Persona 4: Arena Review

Hot damn have I been waiting for this game for quite some time now. I'm sure you remember my ranting about it earlier. The game was love at first sight for me, but of course, nobody else has my unique views when it comes to games like this. So before you take my word for it. Here is a legitimate review for the title.

Round 1: Story

The persona series has always been keen on its incredibly anime-style story telling and walk-of-life progression. However, Persona 4: Arena takes a much more expedient route to humor its newly found fighting game footing. Fighting games are not known for the expansive story mode, but P4A does not overlook its roots when telling its tale. The story begins with our investigation team reassembling to celebrate Yu Narukami, the previously unnamed and voiceless main character of Persona 4's return to the town of Inaba on vacation. But without even time to breath our Investigation team is trusted once again into the thrills of the midnight channel. This time around, our heroes are the victims as they are forced to fight one another in 1-on-1 combat by the whim of a seemingly out of character Teddie.

The Story isn't as developed as your standard RPG but is far more than your standard fighting game. That being said, it's actually quite good. The story is expansive enough to offer different player perspectives, voiced anime cutscenes, voiced graphic novel style conversations, and non-voiced inner thought segments to get a better understanding of each individuals perspective on the events. It's interesting to see the characters from Persona 3 have as little influence as they do. It's clear that their inclusion in the game is far more about fan service than about plot development. Even still, this story is a very fun take on the Persona 4 universe, and it's canon. It is rare for fighting games to succeed on the same level as P4A does in telling its story due to the varied character selection. I mean not everyone can beat the boss right? But P4A looks beyond the known to deliver an extremely well thought out and put together production. I have to say that this was probably the first time I have ever enjoyed playing through the story mode of any fighting game, period.

Round 2: Gameplay

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it. You like Persona, so of course you like the story. But is it a good game?”

Well I'm glad you asked you pieces of shit. It is clear to anyone with prior knowledge and a set of eyeballs that this game closely resembles Blazblue. Dubbed an “anime-fighter” this game has a massive focus on mobility and gimmicky movesets. But this is only on face value, if you take your narrow minded scopes to actually dig deeper, you'll find this game has a lot more than just flashy looking attacks.

P4A has a massive amount of game systems. Unique gameplay elements like Status ailments and HP as a resource for various moves are taken directly from the RPG itself and re-tooled to fit a fighting game format. Status ailments from various attacks range from poison, reversed movements, and the inability to block. On top of that, each player has their persona, an extension of themselves that they use to fight. These personified personalities can attack independently of the character creating very interesting set-ups for wake up pressure or mix-up opportunities. The 13 characters available are low in number compared to the likes of SSF4AE, but the characters are varied (except for a clone of the boss character). Each playstyle is accounted for an done very well if my opinion means anything (and it better you fuckers). Yukiko commands the range of the field with her screen wide onslaught of projectiles and long range persona assaults. Yosuke has some of the fastest running speed i've ever seen in a character, and some of the quickest moves. Combined with an annoyingly safe pressure game and fantastic air combos, there won't be too many players that will be able to keep up. Akihiko is rushdown boxing with counters and power. His persona can draw you in close to keep it annoyingly in his momentum. Chie is limited in her approach, but she has fantastic normal attacks and an massively effective oki game. On top of that she hits like a god-damned truck. The characters are fantastically designed, and the game systems compliment it well. All-out-attacks create combo windows, 3 bursts keep the offense varied, awakening mode gives anyone falling behind a fighting chance, and character-specific gimmicks keep the screen looking frantic and fun. This is a very well done production from top to bottom as far as fighting engines go, and it is not surprising considering it is an Arc System Works production.

Final Round: Production

This game looks and smells great. It has the stylized anime feel of the guilty gear style fighters with the actual stylized anime look of Persona 4. This game is undeniably persona from the first pixel down to the ending credits. The stages are perfectly implemented, the sprites are breathtakingly fluid, and the music is out of this world. For anyone not familiar with the Persona soundtracks of the past, combine jazz, rap, and j-pop into a boner-inducing track that will have you yearning for more. This game may not of the 3D look of street fighter or marvel, but to do so would likely fail to give the style the room it needs to grow. I think that this is easily the flashiest and best looking fighting games to be released by Arc System Works, and if you've played Blazblue or any of the others, you know that it is high praise to say so.

Result:

With a story mode ranging in the 40 hour completion time, 12 extremely unique characters to master, a well done network mode, beginner inviting gameplay mechanics like auto-combos and all-out-attacks, extensive gallery fan-service, and enough yellow to make the green lantern cry; Persona 4: Arena comes out of the box swinging for the fences. It is clear that they didn't simply want to create a fun spin-off of an RPG that popular in the states. Atlus and Arc System Works wanted to create a true hybrid spirit of 2 very different games. They most certainly succeeded. 

This is a review so I have to put my mark on it. My praise and compliments to the game are clearly bias due to my love for the games source material, but that does not mean that I do not speak in truths. The game is not perfect, it lacks a large cast of characters which can deter a lot of people looking to get into the games and it has outrageously priced DLC. However, the game does it all right where it counts. And I think that will be enough to catch some interests and turn some heads. This game gets a 93% from me. Extremely well done job guys, keep it up, can't wait for Persona 5.


Crispy Links:

Interested in getting started? THIS is the place for info and combos - Dustloop.com

I have a Mitsuru combo video up and running if your interested in checking it out.