<p>When <a class="zem_slink" title="Atlus" href="http://www.atlus.com/" target="_blank" rel="homepage noopener noreferrer">Atlus</a> announced that they were teaming up with <a class="zem_slink" title="Arc System Works" href="http://www.arcsystemworks.jp" target="_blank" rel="homepage noopener noreferrer">Arc System Works</a> to create the newest entry into the <em><a class="zem_slink" title="Shin Megami Tensei: Persona" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Megami_Tensei%3A_Persona" target="_blank" rel="wikipedia noopener noreferrer">Shin Megami Tensei: Persona</a></em> series, I was pretty surprised. Even more surprised when Atlus said that <em>Persona 4 Arena</em> was going to be part of the <em>Persona</em> canon. The one thing that worried me was that <em>Persona 4 Arena </em>had to satisfy two sets of fans. In one corner you had JRPG fans who were familiar with the <em>Persona </em>series, but may not be familiar with the fighting genre, and in the other corner you had fans of Arc System&#8217;s franchises with <em>Guilty Gear</em> and <em><a class="zem_slink" title="BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlazBlue%3A_Calamity_Trigger" target="_blank" rel="wikipedia noopener noreferrer">BlazBlue</a>.</em></p>
<p>I was a bit concerned on how the end product would turn out, but I had faith in Atlus and Arc System. And boy did their project turn out. <em>Persona 4 Arena</em> is not just one of the best fighting games to be released this year, but it&#8217;s also a great entry into the <em>Persona </em>series.</p>
<figure id="attachment_23205" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23205" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://bagogames.com/manliest-men-persona-4-arena-review/1338238833_1/" rel="attachment wp-att-23205"><img class="size-full wp-image-23205 " src="https://cdn.bagogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/06134503/1338238833_1.jpg" alt="Persona 4 Arena Screenshot 1" width="600" height="337" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23205" class="wp-caption-text">It has been Aigis since we have seen the <a class="zem_slink" title="Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Megami_Tensei%3A_Persona_3" target="_blank" rel="wikipedia noopener noreferrer">Persona 3</a> cast.</figcaption></figure>
<p><em>Persona 4 Arena</em> is set two months after the ending of <em>Persona</em> <em>4</em> and two years after <em>Persona 3</em>. The Midnight Channel has returned, and it is up to the Investigation Team to find out what is happening. Upon furthering their investigation, they discover a fighting tournament that allows the the combatants to take out their pent up anger out on eachother. While the Investigation Team is dealing with the tournament, members of the Kirijo Group (which consists of the three <em>P3</em> members) investigate cases related to Shadows. The story is written by Atlus&#8217; <em>Persona 4</em> team, making the quality of the story is top-notch.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Each of the thirteen characters has their own playable chapter, and it will take you around thirty hours to complete the story in its entirety. The lengthy story is told via visual novel style, with highly detailed images and a thorough amount of text delivering the narrative. Not to say you&#8217;ll be reading the entire time though, <em>Persona 4</em> features some good voice acting for both English and Japanese audio tracks. If you are familiar with <em>BlazBlue</em> or <em>The King of Fighters</em>, then you&#8217;ll know what to expect. Despite the game&#8217;s well written story, I fear it may be a little slow for some. The text will scroll at a snail&#8217;s pace, and there will be times when voice acting is completely absent.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">As a warning, if you have not played <em>Persona 4</em> before and are waiting for <em><a class="zem_slink" title="Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_Megami_Tensei%3A_Persona_4" target="_blank" rel="wikipedia noopener noreferrer">Persona 4: The Golden</a></em> to arrive, you might want to consider putting the story on hold. Naturally, many of the plot points from <em>Persona 4 </em>are discussed, and if <em>Persona 4: The Golden</em> will be your first time experiencing the story, many of the twists will lose a great deal of impact.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">If you are playing <em>Persona 4 Arena</em> just for the story, you don&#8217;t need to worry about the difficulty. You can breeze through the fights by pulling off an instant combo thanks to button mash friendly light attacks. There may be some fights that provide a little challenge, but the difficulty has been intentionally kept low.</p>
