In the original ending to Persona 5, the Phantom Thieves finally finished their mission and were primed to finally relax after a long-fought battle. The base game’s spin-off, Persona 5 Strikers, is meant to be a follow-up to that scene. Veterans of the original Persona 5 get a rare opportunity to spend even more time with the Phantom Thieves, the heroes of the JRPG that has since exploded in popularity. Some may have expected some additional confidant routes, potentially additional romance scenes and/or options, among many other things. Persona 5 Strikers is a very different game, and while it certainly has some elements of that, they’re few and far between.
While this may be disappointing to some, it’s the reality of the situation as a Persona 5 spin-off game. There’s just no other game besides Persona 5 proper that’s going to provide the same character and relationship development, even if Persona 5 Strikers can be considered a sequel or epilogue. With a completely separate story to tell, alongside a much shorter time frame to tell it, Persona 5 Strikers simply doesn’t have enough narrative space throughout its 50-60 hours playthrough. There are little touches here and there throughout Strikers that allow for some fan service, but it’s an unfortunate compromise that Strikers‘ comparatively short story needed to make.
Unfortunately, due to the narrative pace of Persona 5 Strikers, there really isn’t any time available to dedicate to true-to-form confidant routess or romances. Persona 5/Royal has the luxury of a whole year to meaningfully develop these friendships and relationships over time. Strikers does its best to balance that all into the course of a single summer, and does a wonderful job at that regardless. Designed exactly as a sort-of extended epilogue for the Phantom Thieves, and Persona 5, the limited time with the familiar heroes still brings many iconic moments with the Phantom Thieves. Persona 5 Strikers is a microcosmic version of its source material, which isn’t a bad thing.
The overall BOND system adds up enough over time, and does a serviceably good job to contextualize progression among all characters throughout Strikers. Moments in and outside of the Metaverse all raise the BOND score, which applies to different abilities that encompass all of the Phantom Thieves. There are separate requests for certain members of the Phantom Thieves that players can fulfill, but they’re not nearly as in-depth as confidant routes. On the romance side, well, there’s really not many opportunity for developing a relationship. There’s only one obvious date opportunity throughout Strikers, and relationships don’t extend much farther after that.
It is a shame that Persona 5 Strikers isn’t able to match the same character development and freedom that Persona 5 proper has, but it also was never going to. Even in the theoretical possibility where there’s plenty of time to add things like confidant routes and in-depth relationships, it still doesn’t really make sense for Strikers. Without diving into any story spoilers, the truth is that Strikers‘ narrative simply doesn’t have enough wiggle room to sensibly tell any kind of complex side-stories like that. The entire game takes place a little over the course of a month, contextualized by the usual Persona-style calendar that, this time, has no real effect on the plot.
Additionally, Persona 5 Strikers is all about the Phantom Thieves coming back together one last time, without taking a canon stance on any possible Persona 5 decisions. Among other things like personas, abilities, stats, etc., relationships and confidant progress don’t carry over into Strikers either. From a character progression standpoint, the game is completely standalone from any decisions made in Persona 5, which is an acceptable compromise for a sort-of pseudo-sequel like Strikers. Same deal with relationships, the Phantom Thieves’ romance options all exhibit the character developments they had from Persona 5, free from any romantic influences from players.
The one romantic moment in the game, the Ferris Wheel scene, truly is a nice touch despite not being any more involved than that. At the very least, it harkens back to Persona 5‘s deeper character involvement, though doesn’t necessarily delve any deeper than a nice bit of fan service. Being able to pick any romantic option without any preconceptions is nice, and does at least add a fun little element of choice that can at least theoretically remind players of their time during a Persona 5 playthrough. It’s unfortunate that there really isn’t much more capability for Strikers to dive any deeper than that, but the breakneck pacing of the game makes it hard to implement.
Persona 5 Strikers releases on February 23, 2021, for PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch.
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