Initially, I was nervous about the game, due to Arc System Works having a reputation of rereleasing games with updates with only a couple of new characters and balancing, which normally isn’t a lot to warrant a completely new disk purchase. However, Persona 4 Ultimax is adding 5 characters: Persona 3’s Junpei Iori, Ken Amada (with his dog sidekick Koromaru), and Yukari Takeba; Persona 4’s idol battle coordinator Rise Kujikawa; along with newcomer Sho Minazuki, who has non-Persona and Persona based versions. There are also 3 characters planned for DLC to go along with the new roster. For the first week of release, you can pick up Detective Dojima’s clumsy sidekick Adachi and the teenage Velvet Room Attendant from Persona 4 Golden, Marie as free DLC. You can also pick up the Velvet Room Attendant from Persona 4, Margaret, as paid DLC the following week of release.
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| The Golden Arena Mode should add a lot of replay value |
To add further room for characters, Arc is also giving most of the cast Shadow versions. Shadows are a returning factor from Persona 4, in which the main cast has versions of themselves that contain each person’s hidden emotions and fears. This will most likely play into the story, as the fog from the Midnight Channel seems to be another recurring theme. From a gameplay perspective, Shadow versions of characters are more of a risk and reward type of play style. Normals will do seldom damage, while risky specials have boosted damage output. To further compliment the offensive style of these characters, the defense of the Shadows will also be extremely limited compared to their human counterparts. Furthermore, the SP meter built from each round carries over to the next, and the Burst meter is replaced by an exclusive Shadow Rampage command, which allows the user to have unlimited SP for a limited amount of time.
Gameplay seems to have the same mechanics as the original Arena, which a few updates. There is now a new S-Hold option, which allows the character to have a charging stance to build up the SP meter. The biggest and most appropriate change was giving each character different Persona meters. Persona meters are cards that are below the health bar and allows the characters to summon their Persona. The Persona has extra moves to allow for better combos and a much farther reach. Unfortunately, if you lose all of your cards, which is done by hitting the Persona summoned to make them lose one card, then you temporarily lose the ability to use said Persona for a limited time. In the original Arena, all of the cast had the same amount of cards. Some more rushdown characters like Akihiko didn’t need too many cards, as their Persona use was limited. However, some characters like Elizabeth heavily relied on Personas and losing them made their fighting abilities extremely incapacitated. To make it more fair for the entire cast, each character now has a set amount of cards based on how heavily they rely on their Personas. This allows characters who are Persona happy to have much more slots and an even playing field compared to those that are still competent without the use of Personas.
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| Probably the most hilarious thing to come out of the new characters |
The story mode also has a new layout, as one of the biggest issues that Persona 4 Arena had was most of the Persona 4 cast not having too many diverging plot points. It made a lot of the portions sometimes replayed and grinded the pace to a halt. Now the story modes are based on the cast from the respective games. The Persona 3 and 4 cast have their respective pieces, while there is also one for Sho and a surprise character. There is also going to be a Golden Arena Mode in which you can level up and give your fighters new abilities. With the Golden Arena Mode and story cutting away some of the fat, it seems that there will be plenty of content to try out without it feeling redundant. Be warned, while Persona 4 Arena was kind enough to be subtle and rather cryptic on the events of the last summer in Inaba, Ultimax is shamelessly spoiling everything in Persona 4. This means that plot points like the Midnight Killer’s identity will be outright told and it is best advised that if you have an interest in the series to not touch this game. I personally suggest you to play the original PS2 game or the PS Vita port to avoid getting the plot ruined, then playing Ultimax.
What I initially feared being a quick cash in with little improvements turned into a pleasant surprise, as Ultimax seems to be bursting with new content and a lot of new characters to be trying out. Fans of the original Arena and the Persona 4 world should feel right at home with Ultimax and a lot of the additions will definitely add a lot of playtime with the game. With a brim of new things to try out and reported expanded online modes, it seems like the game will be quite great. I personally cannot wait and it gets my thumbs up on the anticipation factor. However, as I said, for those who haven’t played the PS2 classic, go play it right now then buy this game. No excuses. While you’re at that, I’ll be practicing Margaret, Rise, and Adachi to go along with my Yu Narukami, Naoto, and Aigis to hit the online ranks.
Thanks for reading.
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