Persona 5 Strikers goes one step further, turning an action-heavy adventure into a road trip that feels right at home with the original game.

Persona 5 Strikers is a direct sequel to Persona 5, set months after the Phantom Thieves hung up their masks.

Strikers is an action-RPG take on the game in the vein of Omega Force’s other spinoffs of popular series, like Hyrule Warriors.

Characters I barely used in the original Persona 5, like Ryuji, became my go-to for mobs I wanted to melee; I rarely needed Morgana’s magic but loved his ability to turn into a car and mow down shadows.

Persona 5 Strikers doesn’t offer as robust an experience as the original game — there are no personality traits to improve, and relationships are distilled down to a single “Bond” metric that applies to your entire team — but it offers a solid array of ways to break up your playtime.

The experience feels like a streamlined version of Persona, the video game equivalent of a summer vacation.

As a sequel, Persona 5 Strikers doesn’t offer much in the way of big revelations — but it doesn’t have to.