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@@Rilobster My brother was in the middle of playing P4 when he saw the announcement of Adachi in Ultimax. I got spoiled by TH-cam recommending me P4 videos months before I got to play the game because I watched P3 videos (I was waiting for P4 to be on the PS3 PSN store)
Sad to see no mention of Episode Adachi, probably had the best story out of the Arena games alongside Labrys' Route. I think the True Ending you get after meeting certain requirements in both Ultimax routes is worth mentioning as well, it makes Sho's character a tiny bit more interesting.
@@Wolfedge75 i read the manga version, and its much better in setting the linear path compared to the messy points of the game. After reading the manga and watching the neo generation mainlines and continuation stories, noticed that Aigis, Sho and Akechi kind of fall under the same trope, in terms of the secondary wild cards situations and traits.
I feel the Arena story was best in the manga, where Yosuke became the protagonist of all people. It was amazing to see the best bro taking up the mantle when Yu had to drop out.
@@Santoryu90 Shuji Sogabe was the writer for the Persona 4 manga, and he makes it very clear that Yosuke is his favorite character. So much so that Yosuke is given a lot of focus in that manga. Hell, HE’S the one who beats Adachi instead of the protagonist.
No mention of Episode Adachi? That was the best part of Ultimax for me. Adachi gets genuine character development that makes him my 3rd favorite Persona character overall. And Adachi is just super entertaining. I love batshit crazy characters
I consider Labrys, Elizabeth, and Adachi's routes as the canon ones since they're the only ones that feel different and feels like the development sticks
I feel like the Persona 4 side is weighed down quite a bit, by the fact Adachi was a DLC character - since he has a bigger part to do with that side of the story and perhaps funnily enough a connection with Sho.
Couple things that were missed on the gameplay side that are interesting, but ultimately details. The Awakening effect not only gives access to new supers and 50 more SP, but also gives the character a substantial buff to their stats. This creates a strong comeback effect that defines the Arena/Ultimax meta. The other thing to note is about shadow characters. Shadow characters have 2000 more HP and 20% less attack. This fundamentally hurts their playstyles outside of shadow frenzy, meaning that with the exception of Chie, Naoto, Yu, Yosuke and Mitsuru, most shadow characters are unviable really, since Burst and Awakening is so strong. Also, in 2.0, Shadow characters have been completely retooled to have a burst, and no longer carry over their SP. Instead, Shadow Frenzy is started through burst. Their stats have also been retooled, with most characters having a 10% attack reduction and 1000 more HP, and also, any combo that includes a shadow frenzy is unburstable by the opponent. This makes Shadow Characters the typical favorite for 2.0, and while we don't know how different 2.5 is, we can expect a shadow dominated meta going forward. On the story side, there's a few things to mention. First, in the first Arena game, in order to get 100% you have to play certain character stories multiple times. This is because many characters have joke endings, and you need to get them for the game to declare you have 100%. I don't like the Arena story much haha In Ultimax, there is a secret ending if you do both of the dialogue choices for Yu against Sho. I have no idea if you got this, but you didn't mention it so I'm assuming you didn't. This results in a final battle of Yu and Sho with his newly integrated Persona that, in my opinion, really brings his character into a stronger light. Its also shown that Sho is a wild card that rejected Igor's contract, which is FASCINATING and that alone makes me want to see more of him. I would play a Sho focused spin-off. Also, I am not sure if you're aware of this, but the Adachi DLC comes with an Adachi story mode that offers a view of the story from Adachi's point of view, and I think develops Adachi's character in a natural light.
Personally I felt like Sho Minazuki and Kagatsuchi were the biggest symptom of how much Persona 4's legacy shifted as the theme transitioned from "facing and accepting the truth of things" to "bonds between friends is the true strength". The anime kinda started that trend, but Kagatsuchi's last words being how "he lost to something as weak as bonds" really speaks to how much the theme central to Persona 4 was ironically lost to the fog of merchandising and spinoffs.
Bonds are a theme that's always been central to the Persona series itself. It's really a shame how P4AU abandoned the themes of accepting the truth in lieu of a more heavy emphasis on bonds. It feels kind of ironic given how Labrys' entire story was based around her accepting what she is and her past, rather than rejecting it and living in her made up world.
Honestly, my favorite way to experience Arena's story is the manga, its based on Yosuke's and Aigis's stories and it actually is really good in my opinion
Pretty nice, but one thing you didn't mention is Adachi and his story. Goddamn its so good, really shows his development after P4, but that dosen't make him less of an ass then before, and that's why we love him. He's just plain fun in the story and he steals the spotlight every single time, especially in the end.
I love the Arena games; they're what got me into the Megaten series in the first place. As a fighting game fan though... it's funny how they're the "accessible, casual-friendly" fighter back in the day, quarter-circle motions only for specials and light attack autocombos and all yet nowadays the bar was (somehow) lowered ever lower with "one-button+direction" specials and autocombos that starts from any buttons.
1. Arcsystem Works is Known both for Guilty Gear & Blazblue. Primarily though of Guilty Gear. For more Info, ASW has 2 Teams (Red & Blue Team) in developing Guilty Gear & Blazblue. For Blazblue & the P4 Arena Games, Team Blue. 2. In the 1st Game, each of their Story is to be considered Canon, though to be considered as Different Timelines becuz this is Persona & specifically Megaten afterall, a Series where multiple Timelines or a Multi-universe exists. But to have a Concrete Main Timeline Story, the following Important Stories that you would want to play are Labrys Yu Elizabeth Mitsuru Naoto 3. For one thing, I believe that the Story Mode should had more of Blazblue's Artwork & Design so the Story could look visually better... 4. The only Problem of P4 A.Ultimax to me is that Sho didn't really have his own Story like Labrys. In the Manga, he has more Story... 5. You forgot Adachi's Story & Growth, lol.
