Persona 4 Arena

Persona 4 Arena, also known as Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena in Japan, is a 2D fighting game by Arc System Works, developed under the supervision of Atlus' P Studio. It is a direct sequel to both Persona 3 and Persona 4, directed by Katsura Hashino and scored by Shoji Meguro.

and act as the voice of the announcer, and for both Japanese and English versions, Jun'ya Motomura acts as the system voice.

Plot
The story starts 2 months after the events of Persona 4 and roughly 2 years after ''Persona 3 FES' The Answer. ''At the start of Golden Week, Yu Narukami returns to Yasoinaba and reunites with Dojima, Nanako and his friends. But soon Chie hears a rumor that the Midnight Channel is airing again and tells Yosuke and Yukiko. The three of them and Yu (coincidentally) see it. At the same time, Rise, Kanji and Teddie go missing and Naoto is busy on a mission. The following day, they head into the TV world and find themselves stuck in a tournament held at their high school where they must fight each other to advance, but during the tournament they see a mysterious girl who claims to be their student council president as well as three Persona-users they've never seen before.

Mitsuru is now head of a secret spec ops squad known as Shadow Operatives working with the government consisting of herself and some of her old SEES colleagues. On a mission to escort top secret cargo, the airplane she's on is hijacked. Aigis manages to take down all the hijackers on her own but one of the cargo is stolen: the 5th generation anti-shadow humanoid weapon, Labrys. They track her down to Yasoinaba and enter the TV world, joined by Akihiko Sanada, having just arrived from South America, who shows up to help after Aigis picks up readings from inside. Naoto is hired by public safety to spy on the Kirijo Group and Shadow Operatives. She follows them into the TV.

As Elizabeth continues on her journey, she stops by at the gate of death to defeat Erebus, who comes back about once a year (she picks it up with one hand, throws it through a portal to the moon, then kills it in one hit with Thanatos). She heads over to the TV world when she feels all the Persona-users gathering there, hoping that she may find something in the strange phenomenon may be able help her to defeat Erebus for good so that she could save the boy who became the seal to protect humanity. Elizabeth encounters two of the boy's successors, one that she had befriended and given the Velvet Room's guidance under her supervision, and another who had also received the Velvet Room's guidance but this time under Margaret's supervision.

As the Persona-users get to the Announcement room where Rise is being locked up, they discover Labrys and soon learn about her as her shadow reveals her true self.

Labrys was created in 1999 at the Kirijo Ergonomics lab and most of her development was done through forcing her to fight other models of her series. She grew close to one of her "sisters", #024, but was forced to destroy her too. She eventually escaped the lab, dealing a lot of damage to it in the process, but was recaptured and sealed away. After vanishing from Mitsuru's plane, she was tossed into the TV world and her Shadow Self created the tournament to let other people feel what she felt.

The Persona-users defeat Shadow Labrys and Labrys accepts her and turns the shadow into the Persona Ariadne. As they prepare to leave, however, the true mastermind behind everything takes control of her and makes her attack everyone, but Fuuka manages to reach Yasoinaba in time and cut off his connection but he escapes. The mastermind is a human with no Persona who cannot enter the TV world, but is partnered with something not human that can shape shift and pretends to be various characters' shadows. Their objective is to weaken the Persona-users mentally so that their Personas will revert to Shadows; they need to gather strong Shadows for their "Project", and reverting the Persona-users' strong Personas would make exceptionally strong Shadows. Both of them escape and Mitsuru tells the Persona-users of Inaba to forget about everything and leave the rest of the case to them. Yu convinces everyone to "comply" with Mitsuru's order, but she and Aigis easily see through his act, and they regardlessly decide to let them do what they want, though both also plan to do everything they can to keep them out of harm's way. Before they leave, Labrys meets up with the Inaba group once more and tells them that she will leave and join with Mitsuru's group to catch the culprit so that she can protect her new friends, while she and Aigis vow to find their "mother".

After they leave, Yu and Yosuke tell everyone that they are reforming the Investigation Team. As everyone prepares for what comes next.

(Penultimate boss in most character's story mode is Shadow Labrys. The final boss of the Persona 4 cast is a brainwashed Labrys with Ariadne. The final bosses of the Persona 3 characters and Naoto is their own fake shadow. In Teddie's case, he has an extra fight against Kanji who thinks everything is a dream and shows up looking for a fight.)

