Persona 5 Strikers review: the best role-playing saga of the decade returns

Persona 5 became on its own merit one of the best video games of 2019 and surprised (for the better) all lovers of the JRPG genre with its 2020 version: Persona 5 Royal (version that arrived translated into Spanish). Now the Phantom Thieves return in a fascinating real-time role-playing adventure that makes us feel as if we were playing Persona 5. Will you join the Phantom Thieves in Persona 5 Strikers?

One of the surprises of the year

When the announcement of the Persona 5 Strikes video game came out and the first details began to be released, we expected to find ourselves in front of a totally different game than the one we have played. From an Atlus + Koei Tecmo + Omega Force development we could expect a Persona 5 Musou, a game similar to the one that came to us for Nintendo Switch: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Cataclysm. That is, we expected to handle the Phantom Thieves (with Joker at the head) and start dealing "blows" left and right in "closed" scenarios.

However, with Persona 5 Strikers we have had a big surprise. The game puts us in the shoes of the Phantom Thieves just after the events that occurred at the end of Persona 5 (not Persona 5 Royal). We will not tell you more about the story in case you have not played Persona 5 and want to do it before starting Persona 5 Strikers or if you want to play directly to this installment. Although personally we recommend to have previously played Persona 5 to enjoy all the details and references to the story. You can check our review of Persona 5 Royal.

If you were expecting musou combat, you will find real-time action rpg combat that reminds us a lot of Xenoblade Chronicles or even Final Fantasy VII Remake

If something works... why change it?

As soon as we start Persona 5 Strikers we will realize that we are at home. The battles are not turn-based, but they will be very similar to those already experienced in the previous installment. We will be able to move freely around the stage and to enter a battle we will have to hit an enemy (and they may even be the ones who take the initiative to confront us). Therefore, the way to start the battles is exactly the same as Persona 5. The only difference we will find once the battle starts, in which we will be able to move freely around the stage and we will have a soft hit, a hard hit and the firing of our weapon (a single shot or several consecutive shots)

and the People? The Personas, our traveling companions, will still be very present in Persona 5 Strikers and we will still be able to use them in combat. These people are a kind of allies with whom we seal a pact by which they will fight by our side. Like our characters, the Personas will also level up and learn new skills. In combat, when we select our Persona, time will slow down, as if it were a turn-based role-playing game, and we will be able to select which skill to use. There are skills that consume "magic points" and other skills that consume "life points"

We will be able to improve our link with the People and create new ones and merge them together in the palace of Dreams. This palace is similar to a prison and will be where we will go in dreams or through doors in the real world to create new people, merge people or improve the skills of those people

A world full of possibilities

We will also be able to explore Japan and go exploring, improving our weapons and equipment and getting supplies to face the Palaces in the best possible way. In the first installment Joker was sneaking a kind of application on the mobile, and it was the one that allowed us to go jumping between the real world and the one in which our protagonists become the Phantom Thieves. In Persona 5 Strikers we will use an application similar to 'Alexa' to discover how to access those Palaces

The Palaces are the representation of the ego or the darkest desires of some of the "enemies" that we will be facing throughout the story. Once we locate a Palace we will have to perform the following sequence

• Explore the Palace and find out how to enter
• Discover where the "treasure" of our "enemy" is located
• Set a trap in the real world to our "enemy" and make a final raid on the palace to get his treasure and eliminate this dark desire

We will not have to perform all these tasks during the same raid, but we will be able to travel freely between worlds if we find the points that allow us to save and return to the entrance. It will be necessary to keep upgrading our equipment and supplies so as not to die trying. And sometimes the story itself will also require it. It may happen that a section is blocked in the dream world and we have to do something in the real world for that access to be unlocked

The possibilities are endless and the story and its characters remains just as interesting and fun as it was in Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal. With a duration of between 40 and 60 hours, depending on the completists we want to be, we will have Persona 5 Strikers for months. And the best news is that playing Persona 5 Strikers is like playing Persona 5. And for those of us who have completed the first installment, we know that having this spin-off is a real privilege

If you are left wanting more, you can always start the New Game + mode, which will give you access to additional content, equipment and the ability to continue improving Joker, Mona, Anne or one of the new characters of Persona 5 Strikers: Sophie

A visual and sound section that continues to love

The graphics of Persona 5 Strikers are not new generation, but it doesn't need it either. Its artwork is still impeccable and the character designs will make you fall in love. If you played Persona 5 you will notice that all menus and interfaces have been redesigned and that the design of characters and enemies has been improved and has even more care than it had last year with Persona 5 Royal. The animations and how well the game moves are indeed next-gen and we were able to enjoy it on PS5 at a stable 60 fps, with no drops

The soundtrack is simply spectacular. It evokes the nostalgia of those who already played Persona 5 and surprises with new pieces and reinterpretations of pieces already included in the saga. It will probably happen to you that humming the melodies of Persona 5 Strikers will become part of your daily life. The texts are once again completely in Spanish, as was the case with Persona 5 Royal, and it will be possible to select the voices in English or Japanese. The role-playing genre is experiencing a second youth and we are glad that they are still betting on it and that they are still betting on its translation into our language

Final Conclusions

If you played Persona 5 and/or Persona 5 Royal and liked it, don't even think about it. In Persona 5 Strikers you will find more of everything you already liked with small differences in combat and graphics (as well as the inclusion of new characters). If you have not played the previous installments and you like action RPGs do not think too much. You will find a different and innovative proposal. Persona 5 Strikers is a love letter to fans of the saga and a commitment to the genre

Highlights

• More Persona 5 and new characters and combat style
• Characters and their story continue to make us laugh
• An unforgettable soundtrack
• Content for months and months: more than 40 hours long

The Worst

• The side quests are not at the same level as the main ones
• Some dungeons can get repetitive

We have made this analysis thanks to a download code for Playstation 4 provided by Koch Media