Persona 5 Strikers

Persona 5 Strikers is an action role-playing game developed by Omega Force and P-Studio and published by Atlus. The game is a crossover between Koei Tecmo's "Dynasty Warriors" franchise and Atlus' 2016 role-playing game "Persona 5", and is set half a year after the events of the original "Persona 5". It follows Joker and the rest of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts as they investigate a series of mysterious events involving people across Japan. It was released in Japan for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in February 2020, with a worldwide release for those consoles and Microsoft Windows in February 2021. 
"Persona 5 Strikers" received generally favorable reviews from critics, and has sold over 1.3 million copies as of April 2021.
Gameplay.
"Persona 5 Strikers" is a gameplay crossover between Koei Tecmo's hack and slash "Dynasty Warriors" series, and Atlus' role-playing game "Persona" series. It features elements from both franchises, such as the real-time action combat of the former with the turn-based Persona-battling aspect of the latter.
Joker, the game's protagonist, is able to wield multiple Personas, which are gained through random drops or by defeating named mini-bosses in dungeons. These Personas can then be brought to the Velvet Room, where they can be fused to create new Personas. The Confidant system from "Persona 5" is absent. In its place are Requests, a form of side-quests, and the BOND system, where increasing its level can grant players bonuses such as stat increases. The BOND levels can be increased through interacting with party members, winning battles, and progressing the story throughout the game.
Players can form an active party of maximum four members, with Joker being the only character not removable as an active party member. Outside of battle, active party members can be swapped with standby party members. Players can only control Joker in the real world but are able to control any party member freely when exploring the story dungeons. Exploring dungeons is similar to "Persona 5", where players can use stealth to avoid enemies or may occasionally face the need to solve puzzles to progress. The 'Third Eye' also makes a return from "Persona 5", where it highlights the enemy's strength and interactive objects. Should the alert meter of the dungeon reach 100%, the party is forced to leave the dungeon. The Alert level can be lowered by winning battles that are initiated with surprise attacks or by leaving the dungeon. Unlike previous entries of the "Persona" series, leaving the dungeon does not progress time and there are generally no demerits in leaving the story dungeons.
Battles are mostly initiated when the player character comes into contact with the enemy, where they can launch a surprise attack to gain a combat advantage if the enemy has not spotted them. Battles are also now in the form of a real-time combat system. However, players will use a command-based skills menu when using Persona skills. During the time in this menu, the battle will pause to allow tactical positioning of the Persona skills. If the party deals critical damage or deals damage that the enemy is weak to, the enemy may be knocked down for an 'All-Out Attack' which deals a large amount of damage. All party members can obtain new moves, known as Master Arts, by controlling the characters manually and defeating enemies. If all active party members are knocked out in battle, a game over occurs.
Plot.
Four months after the events of "Persona 5", the protagonist and Morgana return to Tokyo for a reunion with the other Phantom Thieves of Hearts to spend their summer vacation together on a camping trip. To determine the camping preparations, they use a popular application called EMMA. While going to Shibuya to buy the necessary tools, they pass by a rising idol, Alice Hiiragi, who gives the protagonist a card requesting them to input "Wonderland" into the EMMA app for a special event she is holding. Upon entering the keyword, however, he, Morgana, and Ryuji are transported into a mysterious alternate version of Tokyo called a Jail, where they encounter Alice's Shadow, a ruler called a Monarch. Alice's Shadow self has the protagonist, Morgana, and Ryuji thrown into a dumpster below Shibuya where they encounter a sentient A.I. named Sophia. Sophia joins the party and easily fights off the Shadows in the dumpster until they find their way out. After they escape the dumpster, the protagonist, Morgana, Ryuji and Sophia learn that EMMA enables them to enter the Jails similarly to how they used to enter Palaces via the Metaverse Navigator. Additionally, rumors circulate that people have been attacked by Shadows in Jails, which causes them to behave abnormally in the real world. As such, Joker and his friends reestablish the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.
After changing Alice's heart, they are approached by Zenkichi Hasegawa, a police officer investigating the sudden bizarre changes of behavior in people around Japan with the Phantom Thieves as the prime suspect. Zenkichi forces them to make a deal with him: he will provide them with information necessary for their heists, and in exchange, the Phantom Thieves will help him with his investigation, which they reluctantly agree to. Accompanied by Zenkichi, the Phantom Thieves travel to Sendai and Sapporo, changing the corrupted hearts of the Jail's Monarchs. During their trip, they make a deal with a professor specializing in artificial intelligence, Kuon Ichinose after she eavesdrops and finds out that the protagonist and his friends are the Phantom Thieves. Additionally, Zenkichi requests that the Phantom Thieves go to a presentation in Sendai and watch as the head of the global IT company Madicce, Akira Konoe, demonstrates EMMA's functions while listening to see if he says anything suspicious or out of the ordinary in front of the live audience, which could serve as a hint that Konoe might be misusing the app to manipulate people's hearts. He is supported by Jyun Owada, a corrupt politician and supporter of former politician Masayoshi Shido. Jyun was responsible for causing the death of Zenkichi's wife Aoi while drunk driving. Konoe uses his position to pin the blame on the Phantom Thieves and order for their arrest, deeming them terrorists for hacking into EMMA.
