As beloved as the previous Persona games are, the Phantom Thieves are definitely the faces of their franchise right now. The original Persona 5 remains an acclaimed best-seller for Atlus and the games that came after it keep getting a lot of love too. Persona 5 Strikers saw huge international success right out of the gate, reaching 1.5 million copies sold by the middle of 2021. People keep coming back to Persona 5 and its satellite games because of the Phantom Thieves, whose diverse stories, personalities, and reasons for their vigilante work result in a memorable cast that's always worth revisiting.
Persona 5 Strikers makes a particularly strong case for more media focused on the Phantom Thieves. Subplots and character arcs involving lessons that the Phantom Thieves learned during the events of Persona 5 are major parts of Persona 5 Strikers' story, and while they serve the game well in their own right, they also show why there's still cause to use the Phantom Thieves in a future game. Persona 5, the expanded Royal edition, and Persona 5 Strikers may explore the complicated lives of the Phantom Thieves in great detail, but as they start to see the world through more mature eyes, the Phantom Thieves will inevitably create more compelling stories.
How Persona 5 Strikers Explores the Phantom Thieves
Persona 5 is structured in large part around story arcs that star a new member of the Phantom Thieves: Madarame's arc is about Yusuke's liberation, Kaneshiro's arc is about Makoto finding her independence, and so on. To a lesser extent, Persona 5 Strikers is structured in the same way. The Monarchs of Jails, who serve as antagonists for the game's various plot arcs, often have some trait that makes them a good foil for a Phantom Thief, meaning players get to see new sides of the Phantom Thieves through their enemies.
Persona 5 Strikers' Monarchs go far to show how each Phantom Thief has grown. During the Phantom Thieves' trip to Sendai, for instance, Yusuke develops a complicated relationship with the Monarch and star author Ango Natsume. In Yusuke's Confidant arc in Persona 5, players learn about his struggle to create meaningful art without falling prey to greed or desperation for approval. In Persona 5 Strikers, Yusuke is pivotal in convincing Natsume to forfeit a career built on plagiarized work, eventually resulting in Natsume promising to start over by creating work that's true to him, just like how Yusuke eventually finds his artistic path by the end of his Confidant story.
While Persona 5 Strikers shows how the Phantom Thieves have learned from their pasts and how they can use that life experience to help misguided people, Strikers also emphasizes the fact that the Thieves' journeys are never quite over. Many of them continue struggling with the grief of deceased family members, and relationships with Monarchs like Ann's bond with Alice show how the trauma the Phantom Thieves have been through still shapes their choices and outlook on the world. Persona 5 Strikers showcases how the Phantom Thieves have grown as a result of Persona 5, but it also shows that their internal journeys are far from over.
New Stories About the Phantom Thieves
Strikers provides some valuable next steps in the lives of the Persona 5 protagonists, but it also doesn't aim to resolve the difficulties of their lives. That means that future Persona media can continue developing their characters and explore new angles on their lived experiences. The Phantom Thieves' Confidant storylines partially resolve major conflicts in their lives, but Strikers shows how the concepts in those arcs can be used in new ways. Yusuke's pursuit of true art, Ann's complicated relationship with her own beauty, Haru's search for free will within high society, and so on can inform future Persona stories focused on the Persona 5 cast.
Persona 5 Strikers ages the Phantom Thieves up a little bit, and this is a perfect way for new Persona 5 media to explore these plot threads in fresh ways. There are only so many stories that can be told about the Persona 5 characters while they're still high schoolers, but as they move on to university life and professional work, new angles for their personal plot threads open up. For instance, Makoto's quest to become a police officer in her father's honor might be very different in practice than what she imagines in Persona 5.
Future Persona 5 stories also have the potential to introduce new characters who intersect with the Phantom Thieves' lives in surprising ways. Persona 5 has some truly despicable antagonists in its Palace rulers, but Persona 5 Strikers prefers more morally complicated antagonists who've lost sight of an honest path due to relatable struggles. Future Persona media could do the same thing, leaning on more complicated villains that the Phantom Thieves can see themselves in. Relatable enemies who make the Persona 5 cast think critically and approach their vigilante work differently will go a long way in developing them further.
The Phantom Thieves' Future
Future Persona content using this model could breathe new life into the Phantom Thieves. Naturally, Persona 5 fans want another game that stars the Phantom Thieves, but since it's unclear if a Persona 5 fighting game or any other spinoff is in the future, fans should keep their eyes on other genres too. Atlus says it wants to build the Persona brand in multiple ways, which could mean Atlus eventually produces Persona manga or anime telling new stories with the Phantom Thieves at the helm.
Regardless of whether it's a game or a manga, a new Persona 5 follow-up story focusing on the Phantom Thieves' individual journeys has the potential to succeed. After all, that's the way Persona 5 Strikers is designed. Strikers' plot may be simpler than that of Persona 5 due to its short length, but it's still meaningful because of how it reframes several of the main characters. Hopefully, Atlus learns from Persona 5 Strikers' shifting perspective on the Phantom Thieves when building any future narratives for them. With the help of oncoming adulthood and complicated enemies, the Phantom Thieves still have a lot of stories to give.
Persona 5 Strikers is available now for PC, PS4, and Switch.