It's an alright game, I didn't enjoy the original P5 that much but I certainly loved P5R, I can't say the same thing to this entry.

The story is just ok, the new characters, specially Sophie are really good, but the main plot is just very predictable and not too engaging.

The combat is also pretty lackluster, it can get fun at some points but specially the bosses can be health tanks and it is on these situations that you can notice the flaws in the gameplay, because it can get really repetitive.

Overall it's an okay game with an okay story and an okay gameplay, but I definitely did not enjoy it as much as either the original P5 or specially P5R

This game was weird for me.
I played the Royal version of P5 so going into this I didn't think they just redo the third semester but worse.

The story in this was nowhere near as engaging as P5 or P5R's stories were, but besides the story pretty much everything else is fantastic.
All the characters are back and they're just as good in this game too. The villains are now more sympathetic in a good way, the games not trying to make you sympathize with an asshole like Kamoshida, the villains are all people with damage who never got over their pain, you understand why they do the thing they do, but you still need to kick their ass.

The combat OH MY GOD it's fun as fuck.
You take the fluidity of a KH game and mix it with the Ui and turn base of P5, and then stir it all together and give it the Musou feeling, and that's the combat, and it's so fucking good.
It never got repetitive to me, and it never got too easy unlike some parts in P5R.

Overall this is the best Persona Spin-off game, while I would have liked a better story I'm still pleased with what I got, and I'm just happy to see these characters back again for one more story.

Easily by a landslide the best musou game since it actually has level design and so much gameplay variety that it barely feels like a musou game (thank god) so i'd recommend even musou detractors like me to play it!

Outside of that the music and art style are still as great as p5, the new characters especially zenkichi are great and the game is just so fun and addicting and i never thought I'd say that about a warriors game ever. The only things I didn't like were a few dumb tropes like the exact same bathhouse misunderstanding scene from p3 & p4 and the story having some predictable elements but those are fairly minor so all in all i genuiely loved this game way more than I thought I was going to.

Persona 5 Strikers certainly is a worthy successor to Atlus' 2017/2020 masterpiece.

The Phantom Thieves' sequel story was a joy the whole way through, and I'm incredibly happy to have been apart of it. The writing is on par with the original and Royal, and while this game is more of a "fan service-y" type deal, Atlus made sure to not forget about what made Persona 5 great in the first place, creating a fun road trip adventure that didn't need to be told, but I'm glad it was. Seeing the thieves older and wiser while also keeping their charm and traits from the original made me smile, and allowed me to truly see just how much these characters have grown.

The Musou style combat mixed in with Persona turn-based elements came together perfectly, and while the camera can be a bit weird sometimes, the combat always remained fluid and fun and never got boring even until the very end of the game. Persona fusion also makes a return, and while I have my quarrels with the new PP system, Persona Fusion is still crazy fun to do, allowing the player to create some incredibly OP Persona's that just shred enemies to a fine shadowy paste.

I became a huge Persona fan after playing Royal back in August. I never really was a JRPG guy, but for some reason, Persona 5 always piqued my interest, and when I finally played it I fell in love. The Phantom Thieves are probably my favorite cast of video game characters period, and after 6 months of playing through the entire franchise, I was incredibly happy to be with the thieves on another adventure. I just hope this isn't their last.

update two years later: i ripped into this game for no reason it was a lot of fun and the vibes were immaculate and i still find myself humming the soundtrack to this day

Persona 5 Strikers feels like a dumbed-down retrace of Persona 5 Royal in the body of a musou game. The story here is very formulaic, which may already ring bells for P5 players. The Phantom Thieves go on a road trip changing hearts of shitty adults that control the desires of the masses using an artificial intelligence called EMMA. It sounds different enough, but the premise is essentially the same as the original game. The slight bit of nuance added is that the villains are eventually portrayed as good people who went through traumatic events that made them the evil mind-controlling monarchs we see. Each of the first three villains sees one of the Phantom Thieves resonate with them and lift them back on their feet after they have been defeated, and the desires of the public have been freed. Except for the first one, the villains do not get enough screen time as they should (ringing any bells?). My 22-hour playthrough would have greatly benefited from an extra five hours to flesh out the earlier story arcs. The final third of the game retreads the same themes as the new P5R story, almost to a comical extent. Atlus were heavily involved in the development of this game, so it was impossible for them to be unaware of the similarities. There must have been no communication between the Royal and Strikers teams. The theme of utopianism is what is shared here, and the villains end up feeling too similar. The Phantom Thieves even repeat their same “we should be able to pave our own path” and “suffering can be good too” shtick. I came out of this game feeling like I had just played P5R but it’s a road trip this time.

