Persona 5 Strikers
Claire Brownstone, Contributing Editor
Since the surge in popularity of the Persona games, the developer Atlus has been pumping out spin-off games in an attempt to expand its consumer base. While these spin offs allow the creation of different genres with the same characters – from rhythm games to fighting games – for the most part they suffer from a story that pales in comparison to the main titles. For example, Persona 4: Dancing had a cringe-worthy story that you were forced to play through in order to unlock the free dance mode. So, as you can imagine, I picked up Persona 5: Strikers with low expectations.
Strikers is another collaboration with the Dynasty Warriors developers Omega Force and Koei Tecmo, similar to The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors. The Phantom Thieves from Persona 5 are back together for summer vacation, this time traveling all across Japan chasing new villains utilizing the Metaverse (the “cognitive world” that was supposedly destroyed in the first game). The events take place after the main game, and as such the game expects you to know the ending of Persona 5 (but not the Royal edition of the game). I’ve been an avid fan of the Persona series since I first played Persona 4: Golden, but this was my first experience with a Dynasty Warriors-style game. The first impression I had was how much it felt like a true Persona 5 experience – in everything from the opening animation, to the stylish menu, to the soundtrack, it was without a doubt a Persona game. It felt so much like the original, that when I started my first battle it took a minute to get my reaction timing used to an action RPG rather than the turn-based combat of P5.
Once I adjusted, I realized that the Dynasty Warriors style gameplay works exceptionally well for a Persona game. Each party member has unique abilities and playstyles, and it’s easy to quickly “baton pass” to another party member in the in the middle of battle. They kept everything that made the Persona battle system unique – exploiting elemental weaknesses, managing HP and SP use, deciding on party members, and, of course, the stylish finishers such as All-Out Attacks – but they also added the ability to dodge, interact with the environment during battles, and combinations that differ depending on who you’re controlling. They even added special finisher moves called “Showtimes,” which are unique to each character.
There are several things outside of combat that differ from the original as well. The time management that’s so essential to main Persona games has been removed. You can leave and return to the dungeon as many times as you want without progressing time, allowing for unlimited dungeon crawling. There are no Social Links, no social stats to level up, and even Persona fusion has been simplified. Despite all the differences, it feels more like a faithful sequel to a main Persona game than a spin-off. And that’s largely due to how they approach the story. It would have been so easy for the developers to phone-in a completely random reason for the Metaverse return. The dungeons could have followed the same pattern as those in the original. But they clearly put a lot of effort into making a plausible scenario for a sequel, with enough mystery to keep players engaged.
One of the great parts of any Persona games is that each game grapples with major issues that society is facing. Persona 4 dealt with how the media can distort and hide the truth, and the masses go along with the deception because it’s easier than dealing with the harsh reality. Persona 5 showcased how people in positions of power are not subject to the same rules or laws as others. Strikers highlights another issue that faces all countries with a celebrity culture: celebrity worship. The first dungeon, or Jail as they’re called in the game, focuses on a famous fashion icon named Alice Hiiragi. Through the use of the Metaverse, Alice is stealing her fans’ “desires,” which basically turns them into vacant shells whose only purpose in life is to follow Alice’s career and buy absurd amounts of her merchandise. As you overhear conversations in Tokyo, you realize that her followers have abandoned relationships, spent all their savings, and started taking out massive loans to fuel their obsession.
While this may seem like an exaggeration, celebrity worship is a very real cultural phenomenon which deserves criticism. As demonstrated in Strikers, focusing on celebrity life in the media is a way to distract people from not only their personal problems, but also from larger social problems. If news outlets are constantly focused on the latest movie stars or songwriters, that leaves less time for focusing on serious issues, such as who’s running for political office, what social programs would be beneficial for a community, or pointing out ways that people can volunteer to help families in need. Granted, in our own reality, distraction is more the point of the celebrity pieces rather than a sinister plot, but it’s important to recognize the effects of celebrity culture on what news stories we’re presented.
As you travel through Alice’s Jail, you realize that she’s using fame to cover up past trauma. She was horribly bullied in school, and rather than dealing with her trauma in a healthy way, she buried it under this façade, or persona, of fame. She sought adoration from the masses to make up for the lack of approval she felt as a teenager, but, in the process, lost empathy for other people. After the Phantom Thieves finally “change her heart” to help her see the error of her ways, she realizes that her obsession with fame has blinded her from not only dealing with her own issues but also the good she could do by showing teens that being different can be a good thing. In this way, Strikers makes it clear that celebrity worship is not only problematic for audiences, but also damaging to celebrities themselves. After all, celebrities are only human, not perfect idols.
This theme is maintained throughout the rest of the Jails the Phantom Thieves investigate, from famous authors to politicians. Another nice touch is that each Phantom Thief seems to take a special interest in a specific Jail which relates to their own character development from the previous game. The amount of care the developers took to ensure that the characterizations were consistent for all of them makes it that much more satisfying for fans. While originally I wasn’t sure how a Persona game would translate to an action RPG, this game made me realize that the battle system is far from the only thing that is the core of a Persona game. As long as they keep the same standards of visual design, story, social commentary, and soundtrack as the originals, I’ll certainly be picking up any more Persona: Strikers games they decide to make in the future.
