Topic: Persona 5 Strikers

The anime's probably more designed for people who played P5 and want to experience the highlights again in a very abridged format, so yeah if you haven't played P5/R you're going to be missing out on a lot of the meat and a lot of the character interaction that the Persona series is primarily built around. Still, if its the only way you can currently experience P5 (Atlus apparantly being determined to release every single one of their titles except mainline Persona on Nintendo hardware), it's not a terrible entry point. If you have the means to play P5/R though, definitely go that route

I've been loving strikers - playing it on PS4 rather than Switch - I'm not usually one to chase Platinums in any game, but I reached the end and... still wanted to keep playing. So I'm currently about halfway through a Merciless difficulty run, and it's still a ton of fun. Really surprised by how good a follow-up the game is, Persona spin-offs haven't really done it for me in the past.

@jump The anime is fine as a standalone retelling but I would absolutely not recommend watching it as an alternative to playing the game since the game just conveys so many of the adapted events in a much better and more satisfying way

The animation is also extremely hit or miss. The only redeeming quality it has is that the original music made for the show is about on par with what's in the game

In fact the same also applies to all the other Persona anime adaptations excluding -trinity soul- since that's an original story that isn't canon to the game timeline anyway. The only of the Persona anime adaptations I can confidently say is really good at adapting the game it's based on is probably the original Persona 4 Animation since I haven't finished the Persona 3 movie series yet

Point is, if you have a PS3/PS4 and have a means to play Persona 5 or Royal, just do that first

@jump Honestly, I think watching a (good) LP would be an infinitely better option than watching the Persona 5 anime.

Or you could just... play Strikers. It's designed to be understood apart from the original story, after all.

@jump I think I said this a while back, but I'm very sure that getting all the characters at the start feels somewhat unrewarding. In Persona 5 you'd unlock each one as the story progresses, and the team dynamic would ebb and flow as you play.

The anime's alright but as @TheFrenchiestFry said, the animation quality's pretty awful. The Persona 4 anime is much better for me; the team dynamic was much more genuine than the one in 5.

If you don't have a PS3/4/5 to play Persona 5 (PS3/4) or Persona 5 Royal (PS4/5) then indeed watch a playthrough of the game. It'll take time but it'll be better than just looking up the summary.

I've quit playing this game as its just so boring. Every map is exactly the same. They even reuse a lot of the music.

Huge disappointment from P5/P5R.

@variouspeoplewhorepliedtome I have played P5 (but not Royal), I was just curious on if the anime (which I haven't seen) is good for filling gaps/understanding the game in relation to the previous pages of arguments of playing the game without playing P5.

@jump Hmm, you HAVE played P5. The anime has a solid English dub so I'd say go for it. Maybe start around the halfway mark, I remember the exposition being tedious.

@TheJGG Tbh there's a few specials in addition to the series so I just can't be arsed to figure out the order to watch them. It's not the most legit excuse for not watching it but I've haven't finished watching Lovecraft Country yet or even started Deadwood so why waste my time on a show that got a lukewarm response and is annoying me without having seen a single episode when there's legit great shows I could be watching instead ;p

I’m going to just go out and ask. Does Persona 5 Strikers spoil the main plot of P5/R? (The villain, motives etc) or will it spoil the twist like P4 arena does to P4/g?

I haven't finished it yet but most of the spoilers so far I'm seeing are either callbacks to specific confidant route events or light references to early-mid game palace rulers

It does acknowledge the main villain of the game who's only fully revealed during late in the game but he's basically soft-introduced super early in the game so you already kind of know you're coming into contact with him later

I finished Alice's Jail, and I'm enjoying the game a lot! Can't wait to explore the story more as I go!

@TheFrenchiestFry
So just like Arena don’t play this game or you will be spoiled.

@GameOtaku Nah not really

Arena HEAVILY built its story around the continuity of Persona 4 and especially Persona 3, but Strikers is way lighter on explicitly referencing P5 stuff from what I've played

It's the kind of thing where you obviously get more mileage out of it by playing P5 but it ain't required to enjoy the story on its own. It's basically like an MCU movie where it stands on its own fine, it just gets recontextualized when you know some of the plot beats

P5S does not at all really continue anything from P5 the same way P4A/Ultimax did. Most of the things it references from P5 so far are generally broad or if they're explicit, come from pretty early in the game

In fact the plot so far is actually super derivative of Persona 5's in a much broader sense, but you're only going to really notice that if you've played P5 before and know its structure

@TheFrenchiestFry Yeah I'm not even into the second jail and am already noticing a similar story structure to P5. Starting with a lusty character, then an artist who plagiarises (I think that's what he does), and so far the first used Ann as the central character, now it's Yusuke. I'm expecting another mysterious person with Makoto, a depressed person with Futaba, then a CEO with Haru... so on

@TheJGG It's basically a condensed version of P5's plot

It's honestly alarming how similar the structure of the two plots are. The only thing that's really missing is Igor or the confidant stuff between the major story beats

@TheFrenchiestFry While it's a very worthy sequel to Persona 5 it's very much more of the same, and emotionally has never come even marginally close to reaching the heights of the original. There's a number of lines I can pick here already that just have such a fan-servicey vibe. Like one clip I saw of Ryuji finally using the F-word, or him screaming in a cowboy accent "HEEEE HAWWWWW!!" Or Futaba going "boop" when you select the save option, or all her references... half the time it feels like a parody. I wish they took it seriously more often. Sometimes it just messes up the pacing.

