My Thoughts On Persona 5 Strikers

[@Kamisuitendo]

I like that Joker still spins when changing or summoning his persona

[@Kelm_Kisaragi]

Accidents, fusion accidents everywhere Edit: Also, Ryuji drops the F bomb

[@buster1746]

Ryuji saying the f bomb is what made this game go from good to great

[@BigKlingy]

Eh, I'm very much neutral on that. That meme never really appealed to me that much. (Maybe because I followed P5 in Japanese, so the P5 meme culture I was used to was Akechi's wild ride)

[@DmmyV]

I literally only had one accident, once i get to platinuming the game though that might change

[@BigKlingy]

@@DmmyV I actually accidented TWICE IN A ROW at one point. And then once again shortly afterwards. All of them were trying to fuse Black Ooze, so maybe slime Personas have a higher accident chance? I know that's the case in some mainline SMT games.

[@mariosonic76]

My thoughts on Strikers are it’s amazing. Although something I just thought about is Atlus adding Yoshizawa-san and Akechi as DLC characters not canon to the actual story or in any scenes. They’re just there if the player wants to play as them. Just a thought.

[@BigKlingy]

People really want then, and I'd imagine Akechi would have a fun moveset. I didn't address the whole "is Royal canon?" debate here because I don't think it's relevant to the game's quality, and it's moot because both were being developed at the same time. Also, while I'd like to see Violet playable, I've noticed some of her more vocal fans can be downright scary in their "devotion" for her. I'm really trying not to let that colour my impression of the character, because it shouldn't.

[@AlfredoTaken]

I'll try to post my full thoughts later on, but I gotta say thank you for showing the fusion accident animation yet, and I only have yet to fuse Metatron and Satan

[@danielm.5078]

Yeah, it says a lot that all of the marketing billed Strikers as an Action RPG. It's pretty firmly its own thing, and that's neat to see coming from KT. I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as you did; that point about those specific writers is an interesting one, and hopefully it means good things for the future.

[@BigKlingy]

I haven't seen a lot of people pay attention to the writing credits on these games, so I looked things up. And with how much I liked both a lot more than vanilla, I wasn't surprised two of the same writers were on the team for Royal and Strikers, but not Vanilla P5. (At the same time this is just my opinion, I've seen a few comments who loved vanilla P5 and disliked Royal's 3rd Sem)

[@B_A-tr]

You know i never had that hard of a time with shadow yukiko. Now kamoshidaman thats a whole different story

[@BigKlingy]

Shadow Yukiko is mostly understood by now, when Kamoshidaman dropped everyone was blind on the game so strategies for handing him weren't fully developed yet. I find poisoning him and leaving one gun alive, so you don't bother with the second phase, works well.

[@B_A-tr]

@@BigKlingy my strategy for the latter was "joker and ryuji make fine shields"

[@MikulOnIce85]

*akihiko voice* I've been waiting for this! My thoughts line up a lot with what you've said about the writing of strikers, ann/yosuke/haru getting good screentime and focus along with sophia and zenkichi. I also think that the writing in strikers removes the vast majority of the sexist/unfunny tropes I saw in p5/p5r that dragged down the overall quality of the writing. Though I liked her already, after I play through Haru's arc in the third jail I grew to genuinely love her as a character. I also enjoyed seeing antagonists where you could see and understand what caused them to be that way, without excusing their actions and the phantom thieves acknowledged that those antagonists had to be stopped. I'm still bitter that Futaba never gets to confront Akechi for killing her mother the way Ann confronted Kamoshida for the abuse he gave Shiho at the start of the game. And my hottest take I have is that I enjoyed striker's writing along with Sophia/Zenkichi so much more than base p5/p5r that I've lost all interest in base p5/p5r. It was so refreshing to be able to enjoy the p5 world without the tropes that annoyed me as well as being free of Akechi's bullshit. And I personally found the strikers duo to be far more compelling and interesting that Kasumi that if I would be very happy for p5 strikers to be cannon over royal. And as much as I liked Maruki if I had to chose between him and Akechi/Kasumi or Sophie/Zenkichi I would throw away Maruki/Akechi/Kasumi without ever looking back.

[@carolbrokethewallagain]

I love this game, and while it is a little shallow, I’m glad this was an overwhelmingly positive take. Substantial as always, but compared to some previous “Thoughts On” that were a little more mixed, it feels a little nice. Getting into a few thoughts of my own, what encompasses my favorite parts of this game, at least storywise, were during or a result of the deliberate to assess some of the broader issues people had with Base P5’s story. The three I can pin down are: pure evil villains, lack of development/screentime with a good amount of the cast, and an overall cast that didn’t feel as close to each other as P4’s. Going down that list, instead of every target being evil already with their Shadows ramping it up, all of them are sympathetic and not just from tacking on some sympathetic elements either. It felt like you got to see more of the people in real life than their Shadows in the Metaverse, where I felt like P5 was kind of the opposite. The revelations about the formation of jails later on sells that too. It definitely assessed the lack of screentime and development in a number of characters in a pretty smart way imo. The selected characters still have a personal connection with the target, but instead of a purely negative one, it’s much more conflicting. The situation forces a much more detailed reaction, especially because the personal connection is often through relating to the person. It isn’t like the villains in P5 who were just the people picking on the particular party member, or the familial connection was downplayed by their evilness. But on that part about not everyone getting a spotlight I have to slightly disagree, since I feel like characters like Makoto do get spotlight in some places, just not as large or for as long. The stuff between Makoto and Zenkichi about joining the police force, and what you get in Kyoto is more focused on her than the others(and some of the best stuff in the game). While it isn’t a common theme, I feel like there’s an amount of challenging the Thieves’ ideals, individually or as a group, in this game that goes a decent way. And finally, the team not having as much chemistry, especially compared to P4’s cast. I feel like this sit he most stark because dear god, it’s night and day. I do agree it’s a little hard to explain, apart from that point on it being mostly business between them, but you will feel it. This game made me smile ear to ear constantly with everyone. I think it was the vacation/road trip setting across Japan and how there was an amount of relaxing and having fun between Jail visits. Also, props to Sophia and especially Zenkichi who just fit right in, both into the party and the story. I think this being a technical sequel makes all of this a little more natural in a way? Its a little hard to explain, but it feels less like a deliberate attempt to just fix previous problems the second go-around, and more like it actually makes some thematic sense in context to the overall plot? Going from unsympathetic villains to sympathetic ones that make them conflicted or challenge them morally after how assured they were in P5, particularly some of the Royal Final Palace stuff, just makes sense. The chemistry improving drastically makes the most sense, since of course they’d get close to each other after spending time with each other between P5 and P5S. And the development that the characters get that really expands some of them is based off of arcs and events from the initial game. This is probably the game I’m most anticipating the eventual LP for, even more than P5R, because I feel like there’s a lot to comment on. I’m just hoping the game ages well until that point, which I think it will.

[@BigKlingy]

I didn't really expect to be so positive here, as like you said I'm usually mixed. I was kind of struggling to find SOMETHING to criticise at times. Pure evil villains are always about how well they're done, e.g I'm replaying Ratchet and Clank 3 now and Dr Nefarious is amazing here because he's so fun and hammy. They obviously couldn't really do that with P5's targets, but I feel Kamoshida was a pure evil villain done right, while Kaneshiro and Shido were the "flat and boring" kind. It's true that the connections the spotlight characters have with their villains are more personal than entirely negative, sometimes wanting to save someone can be a more powerful motivation than payback. (IF it's done right, see Cold Steel 2...)

[@nachohangover5104]

