Gameitall I have gotten to a point in my life where RPG’s don’t appeal to me much anymore. Aside from classics like Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger it’s hard to find an RPG that will keep my attention and frankly make me not want to make fun of it. I’ve been feeling this way for several years now actually, there has only been one series that I’ve stuck through and really enjoyed and that was the Persona Series. Starting from the Third and by far my favorite series, I’ve played the series to death and bought the games on multiple different platforms.
The Persona series has a lot happening which makes it great; it has an great story, concept, gameplay and execution. It feels like a real game-changer for the RPG genre taking simple turn base battles and turning it on it’s head with All-out attacks and using commands for other players to strategically defeat shadows. It’s something that we would and should see more of, possibly in other genres.
Luckily the folks at Atlus and Arc System Works were thinking the same idea.
Persona 4 Arena is an interesting hybrid of two genres, RPG’s and Fighting, it was something that Arc System Works explored in it’s 3D brawler Battle Fantasia (which didn’t turn out so good) but it is perfected here. P4A is a well balanced and well thought out brawler from the BlazBlue team with Atlus Persona Team backing up for the story and design.
The story follows 2 months after Persona 4 after the Investigation team, of group of high schoolers with the unlocked abilities of their Persona’s solving grisly murders which would happen through a demotic TV world called The Midnight Channel. The channel has disappeared and the case had been solved, however on the night of their reunion, The Midnight Channel has reappeared with a new show called the P-1 Grand Prix appears, worst of all 4 of their friends has gone missing. Not leaving it up to chance, the team reforms and enters the TV world; only to find that a strong shadow has taken control forcing friends to fight each other.
P4A has several gameplay modes, including a Story Mode where you can proceed as several of the main characters through the tournament; Those familiar with BlazBlue’s story mode will see a lot of similarities in this mode. Also included is the standard Arcade mode, this also features a small story mode where the player is told during specific fights what is happening. It’s a nice touch to know why the characters a fighting and get a dumbed down story mode for those who just want to get straight to the beat down. The game also has the standard Time and Score Attack modes as well as Versus and Online modes.
A complaint I had with the story mode was that it does take a long time to get into, with a lot of filler in the way. The story is good however making most of this bearable, those looking to get right into the action and the story should probably stick with the Arcade mode.
The gameplay is where P4A really shines, the controls are spot on using a 4 button control system. Two buttons control your character attacks while the other two controls their Persona’s which makes for an interesting balancing act, it’s an easy to learn system but hard to master. While the persona can do more damage and be used for special attacks, balance comes in the form of the fact that they can be destroyed by getting attacked when summoned. Breaking a opponent’s persona is the key to winning tough battles.
There are several other real nice touches, including Status Aliments including Poison which drains your health, Shocked which stops you from moving, Confused which reverses your controls, and Charmed which stops you from attacking. These all go away over time but can be a real game changer; other moves includes the All-Out Attack, this game’s version of the Pop-up attack made popular in Marvel Vs Capcom 3 and Guilty Gear only throwing in a Persona twist. For those unfamiliar, the All-Out attack happens when all the bad-guys are stunned by either a strong attack or from missing a strike, in P4A this happens when a strong attack is dealt again your opponent and bash your strike buttons for a short amount of time.
A feature that has been seen in classic Arc System Works games like Guilty Gear, the instant kill moves have come back P4A. The difference though is that these moves are easily blocked and require several conditions, by activating the Awaken mode by getting to the last 30% of your health and charging your power meter to full blast. When this is pulled off you get some unique animations that instantly kill your opponents.
The art, graphics and sound design work all complement the gameplay well, the animation is fluid and makes every move look powerful, while the background is an excellent blend of 2D and 3D animation. While the music has the same jazzy upbeat feel we’ve come to expect from the Persona series as well as some remixes of some classic tunes, it all works extremely well.
Persona 4 Arena is a fighter that is easy to learn and hard to master, as any good fighting game should be. Fans of the series will not be disappointed while fighting game fans will be able to pick up and enjoy this spin-off, it’s an unique title; which just so happens to be what we expect from Atlus.
Persona 4 Arena – 8 out of 10
Pros: Strong Story mode, Great Graphics, Well Balanced.
Cons: Difficulty ramp increases quickly, Online mode is very glitchy.
