After a leak last week that revealed its Western launch date and trailer, Persona 5 Strikers has been officially announced and its February 2021 release date has been confirmed. The game is a continuation of the story that concluded in the original Persona 5 (not Royal) and sees the return of its cast of characters in the Phantom Thieves along with some new faces. It’s also an action-RPG musuo-style take on the traditional Persona formula, as its being developed by Omega Force, the studio behind the Dynasty Warriors games and several other adaptations (such as Fire Emblem Warriors and Hyrule Warriors).
Persona 5 Strikers maintains its party-based dynamic in combat and elemental affinities along with some Persona trademarks like all-out attacks, persona abilities, spell casting, and its lavish art style. Strikers also includes the social simulation side of things as you’ll get explore cities across Japan (and beyond Tokyo this time) and spend time with your fellow Phantom Thieves. We got hands-on with the Japanese demo earlier this year and you can watch our impressions and gameplay in the video below.
Like the original RPG, Strikers will include Japanese and English audio with the return of the original voice casts. New characters get involved in the mix, such as a detective from Kyoto named Zenkichi Hasegawa and mysterious girl from the metaverse named Sophia, and become playable characters as well as, which can be seen in the pre-release materials from the Japanese version.
Two versions of the game will be available; the digital deluxe edition gives players early access to the full version of the game on February 19, 2021 while the standard edition launches on February 23, 2021. Along with getting to play the game four days early, the digital deluxe version comes with bonus content like a digital artbook, the soundtrack with over 40 songs, behind the scenes videos, Persona legacy soundtracks for the game (Persona 1 through 4 Golden), and in-game items. Physical versions from GameStop include a pin and Steelbook copies will be available at Best Buy for the Switch version.
This will be the first time a Persona 5 game releases on Nintendo Switch and PC (via Steam), and the PS4 version will be backwards compatible for PS5. Atlus has been making a push to port its games to PC as we’ve seen with Persona 4 Golden earlier this year and Catherine back in 2019.
For more on Persona 5 Strikers, be sure to read my impressions of the action-RPG combat system and how it’s a great fit for the series based on my time with the Japanese demo. You should also be excited for more Persona music as Strikers will feature remixes of original songs and new tracks, too–I even said that “The Last Surprise” remix in P5S might be better than the original song. You can also check out the official Western reveal trailer below.
GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.
