Persona 5 Strikers has been one of the games that I’ve been playing in the free time I’ve had between studying and midterms. So far I’ve cleared the second dungeon and would like to share my thoughts. I’ll start with some differences from the main game that you might not know about. I’ll also be discussing my current likes and dislikes.
Differences From the Main Game
The biggest change from the main game is that Persona 5 Strikers is an Action RPG instead of turn based. You’ll have to think a little quicker and pay more attention to your team mates. Another difference from the main game is that fusing personas now has an extra condition. When fusing two personas to make a new one you’ll notice a level requirement for the personas being used in the fusion. They must be the level indicated for the fusion to work. Another change is that each character has a special move called a Showtime attack. When the gauge fills you’ll get a sequence that is different for each character. Joker as multiple variations since he has multiple personas. These moves consists of each party member using an attack that corresponds with the main element of their persona. Each character also has special abilities they can learn as you play as them.
Another major difference is that there are no Social Links, instead everyone is grouped together in the Bond System. Interacting with your team members as well as doing requests for them will increase the Bond level allowing you to upgrade abilities like more SP, more health, more money from battles, and a lot more. The final difference is that the cities that you visit can’t be revisited once you leave, so be sure that you’ve explored each area fully before leaving. Below is some game play to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.
Here we have Joker using a showtime attack with Arsene.
Below we have Joker learning a new skill as I’m playing as him.
Likes
I like that every character is available from the start. This gives you more time to use a character that you might not have had much of an opportunity to use in the original game. The art style still looks as great as Persona 5, at least on the ps4 version. The interactions between the different charterers are great, especially the humorous sections. I honestly didn’t think that I would enjoy Persona as a more action and fast paced game, but I was pleasantly surprised. Each character has four different skills that they can learn through you playing as them. This adds more variety to their move sets, they also have unique individual abilities like Skull being able to charge up his basic attack. I’d recommend trying out each character at least once to get a feel for them as some are fast and others are slow, so you’ll need to change your approach depending on who you use. I like that they’ve expanded upon the types of SP recovery items that you can make.
Dislikes
I hate that unlike the original there does not appear to be a way for party members that aren’t being used to gain experience. This makes certain party members sometimes five or more levels higher than others. Another thing that I dislike is that sometimes it feels like my inputs aren’t working. Sometimes I have to press a button again to get it to do what I’m wanting. Another part of the game that I dislike is for persona fusing the personas that you are using now have to be at a certain level for some of them to work. This causes some frustration as a persona that I wanted to fuse could not be due to a persona I had being too low of a level. I now how to find another combination or grind to level that persona for the fusing to work.
Conclusion
As things stand I think that Persona 5 Strikers is a good game that offers a unique experience apart from the usual games in the series. I believe that many people would find this game enjoyable. I think I’ll do a full review when I finish the game to see if my opinions stay the same or if they have changed. As always thank you for taking the time to read my post as well as visit my blog. I appreciate all the support that everyone gives me.