Game Review : Persona 4 Arena

So you viewers may not know this but I'm bit of a fighter's fan when it comes to games.

Ever since the good ol' Snes, I remember playing my first fighter, Street Fighter 2.
Since then its been history and I'm always interested in such games no matter what type. So of course I'm a bit ecstatic to add another new experience to my battle log with a new fighter..... From Japan!

So with that being said, I introduce to you all,  Persona 4 Arena!

Now, here I will try to be as understandable as possible for those who may not dabble in thise type of games .
So the Persona scene is surpisingly refreshing from the usual fighting games with its obvious recognition of its "sponsers" and the whole grindhouse feel at the vs screen. Now I'm new to the whole Persona feel so keep that in mind, but I enjoyed the game and found it a fair swtich from the what other games are offering.


SO! The basics - The game invovles these characters in high school all possesing the ability to summon these creatures called Persona. The Persona assist in battle in many different ways depending on who you pick. Some will just lend support while others can pretty much fight your entire match for you. Keep in mind, this is  a 4button game meaning two button for you human and two buttons for your Persona. At first I'm raising my eyebrow at this while fixing my monocle, "4 buttons?! Pah! I know games made by peasants who have at least 6buttons!"
But boy does it make use of those 4 buttons! Dodge, grab, counter, combo-continue, rush-attack etc: All these different functions are mapped on these four buttons and it somehow works smoothly.
What I love the most about the game is the characters and the balance. Each characters play completely different from the rest. There are no Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Dan type deal here! While some may share the same weaknesses each character gauges those weaknesses in obvious ways. So you cannot just pick up another character and hope to understand the basics for that character - no sir, no ma'am.... Training room! While one character may seem overpowered there is one or three characters that can utterly destroy that character's strengths so its a constant game of rock paper scissors and I LOVE THAT! There are too many established fighting game franchises that still cannot get balance down packed so believe me its worth a praise off that alone.

Pic: http://s.pro-gmedia.com

"Would this game be fun for me?" You ask...
Well depends, there are some games that encourage pacing and strong focus on prediction/key timing. Games like Virtua Fighter are for your more concentrated fighter and while this game has a deep system it does not want you to sit back and think for too long. The system has a penalty for holding back for too long without attacking which nearly double the damage you take. So its embedded into the game the thrill of "GO FOR IT!"  Now I'm no fan of turtles but I do defend the right for them to be a turtle. The game is very fast pace, even the slowest characters can get around and the fast characters dash across the screen in mere seconds. So if you love the fast pace action of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, then you'll love this pace as well. The game is very proud of its anime feel and "Pay-Per-View" approach which is lovely for some but may be a bit much for others. All in all, its a game that you will have to check out first. I recommend you rent this baby first. It has a very nice tutorial for those who are brand new and this being my first Persona game, I was able to understand the mechanics after the tutorial, now putting them into work- that's where the training room comes in.

Pic: http://bulk.destructoid.com

I forgot to mention there is a story mode in this game. I forgot to mention this because I hated the story mode. Now had this been a game that I knew would require reading volumes of barely-competent writing then that would have been fine. However this is a fighting game and I cannot endure ten minutes of reading then two minutes of fighting. That may be your niche but not mine, it reminds me of dating-sims but instead of at least being able to have an option to be a douche, you just have to sit there and take in everything the games forcing down your throat. Nah P4A, I'm good!

Lastly:
 I can tell this game is an acquired taste so rent it, give it a taste and see if rocks your taste buds, it rocked mine! But if it doesn't, hey there will always be more fighters!

Ace Approves!