Rishabh Borde
Japanese Studios love crossover games. From ‘Kingdom Hearts’ to ‘Warriors Orochi’, there’s nothing quite like watching all your favorite characters from your favorite fandoms interacting with each other in all star team ups and epic battles. Of course, crossovers are always a tricky proposition, with the additional considerations of trying to keep each character true to their original selves as well as combining gameplay mechanics and narrative elements in a cohesive and gratifying manner.
This is especially true when its a crossover of games across genres, something akin to the upcoming Fighting game, ‘Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers’. A delectably intriguing combination of the all action style of the ‘Dynasty Warrior’ games and the profoundly engrossing narrative of the ‘Persona’ games, the new game promises to combine the best of both worlds. Read on to find out everything we know about ‘Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers’.
Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers Plot: What is It About?
‘Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers’ is a crossover game between Koei Tecmo’s ‘Dynasty Warriors’ franchise and Atlus’s ‘Persona’ franchise. ‘Dynasty Warriors’ is a series of Third Person hack and slash video games based loosely on the Chinese historical text ‘Records of the Three Kingdoms’. ‘Persona’ is a series of Japanese Role Playing Games focusing on a group of Japanese high school students.
The events in ‘Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers’ take place six months after the conclusion of ‘Persona 5’. The heroic Phantom Thieves of Hearts including Ren, Morgana, Ann, Ryuji, Makoto, Futaba, Haru and Yasuke are planning to go on vacation in Tokyo, but the game’s protagonist Joker is accosted by police investigator Zenkichi Hasegawa, who considers the Phantom Thieves to be outlaws and wants to arrest them. However, he instead offers them an alternative – investigate a mysterious new occurrence in Japan where people are being chased by Shadows who are stealing their hearts and imprisoning them. It looks like the Metaverse has returned, and the Phantom Thieves along with their AI companion Sophia must rush to everyone’s rescue.
Despite being a marked departure from the Persona franchise’s traditional gameplay, the plot line of ‘Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers’ will be a direct continuation of the ‘Persona 5’ story. The game will additionally feature two new characters – Sophia, ally to the Phantom Thieves with a dodgy memory and a blaster gun, and Zenkichi Hasegawa, a public safety officer whose allegiances are currently unknown.
Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers Gameplay
‘Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers’ is a Hack and Slash Beat Em Up video game featuring characters from the ‘Dynasty Warriors’ series and the ‘Persona’ series. The gameplay itself is also a mish-mash of genres, with Real Time Action combat as well as aspects of Turn Based battle.
The game will feature an Open World in the city of Shibuya, with combat often involving engagements against hordes of enemies ‘Dynasty Warriors’ style. You will have the ability to perform various combos and chain attacks together for massive damage output. Of course, being an Open World game, exploration will form a key part of ‘Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers’. The trailer for the game even shows off some 2D side scrolling platforming sections.
Being a sequel to ’Persona 5’ you will, of course, be able to summon various Personas, slowing down time itself when doing so. Each character will also have their own gun with proper shooting mechanics for additional combat options. If that’s not your style either, ‘Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers’ will also allow you to turn tail and escape from battles when things get a little too hot to handle.
Every character will have their own unique attributes, weapons, combat style and specialties. For example, Panther has a whip and plenty of magical attacks, while all of Skull’s special attacks can be charged for devastating results.
Unlike ordinary hack and slash games, ‘Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers’ will place a heavy emphasis on strategy as well, with special All Out Attacks that can only be activated by lowering a down gauge and a Baton Pass system that allows you to change characters in real time in order to compensate for weaknesses.
Naturally, being a cross between ‘Dynasty Warriors’ and ‘Persona’, boss battles will feature front and center in ‘Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers’. Timing and clever utilization of buffs and debuffs will be the key to winning these encounters.
Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers Developers: Who Are The People Behind It?
‘Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers’ is being developed by Japanese video game developers Omega Force and P-Studio in collaboration. The game will be published by Atlus.
Omega Force is best known for games such as the ‘Dynasty Warriors’ franchise, ‘Samurai Warriors’ franchise, ‘Warriors Orochi’ franchise and more. Atlus is renowned for games such as ‘Persona 5’, ‘Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight’ and ‘Tesla Effect: A Tex Murphy Adventure’.
Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers Release Date: When And Where Can I Play It?
‘Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers’ is set to release on February 20, 2020 exclusively in Japan for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. Currently, there is no word on a Western release date, but it will likely after the Western release of ‘Persona 5’ in early 2020.
‘Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers’ is unlikely to arrive on PC considering the ‘Persona’ games have traditionally been exclusive to PlayStation platforms. Any sort of Xbox version is out of the question of course. The art for the game is being given by ‘Persona’ series veteran Shigenori Soejima.
Pre-order customers in Japan will receive the game’s soundtrack and battle music with their purchase free of charge.
Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers Trailer
You can watch the trailer for ‘Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers’ right here:
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