Persona 5 Strikers Review

Persona 5 Strikers is an action-packed sequel to the beloved JRPG Persona 5. Taking place half a year after the events of Persona 5, this new chapter brings the teens known as The Phantom Thieves of Hearts together for a reunion as their summer vacation begins.

Naturally, they soon find themselves tossed back into the magical world known as the Meta-Verse and face a brand new mystery, which the player takes on in an all-new, action-oriented way.

Many enemies and lots of combos

The Persona series has been known to try out different gameplay styles for their spin-off games. Strikers takes this opportunity to try out a Musou style, which works spectacularly here. For those who are unfamiliar with Musou games, these could be seen as hack-n-slash beat ’em ups. Your character is dumped into a level with hundreds upon hundreds of enemies, and the character cuts through them like butter. Of course, there is way more to this game’s systems than simple button mashing.

Persona 5 Strikers makes this kind of combat feel very satisfying and powerful. However, the game can be deceptively simple. There were a few times when I got careless while wiping out waves of foes. This naturally resulted in an enemy humbling me without warning.

Persona 5 Strikers does feel fair when it embarrasses you repeatedly. However, I feel like some of my deaths could have been prevented if my AI teammates were a bit smarter. The player always has a choice of four characters that they can switch between freely. That is, when they aren’t already dead or dying. Their life expectancy can be improved with gear, weapons, and skills, but not by much it seems.

Where action meets RPG

Something that I was not expecting from Persona 5 Strikers is the respect that is shown to the original game’s mechanics. Players are able to use a variety of personas in combat by pausing the game momentarily so they can choose which move they would like to use. Setting up elemental attacks on dozens of enemies at once always feels good.

Chaining those persona attacks alongside the melee combos is just endlessly fun. Plus, it feels like it actually belongs within the world of Persona. Needless to say, I am absolutely impressed with how well these two genres have meshed together in Strikers.