LogFAQs > #951128675

#15. Persona 4 Arena (PS3, 2012)





Persona 4 Arena was a very weird creation. I'm not sure how this came to exist, but they took an RPG series that was gaining traction and gave it a fighting game spin-off. Arc System Works, who developed Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, stepped in to help Persona look like just as wild of an anime fighting game as those others. Sometimes weird things happen and they work out well.

The story of Persona 4 Arena is, uh, well, the characters from Persona 4 are here. And then some Persona 3 characters are here too, I guess because they are also popular. And then there's a character named Labrys. And also Shadow Labrys (and in Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax, every character has a shadow version of their main form, so there is a Labrys and a Shadow Labrys and also a shadow Labrys and wow it's every bit as confusing as you'd think). Anyways, don't ask me about stories in fighting games, I never know what's going on. The real story is that two characters are fighting to deplete the other's lifebar first.

Gameplay-wise, Persona 4 Arena intended to simplify the fighting game experience. There are just four attack buttons, so pad players could just use the face buttons. The game also introduced auto-combos, which have actually caught on fairly well since this game. You can just go A-A-A-A-A and do a full set of moves, right into a super, if there is enough meter. It's not the strongest combo, but it's good damage and helps people do the super moves that may have trouble with the standard motions.

But despite all the simplification, Persona 4 Arena is a very deep and complex fighter. Two of the attack buttons are for the character's light/heavy attacks, but the other two attack buttons call out their persona to do a light/heavy attack. It can look pretty chaotic out there with two characters and two personas. Each character has 4 cards under their life meter, and every time you hit the opponent's persona, it breaks one of their cards. If all 4 cards are gone, they can't use the persona for a period of time, taking away half their attack buttons, but also other functions like super attacks or bursts. Sometimes it can be more strategic when counterattacking to take away a persona instead of going for damage now. Or maybe when trying to rush in, using your persona can open up the opponent, but it also leaves the persona open to be broken. The personas add a neat additional layer of strategy to the fights.

Another interesting mechanic is that when a character gets low on life, they enter awakening and get a big boost to meter and defensive stats, and have access to a new super. It may be more advantageous to end a combo early at times to prevent the opponent from entering awakening, or on defense, purposely get hit by a stray fireball or something to enter awakening. There are also techniques available to extend combos to obscene anime fighter length, using bursts and One More Cancels.

One last gameplay mechanic to mention is that there are a bunch of status effects that incur from certain special moves. Poison slowly drains life, rage increases damage but disables blocking, mute temporarily locks out persona-based special moves, panic flips left/right directions on the controller, charm steals SP, and shock temporarily prevents movement. These help add that RPG flair to the fighting game.

Early on, I played quite often online with Theo72. He used Teddie, and I quickly felt like Teddie was also the character for me. Teddie wasn't my favorite character in Persona 4 by any means, but in Persona 4 Arena, he is maybe the most wild thing in the game. Teddie is what we call an item character. One of his persona's attack is to throw an item. There are over a dozen items, each very different. There's a smoke bomb that just makes it hard for everyone to see, there's a firecracker that bounces up off the floor and ceiling repeatedly until it hits, there's a plate of poisonous food, there's an oil drum that slowly rolls along the floor, etc. A big part of his game is just getting items out there, then using their madness to either start or continue combos. He also is very comical in his animations: swinging a giant baseball bat, throwing a fish along the ground, punching a giant boxing glove out of his mouth, turning into a 16t weight, flattening into a pancake, or turn into a circus clown on a giant ball. The circus ball is a super attack that is completely unblockable (the opponent needs to jump over it), but if you can lock down the opponent into blocking using items first, the super can become a truly unblockable attack.

When I first got into Persona 4 Arena, I had already started competing in Street Fighter tournaments. P4A was the first fighting game I competed in beyond the Street Fighter series, so it was important for me really learning to get good at the whole genre, and not just one game. It also helped me meet new groups of people, ones who weren't Street Fighter players but were still at the same event as me Now, I typically enter somewhere between like four to eight different games at a fighting game tournament. The first tourney I entered this was a local one, and I lost all my games. Then I entered it at Evo 2013, and I managed to go 2-2, which was very encouraging.

My drive to keep playing the game more and to get better at it was really helped when I found out I lived near one of the top P4A players in the USA (possibly the top player, depending on who you ask). I learned a lot about forming a game plan and correcting mistakes I had been making. I never became a truly top level player or anything, but I won some local events, and made top 8 at a couple larger tournaments, so Persona 4 Arena has been good to me in that regard.

I also need to point out that the updated version, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax was known in Japan as Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold, and it is such a shame we didn't get that amazing title over here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT2E2hV9pFg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-E8DVdgUOM

---

ONLY FIVE CAN LADDER.
Sushi, kamikaze, fujiyama, nippon-ichi...