Persona 5 stikers is considered the sequel to the iconic Persona 5 game (NOT Persona 5 Royal) developed by Atlus. The game was released at the end end of February 2021, however the game was originally
released in Japan a year prior, AKA February in 2020 and it was under the name Persona 5 scramble. The game was developed by Atlus, the studio who owns the Persona Ip and Omega Force, the studio
which is well know for it's the hack and slach games such us Dynasty warriors, Attack on Titan and Hyrule warriors. The game was also self published by Atlus(Sega) for all
the available consoles. Being available for all consoles though created an issue, seeing how the game is techically a sequel and the original game which is a Sony Exclusive(only for the playstation). Any new comer
who never played the original game or didnt go out of their way to see the anime, were most likely confused as to why there is a talking cat that turns into a mini van and generally what is a persona!
The game was released in the following forms:
Standard
Included the game alone
Deluxe
Included the game, Digital artbook, Video of how the game was created and Audio
Collectors Edition (japan Only)
Included the game, Original Sountrack (Cd), Physical Artbook, Physical DVD on how the game was created , a Hand bag and a towel with the heroes
Story of the Game (Minor Spoilers for Strikers Major for the Original Person 5)
Important Backstory Spoilers for the end of Persona 5
In the main Persona 5 game, th player gets cotnrol of the protagonist, who is accused of a crime and was sent to Tokyo to continue his studies for a year , as the school there was the only one to accept a student with a 'criminal' record.
He was chosen by a higher being to play the role of the trickster who will try to prevent an evil diety from attack the world. Along the way he makes new friends and confidants that help him in his adventures. These new group of his
is called the Phantom thieves. There re people in the world, who 're being terrible human beings and manipulate others. There is a parallel universe known as the metaverse where the enemy acts as a higher being and have their
own Palaces and treasures. Joker and the phantom thieves are task to venture inside the palaces, steal the treasure in order to perform a change of heart before a given timestamp. They re capable of fighting in the metaverse with the help
of Personas. Persona is the spirit Powerfull manifestation of someones inner self.
Persona 5 Strikers
As mentioned Strikers is the sequel of the original Persona 5 and not Persona Royale(Extended version), as the heroes introduced in Royale are not in the game or being mentioned at all. The game takes place six months after the original
game where the protagonist returns to Tokyo for his summer vacation. The game beutifully re introduces the player to the Leblank cafe(the place where the protagonist stayed in the first game ) and all the previous gang members. The long
cutscenes make their return once again as the cast catches up with the protagonist, how he has been, how's his studies and etc. While hanging around with his friends, they notice something very weird, people act in a strange way. Soon
enough and curtaisy of Ryuji(Skull), a friend of Joker's they go to a gathering of a pop idol that Ryuji admires. During that event the idol hands over a few cards to a small random ammount of her fans. The card consisted of a number
that was her friend code in order to follow her on Emma. An Ai, that everybody uses which also acts as social media. (Think of it as Instagram/Facebook). This event brings back the Metaverse (which was ceased to exist at the
end of Persona 5. While in the metaverse they duo is introduced to a new character called Sophia, who helps them escape. This random meeting sparks plenty of questions as to whats going on, and so the party comes together
to discuss it.
They conclude to the idea that they should try and find out what is happening. Needles to say they make the group decision to reform the Phantom Thieves and stop whoever is hidding behind these heart changes. Unlike before though
the concept of the phantom thieves is something that the public is now aware of. They do not know the phantom thievesidentities but they do know of their existance. This concept helps the plot, by introducing new concepts and new actions
taken by the police. The game seaizes the oppoertunity given and it introcuses the player to new characters such as Inspector Zankichi Hazekawa . The story takes place during the summer break vacation and it expands the world outside shibuya
(which the majority of the first game took place) as the phantom thieves go on a road trip to find more details about this new metaverse, stop every enemy that they come across, clear their names and make this summer special.
Story thoughts
The story of the game is fascinating, exciting and nostalgic. First things first the majority of the game is fully Voice acted and the story is delivered in the three same forms as the Orifinal. These are :
Cutscenes where the character's in game avatars barely move and theres a dialogue box underneath with the subtitles
Cutscenes with in game avatar's acting along
Cutscenes with handrawn animation, very similar to the Anime
The story feels fresh and has plenty of mysterious elements to add to it. The two new 'main' Characters of Sophie and Inspector Zenkichi are realy fun and very well written. A normal gameplay may be half the time of the original (100hrs original/46 Strikers)
but it captured the magic. The phantom thieves themselves are well written and they stick to their personality 100%. Furthermore the game as mentioned, although it has the mystery of the metaverse, also spents alot of time with the phantom thieves as they re
on their road trip around Japan. It captures moments like visiting certain landmarks, having barbeque and other stuff like that which showcases their friendshp. Another great aspect of the story is that it knows where and when to focus on certain things and how
much it requires, which showcases that the game had alot of attention when it was beeing made. As someone who appreciated the cast of Persona 5, it goes without saying that some tears were shread while proceeding with the story. Any time spent with the Phantom thieves
and the cast of persona 5 is always a pleasant welcome.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Persona 5 Strikers similar to other Persona games, seperate it self into two categories.
