So I’m in L.A. for E3 and I knew that the one game I absolutely had to play was Persona 4 Arena. All right, P4 fans and fighting fans in general, this game is pretty awesome. It’s one of those games that can be pretty simple to get into, or can get ridiculously complex with its combos. It was kinda nice playing at E3, because everyone was still kind of learning, so not too many people knew how to cancel a combo with a combo and a side of fries.
The game was dubbed, but it was hard to hear because… well, E3, crowds. Each of the characters have their insulting tag-line under their name (like Naoto being the high IQ Killjoy or something) and the announcer’s phrases are just… wacky, in that dramatic, “Let’s enjoy a great showtime,” from Guilty Gear sort of way. For P4 fans, the characters are, well, in character. Kanji gets a bit embarrassed when facing Naoto, and his win quote when he beats her is so adorable, something along the lines of, “I just fought you as an equal, you know, because… I-I respect ya,” or something Kanji-like.
As far as characters go I tried as many as I could (went to the area twice today because in the last hour of E3 today we were like, “What the hell let’s go back). I tried Naoto immediately, but I’ll tell you right now, she will take some getting use to. Rule number one: always remember to put your gun AWAY after firing, or she will just stand there. She does seem to specialize in shooting and setting traps and such, but she’s so small and awesome that you want to run in and combo the hell out of someone. You can do that, sure, sort of. NOT like you can with Chie. Naoto’s whole point seems to be to set traps, have said person run into traps, and run in and take them out. I did, however, accidentally pull off Hamaon. It didn’t work because the person blocked, but I was actually like, "WHOA!”
Kanji is… really strong. Like… he’s obviously the large character type, but he’s not nearly as slow as most large characters and will bash your face in. I swear, he’ll hit you like four times and it’s just… yeah. I’m use to Hulk slow, or Potemkin. Kanji isn’t fast, by all means, but he works terribly well with his persona. It’s one of those, “Oh sweet the combo’s over… wait, no, it’s not, FUCK!” Yosuke is fast. Fast like, running behind you and twirling kunai and chuckling as he hits you twelve times and jumps around like a ninja. Chie is super fun to use. She’s got great kicks and combos, and her and her persona work together really well. Souji/Yu isn’t bad, but I kept thinking I was going to have Ky from Guilty Gear and he is/isn’t Ky. He’s not as fast as I want him to be? I dunno what it is, but he certainly looks cool. And last, but not least, I tried Aegis. Lots of guns. Lots and lots of guns.
All and all, great game, and apparently some fancy fight stick is coming to the U.S. it sounds like? They also had the Vita video, but no demo :(