@TheJGG I think they likely wanted to play it super safe in regards to the plot

It's obvious that the stories have never really been the strongest suits of the Persona console spinoffs. Arena's was criticized for juggling way too much and Q's was criticized for being somewhat bloated and unfocused amidst all the constant fanservice and callbacks to the other games. Especially given it looks like Atlus had a bit more of a hands off approach this time around, maybe KT knew that especially given how much shorter Strikers is than a mainline Persona game, they couldn't cram in too much that would make the narrative feel super grandiose since they were already focusing heavily on the aspect of the Thieves going all over Japan

@TheFrenchiestFry Nonetheless I'm super happy with how bang-up a job Koei Tecmo did, the amount of faithfulness that's been pumped into this game is shocking. Of course Age of Calamity released after it but that game was released in the west first and that one was such a joy to play. At times it felt like a proper Nintendo game, so... more of the same please!

The cutscenes take time though, that doesn't change.

@TheJGG Oh gameplay wise they totally knocked it out of the park. Persona is a series that's so rooted in its turn based combat that to see that they almost effortlessly adapted it to a more real time style while still retaining the strategy and challenge that the numbered entries provide with their battle systems made it super refreshing as an action RPG to play, and the story that's there is actually pretty decent if not at all mindblowing

I'd love for KT to take the reigns on something like a new Raidou game in the future based on how well P5S came out. It's probably tied with Arena Ultimax as my favorite Persona spinoff

Finally finished the game (at ~45 hours) and thought I'd give some final thoughts. There'll be quite a few spoilers - I'll tag anything specific as appropriate, but I might make some general statements that could be interpreted as spoiler-y so read with caution!

I was confident that this would be a great spin-off, but was unsure if I would feel like a true sequel to P5. I can put those thoughts to rest - the game did a great job of further fleshing out the characters and introducing a follow-up story that feels natural and canonical within the game's established world. Sure, it takes some elements from the main games (particularly the first few jails which essentially tread very similar water to the first game), but does enough that is unique to build on it and make this feel like a whole new experience.

The road trip was a fantastic addition and is was great to see the Phantom Thieves explore different parts of Japan - my only disappointment is that this wasn't fleshed out more. I would've liked to have seen more expansive maps and more unique things to do in each area. I'm also a little disappointed that, for story reasons, some areas were skipped over a little. That said, I found the game to be just the right length, so maybe fleshing these out would've made the game drag on a bit too much. Story-wise, I feel like each story arc was given just the right amount of time, which I quite appreciate.

I particularly loved all of the new characters introduced, and how they played into the PT's core dynamic. Zenkichi really stole the show here, showing how an adult with authority can throw a spanner in the works when it comes to the PT's core method. The arc with him and his daughter Akane was one of my favourite parts of the games - everything from first learning about this hidden depth to his character, to finding out her obsession with the PTs, to his awakening as a Persona user to save her from her jail, to their final reconciliation as father and daughter. And then, at the end of the game, rounding this off fully with the capture of his wife's killer. It was a great balance of comedic, badass and heartwarming, and the whole sequence really added a new layer of impact to the PT's story and helped me grow to love Zenkichi as a character.. Although I was originally fairly apathetic towards Sophia, she really came into her own towards the end of the game - her achieving her goal of understanding the human heart and passing this on to Ichinose was a great payoff for seeing her develop a bond with the Phantom Thieves throughout the game. Bottom line: the new characters really feel like they belong in this story and with the Phantom Thieves, and I really do hope that we get to see more of them in the future.

Moreover, I really like how the game dug more into the villains' backstories as well - highlighting that evil often stems from evil and the importance of destroying these vicious circles. The game got very dark at points - especially with regards to Konoe's backstory of killing his abusive father. Most villains had an understandable - although not justifiable - reason for their actions, although I am left a little disappointed that the game didn't elaborate on Konoe's father at all. Of all characters, he just seemed to be pure evil without explanation. Although I'm willing to accept this, because sometimes you do never truly find out why someone is motivated to do horrible things.

Back to the Phantom Thieves - I'm generally pleased with how they built on their dynamic in this game. With all of the Phantom Thieves already established in this game, it gave an opportunity for more an an ensemble dynamic, with every character getting their chance to shine. That said, the lack of social links means that individual characters were explored in a little less depth, and there was less opportunity to see one-to-one relationships with Joker and the other Thieves.

I also just generally miss confidants / social links as a gameplay mechanic - these are one of the main appeals of the Persona games for me. That said, this being a hack-and-slash spin-off, I can see why they were removed - although this game has RPG elements it's not an RPG in the same was as the main-series games, so confidants may have broken the pace quite a bit.

Speaking of gameplay - the core gameplay is fantastic. Hacking and slashing through enemies never got old, and the variety of characters and Personas helped spice things up a lot. The use of mechanics from the main series ensure that battles had as much depth as the main series - in fact, for this reason, I wouldn't be too disappointed if they went for an action-based battle system in a future main-series entry.

Overall this game was a great experience that I loved pretty much every bit as much as the main series games. I'm already quite the fan of Musou spin-offs - really enjoying Hyrule Warriors, Fire Emblem Warriors, and One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 in particular, and hoping for some more Nintendo crossovers in the future - but this game really went above and beyond and felt more like a Persona game with Musou elements than anything. It goes down as both my favourite Persona spin-off and my favourite Musou game. Definite recommendation to anyone who is a fan of Persona and JRPGs in general.