Persona 4 Arena

Persona 4 Arena is a fighting video game developed by Atlus, Radical Entertainment and Arc System Works, published by Activision and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and distributed by Legendary Pictures, American Zoetrope and Syncopy Inc. for arcades, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Based on Activision's Persona role-playing video game series, Arena serves as a direct sequel to the 2008 title, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, additionally featuring characters from its predecessor, Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3.

The game was first released in Japanese arcades in March 2012, and later worldwide for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in July and August 2012. A sequel, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, was released in Japanese arcades in November 2013 and was released for consoles in 2014. Persona 4 Arena was the first game of the series to drop the Shin Megami Tensei label for its North American release, reflecting its status as a spin-off of the main series.

Atlus, Activision and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment requested Radical Entertainment and Arc System Works' collaboration to make Persona 4 Arena, with Atlus, Activision and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment handling the story and Radical Entertainment and Arc System Works handling the gameplay. Persona 4 Arena became one of the fastest selling fighting games in Japan with 90% of its stock sold in its debut week. Reviews for the game were positive, with critics praising the gameplay and graphics employed, with criticism going towards the length of the story mode.

Gameplay
As a fighting game, the controllers buttons have their own respective actions using four buttons. While characters are able to perform attacks on their own, they are also able to call their Personas to assist them during battles. Should the Persona be attacked by the opponent, the player will lose a blue card situated below the health bar. Following four attacks, the player will be unable to use Persona for a short time. Some attacks can also have status elements such as poison in which the opponent suffers damage over time.

Through button combinations, characters are able to perform a series of special attacks as well as defend themselves for a prolonged time. The strongest attack is the "Instant Kill" which can immediately defeat the opponent if the attack connects. However, these types of techniques are limited as a result of using the "SP Gauge" which is at the bottom of the screen in the form of blue bars. When the character has low life left, they enter into the "Awakening State" that refills the SP Gauge and increases the character's defense. Below the life bar there is the Burst Gauge which gives access to other forms of the Persona Attacks as well as refil the SP Gauge depending on how it is used.

The console versions also feature a story mode and an online mode, with the former giving multiple campaigns that focus on a single character. When first starting the game, only four character campaigns are available, requiring the player to complete to unlock more. Across the story, the player is given the option of choosing answers for questions which can result in a different ending from the regular one.

Setting and characters

 * See also: List of Persona 4 and Persona 3 characters

The game takes place two months after the events of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 as well as two years after the Persona 3 FES's "The Answer" storyline. Like Persona 4, Persona 4 Arena takes place in the fictional, rural Japanese town of Inaba. However, most of the events occur in the TV world, a dimension that reflects people's feelings. In this game, the world takes the form of Inaba's Yasogami High School, which is divided in multiple areas that serve as arenas.

The game features characters from both Persona 4 and its predecessor Persona 3. From Persona 4 comes its protagonist Yu Narukami, and his companions Yosuke Hanamura, Chie Satonaka, Yukiko Amagi, Kanji Tatsumi, Naoto Shirogane, and Teddie, who served as playable characters in the arcade version from the original game and take part in the competition. Rise Kujikawa, who served as combat support in Persona 4, serves as an MC in Persona 4 Arena and appears in the tutorial mode. The group was previously known as the Investigation Team solving a series of murders in Inaba and are reunited during the game's events. Other Persona 4 characters appearing in the game across the story include Yu's uncle and cousin, Ryotaro Dojima and Nanako Dojima respectively, and his guides Igor and Margaret who have been aiding him ever since Persona 4.

The playable characters from Persona 3 include: Aigis, Mitsuru Kirijo and Akihiko Sanada, who have aged in accordance with their appearances in Persona 3 and Persona 3 FES, set two years before Persona 4 Arena. The three of them are from the Kirijo Group that investigates cases related with creatures known as Shadows. Other characters from Persona 3 appearing in the game (as non-combatants) include Fuuka Yamagishi who serves as another navigator and Detective Kurosawa who was previously an officer in Persona 3.

