Finally, there’s some tentative confirmation that Persona 4 Arena will be in the hands of European consumers this year. Eurogamer are reporting suggestions from the game’s Facebook page that say, should it pass certification, Persona 4 Arena will likely be available in stores this May.
Persona 4 Arena is the direct sequel to the events of the RPG Shin Megami Tensei Persona 4, but this continuation differs in that it’s a fighting game. It’s as important for fans of the series, the great plot and the interesting characters, as it is for fans of intricate fighting game systems.
The game was developed by Arc System Works, who’d previously developed BlazBlue and Guilty Gear, so it’s the next step forward for fans of their work too.
Interestingly, this is a massive concern and required waiting on the part of the more ravenous european audience because it remains impossible to import without also owning a Japanese or American console due to being a rare occurrence of a region specific PS3 game. It has been presumed this was a move on Atlus’ part to get a real tally of how well the game is selling in regions where they haven’t been able to publish due to lacking the necessary foothold.
The game’s being published by Zen here instead of Atlus who take care of it everywhere else. Hopefully the game sells well enough that they can continue to do more work in-house and not necessarily have launches in different areas of the world a year after initially coming out.