*insert obligatory haru screentime joke* I think the reason why people don't mind Sophia being irrelevant to the plot until the end is that she joins early and the group dynamic is so good. Sophia is always chiming in on discussions and conversations and every character interacts with her regularly. Compare this to (I know this is the low hanging fruit but still it's a good comparison) Haru in 5. Haru joins late with no proper buildup, her introduction arc doesn't even put proper focus on her, and then she's never relevant to the plot ever again. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that Haru also barely ever speaks up in group scenes and pretty much never interacts with the other characters, for all of Yusuke and Ann's problems in 5 they both still at least had that along with earlier join times and proper introductions. I'm a firm believer that a good group dynamic can absolutely carry the less developed members of a group in a story, especially RPGs. Even if a character has not yet or even never does get specific plot relevance and focus, they can still feel like a cohesive element to the plot and party if they play off the other cast members well. This is what I feel makes P4's party feel so strong. Chie and Yukiko fall off in relevance like a brick but they still chime in regularly and interact with all the other party members. It's to the point where it's hard to imagine the Investigation Team feeling like such great friends without them. In an ideal scenario, I feel like group dynamics are at their best when it feels like you can take any combination or number of the group, isolate them, still imagine how they would interact and play off each other, and that picture is not just the same as they react and act when it is the full group. 4 does that perfectly, since every party member gets plenty of interactions with all the others. 5 didn't until Strikers (mainly due to Haru, but Yusuke and Ann also contributed to this to lesser extents). For a negative example for comparison, I'm going to bring up Class VII from ToCS. Their group dynamic is abysmal. They suffer from what is probably the worst case scenario for a JRPG party, not feeling like a group of friends or an actual cohesive group. Instead they feel almost like friends of a friend (Rean) and even then Class VII often feels like Rean's satellite followers. The group is too big, and they don't get a lot of scenes of all of them just spending time together. As such they don't get the chance to bounce off each other and establish a group dynamic. Have Gaius and Laura ever had a meaningful interaction, let alone a conversation? Cause I can't remember one. Millium and Elliot? Alisa and Machias? ***Crow with anyone other than Rean and maybe Elliot?*** (this one's especially bad since it hurts the plot of CS2). When I try to split up the group and imagine how they'd interact I often find myself drawing blanks, partly due to many of them having subdued personalities (Elliot, Gaius, Emma, and to a lesser extent Laura can all be described as having fairly standard generically nice and pleasant personalities), but mainly due to them not interacting with other members of the class. I have no idea how most of them would interact with each other since they spend so much time only interacting with Rean. The only pair dynamics I can think of outside of Rean are Fie and Sara, Jusis and Machias, and Jusis and Millium. And you can forget about dynamics in groups of more than two. Which is a shame, considering how many members of Class VII don't get focus or development in CS1, CS2, or both. A proper group dynamic could have helped those characters that got focus in one game or the other or neither. Even just in the same game compare Class VII's dynamic to Towa, Crow, Angie, and George's. Group dynamics are probably the single most important aspect of writing a JRPG party in my eyes. It can lift up weaker or less developed characters, but if a party fails to have a proper one players won't feel as attached to the group, their experiences, their interactions, or even individual characters' development. Just want to bring up Atsushi Kitajoh, he did great work in Strikers and Q2 and he's probably who I consider to be the most underrated game composer in the industry right now. I think his work is absolutely on par with Shoji Meguro's which says a lot. Both Strikers and Q2 have given me a lot of hope for how Atlus is handling P5 spin-offs. Strikers has the best group dynamic in the series by far, even better than 4's. Q2 was a much goofier game but they kept the cast from being too flanderized, even going so far to turn down the flanderization and buttmonkey status of certain characters (Yosuke, Teddie, Akihiko, Ryuji, Chie). Even P5 Dance was surprisingly decent with the character skits. Also off topic but WOOOOOO the new NEO TWEWY trailer is hype!

[@Jardrin]

What you said about Class VII is why I much prefer New Class VII, since they eventually start interacting like a group of classmates and friends would. While some interactions are still mostly centered around Rean, they still interact with each other far more than Old Class VII does.

[@BigKlingy]

Wow. I absolutely adored Old Class VII and New Class VII never "clicked" with me, except Ash and Musse but that was for reasons other than being class-members. I've seen a lot of scathing hate on Old Class VII but they were legit one of my favourite JRPG parties for a time. But maybe that's because I started Trails with CS1. I haven't gone back to CS1 and 2 since 2016, so my thoughts might have changed. Apparently people really like CS3 and CS2 isn't highly regarded, while it was the exact opposite for me. I didn't mention music here since I thought it was a given it was good, but I probably should have, since I legit like this soundtrack more than most things Shoji Meguro did. Q2 did do a decent job with the characters, though I felt it was less polished than Q1 in some areas. (I think Q1 has better dungeon design, and all dungeons change look and music halfway though while most in Q2 don't) I'll have to check out that trailer. Everything goes up while Australians are sleeping...

[@nachohangover5104]

@@BigKlingy I can't comment much on CS3 or 4, I haven't played them. But from what I've seen of them, the new class has a lot of advantages over the old as far as group dynamics go. First off, *WAY SMALLER SIZE.* The original class was 11 people counting Sara. New class is cut down to 6, and that's including the teacher/Rean. This makes it easier for each member of the party to establish a dynamic with every other individual member of the party. They also actually get scenes of them hanging out and interacting without Rean (I cannot stress this enough how old class VII suffers from this). They also are always together on missions, as opposed to the old class that constantly got split up in CS1. Ashe and Musse don't join right away but are there from the start (unlike Millium) and still are always interacting with all the members of the class before they officially join (unlike Crow). Like I said, I haven't played them yet, but I find it hard to imagine their group dynamic being worse than OC7's since like half of them added nothing to the dynamic and said dynamic only got worse from CS1 to CS2, not better. If you like OC7 more as individual characters, fair enough though. They announced the english voice cast for most of the characters. So far the returning characters have their original VAs, and they got back Neku's, Joshua's, Shiki's, and Beat's for Kingdom Hearts so here's hoping they can keep their VAs. Joshua's the one I'm worried about not getting back since I think Aaron Spann retired from VAing. They've also released three songs for Neo TWEWY, the opening and two other songs.

[@danielm.5078]

@@nachohangover5104 For me, it's a case of New Class VII having an actual group dynamic but OG Class VII having my actual favorites. NCVII also has two characters who feel like borderline fanfic tier additions; yeah, there were several characters in Old Clas VII who have ...no real claim to existence (and one who could've been something but Falcom decided that multiple NPCs should just do their job better than them), but at least their core characters aren't active retcons. I'll get over a non-existent group dynamic and a few nothing characters far quicker than I will continuity being overwritten for the sake of propping up new characters (in a series that's supposedly respectful of its continuity). I've just cleared the first branch of act 1 in CS4, and I'm honestly starting to think CS in general would've been a lot better handled with an ensemble cast . The line's started to blur a little and make the characters feel a bit more like autonomous characters who interact eachother (heck, I just had a Free day *as Kurt* and got to handle a sidequest, talk to NPCs, and even see Fie challenge him to a fishing contest); there's a great shadow in the distance grabbing focus and dialogue and stopping the cast from feeling as natural as they could, but the fact it's not constantly on top of them is making it even more obvious than before that it's the cause of so many of their issues. The shadow looming over Clas VII, old and new, isn't related to the schemes of Ouroboros or Osborne. It's Rean Schwarzer.

[@nachohangover5104]

@@danielm.5078 Maybe it's cause I'm a Persona fan and I'm just used to new characters getting retconned into existence, but I'm not going to automatically dislike a retconned character unless said retcon explanation is stupid or contrived. I'm assuming you're talking about Juna, Ashe, and Kurt for the retcons (though you could also probably add Musse to that list). Ashe and Kurt never got mentioned before sure, but their explanations as to why and how they connect to previous characters or events aren't a big deal and don't really change past events in the series. Plus, at what point is a character a retcon or not? Rean's never been mentioned before CS1, does him existing and being a student of Yun Ka Fai make him a retcon character? Does Neithardt being Mueller's friend we never heard about make him a retcon character? Like, there are some clear cases of characters being retconned into existence but I think solely focusing on whether or not a character's existence retcons stuff is pedantic and missing the more important big picture: does the explanation for their existence in the story make logical sense and add to it? Even if a character is a clear retcon, as long as their writing is still solid does it really matter? Juna's a bit different since she got retconned into being a friend of the SSS. I don't think it takes away from the main aspects of her character which I still consider solid, but yeah, they should have just had her be an acquaintance of the SSS at most. If you don't like a retconned character because you don't like them as a character in their own right or the explanation for the retcon is poor, fair enough. But I don't think dismissing a character out of hand as just a retcon makes much sense.

[@chuguvsme]

13:40 yeah that was in Persona Q2, however, it only worked with the Special Fusion and you needed to have enough space to summon those Personas. I am glad that some characters take a backseat because I really hated Futaba in PQ2 for that reason (for not taking a backseat).

[@Bulkynemesis4534]

I totally agree with you, the story is what had me hooked rather than the gameplay 1:43 Exactly my thoughts on this game structure. It felt like an action RPG more than a warriors game and i have only watched people play warriors game and havent played them myself Feel like the game failed to make me understand that you could cast with combos. Generally these type of games have a seperate menu where i could see them and thats why i actually had lot of SP problems Instant Death is really useful in Merciless since normal enemies hit like a freight truck with max stats and level 99 lol Fusion points should have been explained better. They could have let use pick personas for choosing. Was really fun fusing 99 stat personas. This is all i have to say honestly rest of the points i dont have any problems with

[@BigKlingy]

They never directly tell you about the 3 hit combo using a spell, but it's consistent across the whole party.

[@andresalasthemessenger]

I like your opinions, explanations, thoughts, & feelings about this game even the stuffs of the Vanilla & Royal Versions of Persona 5 also the lists for those characters in it. 😄 (Good thing IK much more from the 3 games of P5 even its Dancing Star Night.)

[@modermousev2ofthegoldendeer]

10:40 The fact that I've played mainline persona games is what makes fusing so difficult. Ive played the game during the 4 day early period and when it came to mid game personas I was either confused when I was told the "The base personas level is to low" or was frustrated because I knew that I had to grind levels when it came to late game personas.

[@BigKlingy]

It's a weird system, and normally level doesn't matter for double spreads. I'm hoping they go back to P5's system when they next do fusion. (Although I didn't like P5 removing Triangle Spread outside of special fusions)

[@Metal6078]

Full disclosure, I have not played this game,, and I`m still on the fence on if I should get it. These thoughts have been formed mostly from thoughts I have from watching clips online. While I will concede that the P4 hot spring scene is worse, I personally hate this one more. If only because, to me, there is no reason for it to exist. The girls should know better than to accuse the guys of pulling this crap. I feel part of the reason why the group dynamic works better is that they are hang out more meerly as friends, not thieves. In the base game, everytime they hang out, it`s to discuss Phantom Theif stuff, like you said. Here, cause they are on a road trip, they can afford to just relax. They even get to see a proper fireworks festival this time. That being, there are some dynamics I dislike, like Makoto and Ryuji`s.

