Learning About Sicko Persona Characters Through Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

I’m new to the Persona franchise as a whole. Starting with 5 and then Royal, I always knew that people talked quite fondly of Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3, but I never made the time to actually sit down and play those games.

When Persona 4 Arena Ultimax was announced back at The Game Awards I thought “wow I should play P4G before this comes out.”

Learning About Sicko Persona Characters Through Persona 4 Arena Ultimax

Low and behold, I never got around to actually doing that, and now I’ve been playing a fighting game without knowing any of these characters. While you absolutely do not need to know anything about these characters to enjoy the game itself, I’ve found a whole new enjoyment out of this game by simply learning how cursed some of these characters are.

I was playing as Teddie, the weird bear that everyone seems to hate. It wasn’t until I used my burst mechanic and saw a real-life human man pop out of the suit that I understood some of the horrors. I was shaken to my core and lost that match because why the hell is he in there. Is this some sort of Russian nesting doll situation? Is there a smaller teddy bear inside of this human boy and then another child inside of that?

I originally picked Teddie simply because it seemed like the most obnoxious character to play with its random assortment of projectiles, extremely large baseball bat, and the ability to go 2d and lie on the ground. However, I ended up finding so much more.

After playing some rounds with friends I noticed another character, Naoto Shirogane, who is a fifteen-year-old with a gun. Where did she get that gun? It was explained to me in her bio that she is investigating a murder and the police trust her despite her age.

I figured oh ok, sure, but then in the match, she pulled out an Uzi and rained bullets from the sky like some sort of hellfire. How is this literal child getting access to so much weaponry, also while thinking about this I’m still pondering the entire existence of Teddie and I continue to spiral.

Let’s move on to another character I discovered for the first time, Tohru Adachi. This creep roams around the battlefield hunched over and *checks notes* also has a gun. I was more worried about this character’s posture the entire time as it looks just as bad as The Queen.

One character I did vibe with was Marie, who embodies the emo spirit I’m always looking for in a character. Looking straight out of Hot Topic this character rules. Nothing major to say about this one other than like every high schooler I knew at the time, they had everything they ever needed in an oversized purse and probably hung out at the mall too much.

As for the rest of the cast, they seem chill, or at least I haven’t seen anything that immediately made me question what is going on.

I’m enjoying my time with Persona 4 Arena Ultimax and honestly being introduced to these characters in a way where I get to see them pull off flashy and stylish moves has bumped up my interest in playing Persona 3 and 4 exponentially.