Elizabeth's Story Mode ends with her gaining insight on the nature of the Wild Card from Yu and Aigis, and she gains her own Fool Arcana, signifying the start of a journey.

In addition, Yu, Chie, Yukiko and Kanji are given choices in specific parts of their story where they are given prompts to respond to. For Yu, this is merely aestetic as a callback as the player character (though through specific choices, can lead to an extra scene with Margaret), but for the others, their choices can either lead them to their true ending, or a non-canon joke ending where each of them are in a situation where the case is prematurely ended with the group in an awkward reaction.

Characters


As a sequel to Persona 4, the game sees a return of the original cast as well as several characters from Persona 3. Each of the main characters were also given titles.
 * Yu Narukami: The Sister Complex Kingpin of Steel (鋼のシスコン番長 Hagane no Shisukon Banchō, "Sister Complex" directly points to the players who feel love for Yu's cousin, Nanako Dojima, which is also known as "Nanakon" [ナナコン] in Japanese fandom.)
 * Yosuke Hanamura: Captain Ressentiment (キャプテン・ルサンチマン Kyaputen Rusanchiman, a reference to Yosuke's resentment towards a society which resents him for being the son of a man that destroyed business for the Central Shopping District.)
 * Chie Satonaka: Spunky Dragon with Deadly Legs (男勝りの足技系ドラゴン Otoko-masari no Ashiwaza-kei Doragon, literally "the dragon with leg martial skills who surpasses all males".); Her title in the original promotional video is The Carnivore Who's Discarded Womanhood (女を捨てた肉食獣 Onna o Suteta Nikushoku-jū, a reference to her undying consumption of meats and being a fan of martial arts).
 * Yukiko Amagi: The Unconquerable Snow Black (難攻不落の「黒」雪姫 Nankō Furaku no "Kuro"-yuki-hime, wordplay of "" due to Yukiko's name means "snow" and reference to Yukiko's Castle. "Black" also refers to her hair color and the stereotype of Japanese stock character of "haraguro" [腹黒] who talks amicably but has some weird or cruel idea in mind.)
 * Kanji Tatsumi: The Bloodcurdling Beefcake Emperor (戦慄のガチムチ皇帝 Senritsu no Gachimuchi Kōtei, a jab at his sexual insecurities. Gachimuchi is a Japanese slang term, referring to very masculine homosexual men.)
 * Teddie: The Beast in Heat (色欲の猛獣（ビースト・オブ・リビドー） Bīsuto obu Ribidō, The kanji translate literally to "Predator of Sexual Desires", differently, the furigana is translated to "Beast of Libido".) It is a reference to his repeated attempts to hook up with the female members of the Investigation Team.
 * Naoto Shirogane: The 2000 IQ Killjoy Detective (IQ2000のKY探偵 Ai Kyū Nisen no Kē Wai Tantei, "" is a Japanese slang abbreviated from the phrase "kūki ga yomenai" [空気が読めない, unable to read the atmosphere] which means someone is acting improperly in the wrong occasion. Yosuke uses this slang on Naoto during their school trip to Tatsumi Port Island in the club in the Japanese version.)
 * Akihiko Sanada: The Two-Fisted Protein Junkie (剛拳のプロテインジャンキー Gōken no Purotein Jankī, referring to his boxing career and how he eats protein a lot.)
 * Mitsuru Kirijo: The Imperious Queen of Executions (孤高の処刑女王 Kokō no Shokei Joō, a reference to Mitsuru's ice executions. Also possibly a reference to the failed Kyoto minigame scene)
 * Aigis: The Heartless Armed Angel (全身凶器の心なき天使 Zenshin Kyōki no Kokoro-naki Tenshi, a reference to her being a humanoid android with heavy weaponry.)
 * Labrys: Yasogami's Steel Council President (八高・鋼鉄の生徒会長 Hachikō Kōtetsu no Seitokaichō, a reference to her being an android and the Student Council President.)
 * Shadow Labrys: The Raging Bull of Destruction (皆殺しの猛牛総統 Minagoroshi no Mōgyū Sōtō, a reference to her familiar Asterius and her desire for destruction.)
 * Elizabeth: The Lethal Elevator Attendant (（史上）最凶のエレベーターガール (Shijō) Saikyō no Erebētā Gāru, referring to of her previous role as the assistant to Igor in the Velvet Room, which in Persona 3 took the form of an elevator.)