[@LuisRPG8]

Zenkichi and Sophia's awakenings have probably become my favorite Persona Awakenings. Unlike the rest of the cast(not even limited to the P5 one most of the time), you have a lot more time between their introduction and their Awakening, showing their growht afterwards, I do kinda have a little gripe with Sophia's being so late into the game, but Endgame Sophia is so god tier I kinda don't care, and that doesn't mean Zenkichi is any less amazing, and I also really like him a lot, he's probably becoming my Favorite Persona Character along with Yosuke Hanamura and Yusuke Kitagawa, who still also became even better in Strikers too as mentioned in the video

[@veo1053]

23:20 Oh so that's why the NPC's had some life to them

[@ShadowLugia250]

7:47 '[...]doen't want turn-based combat to die...' *side-eyes current and upcoming mainline Final Fantasy* Yeah, I agree on that. 10:38-13:33 Geez, that's rough on the planning ahead department and on the fusion experement department. 15:00 Lavenza casually shrugging off the flying screw. 15:50 PQ I can slightly forgive due to the gerneraly wackier pace and tone (at least outside heavy story beats), but yeah, that was quite rough. 19:06 Honestly part of the reason I wished the team was the Fool Social Link back in P5. 29:48 If only she had the subtly of a gas station attendant... 31:47 What is it with Persona final bosses having motives that fall into line with the SMT Law faction? 33:28 Not again... No zany scheme with protag in the crossfire, and even when you own up and try to resolve things peacefully...they don't budge. 35:33 Also, first adult since P2 to gain a Persona! ...that's kinda a shocking honour, if you think about it. Y'know, I want to make a P5S journey someday, but I'd need to track down a Switch copy (storage is way to tight to justify digital), and I'd need to finish P5, that I've left sitting around my collection nearly untouched for way too long... I'll get there...eventually.

[@BigKlingy]

7:47 I still think Yakuza Like A Dragon shows us there's hope. It went FROM action TO turn-based, and it was a huge success. 31:47 Well Nyarlanthotep in P2 was straight-up Chaotic Evil, and Nyx from P3 was more Lawful Neutral than anything, not actively malicious and not even wanting to kill humanity. I consider Izanami to be a weird True Neutral, being an outside observer with a strange view of humanity but still wanting to help. Yaldabaoth is the first one to be fully Lawful Evil IMO. As for EMMA, I'd just classify her as "Lawful", since she's not really sentient enough for morality to apply to her.

[@ikhwananimationsbeyondweeb4528]

Persona 5 Striker is basically Persona 5 2 Featuring Raidou Kuzunoha Especially with the "never stop moving" advice you give since you also gotta move a lot in Raidou, morely Raidou 2 since you can actually spam dodge in that game so Raidou is a little faster

[@BigKlingy]

I've been wanting to get into Raidou but it seems like that'll be difficult. One, I never saw the games offered as PS2 Classics in my region, so I'd have to import or emulate. Two, I've heard a lot of people recommending skipping to the second game, as its story doesn't tie into the first much and apparently the gameplay is miles ahead of the first one.

[@ikhwananimationsbeyondweeb4528]

@@BigKlingy I can agree with the second game being better tbh since the battle is a lot better than Raidou 1 First off, you can dodge, which means it'll be easier to avoid attacks Second off, you use a shared Magnetite instead of Magic with the demons and the Magnetite is easy to restore, so you won't be out of juice if you manage your demon's action correctly Third off, you can use 2 demons this time instead of 1, you can also give them direct order of what skill to use and whether or not they're allowed to spam it, also you can hide your demon to help them avoid attack and stick close to you Bonus point, you have unlimited ammo, but idk if that's much of a point since I don't play the first game and all I know is that Ammo is limited in the first game

[@BigKlingy]

I've also seen that most of the dungeons in Raidou 1 are static backgrounds instead of rendered in 3D. Raido 2 apparently fixes this. Only issue I've heard of with Raidou 2 is there's an alignment system and it might be the most unbalanced in the series. Correct me if I'm wrong, but apparently Chaos gets a lot of extra content (including being required to unlock the NG+ superboss), Neutral gets some extra content, and Law gets... absolutely nothing.

[@ikhwananimationsbeyondweeb4528]

@@BigKlingy yeah, Chaos get all the good stuff, probably Atlus got biased for that Alignment I mean, some bosses are changed depending on the alignment you're on before that boss, but Chaos is the only one with that New Game Plus stuff

[@firecraft7032]

Even though I havent finished playing, I knew the plot of Strikers... so I can watch this vid Even spoilers! 1:36 Koel Techmo has been getting better at merging their genres tbh, with Age and Calamity and all... Have to say, not having a shield button REALLY increases the difficulty 3:55 That's an understatement... (Glares at the one succubus boss at during the Alice castle shield) 4:50 Fun fact, Kaiwan can use concentrate without SP with Joker's 5th combo skill. I'm gonna keep Kaiwan just for that. 6:25 Master arts are really useful. I used Ryuji and Haru a lot more after their respective master arts. 9:21 It really is useful. Sophie made the most of this with a very acrobatic dodge flip, so I find myself saying "Looking Cool Sophie!" 16:44 It really is nice how they give spotlight to the characters that need them. Makoto and Futuaba did get their time to shine in the game tho, admittly in a smaller way(Makoto with Akane, Futaba helping Zenkichi). 20:15 Honestly, Persona 5 strikers story for me has a WAY better pacing than P5. First, character development is more spread out. Second, the story pacing is also so much better. I loved the transition from Natsume(Evil Yosuke) to Hyodo(Who I call Pincone thanks to the dub tbh) is a great transition of highlighting the scale palace rulers can do harm. The first two palaces were local, but Hyodo could plans to go national politics soon... which is terrifying. 25:00 Monarchs are interesting as while Palace Rulers were pieces of shit, Monarchs are rather good people that are regressing to become those pieces of shit, and it's the thieves job to save not only the people the monarchs changed but the monarchs themselves. I also like how they illustrate the dangers of the ability to change hearts, aka brainwashing. While the Phantom Thieves know full well the moral grey-scale of actions, they make sure to target really bad people like Shido and Kamoshida. And then you have Alice, who changes hearts out of jealously. 31:00 I can't say for sure about Akane and Ichinose, I just Zenkichi as a party member. I did hear Kyoto jail is short, which is a shame tbh. Ichinose twist was obvious though tbh. 31:26 Honestly, fighting the "beloved" god/goddess for the 5th million times is getting pretty old. We should fight like a human version of Nyarlythop next game. It's time to move I feel, and Royal is testing that with a certain antagonist. 33:06 I choose the dialogue blaming the place itself. I mean, this was where the P3 Hotspring incident happened. The place is cursed! 33:52 Zenkichi, I knew the moment I learned he would get a Persona I knew he would be one of the good guys. I like how Zenkichi can be both intimidating and goofy. I like his voice actor, although I agree with your criticisms. I just got to his awakening, and I love it, especially Zenkcihi's bloodborne attire. It's refreshing to have an adult Persona user. I'm a little annoyed though that he joined at the small level as JOKER. Seriously, how am I supposed to use him and level balance my characters?! 36:00 I like Sophie more that Kasumi tbh. I guess it's because Sophie feels more natural in the plot, compared to Kasumi getting shoehorned in the story. I also like Sophie is like a child, learning about the world and emotions. Also, yes Sophie is to be protected at all costs. Ryuji and Mona can attest to that. 38:50 Will you do Royal or regular?

[@nachohangover5104]

I think the important difference between Kasumi and Sophie is that Sophie is very clearly shown to interact with the thieves, and is clearly their friend that adds to the group dynamic. Kasumi feels like an outsider from the thieves even after joining, she barely interacts with any of them. She's more like the main party's mutual friend of Joker's.

[@firecraft7032]

@@nachohangover5104 Yeah, that makes sense, storywise.

[@Jardrin]

@@nachohangover5104 Kasumi honestly should have been in a new game entirely, instead of shoehorned into P5, but this is Atlus we are talking about...

[@BigKlingy]

1:36 I've heard Age of Calamity does a good job of feeling like a Zelda game as well as a Muso one. 4:50 Heh, I discovered that too. Mara gets free Charge but he doesn't come in until really late. (A special fusion that requires beating an optional fight) Oh, and Maralagidyne is back. I didn't see that coming. 25:00 The Monarchs are basically doing the PTs Change of Heart on a much wider scale and for selfish reasons, that's another interesting part of the story. And I agree that I like the aspect of stopping the Monarchs before they go too far. All of them felt redeemable but at the same time the redemptions felt earned. (Thanks to great moments by Ann, Yusuke and Haru) 33:52 Yeah he joined way overlevelled for me and so had to sit out most of Akene's dungeon. 36:00 I'd agree there. Kasumi is good in her arc... 120 hours into the game. She'd sadly stuck doing nothing for so long since they couldn't touch the original story, and once she does join proper she doesn't interact with many besides Joker and Akechi. 38:50 Definitely Royal, I love the 3rd semester.

