A musou spinoff of the critically acclaimed Persona 5 was the last thing fans expected when rumblings of a “Persona 5 S” first emerged, but after watching the first-ever gameplay livestream of Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers earlier today, things are shaping up nicely. Two hours of information and footage were shared in Japanese, and thanks to the folks over at Persona Central, we already have the new info translated and ready to go.
One of the more significant changes to the traditional musou formula being made with Persona 5 Scramble is a greater emphasis on story. The team working on the game has quite a few Persona fans, so they want to do the series justice. The game is a direct sequel to Persona 5 and takes place six months after the game’s conclusion. Scramble will see the Phantom Thieves traveling all over Japan to new cities not featured in the main game. Five cities have currently been announced, but there will be even more in the full game.
The developers want to highlight the Phantom Thieves having fun and being regular teenagers, something that was sorely missed in Persona 5, especially when compared to its predecessors. The Phantom Thieves will encounter two entirely original characters named Sophia and Zenkichi Hasegawa who will be involved in the main story in a significant manner. Original characters are nothing new in musou spinoffs, so if you’ve played Hyrule Warriors or Fire Emblem Warriors, you know what to expect.
Persona 5‘s unique mechanics are utilized in creative ways in Scramble. The baton pass system returns, with characters changing in realtime when you hit enemies’ weaknesses. All-out attacks can be triggered as well without stopping the flow of battle. Sneak attacking enemies before engaging in battle will put you at an advantage too, just like it does in the main game.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Persona game without, well, the personas. Each character has their own persona, and Joker can switch between multiple personas. You can even befriend and fuse different personas. Summoning a persona during combat will stop time and display enemies’ information, and you’ll need to carefully assess the situation and select the appropriate skill using the d-pad. The game has shooting too, and guns will function similarly to personas with the same time-stopping mechanic.
Tactics are key in Scramble, and you won’t be able to blindly mash through enemies like you can in other musou games. Managing your SP is crucial. You’ll need to use the best skills to defeat the largest amount of enemies or even use buffs and debuffs to make boss battles easier. Pulling off sneak attacks and exploiting weaknesses is a core aspect of Scramble‘s combat, and it adds a nice bit of Persona 5 flavor to the musou formula. To see some of this stuff in action, you can check out the newest gameplay trailer below.
It looks like Omega Force and Atlus are putting a lot of love into The Phantom Strikers, and we can’t wait to get our hands on it. The game will be out in February in Japan, but there’s no date for the west yet. Persona 5 Royal will launch here first, and that’s still slated for next spring. Maybe Scramble will follow next fall?
Whatever may happen, 2020 looks like it’ll be a great year for Persona fans.