<figure id="attachment_23935" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23935" style="width: 531px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://bagogames.com/manliest-men-persona-4-arena-review/persona-elizabeth/" rel="attachment wp-att-23935"><img class=" wp-image-23935 " src="https://cdn.bagogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/06130837/Persona-Elizabeth-1024x576.jpg" alt="Persona 4 Arena Screenshot 2" width="531" height="298" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23935" class="wp-caption-text">If you can bear with the style, Persona 4 Arena tells a great story (in Japanese to prevent any spoilers).</figcaption></figure>
<p><em>Persona 4 Arena</em> carries the other modes that you would expect from a fighting game. There is an arcade mode (with its own little story), score attack, versus, tutorial, challenge, and online versus. The tutorial is not as extensive as that provided in the <em>BlazBlue</em> series, but it gets the job done. Arcade has you fighting nine battles versus the A.I., and once finished, you unlock a character ending. My only complaint with arcade is that the endings are very similar between characters and the A.I. is a little too easy—even on the higher difficulties. Score attack does provide a nice challenge to those seeking it, while Challenge Mode is a very good way to getting accustomed to the characters, and you will learn some useful combos—as well as some impractical ones.</p>
<figure id="attachment_23206" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23206" style="width: 472px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://bagogames.com/manliest-men-persona-4-arena-review/p4a_screens_arcade_monitorroom_02/" rel="attachment wp-att-23206"><img class="wp-image-23206 " src="https://cdn.bagogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/06134453/p4a_screens_arcade_monitorroom_02-1024x576.jpg" alt="Persona 4 Arena Screenshot 3" width="472" height="265" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23206" class="wp-caption-text">Yukiko can bearly wait to solve this mystery.</figcaption></figure>
<p style="text-align: left;">Graphically, <em>Persona 4 Arena</em> is stunning. It seems that Arc System is constantly one-upping themselves with every game they release. The sprite work is wonderfully animated and carefully detailed, the backgrounds look great, and the effects from specials and supers are a joy to see. Sadly, at first glance the HUD can be a little tricky to understand, what with its health bar, persona cards, super meter, burst meter, status effects and more. New comers will be overwhelmed, but a few matches will soon get everybody accustomed to its mechanics.</p>
<p>Complimenting <em>Persona 4 Arena&#8217;s</em> excellent presentation is its soundtrack. Comprised of remixes from tunes that appeared in <em>Persona 3</em> and <em>4</em>, fans of the series are in for a treat. Everyone has returned to reprise their roles from <em>Persona 3</em> and <em>Persona 4</em>, except for the English Teddie and Chie. Overall, the voice acting is great and Atlus has given players the option of a Japanese or English track. The sound effects from your attacks and specials all add into the great audio, making <em>Persona 4 Arena</em> a winner in this department.</p>
<p>However, all that high production can leave you prone to sensory overload. Combine the visual spectacle from your specials, having a Persona on the field, having awakening initiated, and the various sound effects going on, you will be overwhelmed for the first few matches. This is a big complaint for people that are only interested in the story and nothing else. But Arc System is undoubtedly one of the best with over-the-top style and excellent production values.</p>
<figure id="attachment_23940" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23940" style="width: 526px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://bagogames.com/manliest-men-persona-4-arena-review/2255325-image4/" rel="attachment wp-att-23940"><img class=" wp-image-23940 " src="https://cdn.bagogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/06130825/2255325-image4.png" alt="Persona 4 Arena Screenshot 4" width="526" height="302" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23940" class="wp-caption-text">Look at all the panda-monium!</figcaption></figure>
<p>Underneath all that flare, a core fighting system must reside, and <em>Persona 4 Arena </em>doesn&#8217;t disappoint. Using a square button layout that differs from <em>Blazblue</em> and <em>Guilty Gea</em>r, veterans might be thrown. Newcomers will quickly pick up this system and it&#8217;s not long before you&#8217;re performing crazy scenarios that rival any anime out there. To help you achieve this, <em>Persona 4 Arena</em> is kitted out with all the usual anime fighter moveset; double jumps, air dashes, super meters, bursts, and all the other standard stuff. The fights are fast paced, and reward a relentless offensive style. But don&#8217;t let the offensive play fool you, you will need wit and quick defensive skills if you plan to take it to the next level.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">It&#8217;s fortunate that Arc System continues their tradition of quality over quantity. With thirteen fighters to choose from, you might be mistaken for feeling that the content is limited. However, each of the thirteen fighters feel different from each other, and it won&#8217;t take long to find the right one to fit your play style. If you&#8217;re an all out fighter, a level headed zoner, or perhaps a mixture of the two, <em>Persona 4 Arena</em> is bound to have a character for you.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">What sets <em>Persona 4 Arena </em>apart from other fighters are the &#8220;Personas&#8221;. Each character has a Persona linked to them, and they act as extensions when in combat. It&#8217;s a little tricky to explain in words, but the closest game I can compare <em>Persona 4 Arena</em> is with <em>JoJo&#8217;</em>s Bizarre Adventure (which I believe has influenced the <em>Persona</em> series as a whole).</p>
