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Persona 5 Strikers Review


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962519692_P5Strikersboxart.jpg.78ca34976cf77f43eaf517acc30f3a98.jpgKoei Tecmo's Musou series just can't keep to itself these days, can it? In the footsteps of games like Hyrule Warriors and Fire Emblem Warriors comes Persona 5 Strikers, a combination of Persona 5's characters and impeccable style with Musou's fast-paced combat gameplay. But while previous crossovers tend to be more of a Musou game with some Zelda or Fire Emblem flavoring, this game is first and foremost a continuation of Persona 5, with some fresh wrinkles that transform the original's turn-based action into something more intense. As such, this one is almost strictly for fans of the Phantom Thieves.
 
Strikers picks up a few months after the events of P5 as a more or less direct continuation of the Phantom Thieves' story—if it isn't clear, you really need to have played P5 to get the most out of Strikers. This game drops some minor spoilers from P5, but more importantly you'll want to have the connection and fondness for the characters that develops while playing P5, because that's a central part of Strikers' charm. A new player will still likely enjoy this ragtag group of heroes, but it really helps to have that bond forged from the original game. The highlights of Strikers' writing are undeniably in the silly little conversations within the group, which is thankfully still utterly charming, since you do spend long stretches of time just going through dialogue scenes—it really does feel like seeing old friends again for fans of P5. The overarching story though is rather less engaging. It's not bad, but in several ways it just retreads ideas from P5, and the new characters are decent but not amazing additions to the cast—even with a lot of time devoted to them, they don't hit the highs of the core group's characters. But to be fair, it's difficult to add to a team that is already as nicely rounded as the Phantom Thieves.
 
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Strikers continues the Persona-collecting, dungeon-exploring gameplay of P5, with some Musou elements added in to mix things up. As Joker and the rest of the Phantom Thieves, you explore jails (similar to palaces from P5) where you can do some light sneaking to ambush enemies while hunting for switches or macguffins to progress. Here's where the Musou comes in: rather than turn-based, battles are real-time action, so you control one character and use a combination of light, heavy, and special attacks to fight large groups of enemies. The other Persona elements are still preserved though. Enemies still have elemental weaknesses, and your characters use their Personas to fight (Joker can still equip multiple Personas and collect/combine new ones). Hitting weaknesses still triggers the opportunity for an all-out attack, and tougher enemies take multiple hits against their weakness before they're susceptible. Each playable character has the same basic controls but also has some unique ability—for example, Ann can imbue her basic attacks with fire and Yusuke can enter a counter stance that retaliates against physical hits. Each character will also unlock bonus abilities as you control them (you can swap between your four active party members at any time).
 
Despite the addition of Musou elements, the gameplay still feels overwhelmingly like P5, so your enjoyment of it will largely hinge on whether or not you enjoyed that one. Like that game, basic battles can be almost too easy since if you ambush or immediately hit an enemy with their elemental weakness you can finish the fight in seconds, but boss fights can be gruelling and extremely challenging, especially early in the game when you have so little SP for elemental magic attacks. In fact, the Musou elements, if anything, make the Persona formula weaker, because now the fast-pace of combat makes it difficult to recover from minor mistakes—some enemies seem to be able to juggle you a little too easily. The fast pace also makes it hard to find the time to use healing or buff/debuff magic, though thankfully the action pauses while you're using items, which makes them extremely effective for healing. Since Strikers doesn't have the same massive maps as a typical Musou game, the satisfying sense of scale found in most Musou titles isn't really here. In some ways this game manages to be less than the sum of its parts.
 
