Castle Super Beast Clips: Persona 5 Strikers - It Does Alot

Go to awaytravel.com/beast to start your 100-day trial and shop the entire Away lineup of travel essentials!
Go to manlybands.com/superbeast to get 21% off, plus a free silicone ring!
Go to hellofresh.com/superbeast12 and use code superbeast12 for 12 free meals, including free shipping!
You can listen to the full podcast on: Our site: www.castlesuperbeast.net ITunes: tinyurl.com/CSBitunes (iTunes) Soundcloud” / castlesuperbeast … As well as Spotify, Google Podcasts, & Stitcher! You can watch us record live each week at / castlesuperbeast Hope you enjoy these moments from the show! For those wondering about full episodes, unfortunately, posting them in full to KZbin would hurt not only the audio podcast itself but also this channel directly in a not insignificant way. For the full podcast, please play or download it, or watch our full video archives on twitch.

[@N00BSYBORG]

Constant drip feed of tutorials for new mechanics? Enemies that are a joke compared to the bosses? Bosses that destroy you if you don't have a party composition that exploits their weaknesses? This Persona game sure sounds like a Persona game.

[@JesseAnderson]

For the most part that's accurate. The sp costs are the real killer from my experience. The basic casts costing as much as a tier 2 spell used to means your level one to ten characters burn through their entire gauge in one encounter. Combos can burn through the enemy weaknesses as well, but in my experience, bosses attack so frequently that you're not super likely to get a 3 x -> y combo to take of 1/3 of their down gauge (which is actually 1/15 of an all out attack). Honestly it seems like you really want to exploit the shit out of persona resistances to minimize damage bosses deal to your team.

[@Cthululululu]

tbh- The Enemies can be a joke, especially on normal; but merciless makes you actually have to think about it. You need a lot more thinking and actual effort to get through encounters than in P5, or P5 Royal. The battle system is a lot of fun, and with some work you can get through it. You also don't need to match boss affinities, but it helps.

[@johnromero6315]

@@JesseAnderson I found that Joker's triangle-square-triangle was pretty good for getting in quick spells for free. And Haru's square-triangle is an extended psi attack that I heavily abused. I definitely felt the early game sp crunch, though.

[@Cthululululu]

@Mr.ILikeSpam especially once you get the single new party member who can slap Heat Riser out like candy anf had almost no other real use for SP cus he's a melee beast

[@ricardomilos10]

Stop man, you killed him already

[@BiscottoPlays]

"Its kinda surprising they don't tell you that" Never change, you two. Never change

[@LimitlessLiger4404]

Right? I distinctly remember them tutorializing it.

[@Sensko]

I feel this is another case of people not properly embracing the gameplay. Once you get an actual feel for the characters and the system it's great fun; just baton passing, cancelling enemies' attacks and comboing all over the place. You just need to sit down and properly get into it beforehand. That being said, Pat is absolutely right in that a bad party comp can absolutely fuck you over. There should probably be some way to figure out a boss' weakness beforehand.

[@TheHenrytouchdown]

For the first couple you just use the character that has the story spotlight on them for the Jail. The first boss might goof you, but after that you should be able to figure out who to use based on the story.

[@amshigar0092]

For the story bosses at least, they do give you something of a preview with the Warden bosses, as they share a lot of the weaknesses and resistances as whatever Monarch they're tied to. Still, the game doesn't make that obvious and it's the only case that I can remember that this applies to.

[@nomorestatic7018]

Or you do what the RPG did an give swap party mid fight.

[@globox123456789]

At least they let you change your party after a wipe.

[@fredbrown7582]

@@nomorestatic7018 that only If u hung out with. Hifumi lol

[@mattrossini1755]

I would say for me after the first jail the game became more easier to process on how the combat works.

[@Goldva]

I remember getting overwhelmed at the very start of the game. The first miniboss in Alice's Jail kicked my ass for a while, that's for sure. Though when I got a feel for the game's visual language, everything fell into place and the hectic, intense feel of the fights definitely gave way to a very nice flow. This game is awesome!

[@Amirifiz]

Sometimes I don't even see an attack coming when I dodge. I feel like Goku when he uses UI.

[@kingofbel6499]

Woolie: I can only imagine how fucking brutal it must have been to go in a hunt just to test things. Oh Woolie my boy, sit down. Let me tell you exactly how brutal Monster Hunter was before Monster Hunter World...