Yeah, I was thinking the exact same things. Those were definitely stuff he missed, but I do think a follow-up could touch on a few things. The Adachi portion is, in my opinion, the best part of Ultimax’s story, since we get directly into his head, which is great, since he’s one of the most fascinating characters in the Persona series.
@@FredMaverik That's Team Red Though. If Team Red had the Interestz to make a Persona Fighting Game, it should've been them to make it, not Team Blue, however as we all know this didn't happen... Team Blue where the ones who were interested, thus made the Arena Games using Blazblue as their Template, thus following some of its Story & Gameplay...
@@All_Ice117 Doesn't seem so. Team Blue were the 1st to approach Atlus in making P4 Arena & Mori said himself that he doesn't mind to make P5 Arena but that's Atlus' Decision... However let's say that Team Red is interested, they as of right now are also having a lot of Projects to do. So the Idea of P5 Arena to be made by Team Red may take Years for it to happen...
Part of me finds it funny that the Persona series has some great narratives and the Persona fighting game managed to end up with the classic fighting game narrative of a fighting tournament.
I know right it’s so weird. Fighting game stories have never been good but they keep pouring so many resources into them and they still come out this bad.
Even funnier when you consider that ArcSys is usually known for not following the standard tournament formula and going places with their stories that FGs do not tread.
I will always say this, The story of the Arena duology is always greatly undersold. Your relatively kind analysis (compared to others) is greatly appreciated. I will say, Ultimax suffered from time constraints. Loose plot threads, underutilization of Sho, Minazuki and Hi-no-kagutsuchi. Arena is objectively the more polished experience. Though a more realised version of the Ultimax story does exist. It has yet to be officially translated. And that would be the manga from Rokuro Saito. Should that happen, I couldn't reccomend it more than enough. It truly taps into what Ultimax should have been.
Honestly, haven’t touched the games since 2013 outside of listening to the soundtrack, so listening to one of your videos about the Arena games is a nice return. I have some gripes, such as ignoring the Adachi story, the best story content in the two games, in my honest opinion. Otherwise, great vid, can’t wait for more.
You've done it! Again! A great video based on one of my favourite RPG Series! PERSONA! Especially since PERSONA 4 ARENA is based on a fighting game system done by the developer who made Guilty Gear & Blazblue! My favourite fighting games after Street Fighter 5, Tekken 7 & King Of Fighters: All Stars! I certainly have been waiting for this! Thank you so much Nam! You're definitely doing great! Keep up the good work & providing us content like this always. Peace out and also please take care of yourself!
Short answer: Yes. Long answer: I’m quite fond of the story and mechanics and story of the game. Also, some of the campaigns are hilarious. It had its issues but it’s not too bad. 8.5/10
Kinda sucks that party uses old design and not time skip one, of course they were added later in golden, but they could add them in ultimax to preserve continuity.
Just got done beating P4A, and yeah, I can kinda agree with the story part pretty hard. Every route does have some cool stuff to it + nice moments, but the amount of repeated dialogue and cutscenes genuinely makes it feel like a chore to get through sometimes. I definitely think that some are better than others though, so there’s that at least
Loved the video man! Was looking forward you talking about Adachi but I guessed since he was a dlc character you didn’t bother. You can see how he grew since the ending of p4. Also his character I just really good and funny in Ultimax
Whether in an Arena game or some other form, I'm just hoping for canon interactions between P5 characters and the rest. I'd love to see Futaba's reaction to meeting a Phoenix Ranger Featherman Pink Argus. The geekout moment should be legendary
I loved arena and ultimax a lot. It was technically my first persona game as I had never had a chance to get one before and it randomly showed up with a bargain bin sticker on it sometime. I had known about the persona series for awhile, and SMT was always in gaming magazines so I had a general idea but after arena I went on a megaten trip. It became a hyper fixation for awhile and is still a rabbit hole I could spend hours explaining to someone. And when ultimax gave us the scene when Labrys was shut down but shadow Labrys took over? That was a lot of fun and got my gears spinning wonderfully!
The one thing I don’t like is the p4 Crew loose their evolved personas, but the p3 crew keep them Btw best part is when Yu and Adechi fuse personas at the end
@@frankusg6193 There's a weird discrepancy in the presentation and the actual story of the game. Stuff like Yukiko's acceptance of being the manager seems to indicate that it did happen somewhat, but there's also things like Shadow characters having intro/outro animations that reference the Shadows they faced in P4 despite being different entities, as well as the P4 cast having not evolved Personas. My deranged theory is that the personas were just unevolved so looking at the game at a surface level makes it look like before postgame/ending stuff but then Adachi exists and is a big ass spoiler. Maybe ArcSys just likes the unevolved Personas better and I agree lol.
@@skyslashnova4308 I think that the unevolved versions are because of aesthetics reasons. The evolved ones look afwul being honest and everybody has already associated their first personas to their users. I have noticed that this happens in P5 Strikers too. Is canon that SLs are maxed out but they still have their first personas.
