I found that i enjoyed Elizabeth's story the most just because of the all of the foreshadowing that is has and showing what her real goal was.

I am not capable of answering this yet as I've only done Charlie and Yosuke but Yosuke's was pretty great. This game has a lot of great lines and Yosuke's story had a lot of fun moments but then a good uplifting moment at the end-ish (I haven't got past the to be continued yet).

I also like the idea of Chie having a Steak Gauge.

My favorites were Yu, Naoto and Aigis' story chapters, however I picked Naoto's. Going through the four initial characters became a bit repetitive because they all essentially tell the same story from a different perspective, so it was a nice change of pace when I picked Naoto's and hers was much different and focused on the Kirijo group. I also liked the perspective of characters who could guess what the hell was going on (Yu, P3 characters...), so I liked how Naoto could immediately discover what exactly was going on in every situation.

This is probably why I think I disliked Kanji's the most, because it was so frustrating to see how clueless he was and his dumbass approach towards everything,

I love Kanji's since he's so stupid and clueless. I also love Teddie's since its pretty funny. I also like Aigis's story cause the ending was pretty great and they actually referred to Minato. I haven't played 7 of them so I'm hoping to see liz's story and naoto's.

Labrys' because it made me cry.

That moment when I realized why she called herself the student council president was heartbreaking :(

edit; other good ones were Teddie, Elizabeth and Aigis (even if I was terrible at playing her)

Kanji, Yosuke, Elizabeth, Teddie and Akihiko's stories were all pretty damn funny. Watching the story reminded me that the Persona team does humor surprisingly well.
 
But, uh, yeah, now that I think about it...I don't think any one story really sticks out as being that much better than the others. Probably because they're all so similar. I guess I'll pick Kanji because I love watching Kanji do Kanji-ass things.

Only finished 4 so far, and it's gonna be really hard to beat Elizabeth's. The plot implications are delicious.

@Turambar: I actually just finished her's and yes this is what I wanted. Her goal seems clear now, and I want her to achieve it badly!

yeah it kinda has to be resolved at this point, after mentioning it so frequently (P4A, P4 and I think the answer).

While the story implications of Elizabeth has me excited for what may happen in Persona's future, I enjoyed the story of Labrys more.

kanjis was awesome i loved the return of gay kanji even through it was some character i also like yu only finished 6

Kanji.

"I kick down the door like a boss..."

"Weapons are supposed to go all pew-pew and ker-pow!"

"Holy shit...how'd he snap those stubby little fingers of his?"

@Chop: great lines form kanji

Yosuke, his story actually made me like him as a character. Then Kanji and Akihiko are tied for second.

I haven't finished all of them yet (Mitsuru, Aigis, and Naoto are all still at the cliffhanger point), but Labrys...damn, man. That story really got to me. It was just heartbreaking.

My other favorites include Yu's (it was fun seeing all of those incidental dialogue choices despite him being a voiced character now), Kanji's (man, I don't even...) and Yukiko's (My preferred P4 love interest. That's right. Suck on it, Chie fans!).

Labrys' was the most interesting due to her being a new character, But I really liked Yu's because his seemed to have the more complete information.

I only have the last little section of Aigis' story left and then Elisabeth's, but Yosuke's story gave me the most laughs. The banter towards the end was great. However, Yu's felt like the most "complete" story. 

Yu didn't have the malevolent entity though. I'd argue the most complete version of the story is Naotos, because she's the only member of the investigation team that meets up with malevolent entity.

Well Kanji does too, Shadow Kanji is pretty much the malevolent entity if I remember right, so maybe that's more canonical?

@Animasta said:

Yu didn't have the malevolent entity though. I'd argue the most complete version of the story is Naotos, because she's the only member of the investigation team that meets up with malevolent entity.

Well Kanji does too, Shadow Kanji is pretty much the malevolent entity if I remember right, so maybe that's more canonical?

I thought Shadow Kanji was just the disguised Shadow Labrys.

As I understand it, playing through the game with any Investigation Team member other than Naoto results in Labrys being controlled by the "Eerie voice," which I take to be the human working with the Malevolent Entity, which only truly appears at the end of Naoto's route and those of Mitsuru, Aigis, and Akihiko.