[@1337w334b00]

My first game was Freedom Unite. NEVER make your first Monster Hunter game Freedom Unite.

[@TM-si1ky]

@@1337w334b00 Way ahead of you, first game was Freedom 1. Now I'm a slave to nostalgia and am playing the full game for the 3rd time. God have mercy on me

[@TheDoctorOS]

Holy shit Woolie's camera feed looks amazing. I haven't watched one of these in awhile, but man I'm glad to see the improvement.

[@janematthews9087]

That's the power of proper lighting.

[@Viewtifulyoshi]

I will say that Pat’s criticism of not knowing which party members to take to the bosses is not quite fair as the game always highlights a certain character that “particularly” has a beef with the boss and the devs are clearly pushing you to have in the party during the confrontation.

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

My reaction to the “let’s not kill our enemies” was to use Haru’s grenade launcher on everything, so Anne was there purely to whip

[@manbearpigsereal]

Don't rely on SP, learn your persona combos. You can practice out of battle.

[@shaddykack]

This. My man’s speaking facts!

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

At some point fights became press square until done

[@Vanity0666]

​@@UCannotDefeatMyShmeati got tired of the janky movement and boring level design around that point in the game

[@tylanderma]

If there is future Persona 5 content I desperately hope that the new characters introduced in this game show up.

[@leoback5065]

Well, they're definitely more concretely canon than the new Royal characters, but on the other hand, they did go completely separate ways at the end of Strikers, so there's a definite risk that we won't get more than a mention or cameo.

[@TheCallofdutyghost]

A few tips: 1. Abuse your gun in combat. It restocks after every fight. 2. ALWAYS try to go for an ambush. You don't know when you'll encounter a mini boss. 3. Test out all your persona combos with each new persona Joker gets. You can get FREE heal all or strengthen attack/etc. mid combo. 4. Constantly make food or buy items. 5. Buy best weapons or armor when you can as it will take a while before you can get new ones naturally. Note: if you encounter a mini-boss/boss, and have nothing to use against their weaknesses, you definitely can still beat them. It will just take way longer and feel more like a Dark Souls Boss.

[@kingdaphnes]

Strikers is really good about signposting who you want to take with you against the boss of a dungeon because they're usually getting the most screentime opposite the boss of said dungeon. Like, Anne can not shut up about the boss of the first dungeon and how she wants to help her. Pretty big hint to take her to that boss fight. The same holds up for pretty much every dungeon. Whatever party member is getting the most focus is who you want with you for the boss fight.

[@supershadowfan2000]

Oh shit thanks gotta remember that

[@wertyio37]

As someone who beat the game, a lot of this is wrong.

[@SuperfieldCrUn]

It's not "wrong", it's just mostly applicable only to the very early game. I had these exact same thoughts when I started, and these issues lessened dramatically after the first dungeon.

[@johnromero6315]

@@SuperfieldCrUn yeah, the gameplay really picks up once you get a couple of Jails in and have more options available. The early game for me was riddled with minor frustrations, partly because I didnt have a handle on all the mechanics yet.

[@johnseymore4774]

Pat, it's a Persona game. If you're having trouble with a boss because your affinities don't match up, you change your affinities. You shouldn't take four hours before you finally decide to change your party, and if you're really that determined to stick with those party members, then just get a Persona with that element for Joker. I don't see why this was such a problem for you.

[@johnromero6315]

There were several boss fights that ended with either Ryuji or Haru as the last alive with no sp. Their charge/extended attacks are great as long as you learn the boss's attack pattern.

[@SoraMotto]

The game starts off very overwhelming but once you get used to it, the game becomes much smoother

[@phoenixgames3351]

I didn't really start having fun until the 3rd jail but one really good tip is to use square, square, triangle to get a free SP persona attack that targets weakness that way you save SP also Ann and Harus guns are amazing use them every battle

[@maiapetersen8892]

Yusuke may cry... about food.

[@Adser261]

Oh boy, I wonder what will Woolie reaction be once he figures out that what he thinks are bosses are actually random encounters that you can get at any time (ok, not exactly random, the powerful shadows are always at the same places, but they are still considered normal fights). You NEED to use status effects, technical damage, one more and AOAs to keep the fights at the "10 seconds run" or you will end up losing the battle of attrition. What I really think is a horrible decision and I was really pissed at is that you can't swap characters in-fight. As Pat says using the party members that can hit weaknesses is one of the most important factors in a fight, and while you can guess 1 of the weaknesses of the first 3 bosses easily just by paying attention to the story it still isn't enough. What I ended up doing was just rushing into the boss, check the weakness and then let them kill me so I could retry (they let you change your party composition on a retry).

