Impressions #16.5: Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax: Part 2

When we last left off, I was discussing my thoughts on Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. I discussed the story and presentation of the game. Today, we will continue past that point. This article is dedicated to the mechanics and gameplay side of the equation.

In terms of mechanics though, Arc System Works was working magic. Ultimax surpasses even its predecessor in terms of making a fighting-game friendly to both beginners and experts alike. For beginners, the game offers many helpful systems to get them started. As an example, every character has an “auto-combo”, an easy combo move that is performed by repeatedly mashing the A button. Veteran players will be able to easily block the entire combo if they see if coming, but this does give newer players a tool to start learning new characters, since everyone has that same combo input.

Another way the game facilitates beginners is through a simplified control scheme. Every special move in the game can be performed by a one or two quarter-circles in a given direction, followed by one the four attack buttons. Unlike many fighters, they are very few complex command strings that need to be input. The key to mastering a character is in knowing when to use a move, not how. Should even this be difficult to pull off, there is a new “S-Hold” system, that allows players to hold down the A button in order to charge the S-Hold meter. The longer the button is depressed, the stronger the move will be when it is released.

On top of these systems, the game offers facilities to help beginner and intermediate players improve their skills. Aside from the standard “Training” mode, two modes are also in the “Practice Modes” category. These modes are “Lesson Mode” and “Challenge Mode” respectively. “Lesson Mode” is designed as a tutorial for basic mechanics for the game, including new mechanics which were added. On the other hand, “Challenge Mode”, is unique for each character. They all have a list of challenges to perform, each one teaching the player about one of their combos. This offers the player a same environment to try to ingrain a combo into muscle memory, helping them transition into the state of being an advanced player. With all of these systems, beginners can start developing skill in a very user-friendly manner.

However, there is still a lot for expert players to play around with as well, in order to get the edge over their peers. Furious actions are commands that can be used to grant temporary invincibility frames and a decent attack at the cost of a little health. This can be used when the player is about to be attacked by a massive combo, in order to capitalize on it. Another option is referred to as Burst, which can be used in several ways. Most commonly, it can be used to break an enemy's combo by sending them flying. Alternatively, a One More Burst can cancel the player out of a combo, returning them to a neutral stance in order to keep up the pressure. Newly added to Ultimax is the Golden Burst. If the enemy is in range, but not connecting with attacks, a Golden Burst will send them back in order to gain full SP meter and all their lost Persona cards. Many intricate systems are all working together to create a truly elegant fighting game for the experienced.

In terms of balance, quite a bit was changed from the last game. One of the most notable changes is in the balance of Persona cards. As befitting a Persona game, every character, with one exception, has a persona that they can invoke during a fight to aid them. If the persona is attacked during the execution of a move, they are dismissed and the character loses one of their cards. Once all of their cards are destroyed, the persona is broken, and will be unavailable for a time. Persona 4 Arena gave every character 4 persona cards. Ultimax changed this by re-balancing the number of cards each character has. Characters like Elizabeth or Yukiko, who are heavily reliant on their personae to fight, get 5 or 6 cards. Meanwhile, people like Akihiko, who rarely ever need their persona, only possess 2 cards. More cards mean it takes more hits to break the persona, but recovering from a break takes more time.

Furthermore, movesets have been tweaked for returning characters. While they still have roughly the same attacks, new moves were added, and many had their properties changed. The most notable of these changes would be the severe nerfing Yosuke received to his Sukukaja, which would previously practically guarantee him the win for the round. Also, the buffing of Naoto's trap, which make it easier for her to perform her Hamaon/Mudoon instant kills. I personally really appreciate these changes, as many of them were greatly needed.

New additions have also found their way in. The biggest of them would be the addition of several new characters, to the point of nearly doubling the original cast. All of the surviving members of SEES who were absent for P4A are present in P4AU. Yukari returns, with her bow and persona, Isis. As befitting an archer, she is very much a distance fighter, not too great in close-range combat. Ken and Koromaru, who fight together, work better at mid-range. Junpei, on the other hand, is not that great in anything. Other characters from the P4 fiction, like Marie, Adachi, and Margaret, join the cast as DLC for $5 each. Each are fairly good in their own right, but serve different playstyles. Also included in the game, Rise joins the cast as a playable fighter for the first time in a Persona game, without any DLC. Lastly, the antagonist, Sho Minazuki, is another newcomer to the cast. He has two forms, with and without a Persona. Both forms serve the same general role of a rushdown character, but they are unique in many different ways to each other.

