Persona 4 Arena Ultimax: Out in NA, It's Time You Burn That Dread

[arturefo]

more challenges
yukiko: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EmgPKPIZs4&feature=g-all-u
akihiko: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDHvID3tSv8&feature=g-all-u
yosuke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj7QpVCOvuc&feature=plcp
shadow labrys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuaGUkqqg9M&feature=g-all-u
kanji: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sFSLkVvnz4&feature=g-all-u
kuma: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfV50mu8s24&feature=g-all-u
and that finishes the challenges.

bad news for 360 users.
http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2012/jul/25/persona-4-arena-xbox-360-reported-be-extremely-laggy/

 

[Lythium]

On one hand, I'd like more than one person to chime in on that. On the other hand, if it's laggy on Japan's internet... hmmm.

I guess we'll have to wait and see. I'll be getting PS3 anyway though.

 

[Rutger]

That's really unfortunate if true, but I would be surprised if they don't patch it.

 

[Lythium]

I heard you guys like palettes.

Aigis

Akihiko

Chie

Elizabeth

Kanji

Kuma

Labrys

Mitsuru

Naoto

Shadow Labrys

Yosuke

Yu

Yukiko

 

[#HBC | ZoZo]

Mhmmm.

I never really liked ArcSys's alternatively colors, unfortunately. The only reason I use them is to give my alts a color palette similar to my main :v

 

[LivewiresXe]

Is that a Hazama Naoto, I see?

 

[Lythium]

Yes. Yes, it is.

Aigis: Nu, Justice
Akihiko: Bang, Sol
Chie: Makoto, Jam
Elizabeth: Relius, Dizzy
Kanji: Tager, Potemkin
Kuma: Taokaka, Faust
Labrys: Lambda, Baiken
Mitsuru: Litchi, Axl
Naoto: Hazama, May
S.Labrys: Mu, Order Sol
Yosuke: Jin, Chipp
Yu: Ragna, Ky
Yukiko: Carl, Anji

 

[LivewiresXe]

I could see the Ky version of Yu, but thought I was going crazy. On second look, I kind of noticed a couple of others, like a Jin colour for Yu and a Makoto one for Aigis, but the Aigis one might be stretching. And I SWEAR I saw an I-No colour on someone but I can't remember who for the life of me.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

Going to scumbag Gamestop after work today so I can reserve my copy! :3

Spoiler

(Along with World of Warcraft's new expansion, Mists of Pandaria, aka Kung Fu Panda 3: Po's Revenge.)

After a horrendously ****ty week, it's a good feel.

Smooth Criminal

 

[Sephiroths Masamune]

There's the Persona 2 & 3 Protagonist colors for Yu. That's kinda cool.

 

[sakuraZaKi]

Litchi-Mitsuru with dat skin.

 

[Minato]

There's the Persona 2 & 3 Protagonist colors for Yu. That's kinda cool.

Where? I don't see it there unless it's part of the DLC colors they recently announced.

Also, sounds like P4A's netcode (on PS3) is really good. I can't wait. Hopefully things get patched for 360 players soon.

 

[Rutger]

Glasses and the second set of colors are DLC only.

That's unfortunate, I really want them.

P4U DLC is live on JP PSN Store

Color Packs:
- 4 seperate packs of specific characters for 250y each
or
- Complete pack of all the characters for 800y

Glasses Packs:
- 4 seperate packs of specific characters for 250y each
or
- Complete pack of all the characters for 800y

Navigators: (are unlockable in game)
- Teddie 300y
- Yosuke 500y
- Mitsuru 400y
- Aegis 500y
- Fuuka 500y
- Nanako 500y

800 yen, so 8 dollars might be a safe assumption for right now.
I'd love to be proven wrong with a lower number though.

