This collection is a pretty decent one, I'd say.
Nearly all of the games offered are shoot'em-ups, so I wonder why they didn't call this the "Konami Shoot'em-Up Arcade Collection" or something along those lines.
I know Haunted Castle is included here, but it does kinda stick out compared to the others.

In spite of there only being save-states, the emulation is pretty clean, and I liked that you have the ability to play the JP versions. In this collection, I'd say that playing the JP version is normally the better option.

The Bonus Book is also pretty cool, as it includes documents used for the creation of these games, with plenty of concept art. There are also some interviews here, and they even have a question asking some Famitsu writers what they would want in a Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection 2. It'd be nice if that became a thing sometime in the future.

After having many ups and downs in Konami's Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection, I'm glad I was able to end it on a high note!

Thunder Cross is similar to many other shoot'em-ups, but there are some interesting differences.
Just like Life Force and A-Jax, there is no upgrade bar at the bottom, as you get upgrades naturally as you go along. One of the upgrades that's been apart of all of these titles is the one that gives you multiple projectiles.

Well, in this game, by holding down one of the buttons, you are able to control how close or far from your ship you want them to be!
This is a really cool inclusion and it was a great helper for some of the more tighter parts of the levels.

But unlike games like Gradius II, there is barely any bullshit with the level design! They don't flood you with many projectiles that are nearly impossible to dodge, and while the level design isn't really that dynamic, I had fun going through it!

There are even some special power-ups that you get that replace your projectiles with a bigger weapon you can use temporarily, like big fuck-you lasers or flames stronger than the ones found in Hell.
I had fun with the flames in particular!

And the presentation of this game is really great for the time! The music was really well composed, and the stages look gorgeous, with Stage 4 being my favourite!

Overall, while not anything too spectacular, Thunder Cross is a fun shoot'em-up that I enjoyed going through.

This collection is a pretty decent one, I'd say.
Nearly all of the games offered are shoot'em-ups, so I wonder why they didn't call this the "Konami Shoot'em-Up Arcade Collection" or something along those lines.
I know Haunted Castle is included here, but it does kinda stick out compared to the others.

In spite of there only being save-states, the emulation is pretty clean, and I liked that you have the ability to play the JP versions. In this collection, I'd say that playing the JP version is normally the better option.

The Bonus Book is also pretty cool, as it includes documents used for the creation of these games, with plenty of concept art. There are also some interviews here, and they even have a question asking some Famitsu writers what they would want in a Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection 2. It'd be nice if that became a thing sometime in the future.

Yeah, I think it's pretty much clear at this point that I'm not a fan of the Gradius series.

I do like that you're able to choose what power-up bar you want at the start of the game, allowing for more replayability. That's pretty nice! I went with the 4th power-up bar myself, alongisde the first shield option.

But even in spite of that, and the game being generally less difficult overall, I couldn't have much fun with Gradius II. The game is more of the same seen in Gradius I, and I already wasn't the biggest fan of that game.

And to really rub salt on the wound, just like Life Force, I got fucked on the last stage because I save-stated at the wrong time, and lost a life.
Now, when you lose a life in these games, you lose all of your power-ups and go back to the nearest check-point. When that happened, the game just spawned a bunch of projectiles at me making it impossible for me to dodge them or destroy them.

Needless to say, I did not have much fun with Gradius II, and I don't see myself playing any other Gradius game anytime soon.

The year is 2024, sometime after I finished Halo 3. One day, during one of my many surfs through the Internet, I discovered a song from Persona 3 Reload called “Color Your Night”. It had been many years since I last played a Persona game and interacted with other people about the series.
But when I heard that song for the first time, I got curious about the Persona series once again.

Since I finished Persona 5 in early 2018, many things happened with the Persona series. There were many spin-offs related to Persona 5 that released, the fanbase for the series got bigger than ever and Joker joined Super Smash Bros. Ultimate! There was a lot to be excited about, but my levels of interest for each piece of content fluctuated greatly between them. It was hard for me to care about certain titles, because there were either not my thing or it was just too much Persona being thrown into my face.
But in the midst of all of these spin-offs and additional pieces of content, there was one that had always caught my eye, but I hadn’t gotten the chance to play.
Until now.