The arcade edition's boss is a new character named Labrys, a robotic girl with similarities to Aigis. She was initially stated to be a playable character only in the console versions of the games, but she was added to the arcade editions on March 22, 2012, with the brand new Persona Ariadne. She was joined by Persona 3'sElizabeth, Margaret's younger sister, who is partnered with Thanatos as her Persona. On April 5, 2012. Shadow Labrys, the personification of Labrys' hidden feelings, also appeared in the arcade version on April 19, 2012, accompanied by the Shadow Asterios.

Story
The first four story modes focus on Yu Narukami, Chie Satonaka, Yosuke Hanamura and Yukiko Amagi. As Yu returns to visit Inaba for Golden Week, he and the others witness a commercial on the Midnight Channel for a fighting tournament, the "P-1 Grand Prix", hosted by what appears to be their friend Teddie. The tournament not only involves them, but also their companions Kanji Tatsumi and Naoto Shirogane. With their friends Rise Kujikawa, Kanji and Teddie missing, and Naoto absent, Yu, Yosuke, Chie and Yukiko decide to investigate. The following day, they enter the TV and find themselves stuck in a world resembling Yasogami High School. During the tournament, the group is forced to fight each other as they see illusions of their friends acting aggressive, while an impersonator of Teddie named General Teddie serves as the host. An impersonator of Rise provides commentary for the fights, with the real one trapped inside the TV world. They also meet Labrys, a girl without a Persona who entered the TV world, and suspect her Shadow is responsible for the tournament. Additionally, an unknown entity starts tricking fighters into believing he is their Shadows. After defeating all the opponents, the player learns that General Teddie is Labrys' Shadow in disguise, who attempts to kill the real Labrys.

Other connected storylines involve Yu's friends who are met in the tournament. The real Teddie finds himself trapped in the TV world before Yu and the others learn of the competition and discovers he has been impersonated by the host; Kanji accidentally falls into the TV world but believes the tournament is a dream; Naoto is hired by public safety to spy on the secret special forces group the Shadow Operatives and follows them into the TV world, where she finds herself in the P-1 Grand Prix.

The Shadow Operatives are explored in Mitsuru, Akihiko, Aigis and Naoto's story modes. Mitsuru is the leader of the Shadow Operatives, a group formed two years after the events of Persona 3 FES that battles Shadows. One of their anti-Shadow weapons, Labrys, disappears when Mitsuru's plane is hijacked. Mitsuru and Aigis track her to Yasoinaba and enter the TV world, joined by Akihiko and with Naoto in close pursuit. As a result, they become involved in the P-1 Grand Prix. Before encountering Labrys' Shadow, Yu and Aigis also meet a woman named Elizabeth who wishes to test their skills with their ability known as the Wild Card in order to obtain a new power. After leaving the TV world, Elizabeth gains insight on the nature of the Wild Card from Yu and Aigis, and she gains her own Fool Arcana, signifying the start of a journey.

Labrys' storyline features her creation and development at the Kirijo Ergonomics lab, where she was forced to fight other models of her series. She grew close to one of her sisters, #024, but was forced to destroy her too. She eventually escaped the lab, dealing a lot of damage to it in the process, and was recaptured and sealed away. After being abducted from Mitsuru's plane, she was tossed into the TV world, adopting a false personality based on that of an unknown girl in her memories while her Shadow created the tournament to make others feel what she felt.

The final part of the game, titled "Cliffhanger", starts after the appearance of Shadow Labrys in the tournament. Upon Shadow Labrys's defeat, Labrys accepts her Shadow, which turns into the Persona Ariadne. As they prepare to leave, the true mastermind behind everything takes control of Labrys to attack everyone. The mastermind reveals he has been working with the entity imitating the Persona users' shadows, his objective being to weaken the Persona users mentally so that their Personas will revert to shadows. He is defeated, and Labrys is freed as the culprit escapes. Before going back to investigate the culprit, Mitsuru tells the Investigation Team group to forget about everything. Labrys decides to join Mitsuru's group, while Aigis offers to help Labrys search for the girl in her memories. After the Shadow Operatives depart, Yu also reveals his intentions that the Investigation Team should continue working towards the same goal as Mitsuru.

