After a worrying lack of communication from Atlus, the company recently confirmed that Persona 5 spin-off/sequel Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers is finally releasing in Western regions under the abridged name of Persona 5 Strikers.
While a name change isn’t too surprising (though there are some fans who prefer the original title), that’s not the only thing that’s different between the Japanese and Western versions of the game. For some reason, Atlus has also made a rather curious change to the Persona 5 Strikers box-art, albeit a very minor one.
In Japan, the box-art depicts the Phantom Thieves (the main characters of Persona 5) all striking dramatic poses as their throw themselves into the action, with the exception of Ryuji (aka Skull). Unlike his fellow thieves, poor Ryuji is seen being smacked in the face by an enemy in a comical fashion. On the Western box-art, however, the enemy’s arm has been repositioned and Ryuji is now readying an attack, with his iron pipe raised.
At the time of writing, no official statement has been given as to why this change has been made, though one fan theorizes that it might have to do with the ESRB guidelines. “Violent blows to the head,” like what Ryuji suffers on the Japanese box-art, are considered a depiction of violence by the ESRB, so maybe Atlus had to make the change to secure a certain age rating.
Japanese games having certain bits of content changed when brought to the West is nothing new. There have been plenty of titles that have had to go through censorship in order to release in Western regions, though these are usually met with fierce backlash (for example, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE).
In this instance, however, the general response appears to either be indifference or approval, with plenty of fans considering the Western box-art to be the better of the two. Judging by comments, this is because fans of Ryuji himself prefer seeing him get to be cool alongside his fellow Thieves, rather than be a punching bag for the sake of a joke.
As a reminder, Persona 5 Strikers is not another RPG but instead a Musou game in the same vein as the Dynasty Warriors series, though it still retains many elements and mechanics from Persona 5. It also serves as a continuation of the original game’s story.
Pre-orders are planned to become available later tonight and Lyn Inaizumi, the singer behind all the vocal tracks for Persona 5 and related media, will be performing music as part of The Game Awards 2020 as well.
Persona 5 Strikers will release for Nintendo Switch, PC, and PlayStation 4 on February 23rd.
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