Additional Character Dates

 * Japan (Arcade Version)
 * Labrys: March 22, 2012
 * Elizabeth: April 5, 2012
 * Shadow Labrys: April 19, 2012
 * Yukari Takeba: Location Test from August 16 to August 18, 2013
 * Junpei Iori: Location Test from August 16 to August 18, 2013

Gameplay
Persona 4 Arena follows the style of modern anime fighters as there is a focus on fast, combo-centric combat with many movement options, as well as being an Arc System Works game, carries many elements from their two popular titles, Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, as well as carrying and codifying new elements of its own. In terms of movement, running dashes, backsteps/backdashes, and the ever-so-famous air dash are all abound to keep the generic feel of an anime fighter.

The controls of combat consists of four buttons: A (Light Attack), B (Strong Attack), C (Persona Attack) and D (Persona Rush), as well as the traditional Special Moves, which in this fighting game all have more simplistic commands in order to reach out to beginners unlike in past fighting games (such as ridding half-circle motions and "dragon-punch" motions). Special moves are universally known as Skill Attacks/Skills in this game to pertain to the series' scheme, and like many if not all fighting game special moves/Supers, can inflict chip damage when they are blocked (a small amount of percentage of its original damage on hit) and can build a small amount of SP/meter if they miss/are whiffed.

Both C and D can play nod to the popular JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, in which two of its current fighting games involve avatars. In that vein, one of the more unique features of Persona 4 Arena is the Persona system, where Personas are summoned during certain moves, and vary for each character. These Persona moves can be repeatedly used with no penalty (though users must wait for the Persona to vanish before executing another Persona Move for certain attacks), but however Personas can be hit by attacks which will instantly make them vanish (though it's possible to call them out again as soon as they are hit, despite a possible Persona Break).

And thus getting to that, much like most avatar-based fighters that involve the said avatar's own health separate from the character; if the Persona suffers enough damage, a Persona Break will occur barring the usage of the target's Persona for a set amount of time, thus Persona moves are just as notable as any kind of risky attack in where they must be used with caution and care.

In terms of Persona-based moves in general, all of the avatar-based moves in comparison to other games (like the aforementioned JoJo's) are passive, in that the avatar (or in this case, Persona) appears only briefly for a single move and then disappear, as opposed to being out for the remainder of the match via being "toggled" on and off (Shadow Labrys is the only "active" avatar/Persona user in this game so far while everyone is generally a "passive" Persona user).

There is an option to combo with simple commands from a neutral position Light Attack/5A, making it easy for players not familiar with fighting games to chain attacks (via a "dial combo" function reminiscent of attacks in games like two of the fighting games of the Touhou Project series). This is known as the Renda Combo (Barrage Combo; localized as the Auto-Combo).

Inputing A for a total of three times has the character perform two unique normals in succession from their 5A, and inputting A a fourth time and fifth time respectively can cause the player to combo/chain/cancel into an automatic Skill Attack/special and if they have enough SP, they will automatically Super Cancel into a set SP Skill. This is not unlike the recent Under Night In-Birth (which Persona 4 Arena shares a few recent traits with) and other later fighting games (including JoJo's recent All-Star Battle), in that this system is meant mostly for beginners to pick up without needing too much dexterity to pull of complicated combos.

Also from the Auto-Combo, in order to fit with more refined veterans of fighting games, the second and third attacks of the Auto-Combo can be cancelled into other moves (other than the typical skills-to-SP skills cancel), though this greatly depends on the character and their combo routes. The P Combo is the game's "magic series" (the traditional chain combo system for their normal attacks going from weak-to-strong).

Additionally, each character has their own Gyakugire Action (Reversal Action; localized as Furious Action which also roughly translates to the same thing); as the name implies, they are defensive special moves that allow the character to overturn the tide of battle like having an anti-air move with invincibility frames or a reversal/counterattack. However this uses some of that player's life to use which turns into blue life which can be healed over time as long as they don't get hit.