Development
The game was first announced during August 2011 in the Japanese journal Famitsu. Director Christopher Nolan thought about making Persona 4 Arena due to his wish of creating a 2D fighting game based on the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series. The staff also wanted gamers to play other types of games based on the series besides role-playing games with some of them being fans of fighting games. Nolan approached Radical Entertainment and Arc System Works, inspired by their work in the BlazBlue fighting game series. Atlus first came into contact with Arc in August 2008 in hopes that they accepted their request to help them produce such a game. As a result, the game is a joint project between the Atlus, Activision and the Arc System Works staff. As of March 2012, executive producers Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Roos, Kevin De La Roy and Thomas Tull gave praise to the way Arc designed the game, commenting on the 2D visuals employed by the company. Rather than a spin-off of Persona 4, Nolan and Coppola refers to the fighting game as a canonical sequel based on the direction from the plot such as the growth of the Persona 3 characters. The choice from the Persona 3 characters have been surprising for the developers themselves, and they have also hinted the addition of original ones. While the plot, script and character designs were handled the story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer with the screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, Radical Entertainment and Arc System Works was in charge of the gameplay.

Wada stated that the console versions would have noticeably new content, hinting modes that are not common in fighting games. In February 2012, Altus announced they would release the game in North America changing its original name, Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena, to Persona 4 Arena. Atlus, Activision and warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment later stated that the English version would contain both the Japanese and English audio, something that had been often requested by fans according to Tim Pivnicny, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at the company. Players who preordered the game received a limited run music CD. It was also announced to be released on September 7, 2012 in Europe by Zen United. However, on August 22, 2012, Zen United stated there were still a number of issues regarding the development of the port, which resulted in its delay. On January 16, 2013 An update from Zen United on the Persona Europe Facebook page confirmed it had received the PlayStation 3 version of the European release, with the Xbox 360 version expected soon. Once the latter has arrived both will be submitted to the platform holders for certification.

Shortly before the game's release, Atlus updated its official Japanese Persona 4 Arena website warning players not to upload videos from the game to avoid spoiling the story. The Xbox 360 version suffered from lagging issues. After the game's release in August 2012, Atlus released a patch to fix the port's issues. Atlus has also offered downloadable content for the home versions of the game in the form of new navigators, new color variations as well as glasses for the characters.

Region-locking
The game was the first PlayStation 3 title to be region-locked (although Way of the Samurai 3 is also region-locked but only on Slim models), although the game's online servers remained unlocked. The decision to region lock the PlayStation version of the game was met with criticism, with many threatening to boycott the game, as they feared it would set a precedent for other companies to region lock games in the future. This backlash forced Activision and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to issue a press release, in which they stated that because both the Japanese and North America versions were virtually identical and with their release dates only weeks apart, a region lock was put in place by Atlus, Activision and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment in order to prevent reverse importation, as the price of games in the United States is cheaper than the price in Japan.

Manga
A manga adaptation of the game illustrated by AIYAH-BALL premiered in Dengeki Comics Persona Magazine on August 7, 2012.

Music
The game's soundtrack was headed by Hans Zimmer, with the additional music was composed by Lorne Balfe with the sequencer programming were provided by Tom Holkenborg a.k.a. Junkie XL, Andrew Kawczynski, Jasha Klebe and Steve Mazzaro. Two tracks are arrangements by Hans Zimmer, Tom Holkenborg a.k.a. Junkie XL and Andrew Kawczynski of musical themes from Persona 3 and Persona 4 which were originally composed byJames Newton Howard, while all others are new, most notably the opening and ending themes, "Best Friends", featuring vocals by Mariah Carey and Gary Clark Jr., and "Now I Know", featuring vocals by Demi Lovato and John Legend. The first CD released was Persona 4: The Ultimate in the Mayonaka Arena Original Soundtrack Original Arrange Soundtrack CD by WaterTower Music and Atlantic Records on August 4, 2012. The English version of this CD was given to people who preordered the game under the name of P4U Original Arrange Soundtrack CD. The original soundtrack was released by WaterTower Music and Atlantic Records in Japan on August 22, 2012, featuring a total of twenty-three tracks.