[@randominternetsurfersurfin7595]

This is why I always kept Wolf in my team. No worry about weaknesses with Almighty. (Also he's cool af in general)

[@Adser261]

@@randominternetsurfersurfin7595 Weakness and criticals/technicals are the only way of downing an enemy so, while Wolf is great when you have no other character who can exploit a weakness, he is still always the second option, being unable to use weakness, physical skills being shit in this game and having no way of causing status effects.

[@randominternetsurfersurfin7595]

@@Adser261 yeah obviously knowing weaknesses matters more, I just think having Wolf in general kinda compensates when you're caught offguard.

[@Dragon4234]

Clearly this version of Joker never got far in Hifumi’s confidant line, or just forgot how to play Shogi

[@Zangelin]

You have Joker at all times though. Just have oersonas that cover the elements the rest arent.

[@RBNinja]

That first dungeon was rough because you're low level. And you're figuring things out. The game gets easier as your MP pool gets larger and your person's get better skills. And you realize your third charge move uses your person's equipped skills to trigger weakness.

[@Dragon4234]

Imagine talking about how too quick the battles are but never bringing up the idea to just increase the difficulty.

[@Sensko]

Eh I found that higher difficulty only turned bosses/mini-bosses into huge damage sponges. That being said, normal battles being over quickly isn't really a problem for me; it's not like most encounters in the RPG lasted more than a few turns.

[@Dragon4234]

@@Sensko I mean Merciless on Royal turns the whole game into a meme, I’m just saying how weird it is for a discussion that talks about how the random battles are over too quickly and that all the tutorials and mechanics can be ignored due to that, that nobody ever brought up bumping the difficulty up of which battles do in fact take longer, and/or utilizing the mechanics to take down larger health bars so you don’t have more opportunities to take damage that dunks, is weird.

[@ricardomiles2957]

I hate being that guy but if your game doesn't properly work out on normal, you did a terrible job with the balancing and planning. Normal is the default option for most players but let's say that gap was intended, it would be much more helpful if the specifics of that gap were summarized on the difficulty options

[@Dragon4234]

​@@ricardomiles2957 I mean I wouldn't want to be that guy on the UI team that wants to write out, "Yo just mash the buttons, all the mechanics we spent time on doesn't really matter until it does, for the people who know how to move both control sticks at the same time." and "This is meant for nerds who care about a combat system."

[@ricardomiles2957]

@@Dragon4234 I mean there are so many ways to show to the player the differences in difficulty that so many games did that I don't think that's a problem. And if it done proper it wouldn't make devs look incompetent for not noticing the gap and delusional for possibly thinking that the player would care about useless mechanics

[@Beno1133]

Fuck, I've finished the whole game and am on New Game Plus, but never realised you could swap party members on the field >.>

[@stevenluoma1268]

But does it do. A Lot? ;)

[@7thsaga662]

I see what you did there.

[@browniepaddy4034]

10/10 joke

[@theothermc]

9 months late to ask if Pat genuinely didn’t know that you could change your party from the Stats menu after every boss wipe

[@Rando0268]

To be real I figured out the character swap mechanic like 20 hours into the game. I thought you had to use the checkpoint as well!

[@priceyyeti4058]

I only knew how to do it in the first 3 hours because it was a thing in Vanilla P5.

[@prozenconns7082]

I literally discovered it on my way to fight the Reaper lol when its a big ass option at checkpoints its pretty normal to assume its a function you don't have without a checkpoint nearby

[@varia5845]

As someone with low expectations for P5 Strikers at first, by the end the game earned a place in my top 4 Persona games alongside both Persona 2 games and Persona 5 Royal. It for sure overloads you with tutorials in the first dungeon but before the end of the second it all starts to click and the story is the best any Persona spin off has ever had, which is a low bar but it is still very good.

[@1337w334b00]

It's not a spin-off. This is the canon sequel to Persona 5.

[@varia5845]

@@1337w334b00 Yeah I know not sure why I said spin off. All the Persona games are canon even the ones the casts forget.

