Persona 5 Strikers

Persona 5 Strikers, alternatively known as Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers in Asia, and abbreviated to P5S, is an action role-playing game co-developed by Koei Tecmo subsidiary Omega Force and Atlus' P-Studio. A first for the Persona series, the game is a direct narrative continuation of Persona 5 (and by extension, its enhanced re-release Persona 5 Royal) that derives its gameplay from the "Musou" series of action hack and slash games developed by Omega Force.

Persona 5 Strikers was released in Japan on February 20, 2020 for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. It was released in the West on February 23rd, 2021 for those platforms and an additional port for Microsoft Windows via Steam.

Due to the game containing major spoilers for Persona 5, it is advised that the original game is played first (or the first nine months of Royal) before playing Strikers.

Plot
Months after the events of Persona 5, the Phantom Thieves of Hearts plan to go on summer vacation as the protagonist and Morgana reunite with them upon their return to Tokyo. Despite their celebration, during that night, Lavenza appears as the Velvet Room's sole resident and warns the protagonist of a "potential calamity" that may "consume the world whose heart he strove so greatly to change."

The next day, the protagonist, Morgana and Ryuji travel to Shibuya's 705 Building in order to buy camping tools in preparation for their travels. They do it under the advice of EMMA, a popular digital assistant notable for its incredibly accurate predictions and answers to everyday life. On the way, they pass by a public event hosted by an idol known as Alice Hiiragi, who appears to be very popular. They attend the event and Alice gives the protagonist a card to her "Wonderland." This card instructs the reader to input the keyword "Wonderland" in the EMMA app. After doing so, the three find themselves trapped in an unknown location in the Metaverse in their Phantom Thief attire, along with three other men who get attacked by Shadows and have their Desires stolen in the form of gems, with the instigator being none other than Alice herself.

The trio attempt to escape, but they are eventually ambushed and captured by the Shadows. They are brought to Alice's Shadow self, who then decides to dump them into the underground waterway. There, they encounter an A.I. called Sophia, who claims herself to be a friend of humanity and has no memories of herself. Capable of fighting by manifesting some Pithos as a pseudo-Persona, she helps the group escape from the area, upon which Sophia, being comprised of data, turns into an A.I. over the "EMMA" app on the protagonist's phone.

Back in the real world, the three boys gather the rest of the group and tell them about their discovery. Upon further investigation, they find that most of Shibuya has fallen into a fervor about Alice. After obtaining enough information on the matter, the protagonist and Ann visit the TV station at Akasaka Mitsuke to personally meet Alice, who would then be attending a talk show. There, they witness the host attempting to talk about Alice's crush, only to be suddenly silenced and have his heart changed into falling in love with her. The show is interrupted, and Alice's manager tries to stop her in the hallway, only for her to show her true colors by physically attacking him and taking pictures of him with the intention of humiliating him. Ann and the protagonist witness her, and successfully stop her from doing any further harm for the time being. It turns out that Shibuya is being overlaid by a Metaverse structure known as a "Jail," which is abused by its ruler to mesmerize its entire population. The Phantom Thieves reform and put off their trip until Alice is neutralized.

The night after the party explores the Jail's outskirts, they run into a member of the Public Security Bureau, Zenkichi Hasegawa. When the party returns to Café Leblanc, he takes the opportunity to blackmail them into cooperating, as the police believes that they're the ones responsible for the recent mass Change of Heart cases happening all over Japan. Although he suspects another culprit is responsible, if they do not cooperate, they risk being arrested for the incident instigated by Alice yesterday, while she escapes unscathed. Suspicious of Zenkichi's motives, they decline his offer, intending to clear their names on their own accord.

Barging through the castle, they eventually reach its core and discover that there is no Treasure, and instead witness two Shadows dropping gems which evaporate into the pink fog above the Jail, which they refer to as Desires. It turns out that the Monarch is sealed inside a bird cage, a device that traps them in a past trauma or disdainful experience and prevents them from moving on. A vocal clue hints the party towards where they need to go to unlock the cage; a school where Alice was bullied in, but they do not know what school she attended until Zenkichi arrives, where they deduce that Alice is actually an alumna of Shujin Academy: she was actually badly bullied by jealous girls at school for having a crush.

This results in a confrontation with a powerful Lock Keeper Shadow, representing one of these bullies from Shujin. Back in the real world, the Phantom Thieves hijack a broadcast to issue the calling cards on Alice, who evokes her Shadow self to defend her Desires. Freed from her cage, the gang then confronts her at the rooftop, where it turns out that unlike the previous targets, Alice is not malicious, but was driven by desire of revenge against the bullies who took away her crush and her future. Refusing to become another forgotten victim, she transforms into a monstrous rabbit-like creature, but is defeated and convinced by Ann to release all of the Desires.

