History YMMV / Persona4ArenaUltimax

** When the game was first released on PS3 and Xbox 360, the fact that the DLC is on-disc. While some people are fine with it since they're temporarily free, the practice of on-disc DLC being present at all was found condemnable by some. This issue becomes a little less prevalent with the 2022 re-release on PS4 and Steam, which comes packaged with all of the original DLC content from the PS3 and Xbox 360 releases.

** "Do you think the [[VideoGame/Persona3 P3MC and Shinjiro]] should be a playable characters?" -- Neither character makes an appearance in the game, [[spoiler:due to both of them being dead]], which is a sticking point for those who wished for ''Ultimax'' to adhere to the game's canon or not, despite the appearance of DLC fighters like.

* AntiClimaxBoss: [[spoiler:Hi-no-Kagutsuchi, the true identity of the [[BigBad Malevolent Entity]]]] in the end of all stories is really disappointing for a ''boss-only character'', having a really limited arsenal of moves, not having that much health, and can be easily defeated by spamming heavy attacks. In addition to that, it's rather plain looking for a final boss, especially one given the series as a whole. It's even more disappointing considering that Arc System Works' more recent attempt at a giant boss with ''VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma'' and [[spoiler:Take-Mikazuchi]] was handled better.

** There is also a break in the fanbase regarding [[spoiler:Kagutsuchi. The main source of the break is not that he is there, it's that according to many he is a complete ripoff of Nyarlathotep instead of being its own character capable of standing on its own merits. Some prefer him over Nyarlathotep though, only because it fits better for the theme of Persona 3 and 4.]]

** "Do you think the [[VideoGame/Persona3 P3MC and Shinjiro]] should be a playable characters?"
** The fact that the DLC is on-disc. While some people are fine with it since they're temporarily free, the practice of on-disc DLC being present at all was found condemnable by some.

** {{Flanderization}} in spin-off media has made Akihiko a very divisive character, particularly in ''VideoGame/Persona4ArenaUltimax''. The game downplays his flanderized traits, with one social rank having him dedicate more to his education rather than on his boxing.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: One of the reasons why Episode P3 is generally considered superior to Episode P4 is Kikuno.

** The first line of the chorus to "Time To Make History" (The new battle theme from ''Persona 4 Golden'') being the Baseball terminology "Step on up to the plate" became this when Junpei was unveiled, dressed in a baseball uniform & wielding a baseball bat as his weapon of choice. This was ramped up when "Time To Make History" replaced "Fog" as the Instant-Kill theme.
** [[spoiler:Kagutsuchi's boss appearance - considering that the recent ''VideoGame/{{BlazBlue|Chronophantasma}}'' game had a similar boss with Take-Mikazuchi, one of the gods born out of Kagutsuchi's blood.]]

** As it was in Persona 3 and almost anything following, Mitsuru still seems to have... ''[[ImpliedLoveInterest something]]'' for Yukari. Near the end of the P4 story [[spoiler:when Rise gets everyone connected with each other as they wander the fog covered Inaba]], Mitsuru seems the most elated/relieved about Yukari's safety than anyone else's.

** Yukari's reaction upon realizing that Rise is both a Persona user & IdolSinger Risette is too immediately gush over how pretty Rise is.

** Prior to version 2.0, most Shadow characters weren't used very much competitively. This was mostly due to their gimmick, Shadow Frenzy. At 100 SP, a shadow character could activate a {{Super Mode}} where they could jump-cancel any normal, chain any SP move into any other SP move once (including Supers), and use any number of SP moves, at the cost of all these reducing the timer. In theory, this gives every Shadow character a potential Touch of Death combo. Unfortunately, this came at a cost; ''No Burst''. The loss of your universal "get off me" button in exchange for a [[SomeDexterityRequired difficult to execute]], time limited Touch of Death, only accessible at max meter (retaining meter across rounds helps, but still) was too great for some, turning them into {{Awesome But Impractical}} {{Glass Cannon}}s. In addition to that, they use the ''Persona 4: Arena'' auto-combos as opposed to the new ones, so their comboing is not as good in some cases as the updated characters. Shadow Chie, Mitsuru and Naoto are exempt from this, due to having a pseudo touch of death for the first two and the Fate counter for an alternate win condition for Shadow Naoto. The 2.0 update, however, flipped this around, giving Shadow characters a Burst they could use, which, as a {{Necessary Drawback}}, locks them out of Shadow Frenzy, while activating Shadow Frenzy empties out the Burst Gauge, still making them Glass Cannons, but removing the Impractical. This was such a successful buff that some high-tier players now almost exclusively use Shadow characters.

* TheScrappy: Sho Minazuki is widely disliked for encapsulating everything that can go wrong with an "edgy" character, with many feeling that his AxCrazy "edgelord" personality feels too shallow and out of place in Persona, not helped by Creator/ToddHaberkorn's voice acting making him sound gratingly obnoxious. His motivation which is to destroy the world simply because of his crappy upbringing feel extremely {{Wangst}}y, which compounded by how he constantly acts like a complete {{Jerkass}} to everyone around him, makes him UnintentionallyUnsympathetic.
* {{Squick}}: One of Ken's beta designs has S&M undertones... which becomes this when you remember that he's ''13''.