[@BlindMelonLord]

@@1337w334b00 I think of it as a hybrid sequel/spin off. I felt the same way about the P4 Arena games. (Yes, even though the P for dancing game is Canon, I don’t count it as such. Same with the P3 & P5 dancing games, since the main characters don’t remember those).

[@isthisajojoreference]

Woolie's too close, I'm getting claustrophobic

[@BioDomeWithPaulyShor]

I think that most of the mechanics they carried over were welcome ones, but I think it runs into the same issue as Persona 5, which is that a lot of mechanics cease to matter or never mattered in the first place. I was put into Rage, Brainwash, Forgetfulness and Fear a few times in my 40 hour playthrough, but I honestly can't remember a single time where that actually affected how I approached combat. Who cares if I can't use Persona skills with one character when the fights are over so quickly and my party members will almost always do that fan wakeup attack that removes the penalty?Why waste Persona move slots for yourself or your party on light/dark insta-kill moves when very few enemies are susceptible to them? And for mini bosses (the times where you spend more than 30 seconds in a fight), even on Hard Mode, the best strategy is to constantly spam weakness Persona skills and never give the mini boss a chance to fight. I haven't played Merciless Mode yet, but from what people have said (dying in one hit to the tutorial Bicorn), it looks like those random battles will force you to carefully consider Persona skills, placement, etc.

[@vergilgealach3641]

Pat does make a good point about the bosses thing, like why the hell cant i do the party change in battles

[@crazygamer4260]

Because you should pay attention and be prepared for a boss fight

[@vergilgealach3641]

@@crazygamer4260 question. How do you prepare for a bosses weakness before the battle when the game does not tell you beforehand? The only way to know is go into the boss. Scan it. Then just quit out go in with characters of type advantage.

[@AzureAiluren]

AYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAAAAAA COME, MEN LET US SPEAK OF THE VALUES OF MOTION

[@markvillegas7846]

Nice podcast guys 😊

[@tylercafe1260]

I haven't played Persona Strikers but after seeing how Woolie horribly misunderstood the simple combat systemin Batman I'm not going to immediately trust in what he says.

[@Deemo3]

I had trouble with the battle system at first but somewhere along Jail 2 it clicked. Once you get Wolf though I threw my entire combat style out

[@johnseymore4774]

AND THREW IT STRAIGHT INTO THE WOLF SHREDDER

[@nicodcruzgamescollection1217]

wow i finished strikers and i didnt know there was a meter for showtime xD

[@GMDre]

I've completed this game twice, once on normal then again on hard. I tried attempting merciless difficulty after that at level 99 and I still get one shot by everything.

[@Amirifiz]

Slimes are a pain in merciless. I end up using Joker's persona combos a lot more.

[@priceyyeti4058]

Merciless is brutal for the first dungeon. It's essentially the first experience all over again. But the incenses you get throughout that increase stat, HP, and SP make up for it. That and the difficulty curve lessens afterwards. I'm speaking as someone who's on the second-to-last dungeon.

[@GMDre]

@@priceyyeti4058 it just sucks getting sent back to the very beginning if you don't make it out of the dungeon at the start

[@priceyyeti4058]

@@GMDre I realized that, all you need to do to beat the opening, is do a showtime attack. So I just used all the items I collected to build up that meter, do the attack, and the moment I had control again, saved to NEVER DO IT AGAIN.

[@angriestjoker]

Everything that Woolie criticized, I can completely understand...everything expect the combo practice complaint. Woolie, the jails double as your combo practice zone. And you don’t really need training enemies like in DMC or Beyo because the enemies have little to no weight and juggling isn’t in this. Just clear out a section in the beginning area of a jail and start practicing dude 😂 The damage numbers testing is something I could see being needed though to be fair

[@randominternetsurfersurfin7595]

Haven't finished watching this, but I've always called Sophia "Robo-Ryne" in my head.

[@Drawersama]

It was easy to figure out the boss on the third dungeon. Is plot relevant. "Yusuke has much more dialogue and personal fixation for this particular villain, uh" Then you get to Jailer and confirm they are weak to Ice. "Oh Is a EVIL DEMON lord, of course is weak to bless, makes sense." I dunno why the first boss was weak to Garu other than there was Garu confety on certain mini boss fights so that is also a mechanic for the boss. Follow that logic I bet the third one is weak to Psico and Gun or Fire.

[@TheLordMagmar]

It’s weak to Garu because cats eat bunny rabbits obviously.