The next day, Alice confesses to her crimes on live television. Although the Phantom Thieves assumed that their names were cleared, Zenkichi tells them that suspicions instead have intensified, as the calling card they submitted had made the police suspect their involvement behind the change of heart cases. They have no other choice but to accept Zenkichi's pending offer. Told about the other world, he agrees to protect them from the police as long as they cooperate with him. He suggests they travel to Sapporo soon to deal with another mass Change of Heart incident.

Futaba investigates Alice's phone, discovering that someone had been monitoring her actions on the app, but does not know who the person is. The Phantom Thieves decide to borrow an RV from Sojiro as their means of transportation, with Makoto serving as the primary driver.

Back at the Police Station, Miyako Kaburagi, the chief of the Public Security Bureau, warns Zenkichi that he has to take down the Thieves, should any suspicions arise. She also advises him to take a break in Kyoto to take care of his daughter.

Weary from the road trip, Sophia suggests they stop in Sendai for food and rest, but soon detects the presence of another Jail. The group stops at Mt. Aoba and decide to eat at a nearby restaurant, where they encounter a woman who introduces herself as Kuon Ichinose.

During their trip, the group notices numerous posters advertising a book called Prince of Nightmares. They later find a crowd assembled for what appears to be an autograph signing. This causes the Phantom Thieves to suspect that Ango Natsume is the Monarch of Sendai and begin to investigate. On the way, they attend a book-signing event hosted by Natsume, but he does not appear to say anything suspicious. After the event, they examine the book by buying a copy, curious as to see what made it so popular. To their surprise, the book is full of plagiarized excerpts, cementing their suspicion even more.

Zenkichi meets with the Thieves at the RV, where he confirms that Ango is indeed suspicious, as his novel is only popular in Sendai and that everyone who added him as a friend on EMMA began buying numerous copies of his book, running into debt. With Zenkichi's help, they manage to get in contact with Ango by attending his party to celebrate a million copies sold and obtain his keyword, "Prince of Nightmares."

Exploring Sendai's Jail, they also discover that like Alice, Ango had no malicious intentions; being the grandson of a famous writer, his publishers staged the competition he participated in to profit off of his name. Having learned of this, Ango used the EMMA app in order to make his readers love his novels and to take the money from his publishers. Ready to send their calling card, the following day, as Ango heads to the store, he finds them plastered all over his stall and its contents evoke his Shadow self.

Upon defeating Ango's Shadow self in his bird cage, he promises to redeem himself after Yusuke convinces him to restart anew in the arts, citing his friends as the reason why he was able to move on. The following day, Ango holds a press conference in which he confesses that he had plagiarized his writings but promises to reimburse all of his readers, vowing to never write again. Yusuke walks up to Ango and convinces him to keep writing. Ango then retracts his statement and promises to return to writing once he clears up his name, vowing to create a novel that would honor his grandfather's legacy.

Clearing the case, Zenkichi commends them for their efforts and points them to Sapporo for their next investigation. He also has them attend a lecture hall on his behalf to investigate Akira Konoe, the CEO of Madicce and see if he would reveal anything about EMMA. The visit is fruitless, as Konoe does not reveal anything out of the ordinary. As the Thieves decide on what to do, a woman who introduces herself as Kuon Ichinose and the creator of EMMA learns of their identities. She had sold it to Konoe for money, making him the legal owner of EMMA. She offers to help the Thieves, who accept, seeing that the coder of EMMA may be able to detect abnormalities in the app.

Arriving at Sapporo, the Thieves begin exploring the city, and meet Mariko Hyodo, who then recognizes Haru and is delighted to see her again, apologizing for her father's death. Zenkichi then contacts the group, informing them that Mariko is the suspect, having obtained an abnormal amount of supporters in a short amount of time. Haru finds it hard to believe that an old family friend would be a Monarch, having known her for her kindness as a child.

After temporarily investigating Sapporo Jail, back in the real world, they find Mariko reprimanding one of her staff for being tired, despite the man being in danger of collapsing. Haru scolds Mariko for treating her staff terribly, becoming upset at how Mariko had turned cold and wonders what made her so cruel. Returning to the Jail the next day, they discover that Mariko's hostility came after she approved of an ice sculpture from a company that bribed one of her staff members, which collapsed and killed a young girl. She wept for the child's death, but did not know of the true culprit until she stumbled onto a conversation between one of her staffers and a shady person, who had approved of the deal. The staffer then threatened to link her to the incident if she tried anything against him.

