Persona 4 Remake Is Good and All, but Where’s My P5 Arena?

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Fans of Persona can look forward to it, as Persona 4 appears to be the next title in line for a remake. However, one might wonder about the status of Persona 5 Arena.

Hey there, I understand your point about Persona 6 and it’s been a while indeed! But haven’t you noticed something interesting? Despite Atlus seemingly enjoying the success of Persona 5, they haven’t released a new fighting game in the series yet. That’s quite unusual, don’t you think?

As a dedicated fan, it feels like Persona 5 has been on an incredible journey! From dancing games to hack-and-slash action games, tactical RPGs, dungeon crawlers, and even gachas, there seems to be no end to the spin-offs this iconic series has produced. Not only that, but our beloved Joker made a stunning appearance in Super Smash Bros Ultimate! Flip on a gaming YouTube video, and I’d wager a good 50/50 chance you’ll catch the enchanting tunes of the P5 OST playing in the background. What a time to be a fan!

As a hardcore gamer, I can’t help but feel a sense of longing for the next installment in the Persona Arena series. Despite its immense popularity and numerous spin-offs, it’s been years since we’ve heard even a whisper about P5 Arena. The last time we got a taste was with the release of P4 Ultimax back in 2014. But here’s a bit of good news, if you will: the game was later ported to Steam and Nintendo Switch in 2022!

If you haven’t tried P4 Arena before, it’s a fighting game in the anime style, crafted by Arc System Works, known for their work on Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball FighterZ. The game presents a fresh narrative that picks up after the events of Persona 4 and 3, with characters slightly older from those games.

ArcSys skillfully integrates gameplay elements from the originals, perfectly recreating them. Each character has a limited number of uses for their persona. The strategy you adopt, based on the character you choose, is significantly influenced by status effects.

Without a doubt, P4 Arena offers a thrilling, high-speed battle experience, filled with spectacular maneuvers for creating jaw-dropping combinations. If you’re a fan of Persona, this game is a delightful must-play that remains enjoyable to this day.

Characters from both P4 and P3 are among those playable, including Akihiko Sanada, Mitsuru Kirijo, Junpei Iori, Chie Satonaka, and the main character of P4, Yu Narukami.

Interestingly, fans have stumbled upon files within P4 Arena that suggest a potential Joker appearance in Arena Ultimax. Given the chronology, it seems this version of Joker could be an early concept being developed by Arc System Works.

Back in 2016, I eagerly waited for the long-anticipated release of Persona 5, a game that had faced numerous delays since its original planned launch in 2014. Intriguingly, if things had gone as initially planned, Joker might have made his debut not in Persona 5 but in P4 Arena Ultimax, released the same year. Regrettably, as the project kept getting delayed, this fascinating concept was eventually abandoned.

Even though it seems quite unusual that we haven’t witnessed a Persona 5 Arena game yet, given that the success of P4 Arena led Atlus to explore other spin-off genres such as dancing and crossover games like Persona Q.

There might have been issues with coordinating schedules: as Atlus neared completion of Persona 5 for its 2016 Japanese debut, Arc System Works were simultaneously working on Dragon Ball FighterZ, which hit the shelves in January 2018.

Immediately following this period, it’s plausible to assume that some members of the team started working on what eventually evolved into Guilty Gear Strive, which was released in 2021. This doesn’t include other projects like Granblue Fantasy Versus (released in 2020) or DNF Duel (scheduled for 2022).

During that period, Atlus kept developing P5 and unveiled the upgraded edition, Royal, in Japan (globally in 2020). Additionally, they introduced numerous spin-offs such as Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight (in 2018), Persona 5 Strikers (in 2020), and Persona 5 Tactica (scheduled for release in 2023).

It appears the release timings for the spin-off title didn’t align as expected. With Arc System Works having a hectic past few years, it seems that the timing might be off for a project such as P5 Arena, given their schedule is now less congested.

Right now, the common agreement seems to be that we should be patient and anticipate the upcoming launch of P6. Fingers crossed, maybe this time everything will line up perfectly for us to receive a long-awaited continuation of the Arena series. Ideally, it would include Joker, the Phantom Thieves, and all the new characters from Persona 6.

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2025-03-21 01:43