Oh, how I’ve missed the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Over the hundred-hour journey through Persona 5 Royal, I really came to love the band of cognitive heroes, with the generous length of the story letting each have a moment to shine, be it their introductory arc or subsequent interactions in the rest of the game. With the eclectic mix of personalities clashing and complimenting each other, the group felt more alive than most ensembles I’ve seen in TV shows or movies, and leaving them at the end of Royal’s third semester left me wanting to immediately jump back in and play through the game again. Fast forward to now, nearly two years since, and I finally play what I thought was just another Dynasty Warriors spin-off, akin to the Zelda crossover, Hyrule Warriors, only to find out it’s a full-blown sequel and a damn enticing one too.

Six months have passed since the group’s final confrontation with that Eldritch being Yaldabaoth, and forgetting the additional Persona 5 Royal content, (Kasumi, Maruki and all that, this follows strictly the base game and not any of that stuff), the gang has unofficially retired after all the palaces are defeated and Joker’s moved home. Now visiting for summer break, the Thieves reconvene to discuss a group road trip, only to get tangled up in another Meta-verse-based mystery, this time with a sentient AI, city-spanning dungeons, and hordes of enemies to smack around, as opposed to the usual Atlus staple of turn-based combat. 

After all, this is a crossover with the long-running Dynasty Warriors series, which is known for horde-fighting combat that lends itself to large-scale wars with humongous armies. Given that both series made their debut on the original Playstation back in the late 90’s, it’s sort of a long-awaited reunion for the two icons, and to my surprise works incredibly well at incorporating the best aspects from both. The memorable narrative-driven elements of Persona 5 are still here, continuing in a new story that, while a lot shorter, is just as intriguing, and perhaps more consistent thanks to the speedier pacing. That’s not to say the group don’t have time to just hang out, eat food, and shoot the shit, because they do, but the game’s at least sixty hours shorter than the original outing, and I think it benefits from a shorter playtime, which I never thought I’d say about a Persona title.

The usual Persona combat staples of type match-ups, All-out-Attacks and One More’s, as well as the Persona 5 specific Showtime, gun attacks and Baton Pass are all seamlessly integrated into the Warriors-style large-scale combat. With all the options present, the first time fighting might feel a bit overwhelming, but for me, it didn’t take long to get used to and in turn love the new, highly animated attacks, from not just Joker but the entire extended cast of the Phantom Thieves. That’s right, now you can control not only the nameless protagonist but everyone else except Futaba (which would have been fun to see but alas), who remains as the resident hacker/navigator for the group. Being able to swap between who not only fights but traverses the game’s dungeons (jails), is a joy and makes the unit feel tighter than ever. In a given fight, I’ll start by buffing another character as Joker, baton pass to them, use their weakness against an enemy, follow it up, dash out of the way, shoot a couple of shots off, and only about 5 seconds will have passed. The combat is fast-paced and satisfying and remains insanely faithful to the stylish combat of its predecessor.

The aforementioned jails are essentially an upscaled version of Persona 5’s palaces, where instead of a building being converted into the monarch’s mental image, e.g. a perverted gym teacher’s view of a school being a castle where he is the king, they now span entire Japanese cities, and the rulers have stolen the desires of the general population. How they do so is one of the overarching mysteries, but the major difference, and something I really love is how the “warden” of each jail isn’t as abundantly evil as the bosses from Persona 5, and in some way are also victims to their own dark side, a concept expertly explored in Persona 4. That for me, is peak Persona storytelling, where the line between heroes and villains is blurred, and antagonistic characters have misguided but often understandable motives. The jails also capitalise on the traversal elements that made up the exploration of the brilliant palaces from 5, but of course, with a wider cityscape, are utilised in full effect as you traverse rooftops, avoid floodlights, and feel like even more of an acrobatic cat-burglar than before. 