Sho and Kagutsuchi are such weak villains that they single-handedly make Ultimax's story terrible for me, while the original Arena was a rather good P4 dungeon (that just didn't need so many routes). Ultimax had better structure, but Arena had the better narrative. And also yes, P4 route having the True Ending in Ultimax just didn't work when the P3 route had Labrys. Also, Labrys route needed a mirror match for extra kick. No announcer. No personas. No music. No reconciliation with the opponent at the end. A senseless, brutal deathmatch. I was greatly disappointed when it didn't happen, because that route is already... gameplay-deprived, and it could've worked great to enhance the tone and underline the twisted reason behind P-1 Grand Prix.
Why didn't you mention the status effects? Status effects in an rpg fighting game was very unique. Confusion reverses controls, paralysis means you can't move besides the roll button, fear in summary means you take a lot more damage, enraged means you can't block, and others. These are baked into the core gameplay and can't be turned off unlike something like smash. You would think that this would be anti competitive but it basically comes down to adapting or get gud scrub.
I think for arena 1's story I do think just doing narukami, Naoto, p3 characters and labrys is the ideal way the story should be seen. just Fast Foward the other ones unless you're going for a joke ending
I understand that opinion on Sho, but I felt it fit his background quite a bit. Dude is literally just lashing out like a little kid because he wasn't brought up proper. Literally brought up violently without any proper upbringing. I hope we get to see his journey they setup potential for. Oh and Labrys really should be the canon one to stop Sho. It just fits better thematically with the two. I remember really finding the Persona 3 side to be way more engaging in the story.
Yeah the biggest problem with these games is how the story is narrated, too many inner dialogues and too many words to describe a simple scene. But overall I liked Labrys' story, and I think Adachi had more character development in this game than he had in P4.
Was always weird to me that Yu ChadSwagonist still wore his Yasogami High clothes in this game. At least in the dancing games it was his performance outfit.
You're not a professional fighting game player, but you are a professional Persona player, so you have no excuse. 😜 Great video. I've been really turned off by the spin off games because they seemed like cash grabs. I'm glad you convinced my otherwise, and I'll preorder the game now. Thanks! 😃👍
I haven’t played the game myself, but I’ve been an Arcsys fan since Bbtag which is a crossover game that had some of the p4a characters in it and if they play similar to that game then this game is awesome! It’s also a very highly regarded game amongst FGC people.
The only spin-offs I'd say are really cashgrabs are 3 & 5 Dancing. Arena/Ultimax, Q1/Q2, 4 Dancing, and especially Strikers have enough merit to them to warrant a playthrough if you're a fan of the series.
For those who wouldn't know: the P1 is based off a real-life pro wrestling tournament, New Japan Pro Wrestling's G1 Climax, a tournament that has been going on in some form for almost 50 years.
The original P4A story bugged me so much. Between the repetitiveness and the stories contradicting themselves it was tedious and confusing. It would have been a lot better if you just switched between characters as the story progressed, even if that meant it being shorter. I did like the Labrys storyline. That was interesting and a good break from the same retelling of the story in every other character's campaign.
Arena story did feel odd, I played it at a friend’s house and I only played Chie’s story, and it felt like I didn’t miss anything. When I later bought ultimax I understood 90% of the references to arena when I only did one of the story campaigns so I knew something was odd about it.
Burst and cancels (Rapid, Roman, One More) seems to be a staple in both BlazBlue and Guilty Gear. Burst is more similar to Guilty Gear. OMC is similar to Rapid (and +R Roman cancels), and All out attacks seem to be similar to Dust in GG. 2.0 Shadow Frenzy also resembles Overdrive in BB because it's tied to burst (but i think i'm stretching the similarities from here already). I like that ArcSys reuses Bursts and Cancels in their games so I find a bit of familiarity when playing these games.
I think the main problem with Ultimax is as you say... it's potential which it unfortunately doesn't come close to delivering on. The story as of yet is unfinished if they can complete it I'd actually be happy to check the game out. But as far as I can tell it's not a Persona game, Persona's themselves play a secondary aspect to the gameplay, loose ends are left to fester and cause continuity issues within the series and premises like the Shadow Ops are completely undermined by having them not deal with the threat they asked Yu to deal with (which he didn't) . If you're going to make a sequel to a game like Persona 3 & 4 you need to do better than this key themes, character development all has to go somewhere. It's a great fighting game but it's a lesser Persona game.
If they ever do a Persona 5 Arena everyone from P2 to Strikes could easily show up Maya is a reporter and Katsuya is a cop and the Phantom Thefts are a group that somehow changes people's mindset and the leader is called "JOKER" its weird P2 cast never stopped whatever they doing to investigate. P2 gimmick is about investigaing rumor and Phantom Thefts are bad at keeping secrets P2 could find the thefts in less than a day. Naoto P4 and Zenkichi both public security they might know each other if the world in danger Nato could call the P4 Investigaton Team or even P3 SEES and Zenkichi could call the Phantom Thefts
I don't think you can expect any rollback netcode when it comes to this new version. Also, the PC version of Ultimax will of course come with Denuvo as all of Atlus PC ports these days, something fighting games in particular are notoriously allergic to. And of course, these games just made Yu such a giant Gary Stu.
