The Phantom Thieves Stole My Heart Again: Persona 5 Strikers

The Phantom thieves have stolen my heart once more in their newest adventure in Persona 5 Strikers. As you can tell this post will contain my full thoughts on P5 Strikers. I played this ps4 version. I will not be discussing post game as I have not finished that part, but it is essentially extra quests and an extra optional boss. I have also tried my best to avoid spoiling parts of the game so that you can experience it for yourself.

Background Information

Before I dig into my review, Persona 5 Strikers is a sequel to Persona 5. This game takes place during summer break months after the previous game. Since this is a sequel you will be playing as the same characters from the previous game. I will highly advise that you not play this game unless you know the characters and plot of Persona 5 or Persona 5 Royal. If you have only played Royal know that certain plots points and characters will not be present as it is a sequel to the original Persona 5.

New Features

One of the new features is this game are Bond Skills. These take the place social links that normally appear. Through doing different activities such as requests and progressing the story, your Bond Level goes up giving you points you can use to obtain and level up different skills. One skill increases the HP of all party members while another gives you more ammunition for your guns.

Another feature that was in the previous game and is in this one is cooking. I am labeling it as new because the items you can make have been expanded. After yo reach a certain point in the story you become able to make different food items that will help you in combat. An example is the classic Curry that restores 20SP for everyone.

The biggest new feature is the new battle system. Instead of turned based, the game is more action oriented. Shadows appear as normal and when you attack them it goes into a battle as per usual, the only difference being their are no turns. If you need to use an item simply open the menu and all your items are right there. One part of the combat I really like is when you pull out your persona time stops. This lets you move to select a target to hit with your attack.

Story

I think the story was pretty great with some unexpected twists in there. I will say I guessed one point of the story early on, but that stuff happens sometimes. The story starts during summer break months after the ending of the original Persona 5. There you reunite with your friends and catch up with each other. A new app called Emma is on everyone’s mind as it is an AI that assists with decisions as well as directions, like Siri. The group decide to go on a camping trip.

While shopping for supplies with Ryuji and Morgana you encounter an idol by the name of Alice. She’s giving away special tickets to enter her new store, which you happen to be one of the lucky few to win one. You and Ryuji leave the crowd and notice on the card is her keyword to become friends with her on Emma. After saying the word you all are transported back into the Metaverse, but a lot has changed. I won’t go any further so that people can experience the game for themselves.

Music

The music in Persona 5 Strikers is just as good as the music in the previous games. This game features great remixes of songs such as Rivers in a Desert and Last Surprise. This game also features amazing originals such as Daredevil. Be careful if you decide to look up these songs on YouTube. People always discuss spoilers in the comments and make no effort to warn people. This song is not 9 minutes long, it is just extended.

Favorite Characters to Use

One of my favorite characters was Haru or Noir. She has some pretty fun Master Arts and she can deal great physical damage. My favorite skill that she can learn is Heat Riser which boosts all your stats. Below is some game play with her. All combos discussed are simple ones, more combos can be preformed.

A combo of square, square, triangle(hold) brings out Noir’s persona and it creates a twister that deals Psy damage. You can move it around slightly with the analog stick while still holding triangle.

A combo of square followed by triangle(hold) causes Noir to do multiple axe strikes in a row. A combo of square, square, triangle causes Noir to do two axe attacks.

My other favorite character is Wolf. His gimmick is gaining increased attack at the cost of health via his Master Arts Wolf’s Bite. Wolf is a good addition to the team using physical, almighty, buffs, and debuffs. My favorite skill that he can learn is Debilitate which lowers all the stats of an enemy. This move becomes very helpful for some later optional bosses. Don’t watch this video if you want to avoid potential spoilers.

When using Wolf press triangle to activate his fury. He loses health continuously but gains attack as well as sending shock waves when he swings his sword. Pressing square then following up with pressing and holding triangle causes wolf to charge up a shock wave.

Character I Used the Least

The character I used the least was Morgana. The reason for this is that there are 4 characters, including Morgana, with healing skills. While Morgana does have good revival skills, he gets out shined by the superior Master Arts of the other characters. If you want a dedicated healer Makoto is still the right choice.

Positives

One of the best parts of this game was the character interactions. The interactions are great and sometimes I had to stop playing to laugh at the funnier interactions. Here is one example:

Another big positive is the game play. I honestly thought that I would not enjoy this game as I was unsure of how it would play going from the standard turn based to action based. I found myself enjoying the combat completely. There are never too many enemies on the screen at a time and when you bring out your persona to use a move the game freezes so you can target enemies with an attack.

The way they reworked spells is exactly how you might expect them to work. For example Ziodyne, which usually hits one enemy in the persona series, has a small range while a skill like Maeigaon, which hits multiple enemies, has a higher range. Below is an example of this:

Another aspect of the game that I liked was the music. As I mentioned previously in the music section of my review, the music was just as good in the original. The remixes fit perfectly with the fast paced action of battles.

The lost positive that comes to mind is the dungeon designs. Each dungeon feels unique and offers different challenges as well as different environmental items to interact with.

Negatives

One of the biggest drawbacks for the game is the way they changed persona fusing. The way it has been done is taking two personas and they fuse together for a new one, levels did not factor into it. In Persona 5 Strikers some personas have to be certain levels in order to be fused. I could not really see the reasoning for this so it was an odd change.

Another negative of the game is experience distribution. In both Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal your backup members could earn experience via the social link with Mishima. In this game there is no bond skill that gives this same benefit.

The last negative I have about this game is the final boss. The boss could have been a little more challenging. I played on normal but it felt like I was playing on easy.

Conclusion

Persona 5 Strikers is a great follow up game to Persona 5. The new game play creates a new and unique experience for the Persona Franchise. I would highly recommend this game to fans of the Persona series as well as people that like Action RPGs.

As always thank you for reading my post as well as visiting my blog.