[@starmaker75]

(Spoiler for both royal and strikers) After playing persona strikers, I think how both Zenkichi and Sophia would be in Maruki’s reality and here what it would be like. Zenkichi: his wife didn’t die, his relationship with his daughter Akane is not complicated, Owada is jailed like shido, and a good position in the force. Sophia: her creator/mom ichinose doesn’t have those emotional problems and Ichinose is genuine happy. However Sophia due to being a robot she does find something wrong, but can’t fully sense it and she like that Ichinose is genuine happy. In the royal deal with Maruki, she again can sense something wrong, can’t really explained it, like Aigis in persona 3 bad ending.

[@5h3nn0ng]

I think that hot spring scene is a case of "Harsher in Hindsight" (SPOILERS) Because it was around that time the police were going to raid the inn to get the Phantom Thieves

[@BigKlingy]

I've heard some anti-Makoto fans use this as an excuse to bash her. Personally I just tend to ignore how characters act in obligatory fanservice scenes, since they're usually written out of character for the sake of those jokes.

[@JetblackJay]

Yuskue was always good with his confidant not Ann Haru had a good confidant but main story her and yuskue got done dirty ann got kamoshida and it had a better impact cause he was hyped up as really bad

[@JustJohn816]

I've been very interested in it! I even got the japanese demo on switch and loved the gameplay there Now I really wanna pick it up, darn you XP

[@BigKlingy]

Did we ever get the demo? I'd only heard of a Japanese demo.

[@JustJohn816]

@@BigKlingy Nope! I made a Japanese account to play it lol

[@linkdude09]

Mid-Game Strikers Spoilers 17:00 I would disagree with saying that they didnt have a big spotlight. Specically, Makoto is instramental in the group's success in the Kyoto Jail, even if the Zenkichi to join has the definitive spotlight. I will agree that Futaba isnt the focus at any point that i can recall. Speaking of Gramps, he is the best character in a persona game i've ever seen. I fun story is that my Grandpa is a real Literature buff and was in the room when Zenkichi's awakening happened and started paying attention when he started hearing modified Les Mis quotes and after i explained who Zenkichi was and his story to that point my grandpa was really impressed at the symbolism of Valjean being Wolf's Persona

[@Cyberspace318]

So, I haven't played P5S yet, but I have watched a playthrough of it, so here are some of my thoughts: the game's amazing, combat looks really fun, the music is fantastic, each Jail is really unique, I like the Phantom Thieves as a group WAY more now (but I still like S.E.E.S. and the Investigation Team more), the hot spring scene can go to hell, each of the Monarchs are really interesting characters and they're some of my favourite villains in the series, yet again the traitor is someone who has "chi" in their last name (no, really, AdaCHI, AkeCHI, ICHInose), but seriously, Ichinose's great, Zenkichi is awesome and I want him to come back for the next P5 spinoff (it'll happen, mark my words (about there being another P5 spinoff, not about Zenkichi being in it)), Sophia must be protected at all costs, AND FOR THE LOVE OF PHILEMON, WILL SOMEONE CORRECT AKANE AND KONOE'S ENTRIES ON TV TROPES (for Akane, it's her personality, and for Konoe, it's the details about how his father died)?!?!?! Also, what are your thoughts on Natsume, since he was the only Monarch you didn't discuss.

[@BigKlingy]

Oh yeah, yikes TV Tropes is so wrong about Akira's father. The game is a little ambiguous over whether Konoe killed him in self defence or if it was premeditated murder (but I feel it would probably still be considered self-defence under the circumstances, I think the law allows for leniencies in cases where someone is a clear threat to a person's life like this) But he definitely did NOT kill him by accent assuming he was a burglar. That's completely wrong. Persona gets this a lot, I remember back in the VERY early days of P5, TV Tropes assumed Akechi represented the SMT Law alignment, and that Rivers in the Desert was his boss theme. Maybe people just took his Crow persona at face value, but Akechi's motivations are definitely not SMT Law.

[@Cyberspace318]

@@BigKlingy Personally, I think Konoe killing his father would be considered voluntary manslaughter, which is not the same thing as murder (to quote Wikipedia, "Voluntary manslaughter is the killing of a human being in which the offender acted during the heat of passion, under circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed to the point that they cannot reasonably control their emotions"). Yeah, I remember you saying something like that in your "My Thoughts on Persona 5 Plot Spoilers (Obvious Spoiler Warning)" video. The one I remember was that before Royal came out in Japan, a lot of people thought Kasumi would be the instigator of the 3rd semester, and that she would be stealing people's dreams... which in hindsight, is basically what the Monarchs are doing, but with Desires instead of dreams.

[@BigKlingy]

@@Cyberspace318 I doubted that Kasumi thing, since I highly doubt Atlus would make their new waifu an antagonist. (Even though they kinda did that with Marie, she was never a "villain" by any stretch)

[@Cyberspace318]

@@BigKlingy Fair enough, but it was still a possibility. A very unlikely possibility, but a possibility nonetheless.

[@shinyhunterlo]

The final boss disappointed me but I love this game and the battle system

[@BigKlingy]

I like this final boss fight more than vanilla P5's (and arguably Royal's, Royal's was mostly scripted), but I still think it's one of the weaker fights in the game. The shield mechanic doesn't do much except interrupt attacks occasionally, when all their shields go down they just come back again and you get no follow-ups, so a lot of the mechanics you've used up to that point don't work.

[@checkmate3735]

I like this game. It’s a shame almost no one talks about it anymore

[@BigKlingy]

I think it exceeds the original in a few regards, shame it's often brushed off as "just a spinoff".

[@checkmate3735]

@@BigKlingy you’d think since Strikers fixed a lot of the base game’s biggest criticisms while adding a lot more to the overall P5 experience, it’d be talked about more, but apparently not. *Cue Kiryu banging his fist on the table and walking away*

[@silverfortune2205]

Alrighty, while I'd love to watch the whole video I can only watch until the spoiler section for now and I'll come back later. Since I'm currently playing trails of cold steel 2 I'd rather finish that first and then get P5 Strikers for PC (as I played both P5 vanilla and royal I don't have the weakness of not knowing these characters some PC players will have). I honestly can't wait until I get to this game because it's gonna feel so good to be with the phantom thieves again. I'm gonna remember that trick with the free elemental move during combos since I did what I could to preserve SP in P5 original.

[@BigKlingy]

I wonder how this is going to play on PC. It'll probably work find with a controller but good luck playing something like this with a keyboard.

[@silverfortune2205]

@@BigKlingy Works for me since I use a controller anyhow :)

[@lunaamethyst5724]

I'll get this game for Switch eventually, so I appreciate the tips given to the gameplay. I've been getting into a game called No Straight Roads lately, it is kinda like P5 in the rebellion theme. However, it isn't as black and white as the story seemingly depicts the conflict.

[@starmaker75]

I have played No straight roads, it quite fun. Also good luck with DK WEST especially after stage 1

[@lunaamethyst5724]

@@starmaker75 I haven't even beat the optional DK fights lol

[@BigKlingy]

I just looked up No Straight Roads, and it's honestly got one of the most creative concepts for a game I've seen. It's a metaphor for the music industry, and the antagonists are based on shady practices within the industry. The one video I just looked up today was a boss fight against a virtual idol, and they justify the typical platformer trope of bosses transforming and gaining new moves later into the fight via her producers and artists trying out new ideas mid-battle. That's such a cool idea for a boss. I hear the actual gameplay is pretty average though.

[@xenoinazuma7631]

Honestly mostly agree. I honestly feel like I’m the only one who doesn’t feel the bosses have THAT MUCH of a bloated HP bar. Yeah they sort of do. But I only really felt it with the first and third bosses. The third boss arguably having it worse since only two members can hit a weakness. I do feel to add I honestly only used Joker as a shield breaker. Until I got Yoshitsune and the last Persona. But even then I still treated him as a Shield Breaker. I honestly enjoyed the other Thieves more especially Wolf HOLY CRAP did I enjoy wolf more than I thought. I don’t know if it was using his two revolvers, the gigantic sword that healed or drained health. Or just how powerful Valjean feels. Also first Persona using dad in the series. Good first impression. Though I wouldn’t say he is truthful. He knocks two guys on their ass and calls it self defence and one arguably isn’t. The first one. Though I really like Gramps’ comedic moments though I really do like when he loses it, like sounds like going crazy. Though do like how he did sound so heartwrenched at losing Akane. When it was just her Shadow returning. Granted I already knew how Sophie was going to be thanks to Dragalia Lost’s cross promotion. Honestly I enjoyed playing as her but if I had to say my favourite to play as it would be. Wolf, Then Queen, then Fox surprisingly, then Skull, then Noir, then Mona, then Panther, then Sophie and Joker. I do disagree with you on Emma part. Personality wise. More because. She is a robot. She is basically Siri voiced by the same person who voiced Siri I believe. Someone can correct me. Though I did enjoy what they did with the fight and it’s what I wish games would do! If you have a massive party split them up to help you! Granted all the Orbs won’t break even on the hardest version when just using Joker to fight the final Boss which I wish they would but still at least everyone feels involved with the fight. Also they let Ryuji say Fuck and Ryuji and Morgana’s speech in the fourth dungeon is amazing. Oh and Futaba’s hacking sections I swear always feel tense your first time through. Still i don’t know what my favourite line or scene is. From Futaba referencing Titanic so wrong that it’s kind of halirious. Or them deciding RPG Roles and Skull was given Jester. I hope they intended that as a reference to Dragon Quest when localising it. Or just Wolf’s introduction as a thief and making his code name. Favourite boss would have to be Konie and his mech it’s just so involved. But Akane’s Joker is what I wanted Adachi and Black Masked Crow’s fights to be like. Especially the latter it just feels more like that’s how it should have been. Of course it feels less enjoyable since it’s more pure Skill agains Pure Skill and Persona using. Favourite Jail. Probably the second one. But that maybe just because I like the references to stuff and how you can just go ALLLLL IN on the Hero thing. Though I won’t lie I wish they didn’t just make it a P5 thing and that it was of all Persona like they initially planned but I don’t think it’s bad the way it is. Just knowing there was more characters feels like like it could have been filled more. ALSO P5S MERCILESS CAN FUCKING BURN! UGH! It’s the worst difficulty they have ever made in any game!

