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** In the Traditional Chinese version of ''Strikers'', the font was changed from ordinary round sans to FZYiHei (方正藝黑) in favor of distinction and stylishness. |
** In the Traditional Chinese version of ''Strikers'', the font was changed from ordinary round sans to FZYiHei (方正藝黑) in favor of distinction and stylishness. |
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* In comparison to the Japanese box art for ''Strikers'', the Western one has been mildly modified: instead of having Ryuji be punched in the face by a Shadow in a comical fashion, his artwork has been modified to one where he falls down wielding his weapon while the Shadow grabs him by the ascot. This is because the ESRB does not allow video game box arts to depict violent blows to the head.<ref>[https://www.esrb.org/ratings/principles-guidelines/ Advertising Principles and Guidelines], esrb.org</ref> |
* In comparison to the Japanese box art for ''Strikers'', the Western one has been mildly modified: instead of having Ryuji be punched in the face by a Shadow in a comical fashion, his artwork has been modified to one where he falls down wielding his weapon while the Shadow grabs him by the ascot. This is because the ESRB does not allow video game box arts to depict violent blows to the head.<ref>[https://www.esrb.org/ratings/principles-guidelines/ Advertising Principles and Guidelines], esrb.org</ref> |
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| + | * Some parts of ''Striker's'' English transcript might be substiantially different compared to the Japanese and Chinese versions. |
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==External Links== |
==External Links== |
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Revision as of 11:56, 21 February 2021
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This article is about a media that has yet to be released. As such, some of the information might be inaccurate, and may change substantially as more information becomes available. Please do not add speculation to this article, and cite a published source when necessary. |
"There is no other reason that I called you here. A calamity is encroaching you and the future you took back."
Persona 5 Strikers, alternatively known as P5S, and known as Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers in Japan, is an action-based sequel of Persona 5. It is part of the Koei Tecmo and Omega Force created "Musou" or "Warriors" series of games, which involves defeating a large horde of enemies at once. It is the first action RPG in the Persona series.
Persona 5 Strikers was released in Japan on February 20, 2020 on the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch. It is set to release in the West on February 23rd, 2021. Additionally, it will also be ported to Microsoft Windows via Steam store on the same day worldwide.
Due to the game containing major spoilers for Persona 5, it is advised that the original game is played first (or the first 9 months of Persona 5 Royal) before playing Strikers.
Plot
Months after the events of Persona 5, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts plan to go on summer vacation as the protagonist and Morgana reunite with them upon their return to Tokyo. Despite their celebration, during that night, Lavenza appears as the Velvet Room's sole resident and warns the protagonist of a "potential calamity" that may happen to the "future he took back."
The next day, the protagonist, Morgana and Ryuji travel to Shibuya's 705 Building in order to buy camping tools in preparation for their travels. They do it under the advice of EMMA, a popular digital assistant notable for its incredibly accurate predictions and answers to everyday life. However, they encounter a public event hosted by an idol known as Alice Hiiragi, who possesses massive popularity. They attend the event and Alice gives the protagonist a card to her "Wonderland." This card instructs the reader to input the keyword "Wonderland" in the EMMA app. After doing so, the three finds themselves trapped in an unknown location in the Metaverse, alongside everyone around them, who get attacked by Shadows and have their desires stolen in the form of gems, with the instigator being none other than Alice herself.
The trio attempts to escape, but they get surrounded and captured by Shadows. They are brought to Alice for interrogation, before being all dumped in a junkyard below. There, they encounter an AI called Sophia, who claims herself to be a friend of humanity and has no memories of herself. She shows herself to be capable of defeating Shadows, and escorts the trio back to reality, where she forms a new AI over the EMMA app.
