around Japan have been experiencing change of hearts and that the Phantom Thieves have been to blame for it. However, he knows that these teens wouldn’t do it for bad and that it may have to be connected to EMMA and the rise of popularity to this app. He wants the Phantom Thieves to help him track down the information he needs and expose Maddice for what they have done. By doing so they won’t fully be to blame for the rapid change of hearts. The group finds this to be sketchy at first, but at the same time they don’t want to be arrested….. again. So they change their plans from going camping to an all out odyssey of Japan. Visiting other cities, encountering other monarchs, and bringing back stolen desires. They may as well help out Sophia along the way, who turns out to be an artificial intelligence, and find her true purpose in the world.
Gameplay
Time for the question all you readers have been waiting for. How do we take turn based combat and transition it into a button mashy hack n’ slash action format? To be honest it’s still the same old repetitive gameplay format of Dynasty Warriors, except they have tried to sneak in a couple of mechanics to make it feel like a traditional Persona game. You explore each jail trying to fulfill objectives and occasionally you are thrown into fights where hordes of enemies surround you. This isn’t like Bloodborne or God of War where you have to be decisive about what you do during a fight, because playing uncarefully or in a mindless manner will be the thing that kills you faster. In Dynasty Warriors you are encouraged to play as wild as possible. Enemies stagger and fly around like ragdolls, and the game places a heavy emphasis on immediate satisfaction. That’s fine, but it means you’ll be mashing the attack button a lot more than usual and there’s not many reasons to learn enemy attack patterns or place a focus on certain enemy types. What does make the combat fun are the characters you have to play as.
In Persona 5 Strikers you are given full access to a character’s attack style and allowed to figure out how each of them would play in a third person action game. They all have different quirks and payoffs, but they are all fun to use and mess around with. We have heavy hitters like Ryuji or Haru who attack slowly, but deal more damage compared to other characters and each swing has a massive impact. Yusuke and Ann are all about attacking in quick succession and evading with ease. Only to then follow up with more quick attacks. Certain attack combos allow you to deal more damage within seconds, and sometimes you can buff yourself or add affinities to your weapons. Spending enough time with a character can unlock new combos, so that’s one reason to swap between characters. Each character has a specific weapon, armor, and charms. New equipment can be bought from a shop which requires yen earned from fights.
The main two reasons you want to swap between characters during combat are Baton Passes and elemental weaknesses. In Persona 5 you hit every enemy with their elemental weakness and are able to immediately perform an All-Out Attack which deals tons of damage to all the enemies on screen. Here the enemies have defenses which must be broken and when one enemy is exposed then you perform an All-Out Attack. Damaging enemies within a specific vicinity and possibly insta-killing all of them. The defense of mini-bosses and bosses are especially hard to break through, as they have multiple layers and will require multiple hits to finally perform an All-Out Attack. You’ll want to bring characters who possess elemental attacks to quickly break through defenses, and characters who are resistant to elements the enemy uses.
Baton Passes are synergies that can be passed between characters. In Persona 5 when an ally hits an enemy with a weakness they can either take another turn or pass it to another character. By passing the baton you power up their attack. By planning the Baton Passes out right you can then pass the baton to a fourth character who then performs a devastating blow. It’s great, because it helps form a rhythm during a fight. Here in Persona 5 Strikers you just pass the baton whenever you think it is needed. This is fine even though it removes the planning and synergy from the original, but to compensate there is a new mechanic known as Showtime Attacks. Technically Persona 5 Royal introduced these attacks to us first, but Persona 5 Strikers came out first in Japan so I guess it was first to Showtime Attacks. Anyways, Showtime Attacks charge up the more you attack enemies and when it’s full you have the ability to perform an ultra powerful attack which blasts the entire screen. You can make the Showtime Attacks power up faster by passing the baton and allowing the meter to increase faster for a short amount of time. At least they created a good reason to baton pass.
