Persona 5 Strikers is a perfect excuse to reunite with the Phantom Thieves

Atlus is a master of strange spinoffs. In the past, the developer revamped his RPG series Person as dungeon crawlers, fighters and rhythm games. Heroes have limited space and time for suspense that is valuable for fiction, and all serve to give players the reason to see their favorite characters again. Persona 5 Strikers go a step further, and transform an action-heavy adventure into a road trip that feels at home with the original game.

Persona 5 Strikers is a direct sequel to Person 5, months after the Phantom Thieves hung up their masks. The gang reunites for a long too long vacation, only to be interrupted by the appearance of prisons – skewed versions of the reality where one person rules, not unlike the palaces they encountered in the original game. To solve the mystery of these prisons, the Phantom Thieves get an RV and investigate them to Japan.

Stakers is an action-RPG game that takes the game in the vein of Omega Force’s other spinoffs of popular series, such as Hyrule Warriors. It deals with the original turn-based strategy of the original to push buttons through gangs. Players are no longer limited to controlling only the hero of the game, Joker, and can swap at random between party members such as Makoto or Ann. In addition to elementary abilities specific to their personas, such as nuclear or wind attacks, each has special physical attacks to help you through the battle. Characters I barely used in the original Person 5, just like Ryuji, I became a visitor to furniture I wanted to master; I rarely needed the magic of Morgana, but loved its ability to turn into a car and cut off shadows.

Despite the fact that they can vary between characters, the game’s heavy play can sometimes become monotonous. On a good streak I would pull a combination, accumulate follow-up and overall attacks and make enemies disappear with magic attacks – but mostly I just spent a lot of time frantically pushing buttons. The amount that takes place on the screen can sometimes be dizzying when it’s not difficult to follow, between characters talking during a battle and zipping around a screen to hit enemies in the face.

Persona 5 Strikers does not offer such a robust experience as the original game – there are no personality traits to improve, and relationships are distributed to a single ‘Bond’ criterion that applies to your entire team – but it does offer a good variety of ways to break increases your playing time. New cities mean queries, shops to visit and recipes to cook with; party members regularly want to visit special restaurants and attractions. The limitations of a deadline are also gone. You can go to jail as often as you want to hang out with your friends.

The experience feels like a streamlined version of Person, the video game equivalent of a summer vacation. It’s a way to spend extra time with a world I & # 39; ve fallen in love with for decades, and a welcome extension of the game’s mythos. Where Person 5The palaces were to the utmost and depraved desires, prisons revolving around trauma. To defeat the princes of every prison, you must first discover and understand the pain they gave birth to.

It is a welcome change, a turn that makes people’s cruelty more interesting. Person 5The darkest investigations of people sometimes came up against the cartoonish malice of it all. The rulers you faced were so exaggeratedly angry that they needed no justification to take them down. But Stakers offers a more complex alternative: that people are hurt by hurting people. The princes have manipulated and deceived, yet it is still a way for them to learn and grow from their mistakes.

As a sequel, Persona 5 Strikers does not offer much in the way of great revelations – but it does not have to. Like the series’ numerous other aspects, the allure is the opportunity to play a little longer in their world. Cleaning up a jail is nice, but it still can not be compared to an evening out with your friends.

Persona 5 Strikers is available on Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation 4.