Cardy, Matt and Joe have all seen the first 3 episodes of WandaVision and are very much liking what they’ve seen so far. They also discuss what they’d like to see from the recently announced Indiana Jones and Star Wars games as well as talk about their time with Persona 5 Strikers, Grindstone and The Last Campfire. Plus the Endless Search makes its long-awaited return.
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This story contains potential spoilers for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
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Images of what appear to be an upcoming action figure based on a character from Disney+ show The Falcon and The Winter Soldier may have revealed a significant plot detail.
The figure, if genuine, does spoil what could be a major moment for the show, so we advise not reading ahead should you wish to remain in the dark.
The new photos, which were posted to Twitter by account BRMarvelNews, show a Hasbro action figure of Sam Wilson dressed in a Captain America costume. The name badge on the toy’s packaging reads Captain America rather than Wilson’s more familiar superhero title, The Falcon. In addition, the packaging features an image of actor Anthony Mackie as Wilson dressed in the Captain America costume.
O uniforme do novo Capitão América!!
Um vazamento da linha de brinquedos de “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” mostra o novo uniforme do Sam Wilson. pic.twitter.com/KAVkDKdQr7
The costume itself is almost a 1:1 recreation of Sam Wilson’s Captain America costume from the Marvel comics, as debuted in All-New Captain America #1, published in November 2014. Wilson was granted the mantle of Captain America after Steve Rogers handed him the shield in Captain America Vol.7 #25. During the storyline of that era, Steve Rogers had been aged beyond his fighting prime, something that may have influenced the scene in Avengers: Endgame where aged Cap passes the shield to the Falcon.
It’s been a long time coming, but Persona 5 Strikers is finally launching in the West on February 20, and a new trailer shows just how chaotic its musou-inspired fights can get.
In the vein of Dynasty Warrior titles, Persona 5 Strikers will load the screen with enemies for you to mow down, tying Persona 5’s RPG systems to the hack and slash action. That includes the game’s signature All-Out attacks, which let each of your party’s members team-up to unleash a devastating attack. That, and they just look incredibly stylish doing it, too.
In GameSpot’s Persona 5 Strikers hands-on preview, editor Michael Higham found comfort in revisiting the likable cast of characters, while also experiencing a game without the time-sensitive stresses from the RPG.
“To be clear, it can still be quite the challenge to make it to new checkpoints to progress within a dungeon, since the focus shifts to overcoming some difficult battles in between. That’s enough to encourage you to swap party members and get the most out of each character. The fact that this cast is more than just Joker really comes through in Strikers, too.”
Persona 5 Strikers launches on February 20 for PS4 (and PS5 through backwards compatibility), Nintendo Switch, and PC.
New details and first-look images have been released for the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie, which will debut in theaters and on HBO Max in April.
Entertainment Weekly has offered fans a closer look at the R-rated movie, which features a cast of ferocious fighters, including Mehcad Brooks as Jackson “Jax” Briggs, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero, Tadanobu Asano as Raiden, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Sisi Stringer as Mileena, Josh Lawson as Kano, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Max Huang as Lung Lao Max, and Lewis Tan as an all-new character.
In the Mortal Kombat movie reboot, Tan will be portraying Cole Young, a “washed-up MMA fighter” who bears a birthmark in the shape of the Mortal Kombat symbol on his chest. This mysterious marking propels him onto a journey with Sonya Blade, who leads him to the temple of a thunderous Elder God known as Lord Raiden, where he comes into contact with a group of highly-skilled fighters.
“When we first meet Cole, he’s in a really bad spot,” Tan told the outlet. “He’s down on his luck. He’s kind of a washed-up MMA fighter who used to be a champion, who used to believe in himself, who used to have a lot of hope in his career. And it’s all gone down the drain. It’s a very interesting place for a hero to start, and I think that, along the journey of Mortal Kombat and Cole discovering where he comes from, you’re introduced to all these other iconic characters and elements that everybody loves so dearly.”
At the temple, Cole and the others will spend their time training for “a high-stakes tournament to defeat the invading enemies from Outerworld,” which will eventually lead to plenty of fights and, for the first time, fatalities. Director Simon McQuoid jokingly told stunt coordinator Kyle Gardiner to craft “the best fight sequences ever done in a movie ever,” which spawned some blood-splattered action scenes.