In early June of 2024, I was now back into the world of Persona 5 with Persona 5 Strikers.

One of the reasons why I was interested in this spin-off was because it actually acts as a sequel to the original Persona 5, taking place a few months after it.

After Joker left back to his hometown at the end of the OG Persona 5, he now returns to Tokyo on his own accord to meet up with the friends he made the year prior.
The reason?
Because it’s time for a summer vacation!
After leaving their Phantom Thieves life behind, the gang plans on camping and eating lots of food for their summer vacation. But things start to go awry, as they quickly find that a new AI app, called EMMA, is being used by some people to change others’ hearts!

The Phantom Thieves are under investigation by the police because of these incidents, and now it’s up to them to reclaim their names. But they’re not alone, as they get help from another AI companion named Sophia, and a cop who’s trying to find more info on the whole case named Zenkichi Hasegawa.
And unlike last time, the Phantom Thieves are not only travelling through the streets of Tokyo, but will be navigating and experiencing various parts of Japan, such as Sendai, Okinawa and Sapporo! All with the help of their RV, that by some miracle, is able to hold all of them.

And that pretty much is the premise for Persona 5 Strikers. The game is not nearly as long as the original Persona 5, only clocking in around 30 hours, but I was impressed that it does not lack complexity in its storytelling or how it talks about its themes.

Part of Persona 5 Strikers’ story feels like it goes through similar beats to the ones found in Persona 5. However, just like that game, the game’s story also becomes more and more interesting as how you go through it. This mainly boils down to the great character arcs seen in Sophia and Zenkichi, and the great sense of comradery seen in the Phantom Thieves.
While Sophia’s character arc is not really unique within the Persona series itself, I nonetheless was captivated by her journey to understand the human heart.

And to be honest, Zenkichi might be one of my favourite characters in this series. I know that I’ve only played two Persona games (and watched the Persona 4 anime), but not only did I love Zenkichi’s arc, but I absolutely loved the dude’s personality, striking a nice balance between being a cool badass and a grounded dude who cares about the ones closest to him. Some of his interactions with the rest of the gang made me laugh, due to the big contrast between him and the others.
He's also the first adult we see part of a Persona game’s main cast since, I believe, Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, and that helps making the interactions feel more distinct.
Additionally, he’s a member of the police, something that the Phantom Thieves detest due to it failing to actually bring justice to the country, but as they learn, not everything is so black-and-white, and there are people within the police that do want to fight against injustice and are pretty cool individuals.

Now, onto the other reason why I was interested in this game, the gameplay!
In spite of the game acting as a sequel to the original Persona 5, the game is still a spin-off at the end of the day, so its gameplay is more experimental and takes a different approach to the turn-based RPG formula found in the prior game.

Persona 5 Strikers is a collaboration between Atlus and Koei Tecmo (more specifically, Omega Force), providing us with gameplay similar to that found in the Dynasty Warriors series. While I’ve heard about the series for many years now, I hadn’t played a Warriors game until this one. The games are described as simple hack-and-slashes where you fight against crowds of enemies with ease. And the same partly holds true for this game.

Since this is still a Persona game at the end of the day, the game also combines many elements seen in the main series. These include the ability to pause the game at any point to not only use any item you have, but to also summon your Persona and use their abilities.
Just like Persona 5, the game has a weakness system revolved around elemental attacks, so it’s important to know what Personas you have in your party to strike at an enemy’s weak point, especially when you’re fighting bigger enemies or bosses.

Additionally, the game also brings over many other mechanics seen in Persona 5, such as the Baton Pass and the One More, but with a bit of a twist. Since we’re now dealing with an active-battle time system, the Baton Pass can now be activated at any time to easily switch over to another party member. But if you strike an enemy’s weakness, one of your party members may ask to continue that streak with a Baton Pass, or you can just perform a One More to deal more damage.
It's up to you, really.

