Fighting games are my jam and I absolutely adore Persona 3 and 4, so this game holds enourmous appeal for me. However, between the game originally having such a lengthy delay between the initial console release and seeing the light of day in PAL regions (I'm Australian; Fuck Sydney etc) and then I believe the release in my region falling right around the time I was in need of a replacement PS3, which took me some time because I was perfectly happy just playing on the PC, then periods of me focusing on applying myself to other fighting games, yadda yadda run-on sentence, I just never actually got around to playing it.

So I figure it's time for me to finally remedy the situation and enter the Mayonaka Arena.

So in lieu of that, I was just wondering if you guys could clear up some of the confusion for me in regards to where to start. I'm not entirely sure what Ultimax actually is and although I usually couldn't give a wet fart about fighting game story, Arc does it better than most and I'm totally invested in the Persona universe. So that being said, I only really know about the game from a mechanical point of view. I watched an UltraChen episode which broke down the gameplay systems and the characters and stuff and thought it all sounded super cool.

Again, I think I'm aware of what Ultimax will do from a mechanical standpoint, adding new characters along with the shadow versions etc but what my longwinded build-up to is basically this:

I'm actually interested in the game from a story point of view as well as gameplay. Will Ultimax contain the same story from Arena or will it be new content, furthering the story? Could I start with Ultimax or will I need both games in order to see it all?

Thanks!

Also, Persona 4 Arena doesn't even seem to be on the Australian PSN store at all :\

Pretty sure this is a totally new story

It continues from where Arena's Yu path ends (though Labrys' is also canon) from what I've heard. It is certainly a new story though. It's the only region locked PS3 game so the cheapest way to get it will be at a local store.

The story isn't particularly great though aside from Labrys' which is kind of a tear jerker but only has one fight and 2 hours of text. It's pretty short, all the characters have the same basic story with half different dialogue except for Labrys and the only notable thing it does is introduce the Labrys character who previously only showed up in the Japanese only drama CD version of 3. I imagine Ultimax will be better, especially if they decide to make the character's paths actually different.

Yeah, I'm aware of the region locking. I'm trying to find a definitive answer as to if a UK copy will work in Australia, since the best price I've seen locally was like double what it would cost from ebay or amazon UK. Sounds like there are 13 different PS3 regions and 3 different region versions of the game: one for Asian regions, one for the Americas (which is corroborated by a statement from Atlus that the same version will work in North and South America) and then one for Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East and Africa.

Anyway, thanks for the answers!

EDIT: Just bought a copy on Ebay, so I guess I'll have my answer soon enough :P