Another huge addition is that most characters have a “Shadow Type”. Shadow Type characters play very differently from their original counterparts. For starters, they use the old auto-combos from the original Persona 4 Arena. Also, while they cannot Awaken, they can use Awakening SP Skills even in their normal state. Furthermore, SP for a shadow carries over between rounds, adding a new layer to resource management since any SP left unspent can make the next match easier. On that same token, if they max out their SP, then they can enter a Frenzy, where skills no longer cost SP for a short time, until the Frenzy runs out and SP resets to 0. Lastly, they have more health and deal less damage, in exchange for the inability to Burst. Honestly, while the addition is appreciated, most Shadows are pretty useless aside from a select few. I rarely ever used them. Enough tweaks, balances, and additions were made to the game that it feels like a brand new game all its own.

Overall, ATLUS and Arc System Works developed a excellent game that appeals strongly to both fighting game and Persona 3/4 fans alike. The mechanics are easy to understand at a surface level, but experts will find many layers of depth and variety should they wish to dig deeper. Enough was added since the original Persona 4 Arena that the price point more than justified. It is an incredibly easy recommendation to make.

The Texture Pop: Episode 11: Jumping Achark

I could take this space to explain exactly how this picture and title were conceived for this episode. I could also explain why this post is out two days after the podcast was release and why no one posted that a new episode was released.

I could do that... but I won't.

Also, Nick joined us again as a guest. You remember Nick. His name starts with an N and ends with "ick".



0:00:00 Introduction
In which I take the time to make fun of Sam and his living in Georgia-ness.
I also remind Sam of the reason why he wasn't there last time, because he apparently forgot.
I'm pretty sure Garrett was drinking during the cast, but I'm honestly not sure.

0:06:14 Viewer Questions
Truthfully, we did not do these last week because we are all lazy. Please don't tell Sam that.

"Are you guys fans of the old school space sim games?"
Honestly, unless Star Fox counts, the answer is no. At least for me.
We take a brief detour to discuss Star Citizen again, for reasons.

"Have you guys ever played a game you found so complicated that you gave up?"
I'm sure fighting game players are displeased with my answer, but it's true for me. I'm fine at a couple of fighters like Soul Calibur, Injustice: Gods Among Us, or Persona 4 Arena, but most of them just take too much time in order for me to really get good at them. Street Fighter, Tekken, and others of their ilk escape me. I get the theory behind them, but I just cannot execute when push comes to shove. We didn't mention Tekken here, but it applies all the same to me.

My answer side-tracks the discussion and heavily derails it.

0:34:20 Nick has been playing Super Smash Bros. 3DS
Though I've never owned a Nintendo home console, I have to admit that I've always had an interest in Smash Bros. The mechanics are very solid, and it's perfect for large groups. At some point, I'm going to have to get it.

0:39:05 Nick has been playing Brave Frontier
F2P leaves a bit bad taste in my month after Marvel Puzzle Quest. It's unfair, but it's true.
We use this time, however, to discuss Bendgate. By the end, we completely forgot the original topic.

0:44:50 TITLE DROP!

0:45:30 Nick watched Dracula: Untold
Which leads to pun times, movie talk, and making theaters laugh.
Talking about bad movies gets us to start talking about The Room, and unintentionally funny movies.

0:55:56 Garrett released a review for Destiny.
And it's right here.
We continue to be the best Destiny podcast on the internet.

0:57:00 Garrett's Two Cents editorial are going to be a monthly feature.
His description is pretty comprehensive.

1:01:50 Garrett plays Game Dev Tycoon.
I wish actual game development was this easy. The game is a nice little excursion, but it's incredibly easy make tons of money in-game.

1:04:20 Garrett talks real life.

1:05:00 Comic talk with Garrett and Chris.
And we discuss how Status Quo is God and nobody ever stays dead, unless they get cancelled.

1:11:03 We briefly disconnect while Garrett was talking
Because Sam's setup makes no sense.
His motherboard is probably cursed.

1:12:41 Garrett talks about his developer class.
And his partner sounds like a moron.