Ngl The return of the midnight channel gives me the same vibe as Somehow Palpatine returned. Also stiry mode has the same structure as blazble 1 and 2, Most stuff is "älternate timeline" bs that is non canon. Also 13:07 That's just roman cancels from guilty gear. Don't know if +r had that though. And why didn't you talk about Adachi's episode?
the more guilty gear i play the more i realize how similar these 2/3/4 (with strive) games are. P4A released in between XX and Xrd. and you can tell. guilty gears roman cancelling, back in XX, was pretty much non existent. in Xrd, its IDENTICAL to the 1 more present here.
I loved p3 and p4 but I couldn't stand the slow pacing of the story and don't like fighters that much. Thank you for putting this together, now I'll go start p5. :)
I will always take Yosuke's story as the canonical one for Arena just because Yosuke x Labrys I don't want to hear any arguments, Yosuke's been screwed over too many times, his crush got murdered, he got rejected by Yukiko in front of the class, Chie treats him like trash, and Narukami swooped in and charmed Rise, Yosuke's taken so many L's, and his interactions with Labrys are great.
How do you mention Arc System Works in 2022 and say they're known primarily for BlazBlue? Guilty Gear Strive and Dragon Ball FighterZ were huge, even for casual audiences.
He mentioned blazblue because the followup to that mention is using it as a base for P4A which is true. P4A also came out a couple years before Xrd which was their return to the gg series ever since licensing issues.
You start the video by making a the wildest claim that Arc System Works is primarily known for BlazeBlue and not Guilty Gear. This is like the most surface level research you can do.
I really liked the story of P4A but it was handled EXTREMELY poorly. My personal playthrough of the first one was like: boringboringboring LABRYS' STORY boringboringboring. Which is funny because labrys' story had no gameplay at all. I really didn't like the replaying the same story over and over again. But the gameplay is amazing and I like labrys alot
I don't think referring to Minazuki as a personality is the right term especially because Sho Minazuki as a character is DID coded. Referring to Minazuki as his own rather than just one of Shō's personalities would've been better
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Broke as fuck ☹️
The comment section did a better review than you
@@VITIN1201 average Hazbin Hotel enjoyer
@@tomato5049 average genshin impact player
19:55 "Alongside Tohru Adachi who's mere inclusion no doubt spoiled Persona 4 for someone" Yeah, me.
same here, but if this game didnt spoil it, im sure the persona community would've done it for people anyway
@@Rilobster My brother was in the middle of playing P4 when he saw the announcement of Adachi in Ultimax. I got spoiled by TH-cam recommending me P4 videos months before I got to play the game because I watched P3 videos (I was waiting for P4 to be on the PS3 PSN store)
I got spoiled by Adachi in bbtag lol
@@exile1373 people got spoiled by right and got spoiled by looking left
I was playing persona 4 when that spoiled me :(
Sad to see no mention of Episode Adachi, probably had the best story out of the Arena games alongside Labrys' Route. I think the True Ending you get after meeting certain requirements in both Ultimax routes is worth mentioning as well, it makes Sho's character a tiny bit more interesting.
There IS a manga adaptation that does a good job at expanding on Sho's backstory, so check that out if you have the time.
Based NAYOA pfp
@@Wolfedge75 i read the manga version, and its much better in setting the linear path compared to the messy points of the game. After reading the manga and watching the neo generation mainlines and continuation stories, noticed that Aigis, Sho and Akechi kind of fall under the same trope, in terms of the secondary wild cards situations and traits.
@@vanessachowjiaying4423 WOuld I need to read the first arena manga? Do you know if it includes anything about Sho?
Episode adachi is very good
I feel the Arena story was best in the manga, where Yosuke became the protagonist of all people. It was amazing to see the best bro taking up the mantle when Yu had to drop out.
Oh god, Yosuke was the protagonist in the manga version? Don’t tell me, was it written by Shuji Sogabe?
@@jf4132 nope, Aiyakyuu.
@@Stephen-fi9mw oh thank god
@@jf4132 What’s wrong with Shuji Sogabe and what’s that got to do with Yosuke?
@@Santoryu90 Shuji Sogabe was the writer for the Persona 4 manga, and he makes it very clear that Yosuke is his favorite character. So much so that Yosuke is given a lot of focus in that manga. Hell, HE’S the one who beats Adachi instead of the protagonist.
No mention of Episode Adachi?
That was the best part of Ultimax for me. Adachi gets genuine character development that makes him my 3rd favorite Persona character overall. And Adachi is just super entertaining. I love batshit crazy characters
Excited to see your thoughts on the dancing games. Another great video Nam!
I consider Labrys, Elizabeth, and Adachi's routes as the canon ones since they're the only ones that feel different and feels like the development sticks
There’s no true route I don’t think. All of them have canon elements.
I feel like the Persona 4 side is weighed down quite a bit, by the fact Adachi was a DLC character - since he has a bigger part to do with that side of the story and perhaps funnily enough a connection with Sho.
Dammit Adachi
Joker Adachi.
Couple things that were missed on the gameplay side that are interesting, but ultimately details. The Awakening effect not only gives access to new supers and 50 more SP, but also gives the character a substantial buff to their stats. This creates a strong comeback effect that defines the Arena/Ultimax meta.
