Persona 4 Arena Review

Arc System Works has been making great fighting games since I was a teenager (read: a really long time). Both of its flagship franchises -- Guilty Gear and BlazBlue -- have enjoyed a passionate niche following for years. Yet despite having standout visuals and one-of-a-kind play mechanics, they've never caught on the way Capcom's or even SNK's offerings in the genre have. In fact, even amongst hardcore fighting game aficionados, these games and others like them bear something of a scarlet letter on their heads. We call them “anime fighters”, a term as useless as it is pointless. Maybe it's the technically demanding fighting engines, or perhaps the cross-dressing nuns, but for whatever reason this sub-genre within a sub-genre has always been forced to stand in the corner.

Until now.
Enter Persona 4 Arena, a fighting game born from the unlikely collaboration between Arc System Works and the Persona 4 development team at Atlus. And what an entrance it makes. Not only does the game bring unprecedented accessibility to bear while keeping all the high level tournament depth intact, but it does so with an assured swagger that makes it impossible to ignore or forget. This one wasn't meant to sulk in the corner, folks. It was meant to strut on the stage.

Above all else, Persona 4 Arena puts on a show, a show that begins with its rock-fueled opening video and ends with paparazzi camera flashes as you stand over the battered body of your opponent. Every screen serves up a feast of audio/visual tastiness that gets stuck to the roof of your mouth. Punky pinks and golden yellows dominate the palette with a crisp glow, accenting menus and interfaces that sport better art direction than some entire games I've played. It's a sheen that few games, 2D or otherwise, can match. The soundtrack manages to meet the high standards set by the visuals with a mix of the hard rock Arc System games are known for and selections from Persona 4's excellent OST. I defy you to refrain from singing along with “Reach Out to the Truth” whilst laying down the smack.

That same fusion found in the soundtrack is present throughout the game. While it's in every way a fighter in the same vein as Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, it's also a Persona game through and through. Persona 4's original director, Katsura Hashino, worked with his original team to come up with the script for Arena's story mode, which functions as a canonical sequel to the Persona 4 RPG. This mode is aimed squarely at fans of the series who are more interested in learning the fates of their favorite characters than learning complex combos. You start by choosing one of four Persona users, and as you finish their quests, more and more of the cast becomes available, eventually completing the picture for you. Any fan of the Persona series will be happy with the writing, and some of the plot lines really extend the narrative arcs of their respective characters. Just be ready to spend a lot more time watching than playing.

For players with no connection to the story or characters, there's both an Arcade and Versus mode. The former gives you the typical series of fights with bits of dialogue interspersed, and the latter lets you simply fight it out with a buddy or a CPU controlled opponent of your choosing without any story involvement. This is how most straight-up fighting fans will spend their hours with the game.

Whether you're a new challenger or a grizzled vet, you can get your learn on in either lesson or training mode. Lesson mode gives you an invaluable breakdown of the game's many systems, and the training mode gives players of every level all the tools they need to practice and theory fight to their heart's content. A fully functional online mode rounds out the package, complete with savable match replays to help you breakdown those tough losses or prove to your friends just how much of a nerd-slaying badass you are. All told, it's the kind of comprehensive feature set I've come to expect from Arc System Works. They may ask full retail for the game, but give you every ounce of value for your dime.

Snazzy visuals drizzled over a heaping pile of bells and whistles is a great start, but at the end of the day you're looking for a good fight, and P4A puts its money where its mouth is in a big way. For all of its flash, it's built strongly on fighting game fundamentals. Unlike many games of its kind, there are a great deal of inputs and attack types that are universal to every character. Air dashes, double jumps, overheads, sweeps, reversals and more are available across the entire cast regardless of their wildly varied play styles. This allows players to have some kind of answer to almost anything their opponent throws at them, even if they only have basic knowledge of their character. You can even do a complete auto-combo for decent damage by pressing the light attack button repeatedly. Sure, it costs you some life and meter to use, but until you learn real combos, it at least gives you a way to get something out of the opportunities you create for yourself.

These mechanics make P4A a much more welcoming game for those new to the genre, but seasoned pros still have a mile high skill ceiling to shoot for. Not one of the 13 playable characters are simple or straightforward in their approach. Each of them has a character specific mechanic as well as a unique Persona – a manifestation of their other self that can assist them with a wide array of attacks and abilities. Your Persona is like a second character, one that you can position independently on the battlefield. Using it in concert with your main character is key for claiming victory, but you also have to be wary not to expose them, as they can be hit and even temporarily knocked out, leaving you to fight on at half strength for a while. But properly coordinated offensives are a thing of beauty, shaving off a third of your opponents life or more amidst barrages of arcane energy that would look right at home in any RPG.


Source : feeds.ign.com