I wouldn't be surprised if I get them one day anyways, but maybe just one color and one glasses pack depending on who I end up playing. :/

 

[L__]

I got to play this game a few times yesterday

twas fun

 

[Minato]

I played for 3 hours straight today. The game's a lot faster than I thought it would be. I like how the game is simple without being too slow/floaty. I didn't have any buffer problems like newer games, so I didn't get an incorrect move out unintentionally. But that's probably also because there aren't that many motion specials.

Oh, and I was free to throws and overheads/AoA's today. But that's a given. It usually take awhile for me to consistently react to those things when I learn a new game.
Also got AA'ed a lot since there's no FD or Barrier Block lol.

Controls kinda threw me off since I'm not used to anime fighters with a square layout with strengths going vertically. Only game that had that was like GG on pad or Mortal Kombat.

Oh, and character wakeups scare me because of R Actions.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

:D

I kept trying to tell people that it was a much faster fighter than they thought. I'm happy to hear that my guess-timate wasn't far off the mark. Good freaking times ahead for me.

What characters did you play Minato? And what are your thoughts of them?

Smooth Criminal

 

[Minato]

:D

I kept trying to tell people that it was a much faster fighter than they thought. I'm happy to hear that my guess-timate wasn't far off the mark. Good freaking times ahead for me.

I also think that AoA's are a tiny bit faster than most of GG's dusts (not that they were fast to begin with). Although I think there might've been a slight lag.

What characters did you play Minato? And what are your thoughts of them?

Smooth Criminal

Elizabeth, Naoto, Aigis, Yu, and Akihiko. My top 3 favorites were hard to use so I wasn't playing well like my opponent.
Elizabeth's pretty sick. Thanatos has command grabs which you can throw reset with even. Combos, with fear status are really strong. Thanatos is pretty vulnerable, but you can mix things up with command grab, 2C (which has super armor), and Bufudyne to guard break them if they expected a throw.

Naoto and Aigis I did poorly with. Naoto's traps are cool and Aigis's high low mixups in Orgia mode is like some slightly slower version of Nova or Skullgirls mixups. Yu is nice and simple to use. Most of my wins were with him lol. Akihiko's pretty cool. Not using C or D much reminds me of Steve in Tekken.

I can't really give a good analysis beyond what's already in vids. I did like the game mechanics of the game. No more rolling, you can hold a button for teching instead of having to mash/piano it, no throw reject miss, and no backdash on wakeups.

The mechanics overall remind me a mix of JoJo and Melty. Also, I suggest people here to learn to delay their air techs at times. I got blown up for that.

 

[Rutger]

That's the first I've heard anyone compare this with Melty, what makes you say that over GG/BB Minato?

 

[sakuraZaKi]

Is there some of dat 5A?

 

[Minato]

what makes you say that over GG/BB Minato?

I only left that out because it's the obvious comparison, haha.

The aerial movement just reminds me of Melty for some odd reason. BB's was kinda like (a floaty) Skullgirls' aerial movement while GG seemed more heavy/fast. It's the speed/mobility I was kind of getting at. It's a nice medium between the two, and the closest anime fighter I can think of is Melty.

It's just my opinion on it though.

 

[LivewiresXe]

Sounds cool, though a couple of things I wasn't expecting (like the button layout, though that can be changed when the game comes out).

 

[Smooth Criminal]

I also think that AoA's are a tiny bit faster than most of GG's dusts (not that they were fast to begin with). Although I think there might've been a slight lag.

Ah. You think people'll use AoA's a helluva lot more than GG's dusts since they're a little quicker? I mean, having an extra overhead to mix up with and combo off of (especially the high damaging counter hit AoA's that wallbounce) doesn't hurt. Then again, it's a risk/reward kinda thing, and I can see it skewing more towards risk than anything else.

