#PERSONA 4 ARENA ULTIMAX MODES TV#

Yu, Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko decide to once more enter the TV world to find some of their missing friends, but they might also run into new faces who know a thing or two about Personas and Shadows themselves already. To top things off, some of the team have gone missing. A bewildering occurrence happens that night when the Midnight Channel mysteriously returns, showing some Investigation Team members fighting amongst themselves in what appears to be a tournament of sorts. The protagonist of Persona 4, Yu Narukami, returns to Inaba to spend his vacation with Dojima and Nanako and catch up with the rest of the Investigation Team and his other friends. The story for Persona 4 Arena begins at the beginning of Golden Week. With that in mind, while I’m personally a fighting game fan, I chose to approach this review more from the RPG fan perspective since I feel that is more appropriate for our coverage. Characters and plot threads central to the acclaimed third title in the Shin Megami Tensei spin-off series, Persona 3, also play a major role, even more so in Ultimax where several more Persona 3 characters become essential fighters in the cast. Thirdly, calling the game a sequel to only Persona 4 Golden is a tad misleading. The second is that Ultimax actually contains the story modes for two games: the titular Ultimax as well as its predecessor, Persona 4 Arena. The first is the obvious combination of the RPG and fighting game genres with some visual novel flavor in how the story is presented. Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is very much a tale of two games in many different ways.

Those familiar and fond of the fighting game genre will also find a very solid foundation at the game’s core. Does the 2D fighter manage to capture the depth and charm of the original RPG and its characters, or does it feel like a genre mashup’s pale imitation? For RPG fans, a highly detailed and expansive story mode will help to ease some of the concerns they might have as the plot retains the same feel as its precursor. Yet this is exactly what Atlus and Arc System Works did with Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. Sequels to beloved RPGs that mix up the status quo by being an entirely different genre? Well, they’re even less common and far more divisive. Direct sequels to beloved RPGs are often incredibly divisive, not looked upon too keenly by critical fans.

Persona 4 arena ultimax modes