Rise confirmed as playable character

From Famitsu, Rise has been confirmed to be a playable character in Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, fighting alongside her Persona Himiko, who has apparently experienced a transformation.

This validates the Best Buy leak that happened last week, which probably means that Ken will be revealed shortly as the next playable character and that the North American release date for the game will be September 16.

(Brighter/larger image here)

Official website updated

She had better have a move that involves dropping a giant mic on somebody. Or something along those lines.

Or, you know, she could just fight by swinging a mic on a cord, like a ball-and-chain only with a mic-and-cord.

I didn't even play the first P4A.

Man I haven't played Persona in so long that I read her name as "rise" (rising up)

They've milked P4 so fucking much that I don't even care about it anymore

@mcfart said:

It's rapidly approaching there, isn't it. I wonder how much of this has to do with their recent acquisition.

As for Rise... I don't like it. It feels forced. Hopefully they can find a way to make it work, but I remain skeptical. I am looking forward to seeing what kind of person Ken grew into, though.

@viking_funeral: I imagine they were working on a lot of this stuff before the acquisition unless you mean they started this stuff because of Index financial problems.

And Rise is a lover not a fighter.

This actually makes sense because of the story while simultaneously not making sense because of the story.

See, since part of the plot is that imitations of everyone's Shadow selves are rampaging through town, then of course Rise's Shadow is back, and it could definitely fight; so you gotta make a Shadow Rise character to account for that. But since you already have Shadow Rise, it'd be a waste not to make a standard Rise character available, even if she isn't gonna fight in the story itself.

What kind of a move set will she even have? Himiko and Rise were just scanners. I'm glad though, I haven't played P4A and will probably be picking this up since I just recently finished the game for the first time.

The P4A2 story picks up from the end of P4A, so I don't know how well you'll be able to initially follow the story because of that. Maybe they'll have a good enough recap.

SOOOOO HYYYYYYPE!

While I'm slightly disappointed they went with Rise over Adachi or Koromaru, I'm still really looking forward to this. I wonder if Fuuka will play a bigger role in this one.

I see what you did there.

Can't wait to see future Ken.

I doubt this game specifically has much to do with the acquisition. Persona 4 Arena had already existed before they were bought and sequels to fighting games with updated characters is incredibly common.

Hmm... Since ArcSys likes to reuse moves in their games, I can at least see I-No's mic flip being one of Rise's moves.

Looking forward to the console release.

Tch, didn't even think about Adachi. Now that would be a really good inclusion.

Like GZA in Wu-Tang: Taste The Pain/Shaolin Style?

This is still Persona 4Arena, after all. Makes sense to throw her into the mix.

Interested in seeing how she plays. Someone with a lot of defensive or "indirect" abilities could be a fun addition to the roster.

@smokeyd123: Adachi was at the end of one of the trailers so i dont see how hes not in the game

Since Adachi has story presence in this game, I still expect to see him show up as a character. Holdin' out hope, anyway.

Don't you fret - the dancing game and the dungeon crawler will drag you back in.

It does feel like they're squeezing everything they can out of the P4 franchise, but I'm legitimately interested in Persona Q - it's made by the Ettryian Oddysey(?) guys, but apparently it doesn't feature robust map-making functionality, so I don't know what to think or expect.

@superkenon: Come on man! Adachi will be console exclusive! You need to save the best for last.

I'm in. Adachi, Shadow Charlie, fightin' Rise, it's just-- I'm in.

And in regards to milking the franchise, yeah, they're doing it, but I haven't gotten tired of it yet. Putting out a bunch of spinoffs and a remake doesn't drain much outta me. They haven't hit saturation point with me yet. I think at some point I'd like a return to jrpg form with P4 characters to cap it all off, but that raises its own problems.

@irrelevantjohn: Yeah, I figure it's not lost on them that Adachi's one of (if not the) most yearned-for character. It'd be very weird if they went as far as teasing him, adding him to the story, but stopping before making him playable. He's gotta be in.

Or he'll be DLC. Wah, wah.

Is it possible to adapt the same animation for a completely different 3D model, based on how they operate with creating their characters?

It does.

@fluxwavez: I'm going to say I don't know since I don't really know that kind of stuff. I'm only speculating on that one famitsu pic alone.

I'd be somewhat surprised if that were the case, since I'd think their technology/procedures would've changed from the Guilty Gear days. Still, even if it's not by importing the same assets, they've proven to be fond of basing new animations on old ones. Some of Yu's moves are identical to Ky Kiske's, for instance.

Rise using mic-based attacks would be the best shit, either way.