** Some people feel this way, from the ''Persona 2'' references that [[spoiler:didn't lead up to Nyarlathotep as many expected]], to the Shadow Operatives mainly being secret. Retroactively, the concept of the Shadow Operatives, a group dealing with supernatural incidents and shadow activity, was considered to be a wasted concept come ''VideoGame/Persona5''. There has been no known justification to why they didn't get involved in the game's events despite the obvious indication of shadow activity.[[note]]Considering almost everyone in Japan at least heard of the Phantom Thieves, one wonders why they wouldn't check it out, especially after Medjed.[[/note]] Where many felt like the Shadow Operatives was only brought up in the Arena duology was simply an ExcusePlot so the P3 and P4 cast could meet each other.
** Did you maybe think that Yu's Shadow or reasonable facsimile would have interesting things to say to him? Well, too bad, cause Yosuke is gonna kill him early in the game and never shall the two meet! In fact, the Shadow's themselves count, as they are simply there to give fights in the story mode that wouldn't involve FightingYourFriend[=s=] and have little role in the actual plot.

** Considering she served as MissionControl in the last game & ''Persona 4'', no-one expected Rise to be upgraded to a playable character in ''Ultimax''.

** Nobody expected Marie to become a DLC playable character, either.
** And now we can add Margaret to the list.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Sho Minazuki [[spoiler:has a tragic backstory where he was raised by Ikutsuki and can only connect with people by fighting them]]. But he is such a nonstop asshole to everyone, [[spoiler:even after his plan is thwarted and everyone forgives him and he realizes he had a friend all along]]. And he enjoys petty acts of cruelty so much, like [[spoiler:taking control of Labrys with her remote control, making her attack her friends, and laughing about it]]. Which would all be fine, if the main characters did not [[EasilyForgiven constantly forgive him]], never try to hold him accountable for his actions, and insist that all he really wants is to connect with people, which excuses his behavior. He's also notably less sympathetic in the True Ending than he is in the ending of the Persona 3 storyline. The game does acknowledge that he isn't fully reformed yet, and sets it up as a SequelHook.

** Adachi's localized title as well. Especially if one doesn't care for the cabbage bit.

** A much, much less harsher example but still there, is [[spoiler:Akihiko in his ending. The ending of ''Arena'' indicated that he'd want to quit the Shadow Operatives one day, Mitsuru was far more than willing to pay for his college expenses, and Aigis would keep tabs on his classes. The ending here shows that he regularly skips them, acts rude toward Aigis, is still a Shadow Operative, and would rather keep aimlessly training like he did on his global expedition (that he dropped out of college in the first place to do). The narration even states that he finds college a nuisance, despite the fact that he'd need some sort of higher education and a series of tests to become a police officer anyway, even with the connection he intends to establish with Officer Kurosawa. If it weren't for the fact that he has a strong bond with Mitsuru, it comes off that he's an ungrateful, aimless moocher.]]

** Prior to version 2.0, most Shadow characters weren't used very much competitively. This was mostly due to their gimmick, Shadow Frenzy. At 100 SP, a shadow character could activate a {{SuperMode}} where they could jump-cancel any normal, chain any SP move into any other SP move once (including Supers), and use any number of SP moves, at the cost of all these reducing the timer. In theory, this gives every Shadow character a potential Touch of Death combo. Unfortunately, this came at a cost; ''No Burst''. The loss of your universal “get off me” button in exchange for a [[SomeDexterityRequired difficult to execute]], time limited Touch of Death, only accessible at max meter (retaining meter across rounds helps, but still) was too great for some, turning them into {{AwesomeButImpractical}} {{GlassCannon}}s. In addition to that, they use the ''Persona 4: Arena'' auto-combos as opposed to the new ones, so their comboing is not as good in some cases as the updated characters. Shadow Chie, Mitsuru and Naoto are exempt from this, due to having a pseudo touch of death for the first two and the Fate counter for an alternate win condition for Shadow Naoto. The 2.0 update, however, flipped this around, giving Shadow characters a Burst they could use, which, as a {{NecessaryDrawback}}, locks them out of Shadow Frenzy, while activating Shadow Frenzy empties out the Burst Gauge, still making them Glass Cannons, but removing the Impractical. This was such a successful buff that some high-tier players now almost exclusively use Shadow characters.

** Prior to version 2.0, most Shadow characters weren't used very much competitively. This was mostly due to their gimmick, which while interesting, requires you to be at 100 SP to fully take advantage of, which is a situation that doesn't happen that often competitively. In addition to that, they use the ''Persona 4: Arena'' auto-combos as opposed to the new ones, so their comboing is not as good in some cases as the updated characters. Shadow Chie, Mitsuru and Naoto are exempt from this, due to having a pseudo touch of death for the first two and the Fate counter for an alternate win condition for Shadow Naoto. The 2.0 update, however, flipped this around, to the point where high-tier players now almost exclusively use Shadow characters.

