Official PlayStation Magazine - 04.2020

038

PERSONA 5 SCRAMBLE

Wakeup,getup,getoutthereagain

inflictsadditionaldamageandgrants

a follow-upattack.Youcanaddnew

Personatoyourranks,butourdemo

doesn’tmakeit clearhow–after

we’veexploiteda pixie’sweakness

againstrangedweaponsina tutorial

battle,wecansimplycollecther.

A NEWADVENTURE

Asa fully-fledgedPersona5 sequel

(thefirstofitskindsincePersona

2’sEternalPunishmentin2000),

Scrambleintroducesyoutoseveral

newmaincharacters.BesidesAlice,

thedemobrieflyshowsusInspector

ZenkichiHasegawa,whohasalready

beenrevealedasa playablecharacter

laterinthegame.Anotherimportant

additionis Sophia,whojoinsthefight

afterJokerrescuesherfroma cubein

the Shibuya metaverse.

All in all, our 90-minute hands-on

reveals Scramble feels like a charming

return to the world of Persona 5.

Combat feels slightly simple and

could do with more challenge and

musou-style disarray, but as the demo

covers the very beginning of the game,

we know battles are sure to grow in

complexity as soon as you’re joined

by more characters and Persona. We’ll

find out for sure our chaotic things

get when Scramble releases later in the

year over here in the UK.

FORMATPS4/ETATBC/PUBATLUS/DEVP-STUDIO,OMEGAFORCE

FACTRICK

TherockremixofLast

Surpriseis onlyoneof

severalnewtracksyou

canlookforwardto.

1.NEWGROOVES

Scramble wasintendedto

be a Dynasty Warriorsspin-

off.Workonit beganduring

thedevelopmentofP5.

2.WARRIOR-LIKE

P-Studio promisesa full

Persona experience,

playable even ifyouhaven’t

finished the maingame.

3.FUNTIMES

Above The Phantom Thieves

are back together at Café

Leblanc to catch up and

plan a camping trip over the

summer holiday.

“PERSONA 5

SCRAMBLE HAS

DYNASTY-WARRIORS-

STYLE COMBAT.”

All the different button

combinations and the

chaos on screen are lots

of fun, though they may

take time to get used to.

Six months after leaving Tokyo,

Joker returns to spend the summer

with the Phantom Thieves. They

meet at Café Leblanc to plan a

holiday. However, while the group

enjoys a bit of well-deserved peace,

the police begin investigating some dramatic

changes of heart in a number of influential people.

Of course the peace is short-lived. While Joker

and Ryuji are in Shibuya to buy supplies for the

group’s trip, they stumble on an event by popular

entertainment personality Alice Hiragi. She lures the

boys into her metaverse Palace, which is

populated by crowds of Shadows.

This is where Persona 5 Scramble’s new

Dynasty-Warriors-style combat (known as

‘musou’ to fans) comes in. Large numbers

of enemies are out to overwhelm you,

and you have to alternate between quick

attacks and specials (see ‘You’ll never see it

coming’, right) for crowd control. If you’ve

played Persona 5, you’ll recognise some of

the enemies in the faceless crowd as the

shadows you’ve collected across the series

and made into Persona for your own use.

The links between Scramble and the

Persona franchise don’t end there. Dynasty

Warriors developer Omega Force has

included recognisable attacks from Persona

5 throughout. While hacking your way through the

hordes may be enough to get you out of a tough

spot, you also need to exploit the weaknesses of

enemies using your weapons and Persona. Doing so