The battles that you’ll encounter take place inside the Jails, this game’s equivalent to the Palaces seen in Persona 5. The level design for these tends to generally be more open than the Palaces, since you’ll be spending a good chunk of time outside of a building. Most of them have a very similar structure to the Palaces, but just like the original game, after a while they start to become a bit more different, which help them from getting stale.
In addition, you can actually revisit the Jails even after you defeat that Jail’s boss, and that’s where the game’s side-quests take place, unlike last time which they all took place on Mementos.

There were also some aspects of the original game that I forgot to mention in my Persona 5 review, such as the Velvet Room, that return in Persona 5 Strikers. The Velvet Room has been a staple of the Persona series ever since the first game, acting as a space where you can fuse Personas to make a new one or strengthen them to gain more abilities or just simply level up. The Velvet Room acts just the same in Strikers, but I find interesting that Igor, the main host of the room, is absent in this game. Maybe he went on a vacation as well! XD

Switching gears to the other side of Strikers’ gameplay, the social simulation aspect of the Persona series has also seen a bit of change. There are no Confidants to be found, and there are no additional stats for the protagonist to increase. Instead, you’ll be increasing your Bond level.

The Bond level can be increased by doing a variety of activities. Since you’ll always be hanging out with the Phantom Thieves, the rest of the crew may ask to hang out with you every once in a while, either to eat at a restaurant or to visit a specific locale of the city you’re currently in. You can even access certain side-quests if you go ahead and talk with the rest of the cast in the city itself!

You can also increase your Bond level by cooking! Joker’s Kitchen is open, and with it, you’ll not only be able to craft items that can restore HP and SP in battles but can also raise your Bond level. There are plenty of things you can cook, and a lot of them are related to the cities you’ll be travelling through, such as Okonomiyaki or Goat Soup. Interesting that you can’t make crazy hamburgers though.

And when you level up your Bond level, you gain points that you can use to increase a wide variety of stats. It can be simple stuff like raising your party’s HP and SP, or more intricate things like being able to damage enemies with your dash.
I really liked this mechanic! While it’s sad not seeing the Confidants, it makes sense considering the game’s story and I find the Bond system to be a nice replacement.

Moving over to the presentation, this game strikes the same great notes that Persona 5 did! The menus and overall UI are still as stylish as last time, and menus now feature animations of Joker interacting with the other party members, really emphasizing the bond that this crew has. Considering that this is a faster-paced game, I could see people having trouble reading the game’s UI when a bunch of flashy effects are happening during battles, but interestingly, I personally didn’t have a hard time understanding the game’s user interface.
The game's voice acting is just as great as it was in Persona 5, and I really liked Megan Harvey's and Tom Taylorson's performances as Sophia and Zenkichi, respectively.
Additionally, the game’s soundtrack is as great as last time, but now it has a bigger emphasis on rock music, which complements the new gameplay style pretty well! But there is still plenty of jazz music to go around, and a lot of if sounds so good! We even have some songs that resemble acid jazz, like Crossover, one of my favorite themes in the game.

One of the things that I really liked about the game was its themes, and Strikers presents a natural evolution of the ones seen in the original Persona 5. It decides to touch on topics such as a trauma and the rise of AI, which not only integrate pretty well into the game’s narrative and world, but are also extremely relevant to what’s currently happening in the real world.
Many people are scared of AI taking over their jobs or for people to become too reliant on them, and I find it interesting that the story-tellers over at Atlus decided to present both sides of the argument. Of course, I won’t delve into details as to not spoil you guys, but the game ended up making me think on a lot of things about it and other topics that the game mentions.

Persona 5 Strikers is one of those games that I knew I would like, but I never expected it to like this much. Many of the game’s themes resonated with me on various levels and I had a lot of fun going through it! It reminded me of the great times I had playing through the original Persona 5 and it allowed me to follow the Phantom Thieves one more time.

The game made me laugh and gave me a lot of excitement, but by the end, I teared up and I was smiling through the ending. The game accomplishes what, in my opinion, a game should be… fun.

Until next time, Phantom Thieves.

Fin.