Persona 5 Strikers is not your average Persona game. Yes, it’s a true sequel to the hit JRPG Persona 5. But this time around, Strikers ditches the franchise’s well-known and mostly loved traditional, turn-based RPG fighting system for hack-and-slash, musou-style action gameplay.
At first I was a tad bit skeptical about Strikers’ leap into action. I dig traditional, turned-based RPGs, with all the glacially paced combat that implies. But Strikers won me over. Atlus created an action-RPG play style akin to Final Fantasy VII Remake, but turned up to 11. I enjoyed wreaking havoc on enemy shadows with the leader Joker, then switching seamlessly to Queen for a fist-of-fury-style combo string. Strikers combines this new action gameplay with Persona 5’s super-distinctive anime art style and (sometimes menial-feeling) day-to-day questing when you’re outside the Metaverse.
Check out the video above to hear about my favorite thieves for storming the first Jail—Strikers’ term for dungeons. For folks who’ve played and enjoyed Persona 5 proper, don’t hesitate to give this odd spin-off a chance. I had a lot of fun meeting up with the old gang and destroying shadows again.
