Quick Look: Persona 5 Strikers

So... what the fuck is Persona?

I previously thought it was just a weird high school ghost game where you occasionally summon a ghost by shoving a glock in your temple and you do so to make friends with your teammates and max out your buddy grids and blah blah blah

But apparently these are government agents who talk to phone apps?

I am increasingly wondering if this is another Yakuza where I dismissed it for decade(s?) because I did not actually know the premise.

Pleasantly surprised to see this be like a real-deal Persona game with combat. Much like Jan I expected this to be basically a barebones beat em up with the Persona 5 aesthetics layered on top. Now I might actually check this out.

@gundato: You should probably play Persona 4 Golden (at least)

As much as I love the Persona 5 Styyyyyyle, they really piled it on thick here and it's kinda hard to read the action.

yeet

Jan's correct thief codename is "The Splits"

Yeet Takeshi, star of Sonatinarino.

I would say play Persona 4 (and watch the Endurance Run!)

Persona 4 was the only persona game I could stand looking at or even listen to. I only watched this QL because so many others seem to love the series so much.

Ah...the magic I will never grasp...

The glock thing was part of the 3rd game. 4th game was going TVs. 5th is the phone app.

It's just an RPG that has some high school slice of life, and then mixed in with that supernatural fighting part that connects with the glock, TV, or app.

First 2 Persona games were kind of a totally different thing....so you could almost consider 3-5 its own series.

This quicklook sold me on this game

The NEO Itoh Respect Army appreciates your contribution.

Fun aside from living in Japan during the events of the past year:

A lot of places, like A LOT, are still that crowded! And not everyone is wearing a mask! It's great! (It's not great)

@gundato: Might I recommend the Persona 4 Endurance Run?

@gundato: You seem to have mistaken surface level motifs for core themes.

@carsend: Fair enough. So still not my cup of tea

Thanks for actually explaining what the deal was though

This...THIS! Should be the next endurance run!

Persona 5 at this frame rate is weirdly jarring

This game seems fucking cool

another waifu-bot seems a little uninspired as far as new characters go, but this seems like a good game

Alex and Jan have such fantastic chemistry. I want more QLs with them for sure

i'm almost 40 hours into P5Strikers and it rocks. very glad that Alex and Jan highlight how different this game is from your average musou

@tiffanytryhard: As far as I know robots literally cannot take any other form, it's physically impossible.

I now have lots of questions about the Japanese prison system

Thank you, Depression Thief.

@gundato: 3 had a bit of the "you were working with an off-the-grid scientific agency to fight the paranormal while going to school" but you hang out in a dorm that connects to a secret research base headed by an adult. 4 you basically were "just kids on their own", made an after-school hangout with zero resources other than an other-dimentional bear you befriend but ultimately the same purpose as 3's dorm. 5 is more close to 4 with the whole "let's sleuth this mystery out on our own hangout spot" but one of the kids ends up being a hacker with a lot of pull which gives you an extra "we can get access to cool shit when convenient" layer to things too. The highschool slice of life is still a big/essential element to the game; tonally the slice-of-life stuff is where the game is its best but still kind of different from Yakuza. Really the biggest barrier to entry has always been the 150+ hour length. That said, P5 Strikers having this extra layer is pretty unexpected and different from the vanilla game but I don't think you'll be able to understand it without playing 150 hours of P5 first

@gundato: Yes.

I think we'll see a Persona kart racer before a MOBA. I doubt there'll be a smash clone since Blaz Blue Cross exists.

Maybe he figures it out later but you can just press d-pad Down after a fight to heal using SP. There's literally an auto-recover prompt on screen at all time outside of battle.

I really want to love the Persona games, but "every conversation is about twice as long as it needs to be" and "every plot point and dungeon is about an hour longer than it needs to be" is the weak point of every damn game in the series. I've been hoping for a decade+ that they'd figure out pacing or release something that isn't trying to be 100+ hours. P5 even added a lot of quality of life things to speed things up over P3/P4, but it's still insanely and unnecessarily long.