[@Drawersama]

@@TheLordMagmar The Simp can overpower the THOT

[@thirdeye9698]

You’re half right. Psio and curse. I nearly died because I rightly assumed: Ice dungeon, bring fire to boss. Turns out she’s *immune* to fire. Also pro tip: all Lock Keepers are weak to important character for the chapter, plus curse and bless.

[@Drawersama]

@@thirdeye9698 Thanks. Guess could use Ann as healer and debuffer. No one else can use curse besides Joker anyway.

[@thirdeye9698]

@@Drawersama no prob, but I’d recommend either Fox for an auto-evade buff and the ice resistance or legit any other party member that can heal because Ann’s useless in that respect imho. Remember, the boss is immune to fire, but she still uses ice attacks so in my play through, Panther died immediately, and I spent my healer’s entire sp on reviving Panther (because I could still use her to decrease attack). You’ve likely already leveled up Mona a little, and Queen was still useful for 2 dungeons straight so imo I’d sub Panther for Queen.

[@SWGaming757]

Wait is this not going on a stream or KZbin? I would have loved to see your guys reactions to everything that happens.

[@FaelumbreProject]

Pat did a small stream of the second palace, but he was very clear that he doesn't want to risk losing his youtube or twitch channel with a full thing; probably the same case for Woolie. Pat even contacted Atlus USA to get a guarantee that he could stream it and got a "it SHOULD be fine" response, which just isn't enough.

[@DoggyDisk]

They don’t risk it with the persona games because of the Atlas Japanese fuckery. The furthest they’ve gone was Pat doing Royal on twitch but he stopped because nobody was watching. He just started playing it again in his personal time before he started Strikers.

[@BlindMelonLord]

all the channels I’ve seen still have their videos up. There are a few people I’m subscribed to that did it through a sponsor with the company, but most of the people I’m subscribe to played it just fine with no problems having their videos taken down or anything. I think it was just mainly a thing they did before it finally released in the states. I don’t know if that’s a concrete reason, but I think it might be one of them. I said I think, because there were a few channels I saw where they played the Japanese version with no issues. like none of their videos got taken down. There’s a channel I am subscribe to the played the Japanese version, and the videos are still up.

[@gone_tzar6493]

Sounds like someone needs to git gud

[@BlindMelonLord]

dude, I will admit, I had my ass handed to me a couple times, but I’m still having lots of fun with the game. Have I gotten frustrated? Of course. But that doesn’t diminish the fun factor for me at all. I love the game. it’s a purchase I do not regret. I hate those kind of people that say that a game is not fun, yet they keep playing it. It’s like, if you don’t think it’s that fun, or if you think the mechanics are annoying, then why the hell did you buy it? You did the research for the game, right? that’s why, I don’t just buy a game out right first. I watch some videos on it, with a bit of gameplay, and if it looks good, I buy it. Hell… There are many games I have bought over the years, thanks to videos I’ve watched, or commercials I’ve seen, or just something in general that just struck me.

[@BlindMelonLord]

TLDR, I agree with you. Sorry I made a separate comment, I just didn’t want to make my other one longer

[@deltaprime3509]

I just beat the game as squeal it’s really good I wished the end boss was a bit tougher. My fingers a crossed hoping this game does well that they will bring other persona games to the switch and PS4 and ps5 like persona 4 golden and persona 1,2,3

[@xenfast130]

Especially because, from what I've heard at least, they're closing down the PS3 and Vita Playstation Store this summer. I booted up my PS3 just to buy and download P2 Eternal Punishment because it was the only one that I hadn't gotten around to yet. Having the PS3 and PSTV was a big part of how I was able to play through all the Persona games, so it's going to suck for newcomers when that's no longer an option. Hopefully they port more games to PC or Switch or something.

[@kruaser123]

I straight up do not understand some criticisms of this game. The only one i get is that the first Jail is a bit weighted towards the end, because you have not been given any skills yet. Like this is my take, Drop the difficulty to Easy for that section from Archangel through the first boss. Don't let it hurt your pride because as soon as you get to the next Jail, bump it back to normal cuz you can fight the boss again and win at an appropriate challenge with new skills available. Like the levels will more less be the same. Also never forget the single best skill you get first is EXP up and swap characters. thats easy exp and lets you level up the party's movesets so they don't feel weird when you need them. And don't fret over missing stuff cuz most of it is NG+ or late game before you can ever interact with it.

