One of the benefits of the PlayStation Plus subscription is that you get access to a free list of games every month. In February last year, Yakuza 4 was part of that list. Today, Sony revealed the games that will be made available to PS Plus subscribers this February in both the US and the EU, and it contains an Atlus game, namely Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. This 2D fighting game from Atlus is the sequel to the original Persona 4 Arena, and both games were developed by Arc System Works (known for Guilty Gear and BlazBlue).
Despite being 2D fighting games at heart, both featured an unusually elaborate plot, set after the events of Persona 4. Told in the style of a visual novel, the stories featured most of the main characters of Persona 3 and Persona 4, and also introduced new ones. For that reason, for fans of the Persona series the game is almost worth playing for the story alone. That said, the story relies heavily on the player’s knowledge of the previous games, so not knowing the background story or the characters will likely make the story a lot less interesting.
I do find it a bit surprising that they picked the sequel (Ultimax) for the PS Plus lineup instead of the original Persona 4 Arena, which to my knowledge has not been made available for free on PS Plus before. After all, the story for Ultimax serves as a direct sequel to Persona 4 Arena. Regardless, it’s both a solid fighting game and an elaborate epilogue to Persona 3 and Persona 4, so if you’re getting it for free, there’s no reason not to try the game!
Source: EU PlayStation Blog and US PlayStation Blog