Persona 5 Strikers
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Strike Back! Join the Phantom Thieves and strike back against the corruption overtaking cities across Japan. A summer vacation with close friends takes a sudden turn as a distorted reality emerges; reveal the truth and redeem the hearts of those imprisoned at the center of the crisis! Jump into the stylish world of Persona in an all-new story Dynamically control your team during explosive action combat Battle across Japan in an epic road trip
Steam User 72
***READ THIS IF YOU ARE IN THE SAME POSITION I WAS WHEN BUYING THIS GAME***
^ that being very skeptical but needing a definitive answer
TL;DR: You need to play this game if you played Persona 5/Persona 5 Royal.
I want to start this review off by stating that Persona 5 and Royal had and still have me in a choke hold. There is not a day that goes by that I do not think of P5, and if I do, it is because I do not have the cognitive function to even know where I am. Because of this, I was extremely skeptical of this game. Sequels, as many know, tend to drop the ball and have it shatter into thousands of tiny pieces for things like this. Not all the time, but a definite handful of times. This game is weird with how it handles that ball. Characters and story? Spit-shined at every moment so when you take a look at it, there is always a cartoonish sparkle to it. Gameplay? It has some scratches that seem a bit too deep to buff out.
If you are like me, then you can understand a game's value by it's price tag. Ignoring gems that should cost more, or ones that should be less than they are worth, quality and price still have a slight tendency to go hand in hand. For what I am about to say, put yourself in the mind of yourself when you are 10 years old, you go to the game store to buy a game, and box art and price is all you have to go off of.
This game should be worth $40. I know that is so much words for such a weird way to put this, but for the people who understand what I am saying, will have a brainblast when buying this game and understanding exactly, TO A T, what I mean.
So, enough of this useless obscure gaming blog rambling, here are my thoughts straight up ***NO SPOILERS***
***IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE PLAYING***
Time does NOT progress unless the story says so. You can leave and re-enter jails (this game's palaces, theres a good reason for the name change) at any time. Hanging out with friends also takes up no in game time.
You have all the time in the world to finish requests up until the VERY end of the game. Even then, when you finish the game and save, you have a post-clear game that is not new game +, but you have to playthrough to get NG+. It sends you back riiiiight before the last fight with some new requests
Persona fusion is WHACK. Don't expect what you get from Persona 5.
There is NO EXP SHARE. You gotta have each character in your party if you want them to level up.
There are no confidants/social links in this game. It's replaced with a BOND meter that fills up over time in the story, by cooking food, hanging out with friends, and fighting. its not at all, and the way its used is honestly awesome
***THE BAD, AND ANNOYING***
To start with the bad, this game's gameplay loop is repetitive most of the time. It is enough to cause it to genuinely becoming grating over time. A bell curve is pretty much the best way for me to explain how this game feels to play. Of course, this is the nature of hack and slash games, but still. It does a lot very well with the hand it is given, though it can get annoying at times.
Character balance is a mess. You will primarily have the same-ish team for most of the game, because the other characters are just mediocre at best. Imagine 3 teammates as Persona 5 Royal makoto, the rest as Persona 5 Royal's Morgana. 3 teammates are literally busted. you will feel it, the most busted one is one that i can only describe as legitimately, no DLC end game persona 5 royal Joker. genuinely insane skills + heat riser + debilitate + enduring soul + a collection of damaging skills that is BONKERS and genuinely should not be on one character. Theyre a character that is what feels like end game P5R akechi should have been.
The fusion system is bad. Some personas you need to level up other personas to ABSURD levels in order to fuse them. King Frost is one of them, requiring a level 40 Pyro Jack and Level 40 Jack Frost (both of which are no where close to that level) in order to fuse. I'm too lazy to go back and reword this whole part of the review to add in how the fusion system works. But its just you choosing from a list, not you choosing a persona and which to fuse it with. Its gross.
There are plenty more bad things in this game to be aware of, but it is 12:48 am on a school night, I have a show in the morning and frankly, i just want to explain what makes me happy about this game.
***THE GOOD, THE GREAT, AND THE FANTASTIC***
If you skipped to this part of the review, then hell yeah. i gotchu, i know what you want and ill give you it.
When I tell you how this game handles characters is phenomenal, i mean it. if you can believe it, the characters in this game have so much more personality than Persona 5. It feels like a real group of friends. By repeated mentions of in-jokes that dont just feel like "haha look fans! remember this funny reference! love us for the fact that we are faithful to the source material!". And additions of new on-going bits and jokes, this game genuinely is what Persona 5 fans needed for the continuation of this story. The voice acting is SO good (for the old cast, im not a fan of 2 of the new characters' voices until the very end of the game). While on the topic of this, I would love to bring up the fact that while the persona 5 anime is not great, the voice acting is terrific. ESPECIALLY Ryuji. The delivery of jokes could not have been better and were done perfectly every single time. You could feel the raw energy and power in the scenes you needed to feel that.
The best way I can describe this game's characters is like it feels as though is it just one really damn big improv session with the voice actors. To the people who get what I am saying and know how real those feel: yeah. I know what I am saying and I am telling you it feels just like that. There has never been a game that has caused me to laugh out loud by the jokes. There has never been a game where I scream at my screen for a character to do something, and they do it, and have me flip out. There has never been a game that could get me to genuinely feel something even with the most cheesy of lines. This game is phenomenal in all of those regards, and my mom could probably testify that this is the only game ive ever played that has had me this excited and vocal.
Now shifting down a gear to say something that I like but not as much, the story is good! its really enjoyable, and the game is predictable enough for you to know where it'll go soon, but just a bit unpredictable to have you still be excited and have a lot of fun and have you being like "wait what?!?!" in so many places. Its the prefect blend of predictability that causes you to feel smart for piecing things together while also not feeling like when you do so you are an adult destroying the questions in Dora the Explorer.
What I like about this game is that since Morgana is now new to this to, you actually get to theorize WITH the characters, instead of having a question that you have IMMEDIATELY answered. There is another exposition mule in this game though, like how Morgana was in Persona 5, but it is not nearly the same. They come in just when you need it or whenever you need something to push you to getting more clues.
Didnt know there was a character limit to steam reviews, so lets rap it up.
(one quick thing before TL;DR 2, the music isnt as good as persona 5. its generic action game music with a hint of persona 5)
TL;DR 2: This game is a love letter to Persona 5. This game also gets annoying to play, then it gets bearable, then enjoyable. It is worth the frustration and annoyance. Buy this game only when its on sale, however. anything above $40 is too much for this game.
Thank you so much for reading this review. I have comments on, and Im more than happy to answer any questions. I hope that this review can help at least ONE person who is on the fence about buying this game. Thats all i care about.
Take care everyone :)
Steam User 81
i want to crush yusuke into a ball and dribble him around
Steam User 118
ryuji still has bad posture
Steam User 70
"Maybe if Persona continues to sell well on Steam Atlus will port more SMT games to PC" <-- Me, a Fool
Steam User 72
I am still in love with Sadayo Kawakami
Steam User 50
Steam Deck support when? :(
Steam User 58
Its like Makoto doesn't remember we were a couple :( (good game anyways)