1:16:55 Garrett talks League of Legends.
You know how it is.

1:17:30 I played Persona 4 Ultimax.
You can hear more about my thoughts on the game here. Part 2 should be out in a few days.

1:21:30 I watched a Heavy Rain LP.
This LP, to be precise.

I remember liking Heavy Rain at one point, but honestly the game is really bad. I'm legitimately surprised at how much badness was crammed into a single game. The voice acting is awful, the story is terrible, and the choices are meaningless.
And David Cage somehow got worse in Beyond: Two Souls.

1:26:14 I watched Two Best Friends play The Walking Dead: Season 1.
You probably don't need a link, but it's here just in case.
It's actually pretty amazing at how easy it is to dislike most of the cast. The entire weight of the plot seems to come from the relationship between Lee and Clementine. The rest of the cast is either take it or leave it, but without those two characters, very few of the rest of the people who join the group serve to just cause problems.
As for Kenny, fuck that guy.

1:31:15 Nick talks about The Walking Dead: The TV Series.
The TV show and the comics are interesting in how quickly they make you hate the characters. I have never read the comics, but I watched one episode of the TV show and decided that if the next episode was "Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies", that would be better than anything else.
Hearing Chris talk about how Meryl and Darryl (I couldn't care any less if spelled their names wrong) were added in to make the cast more relatable is infinitely fascinating. We then discuss other comic to movie adaptation.

And I talk more about the game after that during this discussion.

1:37:50 I yell at Sam for his hosting abilities.

1:38:41 I mention that Naruto is coming to an end.
BELIEVE IT!
We then talk about manga franchises that have lasted entirely too long, of which there are many. Bleach is mentioned. Though we never bring it up, I feel that One Piece belongs on this list.

And Chris talks about why he quit Spawn on a related note, following up with more comic talk. Bottom line, comics are bullshit.

1:51:50 Chris has played Mario Kart.
And I have nothing to add to this conversation.

1:59:25 Sam is reading a love series which I didn't get the name of.
It's anime/manga.

2:02:45 Sam bought some movies while out on holiday.

2:03:05 Sam saw Austin City Limits in Texas.
YEE HAW!
And we discuss musical politics. Like musical chairs, but much less fun.

2:08:20 Sam bought a loud keyboard.
A Razer BLACKWIDOW to be precise. I love Corporate Cool names.

2:11:50 Sam played Shadows of Mordor.
And I'm super jealous because I really, really want to play it. I don't care about Lord of the Rings, but the game just looks awesome.
We then briefly discuss other Lord of the Rings games.

2:20:20 Sam beat all the Dead Rising 3 DLC
And doesn't care about it.

2:21:10 Sam beat Neverending Nightmare
And Garrett wants it to be good, and I'm tired.
It still sounds pretty gruesome, even when it's trying to be a game.
I assume that without spoilers, this is a hard game to talk about.

2:25:20 Sam bought Assassin's Creed: Liberation and Freedom Cry
And he finds their portrayal of slavery weird.

2:26:30 Sam bought Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition on the PC.
Not much to say, aside from what was said during the cast.

2:27:55 Sam watches anime with one of my friends.
It's Japan, and therefore weird.

2:29:50 We start to wrap things up.
None of us can apparently not play games during a podcast.
I'm so, so sorry for this cast.

At the same time, we randomly give our one fan a happy day.

Impressions #16: Persona 4 Arena: Ultimax: Part 1

It is a strange coincidence that Persona 4 Ultimax would be released during my so-called “Season of ATLUS.” Considering that I just finished Digital Devil Saga 2 the day before it came out, the timing could not be any better. As a massive fan of the Persona franchise, I would be lying if I said I was not predisposed to liking a new entry, even if its not a game in the main series. That was no less true when the original Persona 4 Arena was released. Even still, I am willing to stand firmly behind it even without the brand name appeal. There is quite a lot here, and much is done to appeal to every possible member of the target audience.

