Persona 4 Arena



Persona 4 Arena is a spin-off Persona game intended to be a sequel to Persona 4. It is preceded by Persona 4 and followed by Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. Yu Narukami is the main protagonist and Hinokagutsuchi is the main antagonist. The Persona User's Shadow selves are the villainous faction.

Persona 4 Arena is the first sequel to a mainline Persona game that isn't part of the mainline series itself. It is a direct sequel to Persona 4 and contains characters from Persona 3 in it as well.

It was originally released on the X Box 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2012.

A short 16-chapter manga adaptation by Aiyakyuu and is released monthly in Dengeki Maoh in 2012. It is set for an official English release in 2023.

Official Description
''It is a spin-off to both Persona 3 and Persona 4, set immediately after the events of Persona 4, featuring characters from both games. As such, it is strongly recommended to finish both Persona 3 and Persona 4 first, or else Arena will spoil major plot points from both games.''

Summary
The game contains twelve different story modes from each of the cast members. The selected character acts as the game's protagonist, and the story of the game is told through their perspective via visual novel cutscenes, with the outcome affected by the character chosen. However, Labrys (whose story is a visual of her past) and Shadow Labrys (who does not have a story mode) are not acting protagonists. The following is a general summary based on all the story modes:

The story starts 2 months after the events of Persona 4 but before the epilogue of Persona 4 Golden, meaning that Arena is set in May 2012.

At the start of Golden Week, Yu Narukami returns to Yasoinaba and reunites with Dojima, Nanako and his friends. But soon Chie hears a rumor that the Midnight Channel is airing again and tells Yosuke and Yukiko. The three of them and Yu (coincidentally) see it. At the same time, Rise, Kanji and Teddie go missing and Naoto is busy on a mission. The following day, they head into the TV world and find themselves stuck in a tournament held at their high school where they must fight each other to advance, but during the tournament they see a mysterious girl who claims to be their student council president as well as three Persona-users they've never seen before.

Mitsuru is now head of a secret spec ops squad known as Shadow Operatives working with the government consisting of herself and some of her old SEES colleagues. On a mission to escort top secret cargo, the airplane she's on is hijacked. Aigis manages to take down all the hijackers on her own but one of the cargo is stolen: the 5th generation anti-Shadow humanoid weapon, Labrys. They track her down to Yasoinaba and enter the TV world, joined by Akihiko Sanada, having just arrived from South America, who shows up to help after Aigis picks up readings from inside. Naoto is hired by public safety to spy on the Kirijo Group and Shadow Operatives. She follows them into the TV.

As Elizabeth continues on her journey, she stops by at the gate of death to defeat Erebus, who comes back about once a year (she picks it up with one hand, throws it through a portal to the moon, then kills it in one hit with Thanatos). She heads over to the TV world when she feels all the Persona users gathering there, hoping that she may find something in the strange phenomenon may be able help her to defeat Erebus for good so that she could save the boy who became the seal to protect humanity. Elizabeth encounters two of the boy's successors, one that she had befriended and given the Velvet Room's guidance under her supervision, and another who had also received the Velvet Room's guidance but this time under Margaret's supervision.

As the Persona users get to the Announcement room where Rise is being held, they discover Labrys and soon learn about her as her Shadow reveals her true self.

Labrys was created in 1999 at the Kirijo Ergonomics, lab and most of her development was done through forcing her to fight other models of her series. She grew close to one of her "sisters", Unit 024, but was forced to destroy her as well. She eventually escaped the lab, dealing extensive damage to it in the process, but was recaptured and sealed away. After vanishing from Mitsuru's plane, she was tossed into the TV world and her Shadow Self created the tournament to let other people feel what she felt.

The Persona users defeat Shadow Labrys and Labrys accepts her, turning the Shadow into her Persona, Ariadne. As they prepare to leave, however, the true mastermind behind everything takes control of her and makes her attack everyone. Fuuka manages to reach Yasoinaba in time and cut off his connection, but he escapes. The mastermind is a human with no Persona who cannot enter the TV world, but is partnered with something inhuman that can shape shift and pretends to be various characters' Shadows. Their objective is to weaken the Persona users mentally so that their Personas will revert back to Shadows; they need to gather strong Shadows for their "Project", and reverting the Persona users' strong Personas would make exceptionally strong Shadows. Both of them escape, and Mitsuru tells Inaba's Persona users to forget about everything and leave the rest of the case to them. Yu convinces everyone to "comply" with Mitsuru's order, but she and Aigis easily see through his act. Regardless, they decide to let them do what they want, though both also plan to do everything they can to keep them out of harm's way. Before they leave, Labrys meets up with the Inaba group once more and tells them that she will leave and join with Mitsuru's group to catch the culprit so that she can protect her new friends, while she and Aigis vow to find their "mother".

After they leave, Yu and Yosuke tell everyone that they are reforming the Investigation Team. Everyone prepares for what comes next.

