You have marked February 23 on the calendar and Are you looking forward to the return of Joker, Morgana and company? You are in the right place, because we at Epic Videogames Guide spent two hours in the company of the Phantom Thieves during a pleasant preview of what this chapter of Persona will be on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 (backwards compatible on PS5) and PC.
We already told you about Persona 5 Strikers in our preview and we are now ready to broadcast our first impressions pad in hand. We don't want to repeat ourselves, but a small point of the situation is a must: the light-hearted group of Phantom Thieves is reuniting for the summer holidays, embodying the direct sequel to Persona 5, therefore not to be misunderstood as a mere spin off.
Yes, the characters and events of Persona 5 Royal are out of the narrative canon, but two new supporting actors are ready to join the ranks of the Phantom, with the style that distinguishes the iconic ATLUS production. We are talking about the AI Sophia and the mysterious Zenkichi Hasegawa, which we will discuss in more detail in the review, once the related evolutionary arc has been explored.
As you surely know, the gameplay winks at the musou genre, which involves cacophonic battles against hordes of low-caliber enemies, to culminate in thunderous final moves with disconcerting destructive potential. For this reason the musou genre in recent years has distinguished itself negatively in the representation of spin-off titles of important sagas, offering banal fanservice and nothing more.
However, our test amazed and pleasantly impressed us. In Persona 5 Strikers the proposed approach is decidedly more reasoned and less button mashing than expected. To triumph in battles it will be essential to make the most of the weaknesses of the enemies, selecting the right Person and using his skills wisely, sipping our "mana", in order not to find ourselves unguarded in time of need.
The battles are certainly not on a large scale as seen in the other musou, but rather they prefer to present themselves in the form of small groups of enemies to be faced with cunning. While exploring the prisons (the new version of the buildings seen in Persona 5) it will be possible to take behind the shadows on patrol, to guarantee our party a powerful preemptive attack that can turn the battle in our favor in seconds.
A nice addition is certainly the possibility of take advantage of environmental interactions, both to ambush patrol shadows, and to unleash us in battle in new chains of attacks, whirling violently around a pole or dropping platforms in mid-air over the heads of enemies. All Phantom Thieves will be usable during battles, swapping control of the active character in real time, but we will have to pre-select four characters to take into battle.
The Phantom Thieves that we were able to use during our test proved to be well differentiated from each other by role and attack pattern, although the syistem combo, which provides for the classic alternation strings between light and heavy attacks, seemed decidedly limited. We trust that we can access deeper options in the advanced stages of the adventure, without expecting anything too vertical. We are certainly not talking about an action game of the caliber of Devil May Cry 5 or Bayonetta, after all.
During the two-hour test, it seemed to us that the fight was largely about the wise use of our Personas. To put a strong emphasis on this aspect, an always available tactical break runs to our aid, able to make us calmly select the active Person (exclusively in the case of Joker) and calmly ponder enemy weaknesses and the most functional attack to use.
Joker will be, as always, the only character who can benefit from the use of all the Personas present and be able to select an active team to bring into battle. We can therefore confirm the return of the Velvet Room in style, iconic place of enhancement and fusion of our monsters, where Lavenza will be ready to welcome us for this new adventure. We can't wait to be able to deepen the features in the review.
The other Phantom Thieves as always they will go into battle alongside their iconic Personas, with the advantages and weaknesses that we have learned to love, and exploit, in person 5. The iconic environments of the first chapter, such as Café Leblanc, Yongen-Jaya and the Shibuya district have been re-proposed on a 1 to 1 scale, giving us a strong feeling of narrative continuity, although the pace of the game is decidedly faster than the predecessor.
However, this faithful reproduction of setting and mood does not go perfectly with the action genre, where the spaces, at first more than suitable for turn-based combat, are often claustrophobic during the frantic action of Persona 5 Strikers. This malaise is definitely accentuated by uA camera that can't keep up with on-screen action, being annoying and often limiting. The possibility of being able to engage an enemy, planned to compensate for the framing difficulties, unfortunately did not manage to hit the mark, alleviating the difficulties only partially.
The Persona 5 Strikers soundtrack is confirmed as sublime, thanks to a new orchestration of iconic pieces like “Last Surprise” and new tracks with an unmistakable artistic taste. The charisma of the production is able to bewitch even the most disillusioned player, seeing is believing. Narratively, the small taste of Persona 5 Strikers' first villian did not, however, captivate us like its predecessor. Where we were called to confront and steal the heart of a teacher guilty of physical and psychological abuse of his pupils, in Persona 5 Strikers we tested the first lines of the narrative arc of an Idol intent on bewitching his fans to increase his popularity.
In a hybrid of action, musou and some strategic elements, Persona 5 Strikers has been able to intrigue and fascinate us thanks to the unmistakable charisma of the Phantom Thieves, a prominent artistic personality and a screaming soundtrack. The gender turn in a direct sequel surprised us and we can't wait to test its depth, anxiously awaiting to be able to consume the finished product and talk about it in the review.
► 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
