A solid digital card game in a sea of middling digital card games.

- The story would be worth skipping entirely if not for the rewards you get, which is plenty. Basically for each battle in the story, you get on average the cost of half a pack. They'll be generous and give you 2 packs for the boss fights, which there are as many as half the story volumes essentially. Though you will not get any rewards for the extra stuff, that's just fluff.

- the actual game is pretty good. The mechanics are unique and the game is more fast paced than the tutorial would leave you to believe, at least online. Whenever I do lose, it never feels explicitly unfair. Maybe they had a plan that I just couldn't see. Maybe I couldn't clear the board. So on and so forth. When you start winning and getting all these free rewards it feels really satisfying.

- Then there's the meta and what to start with. I highly recommend picking up the Swordcraft Loot pre-built deck. It's one of the meta's top contenders and will definitely help you climb ladder once you learn all the intricacies of the deck. Once you need to upgrade your deck you won't need to craft a lot of cards cards or go through a ton of packs. It gives you a lot of what the deck already wants. The unfortunate thing is that there's an amazing card rotating out in that pre-built deck pretty soon in april, but even then it's the best of the pre-built decks by far. Plus, said card kinda needs to go. Same with any other pre-built decks. That's just how they balance the game, rotating cards out of the meta every so often. Though you can still play said cards in the Unlimited meta.

- how f2p is it?
Just now, before I started writing, I've been building a deck and a current event going on gave me one of the exact cards I needed to being 2 cards away from finishing said deck. I can't express how generous this game is at times. Even then, like all digital card games, there is a gacha system that you CAN pay for. Though you DON'T need to at all if you don't want to. Obviously there are benefits to paying. Why wouldn't there be? Though I'm only a couple weeks into playing this game and I've already built 4 decks, each from a different archetype in the game, all of which are pretty competitively viable, working on my 5th one right now which is the only "casual" deck I've built.

In conclusion, if you're willing to be patient at the start, invest the resources they give you well, and build the right deck (which hey, sidenote, they give you deck lists for competitive decks if you can't find any online), you're gonna feel right at home.

I played this game a long while ago so my memory of playing it at this moment is fuzzy, I will be replaying it soon, BUT I think I can still give a good review.

So:
Persona 5 Strikers is the sequel to Persona 5. Shocker. The unique part about it is that it- instead of using an RPG format like Persona 5 and the games before it- is more of a Dynasty Warriors-like game. While that may deter others, it also uses an almost JRPG-like combat system with the Personas. And that combination, while messy on paper, was actually executed brilliantly. And it made me a little miffed with myself because I wanted to continue playing, but I also wanted to continue the story.

Speaking of, the story is great. It follows the Phantom Thieves going on another adventure together, this time all around Japan on their summer break as they visit various locations and prisons, the levels of this game. It also adds two more characters, who I think are my favorite parts of the game. (Fuck, lost the game.) Saying more would likely be spoilers and I think it's better to go into the game's story blind.

Another thing, Level design in this game is great. Levels never look the same. While going after certain "cages", the macguffins of each level, can feel samey, it gives insight into the characters of each chapter. The aesthetics of each stage does that pretty damn good as well. Even smaller details about each stage could show character traits in clever angles.

On aesthetics, while it uses the same designs from P5 and other SMT series designs- which shouldn't really be too surprising- the original designs in this game pop and really fit into the world.

Another thing that pops is the music. I'm usually just ok with Persona music, but Persona 5 Striker's music just gets me more invested in the fights. Don't even get me started with "You are Stronger", it still gives me goosebumps and any song that can do that is a certified banger in my book.
When you get to the end of a chapter and the music changes from the level's main music to "Daredevil", you'd think it'd get a bit annoying after a while but no, it somehow managed to get me hyped every time. It's the victory lap towards the boss of the chapter, and it somehow embodies hype and a bit of despair into one song.
And then when "Blooming Villain" plays, it just adds a sense of badassery to every fight it plays.
I loved "Last Surprise" before, and somehow they made something perfect even more perfect.

The only thing that holds me back from giving this a perfect 5 stars is a writing decision near the end. Said decision though, while cliche, didn't inhibit my overall rating of everything else with the writing.

With that being said, it gets a solid 9/10. It's honestly one of my favorites. While the Dynasty warriors-like gameplay may deter you, you really need to give it a try. It has a solid story with only one glaring flaw. The music is amazing. Design as well. If/when you can pick it, please do.