Persona 4: The Question

[DarklordKyo]

I played through the trial for Persona 4: Arena, and I'm seriously liking it. That said though, I've never played Persona 4 before, and I would like to know if it's required to play through Persona 4 before playing Arena. To put things into perspective, I know some of the basics about the game [murder mystery based around the midnight channel, Kanji is either gay or bi (depending on how you interpret Troy Baker's words on the character, and the apparent ship tease he has with naoto), Naoto's a reverse trap, Yu's a player (though, all the female relations are apparently platonic in Arena), as well as some of the stuff that carried on from Persona 3 (like the whole social link mechanic]. I do intend on playing through Persona 4 (just gotta wait till I can get a vita to play through Persona 4: Golden), but do is it required for Arena?, or can I just get through it before Persona 4? (putting into account that I do intend on completing Arena's story mode ASAP before I focus entirely on the multiplayer).

TL;DR I want to play persona 4: Arena, haven't played Persona 4, know some basic stuff about Persona 4, can I play Persona 4: Arena without having played Persona 4 yet?

 

[Razentsu]

You will want to play through Persona 3 and 4. Despite the game mainly featuring the P4 cast, the game feels more like a sequel to P3 than P4. There actually is a lot of P3-related content in P4A.

 

[The_Scrivener]

If you're just playing VS. mode and arcade mode, it really doesn't matter. I wouldn't play story mode. Hell, I love P3 and P4 and I wouldn't play story mode anyway. So contrived. Ugh.

I recommend P4 and to a greater extent P3. Great games if you're into RPGs. And those recommendations have nothing to do with P4A. Play what you'd like. Not much interference either way.