Overview:
- Estimated trophy difficulty: 10/10 (Platinum Difficulty Rating)
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Trophy Breakdown: 51 (42 / 5 / 3 / 1)
- Offline: 43 (37 / 3 / 3 )
- Online:8 (5 / 2/ 1)
- Approximate amount of time to : 50+ Hours (Greatly Skill Dependent)
- Number of missable trophies: None
- Glitched trophies: No
- Do cheat codes disable trophies?: No Cheats
- Special peripherals or multiple controllers needed? Second Controller Recommended
- Region Locked: Yes
Introduction:
Welcome to Persona 4: Arena a collaboration project between Atlus and Arc System Works. Persona 4 Arena takes place 2 months after Persona 4's True Ending from the PS2 RPG title. Teddie goes missing and so the Investigation Team decide to check up on the midnight channel where they see Teddie in what looks to be a pirate suit advertising a fighting program called the P-1 Grand Prix. Worried about Teddie, the Investigation Team arrive back at June's where they take a leap back into Mayonaka TV.
Gameplay wise Persona 4 Arena holds many similarities to its previous fighters such as Blazblue and Guilty Gear. The mechanics are practically the same, except for a couple new features added here and there. Veteran Guilty Gear players didn't like the "speed" in which Blazblue moved compared to Guilty Gear however Persona 4 Arena seems to have a good medium in speed between the games that make it enjoyable for the GG vets and newcomers alike.
Trophy-wise the game has a lot of the traditional Arc System Works tasks such as Tutorial Mode, Story Mode, Online matches and a couple tedious misc trophies which aren't all that difficult to unlock. Challenge mode has been given a bit of a difficulty boost, opposed to the previous Blazblue titles where we were tasked to complete a certain percentage of them we are now tasked with completing all of them and even though Persona 4 Arena is a bit watered down as a fighter the challenges still prove to be a bit challenging to new comers and regular players alike. The icing on the cake for the game will be Score Attack mode a mode that basically requires you to master each character and go through and defeat every character with enhancements such as infinite special gauges and significantly high attack / health boosts.
Region Lock Notice:
Due to business reasons between Atlus, AtlusUSA and ZenUnited the game has been region locked for each respective region to prevent the loss in sales for the companies of their region. Before purchasing a copy of the game make sure you obtain the appropriate region coded copy.
For those who want an overview of the trophy progress and have no need to review the new mechanics then feel free to skip this section and down to the Trophy Breakdown.
For those who have played Blazblue or Guilty Gear you'll find that a lot of the mechanics are more or less the same on paper however know we have a couple added mechanics added in. Use this as a good quick review to catch yourself up with the mechanics as well as educate yourself on whats new to come.
Burst Gauge
For those coming from Blazblue the way Burst works is much different then it was in Blazblue, however it will feel right at home for those familiar to Guilty Gear. Opposed to Blazblue's system where we are given a Burst per round and one more after losing a round we have a Burst Gauge that refills overtime after you use it. You can use the Burst Gauge for various other things such as Reversal Burst, One More Burst or MAX Burst which will be discussed in detail below. Also keep in mind that under the status ailment Silence or a Persona Break you cannot use your Burst.
Persona Gauge
The Persona Gauge replaced the Guard Primers that were in Blazblue, The Persona Gauge acts as a health gauge for your Persona and is represented through 4 stocks. You lose one stock if your Persona is hit or if you are hit while your Persona is out. Once all 4 run out you are put into a Persona Break status where you cannot do a variety of things such as:
- Skills
- SP Skills
- Burst
Don't fret about fighting a hopeless battle though as the gauge does refill ever so slowly.
Skill Boost
Skill Boost is something new that Arc System Works has added to their fighters and is essentially the same as an EX mode from the Street Fighter or King of Fighters series. Each Skill can be used with a certain rotation and either / or / however with those Skills if you were to input both + or + it would result in an SB variant of that move, it will result in a faster and/or stronger variant of the Skill. When doing this your character will flash blue to show that you have used an SB Skill. Keep in mind that doing these does require 25 meter.
All other new features and mechanics will be laid out under their respective trophies as well within this guide
Fightstick Button Configurations
A lot of regular players of the fighting game genre own a fightstick now, if you are new to Persona 4 Arena and would like to know the proper button config for fightsticks please refer to the display below:
PS3 Controller Button Configuration
In this guide the buttons from the actual game will be used such as ///. You can use the example above to see which input each button is mapped to. If the picture is ever broken please refer to the button legend below:
: (Weak Attack)
: (Strong Attack)
: (Persona Weak)
: (Persona Strong)
: (Evasive Action)
: (Furious Action)
: One More Cancel:
Burst:
Upmapped Buttons
Within the button configuration consider mapping the following inputs to certain buttons on your controller such as your bumpers to make certain easier then doing it on the face buttons alone (or with the odd default setting):
: Quick Escape, Mini Jump and Air Turn
: One More Cancel
: Reversal Burst, One More Burst and MAX Burst
Doing these on a controller would force you to move your hand in an awkward position therefore are recommended to make it easier to input.