Although she stepped down, the incident made her bitter and she used EMMA to force the previous mayor to resign and brainwash voters into supporting her. After defeating the Lock Keeper, the Thieves have Zenkichi vandalize one of the campaign stops by plastering calling cards there, evoking Mariko's Shadow. The Thieves return to the Jail and defeat Mariko's Shadow. Haru convinces Mariko's Shadow of the error of her ways and to remember what she stood up for, who then realizes the error of her ways and that she never needed the strange power in the first place, releasing her Desires while telling Haru that she is proud of her and that her father would be too.

The following day, Mariko steps down as mayor and a candidate for the election, revealing the truth of the ice sculpture scandal, and turns herself in to the police. Zenkichi is able to schedule a time for Mariko and the Thieves to meet, upon which Mariko apologizes to Haru for her actions, but promises to help her in any way she can. The mother of the deceased girl then arrives and urges Mariko to remain in the election to campaign for what is right and what she stood up for, which she accepts.

After leaving Sapporo, Zenkichi tells them that they are heading to Okinawa, much to the group's surprise as it is a very long trip. Zenkichi offers to drive in Makoto's place for the time being, but they make a brief stop to Kyoto. On the way, Zenkichi's daughter, Akane, calls him, but since he is driving, the protagonist answers for him. Akane mistakenly believes that Zenkichi does not care for her or his wife and angrily hangs up. The group then learns that Zenkichi's wife, Aoi, had died in an accident. Arriving at the cemetery, the Thieves explain to Akane that Zenkichi was driving and unable to answer, and apologize for whatever misunderstandings they caused. They also learn that Akane is a big fan of the Phantom Thieves, and due to Zenkichi's supposed lack of involvement in investigating his wife's death, she believes that the Phantom Thieves will prevail over the police force.

As the party arrives at Okinawa, they first tour it to enjoy their vacation, but that night, they discover that its residents are brainwashed as they attack their camping van, although they're able to escape. They soon discover the presence of a Jail in the vicinity, but also that there is no Monarch. However, they do find old recordings where the head researcher of Madicce, Shuzo Ubukata, lost his sanity when a greater power told him to hand out his Desires, and committed suicide by jumping off a cliff, leaving the Jail without a ruler.

Sophia also hears voices that only she can hear, running ahead of the group. Once they reach the abandoned bird cage, a voice resembling her own can be heard, claiming that Sophia is useless because she cannot state her purpose as the Lock Keeper appears and attacks the party. Upon defeating it, the Desires are returned to Okinawa's populace. Although the facility has lots of incriminating evidence, they are worried Zenkichi will be unable to use it as it was illegally acquired. He then tells them that after clearing the Jail, the police found Shuzo's body, which means that the evidence can be legally used. When they investigate an abandoned apartment, they discover that Konoe is cooperating with politician Jyun Owada to change the hearts of his political enemies (largely consisting of unscrupulous politicians) in order to help set him as the next Prime Minister.

As Zenkichi leaves, the party makes a brief stop at Fukuoka, only for Zenkichi to phone in and tell them that he has an important incident back at Kyoto. Returning to their destination, Zenkichi reveals that Owada is actually a former lobbyist of Masayoshi Shido, the corrupt politician who terrorized Japan a year ago. Konoe issues an arrest order against the Phantom Thieves for supposedly hacking the EMMA application and murdering Ubukata. In reality, both are fabricated cases and it's heavily implied that Konoe was the one who drove Shuzo insane.

Owada, being accompanied by a National Police Agency head brainwashed by Konoe, bribes Kaburagi with a security bureau head seat if she arrests the Phantom Thieves, which she reluctantly accepts. Kaburagi arrives there that night with a heavily armed police force, only to be stopped by Zenkichi, who alerts the Phantom Thieves of the police's presence; though the Phantom Thieves escape, he is subsequently arrested. While being interrogated, the police also begin to search and clear the Hasegawa residence, where an officer told Akane that her father is an accomplice of the Phantom Thieves. Akane pleads for someone to save her, only for EMMA to respond and unwittingly create a Jail in Kyoto. Back at Madicce headquarters, Konoe asks EMMA for ways to catch the Phantom Thieves. EMMA proposes to him that he should use the Jail of "an associate of the Phantom Thieves" to catch them instead, implied to be Akane. Konoe tells EMMA to turn that person into a Monarch so they can induce a Change of Heart on the Thieves; if they can't, they are to be eliminated.

The party receives an obviously faked SNS message from Akane, telling them that she's been kidnapped. Despite initial doubts among the group, they accidentally say the Jail's keyword and get dragged in anyway. Because of the Phantom Thieves' insistence, EMMA manages to bait and trap all party members with a heavily distorted Shadow Akane with all her negative traits exaggerated. Futaba is the only one who was able to escape, as she couldn't catch up with the rest of the group due to her low physical stamina. Thankfully, Sae, having been contacted by Makoto, arrives in time to get Zenkichi out of the station. Once he's freed, he enters the Jail alongside Futaba.