Fuck Ken, the dog has probably died already.

He'll be playable after Jubei and Saya in Blazblue.

Considering every game that has been associated with P4 has been great so far, I don't see the problem. I don't understand when people say "urgh they've used this franchise so much, blah blah blah." Every game has been unique and fun. RPG, Fighting Game, Dancing Game etc...

That's pretty much how I feel, I'm still in love with the characters from both games. Uh... not literally, or anything.

I didn't really like Persona 4 arena. The visual novel sections were lame. After Golden and its epilogue they kind of wrapped everything up for that cast imo. Now they're just a typical anime cast.

Also Eternian Oddissy seems intimidating (seems very much like classic grindy JRPGS), but I might be down for the dancing game if it's stupid enough

What? Okay. Sure. Let's be real: at this point this game is raw, 100% pure uncut cocaine fanservice. Why wouldn't you just put Rise in your fighting game sequel?

Her special must be calling her opponent Senpai over and over again until there head explodes, calling it.

While I like Rise, I will always be on team Yukiko and I'm weird like that, I attach myself to several characters and stick with them forever, especially in fighting games. I will only play as Fulgor in Killer Instincts as an example, won't touch any other character.

EDIT: Also random question if someone could answer it, I haven't played P4A yet but plan to this year, how should I approach the game? As I just said I tend to stick with a few characters and only play as them (which would be Yukiko and Kanji) but if I remember correctly they all have different story careers...or something? Essentially I'm asking will I need to beat the game with every character for the story or playing it with Charlie once will serve that purpose?

P4A's is a 20-25 hour story mode with 90% reading and 10% battles, with battles being ridiculously simplistic on the easiest difficulty setting for beginners. To experience all it has to offer, which means what P4AU will directly follow, you would need to play across several of the characters' chapters, which do have a lot of redundancy. This is required not only to fill in details of the story from different character perspectives, but is also required to unlock certain story modes like Labrys' which explains her backstory, Elizabeth's which is probably essential for P4AU and also to unlock the ability to see character chapter epilogues (as they all end on a cliffhanger until you finish Labrys' story mode).

New Details

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax will launch for PlayStation 3 in Japan on August 28 for 6,980 yen, this week’s Famitsu reveals.

First-print copies will include an additional scenario downloadable content set.

As leaked earlier, Rise Kujikawa, who acted as navigator in the first game, will be playable in the fighting game sequel. A Shadow version of Rise will also appear.

A new “Golden Arena Mode” has also been added. A battle tournament incorporating RPG elements, players will be able to raise their levels, learn over 150 skills, customize their favorite characters, and build Social Links with the navigator character.

This mode will also be implemented in the arcade version at the end of April.

Outside of the new mode, it appears the story for Persona 4 Arena Ultimax might tie in with that of Persona 4: Dancing All Night.

Read more at http://gematsu.com/2014/04/persona-4-arena-ultimax-hits-ps3-japan-august-28#x08J3OqVlCdMKxqQ.99

Where adachi. That is all I want . Ken was lame.

@fluxwavez: If I'm reading this right, "Golden Arena Mode" is basically Blazblue's Abyss mode but with social linking?

Yeah, that seems right.

@fluxwavez: @nightriff: Or if reading a visual novel isn't your thing, there's always the manga adaptation (the artist draws great reaction faces).

I don't care who they add to the roster, just don't make us folk in the UK/EU have to wait a year before we can get the game.

@bocam: The manga's story is missing essential elements of P4A's narrative, though. Like, Elizabeth isn't involved in it at all.

Unfortunately, region locking might happen because the JPN release is August 28 and the NA release is September 16, which are pretty close together. Here's to hoping it doesn't come to that agian.

@fluxwavez: Her story is pretty self contained so I could see why they would've cut it. But after reading the final chapter it seems the manga also cut any hints of the Malevolent Entity. Also I'm pretty sure region locking won't happen as the cost difference between the two versions is smaller (It would actually cost me more money to import an english copy to japan than just buying a japanese copy) due to the yen losing its value

Sometimes we must fight for the ones we love.

At the very least, they could treat it the same way as they did with Chrono Phantasma, giving us a digital-only release not long after the US release. I'd be satisfied with that.

thanks for the scans. seems intersting

And the ad:

Also, this one shows off some of Golden Arena Mode:

Official website updated

Looks like she has a Soul Satellite / Ouroboros thing going, I'll probably be terrible with her.

Still gonna main her though.

Of course one of her supers is slapping the hell out of her opponent.

What's that supposed to be? Like an extra chapter in the story?