[@altoid3453]

I will get strikers sooner or later. Later likely, I have a ton of games I actually want to play. Monster hunter Rise and Disco Elysium final cut to name a couple

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

I kept getting spammed with tutorials while I kept yelling “okay! I just want to kill the man in front of me now please?!??”

[@deviantknight7009]

Woolies background looks like an Ikea

[@JJMomoida]

That feeling Woolie described of "I... I think I'm good." is one I've had since starting Tales of Berseria. Maybe it's because the last Tales of game I played was Symphonia but goddamn if the game loves to throw its jargon and tutorials at me, even 20 hours into it. Alternatively, I think Woolie's just fucking old. HA!

[@miguelnewmexico8641]

Berseria's rad.

[@thespheregridisrunonchemtrails]

It's "a lot". "allot" is "to set aside""

[@clanofclams2720]

We'll good thing there's only one L, ya lummox

[@miguelnewmexico8641]

to be fair, alot isn't a word either.

[@clanofclams2720]

@@miguelnewmexico8641 true, though it's essentially been colloquialized as an alternative spelling. Like how there's an actual alternate definition of "literally" meaning "figuratively with great emphasis"

[@thespheregridisrunonchemtrails]

@@clanofclams2720 To make things even dumbererer, alot isn't even a word!

[@clanofclams2720]

@@thespheregridisrunonchemtrails we've beEN OVER THIS

[@godsplayingfield]

almost platted the game, just need to get the bond points, for which i am currently going through the first dungeon on merciless so i can get to the second dungeon to farm that dire shadow with Lucifer infinite SP build..... and jesus christ this difficulty doesnt feck around. pat's "battles are done in 10 seconds one way or the other" becomes "2 seconds and chances are you're the dead one" and i aint underleveled. Joker is lvl94 right now with Lucifer with 99 in all stats. so he's resisting everything and i have the accessory that auto equips the agility buff for auto dodge and i still almost get killed by rando's firing like a million agi's at me at once. shits insane. thank god for shit tonnes of healing items (also, using team of Wolf, Sophie and Makoto for peak DPS and healing)

[@Kingsnax12]

The gameplay loop is understanding the combos joker has and knowing the FREE skills different personas have like using pixies gives you a free heal and a free zio. And other persona have skills like masakunda. Boss fights are far too long and they have too much health and this game should not have been a dynasty warriors type game but something unique. Btw the game tells you the boss weakness subtly in that the party member that talks about the boss has the weakness.

[@pketr5]

If you use a special while in an air combo, it allows a free cast of that element. Another thing they dont teach, you cant even test air combos, unlike ground combos. However, I disagree with the boss weakness. Once, you have reached the monarch, the game have been screaming what phantom thief to bring. It tells you in two ways: 1) the story - the most prominent phantom thief in the story can hit the boss or weakness 2) the environment - those things have elements and can appear in the boss room This is true all except one boss but including the final boss.

[@SuperfieldCrUn]