Despite my gripes about the story, there is still stuff to like here. The previously mentioned road trip across seven Japanese cities is blissful. Each location is small and restricted, but they have their own aesthetics, music and, atmosphere that captures the feeling of a road trip excellently. The new characters are decent, Sophie is an artificial intelligence amnesiac who lives in the protagonist’s phone and becomes a vital member of the Phantom Thieves. Much of her story about learning about humanity is shallow, but enjoyable nonetheless, and her conclusion in the closing acts of the game is rewardingly satisfying. Zenkichi is the other new character, a Public Security officer who strikes a deal with the Phantom Thieves. His chemistry with the group is charming, but his own story arc suffers from show, don’t tell. His story does have a conclusion, but since most of it was behind the scenes, there is no real feeling of gratification to come from it. The music here is outstanding, showcasing what Atlus’ composers can do without Shoji Meguro. The presentation is stellar too, emulating the original P5 experience with flair and style, but maintaining its own personality.

P5S swaps out the traditional turn-based combat from the main series for a musou-style combat system. Although the combat itself will be familiar for Warriors players, the tower defence and management systems are absent. This is a plus for me, as that part of the few Warriors games I’ve played never grabbed me. Instead of that, the combat takes place in “Jails” which are metaverse versions of the various cities you visit, each themed after the villain ruling it. There are eight of these in total, but half of them are much shorter than the other half. The smaller ones lack the scale and formula of the larger ones, making them feel half-baked. The combat itself is enjoyable and surprisingly challenging at times. You'll find it hard to mash your way through, as the strengths and weaknesses from the main series are applied here too meaning you'll be forced to think about how to tackle every encounter. You make use of your Persona's abilities intuitively during battle, so the flow of combat is never broken. All-out attacks and 1 more are present too, as well as a new showtime move that charges up as you use a character. Phantom Dashes are new contextual moves that make use of the environment, like dropping a chandelier or swinging around a lamppost, and they make for a cute addition to your options. Each character feels varied with their own gimmick and playstyle, making all of them viable options and you're able to switch between four of them on the fly with the protagonist being a mainstay in the party. All of this is used in conjunction to make the combat exciting as you string combos together using all the mechanics.

Overall, Persona 5 Strikers is a decent spin-off that takes too much from its original game. There is still a lot to enjoy here, and big P5 fans will undoubtedly love it, so give it a shot if you were on the fence. The music and presentation are fantastic, and the new characters are likeable, but the repeat of the same story I've grown to dislike is frustrating and lazy.

As someone who considers Persona 5 Royal to be my absolute favorite game of all time, it was an understatement to say that I was excited for Strikers. So, did it live up to the expectations I had? Well, yes... and no.

Strikers is interesting. After the success of P4, Atlus took it upon themselves to make multiple spin-offs and adaptations based on the game. And, with the even larger success of P5, it was no surprise when they eventually announced Strikers. In comparison to other Persona spin-offs, though, this is probably the most ambitious. To the point that, in some ways, Strikers blurs the line between spin-off and mainline.

To start off with, this game feels like a true and proper sequel to the original P5. Whereas other spin-off's typically distance themselves and go really different directions, Strikers feels like just... more of what we got in the original game.

Gameplay:

For the first time ever, Strikers brings real-time action gameplay to the franchise. The game is a "musou". A subgenre, pioneered by Omega Force, the developers of the game. If you've played any of the Warriors games, then you can kind of know what to expect when it comes to Strikers' gameplay.

That being said, Omega Force put a lot of love and care into keeping the identity of Persona 5 alive in almost every aspect of the combat. On the surface, you have your basic button mash melee combat which varies from every character. Joker is quick and agile with his dagger. Whereas a character like Ryuji is more slow and tanky, but delivering more devastating attacks. Beyond that, you also have stuff like your gun, baton passes, showtimes, environmental attacks, and all-out attacks.

