#PERSONA 5 STRIKERS REVIEW FULL#
#PERSONA 5 STRIKERS REVIEW PC#

Granted, thatвЂ™s true of most sequels, but given Strikers isnвЂ™t being outwardly framed as such a direct follow up (and Persona 5 still isnвЂ™t available on PC or Switch like Strikers is), it feels particularly notable here. So while I enjoyed that Strikers treats its story as a genuine sequel and didnвЂ™t waste time telling me what I already knew, I couldnвЂ™t shake the feeling that anyone who hasnвЂ™t played Persona 5 will probably not have nearly the same emotional connection to its characters and events. I greatly prefer having the whole gang together right away, rather than there being some arbitrary reason why you have to gather them all over again, but there certainly seems to be the assumption that you will already know the general strengths, weaknesses, and specialties of each one.

#PERSONA 5 STRIKERS REVIEW FULL#

ThereвЂ™s also the fact that you start with a full JRPG party of eight playable characters pretty much from square one.

You could probably still enjoy the overarching story of Strikers without that context, but donвЂ™t expect to understand things like why there's a talking cat insists heвЂ™s not a cat and can also turn into a bus. That stretches from mentions of small character moments that occurred in Persona 5 all the way to its climactic finale. The characters are all sharp and entertaining on their own here вЂ“ including a couple of excellent new additions to the cast, who even managed to handily outshine RoyalвЂ™s new characters by the end вЂ“ but their backstories and the events they went through in the original game are referenced far more often than they are explained. That said, no matter how much developer Atlus tries to frame Strikers as an accessible game for newcomers to the series, I really canвЂ™t imagine playing it without having beaten (or at least having played a significant amount) of Persona 5 beforehand.

It was easy to forget I wasnвЂ™t just playing more Persona 5 when I wasnвЂ™t in real-time combat. It was a thrill to slip so seamlessly back into this world, and Strikers maintains everything from Persona 5вЂ™s wild, stylistic flair through all its menus and UI to the almost visual novel presentation of its dialogue (with the same excellent English voice cast returning) to the downright incredible soundtrack, this time full of excellent high energy remixes alongside entirely new tracks. It retreads some of the same ground as the first game in a way that generally feels cleverly referential rather than derivative, justifying itself as a different adventure while tying into the previous one (and even pushing back on some of its assumptions) enough to feel like a proper sequel вЂ“ at least story-wise.Д¬onsidering all thatвЂ™s different, itвЂ™s truly remarkable how much Strikers still feels like Persona 5, and rejoining the Phantom Thieves as someone who has beaten the original and earned the platinum PlayStation trophy for its expanded Royal edition genuinely felt like coming home. ItвЂ™s a fun twist on the previous structure, and the overarching story is a genuinely great one.

It feels familiar in that you still call on personas to cast spells, exploit the elemental weaknesses of your enemies, and explore elaborate, otherworldly dungeons, but the JRPG fundamentals of the original have been replaced, and many of the elaborate systems around it вЂ“ like PersonaвЂ™s iconic calendar system вЂ“ are slimmed down significantly.ДЄnother shift is the time scale: instead of going day-by-day over the course of a year, Strikers is condensed into a single summer vacation road trip that takes the Phantom Thieves all across Japan. Persona 5 Strikers rejoins the lovable gang of misfits that make up the Phantom Thieves just a few months after the end of Persona 5 (awkwardly pretending Royal never happened), swapping its signature turn-based combat for combo-driven hacking and slashing.

Persona 5 strikers review