Persona is a long-running series with a multitude of main series games and even more spin-off games on top of that. One of the most mechanically deep of these spin-offs is easily the series’ sole fighting game entry, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax.
The game was developed by fighting game pros Arc System Works, who are best known for the Guilty Gear series. Being more than experienced at molding fun and engaging fighting games, Arcsys made sure to make Arena Ultimax mechanically deep and satisfying. One such mechanic that might take some practice and time to understand are the persona, and specifically, the persona cards. Most other fighting games have no comparable systems, and learning this mechanic is essential to mastering the game.
The Persona System
Before trying to understand the persona cards, it’s vital to first talk about the persona system. As the series bears their name, it’s obvious that persona are a big part of the Persona series, just like Pokemon are to Pokemon. They are a special power that give the series its identity, with every main protagonist and antagonist using them to fight and gain new abilities. In Persona’s transition to the fighting game world, it's expected that they would not only come along, but be a big part of the game.
Just like in the main series, persona are something the characters use to augment their abilities and unleash their true power. Particularly, the characters have 4 attack buttons, 2 of which are dedicated to persona based attacks. These are the equivalent to ‘heavy’ attacks in other fighting games, and are the strongest normal attacks any character has access to. The persona help give every character their identity, and define their playstyles. These can be anything from screen controlling projectiles or heavy hitting weapon attacks.
The Persona Cards
Just like the HP bar displays a character’s health, the persona cards (aka the persona gauge) act as a meter to show off the persona’s health. However, instead of being represented as a basic gauge, Arena Ultimax opts to use cards. This means that persona health is lost in controlled, predictable portions no matter how powerful a hit they suffer. There is no chance of a persona’s cards all being removed in one hit or even one combo.
The stylistic choice of cards also calls back to the main Persona series, where each character is represented by an arcana card, usually themed after tarot cards. For example, Chie from Persona 4 and Ryuji from Persona 5 are both represented by the Chariot arcana. However, the specific types of arcana do not play a part in Arena Ultimax’s persona system.
Persona Breaks
Since the persona cards function akin to an HP bar for persona, what happens when they run out? Since the persona are only helpers and not the playable characters, the round doesn’t end when they run out of health. What happens instead is called a persona break. Once all cards are gone, the persona becomes unusable for a while. After this period of time, the cards begin to refill themselves, eventually restoring access to the broken persona.
Different characters have a different number of persona cards available to them, making them harder or easier to break. Akihiko, for example only has 2 persona cards, so he is much easier to break than any other character. Meanwhile, Margaret has a whopping 8 persona cards, making her by far the hardest character to break.
Initially, this might seem to be a direct indicator of character strength. If a character's persona gets broken often, some players may think that surely they can’t be that strong. Luckily, the game is balanced so that characters with lower numbers of cards are less reliant on their persona. Akihiko might break easily, but he can do way better without his persona, as most of his strong moves don’t require it. Meanwhile, Margaret becomes significantly less powerful without hers, as she needs her persona for all her best strategies. Since the cards fill back up after a break, characters with more cards also take longer to recover from a break, punishing them even harder for being careless.
How Persona Cards Affect The Game
Giving persona limited health is an interesting feature of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. In main series games, persona aren’t treated as separate entities with their own HP. However, for the purposes of a fighting game, doing so adds another layer of strategy that keeps the game feeling deep and complex. Persona are a very powerful part of any character’s kit, and while allowing them to be used with reckless abandon would make for a very aggressive game, putting a cap on them forces players to act more cautiously.
This is especially true since several characters can create powerful setups by using their persona to sandwich their opponents. Unrestricted, these characters could easily suffocate the competition, but risking the loss of their persona does a great job of keeping things fair and balanced. Persona cards also give yet another avenue to differentiate characters and their play styles from each other. Newcomers to Arena Ultimax might be better off with high card characters, so they don’t have to deal with breaks as often. Meanwhile, pros can confidently handle fewer cards, as they have the skill to avoid suffering breaks.
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is out now on PS3, XBOX 360, PS4, Nintendo Switch and PC.