Persona 4 Arena for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

Having played both the Playstation 2 Persona games, I came into this with some backstory as to the character. While it's not necessary to get full enjoyment, I'm sure it will add to the experience if you have played them.

That being said, I'm not afraid to admit at being mediocre at most fighting games. I started out on Easy difficulty and am now up to Normal where I win regularly and intend to step up the difficulty even further in an attempt to get even better before taking this puppy online.

If you are like me and enjoy the PS2 Persona's then you'll find most enjoyment in the Story mode. The characters are the same as you'd remember and it's nice to finally have a fully talking P4 main protagonist. The story centers mostly on Labrys, a character you will meet in this game. Her story is beatifully tragic and is a main draw. The other characters and their backstories are also well done mesh together well; an excellent translation and good English voice acting further enhance the experience. Basically, if you are here for more adventures from the Persona cast, you will be very happy.

The fighting is fast and fun. Special moves are fairly easy to execute but the numerous advanced combos will take some time to master. There are also instant kill moves that can be made but most of the time they are just for a flashy finish as you'll probably have drained your opponent of most of their health by the time you accumulate enough SP to use them.

The Story mode is around 30 or so hours of gameplay to finish everyone's arcs up. There's Versus, Online, Challenge, Score Attack and Training modes as well, so there's a lot of value here.

As for complaints, I would have like to see more backgrounds and more characters (there are 13).

If you liked fighers in the style of BlazBlue, you'll like this. If you liked Persona 3 and 4, you'll like the Story mode at the very least. RPG gamers shouldn't hesitate to jump in as it easy to learn, but difficult to master.