Persona 5 Strikers: More than a Musou

When I played Persona 5, I was enchanted by its eye-popping visual style, phenomenal music, and hokey yet resonant story. When credits rolled after 75 hours, I wanted to spend even more time in that world. But of course, I didn’t. Not only is the game a mammoth time investment, turn-based RPGs just aren’t my primary genre of choice. What I really wanted was for Persona 5’s unmistakable spirit to be transplanted into a comparatively short action game. Shockingly, Koei Tecmo hit that bullseye with Persona 5 Strikers, a faithful yet fresh take on the world of the Phantom Thieves.

Dynasty Warriors gameplay has a bad reputation in some gaming circles. I hadn’t tried one for myself, but I’m not opposed to some good old button-mashing. After all, I can wring a decent amount of enjoyment out of LEGO games. Had Persona 5 Strikers been a simple reskin of the Warriors formula, as they have done before, I wouldn’t be upset. Instead, the game far exceeded my expectations for the amount of care and effort that went into preserving every aspect of the original. This is a legitimate sequel to Persona 5 that just so happens to be an action game.

It’s summer vacation, and our pal Mike Persona is back in Tokyo to meet up with his Phantom Thief buddies. But their relaxing plans are quickly shuttered when a new change of heart epidemic sweeps the nation. The Thieves must redon their masks and infiltrate metaphysical Jails that have warped the desires of the masses. Their investigation takes them on a cross-country road trip through Japan’s most beautiful cities, even as the puppet masters behind the incidents become increasingly sinister. Of course, this is a Persona game, so it’s the distilled essence of the cliché, “the real treasure was the friends we made along the way.” Team bonding and self-discovery is just as important as the machinations of any given evil overlord.

In addition to all your favorites from the 2017 game, two new companions are added to the Phantom Thieves’ circle. First is Sophia, an amnesiac artificial intelligence (say that five times fast) who joins the team in order to learn more about the human heart. Fortunately, this remains metaphorical, so we don’t have any Kingdom Hearts-type nonsense in this storyline. It’s great that everyone is totally on board with Sophia from the jump. The Phantom Thieves are nothing if not supportive of each other, and whenever she has self-doubt, they instantly jump in to boost her back up. Next is Zenkichi, a PubSec officer assigned to the case, specifically to see if the Thieves are responsible. Of course, he doesn’t believe that for a minute, so he forms an uneasy alliance with the team. Interestingly, it’s a new angle for the protagonists to be this open to and trusting of an adult character. The developers could have easily relied on marketable Sophia, but we also have this goateed loser hanging around.

I’m into it because the running storylines for both new characters are very meaty, far beyond the norm for a Musou game. Sophia is a really endearing companion, and the writers make the “robot wants feelings” arc feel fresh and fitting. Zenkichi has an estranged tween daughter who comes in midway through the game. It’s reminiscent of the Nanako storyline, but if she was a few years older and a lot more confrontational. To be sure, the way these narratives climax is overly theatrical in the same way the original game could get. However, the total result of the character work is two allies I would be glad to see return.

Not to be forgotten, the original Phantom Thieves get plenty of screen time and development. This was the first clue that Strikers is more than it seems. I was worried that we would see pared down, flanderized versions of characters from a series where people already have one defining “thing.” There’s a scene where everyone stands in a circle, introducing themselves to Sophia by explaining their “thing.” This, and the amount of “For real?!”s that they give Ryuji, made my fears seem all but confirmed. However, those fears were quickly and strongly abated. The Phantom Thief members jump off the screen with personality. At this point, everyone knows each other well, and they can bounce off each other like real friends. You often have the opportunity to seek out your team members in the overworld, and they’re happy to offer their thoughts on the city or recent events. Each will give you a side quest at some point with a personal goal for the road trip, which means everyone gets time in the spotlight. The amount of voice-acted dialogue is seemingly endless – not just in story scenes, but for every conceivable situation in combat. What’s more, the voice actors are having the time of their life stepping back into their roles. They interject a lot of flair into the lines and sell the youthful energy of their characters completely. Thanks to the strength of their interactions, the Phantom Thieves feel more like a cohesive group than even in the original, where I thought the swelling roster crowded some members out.

But the smartest thing the story does with the Thieves is single them out for dungeons. This is standard practice for the series, where each dungeon has a new guy join the party. In Strikers, we start with everyone plus Sophia. However, each boss character has some sort of kinship with a specific member of the Phantom Thieves. The teammate recognizes similarities in their “things,” see how their own path could up, and become extra invested in changing their enemies’ hearts. Most of the bosses have no direct connection to the Thieves, so this is an inspired move that bolsters both the team and the enemy. They also make more of an effort to give them tragic backstories to justify their behavior. At first, this makes narrative sense, but it loses its effectiveness when the villains become more and more evil.

There’s a reason I’ve put down over 1,000 words without even touching on the gameplay. In the early hours of the game, in the midst of a cutscene session, I realized that I had forgotten this was a Musou game. The narrative and presentation thereof are so lengthy and so faithful to the original Persona 5 that I have no qualms about labeling this a proper sequel. I was planning to do an exposé here about whether writers were shared between the projects, but I didn’t catch those names in the credits and they aren’t listed on MobyGames. But believe me, they’re on the same level. The work done here totally met my need to spend more time in this world and cemented Ryuji as my canonical favorite Phantom Thief.