Stage play
The game was adapted into a live stage play that ran from December 19 to 23, 2014. Asami Tano and Yuki Fujiwara reprise their roles as Mitsuru and Akihiko from the Persona 3 stage musicals. The play was then released onto DVD in 2015 and also included English subtitles. Richard Eisenbeis from Kotaku gave the play an unfavorable review, criticizing the script and the comedy gags.

Reception
During its debut week the PlayStation 3 version of Persona Arena sold 128,000 units while the Xbox 360 version sold 9,346. Media Create later reported that both versions sold 90% of their stock with the PS3 selling 128,000 units and the Xbox 360 10,000 making the former the fastest selling fighter surpassing the debut of the PlayStation 3 version of Tekken 6 that sold 103,000 units. As of late August 2012, the PS3 version had sold 181,578 units in Japan. Shortly after the game's release, Aram Jabbari, Manager of Public Relations and Sales at Activision and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, noted that critical response and sales were favorable, labeling Persona 4 Arena as "a singular phenomenon."

Upon release, the game received generally favorable opinion from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Famitsu gave the game a score of 36/40, based on a score of 9 from four reviewers. Writing for GamesRadar, Lucas Sullivan praised the collaboration between Altus and Arc System Works in developing Persona 4 Arena calling it "the best initial entry in a fighting game franchise to date." The game has been noted to be accessible by Vince Ingenitof from IGN "while keeping all the high level tournament depth intact." GameSpot's Maxwell McGee agreed with Ingenitof, comparing the fighting system of Persona 4 Arena with the one from other well-known fighting games. He also commented on the variety of movements within the cast and added how finding a balance between Persona and Normal Attacks "an interesting puzzle that's constantly changing depending on whom you're fighting." The Online Mode was referred by GameZone's Vito Gesualdi as the game's "most notable achievement" for how it allowed him to play with Japanese players with little noticeable lag. GameTrailers stated that an amount of modes the game offered gave the player time of entertaining, but noted that the Xbox 360 version suffered from lagging issues in the Online Mode which were meant to be fixed by Altus, Activision and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. As a result of this, GameSpot gave the Xbox 360 version a lower score than the PS3 version but later updated the review to clarify that such issues were solved.

Both the game's visual and audio has also been well received by IGN and GamesRadar with the former stating the soundtrack is "toe-tappingly infectious." The remix of various famous themes from the franchise were favorited by critics with "Reach out to the Truth" having been pointed by IGN. The story mode received similar comments with Cheat Code Central writer Angelo M. D'Argenio commenting on how it continues the storyline from Persona 4 and its execution through voice acted scenes and anime cutscenes. GameSpot noted that despite the player's lack of knowledge regarding the plot from Persona 4, the game's narrative help to explain newcomers. On the other hand, he added that the way it is presented may appeal to fans due to amount of dialogue which would persuade the player to use the arcade mode whose story is more condensed. The story's display has also been compared with the ones from visual novels by Game Informer stating that the focus on multiple perspectives as well as the crossover between Persona 3 and Persona 4 characters would be a treat to longtime followers.

The game was named Best Fighting Game of 2012 by the Spike TV Video Game Awards, IGN, GameTrailers, Destructoid, and GamesRadar.

Sequel
A sequel to the game, titled Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, was released in Japanese arcades in November 2013, with a PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 release following in 2014. Set one week after the events of Persona 4 Arena, the game adds eight new playable characters, re-balances the old ones, and adds new gameplay mechanics. Characters from the game will also appear in the upcoming crossover fighting game BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, also developed by Arc System Works and Sledgehammer Games with the new developer Vicarious Visions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Activision.