Back in the real world, the party finds out that everyone who had their desires stolen fell into fervor with Alice, with a majority of the Shibuya populace affected. The abnormalities manifested by the mass Change of Hearts created by Alice to bolster her popularity to uncanny levels consist of divorces, property loss and violent confrontations. After obtaining enough information on the matter, the protagonist and Ann Takamaki visit the TV station at Akasaka Mitsuke to meet Alice personally, whom would then be attending a talk show. There, they witness the host attempting to talk about Alice's crush, only to be suddenly silenced and have his heart changed into falling in love with Alice. The talk show is interrupted, and Alice's manager tries to stop her in the hallway, only to show her true colors by physically attacking him and taking pictures of him with the intention of humiliating him. Ann and the protagonist witness her, and successfully stop her from doing further harm for the time being. It turns out that Shibuya is being overlaid by a Metaverse structure known as a "Jail," which is abused by its ruler to mesmerize an entire population. The Phantom Thieves reform and put off their trip until Alice is neutralized.
The night after the party explore the Jail's outskirts, they run into a member of the Public Security Bureau, Zenkichi Hasegawa. When the party returns to Leblanc, he takes the opportunity to blackmail them for cooperation, as the police believes that they're the ones responsible for the recent mass Change of Heart cases happening all over Japan; Although he suspects another culprit is responsible, if they do not cooperate, they risk being arrested for the incident instigated by Alice yesterday, while she escapes unscathed. The party turns down his deal, and instead decides that they will clear their name on their own by confronting Alice.
Once they reach the end of Shibuya's Jail, they find out that there is no treasure. Instead, the stolen desires in the form of diamonds are evaporated, then rise up into the pink fog above the Jail. However, the Monarch herself is absent and a barricade blocks the path ahead. It turns out that the Monarch is sealed inside a bird cage, a device that traps them in a past trauma or disdainful experience and prevent them from moving on. A vocal clue hints the party towards where they need to go to unlock the cage; a school where Alice was bullied in. With help from Zenkichi, the party deduces that Alice is actually an alumnae from Shujin Academy: she was bullied very badly by jealous girls at school for having a crush. This results in a confrontation with a powerful Lock Keeper Shadow, representing one of these bullies from Shujin. The party then issues a calling card to Alice via a broadcast hijack, and goes into the Metaverse to defeat her. It turns out that unlike previous targets, Alice is actually not intentionally malicious, but was driven by desire of revenge against the bullies who took away her crush and her future. Refusing to become another forgotten victim, she transforms into a monstrous rabbit-like creature, but was defeated and convinced to release all of the desires held hostage.
While Alice did genuinely revert back to the status prior to becoming Monarch, suspicions against the Phantom Thieves further increased, as the calling card they've submitted had made the police suspect their involvement behind the change of heart cases further. The party has no choice but to make a deal with Zenkichi to use their nationwide trip to assist him in investigating the case. Back at the Police Station, Miyako Kaburagi, the chief of the Public Security Bureau, warns Zenkichi that he has to take down the Thieves, should any suspicions arise. She also advises him to take a break to his hometown at Kyoto to take care of his daughter. The party burrows Sojiro's van and goes to their Japan-wide trip together with Zenkichi and Sophia.
Landing to Sendai and Sapporo, they encounter two more EMMA-related change of heart cases with an identical modus operandi as the Alice case back in Shibuya; disillusioned, yet non-inherently malicious personalities using the application to steal desires in order to artificially inflate their fame and to gain some resemblances of self-esteem that they didn't have or lost in the past:
- Ango Natsume: A popular writer from Sendai who was being fleeced for money with his heavily plagiarized novel, using his superior grandfather's name. He used the EMMA application to create a Jail in order to take the money for himself and to make sure his publishers get none.
- Mariko Hyodo: The former mayor of Sapporo who cared for its people and a former acquaintance of Kunikazu Okumura, as well as a childhood friend of Haru Okumura. A year ago, she was forced to step down due to a political scandal that resulted in an ice statue collapsing accident that killed a child. A corrupt senator exploited the incident to take power for himself. She's using the EMMA application to take back the power and is now overworking her civil wards.
During their tour around Sendai, they also meet a mysterious woman known as Kuon Ichinose, who is a researcher working in a nearby university, and Akira Konoe, the CEO of Madicce and the owner of the EMMA application. Ichinose turns out to be the creator of EMMA, and she sold the source code to Konoe for money once she made it. She makes a deal with the party before they leave Sendai.
