Persona 5 Strikers isn’t just a Musou spin-off of the hit JRPG, but an actual continuation of Persona 5, taking place six months after that game’s conclusion and reuniting the Phantom Thieves for another adventure; one that takes them across Japan during a summer road trip. Since it has been almost four years since the original game’s release (not counting Persona 5 Royal, of course), let’s briefly recap and refresh fans’ memories of what exactly happened and where the Phantom Thieves’ lives left off.
Persona 5 focuses on a young high-school student who the player gets to name. Some fans will argue over what his canon name is, but he is later given the codename Joker. One night, he witnesses a young woman being harassed and assaulted by a man and steps in to help. However, the man turns things around and manages to have Joker arrested and charged with assaulting him. Placed on probation, he is transferred to Shujin Academy in Tokyo, where he stays with coffee shop owner Sojiro Sakura, sleeping in a dusty attic above the shop.
On his first night, Joker has a dream where he appears in the Velvet Room, trapped in a jail cell and wearing prison garb. There, the Velvet Room’s Master, Igor, and the twin wardens Caroline and Justine warn him of an impending ‘ruin’ and that he must be ‘rehabilitated’ if said ruin is to be averted.
The following morning, Joker makes his way to school. But, thanks to a mysterious app that suddenly appeared on his phone, (later named the Metaverse Navigator and revealed to have been provided by Igor), he and another student named Ryuji Sakamoto instead find themselves at a castle. The castle’s ruler is apparently one Kamoshida, a gym teacher at the school, who orders the two to be killed. It’s at this point when Joker awakens to his Persona, allowing him and Ryuji to escape, but not before encountering and freeing another prisoner – a small, cat-like creature called Morgana.
Morgana also has a Persona and explains that the world they are in is the Metaverse, which represents the collective unconsciousness of humanity, and is populated with Shadows. Palaces, like Kamoshida’s castle, are born from distorted desires and are meant to reflect a person’s true nature.
Joker, Ryuji, and Morgana return to the real world, where Morgana takes the form of a regular cat. Thanks to their encounter with his Shadow and further exploration of his Palace, they deduce that Kamoshida, who is otherwise beloved by the school, has a darker side to him and is abusing the members of the volleyball team and sexually harassing the girls. Morgana explains that if they can steal a person’s Treasure (the source of a person’s twisted desires), it could trigger a change of heart and make Kamoshida change his ways.
While Ryuji later obtains a Persona of his own, the group remains unsure whether it’s right to forcefully change a heart, especially since it could trigger a mental shutdown and possibly kill Kamoshida. But when a girl, Shiho, attempts suicide because of Kamoshida, the team agrees to go through with it. They are also joined by Ann Takamaki, one of Kamoshida’s victims and Shiho’s best friend, who swears vengeance against Kamoshida and gets a Persona after following Joker and Ryuji into the Metaverse.
With added assistance from Igor and the twins, who help make Joker new Personas, the Phantom Thieves successfully change Kamoshida’s heart, with him publicly confessing to his crimes. The team decides to continue being Phantom Thieves so that they can help those in need and change the hearts of criminals. Meanwhile, they also begin exploring Mementos, a Palace for the general public, in order to help Morgana recover his lost memories. But in the meantime, a series of strange mental shutdown incidents begin to rise as well.
Over the following months, the Phantom Thieves continue to prove their existence to society and make a name for themselves and not just through requests made on a fan-made message board called the Phan-Site set up by Mishima, another student who suffered under Kamoshida. They take down other big-name targets, starting with a famous artist called Madarame.
They discover that Madarame was abusing his students and plagiarizing their work, passing it off as his own. His most devout student, Yusuke Kitagawa, denies the allegations until he accidentally enters Madarame’s Palace himself and gets a Persona, joining the Phantom Thieves in changing Madarame’s heart.
Sometime after that, their identities are discovered by Makoto Niijima, the student council president and younger sister of prosecutor Sae Niijima. Instead of turning them in, she instead requests them to change the heart of mafia boss Kaneshiro, who has been exploiting and blackmailing Shujin students. Makoto also gains a Persona of her own and joins the Phantom Thieves. It’s during these two missions that they learn of a black-masked individual that’s been spotted roaming the Metaverse.
Later, their identities are discovered again, but this time by Futaba Sakura, the reclusive adopted daughter of Sojiro. Futaba asked for her own heart to be changed, as she had become a shut-in due to the trauma of her mother dying. Futaba blamed herself for her mother’s death but, thanks to the Thieves’ efforts, she changed her own heart, obtained a Persona, and offered her hacking skills to the group.
The group’s next target became Okumura, the CEO of Okumura Foods, who was believed to be guilty of overworking his employees and had seemingly been voted by the public on the Phan-Site. They also wound up recruiting Okumura’s own daughter, Haru, who was aware of how awful her father had become and was in danger of being forced into an arranged marriage.