Fans of Persona 3 and/or 4 will be happy to note the inclusion of a story mode. Taking place after the first Persona 4 Arena, Ultimax details how the casts of Persona 3 and Persona 4 come together to uncover the truth regarding what happened. As both groups begin to start their investigations, a mysterious blood red fog covers Inaba. Both crews are thrown headlong into a new “P-1 Climax” battle tournament shortly afterward, and their captors state that the world will end if they do not succeed in winning the tournament in one hour. From there, the story goes in some pretty interesting, and surprising, directions at times. Being a canonical story in the Persona universe, it is almost required for fans to go through it at least once.
The tale is divided into episodes. First up is Episode P4, which tells the story from the perspective of the Investigation Team from Persona 4. After that is completed, Episode P3 becomes available, which retells the story from the point-of-view of the former SEES operatives from Persona 3. While the overarching story remains the same for both stories, there are significant differences between them. At the same time, there are plot elements that are only hinted at in one episode, that are explained in greater detail in the other, and vice-versa. Ultimately, the True Ending, which is unlocked by completing both episodes, makes it very clear that the P4 side to the tale is canonical, while Episode P3 serves as more of a “What If?” scenario.

Though the story itself is very well written, and an incredible job of bringing all of these characters together in a believable way, its presentation leaves much to be desired. Fans of the original Persona 4 Arena probably will not be terribly surprised to hear that, as Ultimax has the exact same style its predecessor had. The story is told in a manner similar to visual novels, where characters are represented by static 2D-artwork on top of a background image representing the area they are in. When this does not suffice to explain the action in the scene, a text description of the action is displayed on top of these elements. On occasion, these scenes are broken up by a battle, as dictated by the story. Even among fighting games, this is not a terribly unique style of storytelling.

The problem with this style, which feels even more pronounced here than it did in the first Persona 4 Arena, is that these scenes take a long, long time. It is not uncommon to spend an hour or more just watching characters talk to each other before ever participating in a battle. Because of the game's (admittedly handy) auto-advance mode for dialogue, this almost literally means that players will not be pressing any buttons at all for very prolonged periods of time. Even when fights break out, the AI for the story mode opponents is extremely stupid, so it takes almost no effort to trounce them with little more than a few combos and throws. Should even that be too much effort, the game even offers an “Auto Mode” which will make the AI fight for the player. Yes, this would literally mean that the player is watching the game play itself on the scant few moments that the story gives them a moment to interact with it.

And that transitions nicely into another thing I noticed when playing Ultimax. While Persona 4 and Persona 4 Arena both had very long cutscenes (even Persona 4 is infamous for having three hours worth of scenes before players ever got to fight a monster), they had an interesting way of keeping players engaged through that process. Persona 4 offered dialogue choices throughout all of these scenes. While those choices rarely, if ever, had any significant meaning, they kept the player's attention by giving them a chance to both think about what transpired in the game, and express their views on it, even if those views mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. Persona 4 Arena also offered choice in terms of which character they used as a viewpoint character and in what order they were played in.

In either case, these kind of “meaningless choices” would serve to greatly improve the end user-experience for Ultimax. It almost seems like the writers forgot that they were making the script for a video game. Usually, the only choice players have is in which character in their current group gets to fight the upcoming battle. Aside from that, the only dialogue choice made is right before the final boss, and is one of the most obvious choices I have ever seen in a Persona game. The game's presentation would have benefited from some interactivity in order to keep players more engaged during the story section. Some people are going to hate it, others will tolerate it in the name of a good Persona story, but I hesitate to say that anyone is going to “like” the presentation.

Unfortunately, I appear to be a little too long in the tooth for this article. As I was writing it, I realized that I was quickly approaching 2000 words. I sincerely doubt many of you out there would be comfortable reading all of this in one sitting. As a result, I decided to break this up into two parts. We will leave off here, since I have finished discussing story and presentation. Next week, I will discuss mechanics, characters, and new additions to the game.

The Texture Pop: Episode 10: Are You Tsunder Ready?!

So, Sam could not join us this week because he was away visiting relatives in the foreign country known as Texas. To fill in the vacant slot, I brought a friend of mine Ryu... Ian, to the cast this week.

Also, the image and title for this week were both my idea, so you can go ahead and blame.... thank me for that.



0:00:00 Introductions
To understand the context behind this initial conversation, Ian uses a very crappy headset that only works when a game is playing on his console. You'd have to ask him more about it, because I would never purchase a headset like that.