After leaving Sapporo, the party and Zenkichi make a brief stop to Kyoto to meet Zenkichi's daughter, Akane Hasegawa, who is a big fan of the Phantom Thieves, although very distant from her father. In reality, she hates him for being unable to investigate the culprit that killed her mother, Aoi Hasegawa. The crime was instead pinned on his secretary who quickly committed suicide. Not only did Zenkichi refrain from investigating the case, he even talked of her as a burden. This led Akane to believe that the Phantom Thieves will rise and crush the police force.
The party then tours Okinawa to enjoy their vacation, but during that night, they discover that its residents have become insane, and were attacking their camping van. Okinawa is another one of the prefectures connected by a Jail, which took the form of an abandoned research laboratory. However, a while back, its Monarch and its head researcher Shuzo Ubukata lost his sanity when a greater power told him to hand out his desires, then committed suicide by jumping off a cliff, leaving the Jail without a ruler. Sophia also hears voices that only she can hear, and once they reach the abandoned bird cage, a voice resembling her own can be heard, claiming that Sophia is useless because she cannot state her purpose. When they investigate an abandoned apartment, they discover that Akira Konoe is cooperating with politician Jun Owada to change the hearts of his political enemies (largely consisted of unscrupulous politicians), in order to help set him as the next prime minister.
As Zenkichi leaves, the party visits Fukuoka, only for Zenkichi to phone in and tell them that he has an important incident back at Kyoto. As the group returns to Kyoto, Zenkichi reveals that Owada is actually a former lobbyist of Masayoshi Shido, the corrupt politician who terrorized Japan a year ago. Konoe began to issue an arrest order against the Phantom Thieves for supposedly hacking the EMMA application and murdering the Monarch of Okinawa. In reality, both are fabricated cases and it's heavily implied that Konoe was the one who drove Ubukata insane.
Owada, being accompanied with a National Police Agency head brainwashed by Konoe, bribes Kaburagi with a security bureau head seat into arresting the Phantom Thieves when they are staying at a nearby hot springs resort, and she reluctantly goes along. Kaburagi arrives there that night with a heavily armed police force, only to be stopped by Zenkichi, whom she arrests instead. When Zenkichi is being interrogated, the police also began to search and clear the Hasegawa residence, where an officer told Akane that her father is being an accomplice of the Phantom Thieves. After the police empties the Hasegawa residence, Akane pleads for someone to save her, only for EMMA to respond and unwittingly create a Jail in Kyoto. Back at the Madicce headquarters, Konoe asks EMMA for ways to catch the Phantom Thieves. EMMA proposes to him that the police are useless in catching them and he should use the Jail of "an associate of the Phantom Thieves" to catch them instead, implied to be Akane. Konoe tells EMMA to turn that person into a Monarch so they can induce a Change of Heart on the Thieves; if they can't, they could kill them instead.
Back to Kyoto, the party receives what was an obviously faked SNS message from Akane, telling them that she was kidnapped. Despite initial doubts among the group, Ryuji accidentally speaks the keyword of the Jail. Because of the Phantom Thieves' insistence, EMMA manages to bait and trap all party members with a heavily distorted Shadow Akane with all her negative traits exaggerated. The only party member who manages to escape was Futaba, who couldn't catch up with the rest of the group due to her low physical stamina. Thankfully, Sae Niijima, hired by Makoto, arrives in time to save Zenkichi from detention. Once he's freed, he enters Kyoto's Jail alongside Futaba.
Akane, furious at Zenkichi for his inability to investigate his mother's death and arrest the true culprit. Zenkichi admits that he was unable to protect Akane, because once he tried to investigate the murder incident, he was dismissed for being Aoi's husband and was then blackmailed by a death threat. However, Akane refuses to hear his pleas, being engrossed in Konoe's savior complex. She was more concerned about the reputation of the patsy killer's family than her mother, and rambles about a plan where she was going to change the Phantom Thieves' hearts, then change the heart of the man who killed her mother. These were heavily implied to be contents of Konoe's "Operation Oracle."