(I'mma call the AoA's "going Looney Tunes on someone" from now on, btw. Lmao. )

Elizabeth, Naoto, Aigis, Yu, and Akihiko. My top 3 favorites were hard to use so I wasn't playing well like my opponent.
Elizabeth's pretty sick. Thanatos has command grabs which you can throw reset with even. Combos, with fear status are really strong. Thanatos is pretty vulnerable, but you can mix things up with command grab, 2C (which has super armor), and Bufudyne to guard break them if they expected a throw.

Naoto and Aigis I did poorly with. Naoto's traps are cool and Aigis's high low mixups in Orgia mode is like some slightly slower version of Nova or Skullgirls mixups. Yu is nice and simple to use. Most of my wins were with him lol. Akihiko's pretty cool. Not using C or D much reminds me of Steve in Tekken.

I can't really give a good analysis beyond what's already in vids. I did like the game mechanics of the game. No more rolling, you can hold a button for teching instead of having to mash/piano it, no throw reject miss, and no backdash on wakeups.

The mechanics overall remind me a mix of JoJo and Melty. Also, I suggest people here to learn to delay their air techs at times. I got blown up for that.

>_____> It's funny that the Japanese have Elizabeth so low on their tier lists. Some of those throw resets/mix-ups are freaking scary, and they take off soooooooooooo much ****ing life. But, yeah. I see what you're saying about her Persona being really vulnerable, and that's probably a contributing factor to her status. A lot of top Japanese players I've seen will actually bait the Elizabeth player into whiffing Thanatos' attacks, counterattacking (or counter-poking, in a lot of cases) it in an attempt to whittle down the Persona life gauge and/or tag Elizabeth herself to set up a disadvantageous situation (sometimes both). I think Jam posted a match some time ago, one between a Mitsuru player and an Elizabeth player, that pretty much highlights what I'm talking about. It also doesn't help that Elizabeth has the lowest health out of the whole cast.

Naoto scares me. Then again, trap characters (haha) always scare me. I've always had trouble playing against characters like Testament (then again, who didn't have trouble playing against good Testaments in Accent Core Plus). It's even worse that Naoto's shenanigans can lead to instant kill set-ups. Granted, it's not that easy, but I'm bound to stumble across SOMEONE who is going to straight up body me with it. I'm going to be thoroughly humiliated. =/

Yu being the Sol Badguy of this game. Lmao. I love it. It doesn't surprise me one bit that the token protagonist is straightforward to use yet strong.

And I take it you're talking about some of the mechanics outlined here?

Smooth Criminal

 

[Minato]

AoA's have super armor for a bit. So they're pretty useful. I'm pretty sure I've been stuffed out of it though, so super armor isn't for the duration like Hulk standing H.
But yeah, if they block it and you have < 50 meter, that's bad.

I think Elizabeth's low on the tier list mostly because of matchups. She can't just get in on some characters easily and she can't just zone either. She's also persona dependent too, so I'm sure that factors into things. Other than that, her R Action is a techable throw (which isn't as bad as it sounds). Her guard cancel (which is also a throw) in this game is pretty awful. I don't think it even has invincibility like her R Action, so it's pretty bad.

And yeah, that link has the stuff I was mentioning earlier.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

Oh snap. I didn't know about the super armor on AoA's. That's pretty handy.

Ouch @ some of those other little factoids about Elizabeth. A guard cancel throw? That's just...I can't even fathom how ****ed she'd be trying to escape pressure. xD Looks like she's going have to do it the old fashioned way (aka hoping somebody doesn't catch 'em not holding back).

Smooth Criminal

 

[Eternal phoenix Fire]

I'm really looking forward to playing with Yu. His playing is extremely similar to Ky-Kiske but with more damage and a dive kick for some fun cross ups.

Sup Smooth Criminal long time no see man.

 

[asianaussie]

yukiko has a homura palette, not sure what to think

i played colour 30 seifuku akiha in melty because that's a yukiko palette, now i actually get to play yukiko yukiko \o/

 

[Rutger]

Elizabeth having Diarahan and it not healing her 100% is going to bug me, it should be called Diarama instead.