The other thing to note is about shadow characters. Shadow characters have 2000 more HP and 20% less attack. This fundamentally hurts their playstyles outside of shadow frenzy, meaning that with the exception of Chie, Naoto, Yu, Yosuke and Mitsuru, most shadow characters are unviable really, since Burst and Awakening is so strong. Also, in 2.0, Shadow characters have been completely retooled to have a burst, and no longer carry over their SP. Instead, Shadow Frenzy is started through burst. Their stats have also been retooled, with most characters having a 10% attack reduction and 1000 more HP, and also, any combo that includes a shadow frenzy is unburstable by the opponent. This makes Shadow Characters the typical favorite for 2.0, and while we don't know how different 2.5 is, we can expect a shadow dominated meta going forward.
On the story side, there's a few things to mention. First, in the first Arena game, in order to get 100% you have to play certain character stories multiple times. This is because many characters have joke endings, and you need to get them for the game to declare you have 100%. I don't like the Arena story much haha
In Ultimax, there is a secret ending if you do both of the dialogue choices for Yu against Sho. I have no idea if you got this, but you didn't mention it so I'm assuming you didn't. This results in a final battle of Yu and Sho with his newly integrated Persona that, in my opinion, really brings his character into a stronger light. Its also shown that Sho is a wild card that rejected Igor's contract, which is FASCINATING and that alone makes me want to see more of him. I would play a Sho focused spin-off. Also, I am not sure if you're aware of this, but the Adachi DLC comes with an Adachi story mode that offers a view of the story from Adachi's point of view, and I think develops Adachi's character in a natural light.
Personally I felt like Sho Minazuki and Kagatsuchi were the biggest symptom of how much Persona 4's legacy shifted as the theme transitioned from "facing and accepting the truth of things" to "bonds between friends is the true strength". The anime kinda started that trend, but Kagatsuchi's last words being how "he lost to something as weak as bonds" really speaks to how much the theme central to Persona 4 was ironically lost to the fog of merchandising and spinoffs.
Bonds are a theme that's always been central to the Persona series itself. It's really a shame how P4AU abandoned the themes of accepting the truth in lieu of a more heavy emphasis on bonds. It feels kind of ironic given how Labrys' entire story was based around her accepting what she is and her past, rather than rejecting it and living in her made up world.
Honestly, my favorite way to experience Arena's story is the manga, its based on Yosuke's and Aigis's stories and it actually is really good in my opinion
Pretty nice, but one thing you didn't mention is Adachi and his story. Goddamn its so good, really shows his development after P4, but that dosen't make him less of an ass then before, and that's why we love him. He's just plain fun in the story and he steals the spotlight every single time, especially in the end.
ah yes, the game that brought me my favorite persona character. super excited for the PC port to introduce more people to Labrys!
No mention for adachi's campaign in ultimax?
Well that's disappointing
I love the Arena games; they're what got me into the Megaten series in the first place.
As a fighting game fan though...
it's funny how they're the "accessible, casual-friendly" fighter back in the day, quarter-circle motions only for specials and light attack autocombos and all yet nowadays the bar was (somehow) lowered ever lower with "one-button+direction" specials and autocombos that starts from any buttons.
1. Arcsystem Works is Known both for Guilty Gear & Blazblue. Primarily though of Guilty Gear.
For more Info, ASW has 2 Teams (Red & Blue Team) in developing Guilty Gear & Blazblue.
For Blazblue & the P4 Arena Games, Team Blue.
2. In the 1st Game, each of their Story is to be considered Canon, though to be considered as Different Timelines becuz this is Persona & specifically Megaten afterall, a Series where multiple Timelines or a Multi-universe exists.
But to have a Concrete Main Timeline Story, the following Important Stories that you would want to play are
Labrys
Yu
Elizabeth
Mitsuru
Naoto
3. For one thing, I believe that the Story Mode should had more of Blazblue's Artwork & Design so the Story could look visually better...
4. The only Problem of P4 A.Ultimax to me is that Sho didn't really have his own Story like Labrys. In the Manga, he has more Story...
5. You forgot Adachi's Story & Growth, lol.
Yeah, I was thinking the exact same things. Those were definitely stuff he missed, but I do think a follow-up could touch on a few things. The Adachi portion is, in my opinion, the best part of Ultimax’s story, since we get directly into his head, which is great, since he’s one of the most fascinating characters in the Persona series.
if the game had some badass cutscenes like the story modes of GG Xrd and Strive it would be much better. A cohesive story is prefereed too.
@@FredMaverik
That's Team Red Though.
If Team Red had the Interestz to make a Persona Fighting Game, it should've been them to make it, not Team Blue, however as we all know this didn't happen...
Team Blue where the ones who were interested, thus made the Arena Games using Blazblue as their Template, thus following some of its Story & Gameplay...
@@persona4ever447 I imagine Team Red would like to work on Persona 5 Arena, right?
@@All_Ice117
Doesn't seem so.
Team Blue were the 1st to approach Atlus in making P4 Arena & Mori said himself that he doesn't mind to make P5 Arena but that's Atlus' Decision...
However let's say that Team Red is interested, they as of right now are also having a lot of Projects to do. So the Idea of P5 Arena to be made by Team Red may take Years for it to happen...
Part of me finds it funny that the Persona series has some great narratives and the Persona fighting game managed to end up with the classic fighting game narrative of a fighting tournament.
I know right it’s so weird. Fighting game stories have never been good but they keep pouring so many resources into them and they still come out this bad.
@@simpcat4415 *KOF would like to know your location* (yes it's still a tournament but its story is the best if any fighting game).
@@thegamerfe8751 I haven’t played it so I’ll take your word I guess
@@simpcat4415 I can confirm that KOF lore is pretty banger even though it has the fighting tournament formula.