“It’s amount of blood, it’s amount of red, it’s interpretation of how you go about it,” McQuoid explained, speaking about the execution of the fight scenes. “We had a lot of discussions about getting the balance right so there was gore and there was blood and there were fatalities. And there is gore, blood, and fatalities.”
“There are some crazy fatalities,” added Tan, who performed his own stunts on set. “We’ve picked a couple of iconic ones. There’s a lot of really cool signature moves that you’ll see, a lot of Easter eggs that we snuck into the film, but there are some really badass fatalities that I can’t wait to see on the big screen. They’re brutal, man. They, they don’t hold back.”
Persona 5 Strikers may be the closest thing to a Persona 5-2 we will ever get, and though the Koei Tecmo co-developed follow-up eschews the turn-based battles of the acclaimed original RPG for something more akin to the Dynasty Warriors series, my experience with the opening hours of Strikers promises a worthy follow-up for the Phantom Thieves of Hearts.
It’s one that retains all the style, character, and deep lore of the original that has this returning fan thrilled to see more adventures of Joker, Morgana, and the gang, even as I grapple with just how many new options the real-time action throws your way right from the start.
As a returning fan, so much of the thrill of Strikers is getting to experience an all-new story with the returning cast, so rather than focus on the story beats of the opening six or so hours I played in Shibuya, I’ll limit myself to saying P5S hits the ground running. You could technically jump into Strikers without playing P5, which many players may be doing given that Strikers is coming to the Nintendo Switch and PC in addition to the PS4. But to do so would mean missing out on so much backstory, lore, and a deeper understanding of the main ensemble’s relationships… plus a fantastic 100-plus hour RPG. It is technically possible with this story focused on a new set of problems within the same world, but I think it would be a disservice to try to make sense of everything as you go. And rather than offer much recap, Strikers wonderfully lets the entire main cast hang out and battle together from the jump, and it’s a joy to see their personalities intersect, alongside newcomers like the mysterious Sophie and the detective Zenkichi. There’s no cliched resetting of powers or removing available party members to start things off on a less powerful note.
But other than that, don’t expect to hear more about the story from me – much like Persona 5, some of the series’ greatest joys are meant to be discovered on your own, and I would never steal that as easily as the Phantom Thieves steal hearts.
Instead, the most obvious change I want to talk about is the shift to a more Musou-style, real-time battle system as opposed to the acclaimed turn-based RPG stylings of Persona 5. Coming much more from the Persona side than from the Dynasty Warriors side of this unlikely marriage, Strikers most immediately impressed me by how well it translates the tenets of P5’s battle system into a different form and remains so fun and engaging.
This is in part due to Strikers’ combat not being completely real-time. Sure, you’re running around a battlefield, hitting enemies with basic, special, and ranged gun attacks, but this is still a Persona game, and at any point you can summon your chosen character’s Persona to use their abilities mid-battle. Doing so pauses the chaos temporarily, allowing you to swing your character around (without moving from that spot), choose your target area and skill, and unleash your attacks at will. That simple ability to pause battle and use your powerful moves that also drain your SP gauge is so well implemented because these elemental-based attacks are often the key to winning a battle when used well.
But the action never penalizes you for stopping to take a moment to think. And Strikers, at large, is quite forgiving. While you can bring various items into battle to heal, refill your SP, or nullify status effects, I often found myself running out of SP quite quickly. Strikers does run on a calendar system similar to Persona 5, but it moves forward in time based on story beats, rather than your actions, so you can hop out of Strikers’ Jails – a new twist on P5’s Palace dungeons – back into the real world to refill your stamina and health, and again into the metaverse without precious time elapsing. Strikers overall strips away the focus of having to really manage your time and make tough choices about whether you’re hanging out with a friend, working a job, or infiltrating the metaverse. That’s definitely a core aspect lost in translation, but given Strikers’ overall structure, I wasn’t necessarily missing out on having to make those tough calls here.
And being able to hop out and then back into the Jails is especially helpful because, while Strikers’ general battles are relatively easy, the mid- and end-boss battles are surprisingly squishy, with plenty of health and defenses that require a ton of SP-powered attacks to break through and ensure victory. I certainly enjoyed these larger-scale battles, but don’t expect to simply button mash your way through them.