I expected for Labrys's story to be sad but it really want deep into how they built the anti-shadow units. Both Aigis and Naoto also have strong stories. Aigis with her struggling with the idea of a robot living in society and just finding out that she is a sister and questions how to relate to her sister. Naoto for her continue struggle of gender issues, duty vs relationships, and had hints at what the new opposing force is trying to gain. I can see how that fits in with her novel.

@Hailinel said:

@Animasta said:

Yu didn't have the malevolent entity though. I'd argue the most complete version of the story is Naotos, because she's the only member of the investigation team that meets up with malevolent entity.

Well Kanji does too, Shadow Kanji is pretty much the malevolent entity if I remember right, so maybe that's more canonical?

I thought Shadow Kanji was just the disguised Shadow Labrys.

As I understand it, playing through the game with any Investigation Team member other than Naoto results in Labrys being controlled by the "Eerie voice," which I take to be the human working with the Malevolent Entity, which only truly appears at the end of Naoto's route and those of Mitsuru, Aigis, and Akihiko.

No, I distinctly remember him talking about how hard it is to make personae shadows again, or something to that effect.

Picking Labrys or Elizabeth seemed like cheating--Labrys is a separate story, though obviously crucial to the plot, and Elizabeth seems only tangentially related to everything else that happens. Most of the P4 cast is out because of the similarity of their stories and the sense that their storylines aren't really the canonical ones--there are revelations that never appear in Yukiko, Yosuke and Chie's endings, and overall they just feel unsatisfying. Kanji's is hilarious because of his buffoonery, but also a little disappointing for the same reason. I like Mitsuru's just because it reminded me of how much more mature some of the P3 cast are compared to the P4 cast, and in general the P3 stories are so good that Arena actually feels more like a sequel to that game, not P4. But Akihiko's story actually connects more with one of the P4 cast, and I liked how it intertwined so closely with Chie's story (something that none of the other storylines do to nearly the same extent).

But in the end, I picked Aigis because it deviated the most from the basic template of the other stories, it gave us the most convincing depiction of someone having old wounds torn open again, and the revelation of how Aigis and Labrys connect to one another at the very end of the story ties the two games together better than anything else in Arena. I'm actually a little surprised to see so few other people felt the same way!

@chrominance: Yosuke and Aigis's story kind of intertwine together at some point after the cliffhanger, like Chie and Akihiko

@Animasta: I don't remember if Yosuke and Aigis's stories actually repeat entire conversations or chains of events in the way Akihiko and Chie's stories do (though I could be misremembering--I apparently have the memory of a goldfish, because I honestly can't recall either way). Most of the other stories will take interactions between pairs of characters and change the context of the events--for example, Mitsuru and Naoto meet each other in both of their stories, but they're at different times in different places, and the way the conversation goes is different. In many cases, two people that meet in one character's story won't meet at all in the other character's story. But Chie and Akihiko, from the point where they first join up, follow pretty much the same trajectory until they have to split (because the battle forces one of them to stay behind). I thought that was kinda neat, and was actually a little disappointed it didn't happen more often.

But I'll have to go back and re-watch Yosuke and Aigis to see if it happens there as well!

yeah, Yosuke is there in the announcement room with Shadow Labrys in Aigis's story, and in Yosuke's he makes it there first but the door is blown off by Aigis, and they both chase Labrys until they to are forced to fight at the entrance.

@chrominance: Yosuke and Aigis's story kind of intertwine together at some point after the cliffhanger, like Chie and Akihiko

Yu didn't have the malevolent entity though. I'd argue the most complete version of the story is Naotos, because she's the only member of the investigation team that meets up with malevolent entity.

Well Kanji does too, Shadow Kanji is pretty much the malevolent entity if I remember right, so maybe that's more canonical?

The few I played through are all well done, and I can see any of them being foreshadowing for Persona 5. Although Elizabeth's story is the one I want to see continued. I am even coming up with the story structure of her recruiting characters of the previous games to join her on her quest.

