The Arena games are not bad. I feel the first game has the better plot but Ultimax did a better job telling the story since the first game's stories get a bit redundant as you play through each character's arc. I think my real issue with them is that I was hoping for the big bad to be someone else who could really twist a knife into the franchise and instead it was nothing really special. Labrys was also a better character than Sho with a significantly better backstory.

The other issue with them is that I felt the games Flanderized the characters a bit too much. The P3 cast became incredibly eccentric and the P4 cast sounded like Care Bears. Overall, they are not bad games and I still recommend playing them, but they don't measure up as the "sequel" either game deserved. They're still really fun fighting games though.