<figure id="attachment_23947" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23947" style="width: 576px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://bagogames.com/manliest-men-persona-4-arena-review/persona-4-arena-screenshots-4/" rel="attachment wp-att-23947"><img class="wp-image-23947 " src="https://cdn.bagogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/06130803/Persona-4-Arena-Screenshots-4.jpg" alt="Persona 4 Arena Screenshot 5" width="576" height="324" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23947" class="wp-caption-text">Oh, the Tedd-nacity of your opponents.</figcaption></figure>
<p style="text-align: left;">Once you get accustomed to what is happening on screen and you have the mechanics down, you&#8217;ll want to put your skills to the test online. You have ranked match, player match, and lobbies that you can participate in. When in the lobbies you can spectate the matches until it is your turn, and you may learn a thing or two when watching. Of course, fighting is the best way to actually learn in any fighting game, and I am happy to say that there is little-to-no lag in <em>Persona 4 Arena</em>. Once again, Arc System has shown that you can have a visual feast and still maintain smooth gameplay over the network.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">There is a neat RPG-like system for the ranked matches. After each match, you will gain experience points that go towards your overall rank (F-S) and your character rank (1-60+). Each character has their own ranking, meaning completionists will have their hands full trying to max out each of the thirteen characters (without cheating, of course). It is a nice little gimmick that doesn&#8217;t affect gameplay, and adds an RPG flourish to <em>Persona 4 Arena</em>.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">However, the replay system is very basic. At the end of the match, you will decide whether or not to save your replay, and it will be uploaded. However, the replays are just in a list and are not graded, <em>SSFIVAE</em> style. It can take along time before discovering any good matches to watch, but it is better than not having a replay system at all.</p>
<figure id="attachment_23944" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23944" style="width: 520px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://bagogames.com/manliest-men-persona-4-arena-review/p4a_screens_arcade_announcementroom_01_thumb/" rel="attachment wp-att-23944"><img class="wp-image-23944 " src="https://cdn.bagogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/06130814/p4a_screens_arcade_announcementroom_01_thumb.jpg" alt="Persona 4 Arena Screenshot 6" width="520" height="293" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23944" class="wp-caption-text">First Chie was solving Grizzly murders, and now she is fighting a robot school girl.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Simply put, <em>Persona 4 Arena</em> is one of the best fighting games released this year. While there is an initial learning curve, this is the easiest Arc System game to pickup and play. The story is extremely well written, the fighting is fast paced, the roster is diverse, and the online runs without a hitch. If you are either a fan of the <em>Persona</em> series or a fan of fighting games, I would highly recommend that you pick <em>Persona 4 Arena</em> up right now.</p>
<figure id="attachment_23950" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-23950" style="width: 384px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://bagogames.com/manliest-men-persona-4-arena-review/teddiebison/" rel="attachment wp-att-23950"><img class="wp-image-23950 " src="https://cdn.bagogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/06130752/teddiebison.jpg" alt="Persona 4 Arena Screenshot 7" width="384" height="205" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-23950" class="wp-caption-text">Thanks for bearing with all the Teddie-ous puns. Now go out there and prove you are the manliest of all men!</figcaption></figure>
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BagoGames > Articles > Game Reviews > PS3 Reviews > Manliness Is Not Bound By Sex! | Persona 4 Arena Review
Manliness Is Not Bound By Sex! | Persona 4 Arena Review
- Categories: Game Reviews, PS3 Reviews
- Tags: Arc System WorksAtlus USAFighting GamesPersonaPlayStationXbox
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