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With Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena releasing in Japanese arcades early on in March, Atlus has posted the opening to the arcade version on their Youtube channel. All of the Persona 3 characters are oddly missing from it, and I'll say I'm a bit disappointed by it because it's mostly a compilation of still images, but it's still cool. Kanji sounds real weird during his introduction; what's up with that?

Source

ANIME

Looks more like trailer then an Opening to me.

Man, if Chie had an overdrive that opens with with "Aha, is this my chance?" This game would get all of my money.

Yeah, I have to agree. That was kind of lackluster.

Thirding the notion that this OP was pretty darn underwhelming. Persona opening movies are supposed to be stylish :/

I do have to say that the more exaggerated style the characters are drawn in fits really well, when contrasted with how silly this concept is.

EDIT: keep in mind that this might not be the actual full OP, only a cut from it. I highly doubt the real thing starts and ends with big japanese Kanji plastered over the screen.

@mutha3 said:

EDIT: keep in mind that this might not be the actual full OP, only a cut from it. I highly doubt the real thing starts and ends with big japanese Kanji plastered over the screen.

Really? That would be good news given the possibility that it could be more fledged out, but I'm not too sure about that.

Something's definitely wrong with Kanji's voice.

@FluxWaveZ: I'm not basing that on anything solid, it just seems extremely unprofessional to me to have 20% of your opening video consist of big, giant blocky slabs of kanji. Looked more like a trailer than an intro movie.

It also didn't set up a proper transition into a title screen.

@Vexxan: Its just his VA putting up a flamboyant tone.

Man, if Chie had an overdrive that opens with with "Aha, is this my chance?" This game would get all of my money.

@mutha3 said:

@FluxWaveZ: I'm not basing that on anything solid, it just seems extremely unprofessional to me to have 20% of your opening video consist of big, giant blocky slabs of kanji. Looked more like a trailer than an intro movie.

It also didn't set up a proper transition into a title screen.

@Vexxan: Its just his VA putting up a flamboyant tone.

To follow up on that, this kinda of an opening doesn't fit the style of either Atlus or Arksys. But who knows...

Whenever Atlus puts opening movies on its YouTube channel, it's always the full cut. The Japanese description likewise gives me no reason to doubt that. Keep in mind that they do explicitly say that it's specifically for the arcade version, though. As far as I know, arcade versions of fighting games here tend to not have anything terribly flashy as an opening movie since: 1. noise-wise, they're not typically in an environment where they're going to be readily appreciated and 2. the attract mode is what's going to actually catch the attention of any passerby who might be curious about playing the game, not an introductory movie that doesn't tell much more than that the game has those Persona characters that are all the rage. My bet is that the home version gets an original opening movie that's more in line with what you're all expecting. At the very least, when I've been to Japanese arcades around here, I haven't seen any major OP for Guilty Gear or BlazBlue.

@Pepsiman: Well, when you contextualize it as an arcade game....Yeah that makes a little more sense. I think part of the reason that OP is so jarring is because of the lack of credits -- then your post made me remember how arcade games tend to look, well, anywhere in the world.

As underwhelming as the actual video might be, I love that music so goddamn much.

@mutha3: Yeah, as far as I know, it's just standard practice here to keep that stuff on the modest side and let the game speak for itself. I imagine that once it's released in arcades here, you're probably a lot more likely to see the attract mode than the actual OP itself in general, especially if the game catches on with the fighting game crowd here. At the very least, whenever I'm surveying local arcades in big cities, I never see major fighting game cabinets that are unoccupied long enough for it to really play.

@Marokai: I especially like when the piano chimes in during Naoto's introduction. It lets you know without a doubt that Meguro's once again at work.

@Pepsiman said:

My bet is that the home version gets an original opening movie that's more in line with what you're all expecting. At the very least, when I've been to Japanese arcades around here, I haven't seen any major OP for Guilty Gear or BlazBlue.

Oh, there's no doubt about that; the console versions will definitely have a nice opening.

But yeah, apparently the BlazBlue arcade openings aren't all that flashy either, so I suppose this makes sense.

I wonder want happened to Kanji's voice. Thats not his normal voice, maybe they got a different voice actor for the arcade verson or at least that intro.

@Nux said:

I wonder want happened to Kanji's voice. Thats not his normal voice, maybe they got a different voice actor for the arcade verson or at least that intro.

I'm not sure about that; I think it's just Kanji or the VA being silly. Understanding Japanese would probably make the voice make sense.

Yeah, it doesn't seem like an OP to me but I dunno, it made me excited for it. Although, I think Meguro could make me excited about paint thinner if he wrote the music for the advert. I couldn't care less about the story since it sounds dumb anyway, I just want a Persona fighting game. I suck at 2D fighting games even more than 3D ones but I'll give it a go. But who to main? Chie, Yosuke or Yukiko? Tough decisions.

Do we have any word on a console release date for Japan or the States?

@Commisar123 said:

Do we have any word on a console release date for Japan or the States?

PS3 and 360 release in Summer 2012 in Japan.

@FluxWaveZ said:

@Nux said:

I wonder want happened to Kanji's voice. Thats not his normal voice, maybe they got a different voice actor for the arcade verson or at least that intro.

I'm not sure about that; I think it's just Kanji or the VA being silly. Understanding Japanese would probably make the voice make sense.

I can agree with you on that. Its just funny how it only seems to be Kanji who sounds off. Its proably fine in game.

It sounds like voice actors from the anime.

@nohthink said:

It sounds like voice actors from the anime.

Japanese VA from Persona 4 = Japanese VA from the anime = Japanese VA from P4U

@WilltheMagicAsian said:

Man, if Chie had an overdrive that opens with with "Aha, is this my chance?" This game would get all of my money.

Assuming the English version is translated by the same team that did Persona 4 I could actually see that happening. Those guys have a pretty good sense of humor.

This is the correct amount of silly.

@FluxWaveZ: I'm fairly sure that they used Kanji's shadow's voice rather than his normal speaking voice for some reason. I can't really think of any reason they would do that, though.

@Wudz said:

@FluxWaveZ: I'm fairly sure that they used Kanji's shadow's voice rather than his normal speaking voice for some reason. I can't really think of any reason they would do that, though.

Well, considering Kanji's title is "Terrific Macho Emperor (戦慄のガチムチ皇帝, gachimuchi is a Japanese slang term, referring to very masculine homosexual men)" I can see why he used his shadow voice.