As Zenkichi lacks a Persona and the abilities of the Phantom Thieves, he is forced to rely on Futaba to navigate the Jail's grounds while avoiding the Shadows patrolling the area. He eventually reaches everyone, where Akane is furious at her father for his inability to investigate his mother's death and arrest the true culprit. He admits that he was unable to protect Akane, because once he tried to investigate Aoi's death, he was dismissed for being her husband and then blackmailed with a death threat on Akane's life. Akane refuses to hear his pleas, being engrossed in Konoe's savior complex. She was more concerned about the reputation of the patsy killer's family than her mother, and rambles about a plan where she would change the Phantom Thieves' hearts, then change the heart of her mother's killer.

This revelation results in Zenkichi awakening to his Persona Valjean, allowing him to save the imprisoned Phantom Thieves, officially joining the group in the process. When they encounter Akane at the end of the Jail, she delusionally calls the Phantom Thieves fakes and sends out cognitive copies of them to fight the originals, claiming that the copies are her "friends." The protagonist deals with his doppelgänger while the rest fight their own fakes. Once Akane's cognitive thieves are destroyed, she calms down and gets a Change of Heart. Zenkichi returns back to his residence, where he finds Akane sleeping. As she wakes up, the two have a long talk about recent events, vowing to avenge Aoi and bring Owada to justice.

Sae contacts the group and is relieved to see them all doing well, having discovered that the evidence submitted did not have a judge's seal and was fabricated. Zenkichi's involvement with the Thieves has also caused the police to attempt to cover up all traces of it, meaning that they are now free for the time being.

To prevent the Conspiracy that terrorized Japan from re-igniting, the party travels to Osaka to confront Konoe. Needing Konoe's keyword, they contact Ichinose for help due to her relations with him, where she digs up his business card, and tells them that his keyword is "Zephyrman." With the keyword in hand, they enter the Jail. While exploring the castle, they also find that Konoe has a bird cage and are confused by its presence, having believed that Konoe knew how the Jails worked.

Touching the barrier, they learn that Konoe's father was an abusive husband who killed his wife as he believed she was a burden on his money, and tried to do the same on his son. During a beating one day, before Konoe's father could act on killing him, he was distracted by the sound of Zephyrman on TV. Realizing no heroes would come to save him, Konoe seized the opportunity to escape his torment and killed his own father. To avoid any repercussions, he staged the incident as a home invasion. He did not have evil intentions with EMMA; he wanted to change the world and saw himself as the only hero who could make the world a better place, to free the wronged and traumatized persons from the world's injustice; his cooperation with Owada is a ruse and he intends to change his heart after eliminating the Phantom Thieves.

Now learning of Konoe's traumatic past, the Thieves defeat the Lock Keeper and decide to send him a calling card. Zenkichi meets up with Kaburagi, who tells her that he intends to arrest Owada with Konoe's aid. Kaburagi allows Zenkichi to do so after seeing his renewed resolve, giving him his badge back, but warns him that he has three days to do so, and that she won't cover him if he fails.

The following day, the Thieves allow Zenkichi to write the contents of the calling card, before wondering how to send it. They then notice a blimp flying in the air advertising EMMA, and decide to hijack it. The Thieves drop the cards at night all across Osaka. In Konoe's condo, he reads the card, but is unaffected like the previous targets. However, it causes him to ask EMMA about the status of the Thieves in Kyoto's Jail. EMMA fails to give a response, causing Konoe to realize they have escaped, which manifests his Shadow.

Returning to the Jail once more, the Thieves confront Konoe at the top of Madicce's headquarters, where Konoe reveals the contents of "Operation Oraculi"; after buying it from Ichinose, he sent it to the research facilities on Okinawa to experiment with the creation of the Jails by developing cognitive psience, resulting in Shuzo's death. He intends to spread the Jails and Monarchs all over Japan, and then the world to make it a place free of crimes. The party calls him out on this claim, as he is taking away their free will and that he is acting like his father.

Konoe then calls in a Zephyrman mech and pilots it, but the mech is destroyed in the ensuing battle. He then fights them on foot, but is subsequently defeated by them. Konoe gets a change of heart after hearing from Sophia that the Monarchs he had installed did not appear to like their role, along with Zenkichi telling him that he was eliminating the heroes by robbing people of their free will, putting him in the footsteps of his father. He promises to purge EMMA from Madicce's servers and atone for his crimes, imploring them to tell the people who the true heroes were as he releases his Desires.

