There are still quite a few holy grail games left that nintendo switch owners would like on their hybrid console. Even after the near four years since it's released.
One of the biggest of these games is without doubt persona specifically persona 5 which has been out on the playstation about the same length of time as switch itself. The switch does have a few persona-like games such as tokyo mirage sessions and shin megami tensei 5 which has seemingly been coming soon since before the switch even launched.
Still hasn't even made it out yet the brains behind persona atlas loved to tease and registered some trademarks a couple of years ago including the name p5s which some absolutely idiotic youtube channels took to believe stood for persona 5 switch.
Yeah, i was one of those but at last no it turns out p5s was in fact a trademark for a new game called persona 5 strikers.
Which would be made by a division of koei tecmo famed for their musou series of games musou games are large action games that see your heroes fight mobs of baddies that number in the hundreds across huge spawning maps and a number of those games are already on the switch such as fire emblem warriors hyrule warriors and dynasty warriors.
So it turns out persona strikers was going to be a warriors game set in the persona 5 universe While disappointingly not the full fat persona 5 port we all wanted.
I'm happy to say persona strikers is a much tighter intense affair that offers so much of the main games feel and then marries in the most enjoyable parts of the musou games action sections to create one of the most enjoyable switch games i've ever played.
As i said persona strikers is set slap bang in the persona 5 universe. Some six months after the end of the main game, we rejoined joker ryuji morgana and the lovely anne as well as the rest of the cast from the get-go this time around.
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They are gradually joined by new cast members that slot right in and feel very natural to the looks like you've story doing fine you too morgana the first few hours. Really had me excited as i stepped back onto the streets of tokyo and around the shibuya area everything in the game has been lifted straight from the asset library of persona 5.
The characters locales music all of it was so much
like continuing persona 5. But on the switch, unfortunately as the game
develops you realize it's a little bit of all show and no tell as well you can
walk around the same streets and see the same shops and sights as the main game
strikers is a very limited affair.
When it comes to exploration, all the main shops you know and love are conveniently closed for the summer and exploring quickly becomes a hollow and fairly pointless activity.
There are some shops open here though. You never get to venture inside instead ordering from a pop-up menu. The thought you may wander around to say visit the batting cages to waste some time never really materializes.
It's understandable when you realize this is a much more streamlined and linear game focusing more on the story than on your character growth.
But it does turn our 120 hour plus rpg into a more manageable 40 hour romp which is still an excellent chunk of game for your money.
The removal of having to pass the time with activities allows the story to develop along an enjoyable pace.
While there are a lot of cutscenes especially in the first few hours to set the story up these are all fully voiced by the original persona 5 cast adding to the top-notch production values.
What makes them even more impressive ?
Is all the voice acting was done remotely from the actors homes due to the current pandemic. You would never know as the same level of emotion and excitement still comes across perfectly.
Especially from Ryuji who is still an excitable
potty mouth. This time around the phantom thieves find themselves having to
enter into prisons rather than palaces via a new phone app called Emma as a
road trip across japan rescuing people from evil celebrities who have stolen
their desires to manipulate their people for their own.
Means, it's the usual crazy persona set up and the game makes many references back to the original title nothing the differences.
They're facing this time around and how the evil doers stole their hearts originally. The desires this time around all is not what it seems to be here though and the story takes multiple twists and has me genuinely hooked on the next curveball around 10 hours into the main story.
A new feature called requests opens up which allow you to revisit past areas and take on new bite-sized missions to grind for xp and win new gear. I really enjoyed this element of breaking the story up and often ventured back on a new side mission with some of my less leveled characters to bring them up to snuff.
As i mentioned earlier, you're looking around 40 to 50 hours here to complete the main game story.
There is actually a new game plus to play through as well. Also multiple skill levels you can choose from if the action gets too manic and this can be changed anytime along with a few other options including the option of english or japanese voice acting which was another nice touch.
If you've been following this game at all then you will know that the combat is the main change here to the core persona gameplay.
As it switches from turn-based attack to a real-time action system based on the musou or as it's more commonly known in the west the warriors series of games while the majority of the time.
You'll be hacking and slashing your way through huge mobs. Don't let that fool you into thinking the combat is mindless button mashing taking inspiration from its source striker's combat gives you a wide array of tools to deal out your damage.
Beyond the basic light and heavy attack combo system.
You have a ranged weapon and more importantly you can pause the action to bring your persona into play personas are the equivalent of magical attacks and buffs.
Each person can hold multiple spells that each use different amounts from your limited sp bar holding down the r button brings up your persona menu and allows you to aim an area of effect target.
At the same time you can scroll through your spells and press a to unleash your persona. Each persona has a different elemental class and enemies will be weak or strong to these elements. Hit an enemy with a persona element.
They are weak to will temporarily knock them down and quickly pressing a allows you all to pile on and lay on the hurt for some big damage combat has many other nuances such as being able to switch between three of the other party members from your original selection of four.
