After Royal took me 130 hours, Persona 5 Strikers felt comparatively breezy at roughly 40 hours to complete (the main story at least).
There are ups and downs here, so let's start with the good stuff. The story and character writing are again excellent. The ideas are similar to those in Royal, but definitely develop the metaphor at the centre of the games more deeply, and give some strong arcs to characters who were relatively neglected in Royal. I especially gained a new appreciation for Haru. The new characters are all well integrated into the game, adding dimension and entertainment. This is also, especially in the first half, a much funnier game than Royal, the interactions between the Phantom Thieves are played for, and mostly get, laughs. Kudos to the English language voice cast for (despite some COVID era technical issues) giving stellar performances once again.
As I got used to the mechanics, I grew to appreciate how the game integrated some of the strategy of Royal's turn-based play into the action gameplay. It's a pretty good hybrid, though I missed the more extensive and easier to use Velvet Room mechanics of Royal (I was probably at fault, but I found a lot of fusions locked off to me, even late in the game). The action is fast and furious, the puzzles fun, but simple enough to never stall progress for long, in keeping with the pace of the game.
On the downside, while the Bond system is welcome, and it would be odd to start the social links over again, I did miss the strategic approach of deciding whose links to prioritise, and finding the time in the days to complete them. The gameplay loop does get a bit wearing. By the end of 40 hours I was a bit tired of just hammering buttons. This is likely just a personal taste thing, but I found the pace of Royal more to my liking.
This is a great story and a fun time to spend with a group of charaters I got to love in Royal, but I'm not sure how many more times I'll take this roadtrip, whereas I feel like I still have so much yet to experience in Royal, even after a 130 hour playthrough.
There are ups and downs here, so let's start with the good stuff. The story and character writing are again excellent. The ideas are similar to those in Royal, but definitely develop the metaphor at the centre of the games more deeply, and give some strong arcs to characters who were relatively neglected in Royal. I especially gained a new appreciation for Haru. The new characters are all well integrated into the game, adding dimension and entertainment. This is also, especially in the first half, a much funnier game than Royal, the interactions between the Phantom Thieves are played for, and mostly get, laughs. Kudos to the English language voice cast for (despite some COVID era technical issues) giving stellar performances once again.
As I got used to the mechanics, I grew to appreciate how the game integrated some of the strategy of Royal's turn-based play into the action gameplay. It's a pretty good hybrid, though I missed the more extensive and easier to use Velvet Room mechanics of Royal (I was probably at fault, but I found a lot of fusions locked off to me, even late in the game). The action is fast and furious, the puzzles fun, but simple enough to never stall progress for long, in keeping with the pace of the game.
On the downside, while the Bond system is welcome, and it would be odd to start the social links over again, I did miss the strategic approach of deciding whose links to prioritise, and finding the time in the days to complete them. The gameplay loop does get a bit wearing. By the end of 40 hours I was a bit tired of just hammering buttons. This is likely just a personal taste thing, but I found the pace of Royal more to my liking.
This is a great story and a fun time to spend with a group of charaters I got to love in Royal, but I'm not sure how many more times I'll take this roadtrip, whereas I feel like I still have so much yet to experience in Royal, even after a 130 hour playthrough.