Persona 5 Strikers Review – A Powerful Other Self

Persona 5 ended, with the departure of an amazing cast of characters whom we had grown close to over the course a 100-hour story. Last year’s Persona 5 Royal gave us an excuse to revisit that same adventure with additional content, but fans yearned for an all-new journey. Persona 5 Strikers will bring back the original cast six months later to take a new journey across Japan. Even though it drastically changes a few key elements of the experience, it still feels like a true, compelling continuation of the game that stole RPG fans’ hearts nearly four years ago.

Many parts of the Persona 5 experience carry into Strikers; after hearing rumors of people abusing their power, you control the Phantom Thieves as you investigate the allegations before jumping to the cognitive world of the Metaverse to infiltrate their dungeon (which are called “jails” this time around) and change their hearts. You will encounter tons of Shadows along the way as you make your way to the leader of the Dungeon. While knowing the original game’s story enhances the experience, it’s not a requirement to enjoy Strikers. The familiarity of this formula is like a warm homecoming for those that did play Persona 5, but once you start beating up enemies, it’s evident this is a different beast from the traditionally turn-based RPG series.

When it’s time to battle, Persona 5 Strikers changes from a methodical dungeon-crawler to an all-out action game. Musou games such as Dynasty Warriors use hack-and-slash combat to make small-scale encounters. Each Phantom Thief can perform special attacks and status effects using a variety of light or heavy attacks. I loved the frenetic and intuitive action that comes from slashing through hordes of enemies and watching them fly off the edge of Joker’s knife or Panther’s whip, but the combat adds extra depth using the characters’ Personas.

At any point in a battle, you can summon a character’s Persona; the action pauses as you choose a spell to cast and the area it will affect. If you hit an enemy’s weakness, you open them up for a follow-up attack. You may be able to unleash an All-Out Attack. The whole team will attack all the enemy targets simultaneously if you have hit them enough. Combine the summoning system with fast combat and other environmental interactions to create a fluid experience that allows you take out enemies efficiently and in style. One of my favorite fights was when I switched between characters. It involved me rigging different combos, exploiting the weaknesses of their Personas as well as detonating explosives, dropping chandeliers, then delivering devastating last blows that closed out the show. Persona 5 Strikers is able to keep the action moving in a controlled manner inside the prison cells.

The palaces of Persona 5 share many similarities with Jails. They both exist in the Metaverse, have a ruler you’re trying to defeat to change their behavior in the real world, and are full of Shadows to take down. However, jails don’t deliver the creativity of the palace design. While I liked the waypoint telling me where to go I soon felt that I was just following the rules to get there. The jail tried to make the recipe more interesting by adding a stealth section, portals to dump you into other areas and other features. However these tricks come off as half-hearted jokes which I found disappointing after just one visit.

A monarch is the ruler of each jail. This powerful person in real life has discovered a way to seize the wants and essentially to make them slaves. The monarchs are not willing to give in to the Seven Deadly Sins. Instead, they have their hearts twisted by personal trauma. Sometimes it was difficult to connect with the characters as they changed their mind. However, Persona 5 Strikers’ story is filled with touching moments about trauma and how it can transform a person. You can see how many parallels they have to something a player on your team experienced in the previous game.

Persona 5 Strikers’ most exciting element was meeting up with members of the Phantom Thieves. It delivers in the main. I loved learning what they’ve been up to since the first game and watching them grow even more through this adventure. It was disappointing to see that there weren’t many social-simulation possibilities. Strikers does not have social-link mechanisms. Instead you can upgrade your party with a bond system. Although you can chat with the characters and invite your companion to participate in certain activities, the conversation is often brief and uninteresting.

Although not all elements work together in Persona 5 as well, I was happy to continue the adventure with those characters with whom I formed such close bonds back in 2017. Although the storyline may change, it is still the heart and soul of Persona 5.