0:05:10 Chris, Ian, and I all bought Persona 4 Arena Ultimax
WE ARE TSUNDEREADY!?
We actually cut our session of Persona 4 Ultimax short to record the podcast. Truthfully, that's probably a large part of why Ryu... Ian joined us for the podcast.

The day this podcast went up, the price for Marie and Adachi went from free to $5. Anyone who hasn't gotten them yet is SOL unfortunately.

I will talk about the story and mechanics more in my upcoming Impressions piece, so you can look forward to that. Although, I will admit that this discussion heavily informed some of my thoughts on the game.

When Chris talked about "It would be worse, they could say 'A battle was fought'", it reminded me of the cutscenes from Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days that were included in Kingdom Hearts 1.5 ReMIX. That's exactly what they did, but I think it's more acceptable because of the presentation of those scenes.

In terms of fighting games, this is a great purchase because they added so much to the game. The discussion is so through that I think it stands on its own very well.

Also, the fact that the original P4 Arena Story is DLC reminds me of how the story of the Dissidia: Final Fantasy was included in Dissidia 012: Duodecim when that game was released.

This discussion did give Garrett ample time to come into the chat, luckily enough.

0:41:35 I finished Digital Devil Saga 2 (finally)
I will say, explaining this story to someone else is really silly unless you were actually following it from the very beginning. I really can't listen to my own explanation without laughing.

It's the weirdest use of Buddhism I've ever played. And you can

*SPOILERS* Also, I constantly mistakenly refer to Seraph as "he." Canonically, since they are fusion of a guy and a girl, they are technically hermaphroditic.

You can also see my impressions piece on that game here.

0:52:30 I was accepted? into a beta for Dragonball: Xenoverse.
And I have literally nothing to say about it.

0:53:30 I Kickstarted One Night Ultimate Werewolf: Daybreak.
And we talk about pricing and stuff. The Kickstarter is here if you are curious.

0:55:00 Ian reformatted his HDD.
And he talk about the games he played since he lost the save data for them, like The Last of Us, Suda 51 games like Shadows of the Damned, and Platinum Game's games like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

We then detour to discuss Avatar: The Legend of Korra and binge watching as a concept.

Ian probably would have talked more if we didn't spend all our time playing Persona 4 Ultimax.

1:05:00 Garrett plays League of Legends
And we talk a bit about F2P games and other things.

1:09:30 Garrett plays The 3rd Birthday and The Yawg.
I unfortunately cannot comment too much on these games, because I've never played.

1:10:15 Garrett saw Box Trolls?
I don't know if I got that title right.
We also take a brief detour to discuss movies.

1:11:55 Garrett goes back to The Yawg to discuss it some more.
And some of the things in the game sounds pretty gruesome from what he was talking about.

1:17:25 Garrett talks comics!

1:18:10 Chris goads Garrett into talking about Destiny.
And we're still the #1 Destiny podcast on the internet.

Since Ryu... Ian is here, I get to take this time to tell him off for convincing me to play the beta because it's "teh best thing evarrrrrrrrrr!"

I would really like to see a "developer tell-all" about Destiny. I think it would be truly fascinating. There has to be a story behind what we got as the final product.

This conversation is probably nothing you haven't seen before on the internet in some capacity. It's a fine game, but it's not the ultimate god-slaying game of awesome that people thought it would be.

1:29:15 Chris recently obtained a Wii U.
Specifically, the Mario Kart bundle.
He also seems to really enjoy all of the features of the Wii U.

I actually did not know that the Wii U GamePad could be used as a semi-universal remote the way Chris describes.

It seems like installation was pretty easy for him too.

We also talk briefly about services like Netflix and YouTube and how they compare on different consoles.

1:36:55 Chris talks about the games he bought for the Wii U.
It's Mario Kart. Do you really need me to talk about it? Everyone knows how good Mario Kart games are.

He also got Wonderful 101 and Hyrule Warriors. I don't have much to say about Wonderful 101, but Hyrule Warriors looks amazing. I have been watching footage of that game, and even as someone with no interest in Zelda or Wii U, that game looks HYPE!

1:40:10 We discuss Wii U hardware again.
Being able to use the GamePad in so many ways makes it an interesting, and very useful multi-purpose tool. I was actually surprised at this, because I honestly didn't know that the GamePad had so many features.

1:50:07 Ending
Turns out we actually did release the cast on time... but I was just dragging my feet too much.