Even funnier when you consider that ArcSys is usually known for not following the standard tournament formula and going places with their stories that FGs do not tread.
I simply love the reviews of this man, covers most information efficiently and not boring. Amazing job.
Now I wanna play Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
Gripes aside, Shadow Labrys vs Sho was the *hype-est* thing for me in that game.
…but Adachi’s story was pretty neat too.
I will always say this, The story of the Arena duology is always greatly undersold. Your relatively kind analysis (compared to others) is greatly appreciated.
I will say, Ultimax suffered from time constraints. Loose plot threads, underutilization of Sho, Minazuki and Hi-no-kagutsuchi. Arena is objectively the more polished experience.
Though a more realised version of the Ultimax story does exist. It has yet to be officially translated. And that would be the manga from Rokuro Saito. Should that happen, I couldn't reccomend it more than enough. It truly taps into what Ultimax should have been.
So what Persona 1's manga does for it story sign me the fuck up
@@demi-fiendoftime3825 IT'S GENUINELY SO TASTY,, I'd kill to own a physical translated copy.
I’m so incredibly addicted to your videos, you definitely make some of the best review content on TH-cam
Honestly, haven’t touched the games since 2013 outside of listening to the soundtrack, so listening to one of your videos about the Arena games is a nice return. I have some gripes, such as ignoring the Adachi story, the best story content in the two games, in my honest opinion. Otherwise, great vid, can’t wait for more.
Great little overview I think the best part of ultimax was episode Adachi if anything that was the best thing the game had to offer storywise.
I’m always a sucker for a new chapter in Nam’s Compendium!
You've done it! Again! A great video based on one of my favourite RPG Series! PERSONA! Especially since PERSONA 4 ARENA is based on a fighting game system done by the developer who made Guilty Gear & Blazblue! My favourite fighting games after Street Fighter 5, Tekken 7 & King Of Fighters: All Stars!
I certainly have been waiting for this! Thank you so much Nam! You're definitely doing great! Keep up the good work & providing us content like this always. Peace out and also please take care of yourself!
Eh, I wouldn't count KOFAS as a fighting game since it doesn't even play like one. It's a beat'em up game.
But it's a cool mobile game either way.
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: I’m quite fond of the story and mechanics and story of the game. Also, some of the campaigns are hilarious.
It had its issues but it’s not too bad.
8.5/10
I love your deepdives into the persona and Smt games.
How about spiraling down into the captivating world of Omori?
Kinda sucks that party uses old design and not time skip one, of course they were added later in golden, but they could add them in ultimax to preserve continuity.
Just got done beating P4A, and yeah, I can kinda agree with the story part pretty hard. Every route does have some cool stuff to it + nice moments, but the amount of repeated dialogue and cutscenes genuinely makes it feel like a chore to get through sometimes. I definitely think that some are better than others though, so there’s that at least
P4AU actually does have a fairly active community through RPCS3 on PC and PS3 through respective discord servers
Woo! 1st Nam video for 2022! SUPER EXCITED! 🔥
Great video! Let's hope they announce P4G on consoles on February and have the Midnight Collection available on consoles as well!
Couldn't have asked for a better arena video
This was a great retrospect and you described the gamely and story perfectly
Wtf this isn't persona dancing.................. but I'll still watch it I guess
Wow that's a very in-depth review. Thank you so much
Loved the video man! Was looking forward you talking about Adachi but I guessed since he was a dlc character you didn’t bother. You can see how he grew since the ending of p4. Also his character I just really good and funny in Ultimax
Personally I went for the mangas and they clear up so much in terms of the timeline of P4A and it's essentially the canon route
24:42 Isn't that the famous sword from the Megami Tensei games? Like the Excalibur from Final Fantasy?
Hi No Kagutsuchi is a kami whose birth killed Izanami because he was a giant ball of fire.
Whether in an Arena game or some other form, I'm just hoping for canon interactions between P5 characters and the rest. I'd love to see Futaba's reaction to meeting a Phoenix Ranger Featherman Pink Argus. The geekout moment should be legendary
Persona 5 Arena: :)
Return of the Shadow Operatives and Investigation Team to the story: :O
Persona 1 and 2 cast also getting representation: >:D
Yes lawd. I've been waiting for this!
I loved arena and ultimax a lot. It was technically my first persona game as I had never had a chance to get one before and it randomly showed up with a bargain bin sticker on it sometime. I had known about the persona series for awhile, and SMT was always in gaming magazines so I had a general idea but after arena I went on a megaten trip. It became a hyper fixation for awhile and is still a rabbit hole I could spend hours explaining to someone.
And when ultimax gave us the scene when Labrys was shut down but shadow Labrys took over? That was a lot of fun and got my gears spinning wonderfully!
Honestly this game got me introduced to Persona and mostly Persona 4
The one thing I don’t like is the p4 Crew loose their evolved personas, but the p3 crew keep them
Btw best part is when Yu and Adechi fuse personas at the end
@P3 SEES P4 Investigation Team P5 Phantom Thieves so you telling me yu social links are not cannon???
@@frankusg6193 There's a weird discrepancy in the presentation and the actual story of the game. Stuff like Yukiko's acceptance of being the manager seems to indicate that it did happen somewhat, but there's also things like Shadow characters having intro/outro animations that reference the Shadows they faced in P4 despite being different entities, as well as the P4 cast having not evolved Personas.
