The announcement of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax coming to modern consoles at the 2021 Game Awards was a surprise to many fans of the popular JRPG series. While Atlus had been celebrating the long-running Persona franchise's 25th anniversary throughout the year, many fans were expecting reveals like Persona 5 Royal coming to Switch and PC or the highly-requested remakes of Persona 3. However, ATLUS ultimately announced that the popular PS3 and Xbox 360 fighting game would be making the jump to modern platforms.
While Persona 5 broke the franchise into the mainstream media with its massively successful launch in 2017, Persona 4 has become one of the most widely-recognized entries in the 25-year-old franchise, owed to its longevity and the high volume of spinoffs. Alongside the Dancing All Night rhythm game and the dungeon crawler crossover Persona Q, Persona 4 Arena quickly became one of the most popular branches of Persona 4 as a collaboration with fighting game titan Arc System Works. Now, with Ultimax confirmed to be coming to modern systems, Atlus has released a new trailer for the upcoming re-release.
The new trailer released on Thursday via the official Atlus YouTube channel shows off the gameplay of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, featuring many of Persona 3 and Persona 4's most iconic characters duking it out on the 2D battlefield. The trailer shows off the flashy and distinctive visuals the Persona franchise is known for while capturing the cel-shaded 3D style Arc System Works uses in many of its games. The trailer also features brief glimpses at the stylized character select screen and some of the animated cutscenes used in the game's story.
Persona 4 has become one of the most resilient entries in the franchise with the game remaining relevant even following the newest entry in the series in Persona 5. The 2008 RPG's enhanced version, Persona 4 Golden, finally came to PC in the Summer of 2020 after years of being trapped on the PS Vita, making Persona 4 the first main-series game to release on PC. The rhythm spinoff, Persona 4: Dancing All Night, also came to PS4 in 2018 alongside the releases of the franchise's newest rhythm games based on Persona 3 and Persona 5.
The reveal of Persona 4 Ultimax comes at a crossroads for the franchise. With nearly two years passing since the release of Persona 5's enhanced Royal version, rumors have begun to swirl about what will come next for the long-running JRPG series. Rumors of Persona 3/Portable remasters have been floating around in recent months as well as a "P5U.jp" domain causing speculation about Persona 5 Arena. While Persona 6 may still be years away, ATLUS will look to continue giving fans even more ways to experience Persona.
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax will release on March 18, 2022 for PC, PS4, and Switch.