** Some people are glad Yukari and Ken are in this game so the player can beat the crap out of them.
** The P4 side also takes shots at Ken's attitude. Kanji complains that the fake Ken is a brat who's overplaying his status as a kid, and when the real one shows up to chide the heroes for falling for the fake Ken's WoundedGazelleGambit act, Kanji notes that the real Ken is ''more'' of a brat.

* BrokenBase: "Do you think the [[VideoGame/Persona3 P3MC and Shinjiro]] should be a playable characters?"

* OneSceneWonder: [[spoiler:The real Shadow Labrys]] shows up for one scene and totally upstages Sho in the maniacal trash-talking department.

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Ken's new design has been well received from some, though he's more or a BaseBreakingCharacter than fully rescued. Other people like his CharacterDevelopment over the course of the story, particularly those who complained that he went OutOfFocus after October 4 passed.

** The fact that [[spoiler:Kagutsuchi originally wanted to use Teddie as the base of his vessel, which explains his determination to keep Teddie incapacitated and locked out of the events of ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena'' much better than that game did.]] Here, it's only treated as a side-note that is mentioned in passing and then quickly dismissed, when it could have made for an incredibly compelling subplot all on its own.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic:
** Sho Minazuki [[spoiler:has a tragic backstory where he was raised by Ikutsuki and can only connect with people by fighting them]]. But he is such a nonstop asshole to everyone, [[spoiler:even after his plan is thwarted and everyone forgives him and he realizes he had a friend all along]]. And he enjoys petty acts of cruelty so much, like [[spoiler:taking control of Labrys with her remote control, making her attack her friends, and laughing about it]]. Which would all be fine, if the main characters did not [[EasilyForgiven constantly forgive him]], never try to hold him accountable for his actions, and insist that all he really wants is to connect with people, which excuses his behavior. He's also notably less sympathetic in the True Ending than he is in the ending of the Persona 3 storyline. The game does acknowledge that he isn't fully reformed yet, and sets it up as a SequelHook.

** As it was in Persona 3 and almost anything following, Mitsuru still seems to have... [[ImpliedLoveInterest ''something'']] for Yukari. Near the end of the P4 story [[spoiler:when Rise gets everyone connected with each other as they wander the fog covered Inaba]], Mitsuru seems the most elated/relieved about Yukari's safety than anyone else's.

** As it was in Persona 3 and almost anything following, Mitsuru still seems to have...''something'' for Yukari. Near the end of the P4 story [[spoiler:when Rise gets everyone connected with each other as they wander the fog covered Inaba]], Mitsuru seems the most elated/relieved about Yukari's safety than anyone else's.

* AntiClimaxBoss: [[spoiler:Hi-no-Kagutsuchi, the true identity of [[BigBad Malevolent Entity]]]] in the end of all stories is really disappointing for a ''boss-only character'', having really limited arsenal of moves, not having that much health, and can be easily defeated by spamming heavy attacks. In addition to that, it's rather plain looking for a final boss, especially one given the series as a whole. It's even more disappointing considering that Arc System Works' recent attempt at a giant boss with ''VideoGame/BlazBlueChronophantasma'' and [[spoiler:Take-Mikazuchi]] was handled better.

* TierInducedScrappy:
** Competitively, the Shadow versions of the characters are not used as much. Mostly due to their gimmick, which while interesting, requires you to be at 100 SP to fully take advantage of, which is a situation that doesn't happen that often competitively. In addition to that, they use the ''Persona 4: Arena'' auto-combos as opposed to the new ones, so their comboing is not as good in some cases as the updated characters. Shadow Chie, Mitsuru and Naoto are exempt from this, due to having a pseudo touch of death for the first two and the Fate counter for an alternate win condition for Shadow Naoto.
*** This is amusingly flipped on its head in the 2.0 update, where Shadows are ''superior'' in just about every way, to the point where there's practically no reason to use normal characters. The exceptions are Aigis, who uses meter for both defense and pressure and thus benefits more from Awakening Mode than anything her shadow version gives, and Narukami, who is so busted that ''both'' versions of him are top tier.
** On the opposite end of the tier, Sho with his Persona has a lot of hate directed towards him due to how frustrating his moveset is to deal with. While Narukami and Yosuke are above him in tiering, Sho has teleports that are practically instant ''and'' can cross up the opponent, making blocking them essentially a guessing game, a command grab that steals health, and while not as easy to pick up and use as Narukami, is still fairly easy to learn. It doesn't help that his damage is pretty good as well.
** Elizabeth is an interesting example. While she's loathed by people with a lower skill level due to her zoning moveset and above average amount of Persona cards, she's considered a complete joke in anything higher due to her very poor defensive options, low health, middling damage, and how completely useless she is without Thanatos. She's considered a free win and being just shy of the worst character in the game, which belongs to the very momentum-based Labrys.

* AcceptableTargets: [[LonersAreFreaks Loners]]. If you are a loner either you are someone who just needs friends or someone who wants to destroy the world.

* PolishedPort: Rollback netcode was introduced to the [=PS4=] and Steam ports, alleviating issues with the original netcode the game had 10 years ago.

* AccidentalInnuendo: When Yukari beats Ken, she'll comment on how "big" he and Koromaru grew. The chat picked up on this.