A new trailer for Persona 5 Strikers showcases a glimpse of the Phantom Thieves' abilities in the game's Dynasty Warriors style gameplay. Despite Persona 5 Strikers' release in the west being revealed just last month, the marketing for the game has gone all-out, with Persona 5 even crossing over with mobile games such as Dragalia Lost and AFK Arena.
Persona 5 Strikers is a sequel to Persona 5, taking place after the events of the original game. However, Persona 5 Strikers does not take Persona 5 Royal into its account of the events that take place. But just like Persona 5 Royal, Persona 5 Strikers does feature a new mascot character who will be a part of the Phantom Thieves for a period of time. That character is Sophia, and she describes herself as "humanity's beginning" in this new trailer.
The new trailer posted by Atlus showcases all of the main Phantom Thieves in-depth, alongside the new character Sophia. Each character section shows a brief amount of gameplay on the battlefield, which includes the special attacks that the characters can pull off; a staple of Dynasty Warriors games. The only exception in this showcase is Futaba, also known as Oracle, who is shown to hack her way through a door. This suggests that she'll play a similar support role to her appearance in Persona 5, where she featured as the Phantom Thieves' narrator. Various story elements are showcased as well, with one of the first shots being the Phantom Thieves welcoming back Joker.
Interestingly, the main protagonist Joker is labeled as protagonist in the trailer, instead of being given a name. This has been done before in other Persona games when introducing the protagonist, but the protagonists do usually have an established canon name in sources outside of the game. The recent English dub of the Persona 5 anime referred to Joker with the same name given to him in the original Japanese dub: Ren Amamiya. Given that Joker doesn't have an established name in Persona 5 Strikers, it would seem as though the "canon" names given to these protagonists are only used in source material outside of the games.
The Dynasty Warriors gameplay style is a much different way to tell Persona 5 Strikers' story from the JRPG format the series is known for. Recently, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity released as a Dynasty Warriors styled game that had its own story to tell. After Persona 5 Strikers, where is there to go for Persona 5? Will Persona 5 continue to receive spinoffs and crossovers with other franchises, or will Persona 6 soon be on the way? Players can find out where Persona 5 Strikers takes its cast of characters on February 23rd when it launches on PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Source: Atlus