The following day, Konoe holds a conference in which he reveals the truth about EMMA, along with being responsible for Shuzo and his father's deaths. The Thieves are delighted to see that Konoe's heart has changed, believing that the mastermind has finally been defeated, and that their names will be cleared. Zenkichi and Kaburagi head to Madicce's corporate quarters to bring in Konoe for questioning. Elsewhere, Owada tries to convince the Commissioner General to pin all the evidence on Konoe, but to his horror, finds that the Commissioner General has had a change of heart.

To celebrate their victory, the Phantom Thieves make their way back to Yongen-Jaya, but under Sophia's proposal, take a midway stop at Yokohama to view the summer fireworks. However, when Sophia was about to plan a route to go back home, she suddenly sensed a Jail under Tokyo itself, with EMMA's central server in Tokyo Tower being the source. Zenkichi also phones the protagonist that EMMA has fired itself up again, and not even Madicce personnel can shut it down. The party and Zenkichi rush to the Tower, discovering a massive group of people standing under it, waiting for salvation and the ultimate answer to happiness. The EMMA application greets the party to the "Promised Land" and automatically drags them in with the Metaverse Navigator.

Said promised land is actually the Jail of the Abyss, which takes the form of an area resembling the Depths of Mementos. The voices that only Sophia can hear also return. Once they reach the center of the Jail, they find EMMA, which has now evolved into a physical God known as the Ark of the Covenant. It briefly greets them and vanishes, followed by Ichinose appearing before them, exposing herself as the mastermind.

Ichinose explains that she used the EMMA application as a front to help her research human desires and find the ultimate answer to happiness. She sold it to Konoe so EMMA could use him to spread itself to the public. The Change of Hearts were actually performed by overwriting all other desires with the one "true" desire, and it was a default ability on the application even before Shuzo and Konoe meddled with it. However, the Jails were not responsible for EMMA's current state; instead, daily counseling from the application by the public triggers the changes. The public's cognition had also considered EMMA a granter of wishes, so she was capable of firing herself back up on her own volition and preventing the servers from shutting down. The Phantom Thieves tell Ichinose that she's just brainwashing people, and Sophia denies the premise of her actions to be "salvation." She snaps, and announces her special role that she is sent here by EMMA to kill the Phantom Thieves.

Ichinose uses the basis that Sophia is actually a failed EMMA prototype and demonstrates it by commanding her to attack the party. The Thieves are hesitant to hurt one of their own, instead attempting to find a way to pacify her. During the scuffle, the protagonist is hit by Sophia and begins bleeding. Noticing the blood dripping from her friend's face, Sophia hesitates and falls off the platform, apologizing for harming them. After the initial confrontation, the researcher drops off her pretenses and exposes herself as a misanthrope without a heart, before summoning a diamond to knock the party off the cliff and to the bottom of the Jail. The Thieves are able to recover Sophia, but decide to deal with Ichinose first and fight their way back up.

When the party returns to Ichinose, they attempt to convince her that the human heart is undeniable, angering her. She summons a massive herd of Shadows to buy time for her to charge up the diamond again; despite Futaba's attempts to stop the sequence, Ichinose is able to power it once more, only for Sophia to return in time and block the attack. She attempts to convince Ichinose that EMMA is a misguided creation because it does not understand the human heart, and thus is unable to understand humanity. Ichinose reveals that she shut off her emotions for unknown reasons and refused to display any even if her parents died, and because of this, people around her saw her as being abnormal. In order to see if she was indeed abnormal for "lacking a heart," she created Sophia to understand the human heart, only for her to scrap Sophia because she asked a question that caused her to snap.

This led to her working on EMMA instead, who wasn't able to understand the heart, but only desires. Unfortunately, due to lacking a heart, EMMA believes that humanity's true desire is for it to think for them, since it only collects the queries and not their contents. Ichinose continues to attempt to brainwash Sophia to no avail, instead causing Sophia to realize the true meaning of the human heart and fully awaken her Pithos into Pandora. The turn of events sends Ichinose into a fit of rage. She summons a Hecatoncheir and additional Shadows as a last-ditch deterrent, but her distraction over Sophia's newfound heart allows Futaba to disable the crystal and the Shadows fall soon after. Once defeated, Ichinose begs for her death, but is convinced by Sophia to ditch her heartless former self, and then breaks out her first tears. The party is glad to see how Sophia has grown and that she has changed her first heart, before escorting Ichinose out of the Jail.

Once the party and Ichinose return to the surface world, more and more people flock to Tokyo Tower waiting for salvation. The city blacks out and a massive tree of light sprouts out from the tower, melding the Metaverse with the real world once again with an Eden-like structure, the Tree of Knowledge. The party scales the tree and reaches the Ark of the Covenant, only for it to outright refuse combat and ask them to hear the public's voices. The Ark traps them in an infinite path of fog, but the party is able to escape from it. Once the protagonist returns back to reality, a desire fog can be seen, which must be materialized by sending a calling card to it. However, EMMA knows exactly how a calling card works (and thus cannot be affected by it herself) and the Desires lack an owner. Ann deduces that the party should send the calling cards to the public instead. Returning to EMMA's servers, Futaba tries to hack the system, but finds herself outplayed by its security protocols until Ichinose arrives and begins helping her, eventually replacing EMMA's interface with a calling card notice, summoning the False God Demiurge from the Ark and defeating her after a grueling fight and a 10-man All-out Attack.