Persona 4 Arena also has its own variation of an All-Out Attack dubbed an All-Out Rush, a mini version involving only one character instead of two characters or a whole party. This is activated by inputting an All-Out Attack in the form of a universally unique overhead attack with autoguard/guard point properties and an additional input if the initial overhead connects. The All-Out Rush allows for the player to knock foes away or launch them into the air, all with button mashing for extra hits and a free Fatal Counter hit.

Also imported from the Persona series in general are Status Ailments; they all last a certain amount of time, though their effects are instantly negated if the character lands a hit on the one who inflicted the ailment on them in the first place. The only exception to this is Rage/Berserk, which only goes away after a set amount of time.

The SP Gauge at the bottom of the screen. Players can choose to expend a portion of SP to execute various, advantageous moves if they input the correct command and they have enough SP to pull it off. Such commands involve Skill Boosts (enhanced versions of special moves; an example of EX Moves) SP Skill Attacks (Supers; cancelling into them from a special costs a small amount of health), Guard Cancels (actions done from a guarding position), and One More! Cancels (ends current animation, returns to a neutral state for combo extentions and situational recoveries; an example of an "Anywhere Cancel" and much like the famous Guilty Gear's Roman Cancel and BlazBlue's Rapid Cancel).

More like BlazBlue, 1More Cancels can also be used on moves that also do not connect with the opponent directly, such as projectiles, but unlike in past games involving that type of cancel system, the projectile in this case still must connect on hit or block in order for the cancel to be used.

It should be noted any Guard Cancel attack will not K.O. the opponent unlike past fighting games, even if they lead into a damaging combo on them.

Characters can perform difficult-to-land Mortal Blows/Instant Kills which instantly defeats the opponents and ends the match, a nod to Arc System Works' other games that involve one-hit finishes. They can only be performed on match point (the playing planning to perform one only needs one more round to win) and takes up 100 SP (which are universally activated by pressing down three times and using both Persona buttons). The requirements are a combination of both Instant Kills from Guilty Gear (can be done at anytime regardless of opponent's health amount) and Astral Finishes from BlazBlue (only done on match point with over 100 meter units).

When a character's life is 35% or less, they enter an Awakening State signified by a red SP Gauge and a Persona-style summoning cut-in in the background. In this state, the SP Gauge is extended to 150 and gains an extra 50 immediately, the character gains a defense boost, and enables a new Super or two exclusive to that state, similar to certain desperation modes in past fighting games. It's also possible through certain means, such as the blue health mechanic, to activate Awakening State without suffering direct damage and recover said damage as well.

Below the Life Gauge is a Burst Gauge. When full, the player can Burst which blows back the opponent if they are in close proximity. When it is used when your opponent is hit and you are in neutral position, your SP Gauge maxes out and your Burst Gauge takes less time to refill (in the vein of Gold Bursts from Guilty Gear XX/X2). If it is used when the player is attacking, it causes a ''One More! Burst, an un-techable launcher that up-scales damage following it (similar to Break Bursts in BlazBlue: Continuum Shift''). If it is used while the player is in hit stun, bursting has no benefits other than peeling the enemy off the player.

All Bursts count as Persona moves, thus if the player cannot use their Persona, via Persona Break or Silence, they cannot burst. Bursts also have some invincibility, but can be baited by smart opponents and punished.

The life gauge also undergoes a notable change, especially since unlike in Guilty Gear and BlazBlue, Persona 4 Arena has no special powered-up guarding system.

Instead, when damage is taken from special moves/Supers while blocking (otherwise known as Chip damage), using a Furious Action or a Super Cancel, in the place of the red portion of health used to read how much health lost in an attack/combo, it turns into blue health, which can be recovered over time (similar to the mechanics of damage gained from blocking most special moves in the Dragon Ball Z Budoukai games). The blue health however does not count as part of the overall amount of health the player has left, and will be lost if they get hit. Blue health will start to slowly recover after a certain amount of time, and it resets its timer if one blocks and attack, special move or not.

This is also the first Arc System Works-developed game and one of the few fighting games to prevent death from chip damage, as one will always be at 1 HP if they happen to be almost dead and blocking the brunt of a special/super.