The fact that those issues translate even into the Musuo-inspired take on the game is crazy. You can have conversations that don't have every character speak! You don't have to reiterate plot points five times or spend an hour setting up an obvious reveal! Dungeons don't have to take multiple sittings to complete and be based around resource conservation!

Oh wow, this is a lot more than I was ever expecting.

"We could make them look like anything, but we made them look like waifus."

@deathpooky: All of this. I wasn't going to get this because I didn't care for P5, and seeing the deadweight cutscenes brought me right back to it. I know there are some translation issues that make the dialog worse and voice acting slows things even more but retaining that pacing whole cloth in a Musou is wild. Persona 2, which 5 really wanted to emulate, is so much tighter and better for it.

put 92 hours into PS5 . the space ship dungeon was so bad i stopped playing

Always trying to underplay the absolute magnificence of musou games, smh.
All hail the almighty Musou!

@wtfoliver: the only musou games I ever really loved were the Empires spin-offs. I liked that extremely light strategy layer over top the action. those were fun.

I've heard good things about the Zelda ones and maybe one of these days I'll try 'em out.

@alex my outlook on the musou games are mostly a meme don't tell anyone: I guess I'd honestly say they are more like great toys especially the ones based on other IP like the One Piece, DQ or Zelda ones letting you absolutely go ham on jobbers with your favourite hero of choice. The whole bashing action figures together really comes ahead in Warriors All-Stars that pulls characters from several Koei games.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity hit surprisingly strong, very excellent emotional notes...and honestly made me care more about the characters than regular BotW did????

This seems to be on-track to be a delightfully fun sequel that keeps continuity of actors and tone, again I must stress: SHOCKINGLY well.

@zeeman155: They don’t take 150 hours to finish unless you are trying to see and do every last little thing.

@broshmosh: We all forget that P4A exists as well. I would be into the idea of a P5A.

dungeon plungin

i almost thought jan was making a golden kamu reference with the tattoo joke

@gundato: it's a JRPG that has some connecting mechanics between the games (summoning personas, turn based battles, the dungeons you enter are all... Generally the same type of deal but the main crux of the games are the social link / interpersonal relationships and time management.) but is more like Final Fantasy in that the games aren't necessarily connected like that.

Persona 3 was the "shot yourself in the head to summon/do actions."

Persona 4 you had to basically accept your inner desires that you didn't want to confront to get the ability to summon a persona.

P5 I have played less recently than the other 2, so I don't remember exactly how they came about their powers.

Great games but they are tailored towards specific tastes (either JRPG if you like turn based combat with summons and skills, or the slice of life anime fan. Or both preferably.) the games have their rough edges, in terms of writing and/or characterization, but are generally exceptional if it's a game that hits that spot for you

It's ok to like a musou game

I was expecting a lot more musou in this musou game. It's great to see Omega Force making their crossover games that adapt & cater to the fanbase of the IP, but I think I'll finally be able to resist buying one of these musou crossover games since I have zero affinity for Persona.

Just so you know Alex, you can run in the jails between battles if you tap R2.

A stay at home order or lockdown, is not quarantine, but I hear a lot of California based podcasters make the same mistake. When California was put in lockdown at the start of the pandemic, you could still go to the supermarket or the gas station or pharmacy. When someone is put in quarantine, they are not leaving to go anywhere except to be transported to the hospital if they get badly sick.

https://theconversation.com/amp/lockdown-quarantine-and-self-isolation-how-different-covid-restrictions-affect-our-mental-health-153595

I'd watch these two do a playthrough of this.

Getting some Kingdom Hearts vibes from the gameplay parts actually. Surprising! But at the same time sort of dissapointing? Like it seems you fight maybe 20 enemies that are tightly packed together at the same time, when the nr 1 thing i enjoy from a Musou is the sheer damage you can dish out to enemies over a decent amount of land and see them bounce all over the place as you hit them.

It is pretty awesome how much of Persona there's packed in this. Even an entire storyline with enemies that are tied to a specific theme, and all the characters having PLENTY to say. Probably too much to say honestly. It's never enjoyable to realize the characters are complete idiots because they need to have everything confirmed over 3 cutscenes while you as the player know exactly what's going on after the first one.