This revelation results in Zenkichi awakening to his Persona Valjean, allowing him to save the imprisoned Phantom Thieves. Zenkichi officially joins the group and works with them in infiltrating Kyoto's Jail to confront Akane. When they encounter her at the end of the Jail, Shadow Akane delusionally calls the Phantom Thieves as fakes and sends out cognitive copies of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts to fight the originals, claiming that they are "real." The protagonist deals with a doppelganger of himself known as My Dear Joker while the rest fight their own fakes. Once My Dear Joker was defeated, Akane calms down and gets a change of heart. In the real world, Zenkichi returns to his residence to check out Akane, where she was comatose with no knowledge of her assailant, and officially reconciles with her father.
To prevent the Conspiracy that terrorized Japan from re-igniting, the party travels to Osaka to confront Konoe. At the end, they discover his Bird Cage, much to their surprise. It turns out that in the past, he was being physically abused by his father, the former Madicce CEO who hated him so much that he tried to murder him 20 years prior, and managed to do so with his wife, only for Konoe to kill him instead on accident. Konoe genuinely sought to make the world a better place, and he made use of EMMA to make sure no such cases can happen anymore, with every wronged or traumatized person getting solace from the pain of society's injustice. His cooperation with Owada is also a ruse, and he planned on changing his heart once the Phantom Thieves were done for.
After hijacking a Madicce zeppelin to shower Osaka with their calling cards, Konoe seems unaffected, only to be angered as EMMA refuses to tell him if the Thieves are done for, which makes him realize that the Phantom Thieves are on his tail. Once they confront him in his Jail, Shadow Konoe announces the details of his "Operation Oracle". After Ichinose sold the application to him, he sent it to Okinawa in order to allow it access to cognitive psience and drive the Monarch to suicide. He would then let downtrodden people use EMMA for salvation, one city at a time until all of Japan, then the world becomes filled with Monarchs. Once the Jail system spreads everywhere, the world will be devoid of crime. The party calls out his actions as a deprivation of free will and he isn't any different from his father. To his anger, he transforms into a form resembling his childhood superhero "Zephyrman" and drives a robot to attack the party. After his robot was destroyed, he then fights them on foot as Hero Akira, but was defeated and persuaded to give up and atone. The real Konoe confesses the next day and ends service of the EMMA application. Zenkichi and a reformed Kaburagi now go to the Madicce headquarters to arrest Konoe, so he can help arrest Owada as well with his testimony. Konoe only knew that he manipulated Zenkichi's daughter to change the Phantom Thieves' hearts when he told him about it during his arrest.
To celebrate their victory, the Phantom Thieves make their way back to Yongen-Jaya, but under Sophia's proposal, take a midway stop at Yokohama to view the summer fireworks. After the event ends, the protagonist picks up all the souvenirs from his friends. However, when Sophia was about to plan a route to go back home, she suddenly senses a Jail under Tokyo itself, with EMMA's central server in Tokyo Tower being the source. Zenkichi also phones the protagonist that EMMA has fired itself up again, and not even Madicce personnel can shut it down. The party and Zenkichi rush to the Tower, discovering a massive group of people standing under it, waiting for salvation and the ultimate answer to happiness. The EMMA application greets the party to the "Promised Land" and automatically drags them in with the Metaverse Navigator. Said promised land is actually the Jail of the Abyss, which takes the form of an area resembling the Depths of Mementos. The voices that only Sophia can hear also return. Once they go to the center of the Jail, they find EMMA, which has now evolved into a physical God known as the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant briefly greets them and vanishes, followed by Kuon Ichinose appearing in front of the party, exposing herself as the mastermind.
Ichinose used the EMMA application as a front to help her research human desires and find the ultimate answer to happiness. She sold it to Konoe so EMMA may use him to spread itself into the public. The Change of Hearts were actually performed by overwriting all other desires with the one "true" desire, and it was a default ability on the application even before Ubukata and Konoe meddled with it. However, the Jails were not responsible for EMMA's current state; instead, daily counseling from the application by the public triggers the changes. The public's cognition had also considered EMMA a granter of wishes, so she was capable of firing herself back up on her own volition and prevent the servers from shutting down. The Phantom Thieves tell Ichinose that she's just brainwashing people, and Sophia denies the premise of her actions to be "salvation." She snaps, and announces her special role that she is sent here by EMMA to kill the Phantom Thieves.