Gameplay based on the real World
Gameplay inside the Metaverse
The gameplay outside of the metaverse, is pretty much the same as the past Persona Entires. the player gets control of the main character Joker and they move around in a given playable area. They can interact with the rest of the cast found around the area or random NPCs.
They can purchase stuff from the stores that they can use to upgrade themselves or any other party members, or even buy items that can be used in battle inside the Metaverse. Other than that it offers the player the opportunity to choose diffrent dialogue options for
the interaction that can make each of the game runs unique. Doing the interactions and accepting random sidequests from the Phantom thieves and the others, will always grand the player Bond point. Bond points acts similar to the confidant system of the original,
where the player was given the option to hang out with a friend in order to boost their frienship level and gain in game benefits. However Strikers being a sequel and all, it would ve been dump to try to earn the thieves trust, as Joker already established his relationship
through out the events of the first game. So instead of gainning trust and friendship boost for each individual thief, the game boosts the team bond. This Bonds Points can be spent on the bond board in any order the player prefer. The Bond board is an enormous board
that consist of different upgrades such as increase HP bar of all members, the Sp bar, gain more Showcase cauge, get better store deals and many many more. The way a player spents their points will affect their game progression speed. Furthermore the player can also search around
to find new cooking recipes and ingredients to cook for his fellow crew members. Cooking for the party rewards with both bond points (when a recipe is cooked for the first time) and with the food itself which can be used in the Metaverse to restore either Sp or HP based on what
the food was.
The main change of the gameplay, can be found while manuverinng in the Metaverse. In the Prequel, Persona 5, the Metaverse had the player manuvering around the 'bad guys Palace' until they succesfully make their way to the treassure. Once the room and the path to it was
achieved, the thieves send a calling card to the bad guy in the real life and then they had access to the room to fight the boss. In strikers,t he player start by manuvering around the Jail and stealthy avoiding the enemies that are patrolling. However, more aggresive players might
choose to Ambush or attack the patrollers directly in order to fight them and gain experience. Ambushing an enemy will always allow the hero to attack first as the ambusher will be stunt. Both the player and the enemy can ambush each other. In order to ambush the player will have to
stealthy approach the patroller and press the Ambush key (triangle on Ps) or simply waiting in a corner from which the victim will cross and press the same key.
In order to enter the Jail's boss room ,The phantom thieves have to collectThree core items. Once they locate and obtain all three cores the main door will open. However the thieves won't be able to proceed until they successfully find the Trauma room locsted somewhere
in the real world. Once the trauma room is located, the player will see a cutscene and fight off a few enemies . When this is done and the thieves have an idea about the bad guys problem,they 'll proceed as usual by sending out the infamous calling card of theirs in order for the
Monarch to notice them and allow them to enter his room for the final boss fight of the jail. Once the Monarch is defeated the jail ends. A great thing about strikers, is that the day remains the same everytime you enter and leave the jail. For reference, Persona 5 had a day by day
life cycle, and each time a player visited the palace and returned, they had to go to bed in order for the day to be skipped. In this game , the players dont have a deadline to clear it as it used to be with the palaces. More importantly unlike palaces, jails are accessible even after
the Monarch is defeated. This means that the player can visit old Jails to collect any treassure they might ve skipped, fight enemies to train and regroup more Personas.
Unlike the owners of palaces who were generally bad, Monarchs are slightly different. These are people who got traumatised at some point in their lives and then a few things changed their prespective of life. An example NOT from the game (so no spoilers) would be,
get bullied in a young age, then inspired by a hero in a video game, then win a lotery ticket to achieve a high status profile and then create my own own company. If i was a monarch, my three cores would be the hero who inspired me (figure or Poster), the lottery ticket that i won,
and maybe the diploma of my company. My trauma room will be the place where i got bullied while i was young.
Compat
The main and most noticable change though is the compat. Strikers is no longer the typical turn base RPG, instead its an action base RPG. Once the thieves ambush or attack an enemy, a number of enemies will appear and they ll have to fight them in a beat em up style. The game
offers the player to use normal attacks and attacks while using the personas. Square and triangle create different attacks based on the hero currently in use. Different compinations allow for different combos. Circle will allow the character to interact with the envornment or
perfom special actions. For example jumping and cutting down a shantlier. Using the environmet to your advanage is recomended as they deal high damage and stagger damage. X is used to jump while L2 is used for dodge. L1 allows the thief to use their long range weapon and R1 will
allow them to use their persona Power. Each persona has its own strength and weakness. For example, Panther's persona has the eleent of fire which makes strong versus ice personas. Each thief have their own Persona from the first game(Not their end game one). Joker however,
owns multiple personas very similar to the prequel. Personal reckomendation always have presonas with multiple elemental attacks so that you will always have a persona with stronger elemental attack over the other , one persona capable of healling and ressurecting the party and one
capable of buffing and debuffing others. Oracle AKA Futaba, the one thief the player never gets to control as she is a support will always remind the player the enemy weakness once it was discovered. All the other thieves can be controlled, and it's reccomended that you do, as the
more a specific hero is beeing used the more skills and experiecne they ll gain. Persona attacks required the usage of Sp bar. If the SP bar is unsufficient the player cannot sumon the persona. However, by leveling the party, each hero will receive a combo that contains elemental
attack but simply not as strong.
