There’s something so specific about the oversaturation of Persona 5; there is so much spin-off material but they’re all just not that good or lack something inherently satisfying - you just know something is missing from these characters. I blame the lack of Royal influences, and that the new material just doesn’t take the third semester into account.

Strikers is kind of meh, kind of fun. Definitely fun when it comes to hack-n-slaying, but God knows what’s happening on the screen at any point. Fusing personas feels clumsy which is weird because they had the blueprint right there. The music is a cacophony of remixes that did a poor job at switching up the genre of banger songs. It took me 2 years to finally play the last section of the game, and it served as an unfriendly reminder that I don’t like Sophia. I don’t like the confused overlay during battle, and I don’t like the grind of a bossfight against this never-ending, uninspired, cheap Yaldabaoth knock-off.

In the end its strengths lay in the road trip simulator parts. Call me girl gamer but I like the Phantom Thieves getting along. Yusuke was hilarious all the way through and I enjoyed getting to know Haru better. Zenkichi was a nice addition. Joker’s responses are still hilariously dry, Ryuji says the F-word. This easily could have earned 4 stars if there was a cooking mini game.