Persona 5 Scramble Gets New Footage, Details New Characters, Gameplay, And Story

Atlus shared a big batch of new info on the upcoming Omega Force-developed action game Persona 5 Scramble with info on new characters, gameplay, and story. Here’s a big recap on what’s new. [Thanks, Games Talk.]

Here’s a summary of information and gameplay shared during the official livestream:

• Development progress is at about 90%. Adjustments will be important from this point onward.
• There are many staff that are fans of Persona in Omega Force staff, and they’re helping it shape up to be something of high-quality.
• As a Persona game, the strategic part comes naturally with the action.
• It’s not all about going wild with action, but there’s proper character development, story, and more packed in.
• Some characters were made using character models from Persona 5, but there are newly made parts too.
• Persona 5 Scramble is being made to be one with the Persona 5 series.
• It’s currently a secret on whether we’ll see the appearance of Confidants and characters from the story.
• You can pull off all kinds of action by combining the square and triangle buttons.
• There are gun weapons as well
• When a Persona is activated, you can select through moves up an down. The protagonist can switch through Personas left and right.
• Time stops when a Persona is active. It also displays an analysis of the enemies, so you can take your time to select the appropriate Persona.
• A Persona’s attack range varies based on the move.
• SP is important. It’ll be important to strategize to hit weaknesses and as many enemies within range.
• Time also suspends when you take aim with a gun. There are charge shots. Different guns area being prepared for each character.
• Based on the combat it’ll also be possible to escape.
• There’s a feature called “Phantom Move” that uses background objects such as traffic lights and streetlights to pull off mobile action or attack actions.
• You can use follow-up attacks from guns.
• The general concept of buffs and debuffs are in the game.
• Hitting a weakness makes it a technical, dealing massive damage.
• There’s a shield meter next to the HP of enemies, once you make it run out you can pull off a “One-More” or regular attacks to follow.
• You can summon a Persona while in mid-air.
• You can even blow up police cars using an attack. This does fire attribute damage.
• The Showtime mechanic is in the game. Joker who can switch through Personas is getting a number of Showtimes being made just for that.
• You’ll get to befriend Personas, and they’re also preparing fusion for them too.

Here’s some gameplay footage, courtesy NintendoEverything:

Here are some tidbits on the story and character:

• With characters being sent about across cities in the nation, the developers hope to show parts that you couldn’t see in Persona 5.
• They want to make the members of the Phanthom Thieves young and fun. Some want to see it as a reward for the characters’ hard work in Persona 5.
• The setting will go beyond the already-announced five cities.
• To summarize the story, the crew was in the midst of enjoying their summer by going camping or on vacation, but they find themselves getting lost into an unknown alternate world. It’s a fearsome world where one known as “King” orders Shadows to snatch away the desires of humans. There’s a series of mysterious “Reform Incidents” taking place across Japan. Members of the Phantom Thieves will travel and go about reforming the world from their camping car.

• The girl you meet in the other world is Sophia (CV: Misaki Kuno). She helps the protagonist and friends to be a good neighbor to humans. Sophie is her codename, and she uses a yoyo and a blaster for a weapon. She specializes in healing skills. She’s able to control something like a Persona called “Pithos.”

• Zenkichi Hasegawa (CV: Shinichiro Miki) is a police officer, but we don’t know whether he’s friend or foe. Both Zenkichi and Sophia play a big role in the main story.

Lastly, here are some notes on the game systems:

• There’s a “Baton Pass” system for switching characters. By switching characters in real-time, you can aim for enemy weaknesses.
• Regular attacks can be used without stopping the flow of action.
• Each character have their own parameters and weapons, with their own unique feel of play.
• Since they all have their own HP, you can switch them out during a pinch.
• The way you level your characters will also have a big influence on how you strategize.
• Symbol encounters loiter about the maps, touching them throws you into battle. You can also start encounters by shooting them with a gun. Again, you can sneak attack them by hitting them from behind or on top of their head for an advantageous start to battle.
• Sophie is a character with simple moves, made so that beginners can use with ease. However, she has some technical aspects that even advanced players can use, as timing her attacks well increase power and range. She can charge her power using the triangle button. She can also use a charge shot to bind enemies.
• Panther uses a whip. While attacking, she can bring out Carmen for fire attacks. By pressing the triangle button she can enchant her whip with a fire attribute to pull off fire attacks. You can use enchantments while in the middle of attacking. She can also use Tarunda to lower enemy attack power. It is way more effective using Tarunda as a Persona Skill instead of a regular special attack.
• Skull can charge all of his special attacks. For example when charging Zio it becomes Mazio. Charging takes quite a bit of time, but Skull can active Super Armor that makes it so that he doesn’t even flinch (though he still takes a little damage) when getting hit.
• Battles have plenty of strategies involved, so it’ll be very difficulty to simply button-mash your way around.
• You can pull off a special kind of attack by chipping away at the down meter of a mid-boss.
• Analyzing lets you see enemy weaknesses and parameter conditions. For example if you lower an enemy’s defense using Rakunda, this information displays when analyzing.
• Throwing in debuffs can make boss fights much easier.
• During battle there are timed attacks where you or your allies can call out. When accepting it you pull off the attack while switching out characters at the same time.
• There is easy mode for those who simply want to enjoy the story. The difficulty can be changed at anytime, but they still can’t say just how difficult it can get.

Here’s another gameplay video featuring Sophie, Ann, and Ryuji:

And lastly, here’s The Morgana Report #1 for Persona 5 Scramble, with a look at the new story and new characters:

Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers releases for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in Japan in February 20, 2020. Check our previous report for the latest details and screenshots, and here for a look at a batch of TV commercials for Japan.