My deranged theory is that the personas were just unevolved so looking at the game at a surface level makes it look like before postgame/ending stuff but then Adachi exists and is a big ass spoiler.
Maybe ArcSys just likes the unevolved Personas better and I agree lol.
@@skyslashnova4308 no I disagree Chies evolved persona tier 3 looks badass
@@skyslashnova4308 I think that the unevolved versions are because of aesthetics reasons. The evolved ones look afwul being honest and everybody has already associated their first personas to their users. I have noticed that this happens in P5 Strikers too. Is canon that SLs are maxed out but they still have their first personas.
@@frankusg6193 Yu mentions the fight at Samegawa if he defeats Yosuke, so it's canon
Persona 5 Striker is probably a better example of a non-turn-based Persona game especially with the wild card system of the protagonists.
persona 5 strikers is amazing
This looks like the successor to heritage of the future
Sho and Kagutsuchi are such weak villains that they single-handedly make Ultimax's story terrible for me, while the original Arena was a rather good P4 dungeon (that just didn't need so many routes). Ultimax had better structure, but Arena had the better narrative. And also yes, P4 route having the True Ending in Ultimax just didn't work when the P3 route had Labrys.
Also, Labrys route needed a mirror match for extra kick. No announcer. No personas. No music. No reconciliation with the opponent at the end. A senseless, brutal deathmatch. I was greatly disappointed when it didn't happen, because that route is already... gameplay-deprived, and it could've worked great to enhance the tone and underline the twisted reason behind P-1 Grand Prix.
kasumi and zenkichi, are easily the best characters that are in spinoff
Why didn't you mention the status effects? Status effects in an rpg fighting game was very unique. Confusion reverses controls, paralysis means you can't move besides the roll button, fear in summary means you take a lot more damage, enraged means you can't block, and others. These are baked into the core gameplay and can't be turned off unlike something like smash. You would think that this would be anti competitive but it basically comes down to adapting or get gud scrub.
Status effects sound fun to experience...except confusion.
I love that Yukari wears that Super Sentai outfit in the story. Looks cute on her.
I think for arena 1's story I do think just doing narukami, Naoto, p3 characters and labrys is the ideal way the story should be seen. just Fast Foward the other ones unless you're going for a joke ending
I understand that opinion on Sho, but I felt it fit his background quite a bit. Dude is literally just lashing out like a little kid because he wasn't brought up proper. Literally brought up violently without any proper upbringing. I hope we get to see his journey they setup potential for.
Oh and Labrys really should be the canon one to stop Sho. It just fits better thematically with the two. I remember really finding the Persona 3 side to be way more engaging in the story.
Yeah the biggest problem with these games is how the story is narrated, too many inner dialogues and too many words to describe a simple scene. But overall I liked Labrys' story, and I think Adachi had more character development in this game than he had in P4.
Was always weird to me that Yu ChadSwagonist still wore his Yasogami High clothes in this game. At least in the dancing games it was his performance outfit.
You're not a professional fighting game player, but you are a professional Persona player, so you have no excuse. 😜
Great video. I've been really turned off by the spin off games because they seemed like cash grabs. I'm glad you convinced my otherwise, and I'll preorder the game now. Thanks! 😃👍
I haven’t played the game myself, but I’ve been an Arcsys fan since Bbtag which is a crossover game that had some of the p4a characters in it and if they play similar to that game then this game is awesome! It’s also a very highly regarded game amongst FGC people.
The only spin-offs I'd say are really cashgrabs are 3 & 5 Dancing. Arena/Ultimax, Q1/Q2, 4 Dancing, and especially Strikers have enough merit to them to warrant a playthrough if you're a fan of the series.
16:07 "Mitsuru strikes enemies with the speed and grace you'd expect her to" B O O T
I'm gonna attempt to platinum this. Got every mainline platinum in Persona series and am gonna work my way through the spinoffs.
Came back to say that I'm almost desperately in love with the thumbnail
For those who wouldn't know: the P1 is based off a real-life pro wrestling tournament, New Japan Pro Wrestling's G1 Climax, a tournament that has been going on in some form for almost 50 years.
One of my favorite fighting games of all time. I hope people keep playing.
Can’t wait to view the part where Nam complains about protein
Edit: I was wrong
The original P4A story bugged me so much. Between the repetitiveness and the stories contradicting themselves it was tedious and confusing. It would have been a lot better if you just switched between characters as the story progressed, even if that meant it being shorter.
I did like the Labrys storyline. That was interesting and a good break from the same retelling of the story in every other character's campaign.
Arena story did feel odd, I played it at a friend’s house and I only played Chie’s story, and it felt like I didn’t miss anything. When I later bought ultimax I understood 90% of the references to arena when I only did one of the story campaigns so I knew something was odd about it.
The Arena games really tricked the average gamer into reading a book
“Most well known for Blazblue” The game takes most of its mechanics from Guilty Gear.
Maybe he mention Blazblue because persona using Blazblue engine
Burst and cancels (Rapid, Roman, One More) seems to be a staple in both BlazBlue and Guilty Gear. Burst is more similar to Guilty Gear. OMC is similar to Rapid (and +R Roman cancels), and All out attacks seem to be similar to Dust in GG.
2.0 Shadow Frenzy also resembles Overdrive in BB because it's tied to burst (but i think i'm stretching the similarities from here already).
I like that ArcSys reuses Bursts and Cancels in their games so I find a bit of familiarity when playing these games.
