Quite the opposite, I’d say that Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is more accommodating than ever. This alone makes it a very exciting, often intoxicating game to play and watch, even if it can be somewhat initially bewildering.īut what if you’re a JRPG fan? Well, while Persona 4 Arena Ultimax certainly does a lot to improve the experience for fight fans, Persona’s JRPG slanted admirers have not been forgotten. Other games have dabbled in Puppet and Staff styles ( JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and BlazBlue, notably), but none embrace it as fully as Persona 4 Arena. This is a four button fighter, but the catch is that two buttons control your character, and the other two are associated with their shadowy guardian (their Persona), and working out how to effectively combine both your character and Persona’s attacks in combat is a wholly unique combat style. Persona 4 Arena separates itself from the pack by playing on the Persona franchise’s main draw, the titular Personas. It’s no surprise that other fighting game developers are following in Arc’s footsteps, because they make stellar fisticuffs games. These are fighting games that punish overly defensive play, that build mind games into combo strings with the combo breaking ‘burst’, that give characters very specific mechanics and tools to ensure every different combination of characters has a plethora of interesting wrinkles to it. Their titles are rammed full of systems, often with obtuse names, that embellish combat every step of the way, making for combat dialogue that constantly feels fresh and rewarding to play. The series was a corker from its first outing, because Arc System Works make tremendous fighting games. Every fighter here is more developed than they were in Persona 4 Arena.įor those of you that don’t know know what Persona 4 Arena actually is, it’s a merger of a few things: the style, narrative and characters of Atlus’ contemporary JRPG series, Persona, and the intricate, combo based 2D fighting ‘air dash’ designs of Arc System Works, the studio responsible for both the BlazBlue and Guilty Gear series’. This gives you a slight bit of style choice when picking your favourite character, as well as more to think about when presented with an opponent. Most characters also have a new Shadow version, too, which alters specifics in regards to how they can use special meter and what some universal techniques, such as bursts, actually do. In some instances these tweaks make the characters simply more viable (Yu can now effectively pressure a Kanji player with a new command grab) and some simply more interesting (Yosuke has a hint of the Sadira’s about his new mix-up game). Put the magnifying glass a little closer and you’ll note that existing combatants all have new moves, new properties, and new animations. Then there’s the new story mode alongside an RPG-like twist on survival in Golden Arena, plus Auto and Safety difficulties in various modes that, when combined with Persona 4 Arena’s ‘Auto Combo’, ensure that even the most timid of Atlus RPG fans can enjoy the spectacular rave combo combat that Arc System Works specialises in. This is a huge update, and one that makes remarkable improvements to an already superb fighting game.Īt a basic level Arc System Works have added 9 new characters, almost doubling Persona 4 Arena’s total. This isn’t just a balance tweaked Persona 4 Arena with one or two new characters. It’s also because the story is a direct follow-up, too. While Ultimax appears, in name and in screenshots, to be a basic fighting game update of its predecessor, it doesn’t take a lot of playing to realise that Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is actually much closer to full blown follow up that a championship edition.Īnd that’s simply because it’s packed full of new modes, extra ideas and huge additions. As with the latest edition of BlazBlue, subtitled Chrono Phantasma, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is an iteration that does far more than one would expect an iteration to do. Any other developer would call it a sequel.
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