[@BigKlingy]

Zenkichi isn't supposed to be 100% likable on first impression, the point is he develops later. I really like his reactions to the Metaverse though. I think they're probably the most realistic way a "normal person" would react. The hacking sessions reminded me of missions where you had to protect Bentley while he hacks in Sly, so that was fun. Konoe is a fun fight, and him being weak to Ryuji makes it better for a lot of people. (Also Makoto, who has bad matchups against every previous Monarch) I've heard bad things about Merciless, but I also heard it's the best way to grind for Eternal Bonds. Otherwise you have to farm the same fight for hours.

[@xenoinazuma7631]

@@BigKlingy while what you heard is technically true. I wouldn’t say that’s it’s the best way to grind for Eternal Bonds. It’s that brutal and cheap that unless you have stats maxed out you will be one hit KOed by any attack. It’s not fun

[@BigKlingy]

So... which is the lesser of two evils? Playing Merciless, or grinding against Metatron for, according to most online reports, over 20 hours?

[@xenoinazuma7631]

@@BigKlingy honestly Metatron. Merciless is honestly that bad. Honestly I would rather do neither but if I had to choose one of the evils Metatron. Merciless I can barely get out of the First Jail after the first entry. And I have absurdly powerful Personas on Joker so I shouldn’t be dying quickly but basically it’s one hit Kos everywhere. Feels honestly like Atlus trying to one up DMC’s Hell and Hell mode or trying to fix what made Persona 5’s Merciless easy and succeeded in the worst way and just made it so not fun. I’m sure those who love the challenge might like it but I think it’s honestly too much. I doubt the gear in Merciless is worth it either. Granted I can’t say much else about it. Considering I haven’t even gotten to the first Boss and probably never will on Merciless. Only saving Grace I see is that at least you can prepare for it before NG+ing but even then good luck. Hell I rather fight the Reaper over and over than play Merciless and that fight is hell when it goes south

[@OptiiWave]

Remember when almost the entire Persona fanbase made a collective sigh when this was revealed, hoping this would be P5 on Switch? My have times changed.

[@BigKlingy]

Yeah I remember this got a ton of hate back when it was first revealed, with people thinking it'd be a generic Muso spinoff with flanderized characters.

[@DarknessGuard]

I see and appreciate you giving us your P5S impressions now. For me it was similar, the gameplay didn't work that great for me but the story and characterization was so Persona, even to a point were it felt a little of a retelling of P5 (unfortunately Strikers plays like in an alternate universe where Royal never existed, I was hoping so much that maybe later on Sumire will join the fray and we get a little more interaction with her and possibly clearing up what Royals ending teased, since I avoided as many material on it before the release as possible and operated on assumptions til proven otherwise). But I really hated so many off-screen stun-locks (at least Joker going down doesn't mean game over) that almost killed me and all the grinding. Ultimately Strikers is a game I fully enjoyed til the end but really doesn't hold up if it's about replaying it a second or third time like Persona 5 (Royal). Sidenote: You say it pauses during Persona skill selection but it felt more like slowing down close to a standstill but still having some frame going on while deciding. 9:05 This really becomes noticed later on when sidequest require you to re-battle bosses again and afterwards for a stronger version. Really what only gave me trouble were the last two optional fights although until the optional Reaper a little grinding and understanding how they work was key to shake off all the trouble. 9:40 And once you have a decent supply of revival items available the mostly redundant asides from some sidequests and optimal content. 11:40 The way the handle weak Persona becoming useless though IS an incredible improvement but also increases the grinding requirements. 18:40 One of the things I was missing in og P5 and Royal was certainly improved on at Strikers with better group dynamic. 20:35 I'd say no to cutting down social sim components and yes to have less of a time pressure in Persona games (like not finish it with December, January in the extended version respectively and give more time for all the characters or more than one game. In short, to really make a persona group good, you need more than one game and stick with them longer than a school year. Disclosure: I would love to have a "College" arc for conclusion of the Phantom thieves story, that combines the good things Royal and Strikers brought forth before moving on to Persona 6. I mean Mishimas Social link hints to a trilogy since one option to a S.link question is "Make it a Trilogy" or similar (I don't remember exactly) though I do realize it is very farfetched. If I get what I wish for? I don't know and highly doubt it but if, it will most likely be a PS5 game and we all know you won't ever get a PS5 for a reasonable price for at least three more years.

[@unboundsky9999]

It’s actually kind of funny because I have the exact opposite opinion of the writing between Vanilla and Strikers. I felt there was some pretty noticeable flanderization with Yusuke in particular where they play way harder into his starving artist bit in Strikers. To me, it felt like really good fan fiction where the characters feel 95% of the way there in terms of writing them how they were, but that 5% matters a lot. While the characters got to interact a lot more, they acted more like ever so slightly uncanny replicas rather than the characters themselves. All of this is especially apparent in comedic dialogue where it felt more like Persona 4 than 5 since they are more reliant on running gags. I’m not saying you’re wrong for feeling the way you do about the story, especially since it’s mainly rooted in a more intangible sense of how things are portrayed, but I just found it interesting how different our interpretations are.

[@BigKlingy]

They played the starving artist thing a bit but I didn't feel it was too excessive. Persona Q2's Yusuke, on the other hand... felt like one of the few PT who was obviously flanderized there. Vanilla P5 just never left an amazing impression on me, writing-wise. There was just something about P4 and P3's dialogue that felt more "natural". P4 has a lot of dumb comedy scenes but most of the things the characters say feel like the kind of things teenagers would say in real life, unlike vanilla P5 where it was more obvious they were reading off a script.

[@theultimategamer95]

Well, this vid came sooner than expected. Yeah, the story in this game is what gave me the drive to play also tbh, and it's pretty damn well done. I usually don't like warrior games in the slightest (they get super repetitive fast), and since this one kept me going from start to finish without ever wanting to drop it... yeah, it does its job tbh. 3:35 Ngl, I button mashed my way through the game anyway, lol. Saying that though I played half the game on Easy because I don't really care for these types of games. 4:38 Yeah, Charge and Concentrate blow in this game tbh. Hassou Tobi I also found to be really weak tbh. 5:41 Loved this feature especially tbh. I didn't dislike using Joker personally, but tried to use him as little as possible to take advantage of it, plus everyone felt nice to play as. My personal favourite is Yusuke though, he feels badass! Which is interesting because I never used Yusuke in the turn based games. I hope what you said about them not using this type of gameplay for future games is true tbh, may turn me off. Whilst I did enjoy this game, the turn based system just works way better imo, and is way less repetitive. Also yes, I was also on the fence with the fusion system in this game tbh. The fact you can only make personas with 1 specific recipe now... yeah, not a fan of it. Though I do appreciate the game telling you what you need to have. 100% agreed on development comments though.

[@BigKlingy]

I really wanted to do this, since I enjoyed Royal a lot. Beat it last weekend. 4:38 Except for Kaiwan, who gets Concentrate free on Jokers 5 Circle Triangle combo. That's decently useful around mid-game. Fusion's weird here, I really hope this isn't how things are done going forward.

[@SomeAsian]

I love Zenkichi.

[@imthethriller]

Spoilers Redacted is the best mission objective

[@SSBBPOKEFAN]

And now for my biggest dilemma regarding this game: As someone who hasn't played OG Persona 5 or Royal (Nintendo player), I feel like this'll be a case of me thinking it's not as good as others due to a lack of familiarity with the game this spun off from. Then again, I picked up Persona Q after your LP despite not even having finished watching your P3 LP (and of course you hadn't done P4 yet) and have greatly enjoyed it, and I'm planning on getting PQ2 at some point, so maybe I'm worrying over nothing.

[@BigKlingy]

I've seen people who picked up this game due to Joker in Smash enjoying it. It's not really incomprehensible if you haven't played the original, there's just a couple of references that might go over you head. (At one point they bring up some of P5's villains without context)

[@totallyaploy1824]

Interesting. What you say about P5S and P5R's story and you feeling emotion were the opposite to me. Granted, I never played the original P5, but thought Royal, I got very invested to the story and characters, such that when it was over, I legitimately cried. In P5S, the game didn't hit me nearly as hard, and I think that's due to the shorter length of the game. There is less time to get individually invested in the story, so the impact is less? Not 100% sure.

