Persona 5 Strikers continues the story of the Phantom Thieves, and it's the latest in a long line of Warriors adaptions. Koei Tecmo has been adapting its Dynasty Warriors formula into different series for years, including Gundam, One Piece, Dragon Quest, Zelda, and more.
Koei Tecmo's games have been more ambitious recently than ever before, however, with both Persona 5 Strikers and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity going to great lengths to be different. Both games feel wildly different for a Warriors game, and integrate elements of the respective series they're adapting.
It's interesting to see both games release so close to each other, and it's easy to compare the two since they're Koei Tecmo's most ambitious adaptions yet. With that in mind, Persona 5 Strikers just barely ekes out over Age of Calamity.
Both Games Adapt Their Series Well, But Persona 5 Strikers Is a Cut Above
Warriors games are traditionally known for massive battlefields and 1vs100 gameplay, which Age of Calamity takes to heart. Focusing on Hyrule's war with Ganon, it was the perfect opportunity to bring massive battles to adapting different elements from Breath of the Wild, like Sheikah Runes that function just as they do in the original game but have slight variations for each character. On top of that players can buff characters by cooking food, use the paraglider to quickly travel distances, and battlefields are often filled with environmental puzzles. Despite how many of Breath of the Wild's elements are injected into the experience, the core of Age of Calamity still revolves around those massive battles and taking over different bases.
Persona 5 Strikers, on the other hand, barely feels like a Warriors game at all, and more like a Persona game with an action combat system. Strikers' massive "battlefields" are more like proper RPG dungeons, with enemies that players can run into to initiate a battle. Combat does use the trademark combo system of Dynasty Warriors, but there are so many Persona elements integrated into it, like gun attacks, Phantom Dashes, and magic attacks that stop time and allow players to choose the area-of-effect. It feels action-oriented but still tactical in the way that the main Persona games do.
Strikers' story also plays out quite similarly to the base games with a wealth of cutscenes, and opportunities to wander around and explore cities. If someone didn't know that Koei Tecmo worked on Persona 5 Strikers, it's easy to see them thinking it's another game from Atlus and P Studio. It's because of that very reason that Strikers manages to be a slightly better adaption than Age of Calamity. Persona 5 Strikers feels completely like a Persona game, even while bringing fresh new ideas to the long-running franchise. On the other side of the coin, Age of Calamity brings some fresh ideas from Zelda into the Dynasty Warriors franchise.
Persona 5 Strikers is currently available for PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is available on Nintendo Switch.