@Peanut: I've been thinking about what's canon in the story mode after playing them all, and you can probably say that everything in Labrys's story is canon. Now, you can assume that Teddie met up with human Labrys because I recall at least 4 stories mentioning this. You can probably assume there was at least one shadow operatives member and one member of the investigation team when they get to the announcement room, also included are Rise and Labrys. all of the stuff after they leave the TV is canon as well (at least that they all meet labrys as she goes with the shadow operatives, and Yu restarts the investigation team). There's also moments of each story where there is canon. I think that Kanji does face off against Malevolent entity, and probably wins. I think Chie saw Akihiko leap out of the window. Basically, if at least two stories mention the same thing I believe it's canon (well, that part inside the announcement room is a little shaky). Now, some characters face off against the Eerie Voice at the end, which is assumed to be a human from the Kirijo group who is controlling Labrys. Some characters face off against the Malevolent Entity, which is probably Nyarlathotep. Eerie Voice simply wants to log combat data against all of the persona users, while Malevolent Entity wants to turn them back into shadows. What I assume happened was that Eerie Voice took control of Labrys, made her fight, and then the Malevolent Entity stepped in as shadow... whoever's canon (I'd probably say Mitsuru at closer inspection) and made his little speech, and then proceded to lose and leave.

and yes, that's what Elizabeth is trying to do, free his soul (Margaret alludes to this in her boss battle in Persona 4 as well).

@Animasta said:

@Peanut: I've been thinking about what's canon in the story mode after playing them all, and you can probably say that everything in Labrys's story is canon. Now, you can assume that Teddie met up with human Labrys because I recall at least 4 stories mentioning this. You can probably assume there was at least one shadow operatives member and one member of the investigation team when they get to the announcement room, also included are Rise and Labrys. all of the stuff after they leave the TV is canon as well (at least that they all meet labrys as she goes with the shadow operatives, and Yu restarts the investigation team). There's also moments of each story where there is canon. I think that Kanji does face off against Malevolent entity, and probably wins. I think Chie saw Akihiko leap out of the window. Basically, if at least two stories mention the same thing I believe it's canon (well, that part inside the announcement room is a little shaky). Now, some characters face off against the Eerie Voice at the end, which is assumed to be a human from the Kirijo group who is controlling Labrys. Some characters face off against the Malevolent Entity, which is probably Nyarlathotep. Eerie Voice simply wants to log combat data against all of the persona users, while Malevolent Entity wants to turn them back into shadows. What I assume happened was that Eerie Voice took control of Labrys, made her fight, and then the Malevolent Entity stepped in as shadow... whoever's canon (I'd probably say Mitsuru at closer inspection) and made his little speech, and then proceded to lose and leave.

and yes, that's what Elizabeth is trying to do, free his soul (Margaret alludes to this in her boss battle in Persona 4 as well).

I think that the canon storyline is basically a mixture. No one character's path is entirely canon. The important parts are that the P3 and P4 characters met each other, that Labrys confronted and accepted her Shadow, and that at some point, both an Eerie Voice and Mysterious Entity made themselves known. The individual character endings once they leave the TV don't conflict with each other, so all of them can be assumed to be canon. Some of the individual or shared storyline specifics may also be referenced in Persona 5, but otherwise, if P5 tells me that event A from Yu's story, event B from Chie and Akihiko's story and so on happened, and that both EV and ME showed up at the end instead of just one or the other, I'll believe it.

Or everything could be canon. Persona does have multiple universes

Of course Yu's story will be the primary canon storyline. Mixed with elements from Elizabeth, Mitsuru, Naoto and whoever else has parts of their story not contradict parts of Yu's.

@Bocam said:

Or everything could be canon. Persona does have multiple universes

oh god then it just turns into steins;gate don't even joke about that

@Animasta said:

@Bocam said:

Or everything could be canon. Persona does have multiple universes

oh god then it just turns into steins;gate don't even joke about that

Now I want it to happen. Though when you defeat Nyarlathotep as Shadow Yu in the arcade mode, he does mention how he could just keep trying to get what he wants.

