5/5 ★ – RoseFNV's review of Persona 5 Strikers.

“You… you have no reason to be lonely.” Among the catalog of mainline persona entries there has always been an interest in Atlus to expand the world and type of gameplay, and bringing the series to increasingly different styles of gameplay. Between rhythm based dancing titles to fighting games or mobile dungeon crawlers, although each one never really got the type of love or acclaim the mainstream series did. Even if they did sometimes continue the story the new styles of gameplay were normally the selling point, especially in titles like dancing in the moonlight. While that doesn’t entirely change with Persona 5 strikers, I was genuinely really surprised just how much this feels not only like a true sequel to the story presented by Persona 5, but a genuinely natural feeling evolution, with an absolutely incredible style of combat that I vastly prefer to the mainline series turn based systems. Starting up Persona 5 I immediately noticed one thing, and that’s that this entry is a true sequel, not some disconnected spinoff. If you haven’t played/finished Persona 5, you are likely not going to get as much out of this or its characters as you would otherwise. It does do a fine enough job explaining a decent bit so I doubt you’d be completely lost, but things like palaces or some of the discussions around the original game’s events likely won’t make as much sense or have as much impact on a newcomer to the franchise. I would say it’s basically a Persona 5 2, but ultimately I feel like it’s missing too much social sim elements to truly be anything like a mainline entry, even if it’s lack of social links luckily never feels like a hindrance to developing the game’s newest cast members. Speaking of the cast, every character here is just like you remember them and seeing them teaming up again to take on another threat is great, especially since this game never skimps out on simply allowing you to hang out and enjoy talking with these people to showcase the new combat or anything like that, and the game does a good job keeping it so everyone has a decent bit to do or say. The game definitely plays favorites however, with Haru likely getting the most development out of the returning characters due to her connection with one of the villains. Still though, the game never leaves anyone behind and it always feels like you’re able to interact with everyone a decent bit. Same goes with the new characters, Sophia and Zenkichi. Both immediately establish likable personalities and fit very well in the story, with the quiet and curious Sophia helping the team a lot with information about the jails and places to go, and Zenkichi, a mysterious detective who provides as much information about their targets as he does comedic relief. They might not sound like much on paper, but each has a very large importance in the story and they fit right in with the rest of the crew. Speaking of the story itself, it’s about as excellent as you’d expect from a mainline persona entry, this time paced by a summer road trip rather than a school year. The change of pace and massive shrinking of the game’s day count has a massive effect on the overall game’s structure as you might expect, replacing a relatively lengthy and customizable experience provided before with a narrower story that spends less time with things like upgrading your stats and spending time with individual people. I do think this removes some of the intimacy from the game, as basically 90% of the conversations held are group convos about the story or what to do to relax on the road trip. But it's not all gone, and there’s plenty of nice moments, but I do definitely prefer what came before. Nevertheless, I love this road trip structure quite a bit and it is surprising how many new places we spend time going through. From the bustling nightlife of Shibuya we remember so fondly to the islands of Okinawa or the shop-filled streets of Osaka or Kyoto, there’s plenty of sights to see and places to visit. Each area found has its own moments of rest, character related side quests to partake in and jails to cleanse, and none of them feel like wasted filler or unimportant to the plot. Also relatively impressive how the visual design of each area manages to stay so fresh, as each new place you find yourself in feels just as unique and interesting to look at as the last, whether that be one of the real world cities you visit or the newly introduced jails. The game's Newest setting for the combat sequences are jails, self-contained entities of the metaverse that exist even without a ruler, although by the time you find most of them they've already been inhabited by one. The decision to move from Palace to Jails makes sense for the story and gameplay, as the rulers of the jails work on putting people in it and taking their desires rather than having exceptionally warped realities like in P5, and it works gameplay wise due to the decision to allow you to return to them after the ruler has been defeated, for reasons that can range from taking part in the Game's Side quest system, requests, to doing new minibosses that only open up to you after take out the main ruler. I do love these jails a lot and I think their visual design and soundscapes are as spectacular as ever, and going through them again is an entertaining task, but I think they lack the main separating features that the palaces had from P5. Each Palace had SOMETHING their gameplay wise that makes each one unique, especially in their puzzles, ranging from having to turn into a rat to get to certain objectives to having to mess around with switch orders to lock and unlock airlocks. As a whole a lot of the differences