My early experience with Strikers was a bit rough. The game is so good at replicating the progression and systems of a mainline Persona game, just in an action context instead of turn-based, that it ended up preserving a... I don't want to say "flaw", but definitely "quirk", of those games. This quirk is that the very early game is among the hardest parts, requiring strict management of a miniscule SP pool (and also a general lack of multi-hit techniques). Unlike mainline Persona games, however, enemies tend to hit harder, as misses are more based on positioning rather than pure luck. This leads to a significant number of deaths early on that are typically only matched or exceeded by optional bosses. This is not in and of itself a huge problem, it's an expected aspect of a Persona game. But it plus the following elements led to a mild feeling of disappointment that subsided as I gave the game a bit more time. The first thing you always want to do when you get a new character in a Musou game is to try out all of their moves and combos so that you can get a feel for what they are capable of. Not only so that you can grasp whatever unique mechanics they have, but also so that you can intuit which moves would be most ideal in certain situations. This is easily accomplished in most Musou games thanks to a steady supply of trash mobs so that you can clearly see the effect that your moves are having. But Strikers instead has bite-sized RPG encounters that will sometimes be over before a single combo can be completed. This is not at all helped by the fact that you have three other party members with you, both manipulating the playing field (making it harder to suss out exactly what your moves are doing) and killing enemies (making your available time even shorter). Joker is straightforward enough for the tutorial, but as soon as you complete that, you are given 7 additional characters all at once, whereas most Musou games only demand you to learn one new character per 10-20 minute battle. This gets even worse as this is an action RPG with elemental weaknesses, and knowing that Makoto can pulverize Nuke weaknesses with a 5xSquare + Triangle spam after a raw Triangle is important. And yes, you can try out combos while outside of combat, but it only goes so far. You need to hit things to know what each move is good for. The early game exacerbates this issue of giving you very little opportunity to experiment by incentivizing ambushing enemies and following up with an All-Out Attack, which will often end the encounter right then and there. Yes, you can ignore these mechanics to make the battles last longer. Yes, you can reduce your party down to just Joker and one other character. But both of these measures to give you more opportunity to discover the limits reduces your raw effectiveness at the point in the game where it matters most. Add on top of that the fancy but very busy visual language of Persona 5 being translated to a game with many times more enemies, attacks and effects crammed into a small space, and just figuring out what the hell is even happening can be a huge challenge. On top of that is the fact that, unlike in the mainline games, getting hit by a weakness isn't accompanied by a special state or clear visual indicator, like getting knocked down. It took me a while to realize that instances where my character just loses all of their health in a fraction of a second was likely due to an elemental weakness getting hit. Not helped is the speed at which all of the new mechanics are introduced. Most of these early fights, where you are grappling with the game to try to learn the basics, you are also being assaulted with tutorials on other new mechanics, spreading the learning time for any one thing extremely thin. As time goes on, your characters will get higher HP and SP pools, their abilities will be more effective, and you'll have grasped each character enough that you won't feel like you need to keep experimenting and can simply take each fight as they come. Your characters will auto-dodge more often, allowing you to see the point at which each enemy's attack will land. The abundance of mechanics that seem excessive early on start to fall into more practical and manageable roles. Things start to even out as early as the end of the first dungeon. But the game makes a rough first impression. TL;DR: Woolie's experience with the early game is almost exactly what I felt. The Showtime meter bit in particular was very true to my own experience. But many of these issues that plague the early game are significantly lessened with just a bit more time.

[@johnseymore4774]

Wonderful summary. This game is really good, but by doing so well at trying to be a Persona game, there's so much it throws at you, and some things just aren't explained well, such as the Showtime gauge (Which could literally be solved with a little "It's right here" on a tutorial screen).

[@LordlyWeeb]

And then neither of them finished the game

[@1wayroad935]

The R2 button is your friend. Use it.

[@LieseFury]

Alot isn't a word

[@Lakross101]

The party switch out is my only criticism, same as materia setups in FF7R. Having to lose just cuz the fight will take twice as much time than if you die, switch then go back was an issue for a few fights. Also the tutorial DOES tell you you can switch in the menus, stop skimming tutorials. Great game, going for a plat, fucking BONDS.

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

No mention of how bizarrely sexually charged the antagonist is? Or is that just persona?

[@SapphireCarbuncle009]

Oh man, do I have some Merciless Mode news for these guys

[@salmonellamuffin]

100% agree with all of this. While it gets a bit more balanced out in the later dungeons this all applies through the rest of the game. Its a bit silly how the game just doesnt want you to do your combos

[@bodhisattva71]

*When is Pat gonna give birth?*

[@TheSolarViking]

For some reason I literally thought it was a good idea to have 1 file save for persona 4 golden and got the bad ending. Still don't know what happens.

[@justinr.9171]

Hay guys got a cool game you guys should try that needs some love it's an anime ww2 game called valkria chronicles 4 complete edition. Not affiliated just got the game from a friend and fell in love but never see it talked about. Its mechanics are pretty cool and unique and has pretty fun characters.

[@iisanulquiorrahara8]

I'm not gonna watch this video yet, in lieu of spoilers, but I can definitely say I made a regrettable choice thinking this would be as easy as P5 and that Hard would be a good difficulty. Holy shit can this game overwhelm you.

[@EvilPineappl]

Alot

[@bigweebshawny4230]

At the beginning yall speak about how hard the game is and not having a checkpoint after the mini boss. Gotta remember at the beginning of this game you start off with like 8 party members. After that mini boss fight, your 3 part members are dead? You should be switching them out and not playing with only 4 the whole time

[@Dragon4234]

You should, like, watch the whole clip.

[@bigweebshawny4230]

Nevermind yall figured it out lol but it DOES tell you that tho

[@bigweebshawny4230]

@@Dragon4234 I did say nvm right?

