4.5/5 ★ – Itsgrimsby's review of Persona 5 Strikers.

I’m so glad that Persona 5 Strikers exists because it gave me a new story in a world with characters that I really like. The whole framing of the story setting place during a summer road trip was the perfect excuse to get the gang back together for some metaverse shenanigans. In terms of story the big selling point is the two new characters joining the Phantom Thieves on their next adventure; Zenkichi and Sophia. Both have very different storylines yet they culminate together well and both characters are excellent additions to the group. The existing characters are here still too, but they don’t get overly expanded on, and that’s completely fine by me. You also get a couple of “awakening to their persona” scenes in this game which absolutely gives me chills every time and I don’t care how sad that is. It’s awesome. The combat is the main departure here, taking on the Dynasty Warriors style of action instead of turn based. This was my first sticking point with the game; I didn’t like it very much. What helped (as I find myself turning to more and more lately) was shunting the difficulty down to easy and just playing it as a basic hack and slash with some rock, paper, scissors thrown in for good measure. I grew to enjoy the mindlessness of combat and certainly didn’t miss any extra challenge with it. The platinum trophy for the game took me just about 45 hours, making this a much shorter experience, and I’m grateful for that as I’m not sure how far the combat would have stretched for me. In terms of a blending of gameplay and story I’d also like to touch on the Jails. So instead of the Palace’s in P5, this game has Jails which are different lore wise but more of the same metaverse distorted locations. I felt that the design and overall feel of these paled in comparison to the Palaces, and I especially found the first one to be one of the worst offenders as well as way too long. I think this is perhaps why my initial impression on the game was so split. Once the ball got rolling I found another adventure that I came to really appreciate and the feel good nature of the Phantom Thieves had me grinning by the end of it. While this game was by no means perfect, it served as a reminder for how much I love Persona 5 and its characters while giving me a satisfying story to continue their journey.