The Persona 5 family of games has become a major success for a lot of reasons, but its characters deserve a particular amount of credit. The Phantom Thieves are all outcasts in their own unique ways, and when they're united, they make up a memorable cast of teenage vigilantes. In the same vein, Persona 5 Strikers was an exciting announcement because it meant fans would get another opportunity to watch the Phantom Thieves grow up and find themselves. Persona 5 Strikers delivered compelling new depictions of these young protagonists, but Yusuke got the short end of the stick.
Yusuke Kitagawa stands out from the Phantom Thieves in a lot of ways, from his obsession with art to his oblivious behavior in conversation, and nowhere is this more clear than in Persona 5 Strikers. In the Persona 5 hack-and-slash spin-off, most of the Phantom Thieves are largely the same, but Yusuke's personality has been exaggerated in ways that sometimes put him in a negative light. Persona 5 Strikers frequently wields Yusuke as a comic relief character, instead of treating him as an equal to his peers. If Atlus wants to keep making games based on Persona 5, it needs to deliver more consistent depictions of characters.
Yusuke's Evolution After Persona 5
There's no doubt that Yusuke is an eccentric character. Persona 5 is littered with moments that put Yusuke's odd behavior in the spotlight. He's entirely unaware of how strange his love for lobster aesthetics is, and yet he's also the type of person to fall on his hands and knees when one person criticizes his artwork. Yusuke's eccentricities help create some of Persona 5's funniest moments, but they also make him a refreshing Confidant throughout the game. Yusuke's strange ways of looking at the world make him truly unique, even within Persona 5's diverse cast.
Persona 5 makes it clear that Yusuke is more than his eccentricities, however. He's also remarkably clear-minded for his age, and often acts as a voice of reason for the Phantom Thieves. When the Phantom Thieves are unsure of their actions, Yusuke often makes valuable observations about society and encourages patience and careful thought. He's also instrumental in helping Futaba grow as a character thanks to his empathy for her isolation and Futaba's own eccentric traits. Yusuke's thoughtful and perceptive nature blend with his strange behavior to make him one of Persona 5's most layered characters.
Unfortunately, Persona 5 Strikers is lacking in these layers. Instead of showing off all of Yusuke's many facets, Persona 5 Strikers has a habit of focusing on his lack of social graces in order to make jokes. Yusuke constantly talks about the aesthetics of his surroundings or expresses sublime feelings about food, which leaves little room in his dialogue for keen observations or careful thought. What's more, the Phantom Thieves tend to dismiss or mock what Yusuke says rather than playing off of his interests in art and food. Altogether, this frequently makes Yusuke feel like an oblivious outsider among the Phantom Thieves, rather than a close friend.
Why Yusuke's Depiction Matters
The way Persona 5 Strikers represents Yusuke is important because of how it reflects on the central concept of the Phantom Thieves. Each member of the group is an outcast in one way or another; Joker and Ryuji are wrongly called violent delinquents, Ann is the victim of salacious rumors, and so on. The Phantom Thieves form a strong team because they empathize with the ways that each teammate suffers due to society's perceptions. Yusuke's depiction in Persona 5 Strikers, however, directly cuts against that theme. By turning him into a comic relief character through his baffling behavior, Persona 5 Strikers causes Yusuke's rich internal life to constantly be judged and misinterpreted by his own friends, when superficial judgments of character are exactly what the Phantom Thieves try to escape.
Persona 5 Strikers' version of Yusuke is also important because it exemplifies a pitfall that every future Persona 5 spin-off needs to avoid. Persona 5 fans love the game's characters, so every Persona 5 side game needs to depict the Phantom Thieves and their allies faithfully and fairly. If multiple Persona 5 characters get two-dimensional, lackluster depictions in side games, Atlus will face heavy criticism from fans. Persona 5 media needs to hold up the nuance within each of its characters, or else it risks tainting the legacy of one of Atlus' most successful games. The Persona 5 family is an extremely potent resource for Atlus, but it's also volatile. Persona 5 fans have high expectations that must be met in order to keep capitalizing.
The Phantom Thieves' Future Incarnations
It's too late for Atlus to rewrite Yusuke's role in Persona 5 Strikers, but his depiction is still an invaluable lesson for the Persona franchise's future. If Atlus decides to make another game based on Persona 5, that's great, but it needs to make sure it treats each character equally and remains as faithful as possible to their original versions. The same is true for any possible future Persona game that makes use of older characters. In a franchise as character-focused as Persona, spin-offs need to be faithful to the character's base personality and behavior, or else they could fall flat.
Persona fans certainly wouldn't mind if Atlus took another stab at a Persona 5 adventure in the near future. Persona 5 Strikers was too short to have comprehensive character arcs for each of the Phantom Thieves, so another Persona 5 spin-off that gives new arcs to each playable character would be great. Although Persona 5 Strikers occasionally struggles to get Yusuke right, Yusuke's arc in Sendai does still manage to get to the heart of his character; Ango Natsume's difficult career and artistic journey reflect Yusuke's values well. He just needed a more well-rounded depiction throughout the rest of the game.
Persona 5 Strikers is available now for PC, PS4, and Switch.
