Review #239: Persona 4 - Arena Ultimax

 For the record, the Japanese title is a thousand times better.

 Persona 4 Arena is back, and it's a huge improvement, in some areas, while also exemplifying Ark System Works terrible DLC practices. There's a lot to like about Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, and a quite a bit to dislike about it.

 First things first, the Story Mode. At a first glance, it's better than Persona 4 Arena's individual Storylines, since all of them contradicted each other, and since it was impossible to know which was the canon route, and instead only offers two routes: Persona 4 Route and Persona 3 Route... and they both contradict each other. Seriously? It would've been much better to have a single storyline, but whatever, which story you like betters is almost entirely dependent on which on which characters you like the most, since the P4 route makes Persona 3 characters almost useless, while the P3 route makes Persona 4 characters almost useless. It's particularly funny how the P3 route centers on Labrys, which didn't even appear in any of the Persona 3 games. As for the story itself, it's a mess, and not because the fans' theories didn't come true, but because the limitations of it being a fighting game and the fact that it's just a poorly written story. For starters, since it's a fighting game, the money couldn't go into making different enemies for you to fight, so you'll spend the entire time fighting 'Shadows' of the playable characters, AKA Evil Clones. It's hard to fault them for it, since it IS a fighting game. But then there's the fact that, just as it happened with Arena, characters have been flanderized to oblivion, these are not the same characters that you fell in love with in Persona 4 or Persona 3, but cartoonish, exaggerated versions of themselves. And without spoiling too much, they continue to devalue the character of Adachi, previously an evil manchild, now he... he actually helps the main characters. What the hell? To add insult to injury, the story once again revolves around Friendship. Just like Persona 4, just like Persona 4 Arena, once again it's all about friendship, and how the bad guy actually wants friends, or how the characters push themselves to their limits for their friends and what not. It's repetitive, and it's the only thing characters EVER talk about it. Needless to say, it's not an enjoyable story. And I'm not holding this against the game, at least it has a Story, but it's a poor attempt at one, and being tied to a franchise probably didn't help.

 But you don't play Fighting games for their story, and if you do, you are doing it wrong. The game also offers: Arcade Mode, Online and Offline Vs, Score attack, Training Mode, Lesson(Tutorial) and individual challenges for each character, all which are pretty self explanatory. Then there's Golden Arena, which is a Survival kind of mode, where you fight about 50 or more opponents, as you raise your character level, which allows you to increase his stats and equip him or her with different passive abilities, it's a neat take on Survival Mode. And then there's the horrible DLC practices. There's five new characters: Sho/Minazuki(Just as with Labrys in the previous game, he gets two slots because why not), Ken Amada, Rise, Junpei and Yukari.... and three other DLC characters, which are already the on disc. Adachi, who comes with his own Story Mode, Marie and Elizabeth, all 5 bucks a pop. And you need to update the game in order to play as them, and even if you don't buy them, all three of them appear on the game's cover, and on the character select screen, trying to break into your wallet. And remember all the glasses DLC from the previous game? While most companies would include the previous game's DLC, ArkSys is above that, you want it? You gotta pay for it. It's specially nasty since opponents in Score Attack mod will use both Glasses DLC and the Color Palette DLCs. Some people have grown conditioned to accept DLC, but as someone who started gaming with an NES, I simply abhor the practice, specially when the game tries to tempt you into paying them more. You want my money, earn it. And it's impossible to shake the feeling that the game is constantly trying to make its way into your wallet. No bueno, ArkSys, no bueno.

 As far as gameplay goes, it plays like Persona 4 Arena but adds onto it. All returning characters have new Autocombos(mash square/weak attack), some even have new attacks, and most characters have alternate 'Shadow' versions of themselves, with different mechanics and a different auto-combo. Shadow-type characters have yellow eyes, and build SP faster, however, they can't awaken, use Bursts(to break out of combos) or Instant Kills. They have access to 'Shadow Fury' allowing them to barrage the enemy with SP skills for free for a short while. They have more HP but deal less damage though. You can now also 'Skill Boost' Special and Super attacks, by using two buttons instead of one, they consume more SP, but deal more damage. Lastly there's a new 'S Hold system', by holding square for a while you can execute specials, supers or even awakened supers... but I just don't see the use for it, it's impossibly impractical and means you can't use your weak attacks for combos, I just can't see what where they thinking with this. All in all, I like the new mechanics, except the Hold S one, and Shadow Types, but I've never been particularly fond of Persona 4's Arena gameplay, comboing seems more... rigid than other ArkSys games, it's just a personal preference though.

 The visual presentation is just as strong as it used to be, it's probably ArkSys' finest 2D animations to date. They also went the extra mile and added alternate headswaps for every character, if you buy the DLC, and Shadow Characters have yellow irises... even if they lose them during certain frames. The soundtrack is rather extensive, borrowing from both Persona 3 and 4, and they picked some of the better tunes. Disappointingly, a lot of the characters are voiced by new voice actors, they don't do a bad job at it, but it's hard to get used to new voices, particularly coming straight out of Persona 4 The Golden. Then there's Adachi, probably because Johnny Yong Bosch also voices Yu in the game, now speaks in a softer tone, which is a bit jarring at first.

 The thing about Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is that if you liked the first game, you will like this one. That said, Persona fans, who are not fans of Fighting games, will most likely end up disappointed with the story, which is the only reason they'd consider delving into the game. As for Persona 4 UA, as a Fighter, only time will tell, but for as much praise as Persona 4 Arena 1 got, it died off pretty fast, and I really don't know how much life Ultimax will have, particularly considering how, personally, I'd rather play any other ArkSys fighter, and I'm pretty sure others share that sentiment.
 7.5 out of 10