While the number of announcements ATLUS USA have been making already succeeds the number they had last year, they still have more up their sleeve with their announcement regarding Persona 4 Arena. Based on the highly successful Playstation 2 series which has spawned a Vita port, a manga series, an anime series and a sizable fan reception – they announced several months ago that they would be licensing and publishing a localized version of Persona 4 Arena, a fighting game using characters from Persona 4, Persona 3 and a few exclusive characters. Today it was announced they had finalized a release date for North America (7th August 2012) for both Playstation 3 and XBox360 gaming consoles.
Addressing an often-repeated question from fans, the publisher confirmed that the North American release of Persona 4 Arena would include both the original Japanese voice work and an all-new English audio track, a feature easily toggled in the settings for both the PS3 and Xbox 360 system releases. Most of the original English vocal cast have returned, however both Chie and Teddie have been replaced with new voice actors/actresses. There is currently no word on if this will carry over into Persona 4 Golden at this time.
Tim Pivnicny, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at ATLUS USA had this to say:
While it remains a feature we are unable to add in every one of our releases due to any number of factors, we are incredibly excited to be able to offer our fans the frequently requested dual language option in as highly anticipated a title as Persona 4 Arena. Persona 4 Arena represents one of the biggest investments in ATLUS history, in addition to one of the most ambitious collaborations with a developer as esteemed as Arc System Works, and as such we have spared no expense in endeavoring to ensure that the final North American release lives up to our proud tradition of quality and to our fans’ lofty expectations for us.
The company also released the “E3 Trailer” for the game which can be viewed above. For more information on the game, view The Otaku’s Study “Persona 4: Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena” category!
