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Persona 4 Arena

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Persona 4 Arena
Developer(s)Arc System Works
Director(s)Kazuhisa Wada
Composer(s)Shoji Meguro
SeriesShin Megami Tensei: Persona
Platform(s)Arcade, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
ReleaseArcade
PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Genre(s)Fighting

Persona 4 Arena,[2] known as Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena (ペルソナ4 ジ・アルティメット イン マヨナカアリーナ, Perusona Fō Ji Arutimetto In Mayonaka Arīna) in Japan, is a 2012 fighting video game, developed by Arc System Works based on the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series owned by Atlus.[4] The game takes place two months after the events of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 and features characters from both that game and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3.[5] The plot focuses on a fighting tournament starting in the TV World where people fight using their alteregos known as Personas.

The game was released in Japan in March 2012 for arcades,[1] and on July 26, 2012 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles.[4] It is the first region-locked game on PlayStation 3.[6]

Gameplay

Yosuke Hanamura attacks Yu Narukami using a Persona Attack. The bars in the bottom indicate the amount of remaining energy they currently possess, which is needed to perform special attacks.

As a fighting game, the controllers' buttons have their own respective actions. While characters are able to perform combat on their own, they are also able to call their Personas to assist them during battles. Through button combinations, characters are able to perform a series of special attacks as well as defend themselves for a prolonged time. However, these types of techniques are limited as a result of using the "Burst Gauge" which is separated in multiple blue bars.[7] The console versions also features a story mode and an online mode,[8] with the former giving the player a determined amount of playable characters depending at what moment of the story the game is situated.[9]

Plot

The game is set over two years after Persona 3 FES's The Answer, and two months after Persona 4's True Ending. In Yasoinaba, Chie Satonaka hears a rumour that the Midnight Channel is airing again and tells Yosuke Hanamura and Yukiko Amagi. The three of them and Yu Narukami see it as an advertisement of a fighting tournament involving them alongside Kanji Tatsumi and Naoto Shirogane. With Rise Fujikawa, Kanji and Teddie missing, the following day they head into the TV world and find themselves stuck in a tournament. During the tournament, the Investigation Team is found to fight each other as they see illusions of their friends acting aggressive, while impersonators Teddie and Rise are revealed as the tournaments' hosts. They also meet Labrys, a girl without a Persona who entered the TV World without a Persona and suspect her Shadow may be responsible for this tournament.

Other storylines involve Mitsuru who is now head of a secret spec ops squad known as Shadow Worker working with the government. An airplane she's on is hijacked. Aigis manages to take down all the hijackers on her own but one of Mitsuru's things are stolen- The type 5 anti-shadow humanoid weapon Labrys. They track her down to Yasoinaba and enter the TV world, joined by Akihiko who shows up to help, after Aigis picks up readings from inside. Naoto is hired by public safety to spy on the Kirijou group and Shadow Worker. She follows them into the TV. Elizabeth continues on her journey, stopping by at the gate of death to fight Erebus which 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.

Labrys was created in 1999 at the Kirijou 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, and was recaptured and sealed away. After vanishing from Mitsuru's plane she was tossed into the TV world and her Shadow created the tournament to let other people feel what she felt.

The Persona characters defeat Shadow Labrys and Labrys accepts her and turns her into the Persona Ariadne. As they prepare to leave though 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 (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 shapeshift 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. Anyway both of them escape and Mitsuru tells the Persona 4 group to forget about everything, and leaves with Labrys. Elizabeth gains 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. Yu looks up the Kirijo group and decides that everyone should head to Port Island next, and the game's story ends on this cliffhanger.

Characters

See also: List of Persona 4 and Persona 3 characters

The arcade game features characters from both Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 and its predecessor Persona 3. From Persona 4 comes its protagonist Yu Narukami,[5] and his companions Yosuke Hanamura,[5] Chie Satonaka,[5] Yukiko Amagi,[10] Kanji Tatsumi,[10] Naoto Shirogane,[11] and Teddie, who served as playable characters in the original games and take part in the competition.[11] Rise Kujikawa, who served as combat support in Persona 4, serves as an MC in P4 Arena and appears in the tutorial mode, but it has not been revealed if she is also a playable character. Other Persona 4 characters confirmed to be in the game (as non-combatants) include Ryotaro Dojima, Nanako Dojima, and Margaret.[12][13]

