Welcome to our review of Persona 5 Strikers, a game that perfectly blends two of my favorite genres into one delightful game!
Looking for some rest and relaxation, the Phantom Thieves set out to begin their road trip, until a ruthless Kyoto detective enlists their help investigating a series of strange cases occurring across Japan… otherwise, he’ll arrest Joker. As they dig deeper into the mystery, they discover another realm where innocent people are being jailed and forced to forfeit their hearts’ desires by the whims of its ruler. In typical Phantom Thieves style, they’re going to use everything they’ve got to liberate the imprisoned, return their hearts, and strike back against the corruption in their most explosive fight yet!
Persona 5 Strikers features a deep story campaign and thrilling combat that makes for a true Persona experience. Visit 6 different cities across Japan, cook tantalizing regional recipes, and lend a helping hand to those in need. Then, fight against the Shadows to uncover the source of the corruption within the Metaverse dungeons. Jump into the story whether you are a newcomer to the series or a longtime fan!
Attack enemies in the hybrid battle system that fuses explosive action-combat with pause-and-plan sequences to decide your next strategic move. Gain an advantage over your enemies by ambushing them, striking their elemental weaknesses to knock them down, and deal the finishing blow with an All-Out Attack! All Phantom Thieves are fully playable, so utilize each character’s specific skills and summon their Personas for smooth, elegant combat! Strengthen their skills and abilities and fight with your own style. Each character has their own unique suite of wide-ranging, flashy spells and magic to clear out big hordes. Have you ever wanted to fight as a giant cat bus? Well, look no further. Persona 5 Strikers is purrfect for you.
Persona 5 Strikers features a deep story campaign and thrilling combat that makes for a true Persona experience. Visit 6 different cities across Japan, cook tantalizing regional recipes, and lend a helping hand to those in need. Then, fight against the Shadows to uncover the source of the corruption within the Metaverse dungeons. Jump into the story whether you are a newcomer to the series or a longtime fan! Attack enemies in the hybrid battle system that fuses explosive action-combat with pause-and-plan sequences to decide your next strategic move. Gain an advantage over your enemies by ambushing them, striking their elemental weaknesses to knock them down, and deal the finishing blow with an All-Out Attack!
All Phantom Thieves are fully playable, so utilize each character’s specific skills and summon their Personas for smooth, elegant combat! Strengthen their skills and abilities and fight with your own style. Each character has their own unique suite of wide-ranging, flashy spells and magic to clear out big hordes. Have you ever wanted to fight as a giant cat bus? Well, look no further. Persona 5 Strikers is purrfect for you.
A lot can be said for Persona games, they are generally highly rated and very well received by fans of Role-Playing games, and well, Persona 5 Strikers gets rid of the usual fighting mechanic and went for the Musou genre for its fighting. In case you do not know what Musou is, that is the genre where hundreds of enemies come right at you and you fight em all at the same time. Noticeable Musou games are the Dynasty Warriors games, the recent Hyrule Warriors game on Switch, and the many One Piece games that I simply adore.
I will admit I am one of the few gamers out there that truly loves the hacking and slashing involved with the genre and at the same time, Persona 5 Strikers is taking a more technical approach. I love every part about it which needs to be said prior to continuing, because I may sound negative, but I honestly loved not just button mashing, but actually having to somewhat plan ahead.
Normally you just hack and slash your way through the hordes of enemies and keep your eye on your health bar. Pop the occasional health item so you do not get beat. That is in short how this genre goes, but Persona 5 Strikers takes it to the next level, by literally making it useless to just button mash against stronger enemies as they will eventually end up beating you. No, you need to use the full extent of your possibilities at your disposal to really take them down.
Special attacks, ambushes, the “one more” attack system, … They all need to be used in order to fully take down enemies or face the risk of getting creamed yourself or being forced to pass the baton to the next fighter because you just got taken down. Adding in higher and lower hit rates for some special attacks, it just all adds to the fun of this game.
While Persona 5 Strikers is very easy in the casual mode, I can say however not to underestimate it. Despite personally playing in the hardest setting, I did experiment a little and while I found casual to be very easy, I still noticed it was not going to be easy peasy but really had to keep the mechanics in mind to finish fights. I guess my proper use of the bond points really paid off?
On the RPG side, you get a typical Persona approach in this game and well, it did kind of catch me off guard when I was around 7 hours into the game. I actually thought I finished the game already but turns out I was just at the beginning, a pleasant surprise at that.
Persona 5 Strikers is an entertaining game that manages to do more than just take the RPG route, it really succeeded in blending the 2 genres together without one of both feeling left out or too present. Kind of like a perfect marriage. I have noticed a lot of games lately slowly moving out of their comfort zones and slowly experimenting with other genres and this game is a perfect example.
Storywise, I can only say Atlus is known for strong stories and Persona 5 Strikers is no exception. A deeper story than I originally expected and with a twist. We have been fortunate in the past year with some really great RPG titles, and Persona 5 Strikers is the next one in line.
In conclusion, Persona 5 Strikers does not fit the normal stamp of what you would say a Persona game is, but it really works. The fighting is never too long, the RPG side is always on top and you never tire from the button mashing usually involved in this Musou side. A great story with a fun way to battle!
