Review for Persona 5 Strikers. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video 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).
If like us you have been waiting with bated breath for the release of the direct sequel to the award-winning Persona 5, you are in the right place. After a long time window in which Strikers remained confined to Japanese soil, is now ready to land in the rest of the world on February 23rd.
We are finally ready to tell you about the return of the Phantom Thieves who, thanks to the partnership with the Omega Force guys, they abandon the JRPG formula to embrace the Musou genre. But is it really a typical Musou that we have in our hands? If you expect to mow down hordes of enemies with no real threat, you are wrong, because Persona 5 Strikers from the gameplay side it is truly amazing, but let's take a step back.
The events of Persona 5 Strikers are set immediately after the events of Persona 5, specifically during a hot Japanese summer. The cast of Phantom Thieves is ready to return to the field in full, ready to steal your heart, leaving out the characters and events of the Royal, which unfortunately have been excluded from the official canon of the narrative.
Two new characters will join the cast of adorable thieves along the course of the adventure: the AI Sophia and the detective Zenkichi. While Sophia follows the narrative archetype of artificial intelligence to discover the secrets of the human heart, the addition of Zenkichi was particularly welcome. An adult character has been able to give a more mature touch to the light-hearted adventures of our protagonists, offering a new point of view on the themes of the story.
Although Persona 5 Strikers is proposed as a real sequel to the P-Studio masterpiece, the narrative arc experienced by the characters does not in any way evolve or deepen the protagonists that we have come to love in its prequel. We will soon be called to embark on an adventure on the road, which will take us to visit the four corners of Japan aboard a camper, infiltrating prisons and defeating the monarchs, who go to trace the palaces and their lords, without adding almost nothing to the formula.
If from the point of view of the protagonists there is no evolution, the villains proposed cannot reach the charisma or the drama of the antagonists of Persona 5. Between fame-hungry idols and cheating writers, we are light years away from the crimes staged by Kamoshida, Madamare or Akechi. All this by proposing a linear and repetitive formula, which will see us cyclically engaged in traveling from one city to another, quickly discovering the monarch and defeating him after sending him the iconic letter of challenge.
We must admit that in the final stages of the narrative, the narrative personality is improving without ever making us cry out to a miracle. The general impression is that of finding ourselves in front of an operation aimed at fan-service, which retraces the most acclaimed leitmotifs of the structure and the Phantom Thieves, without adding anything concrete to the epic and to the personality of Joker and company.
From the artistic side, Persona 5 Strikers can count on the enormous amount and quality of content already seen and reproduced from the original, making it a quality banner. The color palette is always amazing, as well as the soundtrack reconfirms itself at the top of the artistic productions of recent years. The rearrangement of some iconic tracks it is a very pleasant addition to a production of granite and inspired quality.
The biggest surprise of Strikers comes, as we mentioned, from the new incarnation of the gameplay. In most cases we will face a limited number of enemies, with the ability to take the patrol from behind before entering battle, to guarantee us a substantial advantage. The alternation of two attack buttons forms the combo possibilities of the various characters and once a group of four is selected, they will always be interchangeable during the meeting.
Each character sees his moveset well represented, giving a feeling of naturalness in the transition of genre, but above all fun pad in the hand. However, it will not be enough to chain explosive combos and dodge enemy attacks to triumph in battle: the heart of the battle consists in unleashing the powers of our Person in order to exploit the enemy weaknesses.
So the Velvet Room is back, where we can merge our Personas and formulate an active party from our iconic bestiary to fight alongside us. The formula follows in all respects what has already been seen in Persona 5 and Royal, where only the Joker will be able to benefit from the fusions and the summoning of the monsters of Atlus, and then launch during the battle one of the 8 memorable skills.
By pressing the Persona key, we will put the battle in stasis, evaluating the elemental weaknesses of the enemies and calmly choosing which Persona to summon and which ability to use, making Strikers much deeper than we expected. S.strategy, breeding, reflexes and good preparation are excellent supporting actors in a gameplay that surprisingly works wonders, going to define a new standard for the musou genre, which manages to prove that it can be fun, deep and with an excellently balanced difficulty.
Even at normal difficulty, a reasoned approach to clashes is mandatory, especially during the exciting Boss fights proposed. In this circumstance it is essential to chain attacks aimed at the weaknesses of the enemy, going to consume the defensive perks in order to have the opportunity to unleash a lethal assault, going where possible to take advantage of the relay, able to change the active character, guaranteeing the substantial party buffs.
The scenario often features useful interactive elements, which guarantee extra moves, feature unique gimmicks and provide useful movement tools. The combat system shows the side exclusively in the narrowest spaces, where a not-so-optimal room management risks jamming the view in frustrating angles. The power ups are guaranteed through the level up of the characters and the person, where the system of confidants has disappeared, to be replaced by the bond points. The latter can be freely spent on enhance the party at 360 degrees, and obtainable through experience, narrative sequences and by completing secondary missions. The absence of confidants also takes away every romance option present in the previous chapter, canceling in the canon of the series our choices and preferences made in Persona 5, risking alienating us from history.
The secondary missions are proposed under the guise of "requests" that our supporting actors will send us by telephone and will offer for most cases a good dose of backtracking and additional challenges, and then embody the Strikers end game in the last stages of the adventure, giving us more challenging fights in exchange for greedy loot and new Personas. Loot that translates into weapons, armor, accessories and consumables to revitalize HP, SP or remove the ubiquitous debuffs, which reflect the JRPG soul of Persona 5. We also report the presence of a new game + and a new level of difficulty , which are unlocked by killing a particular secret boss. This level of difficulty clearly rewrites the rules of the game and will really require proper attention in every move that is made, as well as a copious farming of incense to strengthen the team and be able to continue the adventure.
Persona 5 Strikers turns out to be unpredictable, disappointing from the narrative side but revealing surprising gameplay. We are facing an absolute new standard for the Musou genre, the guys at Omega Force have shown us that the genre still has a lot to say, revitalizing it and offering something never seen before. Consistent with the needs of the Persona saga, Strikers amuses by proposing a challenging adventure, from the superlative artistic sector, while presenting a narrative model winking to fan service. Are we facing a missed opportunity? Far from it, but the expectations created by its prequel had made us hope for a decidedly more compelling story arc.
► 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).
