Persona 5 Strikers

There’s jiggle physics.
They jiggle JUST enough to be impactful without being over the top.
10/10
Love to see that Joker from Smash Bros finally got his own game!
Ryuji said f**k.
We did it boys, We ended censorship!
There's just a certain feel and style that Persona games have that you just don't find anywhere else. Strikers is amazing, my only regret was not playing it earlier.
A road trip with the gang, what’s not to like? For reference, this game is a sequel to both Vanilla and Royal which is why Royal's own ending resets itself to align with the vanilla ending. In regards to Strikers all the core aspects that were in Persona 5 Royal's story (heavy character investment and distinct core themes) are there and accounted for in Strikers. It's got characters you learn to care about, a story that will move your heart and a soundtrack that is absolute sex to the ears.
The characters have definitely matured from P5. The tone of Strikers is much more lighthearted and comedic, since the Phantom Thieves aren't hated anymore, and Joker in particular is no longer burdened by his criminal record. The new characters are lovable--Sophia in particular. She's super precious, with an adorable design and even cuter voice. Zenkichi is also a fu*king dork. There's also a moment where you word-for-word get to call Futaba adorable, so that's a win in my book. Strikers works really well as a 'more time with the Phantom Thieves' experience. The usage of the summer vacation is really well-done for bond building, all characters who lacked screen time in 5/R (Haru especially) get their due justice in this one, and the new game employs its new characters really well. I'll tell you right away though that the third semester characters are not mentioned at all since the game is a direct sequel to 5 Vanilla, so if that influences you, be aware.
In regards to the gameplay though Strikers is very much it's own beast it mixes a hack and slash formula, with Persona 5's core mechanics to make a very thrilling action RPG to create a fast paced and thrilling experience. However, do NOT go into Strikers thinking it is like a musou, because if you charge into enemies willy-nilly you will get shredded by the games mini-bosses... It requires you to be attentive to all details of what's going on in the screen, which, if it isn't your thing, easy mode is always there for you. Strikers is a game that encourages and rewards you for developing skill and finnesse. I had a hard time on my first run, but nowadays Strikers is the game I replay most often because it's the most fun to speed run. However, it's a game that punishes you for not preparing well from the start, especially when it comes to your inventory, being much less forgiving about it and date limits than 5/R were.
Strikers was such a huge stress reliever too. I didn't have to worry about, confidants, deadlines, social stats, bad endings, maxing out a specific characters confidant before a deadline just to unlock some bonus chapter that had nothing to with the original story and no romance. There's only one objective: beat the game, that's it. Also Sophia & Zenkichi are perfect examples of new characters done right. They got their own game, custom made songs, they're friends with all the Thieves and not just Ren, they actually consider themselves Thieves and you get to keep them for new game+.
I was just so happy to spend more time with the characters. I played the whole game with a smile. I prefer the turn based combat, but I eventually got used to the Strikers combat. The new characters are just as likeable as the old ones. And I enjoyed seeing the gang in new settings. I think any fan of Persona would love Strikers. I also loved how they fleshed out the villains more and made them more sympathetic because they’re meant to be victims of circumstance and societal issues rather than scumbags to be taken down and thrown in jail.
The game definitely feels like a spin off and it's a more streamlined experience given that fact. Over all though, it's a great game. I personally don't think it comes close to P5/P5R on pretty much all fronts, but tbh it doesn't have to. It was great just seeing the characters again, and going on another adventure with them. There are some fantastic moments in this game that you don't want to miss out on. Also, the soundtrack is incredible, but that's to be expected from this series. All that is to say... if you love Persona 5 vanilla or Royal... you're going to love Strikers.
10/10