But the actual Persona part of the combat is where a lot of the strategy and fun comes into play. As Joker, you can still retain multiple personas at once, each with their movesets, strengths, affinities, etc. Offensive persona combat is now like AOE attacks that allow you to stop the flow of battle and attack a large group of enemies at the cost of SP or HP depending on the move. It's a whole lot of fun! And it always feels satisfying when you get more OP personas later on that can absolutely mow down a large group of enemies within seconds!

That being said, not every aspect of the main gameplay is that great. Especially the first arc of the game that took me around 8 hours or so to beat. This part is unfairly difficult at times, as the game locks you away from a lot of helpful mechanics like cooking and helpful items, like revive and SP items, until only AFTER you beat the first palace. That means that you will have to go through the first palace trying to conserve as much SP as possible while also trying to keep your entire party alive during the first boss. It's honestly kind of the hardest part of the game. And that's only because the game forces you to work with very little. It's not the "good" kind of hard either. If you weren't super into P5, that first arc can make the game seem janky and just not fun. Enough that it could easily cause you to want to put it down and never pick it back up.

Another negative is just the overall presentation and traversal of each Jail, the dungeons in this game. They are forgettable in presentation and design. None of them are anywhere near as interesting as the stuff seen in P5. It doesn't help, either, that the process of completing each Jail feels very formulaic. You go in, do the same objectives that you did in the last, have the same kind of dialogue, fight mini boss while doing objectives. It's all very "rinse and repeat". And, after a while, it starts to get rather exhausting. Because as fun as the combat can be, it does eventually start to get rather stale during the final act. There's a couple of Jails that are shorter in length and go for some different approaches, but they're still forgettable.

When it comes to side content, and stuff to do outside of the Jails well... don't get too excited. Because it's pretty shallow. You'll be able to walk around the different areas of Japan and talk with your party members, buy items from stores, etc. But that's about it. It's more or less just a tool to drive the plot forward, or so you can prep before you jump into the Jail you're currently traversing. Don't expect a ton of content to do outside the combat part of the game.

Besides that, you still have other things like the Velvet Room, where you can go and upgrade your arsenal of persona. Or fuse new, more powerful ones. Understandably, though, the Velvet Room is a lot more shallow and streamlined than the original P5. You can also do various sidequests in the game, identified as "requests". They're really boring and flat, though. However, they all have their worthwhile rewards that give enough incentive to complete them when you have some free time in the game. I had no desire to do all of them. I simply did the ones where the reward seemed worthwhile for me.

Story:

In some ways, surprisingly, Strikers has some stronger moments of writing than it's predecessor. Typically, these spin-offs have weak stories and bad writing. And while I wouldn't say Persona 5 is "great writing", it still feels like it is an actual competent story thought out by the developers. Much moreso than other Persona spin-off games. I'll spare you much of the details and premise of the story, as I feel it's best to just play it and see for yourself.

That being said, there was a decent amount that I actually liked about the story of Strikers. First off, the characters. When it comes to the returning cast, they all still feel great and the chemistry and writing feels like just a continuation after the credits rolled in the original P5. All of the Thieves get their moments to shine and show development. Albeit, nothing all that major. But, their main arcs are over so I guess I can't be too surprised.

I was pleased with all the new characters, though. Zenkichi, to my surprise, is probably one of my favorite characters in all of P5. And while Sophia isn't as beloved to me, she's still very charming and adorable. I feel that a lot of aspects of their character arcs feel underwhelming and shallow. But I still like what they brought to the story and the chemistry that forms between them and the other characters. I'm pleased to say that they're actual good characters that fit right in with the rest of main cast pretty naturally.

And that's not all. You also have the sleuth of new villains, given the title of Monarchs. Right off the bat, I would honestly say that all of the villains in Strikers are better than the majority of villains in P5. None of them are phenomenal, but they're decently thought out characters that have some different angles to them that makes them feel a little more believable.

A negative I have with the story, though, is that I kind of feel it drags quite a bit. There are times where I feel the game's story just goes on way longer than it needed to. Especially near the end. At this point, the story had started to become a little too formulaic for me. It got to the point that I honestly just wanted it to end. The game tries to hit upon some deep messages and themes in it's final act. But I feel most of it does not hit at all and just feels too try-hard.

