As shown in the preview, this week’s issue of Weekly Famitsu magazine includes a 4-page feature on Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers focusing on the new location Okinawa.
The feature mostly revolves around information revealed in the “Travelling Morgana Newsletter #4” video released recently, as well as the “Request” system where you complete tasks for people you meet while travelling, including the Phantom Thieves.
The feature also includes play impressions from a Famitsu editor who has finished the game.
Play Impressions
- The editor has rarely played the so-called “musou” warriors action games. When he was in college, he would see a senior play them and thought that it was about mindlessly defeating a lot of enemies. The editor wanted to enjoy a deep story, so he focused on playing RPGs instead and became a fan of the Persona series.
- The editor thought it was finally time to tackle the genre with what he initially thought was “Persona Musou,” from the perspective of an RPG player.
- When you start playing the game, you will be impressed by the sequence of event scenes that have the same volume and quality as that of Persona 5. The 3D graphics for the characters and environments are made with Koei Tecmo Games’ game engine, and there is a unique freshness to that, but the detailed animations and expressions of the Phantom Thieves stand out more than they did even in Persona 5.
- The reprodcutions of Shibuya, Sendai, Sapporo, Okinawa and Osaka evoke the perfect atmosphere, which makes exploring them worthwhile.
- The parallel worlds known as Jails have a variety of unique mechanics that are fun to use to effectively engage in battles. Even if you have trouble against a strong enemy, you can smoothly defeat them by utilizing objects and flying around with the “Phantom Move” attacks.
- Familiar mechanics such as switching personas (limited to the protagonist), activating skills, 1 MORE, and All-Out Attack are well implemented into the action battle system in this game, giving it a refreshing feel.
- It is super important to fight while keeping in mind enemy weaknesses and resistances (which can be seen immediately on the screen as you select a skill to use).
- Just like in the main game, if you use you skills poorly, you will quickly run out of SP.
- It is recommended to make use of the “BAND” system, which has beneficial properties such as increasing the maximum value of SP and items that restore SP. [The “BAND” system increases parameters like defense and attack powers as the story progresses with useful abilities learned for various situations, with BAND points distributed by defeating enemies.]
- The playable character can be changed instantly by using the Baton Touch system, and it’s nice to be able to control a character other than the main character to explore and fight.
- The editor particularly likes Futaba Sakura, so he gave no mercy to the enemies who would approach her while hacking. And because of that, his SP ran out quickly.
- The editor mentions that you can invite one of Joker’s friends to spend time alone with them.
Weekly Famitsu magazine #1624—or the January 30, 2020 issue—was released on January 16, 2020.
Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers will be released for the PS4 and Nintendo Switch on February 20, 2020 in Japan.