My Playtime: 81.4h (100% achievement, finished the game)
My First Playthrough: 58.7h
Grindy Achievement(s): Yes (2+ achievements).
Optional Achievement(s): Yes (~35 achievements).
Difficult Achievement(s): No.
Intro
Persona 5 Strikers is a sequel of Persona 5 Royal, a JRPG about a group of teenagers who can use Persona and change people's hearts. This time, instead of relying on the usual turn-based mechanic, Persona 5 Strikers adopts a new one: a hack and slash where you actively control your character and hit the enemies with a lot of the in-game mechanics.
Pros:
- 3+1 difficulties
- A lot of characters and playstyles to try
- Weakness to exploit and make the game not too repetitive
Cons:
- Bosses tend to be too bulky on higher-difficulty
- The camera tends to make it hard to see the enemies
Specs
Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
Should you buy this game?
Yes.
If you enjoy Persona 5 Royal or simply enjoy a hack-and-slash game and don't mind the grind, you can buy it when it's on sale.
In-Depth Review
Visuals
The game uses 3D models that resemble anime characters. They look similar to their 2D portrait counterparts, with a lack of detailed expression. I enjoyed the UI and font choices in the game. They look so stylish and fit the game style well. Moreover, the cinematic cutscenes where the characters are doing the all-out attacks are just so cool—I almost never got bored watching them.
Story
Persona 5 Strikers take the story sometime after the main game finishes, where the characters are meeting again on a summer vacation. You might have already guessed, but things won't go well for them, and they have to go back as Phantom Thieves again to do their business. The story mostly revolves around that premise and the group's journey around Japan. Sadly, there won't be many one-to-one interactions between the main character and the others, but I still enjoyed it since it makes the story simpler.
The Game
Gameplay
The game offers a lot of controls that can be confusing to learn at the beginning. There is a combo attack, which can be triggered by pressing a certain button. You can use skills with another button. Then there is this phantom dash attack where you can use your surroundings to inflict damage on an enemy. You also can press the B button or whatever the game prompts you to do a follow-up attack or an all-out attack, which will deal quite a big damage.
If that's not enough, you can control all characters by switching them, and each character has a different combo set. Luckily, the basic combo is still the same—I don't bother to learn others so I just stick with that one combo the whole game, which works for all.
I originally wanted to play with a keyboard, but the numerous buttons just made me give up. I can't seem to map it to the keyboard and mouse well, especially since the game forced me to press WASD for controls and N+M for combo—it was too far for my small hand to reach.
The auto-lock camera was good, but sometimes it wasn't placed far enough for me to see my surroundings. It's hard to see when the enemies are attacking this way, and I was forced to either deal with it or move out.
Enemies
Enemies have certain weaknesses. In the easier difficulty, this will hardly matter, but in the harder ones, you must strike them with the weakness since their health is too big to deplete without it. And speaking of tanky HP, yes, it'll be a slog on boss fights—it can take minutes to beat an enemy even though you are just doing the same thing over and over without moving from your spot.
Despite relying on the weakness, the game hardly shows the enemies' weakness unless you are in the fight. This becomes an issue in boss fights since you will need to restart the battle after triggering the fight to ensure that you choose the party member who can deal with that weakness to fight with you.
I enjoy the fights. There are a lot of things that you can do, and I like it even more when there are a lot of objects that you can use to attack. This and the other in-game battle mechanics give a lot of cool cinematics. I especially like the showtime feature that you can use when your gauge is full due to how it was presented.
There are hardly any SP recovery mechanics. Even though spells deal a lot of damage, your characters' SP is just too low to spam it. Sure, you can do that once you reach an endgame with the right build, but even then, you'll still need some SP recovery items if you either don't use certain skills or are in a prolonged fight. Note that items that recover your SP in big amounts are almost nonexistent.
Optional Content
A lot of optional content exists, but it feels more like a filler. I often found myself having to reenter the dungeon several times to finish quests, and this can be taxing, especially if a new quest in an area comes after you finish another quest in that same area.
Length and Difficulty
The game has three difficulty levels. I finished it in 54.5h on the easiest difficulty and then spent another 4.2h finishing the rest of the optional content. I then played the game in the merciless difficulty, the hardest difficulty designed for New Game+, to unlock the last, grindy achievement.
The game seems to overstay its welcome. I enjoy playing the game at first, but playing it again in the merciless difficulty just to 100% is just too much. Fights become boring, and enemies become bullet sponges—I only need to stay in one place and spam skills to finish the fight, with the boss not moving since I'm stun-locking them. The long fights and no new content were tiring me out.
Conclusion
Persona 5 Strikers is an okay game. There is a learning curve where you need to learn how to play the game, but it's easy to play once you know what to do. It has a lot of content, and despite the repetitiveness, it was actually fun. However, getting 100% can be a pain, and enemies can be too bulky in the harder difficulty without being actually difficult. With that said, I'd rather recommend buying it when the game is on sale.

I think Persona 5 Strikers is great. It feels like the part of Persona 5 that was missing, hanging out with the homies. One of the things I really enjoyed about Persona 4 was spending time with your friends toward the end of the game, and that’s probably one of the reasons I prefer Persona 4 over Persona 5.
If you liked the cast of Persona 5, you’ll probably enjoy the new characters in Strikers. They’re well written, with terrific voice acting that really brings them to life. Gameplay wise, this is a more linear version of Persona that works surprisingly well. You don’t have to constantly think about time management, which makes it refreshing to turn your brain off here and there, especially if you decide to grind. Combat has shifted from turn based to hack and slash, and it actually feels somewhat original, like a mix of Devil May Cry and Dynasty Warriors. You can still use Personas and items, and you can even play as any Phantom Thief, each with unique move sets and abilities. Personally, I prefer this style of combat over turn based, and the simplified Persona merging system makes things feel smoother too.
That said, the game isn’t perfect. A lot of its flaws come from ideas that don’t feel fully thought out. I just hope that if Atlus makes another Persona game in this style, they refine those areas, because it could make the overall experience much better.
If you were a fan of Persona 5, I highly recommend playing Strikers. It’s definitely worth it and feels like a fulfilling continuation of the Persona 5 story.