Ichinose uses the basis that Sophia is actually a failed EMMA prototype and demonstrates it by commanding her to attack the party, only to fail because Sophia will never attack her friends for long. Sophia then blacks out and drops to the bottommost area of the Jail. After the initial confrontation, the AI researcher drops off her pretenses and exposes herself as a misanthrope without a heart, before summoning a diamond to knock the party off the cliff.
When the party returns to Ichinose, they attempts to convince her that the human heart is undeniable, angering her. She summons a massive herd of Shadows to buy time for her to charge up the diamond again, this proves to be successful, only for Sophia to return in time and block the attack. She attempts to convince Ichinose that EMMA is a misguided creation because it does not understand the human heart, and thus is unable to understand humanity. Ichinose reveals her past; she shut off her emotions to unknown reasons and refused to display any even if her parents died, and because of this, people around her saw her as being abnormal. In order to see if she was indeed, abnormal for "lacking a heart," she created Sophia to understand the human heart, only for her to scrap Sophia because she asked a question that caused her to snap. This led to her working on EMMA instead, who was wasn't able of understanding the heart, but only desires. Unfortunately, due to lacking a heart, EMMA thinks that humanity's true desire is for it to think for them, since it only collects the queries and not their contents. Ichinose continues to attempt brainwashing of her creation to no avail, forcing Sophia to awaken Pithos into its true form, Pandora. The turn of events sends Ichinose into a fit of rage. She summons a Hecatoncheir as a last ditch deterrent, only for it to fail as well. Once defeated, Ichinose pleads Sophia to kill her, but to no avail and convinced to ditch her heartless former self, and then breaks out her first tears. Reforming for good, she assists the party in defeating EMMA once and for all.
Once the party and Ichinose return to the surface world, more and more people flock to Tokyo Tower waiting for salvation. The city blacks out and a massive tree of light sprouts out from the tower, melding the Metaverse with the real world once again with an Eden-like structure, the Tree of Life and Wisdom. The party scales the tree and reaches the Ark of the Covenant, only for it to outright refuse combat and ask them to hear the public's voices. The Torah traps them in an infinite path of fog that can only be escaped by walking sideways on backwards. Once the protagonist returns back to reality, a desire fog can be seen, which must be materialized by sending a calling card to it. However, EMMA knows exactly how a calling card works (and thus cannot be affected by it herself) and the desires lack a owner. Ann deducts that the party should send the Calling Cards to the public instead. Despite initial difficulties of this operation, Futaba and Ichinose cooperate and manages to hack into its incredibly secured servers, replacing EMMA's interface with a calling card notice, summoning the False God Demiurge from the Torah and defeating her after a grueling fight and a 10-people All-Out Attack.
The Demiurge and the tree have vanished, and the crowd near Tokyo Tower reverts to normal, and the destruction was undone as if it never happened. Returning to Leblanc for a celebration meal, Sophia tells the group that she heard the Demiurge admitting that Sophia and the Phantom Thieves' assessment of humanity are correct. Before the party parts ways, Ichinose requests to meet them in Shibuya's central square, in which she takes Sophia out for a journey across the world and would return to her old home in Shibuya. Despite confessing to the police on her involvement with the change of heart incidents, the police do not believe her testimony, setting her free. Meanwhile, with valuable testimony from Konoe, Owada was successfully arrested for accepting bribes, tax evasion, running over Aoi Hasegawa by accident while drunk driving and covering it up. The Phantom Thieves part their ways once again, promising to meet again next winter.
Characters
- Main article: List of Persona 5 Strikers Characters
Playable Characters
- Protagonist: The leader of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. He returns to Tokyo during his summer vacation and reunites with his former teammates, who join him on investigating the new mysterious cases that occur around Japan.
- Morgana: The loyal guide of the Phantom Thieves. A strange cat-like creature that attains the appearance of a normal cat in the real world. He returns to Tokyo with the protagonist during his summer vacation. After restoring his memories in the previous case, he is shown to be more relaxed and laid-back.
- Ryuji Sakamoto: A former track team athlete. He returned to his daily routine after their previous case was over, but was still unable to study accordingly.
- Ann Takamaki: A quarter-American girl and part-time model. Shows a strong will to help those in need.