The Demiurge and the tree have vanished, the crowd near Tokyo Tower reverts to normal, and the destruction was undone as if it never happened. Zenkichi parts ways with the Thieves, thanking them for their assistance in the case and now full of resolve to put Owada behind bars for good. Returning to Leblanc for a celebratory meal, Sophia tells the group that she heard the Demiurge admitting that she and the Phantom Thieves' assessment of humanity was correct, hoping that they can continue the work in her stead. The next day, before the party splits ways, Ichinose requests to meet them in Shibuya's central square. To their initial disdain, she does not appear on time, but instead they witness the news announce Owada's arrest by the police for his crimes due to Konoe's testimony, along with suspicion that he was involved in the turmoil last year and ordered his secretary's death.

Ichinose then arrives and greets the group, apologizing for her tardiness as she was held up in the police station longer than usual. Despite admitting her crimes to the police, they did not believe her testimony and let her go; with this, she decides to go on a journey of self-reflection. Sophia then asks the protagonist if she can accompany Ichinose on her journey, hoping to help her and others with what she learned from the Thieves. The protagonist gives her his approval, with everyone promising that they would reunite someday. As Ichinose and Sophia leave, the protagonist gets an email from Sophia and opens its contents, revealing a photo of the entire group, which she has labeled "Treasure."

Playable Characters

 * Protagonist: The leader of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. He returns to Tokyo during his summer vacation and reunites with his former teammates, who join him on investigating the new mysterious cases that occur around Japan.
 * Morgana: The loyal guide of the Phantom Thieves. A strange cat-like creature that attains the appearance of a normal cat in the real world. He returns to Tokyo with the protagonist during his summer vacation. After restoring his memories in the previous case, he is shown to be more relaxed and laid-back.
 * Ryuji Sakamoto: A former track team athlete. He returned to his daily routine after their previous case was over, but was still unable to study accordingly.
 * Ann Takamaki: A quarter-American girl and part-time model. Shows a strong will to help those in need.
 * Yusuke Kitagawa: An aspiring third-year artist attending Kosei High School. His passion for art makes him utter otherworldly thoughts that are often confusing for others.
 * Makoto Niijima: Former student council president of Shujin Academy. She is currently a law student aiming to work in the police. Her strict and serious attitude from last year has mellowed, and her issues with her elder sister were successfully ironed out.
 * Futaba Sakura: A former shut-in hacker who serves as the Phantom Thieves' rear support and navigator. After the previous case was over, she's grown accustomed to others and started attending school.
 * Haru Okumura: The daughter of the president of a major food manufacturer, Okumura Foods. She lost her father during their work as Phantom Thieves last year. As a former student of Shujin Academy, she is currently involved in the management of Okumura Foods while studying agriculture at university.
 * Sophia: A mysterious AI who meets the protagonist in the basement of the Shibuya Jail. She has no memories of herself and only remembers that she is humanity's friend. She joins the Phantom Thieves in their investigation. She uses her hood as a mask and wields yo-yos and blasters in combat. Her codename is "Sophie" and wields a pseudo-Persona: Pithos, after the large storage container.
 * Zenkichi Hasegawa: A member of the Kyoto Prefectural Police. He's the investigator in charge of looking into the mysterious conversion cases that occur in various parts in Japan, and contacts the Phantom Thieves to help him. He eventually awakens to his Persona and joins the Phantom Thieves. He wears a pinpoint blindfold as a mask and uses dual pistols and two-handed swords. His codename is "Wolf" and his Persona is Valjean, after the.