the original p5 was all about the metaverse and this game is all about ai assistants
there is a non zero chance mark zuckerburg stole his ideas from persona 5

It is basically Persona meets Dynasty Warriors, the story is very similar to vanilla P5 so don't expect too much, but it is enjoyable. Fun combat on lower difficulties but be prepared for some brutality on higher difficulties. Even normal difficulty you can get destroyed in the first boss. The new characters are cool and the whole "trip around Japan" thing is neat. I don't know if I would necessarily recommend at 60 dollars, but I would recommend it overall.

If I were to grade this based on my music score alone, it would be 100/10. Daredevil is easily my favorite music track introduced in Persona 5 Strikers (I'm listening to it right now as I write this review). In all seriousness, Persona 5 Strikers is a surprisingly good game. Due to its being a sequel and a hack-and-slash musou, I didn’t expect much from it coming in. I just wanted to spend some more time with the Phantom Thieves. Boy, was I floored.
First, the story and character writing in this game are great. This game introduces two new main characters, Zenkichi Hasegawa and Sophia. Both of them have emotionally gripping arcs that fit seamlessly into the overall narrative. By the time I finished the game, both of them won my heart and ended up being some of my favorite characters in the Persona 5 universe. But this game also builds on the characterization of the core Phantom Thieves gang in a natural way that doesn't contradict their personalities from the main Persona5 game. As many others here have said, this game does a good job of giving some more screen time to previously underrated Phantom thieves in the main game like Ann, Yusuke, and Haru. We get to see more of Ann’s compassionate side that she demonstrated in the Kamoshida arc. We also see more of Yusuke’s development in his identity as an artist after the Madarame arc. As for Haru, we get more of her backstory. Overall, I’d give the story and character writing a 7.5/10. The only weaknesses were that some of the villains felt like retreads of the villains in the main story and, as such, didn't feel as compelling.
Secondly, the music score, as I stated above, is amazing. An easy 10/10 for me. They remix a lot of Persona 5 tracks like Last Surprise or Rivers of the Desert and they end up being as good or even better than the original song. The jail themes range from good to amazing. Also, Daredevil (based on Life Will Change) is a treasure.
Thirdly, the gameplay is engaging. Do not go into this game thinking you could play it like a typical musou - using your favorite characters and just mashing your keyboard or controllers and winning. This musou is a Persona game, and the game lets you know it. To beat bosses you have to exploit their weaknesses (bless, curse, wind, nuke, etc.) and dodge as well. Even on Normal, the gameplay is challenging especially in the first jail when you have a lack of resources. You will have to plan which characters to use in the jails, use them on specific bosses, and be conservative about using skills (SP). Hard mode and merciless (unlocked with NG+) require a lot of skill.
The Velvet Room makes its return in Strikers. There are fewer Personas than in the main game, but the core gameplay of collecting personas and fusing them to create stronger personas is the same. Surprisingly, this game isn’t as punishing about you using the starter persona, Arsene, throughout the playthrough. Arsencanto learns skills even past level 90. However, using Arsene does become increasingly difficult throughout the playthrough, as it is difficult to level him and increase his stats. But if you love Arsene and want to use him, it is doable. I used Arsene during the final boss.
The last thing I’ll discuss about the gameplay is that it has less content overall compared to the main games. There are no confidants or social links. There is a calendar system, but it only moves forward by advancing the main story. (This is a benefit because you can go in and out of jail without using any time). Notably, there is also a lack of romance or mentions of it. If you’re a diehard Makoto fan and romanced her in the main story, beware haha.
What this game does offer is more areas to explore outside Tokyo. You travel all across Japan. I had a lot of fun Googling the places we visited in-game and comparing them to the photos of the places in real life. This game also has requests that take place in and out of the jails. Overall, I’d give the gameplay a 7.5/10. While I found the music aspect engaging, it does get repetitive. Also, the lack of content compared to Persona 5 does drag it down a little bit.
In conclusion, Persona 5 Strikers is indeed a worthy sequel. Its music score, characterization, story, and Persona-fied musou gameplay all do its predecessor justice. Even if the game is a sequel of the original Persona5 and not Persona5 Royal, it is still well worth playing if you did Royal. While the game makes no mention of Yoshizawa or Maruki, their absence can be explained away in the story. From one Persona5 fan to another, if you couldn’t get enough of the Phantom Thieves in Persona5 or Royal, you will not regret getting this game as it will exceed your expectations as it did mine.

about this game's difficulties:
easy = normal
normal = hard
hard = f*cking impossible
I'm getting pwned but shit is fun!!