The Thieves succeeded and even learned that Okumura was requesting certain mental shutdowns be made in order to help his business. After they leave, however, the one in the black mask kills Okumura’s Shadow, which in turn kills Okumura in real life. His death is blamed on the Phantom Thieves, costing them their newfound popularity.
Things only get worse when the young genius detective Goro Akechi approaches them, revealing that he’s deduced their identities as well. However, Akechi is also a Persona user and suggests a temporary alliance so that he can uncover the truth behind the mental shutdown cases. To do this, they must first change the heart of Makoto’s sister, Sae, whose desire for justice has become distorted to the point where she may seek a false conviction.
The team agrees and, together, they infiltrate Sae’s Palace. While they defeat Sae’s Shadow, the mission ends in failure as Joker is suddenly arrested as he tries to escape the Metaverse, having been sold out by one of his teammates. He is beaten and drugged by the police before being interrogated by Sae, to which Joker regales the entire story up to that point.
It’s during this interrogation that it’s revealed that the traitor is Akechi, who later enters the interrogation room and assassinates Joker under a certain someone’s orders. Except he didn’t. It turns out the Thieves had managed to figure out that Akechi would double-cross them and thanks to their combined efforts and Joker managing to convince Sae to help him, they trick Akechi into killing a cognitive copy of Joker within the Metaverse, while Sae helps Joker escape from prison.
After some more investigating, the team learns that a man called Shido is ultimately behind everything; the mental shutdown cases, Okumura’s death, and even the rise and fall of the Phantom Thieves. An incredibly popular and charismatic politician, Shido plots to become Prime Minister and he has been using the Metaverse and Akechi as his personal assassin to do away with anyone who opposes him. Joker also realizes that it was Shido who convicted him of assault in the first place.
The Thieves head into Shido’s Palace to change his heart, where they encounter Akechi once more. Akechi reveals his true identity as the one in the black mask and Shido’s bastard son. Akechi planned to double-cross Shido and ruin his career but, after being defeated in battle, he seemingly sacrifices himself to help the Thieves escape from an army of Shadows, begging that they stop Shido.
After a final showdown with Shido’s Shadow, the effort to change his heart is a success, with Shido confessing to the nation shortly after being elected Prime Minister. But the general public appears to barely acknowledge it and even start doubting if the Phantom Thieves even existed.
Sensing something is very wrong, the party descends into Mementos, so that they can steal the public’s Treasure, which Morgana explains would make the Metaverse disappear and the Thieves’ Persona powers along with it. Once they reach the bottom of Mementos, they discover the Treasure is sentient, calling itself the Holy Grail. The Grail claims that the public wishes to be ruled by a higher power and not have to make decisions for themselves. The Holy Grail not only defeats the Thieves in battle but begins to merge Mementos with the real world, which leads to the Thieves being erased from existence, as the public doesn’t believe in them anymore.
Joker awakens in the Velvet Room once more, where Igor berates him for failing and orders his execution. The twins, however, cannot go through with it and, suspecting something is wrong with Igor, ask Joker to fuse them. In doing so, they are restored to their original form, Lavenza, who reveals that the Igor standing before them is an imposter.
It turns out the Holy Grail was masquerading as Igor the whole time and had been manipulating Joker from the start, all for his own game to decide the fate of humanity. The fake Igor leaves, returning the real Igor, who had been sealed away. Lavenza informs Joker that his friends are still alive in the Velvet Room and he recovers them. It’s also revealed during this time that Morgana was created by Igor just before he was captured to find and aid Joker.
The Thieves head back to Tokyo and face the Holy Grail, who transforms into Yaldabaoth, the God of Control. Meanwhile, the general public gradually becomes aware of the twisted world around them and begins to cheer for the Phantom Thieves. With the belief in them restored, Joker awakens to his Ultimate Persona and defeats Yaldabaoth for good.
The world is restored to normal, with the public now having no knowledge of what just happened. But Morgana appears to vanish now that his purpose has been fulfilled. Joker is later approached by Sae, who asks that he turn himself in as the leader of the Phantom Thieves so that he can testify against Shido and have him prosecuted.
Thanks to the effort of his friends, though, Joker’s original conviction is overturned and he is released, while Shido is successfully prosecuted. Joker is able to spend his remaining months in Tokyo with his friends, including Morgana (who is now permanently a cat), before needing to return to his hometown. Morgana chooses to remain by Joker’s side and his friends decide to accompany him on the journey home.
Atlus has explained that Persona 5 Strikers doesn’t follow on from Royal‘s story. This means that Kasumi Yoshizawa, an additional party member, won’t appear or likely even be alluded to, which is probably a result of Royal and Strikers being in development around the same time.
Strikers will begin six months after the events of the original game, with Joker and Morgana coming back to Tokyo to join their friends on a road trip for summer vacation. But it’s during this trip that they get roped into another adventure and must resume their Phantom Thief identities to steal back stolen desires.
Persona 5 is available on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. Persona 5 Strikers will release for Nintendo Switch, PC, and PlayStation 4 on February 23rd.
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