It’s built on the same animation style as blazblue over XX. Cancels and bar management are just like any of their other games.
I think the main problem with Ultimax is as you say... it's potential which it unfortunately doesn't come close to delivering on. The story as of yet is unfinished if they can complete it I'd actually be happy to check the game out. But as far as I can tell it's not a Persona game, Persona's themselves play a secondary aspect to the gameplay, loose ends are left to fester and cause continuity issues within the series and premises like the Shadow Ops are completely undermined by having them not deal with the threat they asked Yu to deal with (which he didn't) . If you're going to make a sequel to a game like Persona 3 & 4 you need to do better than this key themes, character development all has to go somewhere.
It's a great fighting game but it's a lesser Persona game.
If they ever do a Persona 5 Arena everyone from P2 to Strikes could easily show up Maya is a reporter and Katsuya is a cop and the Phantom Thefts are a group that somehow changes people's mindset and the leader is called "JOKER" its weird P2 cast never stopped whatever they doing to investigate. P2 gimmick is about investigaing rumor and Phantom Thefts are bad at keeping secrets P2 could find the thefts in less than a day. Naoto P4 and Zenkichi both public security they might know each other if the world in danger Nato could call the P4 Investigaton Team or even P3 SEES and Zenkichi could call the Phantom Thefts
I wish the Ultimax story paths were more two sides of the same story instead of being only one or the other beats the final boss.
this is a really funny game to watch tournaments for. stray hits do like 10% damage and then someone gets counterhit and fucking dies
1-more cancel is derivative of the Roman Cancel from guilty gear, one major difference is the cost of meter
another sick vid king, good stuff
Arc System is definelly famous because of GG, BlazBlue dont come any close is also their first project of sucess
Blazblue has still sold more than Guilty gear combined. ( even after Strives one million copies)
Blazblue has still sold more than all of Guilty gear combined. ( even after Strives one million copies)
I don't think you can expect any rollback netcode when it comes to this new version. Also, the PC version of Ultimax will of course come with Denuvo as all of Atlus PC ports these days, something fighting games in particular are notoriously allergic to.
And of course, these games just made Yu such a giant Gary Stu.
Ngl The return of the midnight channel gives me the same vibe as Somehow Palpatine returned.
Also stiry mode has the same structure as blazble 1 and 2, Most stuff is "älternate timeline" bs that is non canon. Also 13:07 That's just roman cancels from guilty gear. Don't know if +r had that though. And why didn't you talk about Adachi's episode?
the more guilty gear i play the more i realize how similar these 2/3/4 (with strive) games are. P4A released in between XX and Xrd. and you can tell. guilty gears roman cancelling, back in XX, was pretty much non existent. in Xrd, its IDENTICAL to the 1 more present here.
I loved p3 and p4 but I couldn't stand the slow pacing of the story and don't like fighters that much. Thank you for putting this together, now I'll go start p5. :)
I will always take Yosuke's story as the canonical one for Arena just because Yosuke x Labrys
I don't want to hear any arguments, Yosuke's been screwed over too many times, his crush got murdered, he got rejected by Yukiko in front of the class, Chie treats him like trash, and Narukami swooped in and charmed Rise, Yosuke's taken so many L's, and his interactions with Labrys are great.
Another quality review
How do you mention Arc System Works in 2022 and say they're known primarily for BlazBlue? Guilty Gear Strive and Dragon Ball FighterZ were huge, even for casual audiences.
Yeah I know but thats not a big deal, he mention Blazblue maybe because Persona 4 arena using Blazblue engine and Made by Blue team
He mentioned blazblue because the followup to that mention is using it as a base for P4A which is true. P4A also came out a couple years before Xrd which was their return to the gg series ever since licensing issues.
Considering buying P4U releasing for the Switch.
if P4AU port is a financial success. we might be able to see Door-kun again in P5AU.
yes i know i'm on copium, but let me be. i miss that emo jesus.
Adachi making his own side of the story the most interesting: *unspoken rizz*
Great video!
You dont need a cannon ending. Just pick one.
You start the video by making a the wildest claim that Arc System Works is primarily known for BlazeBlue and not Guilty Gear. This is like the most surface level research you can do.
I'm surprised you didn't mention how Elizabeth literally beat Erebus with her pinky finger in her story mode
The existence of Labris make Ikutsuki look like a dumb ass, and orbit strike STREIGA's entire motives.
So hyped this is just as good as golden on ps4
Wonder why you skipped over the Adachi story
Update, you changed the Thumbnail, huh...
This games looks so clean!
I love how ken rerun
I really liked the story of P4A but it was handled EXTREMELY poorly. My personal playthrough of the first one was like: boringboringboring LABRYS' STORY boringboringboring. Which is funny because labrys' story had no gameplay at all. I really didn't like the replaying the same story over and over again. But the gameplay is amazing and I like labrys alot
Crazy how I just rebought this game a couple days ago
The question is whether the physical re release will have English or not. I cant seem to confirm this anywhere.
Can I ask - Why did you change the title and thumbnail? Curious is all.
I'm still playing p3f but I really would've loved of p3's mc is in p4au
We need a persona 5 arena
Game's not launching with rollback :(
I don't think referring to Minazuki as a personality is the right term especially because Sho Minazuki as a character is DID coded. Referring to Minazuki as his own rather than just one of Shō's personalities would've been better
I prefer P5 Strikers, but Arena games were fun.