[@nintenbone7934]

So where on a persona 345 character tier list where would you rank yusuke Ann and haru now sense you mentioned how this game has improved your opinion on them

[@BigKlingy]

I'll have to do the tier list again. Will get back on that.

[@TheIvoryDingo]

Will unfortunately have to skip this video for the time being. Might make a separate comment with my own thoughts once I have managed to play the game myself.

[@Ian46434]

I love this game but I have two problems and they are purely cosmetic. A- why is Sophia's condname Sophie like come on you could have thought of something little better. B- why is Sophia's mask so inconsistent like it's really cool that it switches based on her expreshin but one second she has it on and the next it is gone. I would be fine with this if it was a hint that she did not have a persona simply emulating one. But even after she awakens it is still inconsistent. This is obviously me just ranting and in no way ruined the game but these types of things anony me.

[@BerserkerRohan]

I won't be getting this game because I really want Xenoblade 2 but I can definitely respect the story since it seems better than Persona 5's plot. I think it is on par with Persona 4's plot. Also, my brother is playing through Fates Revelations with randomly generated units so that should be interesting.

[@TheIvoryDingo]

This comment has been a long time coming because my feelings on Persona 5 Strikers are complicated and not because I dislike the game. It is mainly because of the gameplay, though not because it is bad or even because I dislike it. In actuality it is because while I really enjoyed Persona 5’s combat system and enjoyed the combat systems of both the Hyrule Warriors games, the combination of the two systems in P5S just didn’t really click for me as it just sits in that awkward spot between turn based (like P5R and Pokemon) and action (like Ys 8 and Monster Hunter) for me that I don’t really enjoy it regardless of me actually liking the combat. This led to me turning a drop that I intended to be temporary into one that’ll remain as such for the foreseeable future (as much as it pained me to do so) and I think it’ll be more likely that I’ll replay Persona 5 Royal instead of Strikers. As a result, I ended up watching a Let’s Play of the game so I would at least be able to comment about the story and I’m glad I did because it is great. I’ll be elaborating on that with my usual timestamps. 8:28 This isn’t even an issue exclusive to Persona as Shin Megami Tensei IV’s first boss is the infamous Minotaur. 18:33 Persona 5 Royal alleviated this slightly with the scenes that unlock Showtime Attacks but even then, it’s kinda meh overall. Wouldn’t say that they aren’t portrayed as a friend group in P5 though as I would say there were enough group message sessions that made me think of them as friends (though in a manner that was different from how P3 and P4 did so). 24:50 While I understand why Natsume wasn’t discussed (he’s not a bad villain, but he’s easily the weakest of the human villains), but I absolutely ADORED the scene where Yusuke (after Natsume talked shit about the ‘Sayuri’) first approaches him very calmly so he could get the keyword but after that completely ROASTED Natsume! Such a great moment! 25:00 Not necessarily related to Mariko’s presence in the story, but instead an addendum on the comment I made regarding the “Winter Music Theme” tangent in the FFXII playthrough. Specifically, because I really like the Sapporo Jail theme “A Waltz of Feasting” as an Ice/Snow level theme. 25:10 When I first read his name, I had a bit of a chuckle by remembering the debates surrounding what Joker’s actual name was when P5 was still decently new. 26:52 I think this may be because she was only made a Monarch VERY recently and primarily as a ploy by Konoe and EMMA to get rid of the Phantom Thieves. A weak justification, I know, but it’s all I can come up with. 29:48 Yeah… At times I thought that she should’ve taken “Villain Subtlety Lessons” from Garon. Like, her earlier appearances were WAY too convenient and suspicious for her to not be important in the final arc. It’d be one thing if the only revelation was her being Sophie’s creator or having a bad experience with a hypothetical different creator, but her appearance right between Akane and Konoe’s Jails pretty much throws what little subtlety she had out of the window. 31:01 Fun Fact about EMMA: Her voice actress Susan Bennett was the original voice of Siri; Apple’s virtual assistant. 32:45 This scene… THIS SCENE! Not only is it YET ANOTHER “Persona Hot spring scene where the boys get beaten up for an unfair reason”, but Persona 5 Strikers (as well as Persona 5 Royal for that matter) ALREADY HAD a perfectly fine hot spring scene back in Sapporo that was actually pretty funny! I do not have anything against the existence of hit spring scenes in anime and Japanese games, but I am getting REALLY tired that Persona has reused the exact same joke FOUR SEPARATE TIMES IN THREE GAMES (twice in 4 Golden) when only the first time was kinda funny (and only because you could avoid said punishment). 34:05 I loved Zenkichi from the moment in his first scene where he could barely contain his laughter. In the end I loved him for a similar reason why I love Zeke from Xenoblade 2: Both are great in funny moments and in serious moments. 35:20 Zenkichi’s Awakening is definitely one of my favourites, though I am not decided yet on whether I prefer his or Yusuke’s Awakening more. Such a badass awakening scene. His costume though… MAN his hat is big. 35:27 Considering his VA Tom Taylorsson is the voice of Octodad, that doesn’t surprise me too much. 36:58 I saw the scene where she called out for Pandora and it gave me chills. The same kind of chills that I got when I heard THAT Shulk scream in Xenoblade 1. 37:50 Why would I fight you on that? I agree on that. If you were comparing it with “Throw Your Mask Away” however, I most likely wouldn’t.

[@BigKlingy]

18:33 I still felt their bond was weak overall and they didn't get much time to develop group dynamics. This game makes up for that. 24:50 That arc in general is a great moment for Yusuke. 29:48 One other thing I noticed recently: the game's Request system kinda spoils that she has to redeem herself. If you check your requests inside her dungeon, you'll notice her junk gathering ones are still active. 31:01 I know that, and it's amazing. 32:45 Given Cold Steel 2 has a similar hot spring scene, I feel like this is just an obligation for anime-style games at this point that isn't going away any time soon, much like Isekai isn't going away for actual anime. 35:20 I'm not sure I'm a fan of the giant point at the front. A regular cowboy hat would've been fine. 35:27 At least he gets to say more than blubs now. 37:50 The bad part about Throw Away Your Mask is the lyrical part plays for a joke of a phase. I liked Maruki's first form but the rest of the fight was eeeeeh.

[@TheIvoryDingo]

@@BigKlingy 35:27 He still got to actually talk in that game as he also voiced the chef.

[@legodawg2001]