But in any battle, Strikers offers a lot of freedom and options, which is both a blessing and a curse, even as a seasoned Persona 5 player. Every one of the Phantom Thieves from P5 is available from the jump, plus new character Sophie. With a party max of four, you can mix and match depending on Persona elemental powers, personality, or special attack variances, which differ between each character. It’s wonderful to have so much variety from the start, rather than the developers implementing any sort of cliched beat that would have removed teammates or powers, but because of that, you essentially get a quick tutorial screen and then are thrown right back into battle any time you choose to play as a character for the first time.
This leads to a lot of experimentation with how those special moves can really make a difference – and I found they could when, say, using Ann’s special to imbue fire in her attacks is necessary because of the elemental advantage versus amusingly turning Morgana into a bus – but it’s definitely a bit like being thrown into the deep end. And that’s on top of all the other little bells and whistles present in the battle system, from ambushes to give you a head start as you jump into battle, to environmental attacks using objects around you, to all-out attacks and showtime moves to hit scores of enemies, and more.
There’s A LOT – and it’s all present largely at the start. I loved discovering how each aspect worked and how best to use them in battle, but I’d totally admit even after six or seven hours of playing I was still wondering if I was using every move in my arsenal to the best of my ability, or if I was missing something, and that led to a couple battles of trial-and-error guesswork.
Luckily, that worry aside didn’t prevent me from exploring every nook and cranny of the first Jail Strikers offers, which, like Persona 5’s palaces, has treasures to pick up, hidden chests, and a host of environmental puzzles. The bright, carnival-esque aesthetic led to fascinating discoveries as I explored more of the world, and coupled with the fantastic returning and new musical tracks the action always maintained an exciting pace. I’m eagerly excited to jump into the next Jail and see where these new mysteries, new abilities, and the same classic team take me. Persona 5 Strikers smartly melds a lot of the systems, characters, and sheer style of Persona 5 onto a new mechanical template, but doesn’t lose out on any of the charm and delight inherent in the original. Strikers may not have been the Persona 5 sequel I expected, but it’s certainly one I can’t wait to keep playing.
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Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.
It’s an exciting prospect when one of your favorite games—in a series that typically doesn’t receive direct sequels—gets what’s more or less, well, a direct sequel. Mainline entries in Persona have a sort of definitive conclusion then get spinoffs or reissues, while a brand new storyline starts in the next full game (Persona 2 being an exception). Persona 5 Strikers, however, picks up where the original left off: The Phantom Thieves are back together to fight evil in the Metaverse as the cops keep a watchful eye on their moves. But now we have musou-style action RPG gameplay that’s explosive, frenetic, and at least in the early stages, pretty damn tough.
I’ve spent about five hours with Persona 5 Strikers, which encompasses the opening scenarios and the entire first palace (or dungeon), and it’s a blessing to be kicking ass as these characters again with all the lavish style you’d expect. With what seems to be a story with lower stakes and tiny slices of life simulation elements, it kind of feels like a Persona 5-lite in its narrative. The best way to put it is that Persona 5 Strikers is like the movie companion to your favorite anime.
Return Of The Metaverse And Humanity’s Companion
It’s summer vacation. Makoto and Haru have already started college, while everyone else is finishing up high school (except for Futaba, who broke out of her shell and started high school, props to her). Joker decides to return to Tokyo after a string of group texts, and everyone’s going to have a carefree and lovely time with their leader back in town. Except, that’s a lie.
Here’s the deal: A pop-star and fashion icon named Alice Hiiragi has exploded onto the scene and attained fame and fortune, and fans of hers are acting very obsessive. Turns out she’s using the Metaverse to control people’s desires and basically turn them into stans that devote their lives and bank accounts to support her. Joker and Ryuji were in the right place at the right time to uncover Alice’s sinister Wonderland palace, or jail, as it’s called in Strikers. So, of course, the rest of the gang isn’t going to let it slide either, and like that, the Phantom Thieves are back in business and have told their vacation HOLD UP.
Your new squadmate, Sophia, is a cutesy artificial intelligence that manifests as a human in the Metaverse and a phone app AI in the real world, calling herself “humanity’s companion.” The new evils you face in this game are a bit easier to take on with her assistance and as a playable character. To make things convenient, she’s also your shopkeeper and can order goods from the dark web with instant shipping. An older man named Zenkichi Hasegawa, meanwhile, is a detective tasked with tracking your activity, but there’s certainly more to him than he lets on since his motivations have been kept under wraps in the story thus far.