Just like a majority of the traditional fighters there is really no set order of modes you must complete to ensure proper completion of the game. You can tackle whatever modes you want from the start, starting out though it would be recommended to follow the order below to help your understanding of the game better before hitting harder modes such as Challenge Mode or Score Attack.
Added to the traditional sets of modes we not have "Long Term" trophies which are trophies that can be unlocked through Arcade mode or Online mode only (which means you cannot use a second controller to unlock these), try to multitask knock these out as you go after other arcade or online related trophies:
Stylish!
Action!
Time for the All-Out Attack!
Die for Me!
One More!
Null Physical
Persona Breaker
You Should Leave Him Be...
Victory Cry
BAM!
There are other misc. trophies that can be unlocked under these modes but are much easier and don't take as much time as the ones mentioned above, the other misc. trophies will be mentioned in another portion of the Roadmap below. Upon starting the game for the first time you will unlock the following trophy:
Tuned In
For this mode you must simply complete the various tutorial missions given to you to help you understand the various mechanics of Persona 4 Arena. Whether you are a regular player of Blazblue/Guilty Gear or a brand new player to fighting games this should always be recommended before anything else, during this step you will unlock the following trophy:
School's Out
For this mode your main concern will be completing it with all 13 characters of the game, while you are doing this it would be wise to work for any of Long Term Trophies that were mentioned within the initial breakdown of the Roadmap. For this you can also switch the difficulty to the lowest setting to run through it much faster, during this step you can unlock the following trophies:
Per...so......na...!
Champion!
Belt Collector
Wild
What many Persona 4 fans are excited for us the story mode, upon starting Story mode you are only given a couple selectable characters whom you must complete first to unlock the rest of the cast. Unlike Blazblue's story mode you don't have to worry about making decisions of any sort that could alter what kind of ending you receive (except for the exception of 4 characters which will me discussed under the first story mode trophy), just play through it and be done. During this step you will unlock the following trophies:
The Kingpin
The Carnivore
The Captain
The Unconquerable
The Emperor
The Beast
The Detective
The Queen
The Boxer
The Angel
The President
The Elevator Attendant
The End of Everything
One of the two most daunting modes in the game, Score Attack! In previous Blazblue titles Score Attack was quite the challenge for newer players, regular players didn't have too much difficulty with it especially with exploitable strong grappler characters however now we are tasked with completing it with EVERY character. Even with exploitable gimmicks it will still be a nightmare to complete it with characters one if unfamiliar with and unlike the previous ArcSys Score Attacks we can't use a second controller to save ourselves mid match. During this step you will be unlocking the following trophies:
Halfway There
Tres Bien!
C'est Magnifique!
The second of the two most daunting modes in the game, Challenge Mode! For those who remember the previous challenges given to us from Blazblue: Continuum Shift and Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend Arc Sys Works loved to give us the most impractical challenges for each character deeming it one of the hardest challenge modes to complete by VesperArcade himself (a YouTube user who completes EVERY challenge mode in fighting games). Well now with the difficulty influence of Atlus we now have to complete all the challenges of the game however compared to Blazblue the challenges are much more doable. During this step you will be unlocking the following trophies:
I Mastered that One
I Learned a Few Moves
Combo Master
Combo Crazy
For this step you will have to complete a variety of online tasks such as play a certain amount of ranked/player matches as well as reach a certain Grade and Level within your online statistics. Though the ranking and statistics trophies seem tough you can actually obtaining it through boosting means. During this step you will be unlocking the following trophies:
They Call Me...
Replay Reviewer
Amazing, Sensei!
Veteran
Speak with Your Fists!
Black Belt
Serious Gamer
To get trophies in ranked matches go into custom search and in the first selection there will be the option to look at a list of players. Search for your boosting partner here and increase each others Grade and Level for the respective trophies. If you need a boosting partner for any of these trophies please refer to the Trophy Boosting Thread.
Some of these trophies are easily achievable and should unlock while you are doing Arcade or Online Mode. If for some reason you missed any of these you can go back and unlock them now. During this step you will be unlocking the following trophies if you haven't already:
All-Out Attack to the MAX!
Calm Down.
Meat Dimension
Perfect!
Denied Pets
Mystery Food X
I am Thou...
Conclusion to Persona 4 Arena
Overall Persona 4 Arena is an amazing game, it holds mechanics that helps cater to the new players looking at the game because it has the Persona label on it as well as holds mechanics to keep the competitive feel of a fighting game within it (much like Marvel vs Capcom 3). Unlike the previous Arc System Works game, earning the Platinum to this game will be something to be very proud of.