The characters from Persona 3 include: Aigis,[14] Mitsuru Kirijo[15][16] and Akihiko Sanada, who have aged in accordance with their appearances in Persona 3 and P3 FES, set two years before P4 Arena.[15][16] In addition, they utilize the final forms of their Personas in battle (Aigis uses utilizes Athena, instead of Palladion and Orpheus), while the Persona 4 characters use the initial Personas from their game (Yosuke uses Jiraiya). Other characters from Persona 3 confirmed to be in the game (as non-combatants) include Fuuka Yamagishi[17] and Officer Kurosawa (who has been promoted to Detective in the interim two years).[18] The choice from the Persona 3 characters have been surprising for the developers themselves, and they have also hinted the addition of original ones.[11]

The arcade edition's boss is a new character named Labrys, a robotic girl with similarities to Aigis.[19] She was initially stated to be a playable character only in the console versions of the games,[19][20][21] but she was added to the arcade editions on March 22, 2012, with the brand new Persona Ariadne. She was joined by P3's Elizabeth who is partnered with Thanatos as her Persona on April 5, 2012. Shadow Labrys also appeared in the arcade version on April 19, 2012, accompanied by the Shadow Asterios.[22]

Development

The game was first announced during August 2011 in the Japanese journal Famitsu.[23] Persona 4 Director Katsura Hashino thought about making Persona 4 Arena due to his wish of creating a 2D fighting game based on the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series.[24] The staff also wanted gamers to play other types of games based on the series besides role-playing games with some of them being fans of fighting games.[19] Hashino approached Arc System Works, inspired by their work in the BlazBlue fighting game series.[24] Atlus first came into contact with Arc in August 2008 in hopes that they accepted their request to help them produce such a game.[24] As a result, the game is a joint project between the Atlus and the Arc System Works staff.[23] As of March 2012, director of the Atlus/Index side of the game's development Kazuhisa Wada gave praise to the way Arc designed the game, commenting on the 2D visuals employed by the company.[19] Rather than a spin-off of Persona 4, Hashino refers to the fighting game as a canonical sequel based on the direction from the plot such as the growth of the Persona 3 characters.[24] While the plot and the script were handled by the original Persona 4 staff, Arc System Works was in charge of the gameplay.[25] Wada stated that the console versions would have noticeably new content, hinting modes that are not common in fighting games.[19]

Region-locking

The game is the first PlayStation 3 title to ever be region locked.[6] Atlus has stated that the American release will work in both North and South American regions, with the American and Japanese editions being nearly identical including both English and Japanese text/voice options.[26] However, the online servers will be global.[27]

The decision to region lock the PlayStation version of the game has inspired mass fan outrage, with many threatening to boycott the game and company, as they fear it will set a precedent for other companies to region lock future games released on the PlayStation 3. This backlash forced Atlus to issue a press release, in which they state that because both the Japanese and US versions are virtually identical and with their release dates only weeks apart, a region lock was put in place by one of the higher ups in Japan in order to prevent reverse importation (as the price of games in the United States is cheaper than the price in Japan).[15] They further state that this will not be a reflection of a new Atlus policy.[15]

Reception

During its debut week the PlayStation 3 version of Persona Arena sold 128,000 units while the Xbox 360 version sold 9,346.[28] Media Create later reported that both versions sold 90% of their stock with the PS3 selling 128,000 units and the Xbox 360 10,000 making the former the fastest selling fighter surpassing the debut of the PlayStation 3 version of Tekken 6 that sold 103,000 units.[29]

Famitsu gave the game a score of 36/40, based on a score of 9 from four reviewers. [30] IGN gave the title a 9 out of 10 score. Calling it a real hook because it weaves the majesty and imagination of one of the best role playing franchies of all-time into a equally deep and rewarding fighting game. [31]

Other media

A manga adaptation of the game illustrated by AIYAH-BALL will premiere in Dengeki Comics Persona Magazine from August 7, 2012.[32]