Additionally, Konoe asks EMMA for suggestions on how he could capture the Phantom Thieves. In response, EMMA suggests using an associate of the group and turning them into a Monarch. The target that meets the criteria turns out to be Zenkichi's daughter, Akane Hasegawa. At the same time, Akane is made a Monarch of Kyoto's Jail when she asks the app to help her after Zenkichi gets arrested for treason. Entering Kyoto's Jail upon learning the truth behind Akane's complete hatred toward the police and her father due to her mother's untimely demise, the Phantom Thieves - excluding Futaba - are captured by her Shadow. Futaba requests Zenkichi's help after he is freed from custody and confronts Shadow Akane, awakening his Persona, Valjean. With his Persona's awakening, Zenkichi officially joins the Phantom Thieves. Afterward, they successfully save Akane. After Akane's change of heart, the Phantom Thieves request help from Kuon Ichinose to gain more information about EMMA and Madicce, eventually allowing them to enter Konoe's Jail in Osaka. After successfully changing Konoe's heart, the EMMA app is shut down and Madicce is disbanded following Konoe's arrest.
However, the EMMA app suddenly restarts on its own, causing a massive blackout throughout Tokyo, and a new Jail emerges. Entering the Jail, they encounter Ichinose, who reveals herself to be the true creator of EMMA. She reveals that she sold it to Konoe so that she could monitor the Monarchs created by EMMA, incapacitate its users, and determine humanity's true desire. She also reveals that she created Sophia as a prototype of EMMA, but deemed her a failure and discarded her. She commands Sophia to attack the Phantom Thieves, but due to her strong bond with the group, Sophia defies her creator's commands and awakens her Persona, Pandora. After convincing Ichinose to abandon EMMA, they learn that the application's true identity is the False God Demiurge, who believes that humanity's biggest wish is for a world free from crime and wrongdoing. It uses the EMMA app to manipulate people's hearts in order to take them to the "Promised Land." With Ichinose's assistance, Futaba hacks into EMMA central server to send the calling card to reach Demiurge's followers, allowing the Phantom Thieves to confront the false god in its true physical form and defeat it.
With Demiurge's defeat, the EMMA app is finally shut down for good, erasing Jails from existence. In the aftermath, Owada is arrested thanks to Konoe's testimony, Zenkichi returns to Kyoto, and Sophia decides to go on a journey together with Ichinose. With their mission complete, the Phantom Thieves once again go their separate ways but promise that they'll meet again next winter.
Development and release.
"Persona 5 Strikers" began development around the time of the Japanese release of "Persona 5" in September 2016, where it was known as "Persona Warriors". It was first teased as "Persona 5 S" in December 2018, with it being fully revealed in April 2019. It was co-developed by Koei Tecmo's Omega Force studio and Atlus' P-Studio, and released for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in Japan on February 20, 2020 as "Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers". It was produced by Daisuke Kaneda and Kenichi Ogasawara, with music composed by Atlus' Atsushi Kitajoh and Koei Tecmo's Gota Masuoka and Ayana Hira. A demo of the game was released on February 6.
A collector's edition for both platforms, called the "Treasure Box", included the game, an art book, a soundtrack, a Blu-ray disc featuring the creation of the theme song making-of, a towel, a traveling bag, and a package featuring new illustrations. Players who pre-order the game received a "Persona" series music downloadable content (DLC) set for free that can be played in the game. In addition, players who have save data from either "Persona 5" or "Persona 5 Royal" on their PlayStation 4, or "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate" on their Switch received DLC featuring some "Persona 5" music tracks. Versions of the game were released by Sega in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea on June 18, 2020, and was released in North America and Europe on February 23, 2021, in addition for Microsoft Windows.
The game's English voice recordings were scheduled to begin in April 2020 before being delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The actors later received audio equipment from Atlus so that they could work at home.
Reception.
"Persona 5 Strikers" received "generally favorable" reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic.
Sales.
"Persona 5 Strikers" sold 162,410 copies during its first week at retail in Japan, with 115,995 and 46,415 units on the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch respectively. The Asian release debuted in the top five in Taiwan and South Korea for both platforms, selling over 480,000 copies throughout Asia by July 2020. By December 2020, the game had sold over 500,000 copies throughout Asia. In the United States, "Persona 5 Strikers" was the third best-selling game of February 2021, after "Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury" and "". By April 2021, the game had sold over 1.3 million copies worldwide.