
Each of these episodes can be completed in less than 10 minutes, making the story more easily digestible and thus inviting for those who'd rather not read a novel when playing a fighting game.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax goes a long way toward solving that problem by offering a non-linear story in which players choose which episodes they'd like to play through. The Story Mode, which served as the single-player core of the original game, was praised for its depth, but it often involved players reading through reams of text punctuated by all-too-brief battles. The fighting aspect of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax should never have been in question – the original game was solid and Arc System Works has a known pedigree – but the most important, helpful additions found in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax have more to do with basic functionality than with individual character tweaks. The overall effect is a game that's both inviting and intuitive for players and a cinematic cloudburst of spectacle for onlookers. Complementing the fluid combat and lovely aesthetic is a soundtrack that's best described as drawn from Atlus' RPGs, but enhanced with Arc System Works' trademark high-octane rock and roll. Attacks are flashy and devastating, and some – particularly the difficult-to-land Instant Kill attacks – could serve as grandiose summon animations in the most decadent of Final Fantasy entries. Combat is fast and frenetic, but thanks to exceedingly fluid animation and some of the prettiest 2D sprites ever seen in a fighting game, the chaos of battle never threatens to overwhelm a player's senses. In terms of gameplay, the fingerprints of Guilty Gear developer Arc System Works are all over Persona 4 Arena Ultimax.
#Persona 4 arena ultimax 2.0 console update
Update your settings here, then reload the page to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Junpei is now a baseball coach, while Yukari is a starlet most famous for her role in a tokusatsu (think: Power Rangers) television series. Unlike the Persona 4 cast members who remain quite similar to their appearances in Atlus' most recent RPG entry, the Persona 3 cast have matured into adults. This comes as a shock to the assembled heroes, and draws a number of new fighters to the conflict, including Persona 3 favorites like Yukari Takeba and Junpei Iori. Unlike the first game however, these Shadows can summon Personas – physical representations of the psyche that manifest as powerful creatures – identical to those that accompany their flesh and blood analogues, making them much more formidable fighters. Shadows have begun appearing once again, and as in Persona 4 Arena, the most dangerous Shadows are able to take the form of Persona's heroes. Persona 4 Arena was a great fighter featuring gorgeous animation, solid mechanics and a phenomenal soundtrack, and the additions present in its updated incarnation only make that solid base more appealing.īack to the plot: A mysterious red fog has blanketed the Inaba region. Don't take this as a knock against Ultimax, however. The majority of the game's cast is the same, and most of those characters behave similarly to their previous iterations. Developer Arc System Works seems to think so, and luckily for fans, the studio still has a few tricks up its sleeves.Atlus describes Persona 4 Arena Ultimax as a sequel to Persona 4 Arena, and its plot bears that out, but the differences between the two games are more akin to the changes Capcom added to Street Fighter 4 to create Super Street Fighter 4. That gameplay description could easily apply to the original Persona 4 Arena, leaving fans to wonder if this new game brings enough to the table to warrant a wholly new fighter.


Unfortunately, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax faces an uphill battle.
#Persona 4 arena ultimax 2.0 console series
In Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, the heroes of the first fighter return to once again battle the Shadowy scourge with hyper-kinectic 2D fisticuffs, but this time they're joined a by host of new, yet familiar faces from Atlus' Persona role-playing games and a psychopath who forgoes the aid of a Persona in favor of wielding two serrated katana.Ĭrucially, beneath these additions lies a combat system that's not quite novel, but builds on its predecessor in ways that should appeal to both new players and series veterans. Less than 24 hours after the events of Persona 4 Arena, the malevolent (yet adorable) General Teddie has returned to kick off the P-1 Climax fighting tournament. There's no rest for the wicked, but there's even less for those trying to save the world.