Every character carries one Persona, but the main character has the ability to carry multiple at once. By defeating enemies in the field he has the ability to collect masks which give him access to new Personas and attacks to use. He can then take these Personas to the Velvet Room where he can fuse them to possibly form stronger Personas. New fusion methods can be unlocked through progressing through the story and stronger Personas can be forged through them. Okay, let's see what else is here.
Is the social aspect of Persona 5 still here in Persona 5 Strikers? That’s like my favorite part of Persona 5, because there was time management and the fact we could get to know each of the characters better by spending quality time with them. Why are you sweating right now Strikers? What do you mean, “No”, are you telling me there’s no reason to talk to characters outside the main story and dungeons and we’re now wandering around the real world streets with nothing to do. Are you also telling me we can come back from dungeons and restock on health and magic, without having to worry about time progressing forward and worrying about a deadline. More on this later by the way. So how do you manage to make up for the absence of two defining aspects of a Persona game? A skill tree. You can spend skill points to level up stats and unlock cool perks to help along with your journey. So what you are telling me is that you ditched character development and a reason to care about our schedule, so you can have what every modern f*cking video games basically have. There’s nothing wrong about skill trees, but I am beginning to hate them more as they begin to pop up in more video games. What else can I say? There’s cooking which is basically the crafting system of Persona 5 Strikers, even though buying items from the shop is more efficient and effective. Yeah, that’s literally it. I don’t really have much else to say besides, “It’s Dynasty Warriors with light RPG elements”, but it’s not bad. Hopefully you can defeat each monarch and return all those stolen desires.
Thoughts
Persona 5 Strikers is a game I like but find difficult to give a good recommendation. It’s really hard to describe, but I'll do my best to explain why I like this game despite all the flaws. Even though we’re about to discuss all the flaws I had before moving onto all the aspects I enjoyed. I want to remind you that comparing the gameplay and mechanics between Persona 5 and Persona 5 Strikers is still unfair, because they are drastically different games. However, it’s hard to ignore the fact that Persona 5 was transformed into an incredibly generic action game with not much going for it. We have transitioned into mindless button mashing combat where pressing the attack button nonstop is how you win every single fight besides bosses. Fights don’t lag on for twenty minutes like in turn based combat, and now you can have immediate fun without having to think about decision making. The thing is, I’ve grown to love turn based combat and it’s better than what is here in Strikers. In turn based combat you have to put some actual thought into what you do each turn. Know the abilities on hand, the resources you have to work with, and what strategies you can come up with. I complained that back in Persona 5 the bosses were centered around gimmicks, but now I see why they were. The bosses in Persona 5 served as puzzles where you had to find the exact moment they were open. Doing that leads to those “ahah!” moments and it felt very clever.
The combat in Persona 5 Strikers can be repetitious due to how button mashy it is. It brings me great pain to say this, but I ended up switching to easy mode early in the game. Not because the game was too hard, but because some bosses tended to be real bullet spongey and I didn’t want this repetitive game to lag on longer than it should. The problem is not only how repetitive the combat is. The problem is that there aren’t many punishments for spamming the same action. That’s why I like slower paced action games like the Soulsborne games. Each attack has weight and you can’t cancel out when you press the button, but it makes the player think and adapt on the fly.
They got rid of the daily life cycle aspect the Persona games are known for, and I know this was done due to how this is a Dynasty Warriors game and how they wanted it to be as accessible as possible. However, they removed the sense of time management and knowing when to move further in a dungeon. In Persona 5 when you return from a dungeon you can’t go back in the same day. You have to wait the day afterwards for your friends to rest up, and refill on health and magic. Doing this shortens the amount of time you have to finish a dungeon. This helps create urgency and in some way consider their resources. They can’t go into every fight and spam weaknesses. They may have to save that up for minibosses or incredibly difficult encounters. Now when you return from a dungeon time doesn’t move forward, so you can pop out of a dungeon when you are low on magic and come back in with no punishment. Plus, since there is fast travel between checkpoints it means you can just keep going forward. This is really bad, because it means the player no longer has to be careful. They can just keep running in and out of dungeons with no consequences of what happens.