I've heard Elizabeth vs. Mitsuru is one of the worst matchups in the game.

Elizabeth vs. Mitsuru
Droit destroys every single option Elizabeth has, Elizabeth has to guess "exactly" right to take the dmg and very risky

Yukiko vs. Shadow
Persona guard blocks all projectiles, DP is too good against Yukiko

Kanji vs. Elizabeth
Zoning allday + 2B, JB anti-air keeps away kanji so good

Otherwise this game has great balance.


Also, here is a netplay stream.

http://www.twitch.tv/thebrett

 

[Smooth Criminal]

I'm really looking forward to playing with Yu. His playing is extremely similar to Ky-Kiske but with more damage and a dive kick for some fun cross ups.

Sup Smooth Criminal long time no see man.

EPF! Good to see you, bro! We gotta get some games going when P4A drops here in the States and (net)play sometime.

One thing is for sure: I'm definitely going to try and get into FL's fighting scene. I need to play offline against people and maybe compete.

Smooth Criminal

 

[Rutger]

http://www.twitch.tv/finestko

Norcal tournament.

Is this the first real NA P4A tournament?

 

[L__]

:o coincidentally I'm at that tournament

 

[Minato]

I failed you guys. Lost to DSMoove so I didn't make top 8.
Fun Day -10 tourney though.

 

[Smooth Criminal]

(Spooky voice) Oh noooooooooooooooooooooo Minaaaaatoooooooooooo whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

D:

Good try, though!

Smooth Criminal

 

[Two-Ell]

Spent a loooong day with P4U. Man is it gonna be a long wait till next week's session lol.

 

[Sunnysunny]

Man, this games release date really snuck up on me. Thank god. Can't handle waits~

I think i've decided I wanna main Chie. Just bought a big pack of Bruce Lee movies. Gonna watch an endless amount of Kung Fu movies so i'll be a pro before this game even hits NA. :D

 

[Minato]

(Spooky voice) Oh noooooooooooooooooooooo Minaaaaatoooooooooooo whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

D:

Good try, though!

Smooth Criminal

I could've gotten further. I know I could've.
I wouldn't have gotten that far if I didn't use Yu though lol.

It's like Ky's 2HS, but like, Lord Raptor HP (?) good.

 

[LivewiresXe]

I failed you guys. Lost to DSMoove so I didn't make top 8.
Fun Day -10 tourney though.

Don't worry, bro. DSMoove's good so it's nothing to be ashamed of. It's kind of like somebody getting upset they lost to Lordknight or something like that.

 

[Minato]

Don't worry, bro. DSMoove's good so it's nothing to be ashamed of. It's kind of like somebody getting upset they lost to Lordknight or something like that.

He lost to someone I know right after, which I have beaten before
I still don't have throw teching down yet, and overheads get me all the time, so I'm not surprised that I lost. XD
But yes, I do expect to do worse once him and others get the game down.

It was a free tourney (aside from the venue fee) though. It was also one match for a set, double elim to get through the whole bracket fast.
I don't have work next week so I can finally enter the BB tourney as well.

 

[Sunnysunny]

One match per set? Yowch. Hardly enough time to even download someone.

Well hey. I don't post here much, but I lurk. From what i've heard, you definitely know your stuff Mina. Give it time. You seem like a quick learner. Hopefully you'll out grow alot of the competition. =w=

 

[Saki-]

Forgot to thank you for the stream Rutger, xD Brett made me want to use Yu even more than I currently do.

Edit: Oh! For any other Yu gameplay fans..Jourdal has uploaded some high level footage from the Godsgarden stream.

 

[Jam Stunna]

http://youtu.be/4LXvuecKs9s

Alot of the matches in this video showcase the insane damage pretty much everyone in the cast can do in the right situation. Also, the Elizabeth player at 1:27:35 does something interesting, by putting herself into Awakened State with blue damage. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but 50 heat free is pretty cool.