Persona 5 Arena or another Atlus-branded fighting game may be a possibility, judging from comments made by a notable leaker.
Persona 4 had a number of different spin-offs ranging from dungeon crawler Persona Q to rhythm game Persona 4: Dancing All Night. But arguably the best of the bunch was Persona 4 Arena, which brought together the Persona team with Toshimichi Mori and the crew behind the BlazBlue series. BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle seemingly sunsetted the series by folding Persona 4 characters into a crossover fighting game, but that might not be the case.
A leaker that reports on Persona publisher Atlus stated that the company was working with an outside developer on a new fighting game for some time now. This means fans could see a follow-up to the series.
Will there be a Persona 5 Arena?
There could be a Persona 5 Arena or other fighting game related to Atlus IPs in the works, according to a noted leaker.
@MbKKssTBhz5 spoiled the reveals of Persona 3 Reload and Persona 5 Tactica and recently discussed what’s going on within Atlus. While the biggest bit of news was a surge of human resources surrounding the development of Persona 6, there was also a discussion of a fighting game being developed by Atlus in collaboration with an outside studio.
MbKKssTBhz5 was questioned on the fighting game and noted it “was in and out of development for a long time because the partner developer was very busy with other things [and] Atlus was too.” That makes it unclear whether the game may have been canceled, but there is some cause for optimism for Persona 4 Arena fans. Though there’s no guarantee that the game is being made at this point and there’s no guarantee that it was a Persona 5 Arena in the first place. Still, this would be the most obvious direction Atlus could go in when it comes to making a new fighting game.
Atlus has been actively looking to expand the footprint of the Persona series, which has led to past games being ported to modern consoles, the Persona 3 Remake, and new takes on the franchise like Persona 5: The Phantom X. There have also been reports of other efforts, like discussions of a new game with Pokemon GO developer Niantic.
The profiles of Atlus, Arc System Works, and the Persona franchise have all grown since Persona 4 Arena’s release in 2012. Atlus clearly hasn’t forgotten about Persona 4 Arena and fighting games are enjoying a surge in popularity with the success of Street Fighter 6, continued interest in Guilty Gear Strive, and the imminent release of the Mortal Kombat 1 beta. Putting together a P4A sequel could make a big splash for both companies.
How can you play Persona 4 Arena in 2023?
Persona 4 Arena Ultimax was ported to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam in March 2022 and received a significant update that added rollback netcode the following September. The game remains available on all three platforms to this day.
The Switch, PS4, and PC ports of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax received strong reviews. Review aggregators have each version of the game sitting at around an 80% average. While a follow-up may or may not happen, fans aren’t starving with the games being supported on modern consoles.
