I adore the casts of Persona 3 and 4, even as exaggerated caricatures of themselves because that’s the most fun thing you can do in a fighting game. I’m not going to claim either story mode is well told, but for a fighting game, they’re charming stories with characters you love and get the job done more than well enough in my book. This means that even though Ultimax is a sequel to Persona 4 Arena, you get to play the original game’s story campaign. This re-release of Ultimax comes loaded with all major downloadable content, alongside the inclusion of a massive arcade rebalancing we never got on consoles. I’m pretty surprised I get to say this Switch port is probably one of the finer fighting game conversions on the system. Whether it’s from awkward controls, poor optimization, or a myriad of things, they often just don’t click with me as much.

Most fighting game Switch ports tend to be lacking, however. My ideal platform for fighting games is whatever I can connect my fightstick to, but I think the Nintendo Switch is good for them in theory. So obviously I got excited to see it finally announced to escape PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. I’ve been into fighting games ever since, but none have ever been able to match Ultimax. I got a fightstick, participated in local tournaments, and spent hours after classes in my freshman year of college labbing characters. It turned me from a fan into an enthusiast.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax changed everything, though. It was an important part of my life when it was introduced, and a pretty fun fighting game. Persona 4 Arena was my first real fighting game, and introduced me to ATLUS and the Megami Tensei franchise.

Persona 4 arena ultimax nintendo switch