Each character has unique skills, Fox can counter, Morgana can transform into the car from mementos and commit vehicular manslaughter, while newcomer Wolf can power up attacks while draining his health. It’s nice figuring out who you want to have in your four-person lineup for a given jail, swapping them in and out easily in between battles, to make use of type matchups. Out of all the characters to control, they’re all great to play as but Fox and Noir are by far my favourites. I always thought that being the last proper addition to the core Phantom Thieves, Haru (Noir) had less time to settle in Persona 5, so having her be one of the most enjoyable to play felt like poetic redemption. Not only that but the third jail expands on her emotional journey, with a character from her past returning to provide emotional scenes that I really enjoyed seeing.

On the topic of characters, newcomers like Sophia and Zenkichi gradually integrate into the established Thieves dynamic in different but effective ways. Sophia, who is a mysterious AI girl found in the Metaverse initially feels a bit stiff, but that makes sense as throughout the game she learns about human emotions and experiences, mimicking them herself. She eventually feels like she’s always been part of the group, which always seems to be the case with any new addition to the Phantom Thieves, par the course for Strikers too. Zenkichi, however, is a truly great character through and through. Initially distrusting him because of his law enforcement background (let’s face it, the police haven’t had a good record in this series), both the characters and the players are wary of trusting him, and for good reason, it’s not always clear what his intentions are and where his allegiances lie. This concept is later capitalised on beautifully, exploring his motivations, past failures and family ties, which while making him very comparable to Persona 4’s Dojima, still work wonders at making him the standout character of the game in his own right.

Early on the cities visited and their corresponding bosses pair up nicely with individual Thieves and allow them to reflect on themselves and their previous struggles against their respective monarchs in Persona 5, and although this isn’t the case for every single thief, as the latter dungeons become more plot-oriented, I appreciated seeing a further reflection on not only the events of the previous game but how much the Thieves have grown as characters. Ann tries to reach out to a corrupted idol, understanding the often cruel world of models and stardom and Yusuke sees similarities to his old corrupt mentor in a particular warden and doesn’t hesitate to call him out on his wrongdoings, rather than stand back like he feels he did previously. While I would have liked to see Ryuji or Morgana have a moment like this, I think the length of the game strikes a good chord and without the usual Persona social activities and events, it may have dragged the game out more than it needed to.

If you know the series I don’t need to say this but the soundtrack does indeed slap. Controversial opinion but I think the intro sequence might be my favourite in a long line of amazing ones. Whereas Persona 5’s intro had an absolute banger of a song (“Wake up, get up, get out there”), the animation isn’t the most interesting. Persona 4’s intro is iconic and mysterious, Golden’s is upbeat and fun, but this one just goes so unbelievably hard. With returning vocals from Lyn and exciting animation that is as fast-paced as the combat, It gets me thoroughly amped to slay some shadows. The jail themes aren’t anything like P5’s ‘When Mother Was Here’ or ‘Whims of Fate’, but all of the battle themes and remixed tracks from 5 hit like a truck. Not to mention each city you visit along the road trip has a unique and often funky track accompanying it.

Some extra points to bring up, The side quests round out a nice set of extra objectives and give good reason to return to previous dungeons, as well as experience additional character events, I would have liked to explore a bit more of each city’s unique attractions, but I’m still happy with what I got to see. The latter end of the game ups stakes in traditional fashion, and pits you against a god, nothing too unusual, but I found by the time the final boss came around I was beyond strong enough and after fighting the tougher Dire Shadows, was a walk in the park. The boss fights, while fun, aren’t as intense and satisfying to complete as Persona 5’s often lengthy encounters, but I’ll say that I really enjoyed the final warden’s fight, as well as the backstory that led to it, and the character designs of each warden’s distorted selves are highly entertaining.

I am beyond pleased I picked this up. I thought it would be fan-service-y to anyone who loved 5 as much as I did, but I did not expect it to be this satisfying, and unique, yet remain so incredibly faithful to elements that made Persona 5 the absolute gem that it is. I’d gladly take a Warriors spinoff of 4 and 3 too, but also see how 5’s Thieves lend themself to this scenario a lot more naturally. Anyway, I’m gonna wrap this up and get back to playing Persona 3 Reload… As I may have a slight addiction to this series.