The gameplay style, while theoretically opposed to an RPG system, also carries over much from the original game. As I said, Strikers is not exactly a reskin of Dynasty Warriors in every way. For starters, you are not fighting over territory with thousands of enemies on a giant battlefield. Instead, enemy encounters are very similar to Persona 5. You will see Shadows roaming the environment. They will attack if they see the party, or the party can sneak up on them for an ambush. Once combat initiates, the Shadow will multiply into anywhere from three to a couple dozen enemies to fight. It’s essentially the same as most RPGs; you’re just fighting more enemies on average at a time. There are battles where hundreds or more foes descend on you, but those are scripted story fights.

The nuts and bolts of battle is admittedly pretty simple. If you are familiar with the genre, you’ll know the two-button combat which lends itself to a lot of button-mashing. You can switch to your current party members at almost any time, and they technically have different attributes and combos. In practice, I was never compelled to actually put in the time and learn them because mashing will get you most of the way there. The game opens up after the tutorial by dropping eight playable characters in your lap, which can be somewhat overwhelming. It’s another example of how this game is really for fans of Persona 5 – newcomers would probably have a harder time learning the ins and outs of what each Thief can do. But if you remember their abilities from that game, you will be in very familiar territory.

Like in the main Persona series, elemental combat is the name of the game. Each party member has an affiliated element to their Persona, and Joker can hold them all because he’s a Pokémon Master. Just like the party, enemies have strengths and weaknesses that can be exploited. Knock them down and you can perform the flashy all-out attack that has become one of Persona 5’s most iconic images. You’ll especially want to be heeding this for bigger enemies and bosses, where button-mashing is less effective. One criticism that goes with this system is that you won’t really know a boss’s weakness the first time you fight them, so you have limited knowledge with which to prepare. Bringing certain party members instead of others can make or break a fight. To further emphasize the similarities to the original game, your teammates learn the exact same spells when they level up. When choosing a Persona spell, the game will freeze, so some of that turn-based rhythm is preserved in this combat system.

This is all to say that despite the genre change, combat will be intensely familiar to those coming from the RPG. That’s not the only returning system, either: Persona fusion is back and nearly the same as before. Joker can collect and equip a slew of Personas to cover the bases and make sure he’s prepared for whatever surprises await. An entire pillar of the series is transferred almost verbatim and feels totally natural in this game. For that reason, I don’t feel compelled to explain it in depth, but I will say that I was far more engaged with it in this game for whatever reason. I barely touched it in Persona 5. The cast of demons are all familiar faces, too. Admittedly, I don’t have much knowledge of the greater Megami Tensei history, but it feels like these guys have been around forever.

When not fighting, you will be traversing the Jails in the same manner as Persona 5’s Palaces. They are mostly linear dungeons, albeit with more open areas than before. They follow similar rhythms of taking out progressive obstacles in the way of the bad guy’s lair. Here, something else is carried over from Persona 5, but it’s not something I like. Whenever the team runs into an obstacle, three or four people have to comment on it, then they suggest a solution, and there’s a too-long camera pan to where you need to go. This slows the momentum and it’s overly handholding to the point where the sense of exploration is gone. There are even points where the Phantom Thieves say they need to explore to find the correct path, but an objective marker will always be on screen right where you need to go. The solutions are never so obtuse that you couldn’t just find it yourself, which would make dungeons a little more rewarding outside of combat.

Visually, the Jails are hit-and-miss. Each represents a city, so the majority overlay whatever theme on top of a city environment. The color palette of the Metaverse is already drab, and most of the level design doesn’t exactly capture the imagination. Because this is still a Musou game, every area must be wide enough to fit a bunch of enemies. As a result, there are fewer fun setpieces than the original game by far. Some of the dungeons are more exciting than others, especially one towards the end, but I wish they were more consistent.

To get the most out of Strikers, you will be heading back into these dungeons quite often. This is not only to grind if you want to, but to take on the many side quests alluded to earlier. I must say that these won’t blow your mind – defeat X of Y, find this item, reach point Z – but I still completed the majority of them because they are usually quick and breezy. As you play more, you earn Bond experience, a separate thing to level up. This gives you points you can spend on a skill sheet for passive bonuses. Some of these are objectively more useful, so be sure to prioritize those for your playthrough. It’s a fair attempt at retaining that social aspect of Persona, but I do miss more one-on-one time with each character. I know that wouldn’t have much place in this kind of game, so I’ll be grateful for the mammoth amount of writing that’s already here.

Persona 5’s major hooks, as I said, are its art and music, both of which are diligently retained. Especially the art – I mean, they’re using the same PNG files and everything. The style is just as flashy as the original (and the menu attempts to one-up even that). It is the glue that holds everything together and connects this game so closely with its progenitor. I also enjoy the soundtrack. It was done by Atlus, so it’s similar stylistically. There aren’t as many new tracks that will stick in your head long-term, but it’s all enjoyable with some hype remixes of favorite tunes.

Persona 5 Strikers ends saying that we’ll all be back for the next adventure, and I hope that comes true before too long. Every inch of the game is filled with reverence for the source, resulting in a game that fits right in while its gameplay sets it apart. I’m very happy that this turned out so well, and fans who were turned off because of the Musou reputation should absolutely give it a shot anyway. This is a sequel merely disguised as a spin-off. Whatever does come next, I hope it’s just as surprising and exciting. Next stop, Persona 5 Arena?