Charlie Tunoku is forever.
Whereas Persona 5 hit you with a gut-punch to usher you into its world, attitude to charm you with it, and social commentary to leave a lasting impression, Strikers takes it somewhat easy. And that’s fine, not everything needs to have a traumatic slap to the face to wake you up, get up, get out there. It’s just heartwarming to see everyone happy and together again. I mean, after all the hardships they endured in the original game, they deserve to live without something like the impending doom they faced in their pasts. But, little do they know they’d find themselves back in the Metaverse fighting shadows like they hadn’t missed a beat.
Victory Won’t Come Easy
And boy, does Persona 5 Strikers likes to remind you how stylish and expressive the Phantom Thieves are. Every character’s personality and combat sensibilities are part of how they function during fights. You get the satisfaction of directly controlling them and hitting unique attacks and combos that exhibit their individuality. I’m not going to lie, tearing through mobs using Makoto’s bike persona Johanna and slamming into the ground for high-damage, as well as charging up Ryuji’s bat swing to inflict electricity damage, has been one of the best feelings in the game.
The major shift in gameplay is really the star of the opening hours and the thing you’ll be eager to get more of. With Omega Force and Koei Tecmo as developers, this game takes the real-time action foundation of the Warriors games then layers on almost everything you remember from Persona 5’s combat system: elemental affinities, spell casting, buffs and status ailments, swapping personas, party composition, all-out attacks, Showtime attacks, guns and melee—and it just looks cool as hell.
It sounds great on paper, and it has mostly translated well in practice. The way this game incorporates Shin Megami Tensei and Persona combat mechanics means things can get messy. Juggling mechanics intended for turn-based combat can be a challenge when the going gets tough. Maybe it’s just the early hours and having to get used to a new, hyper-fast battle system, but fights against harder enemies got overwhelming.
Clearing mobs is easy, hardened enemies and bosses are another story.
You’ll have to swap between characters in order to use their abilities, manage their SP, constantly get a read on what spells powerful enemies are lining up in order to dodge them, get your combos in while keeping an eye on the party’s HP as you handle mobs that’ll surround you—all in a matter of seconds. It helps that pulling up your persona spells list stops time all together, also giving you breather to assess the situation, but you’re no longer a turn-based tactician in this game. And forget about button mashing your way through tougher fights, it won’t get you very far.
Some of these challenging fights in the opening palace are as wild as they are satisfying when it all comes together, especially when you come to grips with the ways each character works and pull off some slick moves in the process. Just don’t expect to breeze through it all at first.
Living And Exploring Under Less Pressure
While many of Persona 5’s original stylings and structures make up large parts of Strikers, it’s not exactly a one-to-one translation. In this opening chapter, you’re in familiar places in Tokyo, and it’s apparent that you’re not here to grow relationships with Confidants, worry about school, take on jobs, or work on your social skills. Later in the game, you’ll visit different cities across Japan, though I suspect they’ll feel more like hub areas to roam around to push plot points forward, have a few quick conversations with the squad, or stock up on supplies before jumping back into dungeon crawling.
A calendar marks the events of the story but there is no countdown for when you absolutely need to finish a dungeon, or any need to stress about planning how to fit as many meaningful activities into your days. Rather, it’s simply a narrative framing device instead of something to manage. This also means that there are no consequences for leaving a dungeon in order to replenish HP and SP and stock up on items, since time won’t pass and you’re not under a deadline.
Hold up Makoto, you want to go see what now?
To be clear, it can still be quite the challenge to make it to new checkpoints to progress within a dungeon, since the focus shifts to overcoming some difficult battles in between. That’s enough to encourage you to swap party members and get the most out of each character. The fact that this cast is more than just Joker really comes through in Strikers, too.
As you explore dungeons similar to how you would in Persona 5—jumping between cover points, ambushing shadows for the advantage in battles, and solving light puzzles—you can control anyone. It’s a small thing, but it lets you choose who takes charge of pulling off a shadows mask and darting across rooftops in the Metaverse. So, I’m thankful that Makoto can be the star in my Strikers playthrough.
Only Getting Started
Since this is pitched as a game for fans and newcomers alike, it does that thing where it needs to remind you of each character’s quirks and traits in rather tropey ways. Like, yes, we know Yusuke sees art in everything around him, and that Ryuji isn’t the smartest person in the world (but he has heart so relax on roasting my guy for not knowing things). While I’m not expecting the emotional payoffs I experienced in the original game, I am happy that there’s more to do with this band of knuckleheads I know so well.