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That's not to say it's a bad experience, though. Strikers still has all of the charm of P5, even if it's in a slightly different form. This game isn't as strict about building bonds with your teammates, and your time outside of jails isn't spent balancing your schedule around hanging out with friends, but it still plays a part in the game and, as said before, it's still a lot of fun to just see the group hanging out in any capacity. The dungeon designs are still pretty inventive and provide unique challenges, though they are perhaps slightly less complex than before. The downside is that there are some minor platforming sections within dungeons that seem completely ill-thought out. Joker's movements are surprisingly stiff, and managing even basic jumps is kind of obnoxious. One of the nice aspects of Strikers is that there isn't the same time limit as P5, which can make the game much easier—if you want to leave a jail to recover SP, there's no real penalty for doing so. All told, Strikers feels like an experimentation of the Persona gameplay formula, and while that this new flavor might not be perfect there's still a lot to enjoy for JRPG fans.
 
On the presentation side of things, Strikers does an incredible job of recreating the Persona look and feel on the Switch. P5 has such a distinct sense of style and it looks fantastic here without any significant loss in FPS or visual flair. To be fair a lot of the character and enemy models and some of the scenery must just be recycled from P5, but they still look great. The music is also top-notch, not surprisingly. P5's jazzy soundtrack is once again ridiculously catchy and just a joy to hear in or out of dungeons, and the voice work still plays a big part in making these characters so much fun.
 
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Strikers isn't anywhere near as long as P5, but its length will probably still surprise you. Roughly 30 hours is going to be the minimum, but the average will be closer to 35 or 40 hours for time spent completing side quests or just thoroughly exploring dungeons. You can also end up devoting a lot of time to grinding if you're the type that wants to collect every Persona, but aside from the slightly higher difficulty in the early parts of the game, grinding isn't much of an issue here for an average playthrough.
 
Persona 5 Strikers, unlike other Musou collaborations, cherry picks just a couple of aspects of Musou gameplay and instead focuses on its Persona aspects. It's a curious combination and one that doesn't totally pay off when Musou's fast-paced combat comes up against Persona's more traditional strategy elements found in JRPGs. Still, even if this isn't exactly the perfect blend of chocolate and peanut butter, it's still a fun combo, thanks largely to the unflagging charm that exudes from Persona 5. From the visuals and music to, most importantly, the cast of characters, Persona 5 Strikers is an engaging spin-off/sequel that will surely please any fan of the Phantom Thieves.
 
Rating: 8 out of 10 Personas
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22 minutes ago, Link, the Hero of Dreams said:

Huh, even though I love Persona 5 and its Royal Expansion, I had mixed feelings about Strikers. It's more because I thought the Phantom Thieves were more about being sneaky than outright brawlers. Maybe I'll get it. It's been on my calling card for a while.

 

There's still a bit of sneakiness, but as long as you're a Phantom Phan you should enjoy it.

 

12 minutes ago, ArmoredFrog said:

I've tried to understand this one, but there are so many tutorials that it's distracting. I 100%'d Age of Calamity with zero issue and completed Persona 5 original, so I wish I could figure this one out. 

 

It's pretty overwhelming at first, and like I said in the review I think this is an imperfect combination of the two genres, but like a lot of RPGs it definitely gets easier as you progress and you have more SP and SP-recovery items at your disposal.

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I think I am like half-way through this game and I enjoying so far.

 

This is coming from someone who has not played a Persona game or P5 at all. With that said I would like to play P5 and it is not know more about the Phantom Thieves but just to experience the story. Maybe silly to say but I will wait to get this game if it comes to Switch. A few months ago I would of said 'when' but this 'if' fits the bill as their been no movement if its coming to Switch.

 

I have only played the franchise spin-off of warriors game, if this was my first I would swear this was more warrior like but like I said not playing Persona game but played warriors games, this feels more like a Persona game with a splash of Warriors. I can't say I would of like it the other way around but as I said enjoy gameplay, story and the characters so far.

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, DLurkster said:

Finished the game last night.

 

I know why they call this game 'Strikers'. To me they left it to the very end with the last boss and I love it!

 

Final boss spoilers:

Spoiler

I always appreciate it when RPGs include some mechanic where you have to use every character, not just a single 4-person or 3-person party. Most RPGs have such big rosters, it's a shame when they don't all get the time to shine.

 

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