The penultimate boss in most character's story mode is Shadow Labrys. The final boss of the Persona 4 cast is a brainwashed Labrys with Ariadne. The final bosses of the Persona 3 characters and Naoto is their own fake Shadow. In Teddie's case, he has an extra fight against Kanji who thinks everything is a dream and shows up looking for a fight.

Elizabeth's Story Mode ends with her gaining 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.

In addition, Yu, Chie, Yukiko and Kanji are given choices in specific parts of their story where they are given prompts to respond to. For Yu, this is has no bearing on his story (though specific choices can lead to an extra scene with Margaret). For the others, their choices can either lead them to their true ending, or a non-canon joke ending.

Cast

 * Yu Narukami - Johnny Yong Bosch
 * Yosuke Hanamura - Yuri Lowenthal
 * Yukiko Amagi - Amanda Winn-Lee
 * Chie Satanoka - Erin Fitzgerald
 * Teddie - Sam Riegal
 * Kanji Tatsumi - Matthew Mercer
 * Rise Kujikawa - Laura Bailey
 * Naoto Shiragane - Anna Graves
 * Mitsuru Kirijo - Tara Blatt
 * Akihiko Sanada - Liam O'Brien
 * Aigis - Karen Strassman
 * Labrys - Cindy Robinson

Persona 4 The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena Stageplay
Released after Persona 3: the Weird Masquerade -Ao no Kakusei-, its sequel, Persona 4 Visualive, and its sequel, Persona 4 The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena is a stageplay based on the game of the same title. However, its cast is almost completely different than the previous productions, with only Mitsuru and Akihiko's actors returning. Oku Shutaro returns as the director and Jun Kumagai is once again responsible for the script. Shoji Meguro and Atsushi Kitajoh are credited for the music. It was performed at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space's playhouse from December 19-23, 2014. The final performance was also broadcasted on Japanese video sharing website niconico.

Trivia

 * P4A is the first game to not feature the Shin Megami Tensei label in its overseas title, ever since Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne was localized in North America and Europe.
 * P4A is the first title in the Persona series to be released on Microsoft's Xbox gaming hardware.
 * P4A 's story takes place in spring 2012 - the same year the game's Arcade version was released.
 * Despite dropping "The Ultimate in Mayonaka" from the game's title outside of Japan, the original name appears in the intro movie in all regions. Similarly, the default system voice will always refer to Teddie by his Japanese name of Kuma, even when the language is set to English.
 * Also, a direct translation of the Japanese name of the game would be Persona 4: The Ultimate in Midnight Arena.
 * In most official material, the game is abbreviated as "P4U" in both Japanese and English to not only refer to the "Ultimate" in the Japanese title, but to prevent it from being mixed up with Persona 4: The Animation, in which both The Animation and Arena via English localization can be abbreviated as P4A.
 * Arc System Works originally wanted Ryotaro Dojima as one of the playable characters during the pre-planning stages when they were deciding on the cast. Takumi Iguchiya joked that instead of a Persona, he would summon Nanako Dojima to his aid, possibly ending up as a joke character. Nanako herself was then proposed as a playable character, but both decisions were strongly rejected by Atlus.
 * Persona 4: Arena is the first non-BlazBlue fighting game to use the Fatal Counter system, as well as the first to make use of an un-tech timer outside of training mode.
 * This is also one of the first fighting games to make use of a universal auto-combo system that involves pressing a single button to perform an automatic 5-input combo for beginners. Other fighting games made alongside P4U's time involve this very type of system as well which has carried on to future fighting games.
 * This is also the first fighting game to also count the very first hit in a combo; most prior fighting games have instead counted from the 2nd hit onward.
 * A majority of characters in this game have skills/spells either used without a Persona, or skills/spells not learned by their Persona(s) naturally. Some also do not retain certain skills used by their Personas in their original games as well.
 * Yu's Izanagi cannot learn Ziodyne and Swift Strike, but it's possible in Yu's case as the main character in the original Persona 4 and Persona 4 Golden through fusion to re-create an Izanagi with both those skills.
 * Yosuke uses Garudyne in the style of his follow-up attack.
 * Chie uses Rampage without the use of a Persona (in the style of her critical hit), as well as Skull Cracker. Her Instant Kill is also her original follow-up attack.
 * Likewise, she oddly does not have any ice-based spells in her move set, though she eventually gains an ice-based move in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax.
 * Kanji also uses Cruel Attack without his Persona (in the style of his follow-up attack), and was the only SMT series skill in his move set until Ultimax added in Primal Force. Kanji's critical hit animation also acts as one of his SP Skills.
 * Teddie has no SMT series skills and only has his original follow-up attack as one of his special moves. He eventually gains Nihil Hand from his Shadow's repertoire of skills in Ultimax.
 * Naoto's is a bit of an inversion, for her Seigi no Tate (Shield of Justice) R/Furious-Action from this game eventually becomes a skill for her new Persona, Yamato Sumeragi in Golden.
 * However, she uses Megido in the style of a hair-trigger bomb, and she also uses Double Fangs, as a non-Persona skill and a skill neither of her Personas cannot learn naturally.
 * Naoto eventually gains the Blight skill in Ultimax.
 * Mitsuru uses Marin Karin as her 2C, and her Mabufudyne has a radically different function in this game. She also uses Myriad Arrows in the style of her critical hit and thus as a non-Persona attack, and is also a skill neither of her two Personas can naturally learn in Persona 3, Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable. She also has Niflheim as her Instant Kill, a skill that could only be used by her as an opponent in The Answer. She also gains Tentarafoo in Ultimax.
 * Also, Mitsuru has Getsu-ei as her Furious Action (and as a non-Persona attack); a skill neither of her Personas are able to learn naturally.
 * Akihiko has both Kill Rush and Assault Dive as non-Persona skills, and his only spell is Maziodyne. He also gains Sonic Punch as a non-Persona skill in Ultimax.
 * Aigis barely has any SMT series skills in her move set, save for Megido in the form of a flamethrower-based type attack. Both her Personas do not learn any Almighty-element skills in the Persona 3 games, save for Pallas Athena in Persona 2: Innocent Sin with Zandyne.
 * If the game was played before the official release date, a message in the menu would appear with the line "Turn it off" (すぐにけせ) showing up repeatedly. This is a reference to a popular rumor among Japanese fans that the message would rarely appear in Shin Megami Tensei's intro
 * The game's second opening theme (as well as the theme used for Labrys' battle in Arcade Mode), "The Arena" ("The Ultimate" in Japanese), is possibly a re-arrangement of the Persona 4 Animation ending song, "Beauty of Destiny".