Technically, you can call Persona 5 Strikers a sequel, but in the same way spinoff or complementary movies of an anime series work, the game seems to be more of a celebration of getting the gang back together to do the cool things you remember them doing. There are some new faces and a new plot to unveil, and that’s as exciting as trying to wrap my head around this new combat system to the tune of remixes and all-new songs that hype me up for the toughest fights–and while there’s no “Life Will Change” here, the new adrenaline-inducing song “Daredevil” is a damn fine theme to get you pumped to take hearts yet again.
It’s quite ambitious as a continuation of a beloved RPG, and while it’s not built as a 100+ hour experience, there is a lot to dig into as we’re just getting started. Persona 5 Strikers launches on February 23—and four days early for special edition owners—for PS4 (with PS5 compatibility), Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam, and we’ll have plenty of coverage in the lead-up to its release.
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The news this week about Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV show has seemingly led to an uptick in Lord of the Rings discussion everywhere, and people are now discovering a metal band called Gimli, Son of Gloin.
This is not your average metal band. The group, from Southampton UK, only uses Gimli samples from the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings series for vocals like, “‘Cause he’s got my axe embedded in his nervous system!” and, “We dwarves are natural sprinters!”
These lines, and many more, play on top of some crushing and heavy metal guitar riffs and drum beats. You can listen to the group’s new album, At Last; Durin’s Mightiest Son Returns To The Field Of Battle With Axe In Hand And Glory In His Heart!, here on Bandcamp.
Released in December 2020, it’s the band’s second album. “If you liked Gimli, Son of Gloin’s first foray into the art of the riff, you’re in for a great time. If you didn’t, you hate fun and you’ll hate this,” the band said of its sophomore release. “As ever, we strongly recommend listening to with with tongue firmly in cheek.”
Some of the track titles for the second album are truly fantastic, including, “My Body Is Ill-Suited For This Pursuit Across The Plains Of The Horselords,” “Death Cannot Come Twice To The Orc Lying Impaled Beneath Mine Blade,” and my personal favorite, “These Accursed Garments Refuse To Accommodate The Mighty Strength Of My Dwarven Form.”
The band says its samples of John Rhys-Davies from the Lord of the Rings movies are covered through fair use parody.
WandaVision, the brand new and fascinating TV show has finally hit our screens on Disney+. This is the first of many Marvel TV shows that are lined up on the streaming service, following Wanda Maximoff and Vision in what seems to be a complete mystery when it comes to their whereabouts.
If you’ve let your Disney+ subscription lapse since The Mandalorian Season 2 for example, now might be a great time to pick the service back up again, at least for the next month or so while new episodes of the series are brought out every week.
Watching any show on the service requires a Disney+ subscription. This costs $6.99 for a one-month subscription or $59.99 for a year. Alternatively, you can get a bundle of Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu for $12.99 per month. Unfortunately, Disney has eliminated the free trial for new subscribers, so you’ll need to pay to watch the show even if you’ve never subscribed before. That said, the service offers plenty of entertainment for the price, including Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, The Simpsons, National Geographic, and more.
When Does WandaVision Season 1 Release?
Disney+ is releasing new episodes of WandaVision Season 1 weekly on Fridays, which is a trend the streamer has followed since Disney+ launched back in 2019. This is instead of the more traditional binge streaming model that Netflix tends to use for all of its shows.
After WandaVision’s two-episode premiere on Friday, January 15, Disney+ will air the following seven episodes every Friday until the Season 1 finale, which will release on Friday, March 5, 2021.
Here is the full WandaVision Season 1 release schedule for all nine episodes:
Episode 1: Friday, January 15
Episode 2: Friday, January 15
Episode 3: Friday, January 22
Episode 4: Friday, January 29
Episode 5: Friday, February 5
Episode 6: Friday, February 12
Episode 7: Friday, February 19
Episode 8: Friday, February 26
Episode 9: Friday, March 5 – Season 1 Finale
For more on the imaginative world of Marvel’s WandaVison, be sure to read our guide to Wanda and Vision in the comics, as well as our detailed breakdown of the Wanda and Vision’s MCU timeline so far.
