The Persona brand is a bit like that ingredient that, if you like it, goes well with everything: if in fact the themes related to plot, story and even settings are always focused on the exploration of the human psyche and how this influences the characters , the way these experiences are handled have not always been the same. Certainly the main trend, the "numbered" series, always has that turn-based JRPG soul, but it is not strange to have seen, from year to year, some spin-off with decidedly different mechanics (which become even more absurd if we finish on the brand's rhythm games). Persona 5 Strikers, which came out in Japan about 1 year ago under the name of Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, however, has on its side the fact that it is also a real sequel to the story of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts (rest assured, despite everything it will be quite enjoyable even without having ever tried the original chapter).
As mentioned, this Persona 5 Strikers is a real one sequel of Persona 5: be careful, however, do not confuse all this with Persona 5 Royal, the game that added a part of the plot to the original and that, unfortunately, in this title seems to not exist. Furthermore, we also remind you that this title was developed by Atlus in collaboration with Omega Force, a company known for its musou; the game, in fact, is the first chapter of the brand to lead to the Action RPG, a playful structure never explored before by the Persona brand.
Tour of Japan in 40 hours
Persona 5 Strikers differs a lot from its predecessor especially for the concept: we have already mentioned the gameplay (and we will talk about it later in detail), but it is not the only thing that catches the eye. Meanwhile, in this chapter, which is part of the boys' summer holidays, the protagonist returns to Tokyo and, as always, is pulled in the middle (together with his fellow misdeeds) in another sort of "problem" linked to events outside the common. The plot is waiting to be discovered and, as always, it presents that quality that we are now used to seeing with the brand in question: thus avoiding spoilers, let's jump immediately to the interesting part, that is the one related to the journey. Persona 5 Strikers in fact will take us to visit various cities, thus making us discover different locations (all with shops to discover, people to talk to and, of course, enemies to defeat) together with all those characters that we have now come to know well. However, two new faces will be added to the game, two interesting new features that you can discover throughout history: let's talk about Sophia, a strange girl that you will know right away and who will be a bit one of the mysteries of the title, and the investigator Zenkichi Hasegawa, cryptic character who turns out to be, to be honest, one of the best novelties of the game thanks to his seeing the situations present in-game in a different way than what Persona 5 and the like had accustomed us to.
Perhaps due to the close release between this title and Persona 5 Royal, or due to a stylistic choice, Persona 5 Strikers is a direct sequel to Persona 5, and not to its revised and expanded version: for this reason some things, even if not too important, could get you a little out of tune (more than anything else for those characters, those events and those concepts that are proposed in the semester additive of P5R and that in this P5S instead they are absent). From a technical point of view, the game lends itself very well to the genre thanks to the almost always fixed 60 FPS that we have seen on PlayStation 5 (we remind you that the game was released on PlayStation 4, however), an element that is less on Nintendo Switch, where the experience travels at 30 frames per second with some drops in the most excited phases. From the artistic point of view, however, nothing to complain as the inspiration remains the same as the original: therefore expect bright colors, a graphic style halfway between digital and paper with a marked characterization of the characters and, of course, fantastic music that at each fight they will start charging giving a greater rhythm to the various phases of the game (thanks to the fact that some of these are remixes of the originals).
The table of contents
If there is one thing that immediately catches the eye in Persona 5 Strikers is its being particularly lean: unlike the main title, this sequel will not let you touch the statistics, talk to confidants or participate in particular activities. The game will focus on scouting (made, however, in fantastic locations to see but poor in terms of content), dungeon e boss fight. What at first glance may seem like a lighter system to manage for a Action RPG, proves to be somewhat repetitive with the passing of the hours from the purely content side, confirming the fact that all the extra actions of Persona 5 (and Royal), albeit slowing down the title, made it more varied compared to this spin-off , however valid in its general concept.
Obviously not for this reason the game is boring, far from it: the title, in fact, proposing its characters, offers for each of them a specific style that will change the way you fight and the tactics you put in place. The work of Omega Force we see, so much so that the fights with the weakest enemies are such an extrapolation musou, but the way you approach the battlefield will be quite diverse. Obviously, the team that you will bring each time will consist of 4 characters, and each of them, in addition to being able to carry out light and heavy attacks, will be able to develop specials and shoot with their own weapon at a distance. Also excellent is the combo system that will lead to various advantages depending on how you chain the attacks, and interesting it turned out to be also the suggested change between characters that will push you to press certain key combinations to launch special attacks with the other members of the team, subsequently taking control of it.
The various protagonists that we can guide on the field will not be limited by the execution of simple static combos, but as the adventure progresses they will be able to learn further techniques, further diversifying the gameplay (and pushing the player, as in RPGs, to create their own dream team). Even the Personas do not remain impassive: they can be upgraded, merged and they will learn new techniques, only to use them you will have to be fast enough during the fights to select them (but fortunately the User Experience system meets the player in this case). Another difference, which you will notice almost immediately, concerns the management of the fight: if in fact Persona 5 and P5R focused a lot on strategy, giving the player the possibility of organizing their attacks, in Persona 5 Strikers you will have to do everything in real time, giving more space to instinct and less to reasoning, which may not appeal to purists of the RPG genre but which instead goes very well with the game. The only flaw in this system is linked to the immeasurable power (compared to normal attacks) of the Persona's abilities, which, however, is managed very well by the use of specific energy to launch such attacks.
Il concept of the title, which moves the brand from a complex RPG to a simple Action RPG, required a Persona 5 Strikers also the removal of a possible endgame, which could make those who love this dynamic turn up their noses (since it lasts “only” about 45 hours) but which actually makes it easier to manage, a bit like a summer vacation after a whole school year. If there is one thing that perhaps could have been managed better, it concerns his being in some sort of middle ground: perhaps, proposing a gameplay even more devoted to action, pushing more from the musou side or all the opposite, he could have found his identity better. We are however in front of a fantastic title to discover, capable of telling new unmissable adventures of the Phantom Thieves and ready to make us return, once again, to steal people's hearts, as this brand has been doing for years now with all its fan.