here feel more exclusively cosmetic, with certain gameplay features reused under different names, like the Skating mechanic renamed to snowboarding, or the Shooting firework cannons reused in rail-guns. I understand they likely made that choice to make traversal a bit simpler for reruns but I still believe they should have done a bit more gameplay wise to make the jails have a bit more variety to the level design. Visually, the game still looks very distinct, with its mixture of an anime art style for its characters and somewhat more normal looks for the cityscapes. It’s not copy and pasted visually from the first game as you might think either, as there are clear differences in shading. Saturation and lining, likely to help immerse the player in the summer setting. From an auditory level the game impresses too, as the soundscape for the world and the metaverse impress with detail, while the voice acting remains top notch. I remember starting Persona 5 and originally being hesitant about using English dubs due to my mixed experience with anime dubs, but the entire cast blew me away with their dedication to their characters, and that same cast carries over here. There are a couple hiccups from minor side characters but it’s not really an issue, as overall the voice cast is stellar. Same goes with the soundtrack, which quickly evaporated any fears I had that it would be filled with remixes or re-uses with an impressive new suite. Certain tracks from a couple cities did feel a tad bland but the jail music is basically perfect, and I loved hearing the different music tracks ramp up during exploration, battle or conversation. They always retain the sense of atmosphere the original game had while never feeling repetitive or anything like that. Guess now would be a good time to talk about the game’s new combat system, which was its main selling point in its difference to the mainline title, and one that would make or break the experience for a lot of people. We already knew decently well what it would be like due to the partnership with Koei Tecmo for a system inspired by the series Dynasty Warriors, a hack and slash title focused on combos, special attacks and spamming the main attack button. All of these elements are here and do make the combat feel very different, but ultimately this still feels very much like a Persona title. It still requires a lot of paying attention and usage of certain personas and party members to hit weak attacks with certain persona abilities to obtain maximum damage. Between this, and the new showtime moves, dodge attacks, and the ability to use certain parts of the terrain to defeat your enemies, this is very much still a thoughtful game that requires you to pay heavy attention to your enemies and surroundings. This all combines amazingly with balanced enemies, attacks and moves that work just as perfectly as ever, with each hit feeling satisfying and each battle feeling rewarding. It’s a genuinely incredible combat system, one with very few issues, and one that works perfectly with the games main perk based progression system. Wasn’t sure about this at first, but the perks you unlock always feel genuinely useful in combat, and it’s not nearly as easily abusable as it could have been, with no easily unlockable perks that guarantee victory, and the system to progress these skills through bonding with your teammates, leveling up your personas and completing requests never feels like it requires too much unnecessary grind or anything like that. It’s just a really great way to improve an already incredible style of gameplay that I genuinely hope Atlus doesn’t abandon, because I find it much more enticing than the turn-based systems of the main title. It’s merging of genuine difficulty with a feeling of power and fluidity might cause it to be one of the most engaging and fully enjoyable combat systems I've played in a long while, and It’d be a shame for this series to abandon it after a single entry. Thematically, the game is just as strong as you would hope. I don’t want to say too much in fear of spoiling some of the game’s reveals or main story beats, but I can say it continues very well off the empathetic style of characterization persona 5 excelled at, and even continues very well off the story of Royal in themes and ideas oddly enough, despite never directing acknowledging the storyline of Royal, a decision that’s as baffling as it is nonsensical. The characters of Royal would have fit very well into this story, and it is a real shame not to see Kasumi mentioned here. But either way, the game’s thematic storytelling continues to excel, and the ending is just as hopeful and fulfilling as you’d want, being a nicely tied up send off to this cast of persona heroes. All in all, I still feel like I haven’t done justice to this game despite everything I've written and how much flattery I've thrown it’s way. It’s leagues above the quality I was expecting from a Persona spinoff and I'm still in awe over how it perfectly continued off the heels of its critically acclaimed predecessor while still being wholly fresh and unique in its own right. It’s not perfect, and I do wish it had more social simulation elements and smaller character interactions, but its issues never overshadow a truly incredible experience. I enjoyed every second of it, from roaming the streets of Sapporo and Osaka to fighting the new monarchs of the jails or even simply hearing the reactions from the phantom thieves to the newest item I’ve learned to cook in the game’s new cooking system. Just like Persona 5, Persona 5 Strikers is an incredibly memorable experience that immediately establishes itself as one of the best things I've played in a long time.