Supporting Characters

 * Lavenza: A resident of the Velvet Room. She is responsible for merging Personas in place of Igor, who seems to be absent.
 * Sojiro Sakura: The manager of Café Leblanc and Futaba's adoptive father. He reunites with the protagonist during his visit back to Tokyo.
 * Alice Hiiragi: An idol with unique fashion and songs that gains uncanny popularity in Shibuya. Behind the scenes however, she can instantly snap and attack others.
 * Ango Natsume: A writer in Sendai and the author of "Prince of Nightmares," a novel that gains abnormal popularity in this specific city.
 * Kuon Ichinose: A mysterious woman who meets the group at a beef tongue shop in Sendai. She is enthusiastic to help the party out with investigating the EMMA application.
 * Mariko Hyodo: A charismatic politician in Sapporo who was an acquaintance of Haru Okumura's father. She wishes to make Sapporo a beautiful city without stagnation.
 * Akane Hasegawa: The daughter of Zenkichi Hasegawa who lives in Kyoto. She is a huge fan of the Phantom Thieves, but has shown to be distant with her father.
 * Akira Konoe: The president of a company named Madicce, a global IT company headquartered in Osaka which provides innovative services. He is in charge of maintaining the EMMA app and has an unrelenting stance for his own version of justice.
 * Miyako Kaburagi: Zenkichi's boss and a firm police enforcer.
 * Jyun Owada: The Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan. He's incompetent and easily manipulated.
 * Sae Niijima: Makoto's sister, currently a defense attorney. The party calls her for help at one point during their trip.

Difficulty
Before starting a game, players must choose between three difficulties: EASY, NORMAL and HARD. They may change the difficulty at any time when outside battle or during an in-game cutscene. If one has not played a Warriors-style game or a real-time RPG before, it's recommended to set the game difficulty on EASY in order to adjust to an unfamiliar combat system, particularly because unlike Persona 5, the game is considered challenging on NORMAL by many players.

If one has seen the game's ending and cleared the quest to defeat the Ultimate boss, New Game Plus will be unlocked, and they might choose to play a new cycle in MERCILESS difficulty. Enemies in MERCILESS have abnormally high stats and certain bonuses exclusive to New Game Plus are disabled. Furthermore, one may raise all their Persona's stats to 99, party members' included.

Summer Trip
Although the calendar makes a return in Strikers, the time consumption system of mainline Persona games is absent: the protagonist's choices during the tour will not pass time, and the group no longer has to work under strict deadlines.

The protagonist can shop from local stores during their travel, with items corresponding to the region they're in. On the other hand, they will have constant access to Sophia's Shop, which builds up on items as the story progresses.

In Joker's Kitchen, the protagonist can cook food that can restore HP and SP in dungeons, and potentially have secondary effects. Each dish requires different ingredients to be made.

Combat


Strikers ' combat system is a mixture between Musou / Warriors ' hack-and-slash and Persona 's RPG tactics. Instead of being turn-based, the battle takes place on the field in real time. However, when selecting Persona skills from a menu, the battle will pause, allowing for tactical positioning. All members of the Phantom Thieves can be controlled both in and out of battle in the Metaverse, and are able to be switched manually via Baton Pass or in certain moments with Follow Up attacks.

The party members will be able to learn special moves, also known as Master Arts, that can be unlocked through command inputs between two buttons in the specific orders.

If a party member fills the Showtime gauge from damaging enemies, they'll be able to initiate a powerful Showtime attack.

The protagonist can collect Personas as drops from defeating enemies in battle and fusing them in the Velvet Room.

The BOND system allows all party members to access and upgrade useful perks, by exchanging special points that can be accumulated through winning battles or progressing the story. More abilities will be unlocked over the course of the game.

In Japan
There was an early purchase version of the game in Japan, which included the following battle BGM tracks from the series for free:


 * Persona Sound Set
 * Megami Ibunroku Persona: "Normal Battle - Refined Version"
 * Persona (PSP): "A Lone Prayer"
 * Persona 2 Sound Set
 * Persona 2: Innocent Sin (PSP): "Normal Battle"
 * Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (PSP): "Normal Battle"
 * Persona 3 Sound Set
 * Persona 3: "Mass Destruction"
 * Persona 3 Portable: "Wiping All Out"
 * Persona 4 Sound Set
 * Persona 4: "Reach Out To The Truth"
 * Persona 4 Golden: "Time To Make History"

Having the Sound Sets lets the player replace the regular battle BGM with the music from said sets. Each of these sets can also be purchased as DLC for 300 yen per set. Furthermore, if the player imports Persona 5 or Persona 5 Royal save data into Strikers for the PS4 version or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate save data for the Switch version, or after completing the game on the PC version, they can obtain a Sound Set of Persona 5 ' s and Persona 5 Royal's battle themes, "Last Surprise" and "Take Over."

Global
The battle BGM is bundled in the "Legacy BGM Pack" DLC.