- Yusuke Kitagawa: An aspiring third-year artist attending Kosei High School. His passion for art makes him utter otherworldly thoughts that are often confusing for others.
- Makoto Niijima: Former student council president of Shujin Academy. She is currently a law student aiming to work in the police. Her strict and serious attitude from last year has been mellowed, and her issues with her elder sister were successfully ironed out.
- Futaba Sakura: A former shut-in hacker who serves as the Phantom Thieves' rear support and navigator. After the previous case was over, she's grown accustomed to others and started attending school.
- Haru Okumura: The daughter of the president of a major food manufacturer, Okumura Foods. She lost her father during their work as Phantom Thieves last year. As a former student of Shujin Academy, she is currently involved in the management of Okumura Foods while studying agriculture at university.
- Sophia: A mysterious AI who meets the protagonist in the basement of Shibuya's Jail. She has no memories of herself and only remembers that she is humanity's friend. She joins the Phantom Thieves in their investigation. She uses her hood as a mask and wields yo-yos and blasters in combat. Her codename is "Sophie" and her Persona is Pithos, after the large storage container.
- Zenkichi Hasegawa: A member of the Kyoto Prefectural Police. He's the investigator in charge of looking into the mysterious conversion cases that occur in various parts in Japan, and contacts the Phantom Thieves to help him. He eventually awakens to his Persona and joins the Phantom Thieves. He wears a pinpoint blindfold as a mask and uses dual pistols and two-handed swords. His codename is "Wolf" and his Persona is Valjean, after the literary former convict.
Supporting Characters
- Lavenza: A resident of the Velvet Room. She is responsible for merging Personas in place of Igor, who seems to be absent.
- Sojiro Sakura: The manager of Café Leblanc and Futaba's adoptive father. He reunites with the protagonist during his visit back to Tokyo.
- Alice Hiiragi: An idol with unique fashion and songs that gains uncanny popularity in Shibuya. Behind the scenes however, she can instantly snap and attack others.
- Ango Natsume: A writer in Sendai and the author of "Prince of Nightmare," a novel that gains abnormal popularity in this specific city.
- Kuon Ichinose: A mysterious woman who meets the group at a beef tongue shop in Sendai. She is enthusiastic to help the party out with investigating the EMMA application.
- Mariko Hyodo: A charismatic politician in Sapporo who was an acquaintance of Haru Okumura's father. She wishes to make Sapporo a beautiful city without stagnation.
- Akane Hasegawa: The daughter of Zenkichi Hasegawa who lives in Kyoto. She is a huge fan of the Phantom Thieves, but has shown to be distant with her father.
- Akira Konoe: The president of a company named "Madicce", a global IT company headquartered in Osaka which provides innovative services. He is in charge of maintaining the EMMA app and has an unrelenting stance for his own version of justice.
- Miyako Kaburagi: Zenkichi's boss and a firm police enforcer.
- Jun Owada: The Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan. He's incompetent and easily manipulated.
- Sae Niijima: Makoto's sister, currently a defense attorney. The party calls her for help at one point during their trip.
Gameplay
Difficulty
Before starting a game, players must choose between 3 difficulties: EASY, NORMAL and HARD. They might change the difficulty at any time when outside battle or during an in-game cutscene. If one has not played a Warriors-styled or a real-time RPG before, it's recommended to set the game difficulty on EASY in order to adjust to an unfamiliar combat system, particularly because unlike Persona 5, the game is considered too hard on NORMAL by many players.
If one has seen the game's ending and cleared the quest to defeat the Ultimate boss, New Game Plus will be unlocked, and they might choose to play a new cycle in RISKY difficulty. Enemies in RISKY have abnormally high stats and certain bonuses exclusive to New Game Plus are disabled. Furthermore, one may raise all their Persona's stats to 99, party members' included.
Summer Trip
Sendai, Japan
Although the calendar makes a return in Strikers, the time consumption system of mainline Persona games is absent: the protagonist's choices during the tour will not pass time, and the group no longer has to work under strict deadlines.
The protagonist can shop from local stores during their travel, with items corresponding to the region they're in. On the other hand, they will have constant access to Sophia's Shop, which builds up on items as the story progresses.
