It's an optimistic story, too, a roadtrip with old friends that encourages action and hope in the face of seemingly implacable, ages-old institutions. Nothing about Strikers' story is particularly sharp or deep, but for a younger audience, its critiques could feel revelatory. Most of my attention was spent waiting to see Striker's next wild monster or trippy environment take goofy jabs at insidious social media design. I don't know that it contributes to the theme other than to make Strikers more interesting to look at while characters deliver long, moralizing messages to one another about influence and popularity and the true meaning of friendship, but it works. And the rabbit's big, fluffy tail has a damn mouth. I mean, the first boss is an influencer who turns into a monstrous rabbit at the center of a deranged amusement park. I wish I had something so simple and cool to take a dig at the effects of social media and data collection on daily life through the lens of jazz, anime, and street art when I was younger. The premise might be the only reason I stuck around. I choose you, weird sewer monster shaped like a penis, also why are you crying?! And so on. People fight one another with physical manifestations of their psyche, which basically makes it a game of surreal Pokemon.

It sounds complex, but the Persona series just dresses up social and cultural issues in surreal fantasy garb. In Persona 5 Strikers you return as the same nameless high school student and reunite with the Phantom Thieves, your group of friends that faced down the invisible psychic threats plaguing the Metaverse in Persona 5. Strikers will give Persona 5 lovers some painful whiplash. Strikers is a wild, but bloated visual novel with almost no room for expression or choice, and with some of the best turn-based combat in existence swapped out for repetitive action game combat. Its social elements and combat aren't as fully-featured or its characters as deeply considered as Persona 5's, so any expectation of parity will lead to disappointment. But Strikers isn't Persona 5, and the comparison isn't flattering for it.

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