Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Out Today on PS3

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Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Out Today on PS3

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is the sequel to the fighting game spin-off of the Persona franchise, Persona 4 Arena, but it’s so, so much more than just an update. Characters from both Persona 3 and Persona 4 are thrust into a fighting tournament, which continues the story after the conclusion of the RPG Persona 4. This story is canon for the Persona franchise, and takes place almost immediately after the conclusion of P4A, which itself is just a few weeks after the end of Persona 4.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

P4AU picks up where the original Arena game left off, with six new players joining the P-1 Climax tournament. The new characters include Persona 3 and 4 favorites Junpei, Rise, Yukari, and Ken & Koromaru, along with series newcomers Sho Minazuki and Sho Minazuki. (it’s confusing, I know. But the story explains it.) There are also three DLC characters: Adachi, Marie, and Margaret — Adachi even has his own story! Story mode is also retooled to be more streamlined for the two major arcs (P3 and P4 story). Plus, in addition to the Adachi story DLC, we’re offering the original story as DLC too.

But P4AU doesn’t just end at Story Mode. There’s also an Arcade mode, Score Attack mode, online and local Versus mode, and Golden Arena mode, which blends RPG elements into the fighter, where you can pick your own skills to augment your fighting style! The Score Attack mode has been completely reworked with five difficulty modes for a variety of challenges at any skill level. We also added a quick match restart option, something a lot of players have been clamoring for since the first P4A! Oh, and the PlayStation version has an exclusive online lobby system, where players can pick an avatar and hang out in a virtual arcade to set up matches.

Persona 4 Arena UltimaxPersona 4 Arena Ultimax

As for the game itself, P4AU is a combo-heavy, anime-style fighter from Arc System Works and ATLUS. If you’re completely new to Persona fighting games, or it’s been a while since you played P4A, there’s an in-depth tutorial in the game, which we highly, highly recommend. Mastering the skills in the tutorial is the basis for really excelling in online versus matches. Training mode is essential too — not only finding a main character and learning all their moves, but getting used to Ultimax’s situational difficulties and how each character can respond to them is key to really improving your gameplay in P4AU. Plus, if you’re lost, check out any of the P4AU vids on Twitch or YouTube!

There are a lot of new elements in P4A Ultimax. First, with all returning characters getting their auto-combos reworked and the brand new characters to learn, there’s a lot more room for discovering and creating combos in P4AU at all levels of play. The overall change in P4AU versus P4A was to give P4AU a much higher degree of risk vs. reward gameplay. Joining the skill-boosted moves from the original P4A are skill-boosted supers – super moves that use additional meter to deal extra damage. A properly timed SB super could be the difference between winning a match and leaving an opening for your opponent’s comeback.

Persona 4 Arena UltimaxPersona 4 Arena Ultimax

The biggest additions in P4AU are the playable shadow versions of most of the characters. Shadow versions typically do well in the hands of more advanced players or P4A veterans, since they trade a lot of their survivability (the Burst skill) for the new Shadow Burst – a mode that slowly depletes the SP meter, but lets them chain together supers that aren’t chainable with normal characters. This also means newer players should be very mindful of shadow characters, since one Shadow Burst can easily turn the tide of battle. Heed my words: fear Shadow Chie’s God Hand combos. You’ll find out why soon enough…

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82 Comments

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  • AWWWW YISSSSS

  • Also, thanks Best Buy Canada for not shipping this to me on release date and giving me no ETA whatsoever.

  • Easily my most anticipated game of the year. (Im)Patiently waiting for the European release… why Atlus? WHYYYYY!?!??!?!?

    But seriously cannot wait. Hoping we also get a blog post. =D
    Also hoping we get the same FreeLC situation, that’d be nice. *hint hint*

    Pre-ordered the “fan edition” from Rice Digital and it comes with a t-shirt, so that’s some compensation I guess.

    To everyone else, enjoy the game. I know I will!

  • Will get this in the future when I can finish up Arena Story mode and P4G.

    Thanks, A-Team for bringing this over.

  • JUNPEI!!!!

    That’s is all i have to say, so let me say it again.

    JUNPEI!!!!

    Also Mitsuru. <3

    Can't wait for the truck to arrive with my copy. Any… minute… now….

  • where is PS PLUS Games???

  • Just picked up my copy! Can’t wait to start playing! Also can’t wait for Persona 5 on PS4! Keep it up Atlus!

  • I hated Junpei, stupid perv that was the worst fighter in P3P. Dog was better. Didn’t like Ken either. Having a 12 yr old around was wierd.

    Anyway, although I love the turn-based fighting in P4G, I don’t like fighting games so will wait impatiently for P5 and while waiting, replay P4G on my PS TV next month.

  • SO MUCH love for the ps3 and almost nothing for psvita this week u_u

  • Currently playing through the first P4A… in story mode, it’s the most exposition heavy fighter I’ve ever played, but it’s a good story so I actually read through it. Definitely will want Ultimix when I’m done with this (even though Yu vs Yukiko matches are a little sad considering my choices in P4G and current domestic violence scandals…)

    Just in case anyone hasn’t seen it, you can get the “PS2 Classic” version of P3:FES for $3.99 on the Playstation Store. DEFINITELY worth that.