In Joker's Kitchen, the protagonist can cook food that can restore HP and SP in dungeons, and potentially have secondary effects. Each dish requires different ingredients to be made.
Combat
The protagonist in combat
Strikers' combat system is a mixture between Dynasty Warriors's hack-and-slash and Persona's RPG tactics. Instead of being turn-based, the battle takes place on the field in real time. However, when selecting Persona skills from a menu, the battle will pause, allowing for tactical positioning. All members of the Phantom Thieves can be controlled both in and out of battle in the Metaverse.
The party members will be able to learn special moves, also known as Master Arts, that can be unlocked through command inputs between two buttons in the specific orders.
If a party member fills the Showtime gauge from damaging enemies, they'll be able to initiate a powerful Showtime attack.
The protagonist can collect Personas as drops from defeating enemies in battle and fusing them in the Velvet Room.
The BOND system allows all party members to access and upgrade useful perks, by exchanging with special points that can be accumulated through winning battles or progressing the story. Over the course of the story, more abilities will be unlocked.
Early Purchase Bonus and Downloadable Contents
In Japan
There was an early purchase version of the game in Japan, which included the following battle BGM tracks from the series for free:
- Persona Sound Set
- Megami Ibunroku Persona: "Normal Battle - Refined Version"
- Persona (PSP): "A Lone Prayer"
- Persona 2 Sound Set
- Persona 2: Innocent Sin (PSP): "Normal Battle"
- Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (PSP): "Normal Battle"
- Persona 3 Sound Set
- Persona 3: "Mass Destruction"
- Persona 3 Portable: "Wiping All Out"
- Persona 4 Sound Set
- Persona 4: "Reach Out To The Truth"
- Persona 4 Golden: "Time To Make History"
Having the Sound Sets lets the player replace the regular battle BGM with the music from said sets. Each of these sets can also be purchased as DLC for 300 yen per set. Furthermore, if the player imports Persona 5 or Persona 5 Royal save data into Strikers for the PS4 version or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate save data for the Switch version, they can obtain a Sound Set of Persona 5's and Persona 5 Royal''s battle themes, "Last Surprise" and "Take Over."
Global
The battle BGM is bundled in the "Legacy BGM Pack" DLC.
Additionally, a new DLC, the All-Out Attack Pack includes several items for support in gameplay, mostly a collection of Skill Cards, 1 each:
- Boost Skills Pack
- Basic Affinity Pack
- Enemy Debuff Skills Pack
- Ally Buff Skills Pack
- Armor Pack
- 10K Persona points
Both DLCs are to become available on February 24th.
If bought digitally, the Standard Edition of the game contains several bonuses, such as a soundtrack with over 40 songs, a digital art book, and a behind-the-scenes video.
Special editions
In Japan
Persona 5 Strikers was released for the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch in Japan for 9,680 yen on February 20, 2020.
A 13,800 yen Limited Edition called Persona 5 Strikers Treasure Box includes the following additional content:
- Persona 5 Strikers art book
- Persona 5 Strikers soundtrack
- Theme Song Making-Of Blu-ray Movie
- A 350mm x 900 mm hand towel
- Special illustrated box
Global
The Digital Deluxe Edition allows purchasers to access the game early, on February 19, 2021. Also, both the Persona Legacy BGM and All-Out Attack packs are bundled in the collection.
Gallery
- General
(Facebook; Tweet; pixiv)
- Screenshots
- Wallpapers and Headers
- Release Date Mobile Wallpapers
- Concept Art
Videos
- Trailers
- Character Trailers
- Traveling Morgana Newsletters
In Other Languages
| Language | Title |
|---|---|
 English
|
Persona 5 Strikers |
 Japanese
|
ペルソナ５スクランブル ザ・ファントムストライカーズ (Perusona 5 Sukaranburu Za Fantomu Sutoraikaazu) |
 Korean
|
페르소나 5 스크램블 더 팬텀 스트라이커즈 (Pereusona 5 Seukeuraembeul Deo Paenteom Seuteuraikeojeu) |
  Traditional Chinese
|
女神異聞錄5 亂戰：魅影攻手 (Nǚshén yìwén lù 5 luàn zhàn: Mèiyǐng gōng shǒu) (Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers) |
 French
|
Persona 5 Strikers |
 Italian
|
Persona 5 Strikers |
 German
|
Persona 5 Strikers |
 Spanish
|
Persona 5 Strikers |
Trivia
- Persona 5 Strikers is the first Persona game released on Nintendo Switch.
