Just need to wait for European release now...

Wait, it got a review now? That was quick, but more importantly, surprising. I just came to check if Rise's a playable character, and I saw the review. (Don't tell me if she is. Clearly, I can find that out quickly from here.)

Still considering getting this, glad to see Jeff liked it.

See guys? He likes it. We can all take a breath of relief now.

I am not into Arc System fighters but I GUESS I'll give this a shot.

I was totally expecting a three star review.

Damn, waiting in the UK to play this game now :(

@AlphaDormante said:

See guys? He likes it. We can all take a breath of relief now.

It got 4 stars. Jeff obviously thinks it's the worst game ever made.

Someone is going to come to that conclusion sooner or later.

Great review Jeff.

ONLY 4 stars?! Get bent!*

*joke comment

SSF4 > Persona 4 Arena. You heard it here first.

In all seriousness, the game does seem neat. I'm not the biggest Arc System Works fan, but maybe I will enjoy this more the BlazBlu because it seems a lot easier to play then BB. Sad the story mode is just a bunch of text. BB was like that and it was mad boring. I mainly just skipped all the text and went straight to the fights. Also, I hope the online for the 360 is fixed.

@Video_Game_King: Rise's the announcer, she's not a fighter.

Pleasantly surprised with the rating. It looked neat, but not what I expected based off Jeff's Blazblue review. Though the Persona thing is the only reason I wanna play it.

Aha! Is this our chance (for more Persona 4)?

Also waiting for the European release - and still hoping for confirmation of Persona 4 Golden coming our way!

The story mode seemed dull (and kinda pointless to me, personally) , but this and the QL make it seem good enough for my casual fighting game requirements. Buying it next week

So I don't really like Arc fighting games, mostly for the character design and all-around aesthetics, but the mechincs seemed sound enough. I also don't care for their animations. Their art is fine, but their animations are chunky and stilted. SNK is much better with their animations and overall spritework and character design and I love their mechanics (a sort of half-way point between Capcom fighters and Arc fighters).

I feel like you and I are in the same camp in regards to how we feel about Arc fighters, @Jeff, but I only enjoyed watching Persona. The story was engaging, but I don't know if I'd play the game. With this game, the prospect of more P4 sounds good, but I don't want to engage in a bunch of text that seems to be almost entirely separated from the gameplay.

I dunno'. I'm just on the fence about it. 4 Stars seems high for something that is essentially a book. I'd read a book about Persona 4, but I certainly wouldn't pay 60 USD for it.

Good thing I fall into one of those specifc groups. Nice review.

Sweet, was expecting 3 stars.

Wow. I was also expecting 3 stars. Guess I'll buy this way sooner than later.

Nice review Jeff!

I'm glad Jeff gave an Arc fighter a shot. Guilty Gear X2 is one of my favorite fighting games ever, and I think that game and BlazBlue's very similar story modes paved the way for stuff like MK9.

So what you're saying is it's about an 8.8.

Good to see that Jeff likes it. 4 Stars is a high score coming from someone who not into Arc games.

Never really played fighting games before but damn it I am sucker for just about anything Persona 4 related.

Thanks for the review. Charlie > Yu

I am terrible and beyond when speaking fighting games, though I drive like a demon, so I'm not going to buy this one. But, since I like other Atlus games, I sincerely hope this title do well. Fine review, of course, of course since there aren't many better around than Giant Bomb when it comes to all things related to gaming. None, I'd say, but Eurogamer and Joystiq is OK too. Now, please allow me to shut the hell up.

OH GOD I NEED THIS

Kind of torn on this game. I want to see more P4 story, but I hate fighting games and know that the game part of this game will get in the way of me enjoying it. I would normally say that I will just pick this up on the cheap, but sadly Atlus games seem to have a long shelf life of staying over priced. Oh well. Guess I will just have to use the magic of the interwebs and hope someone posts a LP of it of youtube or something.

4 stars from someone who could never get into blazblu etc seems pretty good to me. Huh, interesting. So Labrys was a unique character for P4A? I thought she must've been from P2 or P1, which is the only one's I hadn't played yet. " Outside of these sparse fights, Persona 4 Arena's story mode is a straight-up visual novel. Page after page of unvoiced text comes your way," -- so it's basically multi-hour long social link sequences, which was probably my favorite part of P4. That sounds great, and I think making the storyline fights a bit easier was a smart move. "Forbidden Honey-Roasted Romance." made me chuckle, that's a great title. I fall within the obsessed with P4 group, so it looks like a purchase. Hopefully the 360 problems are sorted before the euro release, will have to keep an eye out for that.

I'll give it a try.

charlie will never die :(

Neat. I really struggle with fighting games, but Persona 4 is the best. I'll probably pick it up at around the $30-40 range.

I would play a game that was like Persona 4 except replacing the dungeons with a fighting game. This doesn't sound like it's quite there, so I'll pass. Maybe the next one. The idea of getting away from the totally ghetto Persona dungeons is astep in the right direction.

I'd love a PC version, but that's never going to happen.

This was a good review. I feel like Jeff explained his position well enough that anyone can figure out what about, and how much they will like this game based around Jeff's opinion.

The second I hit my first Galactic Punt I was sold. I'm in absolute fucking LOVE!

I would play this but it's a fighting game and I have never yet been able to get into a fighting game. I think when fighting game veterans call fighting games accessible they've just lost perspective on the market nowadays. Even the easiest fighting game is pretty inaccessible and frustrating for completely new players.

Obsessed with P4, but poor at the moment. We shall see in the upcoming weeks, though I'll probably get to try it at a friend's in the next couple days.

Clearly, the GB crew are all 360 fanboys.

@Rmack: I haven't played the Guilty Gear games but Mortal Kombat has been playing with story modes since Deception back in 04. Ed Boon and those guys have been banging away at that for a long time.

A challenge mode gives you combos for each character and, unlike a lot of other fighting games with similar modes, it'll demonstrate the combos to you in order to help you learn the appropriate timing.

Wow, I knew ArcSys games had pretty good training modes but this is something I've wished existed in SFIV's trials countless times. As a fan of Persona who's recently been looking to get into an ArcSys game it's pretty much perfect for me...apart from the region lock.

@punkxblaze said:

So what you're saying is it's about an 8.8.

That's what I'm picking up from this review as well.

thanks for the awesome read, Jeff!

I'm currently getting sucked deep into Persona 4 and the Endurance Run and cannot wait for this to hit the EU.

 Huh. I'm surprised Jeff dug the story. I liked the character stuff in it, but I felt the things they were setting up were decidedly not interesting.
 

Should be delivered tomorrow, super excited. I'm actually surprised, I wasn't expecting Jeff to be a fan of either the Arc System Works mechanics or the visual novel storytelling.

You love Chie. Conflict of interest. And I'm talking about that other, very inappropriate love.

The persona still burns. A tale of Soujis and Tunokus, eternally retold.

*puts $20 on the table for Kanji/Voldo fanart*

I enjoyed Guilty Gear X2, but haven't played any of the BlazBlue games. I'd really like to get this game, but I feel like I need a fighting stick first; my experiences with using the 360 controller for SFIV and MVC3 was less than satisfactory, and even though this is going to play a bit differently, I think I'll probably hold off. I'm probably mostly looking to get this for the story stuff though, and less so the actual fighting game.

@MattyFTM said:

@AlphaDormante said:

See guys? He likes it. We can all take a breath of relief now.

It got 4 stars. Jeff obviously thinks it's the worst game ever made.

Someone is going to come to that conclusion sooner or later.

He says at the end "So if it wasn't for the Persona hook, I doubt I'd stick with P4A", haha, called it