Additionally, a new DLC, the All-out Attack Pack includes several items for support in gameplay, mostly a collection of Skill Cards, one each:


 * Booster Skill Pack:
 * Fire Boost
 * Ice Boost
 * Wind Boost
 * Elec Boost
 * Psy Boost
 * Nuke Boost
 * Bless Boost
 * Curse Boost


 * Starter Ammo Pack:
 * Survival Vest x3
 * Robust Apron x4
 * Breeze Scarf
 * Hacker Gear Mk. 1


 * Basic Attribute Skill Pack:
 * Agi
 * Bufu
 * Zio
 * Garu
 * Psi
 * Frei
 * Kouha
 * Eiha
 * Dia
 * Media
 * Amrita Drop
 * Recarm


 * Persona Points Pack:
 * 10000 pp


 * Team Buff Skill Pack:
 * Tarukaja
 * Rakukaja
 * Sukukaja
 * Dodge Fire
 * Dodge Ice
 * Dodge Wind
 * Dodge Elec
 * Dodge Psy
 * Dodge Nuke
 * Dodge Bless
 * Dodge Curse


 * Enemy Debuff Skill Pack:
 * Tarunda
 * Rakunda
 * Sukunda
 * Dazzler
 * Evil Touch
 * Makajama
 * Dormina
 * Taunt
 * Marin Karin

Both DLCs were made available for purchase on February 24th.

There are several bonuses if the game has been bought digitally, such as a soundtrack with over 40 songs, a digital art book, and a behind-the-scenes video. They can all be accessed via a separate application.

The Digital Deluxe Edition allowed purchasers to access the game early, starting on February 19th. Also, both the Persona Legacy BGM and All-out Attack packs are bundled in the collection.

In Japan
Persona 5 Strikers was released for the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch in Japan for 9,680 yen on February 20, 2020.

A 13,800 yen Limited Edition called Persona 5 Strikers Treasure Box includes the following additional content:


 * Persona 5 Strikers art book
 * Persona 5 Strikers soundtrack
 * Theme Song Making-Of Blu-ray Movie
 * A 350mm x 900 mm hand towel
 * Special illustrated box

Gallery

 * General

Videos

 * Trailers

Trivia

 * Persona 5 Strikers is the first Persona game released on the Nintendo Switch.
 * It is also the third Persona game overall to be released on Nintendo hardware, after the Persona Q games on the Nintendo 3DS.
 * It is also the first original Megami Tensei game in general to be released on the system, and the second overall after Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE Encore.
 * Persona 5 Strikers is the second Persona game to be released on Steam, the first being Persona 4 Golden.
 * The game takes around 45 hours to complete.
 * Loading times in this game are significantly slower than in Persona 5 or Persona 5 Royal, especially on the Nintendo Switch. On the PlayStation 5 however, loading times are significantly faster and comparable to those in Persona 5 Royal on the PS4.
 * The marketing behind the Japanese release date (2.20.2020) is tied to the concept that Persona 5 Strikers is the second entry in the Persona 5 series.
 * In addition, in the 2nd Japanese PV trailer, the logo of the game has temporarily transformed into P5 2  (lit. "Persona Five Two") before returning back to its normal look as P5S.
 * The Japanese release date for Strikers has a complementary meaning behind it: The "2's" seem to be pronounced as "Nya," and the "0s" as "o." This serves as wordplay for the Japanese onomatopoeia for "Meow." It's used as part of a jingle to advertise the game, sung by Morgana: "Persona 5S; 2020.2.20!".
 * Before the game's release, it could be played at the bottom of the Japanese Persona 5 Strikers website and at the end of the second episode of Traveling Morgana Newsletter.
 * At the end, Morgana would remark he's not a cat, like in the games themselves.
 * Strikers was initially planned to be a "Persona Warriors" game spanning multiple titles. However, when coming together with Atlus for a story, it was decided to make it a direct sequel to Persona 5 and focus on continuing its story. Another early concept was for the game to have the cast time travel to the.
 * All characters original to this game are designed by Koei instead of Atlus, although it was done under Atlus' supervision to ensure their designs are faithful to Persona ' s worldview.
 * One of the early design drafts in the gameplay of Persona 5 was the action-based system incorporating real-time elements, but it was scrapped in fear of sudden changes making fans uncomfortable. The draft could have been modified and implemented to Persona 5 Strikers.
 * The font Optima Nova is used for the dialogue in Strikers, which is the same one in Persona 5 Royal and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight.
 * In the Japanese version of Strikers, the font, FOT-Slump Std (FOT-スランプStd), is left unchanged between games of the Persona 5 series.
 * In the Traditional Chinese version of Strikers, the font was changed from ordinary round sans to FZYiHei (方正藝黑) in favor of distinction and stylishness.
 * In comparison to the Japanese box art for Strikers, the Western one has been mildly modified: instead of having Ryuji be punched in the face by a Shadow in a comical fashion, his artwork has been modified to one where he is leaping down and swinging his weapon overhead at a Shadow. This is because the does not allow video game box arts to depict violent blows to the head.
 * Some parts of Strikers ' English transcripts might be substantially different compared to the Japanese version.
 * The Bonus Contents app that comes with the Western version uses the Unity engine.
 * Persona 5 Strikers was nominated for the "Best Soundtrack" category on the 2021.