All-Out Attack



All-Out Attack ( or among fandom) is a battle tactic in the Persona series.

Appearances

 * Persona 2: Innocent Sin as Triple Charge
 * Persona 2: Eternal Punishment as Triple Charge
 * Persona 3 / FES / Portable
 * Persona 4 / Golden
 * Persona 4 Arena / Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
 * Persona 5 / Royal
 * Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
 * Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth

Role
As its name implies, triggering the command allows all characters to strike all enemies together at the same time. When executed, a cut-in session briefly showcases the face or bust images of all participants, then all participants will rush into the enemies in a burst of comical dust and attack effects. In Persona 3 and Persona 4, if the attack does not finish off the enemies then the characters will be seen being knocked out before running back in the dust.

In addition, in Persona 4 and Persona 3 Portable, if the attack is the finishing blow to the remaining enemies, the clouds will form a comical skull as a finishing touch. In Persona 5, instead of the smoke of skull, the last party member who contributes to the chance of that All-out Attack will receive a "finishing touch" close-up, replacing the generic victory cutscene.

Persona 2
The comical graphic style can date back to Persona 2, which has a Fusion Spell called "Triple Charge" and requires 3 Personas to perform the Havoc skill "Bash" together. This technique deals large Havoc-type damage to one foe.

In the PSP remakes of the duology, the all-out attack cut-in effect similar to the style of Persona 4 Golden is retroactively added before the initiation of any fusion spell. This extra animation can be turned off in the option menu.

Persona 3 / Persona 4
Like Fusion Raids or Fusion Spells, the prerequisite to trigger the action of All-Out Attack requires more than one character in the battlefield, and the protagonists cannot initiate All-Out Attacks alone. Furthermore, all enemies on the battlefield must be knocked down in order to trigger the All-Out Attack command. Also, any members with any status effect that makes them uncontrollable manually (via the "command" option in tactics) will make them unable to join the all-out attack, if the protagonist suffers from this, then it can't be initiated at all. "Knocked down" or simply "down" is a status that can be inflicted in multiple ways, such as using an enemy's weakness against them, unleashing a critical hit on them, or by the enemy missing with a physical attack, which can sometimes cause them to "stumble." The Fusion Spell "Jack Brothers," usable with Jack Frost and Pyro Jack, and Kanji's "A Man's Way" special skill can also be used to achieve this effect as well.

However, there are some instances in which even though all enemies are knocked down, the All-Out Attack command will not initiate. One such case is if you are facing multiple enemies and all but one is knocked down; if you kill the not-downed enemy without unleashing a critical or a weakness-exploiting attack on it, thus leaving the enemy party entirely knocked down, you will not get an opportunity to unleash an All-Out Attack. Unless the attack was a follow up attack that either didn't count, or was a critical or weakness-exploit, such as when finishing the last enemy that hasn't been downed with Chie's Galactic Punt. While late in-game boss enemies are mostly without weaknesses, the All-Out Attack can still be triggered should the boss enemy be hit with a critical physical attack or miss with its own physical attack and slip.

The damage of an All-Out Attack is based on the normal weapon attack damage of each character and the total present characters in the battlefield. Thus theoretically the more powerful the characters' weapon are, the more damage the All-Out Attack inflicts. All-Out attacks also deals more damage should there be only one targeted foe, rather than a group. It should also be noted that All-Out Attack is Physical Almighty based, meaning it cannot be voided, repelled, or absorbed. However, the damage of an All-Out Attack can still be severely withered should the targeted enemies resist Physical and/or Almighty-based attacks.

In Persona 3 Portable, finishing a battle with an All-Out Attack guarantees activation of Shuffle Time, as the "final blow" is still credited to the protagonist, therefore making its use pivotal in grinding.



In Persona 4 Golden, Rise Kujikawa can randomly join the team during an All-Out Attack. If she joins, a special animation will play. She will add damage to the attack and cause the cloud of smoke to be colored purple. The amount of damage added will increase every time you spend time with her on a scooter trip and have her think of her future.

Also exclusive to Persona 4 Golden, if an All-Out Attack doesn't defeat all the enemies, an additional follow up attack will sometimes trigger. These attacks require two specific teammates, with both participating in the All-Out Attack (not downed, dizzy etc). They have special animations and deal Physical damage. Notably, there exists no team configuration that can hold more than one pair of characters capable of this.



The character pairs that can perform these attacks (and their names) are:
 * Chie Satonaka and Yukiko Amagi (Twin Dragons)
 * Yosuke Hanamura and Teddie (Junes Bomber)
 * Kanji Tatsumi and Naoto Shirogane (Beauty & The Beast)

Persona 4 Arena
Due to battles being one vs one, All Out Attacks in the Arena duology are performed by only one person. Each character in the game can do one at any time, resembling the ones found in Persona 3 and Persona 4.

Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
All-Out Attacks are initiated at the end of a turn, with the chance of one occurring depending on how many characters are Boosted - the more characters in the Boost state, the greater the chance of an All-Out Attack occurring. Ending a battle with an All-Out Attack grants an Experience Bonus, increasing the received Experience Points to 150%.

Margaret, Elizabeth, and Theodore use an All-Out Attack during the Ultimate Boss fight.

Persona 5
An All-Out Attack is initiated by the same means as in Persona 3 and Persona 4. When all enemies are knocked down, a "Hold Up" session is triggered where the player can choose from three options: "All-out Attack," "Negotiation" and an option to disarm Hold Up. During negotiation, the option of All-out Attack is still executable as long as it is the player's turn to choose the next dialogue. However, there must be at least one other party member present alongside the protagonist.

A different "finishing touch" close-up of that character will be displayed to replace the generic victory cutscene. The character selected is dependent on which ally scored the final knock down that initiated the hold up.

Even Caroline and Justine, in their boss fight, have their own "All-Out Attack" and "finishing touch." They will perform it if the entire party is downed, and in fact if the party takes too much time to bring them to the next HP threshold, they will use Ardha to down the entire party and initiate it. If they do so, it will instantly defeat the party regardless of their HP, defense or resistances.

Each character has a unique victory screen if they are the one who initiates the All-Out Attack. These victory screens also has a tagline and are as follows:
 * Protagonist - "THE SHOW'S OVER"
 * Ryuji Sakamoto - "FREAKiN' BoRiNG"
 * Ann Takamaki - "OMG!! We are SO awesome!"
 * Morgana - "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED"
 * Yusuke Kitagawa - "IT WAS FUN WHILE IT LASTED, GOODBYE."
 * Makoto Niijima - "JUSTICE HAS PREVAILED."
 * Haru Okumura - "Adieu."
 * Goro Akechi - "MY SOLE INTEREST IS UNCOVERING THE TRUTH."
 * Kasumi Yoshizawa - "Beauty is Devotion"
 * Caroline &amp; Justine - "Don't be so Cocky"

In Persona 5 The Animation, those taglines do not appear for a "finishing touch" when an All-Out Attack is occurred until Episode 5 "The Phantoms."

Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth
All-Out attacks have changed compared to the previous game, now resembling the main games in mechanics. If an enemy is inflicted with "down," caused by exploiting their weakness, performing a critical hit or having them be hit by a follow-up attack, they will lose their turn. If all enemies are knocked down, an All-Out Attack can be performed, dealing damage and removing "down." This is performed in the middle of a turn, and multiple All-Out Attacks can take place within a turn as long as the requirements have been met. Finishing a battle with an All-Out Attack will show special portraits of the characters and increase EXP gained by 20%.

Trivia

 * In Persona 3 and Persona 4, the THUMPs and WHAMs are replaced by Japanese onomatopoeia in the Japanese version.
 * Persona 3 comparison: English / Japanese
 * Persona 4 comparison: English / Japanese
 * In Persona 4: The Animation, this cut in is used before Yosuke and the others pin down a stalker. In Persona 4: The Golden Animation the cut in is also used during anime version of Midnight Trivia Miracle Quiz when it's down to the final question.

Appearances in other media

 * In Granblue Fantasy, Ren Amamiya's Charge Attack has a similar style to Persona 5. Ren, Ryuji, Morgana, Ann or Yusuke may be shown at random for its "finishing touch" and can provide a unique skill:
 * Ren can increase his Double Attack rate by 30% for 3 turns if he appears for his "finishing touch."
 * Ren can increase his Attack power by 30% for 3 turns if Ryuji appears for his "finishing touch." Ryuji's skill is Tarukaja.
 * Ren can restore 30% of his HP, with a healing cap of 1,500 HP, if Morgana appears for his "finishing touch." Morgana's skill is Dia.
 * The enemy will decrease its Attack power for 3 minutes if Ann appears for her "finishing touch." Ann's skill is Tarunda.
 * Ren will increase his Repel strength by 40% for 2 hits, if nessesary, if Yusuke appears for his "finishing touch." Yusuke's skill is Tetrakarn.
 * In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Joker's Final Smash has a similar style to Persona 5. Joker dashes forward once or twice, if the control stick is tilted in the opposite direction, and if he connects with an enemy, he will summon his fellow Phantom Thieves. There are two sets of allies he can call upon, either Ryuji, Morgana, and Ann with Futaba as Navigator or Yusuke, Makoto, and Haru with Morgana as Navigator. The "finishing touch" scene replaces blood with sparkles. Arsene, however, doesn't alter his Final Smash.