- It is also the third Persona game overall to be released on Nintendo hardware, after the Persona Q games on the Nintendo 3DS.
- Persona 5 Strikers is the second Persona game to be released on Steam, the first being Persona 4 Golden.
- The game takes around 45 hours to complete.[3]
- Loading times in this game are significantly slower than in Persona 5 or Persona 5 Royal, especially on the Nintendo Switch. On the PlayStation 5 however, loading times are significantly faster and comparable to those in Persona 5 Royal in the PS4.
- The marketing behind the Japanese release date (2.20.2020) is tied to the concept that Persona 5 Strikers is the 2nd entry in the Persona 5 series.
- In addition, in the 2nd Japanese PV trailer, the logo of the game has temporarily transformed into P52 (lit. "Persona Five Two") before returning back to its normal look as P5S.
Morgana singing the P5S jingle
- The Japanese release date for Strikers has a complementary meaning behind it: The "2's" seem to be pronounced as "Nya", and the "0s" as "o." This serves as wordplay for the Japanese onomatopoeia for "Meow." It's used as part of a jingle to advertise the game, sung by Morgana: "Persona 5S; 2020.2.20!" (ペルソナ５S・にゃおにゃおにゃにゃお, Perusona Faibu Essu; Nyao Nyao Nya Nyao)?. Before the game's release, it could be played at the bottom of the Japanese Persona 5 Strikers website.
- Strikers was initially planned to be a "Persona Warriors" game spanning multiple titles. However, when coming together with Atlus for a story, it was decided to make it a direct sequel to Persona 5 and focus on continuing its story.[4] Another early concept was for the game to have the cast time travel to the Warring States era.
- All characters original to this game are designed by Koei instead of Atlus, although it was done under Atlus' supervision to ensure their designs are faithful to Persona's worldview.
- One of the early design drafts in the gameplay of Persona 5 was the action-based system incorporating real-time elements, but it was scrapped in fear of sudden changes making fans uncomfortable. The draft could have been modified and implemented to Persona 5 Strikers.[5]
- The font Optima Nova is used for the dialogue in Strikers, which is the same one in Persona 5 Royal and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight.
- In the Japanese version of Strikers, the font, FOT-Slump Std (FOT-スランプStd), is left unchanged between games of the Persona 5 series.
- In the Traditional Chinese version of Strikers, the font was changed from ordinary round sans to FZYiHei (方正藝黑) in favor of distinction and stylishness.
- In comparison to the Japanese box art for Strikers, the Western one has been mildly modified: instead of having Ryuji be punched in the face by a Shadow in a comical fashion, his artwork has been modified to one where he falls down wielding his weapon while the Shadow grabs him by the ascot. This is because the ESRB does not allow video game box arts to depict violent blows to the head.[6]
- Some parts of Striker's English transcript might be substiantially different compared to the Japanese and Chinese versions.
External Links
- Official Western Website
- Official Japanese Website
- Official Korean Website
- Official Traditional Chinese Website
- Steam page
References
- ↑ Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers Debuts with 162k Copies Sold in Japan, Second Best Debut for Persona Spin-Off Persona Central (Reggy, February 26, 2020)
- ↑ Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers Second Week Sales, PS4 and Switch Combined Top Charts, Persona Central (Reggy, March 4, 2020)
- ↑ Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers Famitsu Review Score: 36/40, Impressions, Story is 45 Hours Long Persona Central (Reggy, February 12, 2020)
- ↑ Persona 5 Scramble Was Originally Planned as ‘Persona Warriors’ Siliconera (SATO, January 26, 2020)
- ↑ かつてないプレイ体験を──満を持して発売された『ペルソナ５』の開発裏話【特集最終回】 PlayStation.Blog (PS.Blog Staff, September 21, 2016)
- ↑ Advertising Principles and Guidelines, esrb.org