My thoughts on the game in general: I agree that the combat of the game should not replace the turnbased megami tensei standard, especially with how refined its gotten over the last couple console generations. However, I find that it definitely captures the megami tensei tactics a lot more than I thought it would. Early on, the game puts a heavy emphasis on buffs and debuffs, and in the late game, when you're overpowered, the game introduces several challenging fights that you can take on underleveled if you have the right spells, healing, and buff skills available. I died to Alice maybe 10 times, but when I started using technical skills and debuffs, I absolutely destroyed her. In many ways, Alice feels like an intro to what the game expects you to know: heavy emphasis on weaknesses, technicals, buffs, environmental attacks, and movement. In that way she is a tough as nails tutorial that just works. I think one of the most underappreciated aspects of this game lies in the bond point system, and how it serves as a replacement for social links. My biggest complaints of the spin offs is that they've never been able to strike that harmony of combat/social link that fuels the Persona gameplay loop. Here, the game actively invites to you go pick four leaf clovers, touch a statue's golden toes, because that is exp that will be put into VERY useful combat abilities. There are several quests and optional scenes that are dedicated just to working on bond exp, and in the end it creates a fun system that asks you to personalize your playthrough, since you're not gonna get all the abilities without a LOT of grinding. And at the end of the game, if you completed all the small quests for your party members, you're rewarded with a heart to heart that feels like the usual goodbye scenes in Persona, with all the reflecting. Its a great substitute for social links, and if they ever wanted to go to a more tightly plotted Persona game like the pre-3 ones, this system could be a neat compromise In terms of fusion, my biggest issue isn't really the level system, but the linearity of the personas available. I understand a spinoff will not have the volume of personas expected in a mainline game, but I find the combo of gaining only about 1 persona per level gained, along with the enemies you fight in an area pretty much being those personas and only those personas, creates a kinda repetitive nature for what has an appeal of a monster collection series. One of the things I like in P5 is that the enemies in palaces are demons which are a little obscure to fuse early on unless you're explicitly looking for them In terms of the story my favorite villains were easily Akira Konoe and Natsume. I found Yusuke's mini arc with Natsume to hit me very personally, as I am someone who loves to create, and seeing this kinda dichotomy of artist intention struck me as powerful. Especially that part when Yusuke went off about the personal feeling of his mother's painting. Holy crap that felt good. Akira Konoe is just fun on a gameplay level. His boss fight is by far the best in the game imo, with the first phase including gun spamming, and the second phase being a proper duel around the wreckage of the mech, while he uses Megidoloan while the best song in the game plays. My god. Counterstrike is such a good song. Works as a kinda super sentai song too, so it works really well. I find him to be a satisfying character to make see his ways, because while I don't have sympathy for his story, I knew in the end I wanted him to be the hero he wants to be, but in the right Just an aside, but I think the best choice this game did was dive into a theme that got lost in the shuffle in P5 Vanilla: Desire and Hope. I think P5 was originally supposed to be about the two sided nature of people, because a lot of the targets in the game (Sae, Futaba, Okumura) aren't truly *evil* just corrupted to a point of obsession. One of my favorite scenes IN P5 was Yusuke's level 10 confidant rank, because it talked about how a person like Madarame could feel love, and how desire and hope is needed for humanity to exist. It's a wonderful theme that P5 wants to ignore, and P5 Royal kinda takes a different path on, but Strikers embraces it and embraces it hard. I also like how this game kinda went into some more niche settings for this game (at least for a western audience). Super sentai and isekai were topics I didn't think I'd see in a P5 spinoff, but I thoroughly enjoyed them On the topic of the story, I played this game with my girlfriend, and we both fell in love with Zenkichi and Sophia as characters. Zenkichi is a character that was handled so well, because of how well you can see him detach himself from his guilt. He uses his humor as a kind of defense mechanism, and its great to see that start to crumble during the awkward RV drive to Kyoto, and meeting Akane, and it just worked so well and felt natural. When I saw them use Akane as a jail leader, while it certainly could have been better, I knew that Zenkichi was something special, and his awakening is one of the best in the entire series. As you mentioned, he was actively struggling with his shadow towards the beginning, and it even haunted him in his awakening scene until he knocked it back into himself. That scene is one of the most memorable because he's using his daughter as a source of rage, at himself, his situation, and even a little at his daughter too for not being receptive to his best efforts. Its chilling, and then he slices down his daughters guards right in front of her just feels cold in a way I wasn't expecting. But it feels earned and Zenkichi still comes off as a great dad because he never has any intention to hurt Akane, just to bring her back to reality. His primary element is also guns and almighty, which continues the trend of Atlus giving the megido spells to characters that are either hyper intelligent, mature, or both. Sophia is a sweetheart and no one can ever tell me otherwise. From her humming to her "okay! Sophia has learned happiness!" sayings, it works so well for her character, and when she awakens to a persona, as you said, the performance is chilling in every sense of the word. I think that she was a far better option than Morgana for the "hey you can't go there yet" because she just feels so much less authoritative. I can't really express while I love Sophia as a character, but there's definitely something special with how she's written, and she and Zenkichi are actually my favorite characters in the game. On the subject of the hotsprings, I firmly believe there is one way they could have improved that scene: they should have gone to the hotel the P3 characters went to in their game. They could arguably bring the mini-game back, and its in Kyoto, so it would have been a fun reference. The final thing I wanna mention is how much the game captures the road trip feel. Every environement has something in it to make you remember it, from Okinawa's beautifully rendered beaches to Sendai's massive shopping district to the one department store in Sapporo you can't go into to, I often found myself reflecting on the little small moments in the game that you don't otherwise think of. I felt this the most on the Okinawa Beaches in the sunset, when you have the free time to walk around. It just has a good vibe to it that exemplifies the rest of the game The end of the story was just okay, and definitely felt repetitive, and we didn't even get an "evil" persona user to fight (ala Strega, Adachi, or Akechi) but it was still fun and while Ichinose bothered my girlfriend immensely with how obvious she was, she too warmed up to her in the end, mostly because of how good of a character Sophia is.

[@BigKlingy]

I've seen a lot of people accuse the bosses of being damage-sponges but it's more a case of needing to learn the mechanics. Something that also helps is Alice is vulnerable to Burn, which you can inflict with Ann's basic attacks to save SP. This not only gives you some good damage over time, but Technical damage seems to stack with weaknesses in this game (Enraged Mariko takes a LOT from Psy), and you're encouraged to bring Morgana to that fight since Alice is also weak to Wind. The Bonding system is... okay, but my main gripe is very little of it is obtained by going out of your way to bond with teammates, besides cooking and a couple of quests. The majority is handed to you with no player input during story scenes, and from beating optional fights. (This is why Bondmaker is so vital early on, you want as much of the free story BEXP multiplied as possible) I liked the part near the end where the whole party gives you accessories if you did their quests though. Agree that there's definitely less opportunities for Persona variety in this game. But like I said: Joker's Personas aren't nearly as important here since you might not even need to play as him in a lot of fights. Yusuke's arc was good for all the reasons you said. Once I looked up Counterstrike's lyrics, I actually don't like the fact it plays for Konoe. The song is very clearly about Sophia's awakening, or possibly Ichinose ("You can be more than a puppet, you'll never be just a doll"). Yet looking up the song all you get is "Shadow Tony Stark lol". It's a good song, I just wish more people realized that it fits better the second time it plays. The isekai jokes in the 2nd jail were pretty great. I admit I never learned to use Zenkichi very well, he's hard to get used to and him not being able to hit weaknesses besides Gun in this battle system sets him back a bit. Once he gets Heat Riser and Debilitate though, he's insane. Heat Riser is way better here than in the turn-based games since you don't have the issue of "once you've applied it to the whole party it's nearly worn off on the first one". You can just use it on everyone within a few seconds. (Although there's a cooking dish that gives it to the party, which is a lot more efficient) Apparently the Kyoto hot spring scenes IS supposed to take place in the same hotel as in P3. I don't know if this is accurate though.

[@KousakaHonoka12]

To be honest I feel like persona 5 strikers is more like it's own universe instead of a sequel to the original persona 5

[@galladeforce]

I do not really have much on the overall gameplay that has not been already mentioned in this video so I will mainly take about story. One thing I felt the game improved on a lot in terms of writing is Ryuji and Morgana’s dynamic before the latter’s character development and become a better character in my opinion. But to explain myself I felt the original dynamic not only really outstayed it’s welcome considering it comes up a lot in-between the start of the game, however not only do I find it not funny but I feel it really reflects bad on Morgana pre character development. Since although Ryuji is a major idiot at time and does need a stern talking too sometimes a lot of the time Morgana would say something unneeded and quite insulting to Ryuji’s character, the your Japanese is questionable too Ryuji” being the main one that sticks out to me with most of Ryuji’s rebuttals being nowhere near as harsh most of the time and at least to me breaks two of the rules that I feel makes a Vitriolic Best Buds relationship work, those being a relatively even distribution or argument causing potshots and the potshots to be reciprocal in harshness. And since Ryuji only starts really being as harsh as Morgana was literally just before the the culmination of that subplot it feels really forced. By comparison I felt their dynamic was done a lot better here due to the absence of that reoccurring skit and I feel they never get as harsh as they do in Persona 5 when they do interact. When it comes to the villains I do feel like the game might be trying to teach is something using them. And although this relies on me theorising hopefully it makes sense but something I find with the original villains is that they are less characters and more anthropomorphic personifications of Japanese issues and ways of showing the Japanese how their authority figures can abuse them, making them more aware of corruption in society by deliberately exaggerating it. So Kamoshida’s extreme actions are in essence a warning, but by comparison it does not really give us an understanding of how these kind of people can be created or that they are more complex than wanting to do evil things for their own enjoyment. By comparison Strikers villains are more built up as complex people since as you said Klingy we can understand what made them like this but still want to take them down, teaching empathy and not see people as just two dimensional caricatures regardless of their crimes. Talking about writers something I tend to find is that when it comes to a lot of games we do not tend to give them enough credit. Something I do not really tend to see when it comes to TV Shows or movies, To give an example since I am guilty of this somewhat I feel like Gen Urobuchi tends to write interesting TV shows based on what I have seen of his work like Fate/Zero and Kamen Rider Gaim, or Greg Wiseman for Gargoyles and Young Justice yet I cannot really name any writers or writing teams in games I can acknowledge as writing game stories I really liked. To talk about Konoe for a minute I feel like the type of hero Shadow Konoe most resembles really fits in its own way based on how Kamen Riders are used compared to their Sentai cousins. One thing about Sentai is that they have never had a Ranger who stays a villain the whole way through like using Sentai we have Dragonranger/Green Mighty Morphin Ranger, AbareKiller/White Dino Thunder Ranger and Rio and Mele/Jarrod and Camille who are Ranger adjacent, They always explicitly join the Heroes side for good at some point, Kamen Riders however despite a few series being quite adamant on their heroic nature of the title from the protagonists has Riders on a lot of morality spectrums, straight Heroes, Anti-Heroes only barely connected to the main hero group and since 2002 with Kamen Rider Scissors we have had villainous Riders. To the point that only one series since then, that being Kamen Rider Fourze has never had a Rider serve as a villain and stay a villain either during the series or a movie. Making it fitting for a villain like Konoe who has heroic aspirations but uses villainous methods due to being a hero title which has had a villian using it. When it comes to Wolf I can say I actually find him to be one of the best characters in this game since I do feel he combined nice development with actively being an entertaining character, a kind of balance in terms of two of the most important aspects of a character I would love , the fact that this game has most of its cast already being developed characters means I find his development is not being smothered as much by competing with both the main Story Development and Social Link development the main cast went through last time. The development itself is something I also like since having fallen in some way and rising back up with a new resolve is an arc type that really appeals to me in general. He is a rare case of character in Persona 5 who I feel is both supportive of the Phantom Thieves and the Police, making him feel more nuanced in his opinions rather than the more black and white dichotomy I felt the Phantom Thieves and the rare Police members we saw who were somewhat sympathetic were, we have the Thieves who really dislike the Police and vice versa, while Wolf by comparison actively supports both when they are doing the right thing. As for Sophie, I find my reaction to her to have a different kind of balance than those of Wolf, that being that I felt she went hard on the being a very likeable and entertaining sidekick to the Phantom Thieves to actually having a lot of good character scenes sprinkled . From the reveal that she despite her design as a chipper companion she actively had doubts and hang ups, making her actually somewhat reflective of her creator in a way to achieving her own self actualisation and getting her Persona. To me I sort of see her developing not from a person into a better one but developing into more of a person, even showing that by not being controlled by her programming anymore. I would almost compare her to the 2nd Generation characters in Awakening, who are designed to be entertaining people first and foremost but have times where there character hang ups and past are explored to make the more complex characters. One thing I can say is that Persona 5 is very good at making me want to see the voice actors of the main cast again in more roles. I started off either having barely heard of them or not really being fans of most of them. Tom Taylorson and Megan Taylor Harvey are no different so I do really thank both of them for their performance. So goodnight everybody.

