Persona 4 Arena Ultimax! *WARNING MAY CONTAIN STORY SPOILERS*

For the five people who are not choosing to make Smash Bros. their go-to-fighting game this week, what about the Persona fans that picked up this nice addition?

While I haven't had time to seriously sink my teeth into it, I can honestly say that what I have played so far is a nice improvement. Better Roster, Golden Mode is awesome and serves as a nice blend of RPG and Fighting game mechanics, and story mode has also been streamlined a bit better to make it feel less redundant. The plot also starts off on a good note so far. I also picked up the first week free DLC characters of Adachi and Marie. Both are pretty fun to play and I will most likely pick up Margaret when she comes out next week.

So thoughts so far? Please be sure to use Spoiler Tags for story mode stuff!

This game makes me wish I was better at fighting games. I really like it, and the story mode is definitely an improvement over the first game. I can't wait to get into the Golden mode.

Finished Episode P4 though I need to go back to a few sections to make different choices and get 100% completion. I certainly appreciate the way they approached story mode this time. Hoping Episode P3 and Episode Adachi are pretty sweet. I still need to play P4 Golden to see if I'm missing something about Marie cause frankly she feels really tacked onto the story and game and her character feels a bit annoying but it's probably because she's a poor Tsundere knock-off. I also found Rise's arc to feel a bit... fan-fiction-y for my taste.

They have definetly tweaked the characters a bit in this installment, Mitsuru doesn't seem to have changed much (not that she needed to be) but I've been noticing other tweeks with characters like changing Chie's Flying Kick move a bit so it's not quite as bulltrout, and I'm happy Yu got a few more rushing options. His new Awakened SP skill is interesting even if it's a total pain in the ass to pull off, since it's based off Order Sol's Finisher move from GGXX.

I'll probably discuss my thoughts on the story once I finish everything. All I will say is that I'm both surprised and a bit disappointed with it, but at least it confirms my thoughts about P5.

Marie does play a pretty big role in Golden. She's kind of interesting, but her personality is just like that throughout Golden as well so... if you don't like her in the bit you see of her in this game, you might not like her there either. I dunno. The only version of P4 I've played is Golden, so I don't know what the original P4 was like in that regard.

I probably won't get time to try to play through Episode P3 until next week. I'm pretty interested in what Episode Adachi will be like too. I'll be interested in your thoughts on the story once you've finished it.

Edit: I'm also interested in these thoughts about Persona 5!

Yeah Marie's story does feel kind of tacked on in Golden. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it, it was a great dungeon, but I wonder if it would have felt really awkward if I'd played Golden first. Doesn't seem to have bugged Scotty any though!

Anyway I got the game on launch and already 100% P4, P3, and Adachi's episode because I am a goddamn Persona junkie. I like the hopping across perspectives this time around rather than doing the same story over and over again for each character. Would have been nice to have a Velvet Room episode. Maybe there will be when Margaret is downloadable, but I'm kind of peeved that it isn't free like Adachi and Marie. Obviously it was ready to go at launch :(

Marie's stuff in Golden didn't bother me any. I think it could have been done a lot better, but I like the concept of her story overall, I think. The dungeon was fun too.

I am curious about her thoughts on the story, though I'm wary about reading them since I don't want spoilers. Between P4, P3, and Adachi, which episode was your favorite?

Marie is barely in this game. She was a fine addition to Golden though.

Beating Episode P3 unlocks the True Ending. Seems to lead into P5. I liked (SPOILER)Sho, so it was pretty cool.

Just finished up 100% all the story modes.

And the story is pretty damn great. I loved Going through Adachi's story.

I really don't like the use of the Velvet Room in this game though.

(SPOILER)I didn't like that Sho had entered into the Velvet Room, and it's coming with the implications of a contract to be formed. His story holds perfectly together without the involvement of Velvet Room, and really in both of these games it's felt more like it's their for fan-service completion then to serve any actual point in the story.

And Theodore was an... odd addition. And kind of pointless.

And I really hope this doesn't leak over into P5.

Still though, lot of fun had with the games story.

I'm pretty sure (SPOILER)Sho is going to have a major role in P5. He called Yukari a *****, so you gotta love him for that. :)

Okay, so I still need to go through Episode Adachi and get the True Ending but I have seen most of the plot at this point. Overall, the story is a mix bag but an improvement in terms of execution over the original P4 Arena. Frankly, I don't see any of this continuing with P5 but rather feel the endings show we may see a P4 Arena Omega or some other nonsense.

I'll explain my final thoughts once I finish the last few elements of the game.