  • Vita version of this and Persona 5 please! Persona 3 Golden on Vita would also be fantastic! :D

  • Ps4 vita version and u got my money twice

  • @#2 As a fellow Best Buy Canada orderer, I feel your pain. Very few of their retail locations in my area seem to have copies (none easily accessible by me, natch), so I’m assuming it’s a delay with distribution, which means unfortunately they probably don’t know either. Hopefully will only be a short delay.

  • Oh man, really wish we’d see this on the PS4 in the near future. Junpei is my favorite Persona character in the whole series and I really want to play as him so bad. On the other hand. Adachi from Persona 4 is in this and he looks pretty “Insane” to play as well.

  • Hi, I preordered this game on PSN about a month ago. When preload completed it was unable to install due to file corruption. I have deleted and redownloaded three times, with the same result. Others have had this issue as well. Has this problem been fixed?

    • We’re checking into that, but right now we don’t have a solution yet. I and a few others in the office didn’t have any issue, so we’re trying to pool all the instances together and get a fix ASAP.

      Error code 80029564, right?

  • @#2 & #14: I’m in the states and BB is listing the game as not available for in store pickup. This is most likely because the site has the game listed as a “bundle” since the first shipment should include the tarot cards and Teddie bop. I’m pretty sure the game will hit shelves once the first shipment is complete and those preorder items are gone. I ordered from BB and had them ship my item. I got a tracking number and shipping confirmation this morning. Sorry that you guys are having issues.

    • Someone on my Twitter feed said they pre-ordered from BB and got a Thursday estimate then a notification it’s arriving today. O___o

  • I don’t like fighting games at all but i like Persona 3 and 4. I plan to rent this game from gamefly like i did the first Arena. Hopefully the story mode in this game is more entertaining than the lazy visual novel thing from the first game. :/

  • Hey that’s great, how about announcing the PS Plus games for October? You know, since October is tomorrow.

  • Should be picking up my copy sometime later after work.

    Was surprised last week, when I picked up my pre-orders for that week, that posters for P4AU and Persona Q were waiting there. It was a nice surprise considering I thought I was only getting the Tarot Cards and Teddie Bop.

  • @18

    sigh….Assasins Creed Black Flag on ps4 is literally the only thing interesting for next month free game. Not enough for me to resubscribe to plus.

  • Becoming a bigger fan of your games, the more I get a chance to play them.

    Oddly enough, I found myself buying and enjoying another of your PSP classics just last sale.

    May even try Hexyz Force if there is another one.

    Though I found Dragon’s Crown a big let down (actually paid for my digital), I have enjoyed almost every other bought from you.

    Not 5 star material to me mostly, they were very close.

    • “Though I found Dragon’s Crown a big let down…”

      Breaks my heart to hear! But to each their own…if you give P4AU a chance, lmk what you think!

  • @2 – I feel ya bro… I feel ya. Website says it’s “out of stock” so I guess the shipment to their warehouse was just delayed. It’s extra frustrating cause it’s on their store shelves, I could pick up a copy after work if I hadn’t pre-ordered it already…

    Hopefully we still get the pre-order bonuses!

  • Also, why are you announcing dlc characters already? It just makes me think you cut those characters out instead of just including them on the disk. The game was already overpriced at $60 to begin with, but charging extra for characters is pretty sad. But then again, this is the same company that offers overpriced color palletes for characters as dlc. Incredibly greedy. :/

    • Well, we’re offering 2/3rds of the DLC characters for free, and the thing about DLC is we’re not forcing anyone to buy it. To each their own!

  • Had the day off and planned to play all day, but decided to get day 1 digital. Huge mistake: I’ve been trying for literally 6 hours to download it with no success. Error 80029564.

    • We’re looking for the solution, but #30 was saying that a few peopel found success with making sure their system and PS store were up to date!

  • If I’m not playing it today is because Amazon sent my copy out just today. :(

  • Hi John, thanks for the response. Yes, I believe that is the error I am getting. OK, not just me then!
    Very much looking forward to playing this, so hope you guys find a fix soon! :-)

  • Oh Persona <3
    Oh Margaret <3
    Oh Elizabeth <3

  • Hmm…I just read where some folks got theirs to work by checking for a system update on PS3. After getting the update they re-downloaded and got it to work. Going to check that out when I get home.

  • So excited to play this! Picked up my copy already, just letting the game do its optional install. LOVE the Tarot cards and Teddie beachball thingy! :D

  • @29 You guys are bonkers. Marie all the way! <3

  • DPS Junkies is looking for more clan member on Destiny for PS4 to do Raid missions,weekly strikes and more must have working mic if you are interested contact me on playstation sanity1.