The console release of Persona 4 Arena is split between several different game modes. Lesson Mode teaches the player basic and advanced system mechanics within the game. Story Mode follows the story of Persona 4 Arena in each of the character's perspectives. Arcade Mode is the arcade release of the game and serves as an abridged version of the game's Story Mode. Score Attack Mode is a much harder Arcade Mode where the player goes through every character in the game on a special difficulty setting that is higher than Hell difficulty. The characters are fought in the following order, regardless of player character: Yosuke, Naoto, Yukiko, Teddie, Kanji, Chie, Mitsuru, Akihiko, Aigis, Yu, Shadow Labrys, Labrys and Elizabeth. Each character also has a specific set of changes that make them more boss-like to increase the difficulty even further. After every four characters defeated, the next four will have a more aggressive AI than the previous, which also increases the difficulty over time.

Also carried over from other Arc System Works games is BlazBlue's Fatal Counter hit, a Counter Hit that has extra frames of hitstun for subsequent attacks in a combo off of a Fatal Counter, and as of a patch, Fatal Counters always occur on any first hit of an attack landed on someone inflicted with Fear.

Negative Warnings (from BlazBlue) and Negative Penalties (from both Guilty Gear and BlazBlue) are also carried over; should one be on the defensive for too long and not make offensive contact with attacks on the opponent, they will receive a Negative Warning and thus a Negative Penalty, where they suffer a negative effect for a set amount of time. More like BlazBlue's variation, the character suffers from a 50% damage increase from attacks inflicted upon themselves (and is symbolized with red and black despair faces almost similar to a fear effect). Any offensive actions need to be taken a set number of times in order to be clear of the effect.

Other notable movement options involve Evasive Actions, moving dodges with invinciblity (to all save for throws) styled in the form of The King of Fighter's rolls (which can also be used as defensive Guard Cancels and also pass through the opponent in true KOF fashion), Hops, as the name says all which can be used for a variety of gimmicks even though they are only a small set distance forward, Teching/Ukemi (Tumbles) carried over from Guilty Gear and more so BlazBlue, and Sweeps (attacks that trip the opponent into a knockdown, and are modelled after Guilty Gear's form of sweep; past fighting games had a majority of crouching heavy attacks as sweeps).

A notable unique mechanic seen in Arena is also known as the Air Turn, where similar to a niche amount of characters, the character can turn around in midair without needing to switch sides with the opponent (though they will still face them normally when they land). Air Turns also completely orient directions, so that for example you can perform forward air dashes away from the opponent (and it also counts as an offensive action to prevent Negative Warnings/Penalties), and can also be used to face opponents who run underneath you while you are in midair.

Versus Mode is the local multiplayer mode. Network Mode is the online multiplayer mode split between Ranked Matches and Player Matches. Finally, Challenge Mode has the player going through each character's moves from basic commands to basic combos to advanced combos, the final challenge being a test of how they understand a certain character's moves or hitting an extremely high combo to produce a high damage count.

The original arcade version eventually has received patches that included characters from time to time, but eventually for both the arcade and console versions, a 1.02 patch came with slight balance tweaks to the system mechanics, small bugs, and all characters, and is identified with a small icon on the lower right of the screen. Thus, on console it's technically impossible to play 1.00 and 1.01.

