Despite a rather explicit leak confirmed it, ATLUS has recently officially announced the arrival of the awaited western version of Persona 5 Strikers known domestically as Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers ,. The title in Japan was released last February 20 of this 2020, while we will arrive exactly one year later, or February 23, 2021 on PlayStation 4 (and consequently also PlayStation 5), Nintendo Switch and, surprisingly, PC (through Steam). Fans have long been asking for information about this release because considering the success of Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal, or its content-enriched re-release, many people couldn't wait to get their hands on what on balance is the sequel to the game. It was never a coincidence that in the first announcement trailer, the title of the name was an alteration of Persona 5 - 2 to Persona 5 - S.
In order to avoid misunderstandings, however, let's specify it immediately: Persona 5 Strikers is the official sequel to Persona 5 and therefore, will not take any account of the events that occurred in Royal. This is partly a shame as characters like Kasumi and the events of the Royal finale will definitely not be considered, but other than that, be prepared to get back on track with the Phantom Thieves.
After playing the Japanese demo and seeing a closed-door virtual presentation of the game, we want to give you an important preview of what you can expect from this Persona 5 Strikers. Let's start from the narrative premises then: Strikers is set 6 months after the events of Persona 5 and sees the Phantom Thieves reunite to spend the summer holidays together on a tour of Japan. Unfortunately, however, some vicissitudes will lead them to face the metaverse again thanks to a new special app called EMMA, with the difference that instead of the Palaces there will be Prisons, a new type of subconscious of those who are "imprisoned" in their indoor.
For the uninitiated, the great difference of Persona 5 Strikers from the previous Persona 5 lies mainly in the gameplay, which now focuses on Musou, that subgenre of hack and slash that plans to fight against hordes of hundreds of enemies typical of the renowned series such as Dynasty Warriors. Although this at first may make you turn up your nose, given that it is a genre not particularly appreciated in the West, we would like to reassure you about the quality of the title and the ability of the development team to have found the perfect compromise between the mechanics that made Persona special. and those belonging to the genus Musou.
Although the combat system focuses on the action component in which our heroes will have to wield weapons against crowded groups of Shadows, it will be essential to take into account the weaknesses of the enemies to bestow considerable damage on the enemies, especially to the bigger ones like Boss and Mini Boss. It will therefore be important to analyze the opponents and stun them with the attacks to which they are weak, and then defeat them all at once with the classic All Out Attack, which returns here in style.
To weaken the enemies, our Phantom Thieves will obviously have to resort to the abilities and magic of their Person or their weapons, whether they are white or fired. A peculiarity of the use of skills or spells is that these will pause the game tactically, giving a very slight and apparent feel of turn-based combat when used. Obviously, needless to say, Joker will be the only one of the Phantom Thieves to be able to summon different Personas and, therefore, access new and unique abilities. Joker will acquire Personas simply by defeating them, and then obtain new ones by merging them in the Velvet Room.
The party will consist of four characters at a time, all interchangeable in real time by pressing the arrow keys. There will be a total of 10 playable characters, the 8 Phantom Thieves that we have come to know, plus two new entries of which we will not reveal anything to avoid spoilers, although they are both evident and revealed in the various trailers released.
There will no longer be the confidant system to evolve s with each of them, but there are still dialogues and unique activities for each member of the Phantom Thieves, some of these will then go on to enhance the BAND system, which will improve the effectiveness of group combat.
In terms of level design, prisons are not so different from the buildings we have faced in the past and, indeed, they are even more interesting due to the incredible variety and breadth of the areas to be addressed. Not only do the layers extend both horizontally and vertically, but they also often offer an interesting 2D perspective.
Exploration and advancement often require painstaking attention, especially if you want to get all the treasures or, above all, if you want to go unnoticed by attacking enemies by surprise. Even here the enemies can in fact be caught unprepared with a preventive attack that will temporarily paralyze them and allow them to be eliminated in a few hits. On the contrary, if you are seen, the alarm will sound and the indicator will rise, risking to activate barriers that will prevent certain treasures from being obtained.
As previously mentioned during the narrative premise, Persona 5 Strikers will explore different locations in Japan, so you will not be confined to the already known Tokyo, but you can also visit Sendai, Sapporo, Fukuoka and Okinawa, alternating moments in prisons with those of daily life.
Let's be clear, there will not be a calendar to follow and a time to manage, all the secondary activities of Persona 5 Strikers can be done easily by leaving the prisons from time to time.
To close, a prayer: do not let yourselves be led astray by his Musou nature, we tell you with the heart. Omega Force and ATLUS have worked wisely to merge the two worlds and achieve an exceptional chimera. Certainly it lacks the depth and complexity of the original system, but at least we can guarantee that it will not be a trivial action game where you can spam random keys to win. In normal mode, in the most advanced stages of the game, there will be a commitment without ever underestimating every single enemy.
Persona 5 Strikers will steal your heart just as Persona 5 did before.
► Persona 5 Strikers is a scrolling RPG-fighting game developed by Omega Force and published by ATLUS for PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the game was released on 20/02/2020 The version for PC is scheduled for the 23/02/2021(in 5 days). The version for Nintendo Switch is scheduled for the 23/02/2021(in 5 days). The version for PlayStation 4 is scheduled for the 23/02/2021(in 5 days).
Persona 5 Strikers is a beautiful game that cannot be missing from your collection: we have decided to evaluate it with a 83%, if you are interested in learning more you can read the Persona 5 Strikers review