Swapping thieves happens with the use of the keypad. By changing thieves their showtime bar gets boosted. Show time is a cinematic attack that deals alot of damage that can be triggered with triangle and circle. The party consist of four thieves at a time. Party members can
change through the menu at any point outside of combat. Every jail has a point where Futaba is required to hack a wall. During these times, random enemy waves will try to attack both the players and Futaba, and the group will have to do their best to protect Futaba during her hacking
otherwise is game over. Futaba cannot be targetted for healing, but the player can equip her with better armor gear.
Regrouping a Persona
In the past game regrouping a persona was difficult as the player would have had to knock down a Persona and then try to regroup them by talking to them and try to select the best dialogue option based on the persona's character. Some required joker to be gentle, other's prefered him
when he was beeing all mighty and others simply wanted to join because he was being badass. In strikers, the player will simply defeat the personas and there is a high chance that once a persona dies a mask will drop. The player will simply walk towards the mask and that persona is now
officially in Jokers arsenal. Getting a mask can be even easier by enchansing the ablity in the bond board.
Velvet Room
This is the place where the player can create new personas, or power up the ones they already own. Mixing personas should be a must for every player. mask. In order to fuse a persona, the players will have to check which ones are listed as materials to create the one of preference.
Note some may require a specific Persona on a specific level. When both criteria are met the player will have to confirm in order to fuse. Once the fusion is made, the game will then request the players to select which skills they wish to carry over from the Personas used as crafting
materials. As mentioned, it is reccomended that Joker will always have:
a persona with the support skills, such as rez and healing,
a persona with buffs and debuffs
Arsene (cause he is cool and it's Joker's starting Persona)
a persona that is being mainly use(maybe cause of higher level
and the rest being personas that could inherit different elemental attacks so that there will always be a Counter to whoever is currently the enemy
The other part in the velvet room is the enchansment. Basicaly if there's a persona of preference but is low leveled, the player can keep it relevant by boosting its power status individually and leveling it up. Above i previously mentioned Arsene
who i simply find him cool and i had to always keep him leveled up by spending time grinding him and boosting him in order to be relevant. SUrely there are other personas with strong Curse powers but dont look as cool. The last thing i would personally recomend while in velvet room is to always
register your personas. Registering a persona will save the persona and its stats, and will allow you to regroup that persona later on. For example, if you have an unregister Arsene level 50 and use him as a fusion materia, If you wish to regroup him again he ll be back to level 1, but if you register
him he ll be available at lvl 50 with all the skills he used to have.
Collectables && Post-content
Collectables.
The game does not have a specific type of collectable. The only things that could be count towards a type of collectable are all the Personas and cooking recipees.
The post game content can mainly by found in the Finished Jails and the side quests. The player can always access a finished Jail in order to kill various enemies and level up their character. There are also side quest that can be accessed from the main menu where the player will have to kill
or collect certain items found in a specific Jail. There are red smoked Personas, that the player might come across that cannot be defeated when first visiting the certain Jail as they are way over powered and can easily one shot the player. To defeat them the player will simply have to proceed and
return back for them when he is at higher level or regrouped stronger Personas. Completing side quests will reward the player with Bond points and better deals in Sophia's store. Last but not least each time the group visits a location in the real world there will always be one side quest from a thief
that can only be complete whilst being in that area. Missing it will only be resolved by replaying the game. (There is a trophy that requires that all side quest have to be completed and this time limited ones are also considered for it to pop)
Art and Music
The art style of the game is as beatiful as its predessesor. The animation and the coloring both are on point. The characters voice acting is very good and entertaining. I could tell the voice actors were excited to return back to these beloved heroes. Actors who got a role in this game for the new cast
aslo do a fascinating job. Similar to the original, the game also consists of plenty of animated and in game graphick cutscenes. The music is still top tier and it combines remix of some of the original iconic Persona5 songs and plenty of originals. Songs like the new Daredevil song or the return of
change of heart and last suprsie remix will always build hype and excitment.
Sum Up
Overall Persona 5 Strikers is a great game and a worthy sequel. The switch from turn base to action base did not ruin the game as many expected to do so. The story, music and animation is fantastick. Every character plays different from each other
and shine through in their own unique ways. Whether the player drives Johana as Makoto, or coming straight out of devil may cry with Yosuke's combo each of them is different. It's definetely different from all the average dynasty warrior games(Toei Kemco Games)
and it definetely knew what to do with the cast and universe of Persona 5. It may not be as long as the original but the magic is captured. As stated a couple of times, The game Does expect the player to know the events or atleast some basic information from the original Persona 5 and NOT Royal
It can still be enjoyed, but there will be some confusion for terms or reference.
