Even among fans of the first game, opinions on direct sequels to popular role-playing games are sometimes sharply divided. Sequels to popular RPGs that shake things up by being a completely different type of game? They're even rarer and more polarizing than that. Yet, with Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Atlus and Arc System Works achieved precisely that. Those who are acquainted with and like the fighting game genre will discover a very strong foundation at the heart of the game.
If the narrative setup seems too elaborate, that's because it is. The storyline of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is an unusual mix of "here they are now" and an intriguing, though incomplete, tale revolving around a new and multifaceted antagonist. Story is often not why a gamer plays a fighting game, but outside the arcade modes, it is a significant feature in P4AU.
6 Origins
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is a lot like a story of two games. The first is the obvious mix of RPGs and fighting games, with some visual novel elements added to the way the story is told. The second is that Ultimax has the story modes for both Ultimax and Persona 4 Arena, the game that came before it. Third, saying that the game is a sequel to only Persona 4 Golden is a bit of a stretch.
Characters and storylines that were important in the popular third Shin Megami Tensei spin-off game, Persona 3, are also important in Ultimax, where even more Persona 3 characters become important fighters.
5 Various Story Endings
The story mode in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is made up of a number of long episodes that are all connected and build on each other in surprising ways. Just the campaign of Persona 4 Arena takes more than 20 hours to finish because a player has to fight through many stages with many characters to put together the whole picture. Since the Persona games have so much story content, it's clear that the people who made this game thought it would be best to treat the story here the same way.
The story mode demonstrates its RPG paths by showing story scenes in the form of a visual novel, with dialogue choices that can change what happens to a character's path in the end. A player can even get an alternative joke ending while playing as Yukiko).
4 Experience Each Character's Role In The Plot
Players interested in the continuity between Persona 3 and 4 will likely spend the first several hours immersed in the game's story mode. Arena lets the player choose from a very small number of characters at first, but completing character paths lets them choose from more fighters.
At a certain point, one route will be locked until the player goes further in another character's story. If they play through the story mode all the way to the end, they'll be able to see everyone's full endings. This takes some time, but each path gives them more information about the mysterious tournament.
3 About 58 Hours In Length
The original scenario of Ultimax sees the player going through the Persona 4 side first, after which they uncover a side story with Adachi, followed by another scenario in which they experience things through the perspectives of the Persona 3 characters. When the gamer adds up everything they have to do to get to the true ending of the game, they can expect to spend a lot of time on it, and that's before they start playing any of the other modes!
If they wish to capture the essence of the game, they have to play through every character's path. Ultimax makes this easier by jumping from one character's point of view to another and letting players choose who they want to fight as if multiple characters were in the same scene.
2 Path To The True Ending
In Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, obtaining the True Ending for Episode P4 as well as the True Ending for Episode P3 is a rather straightforward task. It also works about the same in both Episodes.
The player will have a choice between two dialogue options just before the climactic showdown. To completely experience the story and discover the actual conclusion, the gamer must choose both options and go through the scenes until they are returned to the menu. Simply choose one and watch the scenes to the conclusion. Then restart the chapter and choose the other option.
1 Appreciating The Minor Details
When it comes to presentation, Ultimax does a fantastic job at capturing the look and feel of a Persona game. The dialogue boxes in Persona 3 and 4 serve as inspiration for the visual novel style of storytelling. The dialogue menus are laid up in the same fashion as Persona 4, strengthening the ties between the games. The anime imagery is used well throughout, but it shines brightest in Ultimax (in comparison to Arena).
Fans of Persona 3 and 4 will recognize many of the backgrounds, and the 2D character models are stunning in their level of detail. The visual clues for when a character's phone rings were a wonderful nod to the past as well.