[@miguelnewmexico8641]

@@bigweebshawny4230 you're right, saying nevermind means a mistake never happened. it erases it from history.

[@bigweebshawny4230]

@@miguelnewmexico8641 nope, it makes me realize I made an initial mistake

[@jimmyrustles9807]

"Alot" isn't a word.

[@JagrasSneedandFeed]

Is this where the "man with no facts argues with man with half of the facts" meme popped up from? This is genuinely annoying to listen to. I dont think Woolie has a single legitimate complaint here tbh

[@Zangelin]

This right here. Like bruh you barely even started the game shut up. Imagine talking about p5 and its mechanics before you even beat kamoshida.

[@Zangelin]

Woolie youre not even done with the first dungeon. Its not too much at all. God forbid you get to play a muso game where you have to use a brain cell. god is it good tho. can't believe the muso people made it. Incredible.

[@CommunistJugular]

A lot. Two words

[@sokumotanaka9271]

Yeah I rather stick to turn based mashing one button and either dealing with instant over fights or damage sponge bosses was just a dodge and press attack over and over. This is for all those who think this should be the format from now on, those people are insane.

[@BlindMelonLord]

if you think it’s just button mashing, just because it’s a Warriors game, boy are you sadly mistaken. Trust me, I went in with that logic, I fucking paid for it. it may be a Warriors game, but you have to do a lot more thinking on what you’re going to do, what persona you need, who you need in your party to defeat what enemies, so yeah. You can’t just go into this like oh yeah this is an easy game. Fuck no. I mean yeah, there may be some times where you get lucky, but it’s not all luck. Hell… Even on normal, you can get your ass handed to you if you make a wrong move.

[@sokumotanaka9271]

@@BlindMelonLord Sad that you sucked that bad, but I went through the game button mashing and had no problem besides being bored by the musou game format

[@BlindMelonLord]

@@sokumotanaka9271 yeah, I’m sorry… I called BS.

[@hacman8732]

Yusuke being Vergil pandering is just like the rest of p5 vanilla being incredibly pandering to Lupin III like fuck sojiro is just jigen in a pink suit and even got the English VA for him, drives the castle of cagliostro car, and then yusuke is just a Goemon clone with how both act so quirky and it’s his fucking persona even and joker having Arsene as his persona seems less like a reference to the original novel character, since there’s barely any commonality between joker and Arsene, and just another invocation of the name lupin and because he’s got equivalents to jigen and Goemon as friends.

[@Noxshade]

It is all a bit much. I think in the story, they should have found an excuse for half the Phantom Thieves to be occupied for the early story so you don’t have to deal with learning all 7 existing thieves + the new OC. Otherwise, a pretty fun game, even if I kind of want a more traditional “Musou” type game in the Persona universe.

[@e1v1a19]

Even with all these spin-offs and extra content the other entries get, persona 4 still beats p5 and the others.

[@tricksterhuaun]

No one cares

[@priceyyeti4058]

Well that mostly comes down to taste. As a person who doesn't really care for the story of P4 or any of its spin-offs, I found 5 to be a lot more substantial in both Royal and Strikers.

[@Spootnik]

Totally subjective. 4 had the better plot but an incredibly basic and boring gameplay loop, 5 had a great gameplay loop but a predictable and samey story. 4 has aged horribly also, the palaces are all the exact same.

[@miguelnewmexico8641]

what if i told you i feel that way about P3, but i don't hold it against people. long as they don't hold it against me either. i like The Answer. don't @ me.

[@e1v1a19]

@@miguelnewmexico8641 Yes, P3 FES was really bad...

[@aqua_mashu]

It just looks like a bad action game. Persona without the social gameplay loop is stale.

[@miguelnewmexico8641]

oh, you're one of *those*

[@Zangelin]

Its a very good action game. And you spend just as much time doing story and character interactions like you would normally.

[@LordlyWeeb]

Incorrect, game's great

[@BlindMelonLord]

@@miguelnewmexico8641 I found plenty of those people. This person is not the only one. Although, they are out numbered, thank God. There are also people who give the game fair criticisms, but I’ve seen a lot more that are just like, it’s a bad game because it’s an action game and it’s not turn-based. It’s fucking pathetic. it’s like, if you think the games that bad, then why the fuck did you buy it. That goes for any games genre. If you don’t like a certain genre, don’t buy the fucking game that’s in the genre.