Trivia

 * P4A is the first title to not feature the Shin Megami Tensei label in its overseas title, since Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne was localized in North America and Europe.
 *  P4A' s story takes place in spring 2012 - the same year the game's Arcade version was released.
 * Despite dropping "The Ultimate in Mayonaka" from the game's title outside of Japan, the original name appears in the intro movie in all regions. Similarly, the default system voice will always refer to Teddie by his Japanese name of Kuma, even when the language is set to English.
 * Also, a direct translation of the Japanese name of the game would be Persona 4: The Ultimate in Midnight Arena.
 * Despite taking place after Persona 4, Yu, Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Kanji, Teddie, and Naoto are shown with their initial Persona, instead of their ultimate ones unlike Mitsuru and Akihiko, as well as Aigis being shown still using Pallas Athena. This, however, can easily be explained as obtaining their ultimate Persona is optional in Persona 4. Also since Aigis and Yu are both users of the Wild Card, they may have just recreated Izanagi and Pallas Athena through fusion. However, this still does not explain why Teddie still does not have his canon Persona, when it transfigured into its ultimate form, Kamui, by unlocking the good ending of Persona 4. It is possible the Investigation Team don't have their ultimate Personas because Persona 4 Golden has them acquire new third tier Personas, likely to accommodate people who haven't played P4G & wouldn't have gained the new Personas. Aigis may also have Athena instead of Orpheus for similar reasons, to accommodate players who haven't played The Answer.
 * Yu, however, uses Izanagi-no-Okami during his Instant Kill, and Aigis uses Palladion (albeit heavily modified) during hers. In Aigis' case, she oddly de-evolves her Persona instead of evolving it.
 * Interestingly enough, each character has voice clips in their sound test of them calling the names of their initial and ultimate Personas. It was probably intended for each character to choose between their Personas but, probably due to time constraints, this was cut.
 * Arc System Works originally wanted Ryotaro Dojima as one of the playable characters during the pre-planning stages when they were deciding on the cast. Takumi Iguchiya joked that instead of a Persona, he would summon Nanako Dojima to his aid, possibly ending up as a joke character.  Nanako herself was proposed as a playable character, but both decisions were strongly rejected by Atlus.
 * Persona 4: Arena is the first non-BlazBlue fighting game to use the Fatal Counter system, as well as the first to make use of an un-tech timer, and an upcoming fighter along with a few others to use an auto-combo system for most beginners.
 * This is one of the only PlayStation 3 games to have a region lock.
 * A majority of characters in this game have skills/spells either used without a Persona, or skills/spells not learned by their Persona(s) naturally. Some also do not retain certain skills used by their Personas in their original games as well.
 * Yu's Izanagi cannot learn Ziodyne and Swift Strike, but it's possible in Yu's case as the main character in the original Persona 4 and Persona 4 Golden through fusion to re-create an Izanagi with both those skills.
 * Yosuke uses Garudyne in the style of his follow-up attack.
 * Chie uses Rampage without the use of a Persona (in the style of her critical hit), as well as Skull Crusher. Her Instant Kill is also her original follow-up attack.
 * Likewise, she oddly does not have any ice-based spells in her move set, though she eventually gains an ice-based move in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax.
 * Kanji also uses Cruel Attack without his Persona (in the style of his follow-up attack), and was the only SMT series skill in his move set until Ultimax adds in Primal Force. Kanji's critical hit animation also acts as one of his SP Skills.
 * Teddie has no SMT series skills and only has his original follow-up attack as one of his special moves. He eventually gains Nihil Hand from his shadow's repertoire of skills in Ultimax.
 * Naoto's is a bit of an inversion, for her Seigi no Tate (Shield of Justice) R/Furious-Action from this game eventually becomes a skill for her new Persona, Yamato Sumera Mikoto in Golden.
 * However, she uses Megido in the style of a hair-trigger bomb, and she also uses Double Fangs, as a non-Persona skill and a skill neither of her Personas cannot learn naturally.
 * Naoto eventually gains the Blight skill in Ultimax.
 * Mitsuru uses Marin Karin as her 2C, and her Mabufudyne has a radically different function in this game. She also uses Myriad Arrows in the style of her critical hit and thus as a non-Persona attack, and is also a skill neither of her two Personas can naturally learn in Persona 3, Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable.
 * She also has Niflheim as her Instant Kill, a skill that could only be used by her as an opponent in The Answer. She also gains Tentarafoo in Ultimax.
 * Akihiko has both Kill Rush and Assault Dive as non-Persona skills, and his only spell is Maziodyne. He also gains Sonic Punch as a non-Persona skill in Ultimax.
 * Aigis has barely any SMT series skills in her move set, save for Megido in the form of a flamethrower-based type attack. Both her Personas do not learn any Almighty-element skills in the Persona 3 games, save for Pallas Athena in Persona 2: Innocent Sin with Zandyne.
 * If the game was played before the official release date, a message in the menu would appear with the line "Turn it off" (すぐにけせ) showing up repeatedly. This is a reference to a popular rumour among Japanese fans that the message would rarely appear on Shin Megami Tensei's intro.