The story of Persona 5 Strikers serves to be a followup to Persona 5, but comparing the writing between both games the writing in Persona 5 Strikers isn’t on par. Here’s the honest truth. The execution of certain important story moments in Persona 5 didn’t work, especially later on, but what the story worked for me is that we played a high schooler blamed for a crime he didn’t commit and had to redeem himself. He was meeting all these interesting quirky individuals and trying to form some connection with them. Hoping to at least meet someone willing to befriend us. You end up meeting loners and loose ends like yourself. Struggling to live each day as they had something going on in their life. You get to know them more and that is how your connection develops with them. That is how character development is made in Persona 5. The story worked not because we were busy being superheroes. The story worked because the writers made us spend time with these characters and get to know them. Strikers does not work, because we already know who these characters are. Actually, the writers for this game expect us to know who each of the Phantom Thieves are. There are no real reasons to spend time with characters or dedicate time to them, especially since they removed the daily life cycle. They also played it really safe by repeating some of the themes the original game explored. The villains suck, because some of them are repeats. Like a writer who plagiarized or CEO trying to swindle the truth. This then leads to what is a very incompetent storyline. I feel like the main characters aren’t written as well, because half the time they are braindead. They don’t seem to understand anything at all and have to explain information when we are aware of what is going to happen next. The story just didn’t click for me and that bummed me out because I absolutely enjoyed the story of Persona 5 and wanted to see what happens next.
These are some very crucial aspects of Persona 5 Strikers, so why did I still enjoy this game? It’s fun. Persona 5 Strikers does reach that point where it becomes somewhat fun and is serves as a love letter to this well acclaimed game JRPG. Combat may seem mindless around hour thirty, but it is fun for awhile and maintains the sylish animation this series is known for. It's especially great how they transition some of the animations from turn based to real time. I like how you get to play as different characters and they all function differently to each other. Ryuji is a hard hitter, Ann is quick and diligent, Makoto is all about keeping the pressure going, and much more. I really like playing as Yusuke as he's probably one of few characters with a parry-like mechanic, and there’s this one character who I'll try not to spoil but I will say is my favorite to play as. The soundtrack is still really good as they transitioned from soft slow paced jazz as the original into fast hardcore rock n’ roll to match the a hardcore action. They did some remixes to a couple of old songs and man I really like hearing them again in a new from. The art design is still good, but then again the art direction for all the Persona games have been really good. They also used a new engine to create new lighting and shading, which explains why this game looked pretty different. Some of those downtime moments where the crew is having fun is nice and it’s great to see the cast back together. Still having those fun moments even after high school is over.
Persona 5 Strikers is a hard game to recommend and that’s why I'm putting a bit of caution onto this review. There is quite a bit of fun to be had and a lot of content on offer. The main story, side quests, challenges, and much more. The sixty dollar price tag is justifiable to some, but for others wondering if they'll enjoy this as much as the predecessor then maybe wait for a sale. The runtime is around thirty to thirty five hours for a majority of players which is a decent length for a spinoff such as this. I also wanted to get this review out before Christmas. Something to treat you all for the holidays this year. This is a game made for Persona fans, and they did a decent job giving them more characters and a world they love. I enjoyed Persona 5 Strikers more than some of the other Triple A releases of this year and it’s better than some of the other multi billion dollar rubbish we have received in recent memory. I think the best thing to say is that you the audience, the readers, should decide whether Strikers is worth your time. I don't write game reviews to tell you what you should play. I write reviews to express my opinions. When I say, “I highly recommend ______'' I'm not dragging you down to Best Buy and yanking twenty five dollars out of your pocket. I have my opinion and you have yours. We both don’t have to regurgitate each other's thoughts. I like this game well enough and if you were to ask me if I were to recommend this to a casual audience I'd say, "Sure, but play it just for fun. Don't be me and expect an excellent follow-up to a JRPG that set the bar high. If you truly want Persona 5 and see what it did right then go play that instead, or as a matter of fact go play Shin Megami Tensei 5 as that's more of a JRPG than this." That’s why I give Strikers a 7.5/10 for being okay. It's good, but I wish I could have loved it more.
Happy holidays everyone. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
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