The story of Strikers has some genuine great moments and aspects, but ultimately falls rather short by the time the climax of the story happens.

For a full price, I just don't know if I can recommend Strikers to EVERYONE. If you haven't played P5/Royal, absolutely do not let this be your entry title. If you were kind of iffy on P5, I would say wait a while to pick this one up. Preferably while on sale. BUT. If you are like me, and you adore the original title and have been extremely excited to get to see the Phantom Thieves, then I can't recommend Strikers enough. That being said... keep your expectations realistic.

A competent sequel to the brilliant Persona 5. This game from a story perspective does little new, and is rather predictable. Despite this it is still an enjoyable time listening to the cast of characters go through fun scenarios, especially with the new characters that join the Phantom Thieves. From a gameplay standpoint it feels less like a warriors game and more of a regular action game ala DMC, and Bayonetta (with less depth of course.) If you were a fan of Persona 5, and Persona 5 Royal this game still provides more than enough entertainment value for the price of entry.

Strikers is up there with P4 Arena for maybe the best Persona spin-off game.

I was honestly surprised how much Strikers tied into base Persona 5. Getting to spend more time in the Persona 5 world with the characters you've grown to love makes Strikers worth playing alone.

The combat is maybe a tad cluttered with systems that ultimately don't matter but it remains enjoyable through out the full campaign. I do wish the BOND system was expanded upon though. I truly missed having free time to hang out with my party and do activities with them. Sure there are some vignettes with them and the occasional fetch quest but I felt like this system could have been greatly expanded upon. They could have squeezed some of this into the towns when you return from checkpoints within the jails. Instead you just pop out the jail, maybe buy some heal items and then pop right back into the jail. Felt a little unfinished to me. Persona Fusion also feels a little unfulfilling since you are no longer getting EXP boosts based off social links. I understand this game isn't the life sim that P5 is but I still feel like something could have been done with the fusion system to make it more satisfying.

I could go on with tiny nit-picks here and there about some story elements but overall you're playing this game because you're thirsty for more of Persona 5's world and Strikers fully quenches that thirst.

Even People who profoundly avert the Musou genre should play this game, because it strips off many characteristics of the usual tropes. How ATLUS delivered state of the art storytelling time and time again over the past few years is beyond me. From characters to music to new style, Persona 5 as a franchise has been the biggest blast to play and contiunes to be a powerhouse of JRPG's and Strikers is no exception
Also this game has tons of references from JOJO's to internet culture to Shin Megami Tensei itself it's hilarious

This is probably my favorite musou/warriors game I’ve played. Not a very high bar, but still worth mentioning. I also don’t really consider this game a musuo/warriors game but I don’t think it really matters.

This is very much a direct sequel to Persona 5, but it’s frustrating just how closely it follows its structure. Yes, they’re “Jails” instead of “Palaces” this time, and the villains aren’t as black and white as Persona 5’s, but it feels like they’re just changing the variables instead of the whole equation. There’s nothing inherently bad about that, but it becomes much more difficult to avoid comparing the two games with each other, and Strikers just doesn’t hold up when it’s compared to Persona 5/Royal. The arcs are shorter, the villains aren’t as developed, and the writing is generally not as strong (and I say this as someone who doesn’t think Persona 5 is the pinnacle of video game writing in the first place). It kind of gives off a straight-to-DVD Disney sequel vibe. However, when you look at it as a wholly separate entity, it holds up extremely well. The story is solid, and it’s littered with fun “hanging out” sequences (something Persona 5 severely lacked). Zenkichi and Sophia are also easily the best of Atlus’ usual “enhanced edition/sequel” characters, and are both developed pretty well. It’s just a fun time all around.

The combat is frantic and was honestly pretty frustrating at the beginning, but got better as the game went on, mostly because SP started lasting longer than two battles. There are also way too many things happening on screen at once in any given fight, and it’s always extremely distracting. They needed to tone down the effects a little.

I don’t know if this is the Phantom Thieves’ final outing, but I’m kind of hoping it is. Maybe it’s because of the ridiculous amount of Persona 5 content that has come out the past few years, but I feel like I’ve had my fill of these characters. It’s time to let go, and this game is a solid send-off.