[@BerserkerRohan]

I do hope that these voice actors keep going up from here. I don't have anything else to add due to my lack of knowledge on P5S.

[@connorherron8607]

I noticed you didn't really talk much about Natsume. I'd have thought you'd have mentioned something like "I got a serious laugh at the PTs being just Done with all of his isekai/light novel cliches". Also, thoughts on Ryuji finally being allowed to say fuck?

[@BigKlingy]

His arc is good and there's a lot of humour in it, but I'd rather leave talking about it for an actual LP. It... happened? That was never a meme I was really into. It was an okay moment but not one of my favourites.

[@ManuCarrotman312]

Well, I gotta stop watching at the spoilers section, because I am currently watching an LP of this game and that's still on the fifth arc (no idea how much left and honestly I'd rather not know). But tbh I can't say I'm enjoying the gameplay bits of the LP I'm watching much, it's from the same person I watched P5R last year and while on the story department it's ok, the gameplay side not so much. Dude just kept complaining about how the combat system is and I quote "absolutely horrible and whoever thought this up should get fired" even though he kept mindlessly button mashing and didn't even make an effort to try and remember any combos or master arts, or paying attention to what the enemy was doing so when he got hit he just complained about how much damage he got out of nowhere, and by the third major boss just switched it up to easy so it's boring now. I really don't want to sound elitist but that definitely is a "git gud" situation. Anyways... I really want to get my hands on this game for my Switch someday (after me and my friend beat Royal though so probably not for a long time) and I am really liking it so far, I haven't played any Warriors-style game before but I have been wanting to for a while, and I wanna be able to own a Persona game myself, since I don't own a PlayStation besides my old PS2 this is my best bet (I don't even own a PC to get P4 on Steam). Anyhow, I will, of course, return here when I watch the full game. But for now, my main hope for this game is for Atlus to add Crow and Violet as DLC extra characters. I especially want Crow having both forms, preferably having the same overall moveset between both but with different skills and master arts, because I just really wanna be able to play as him, he's actually one of my favorite videogame characters EVER since Royal and the fact he isn't even mentioned at all in Strikers is downright criminal. I'll actually be disappointed if they don't do it tbh.

[@aqua2897]

lol what did vanilla Persona 5 do to you? But honestly, I agree with most of what you said here. My main complaint is that I wish the game was a tad longer since I think some parts were a bit rushed in terms of plot. I also wish the Jails were a bit more symbolic in their design and puzzle elements since these the Monarchs are supposed to be characters we actually care about. I feel like they had the opportunity to make the perfect cross between P4's symbolism and P5's planned dungeons. Spoilers for the next part: Maybe it's just me but I think Pandora's design is one of the worst Persona designs I've seen from a main party member. They basically took Pithos and were like "but what if there was a woman inside" and called it done, which I think is a real shame because I liked how they were foreshadowing Sophia's true awakening by naming her first Persona after the jar that Pandora opened. I don't even think "sexy woman in jar" as a Persona really fits Sophia's character but there could be some symbolism I'm missing. I also find it odd considering that Valjean's design was great, so I don't think it's a P5S problem. I haven't seen a ton of people bring this up but God this design just infuriates me.

[@BigKlingy]

I don't HATE vanilla P5, even though this makes it sound like I do. I admire what its story was going for, I just wish the dialogue was a bit better, and a lot of the PT suffer from dropping out of the story after their arcs. (Something P4 actually avoided for the most part, since everyone contributes to the mystery discussions) I wish some of the Jails were more elaborate too. Weirdly my favourite in terms of gameplay might actually be Okinawa even though it's the shortest, the abandoned lab feel fits the tone of those events and it's complex enough while still being a short "breather dungeon." I actually agree with you on Pandora, I don't like how she looks and that kind of sexy design doesn't fit Sophia at all. It kind of ties into Pandora's mythology but it's still a bit out of place.

[@thedaemonwolf1814]

1:18 20% Zelda is still more Zelda than Breath of the Wild. 4:23 "Moving even a little makes you harder to hit!" 23:23 I wanna say I'd prefer not to get spoiled on this game, since I do plan on getting it eventually, but I've been able to enjoy things I've been spoiled on in the past, and if this game made you feel despite getting spoiled yourself, I don't see why that wouldn't apply to me. Let's go! 35:00 Hehehe. So the only playable adult Persona-user in canon to acquire their Persona _as_ an adult was able to accept their Shadow without it going berserk? Good to know... 35:35 Hoo boy, he's gonna tear into her isn- 35:47 WHAT?! 35:49 WHAAAAAAT?!?!? D-didn't you tell me once that even the words "cute" and/or "adorable" feel weird for you to say?!

[@BerserkerRohan]

I can agree with that take on Breath of the Wild since I didn't enjoy playing it.

[@BigKlingy]

4:23 lol Uprising. But true. 35:39 Yes they do. It really says something that she invokes that reaction in me.

[@thedaemonwolf1814]

35:39 Astonishing....

[@BerserkerRohan]

@@thedaemonwolf1814 Riki is another character who I think is cute and adorable in a good way.

[@MrSupersmash93]

Do you like kingdom hearts and Ys combat?

[@BigKlingy]

Kingdom Hearts, yes. I haven't played an Ys game yet but I should.

[@MrSupersmash93]

@@BigKlingy I would suggest ethier memories of celcta, 8 or 9

[@BigKlingy]

@@MrSupersmash93 8 was the one that most appealed to me, and it usually goes on sale for pretty cheap.

[@coolspaghetti6366]

YOOO

[@pokemon22322]

Is zenchich the first persona user who is under the apostle arcana?

[@BigKlingy]

It's basically just a renamed Hierophant and we already had Shinjiro for that. He fits the symbolism of Hierophant pretty well though. (Nearly everyone with this arcana is older than the MC, and struggle with something in their past holding them back)

[@pokemon22322]

@@BigKlingy I really think his persona fits him really well as well I really like his phantom theif design as well. Though to be honest I have one thing I don't like about sophie's persona that she had awakened to because her persona was already used as a party member in the first persona game. The user was maki I believe another character who was very important to her games story.

[@firecraft7032]

Wasnt Shinjiro arcana moon?

[@pokemon22322]

@@firecraft7032 no he was hirophant I believe

[@BigKlingy]

Hierophant was his actual Persona's Arcana, he was the Moon SL in Portable.

[@DmmyV]

Im glad i wasn't the only one who found joker boring to play

[@BigKlingy]

One thing that actually annoys me a bit (fighting the final boss' Painful Past + version as I type this) is Joker is the only one with access to the Curse element, and only if he has the right Personas.

[@DmmyV]

@@BigKlingy oh yeah, that part is kinda annoying. Also i feel morgana's miracle punch barely ever triggers, i equipped different accessories on him but i don't know if those can actually affect it

[@Delta_dragon.]

8:47 How long do bosses usually last?

[@BigKlingy]

They should take more than 10 minutes, which I know is REALLY long for an action game in some people's eyes. I've got a lot of patience, usually. The first Monarch fight can take a lot time if you're still getting used to things, but it gets better later. If you're fighting an optional boss and it's taking that long though, you're almost certainly underlevelled for it.

[@Delta_dragon.]

I asked because when I first played Monster Hunter my fights would last around 20 minutes, and I always enjoyed it. Though, I guess it isn't a fair comparison since Monster Hunter is only boss fights.

[@mannersworld]

I know two people right now who are playing through Persona Strikers, one who's playing through Royal for the first time and another one who's thinking about getting Royal everyone I know is playing Persona it's like crack for weebs.

[@starmaker75]

Persona 5 and royal feels more like crack to non weebs.

[@BigKlingy]

This is part of why I'm hesitant to LP either now, I remember back when P4 was like this. Everyone and their mother was LP-ing or making some kinds of videos on it. P5 just broke into the mainstream even more so it's more exaggerated.

[@BerserkerRohan]

@@BigKlingy When Persona 6 is on the radar, that might be the best time since they will focus on that.

[@GaeaRage0798]

Ironic, Royal made me fall out of love with P5, until Strikers came along and made me fall in love with P5 once more.