All-Out Attack



All-Out Attack, also known as Soukougeki (総攻撃) or Full-bokko (フルボッコ among fandom) in Japanese, is a battle tactic in the Persona series. It is first introduced in Persona 3. As it name implies, triggering the command allows all characters to strike all enemies together at the same time. When executed, all participants will rush into the enemies in a burst of comical dust and attack effects. 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.

Appearances

 * Persona 3 / FES / Portable
 * Persona 4 / Golden
 * Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth 

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

Persona 3 / Persona 4
Unlike Fusion Raids or Fusion Spells, the prerequisite to trigger the action of All-Out Attack requires more than one character in the battlefield, meaning 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 "slip." The Fusion Spell "Jack Brothers", usable with Jack Frost and Pyro Jack, 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, Except if the attack was a follow up attack that either don't count, or are counted as criticals or weakness-exploit, such as when finishing the last enemy that haven'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.

Also exclusive to Persona 4 Golden, if an All-Out Attack doesn't defeat all the enemies, a 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)

Trivia

 * In Persona 4 The Animation, this cut in is used before Yosuke and the others pins down a stalker.