Which you can also reorganize at checkpoints. You
can also use your environment to your advantage
darting between cover leaping from chandeliers or even jumping up and exploding vehicles many of which are accompanied by a lovely little cutscene
You can tag in another character mid combo to help keep the party going and use a variety of items you have in your arsenal.
You will need to master every single one of these skills to take down the enemies efficiently.
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After the first few hours and in being forced to do so combat really opens up from a confusing button-mashing free-for-all into a very tense and often tactical affair as you manage focusing on the right enemies with the right types of attack.
This was one of the most surprising things for me in the game. I do quite enjoy the warriors games but they can feel like you're just switching off for a bit and just mashing away with the buttons.
But midway through strikers, i was having to really think about how to approach fights and constantly ensuring.
I had the right party for certain battles. I absolutely love this element and may even prefer it now over the turn-based approach of mainline persona.
One thing i don't usually like in the warriors games is the massive map and the fact that a single mission sees you spending 30 minutes running all over the place.
Basically putting out fires. I was concerned strikers would be the same but again color me surprised to see battles kept to short sharp affairs.
Where you deal with one or two mobs get your rewards and then then freed up to carry on your exploration of them prison metaverse. A huge plus for me that and again.
It really increased my enjoyment of the game massively chapters are usually broken into fairly long story introductions.
Where the thieves will discover their target then follows an investigation period of wandering the streets to find evidence of wrong doings.
To be honest i really didn't like these sections as finding targets to talk to is very frustrating and thankfully they are few and far between.
Once you have your evidence the rest of the chapter is mostly spent hopping between the prison taking out shadows and exploring for treasure and also jumping back into the real world to restock on items and heal up.
It's a decent loop although the lack of real world activities often sees. You just jump out at a checkpoint only to sit through some loading screens and then go straight back into the metaverse which can be annoying.
Gradually more side activities do open up though. Which gives you a bit more to do when you're in your resting phases such as cooking recipes that you can acquire which give you items that buff your stats a reward system called bonds.
Also plays a big part and really replaces the one-to-one friendship bars you have in the mainline persona games here doing group activities, give you bond points which can be spent on a wide range of upgrades
to help you out finally and i say finally whilst also probably ignoring a whole raft of other stuff available to do in the game.
You get the velvet room maker return from persona 5. Where you can create more powerful personas to use in battle by sacrificing two weaker ones the gameplay of persona strikers is what really has me returning to it time and again to progress the story.
It just feels perfectly at home on the nintendo switch persona strikers is persona 5 on your nintendo switch. More or less everything has been handled with the utmost care presentation-wise with as i mentioned basically an asset dump from the main game into strikers.
It's just brilliant to spend more time in the persona 5 universe and there's really not a single corner cut in terms of presentation you've got everything from the mainline game the same characters the same art, the same brilliant musical scores, the voice acting the beautiful and wacky menu ui, and the bouncy screen transitions.
It's a great continuation from persona 5. But only now on a handheld performance for the most part is really solid with some slight slowdown only noticeable. When things get incredibly crazy on screen considering most of the time combat sees the screen full of enemies.
Your four characters all firing off various simultaneous attacks, a fully rotating 3d environment.
You can dart around and interact with and quite often running commentary on the whole thing from the rest of your party.
Well, then the performance can only be admired and really praised. I've mentioned the music in passing but, it really does deserve to be acknowledged.
There's a reason japan has persona concerts with live musicians attended by thousands of fans the music is on another level and you'll be humming along to most of the tunes that really never get old no matter how many times you hear them.
I'd really recommend trying to pick up the
soundtrack to the game as well. You can even unlock music from all the past
persona games in various ways.
If you want to mix things up right, i'd better wrap things up as I could talk for hours about how much i
love this game as much as i still want the full persona experience on the switch.
Strikers has filled the void and then some taking the fantastic balls out styling of the original and making it something new is a joy to experience.
I never for a second got bored playing this game and for me that is quite a statement. As i'm always looking for the latest shiny thing to move on to the combat which you may expect to become a chore constantly evolves to keep you engaged.
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The story will really get its hooks into you my disappointments are a small list really the facade that you can walk around and interact with bustling locations was a bit of a let down the many loading screens though they are fairly snappy can great.
The fact especially early on in the story moving to and from the metaverse is just an exercise to recover your health only all of these are fairly easy to overlook. When the rest of the game is so good it's a must own for persona fans.
Obviously, but persona strikers is also an action-packed stylish wacky and deep game that deserves to steal the desires of all nintendo switch gamers. An easy recommendation and gets a fantastic score of 9.5 out of 10.
I hope you enjoyed my review of persona strikers on the nintendo switch. Please leave me a comment below if you're a persona fan and you're going to be picking this one up.
Please let me know what you think of it if you do if you like this one over the original persona game.
I'd be really interested to see who feels that way but that's all for now just left to say thanks again for reading my review.