Continuity

 * Despite taking place after Persona 4, the Investigation Team are shown with their initial Persona, instead of their ultimate ones unlike Mitsuru and Akihiko, as well as Aigis being shown still using Pallas Athena. This, however, can easily be explained as obtaining their ultimate Persona is optional in Persona 4. Also, since Aigis and Yu are both users of the Wild Card, they may have just recreated Izanagi and Pallas Athena through fusion. However, this still does not explain why Teddie does not have his canon Persona, when it transfigured into its ultimate form, Kamui, by unlocking the good ending of Persona 4. It is possible the Investigation Team don't have their ultimate Personas because Persona 4 Golden has them acquire new third tier Personas, likely to accommodate people who haven't played P4G & wouldn't have gained the new Personas. Aigis may also have Athena instead of Orpheus for similar reasons, to accommodate players who haven't played The Answer.
 * Yu, however, uses Izanagi-no-Okami during his Instant Kill, and Aigis uses Palladion (albeit heavily modified) during hers. In Aigis' case, she oddly de-evolves her Persona instead of evolving it.
 * Interestingly enough, each character has voice clips in their sound test of them calling the names of their initial and ultimate Personas. It was probably intended for each character to choose between their Personas but, probably due to time constraints, this was cut.
 * Labrys, another one of Aigis' sisters, is shown off for the first time. She is a member of the Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons, similar to Metis from Persona 3 FES: The Answer.
 * The villain of this game and its sequel is Hinokagutsuchi, who is the son of Izanami, the antagonist of Persona 4. In mythology, he is the God of Fire, and when birthed by his mother, killed her and sent her to Hell.
 * Before Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Hi-no-Kagutsuchi was often mistaken and speculated as Nyarlathotep due to his ability to voluntarily shapeshift, manifest fake Shadow Selves, his tendencies to manipulate and betray his surrogates Sho Minazuki and Labrys for his own goals and both him and Nyarlathotep share the same goal to induce mindless world destruction. The fake Aigis even uses a similar black butterfly emblem as Nyarlathotep.
 * The story starts 2 months after the events of Persona 4 but before the epilogue of Persona 4 Golden, meaning that Arena is set in May 2012.
 * Being a direct sequel to Persona 4, it saw a return of the entire Persona 4 cast, as well as some members of the original Persona 3 cast.
 * It is revealed that the Plumes of Dusk from Persona 3, which are the fragmented parts of Nyx that fused with the Moon, are primarily used in the cores of the personality modules of the robotic Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons in order to grant an awareness from which they can summon a Persona. Earlier models such as those in the '20s and below (such as Unit #024) had lesser sized Plumes of Dusk while later models, like Labrys, had full-sized Plumes of Dusk. Due to having full-sized Plumes of Dusk, it is speculated by the scientists in the intro of Labrys' story that such robots will develop their personalities faster when Labrys speaks in an accent immediately upon awakening.
 * When Aigis sees Labyrs’s memories she claims the Plume of Dusk is akin to a black box, being able to retain information in a similar manner.
 * Sho Minazuki, the avatar of Hinokagutsuchi has a Plume of Dusk implanted in him, which was put there by Shuji Ikutsuki in order to have him develop a Persona. Sho failed to develop one, however, and a new entity was born within him. This entity came to be known as Minazuki and considered himself Sho's protector. Minazuki understood that it was born from death. In the ending, the Plume of Dusk passes on Minazuki's Persona Tsukiyomi to Sho after he disappears and from that point on his eyes and scar glow blue.