Labrys or Kanji's. One was super serious and not just a "rehash" of the same story over and over again. Kanji's was great because he's just like "fuck everything" and gets by anyway. He's great.

Turns out I was wrong--Chie and Akihiko don't have the exact same story, mostly because Akihiko only uses Kanji to bust into the Announcement Room in Chie's story, not his own. Oh well, so much for that theory.

But the conversation the two of them have when they have to fight each other is exactly the same in both stories, I'm pretty sure. I don't think that happens anywhere else in the game, and I wonder if it means something or if I'm seeing ghosts again.

@chrominance said:

But the conversation the two of them have when they have to fight each other is exactly the same in both stories, I'm pretty sure. I don't think that happens anywhere else in the game, and I wonder if it means something or if I'm seeing ghosts again.

Actually, I think Aigis and Yosuke have a similar situation- shortly after the cliffhangers for both of their stories, they battle each other, and the conversation before the battle is at the very least very similar.

@Juno500 said:

@chrominance said:

But the conversation the two of them have when they have to fight each other is exactly the same in both stories, I'm pretty sure. I don't think that happens anywhere else in the game, and I wonder if it means something or if I'm seeing ghosts again.

Actually, I think Aigis and Yosuke have a similar situation- shortly after the cliffhangers for both of their stories, they battle each other, and the conversation before the battle is at the very least very similar.

Mitsuru and Yu have a similar conversation in their respective stories.

I like Yosuke's, because his opinion on his friends is hilarious. He thinks that if Yukiko is what every man in Japan wants then they're all in a lot of trouble. He's still afraid of being ass raped by Kanji.

I actually went back and checked, and Aigis and Yosuke have different conversations with one another depending on the perspective--for example, just before their fight,Aigis brings up Yosuke's nickname in Yosuke's story, but not her own.

But I guess we're getting off-topic. It does sound like more of the storylines mix than I realized. I actually wonder, if that's the case, why they bothered to write slightly different (but thematically similar) dialogue for each person's story, even when it's pretty clear they're supposed to be talking about the same thing. Maybe it was just worry about fatiguing the player with straight repetition of the same few lines.

I'm disappointed that we never hear Dojima talk. That guy's awesome.

Also, apparently Aika is mentioned in someone's story. I must have missed that, but when is she mentioned?

@punisherkaos: Yeah you're right she says "Mr. Owner of Aiya, Aika-chan, thank you for this food! Chow time!" Something along those lines.

@punisherkaos: Alright, thanks.

Labrys, they fleshed her out way better than I honestly expected for a new character, and there was some moments in her storyline that really tugged at the heart strings. Whereas some of the main P4 cast got a bit repetitive, I found myself not missing the lack of fights in Labrys's storyline at all, because I was interested in seeing how things panned out.

This may be a little off topic, but has anyone found a place to watch all the cutscenes? I don't really want to buy Persona 4 Arena because I don't enjoy fighting games (also, I'm terrible at them), but I'd love to see the story. Or read it if there's just a good wiki with all the info.

@DeathTrap: I'm terrible at them too but I bought it anyway, and it's not like being terrible at fighting games hindered me in any way (press x/square all the time for victory)

I mean if you want to read about it the megami tensei wiki has the stuff you want, but meh.

@Animasta said:

@DeathTrap: I'm terrible at them too but I bought it anyway, and it's not like being terrible at fighting games hindered me in any way (press x/square all the time for victory)

I mean if you want to read about it the megami tensei wiki has the stuff you want, but meh.

Yeah. If you're interested in the story, you don't need to be skilled at fighting games to see it. The autocombos mapped to the normal attack button eat the enemy AI in story mode for breakfast. I maybe had to continue twice at most while playing through story mode, and the times I did continue were just when I wasn't paying attantion.

Labrys. Man...just...man. It made me cry. I really, really did not give a shit about her when I heard she was going to be the new character for the game. I thought, "Oh look, another robot girl. Cause we needed an Aigis clone for the P4 cast." Then I got to her story. Had to put the game down for a while after I finished it.

Naoto's and Aigis' were also good. But those are probably biased, since they are my favorite characters from said games.