The Phantom Thieves are finally set to arrive on PC, but not in the way any of us expected back in 2016 when Persona 5 launched on PlayStation 4. Persona 5 Strikers is a spinoff that delivers a sense of familiarity for fans of the series, and a small glimpse of what Persona has to offer for newcomers with only a few stumbles along the way.
The Persona series is known for its stylish menus, enchanting soundtracks, stories about high school students fighting back against corrupt adults, and at least an 80-hour commitment to see them through. Persona 5 Strikers checks all but the last of these boxes. Instead of a colossal JRPG with turn-based combat, it’s a hack-and-slash Musou game in the vein of Dynasty Warriors that can be beaten in under 40 hours.
The change to hack-and slash is a surprisingly good fit for the teenage mayhem of the series and its charismatic heroes. The main series’ turn-based combat is replaced by an action-packed real-time battle system, though it still makes use of melee and ranged attacks, elemental damage, and status effects. Mixing light and heavy attacks delivers the kind of punishing combos you’d expect from a hack-and-slash – just don’t expect it to match Devil May Cry’s complexity.
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