Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers

The Phantom Thieves, ChatGPT-mini and gramps are thrown into situations that constantly challenge the Phantom Thief ideology, and built on ideas from P5R, we are continuously shown the limitations of what being and acting as a Phantom Thief of Hearts can bring.

Does the ability to change a single heart mean anything when countless others still suffer? What happens when the PT have to defeat an enemy without a heart, is such a thing even possible? Sure, the PT may be strong, but what about the people who don't have the strength to fight?

The game also has the luxury of dealing with a mostly already-established cast, while still excellently introducing new concepts and tasks for them to overcome as the people they've fought to be. This gives room for some fan-servicy interactions, like certain fights that also lend themselves very well to the format of the gameplay, as well as allowing the PT to bond and experience the actual adventure together as more than just team members, as actual friends.

I also believe this game has the only character to make Joker canonically bleed? (not counting himself). Of course, it only made him cooler.

Persona 5: Strikers is great. While it's not the nearly-100-hour behemoth of a game that P5 is, its 35+ hours of Action-RPG gameplay are more than enough to qualify it as a full-length and fleshed-out JRPG experience.

While the combat system takes some getting-used-to, when understood, it becomes a fluid and rewarding experience to rival gameply from greats like Ys VIII and Trials of Mana. Many beloved systems from P5's turn-based combat are adapted flawlessly to the Action-RPG style, and overall, Strikers truly makes for a rich and immersive experience.

Apart from the mechanics, the story elements and character interactions combine to make Strikers a true P5 sequel in every sense of the word. New lovable characters are introduced while existing ones are fleshed out and expanded. The music is great and the level designs are stylish. Fans of the original will not be dissapointed.

Overall, Persona 5: Strikers has the strength to stand as a great game on its own merits and is not simply a "Dynasty Warriors with Persona characters". Fans of the franchise as well as general Action-RPG gamers will find plenty to enjoy. Hopefully, the P5 franchise will continue on in many mediums.

Forces you to cook / be responsible for the death of animals at one point during the game. You can not continue otherwise. The original persona 5 had vegetarian friendly options in restaurants. Why add veggie options to a game, then make an expansion, and then force everyone playing that expansion to do something non vegetarian / vegan.

Here we have a welcome return to our favorite thieves as they come together once again to celebrate their holidays with a big summer trip all around japan, it's then that they realize mysterious things are happening again around the town.

Now the game may not be as great as vanilla p5 or royal as this game is much linear in terms of story and gameplay (there is no social links or romances in here) it takes 35 to 40 hours to complete and that's basically half the time compare to other main line persona games but it's a nice change in pace and the game is the direct sequel to p5 and no royal content so keep that in mind.

The gameplay is also really fun with it's new musou style but that's also problematic though the gameplay is fast paced (sometimes you don't know what the hell is happening on screen) it's way less challenging compare to the turn based combat of p5 and the normal fights usually ends less than 15 seconds which makes the game super easy but other than that the game is very well made, on ps4 without any updates i found no frame rate issues or anything and it performs even better on ps5 so if you loved p5 this game is a must have as it's a beautiful return to the world and characters of persona 5 also the intro music called "you are stronger" now one of my favorite songs it's so great that i could never skip it every time i opened the game along with with a lot of new themes, remixes and great music that always makes this series so unique and amazing.

9.2/10 almost the perfect sequel to persona 5.