  • Hi John Hardin
    Plz help I’ve been trying to download Persona 4 Arena Ultimax for 3 days now but each time i get a error code. I’ve been a fan of Persona 3 and 4 games and lover the 1st P4A game and counted down the days till i could play my psn preorded version but now I’m overwhelmed with sadness and I’m not the only one having a hard time getting a game I waited for. Psn offered me a refund but I said no I want the game I’ve payed for and they said they could do nothing else for me. So here I plead with you the makers of the game plz help us your fan and players get a game we crave and want to play badly. From one of your fans on psn named Nejithegreat. The error code is 80029564 but i just downloaded and installed another game and it worked.

    • Had a few reports of it not working, make sure your system and PSN store are both up to date! We pushed out an update, so try again!

  • Hey do you know when Adachi and Marie are going to be up. Just grabbed the game, but when I came home and checked PSN there was no DLC available.

  • Time to Make History, Burn My Dread and others as DLC….

    You used to be cool, ASW.

  • Just as a heads up, I went ahead and updated the system firmware to version 4.65 and it still failed at ~12% installed. I tried downloading in the background once and downloading while focused on the download in the store twice to no avail. I’m downloading again, and I guess I’ll try again once more in 2 hours or so.

  • Picked up my copy from GameStop with the cards and Teddie bop bag (which are both nice) and I’m enjoying it. Definitely was one of my Top 5 hype games of this year. Thanks Atlus you the best!

  • Can’t seem to find Adachi on the store, yet I was able to find Marie in the new Add-Ons section. Also, much like Blazblue, the Playstation Store button in-game leads to nowhere.

  • Bring it to ps4 and I’m in I just can’t go back and drag my ps3 out to play a game when I have a next gen console.

  • I’m still hoping that Atlus Japan might consider talking to Arc System Works about bringing the Arena games to PS Vita (and PSTV). Since ASW have been able to get the various BlazBlue titles working on Vita, one might hope that such a port might be workable here, from a technical standpoint at least.

    And speaking of 2D fighters, is there any chance that Atlus USA might be able to see if their new in-laws at Sega might let them bring Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax to Vita and PS3 over to the West? (I still think that DB:FC should include Dengekiko as a playable character, though I’m probably a minority of one in that regard…)

  • John,

    I’m a big fan of the persona series and I play it on iPhone at work. I do enjoy the strategy playing games like these and the new persona arena. Hopefully this can take me away from my FF 14 addiction. I do wanna see Rule of Rose on here. Never been a fan of one game Eternal Poison, never a big fan of the turn based block strategy.

  • While Marie and Adachi are available (though the latter’s not to be found in the other platform’s marketplace), I just last night bought the P4A Ultimate Collection, but none of the Ultimax content shows as free to purchase on my account. Since the Ultimax site shows some content/unlocks for the first game grant the same access for the second, how is that functionality implemented? (Also, it would be hella noice if the P4A Story DLC were granted for P4A digi-owners, but I doubt it can be made to happen now that it’s all launched.)

    As for song requests, if “Master of Shadow” isn’t in by now, why not?! (I remember how a past friend called it as “hacker music”.)

    • It should just import automatically…that’s what it did for me! Wore out the X button accepting everything from the P4A Ultimate collection. The story DLC doesn’t transfer, sadly :(

  • I still need to play the first one. Im happy you guys added Junpei and yukari as they are my favorite characters from P3 and with me liking the cast from P3 a bit more then P4 im happy to see even more characters from there.

  • Canadian gamers! Here is the official word from Best Buy. Unfortunately I can’t totally understand what they’re saying, but the important bits are a) the games are coming and b) pre-order bonuses are safe!

    “Hi eveyrone! So I have confirmation that the release date advertised, is the date these items were released to Best Buy warehouses. Our teams are working on getting these units out to you ASAP and so you will start seeing your accounts charged and shipping notices coming through. I will have more news tomorrow on shipping.

    You will definitely be getting your bonuses! They will be in the package sent to you.”

  • Awesome! I missed out on the first one but I guess I can get the dlc for the story from the first one. Other than that I can’t wait to play this game going to be getting it really soon possibly tomorrow.

  • I have been on the hype train for the past month. I tried to download the 12 GB since Sunday. but I keep getting the error… I’ve tried everything… im the only one with this problem on my friends list. it’s very upsetting, and I have everything updated even bought all the DLC. its been a sad week :c

  • Hey Atlus, is there any talk of bringing this to Vita/PS4 or remoteplay to wait for it? :D

  • Nice, remove the Japanese Audio even though it appeared in the previous game. Don’t give me that BS license issue crap.

    It just shows you that Atlus US would rather enforce their mediocre English Dub instead of giving option to hear the original voices. I really don’t know why in 2014, their the only ones being stubborn as hell and not giving people options.

    Shame they have Atlus Japan IP’s on their hands. I would rather have others like Xseed and NIS bring Atlus JPN games instead of this wannabe “Atlus” company.

    I wouldn’t be surprise if Persona 5 will be English Dub only.

    Oh well, i’m already learning Japanese and i have tons of games that need to finish so i’ll probably wait for Persona Ultimax 3 and the updated version of Persona 5(you know it’s coming)

  • Guys, there are very few times I need things. I need food, I need sleep, I need love.

    I NEED avatars for this game. Please don’t disappoint me like I was disappointed for P4A! I would pay a premium for a set. Please. Please. I need this!

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