References

  1. ^ a b Spencer (January 27, 2012). "Persona 4: The Ultimate In Mayonaka Arena Arrives In Arcades This March". Siliconera. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
  2. ^ a b "Summon the fighter within: Persona 4 Arena (360, PS3) coming to N.America this summer". Atlus. February 21, 2012. Retrieved February 21, 2012.
  3. ^ "Persona 4 Arena Home Release Date Set". Andriasang. April 17, 2012. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  4. ^ a b "Persona 4 Vita Port Fighting Game Sequel All in The Works". Gamasutra. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
  5. ^ a b c d Gantayat, Anoop. "Persona 4 Fighter". Andriasang. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
  6. ^ a b http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/persona-4-arena-to-be-first-ever-region-locked-ps3-release/
  7. ^ Toyad, Johathan Leo (September 17, 2011). "TGS 2011: Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena Hands-On Preview". GameSpot. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
  8. ^ Spencer (February 22, 2012). "Persona 4: Arena Coming To North America This Summer". Siliconera. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  9. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (April 19, 2012). "Persona 4 Arena Modes and Story Screens". Andriasang. Retrieved April 19, 2012.
  10. ^ a b Gantayat, Anoop (September 15, 2011). "Atlus Shares Persona 4 Ultimate Move Chart". Andriasang. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
  11. ^ a b c Gantayat, Anoop (October 24, 2011). "Two New Persona 4 Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena Characters: Naoto Shirogane and Teddie". Andriasang. Retrieved December 4, 2011. Cite error: The named reference "new" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  12. ^ http://www.siliconera.com/2012/07/23/a-sneak-peek-at-persona-4-arenas-challenges/
  13. ^ "The X Button Knightly Virtues". Anime News Network. September 14, 2011. Retrieved December 7, 2011.
  14. ^ Ciolek, Todd (August 31, 2011). "The X Button Blade Meridian". Anime News Network. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  15. ^ a b c d Spencer (November 20, 2011). "Mitsuru and Akihiko have an edge in In Persona 4: The Ultimate In Mayonaka Arena". Siliconera. Retrieved January 10, 2012. Cite error: The named reference "siliconera" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  16. ^ a b Spencer (November 23, 2011). "Ah That's why Mitsuru and Akihiko are in Persona 4 Ultimate Mayonaka". Siliconera. Retrieved January 10, 2012.
  17. ^ http://www.siliconera.com/2012/07/17/fuuka-is-in-persona-4-arena-too-but-not-as-a-fighter/
  18. ^ http://www.siliconera.com/2012/07/09/even-persona-3s-weapon-shop-owner-is-in-persona-4-arena/
  19. ^ a b c d e "Persona 4 Arena Director Discusses Home Conversion". March 10, 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2012.
  20. ^ Spencer (February 28, 2012). "Persona 4: Arena Has A New Robotic Challenger On Consoles". Siliconera. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
  21. ^ "『ペルソナ4 ジ・アルティメット イン マヨナカアリーナ』新たな"機械の乙女"!?". March 1, 2012. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
  22. ^ Spencer (March 20, 2012). "Persona 4: Arena Adds Elizabeth And Playable Shadow Labrys To The Roster". Retrieved 2012-03-21.
  23. ^ a b Gantayat, Anoop (August 31, 2011). "Persona Team Intimately Involved in Persona 4 Fighting Game Development". Andriasang. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
  24. ^ a b c d McNeice, Kiera (September 1, 2011). "Persona Mania: Developer Reveals New Details". IGN. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
  25. ^ Pereira, Chris (August 31, 2011). "The Persona 4 Fighting Game Sure Does Look Pretty". 1UP.com. Retrieved December 6, 2011.
  26. ^ http://www.atlus.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10001&page=10
  27. ^ http://www.siliconera.com/2012/07/05/persona-4-arena-is-region-locked-but-the-online-servers-are-global/
  28. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (August 1, 2012). "Weekly Sales: Persona 4, Nayuta no Kiseki Join Mario at Top". Andriasang. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
  29. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (August 3, 2012). "High Sell Through For Persona 4 Arena; Low Sell Through For Mario". Andriasang. Retrieved August 3, 2012.
  30. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (July 18, 2012). "Persona 4 Arena, New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Danganronpa Score High Marks in Famitsu". Andriasang. Retrieved August 4, 2012.
  31. ^ http://ca.ign.com/articles/2012/08/07/persona-4-arena-review
  32. ^ http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/news/2012-07-24/persona-4-arena-fighting-game-gets-manga-series
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