To this day, no other fighting game is as mechanically loaded yet easy to get into as Persona 4 Arena Ultimax.

On the surface level, it seems like somewhat of an easy game in terms of execution with how prevalent auto-combo is for a lot of characters, though once you get deeper into the mechanics there is a lot to mess around with. Movement is extremely interesting with the existence of Manual Airturn/Airturn Backdash, IBs are extremely rewarding, playing around Awakening is really fun, One More Burst/Frenzy is really interesting to build gameplans around, and Persona Displacement allows for extremely creative use of your character's moveset. All of these elements combined take this seemingly simple game, and give it a ton of depth.

The mechanics themselves are a lot, but this game also has some of the most interesting fighting game characters period. A lot of this I think comes from the fact they are NOT afraid at all to give characters really broken stuff, so the overall character power in this game is EXTREMELY HIGH. No matter their place on the tier list, every character in this game is a nuclear bomb and will KILL YOU if you let them. This aspect of the game is probably the most divisive part of Persona, but it's something I've learned to love, especially as a Shadow Labrys player.

You can't really go wrong with either version of this game, give it a shot if you are considering it.

Somehow ... the best Danganronpa? Crazy.
The game outstays its welcome a tad, the arcade machines are too plentiful and the animations accompanying are too long.
Core gameplay is surprisingly fun! Turn that aim sensitivity to low as possible and it feels great to play on Keyboard/Mouse.

First playthrough was on "Despair mode" (hard mode) and it was a very nice time. Not all that hard at all. The only things I died to were getting knocked into bottomless pits or that one boss, so I got the QTE revive minigame tutorial near the end of the game!
Turns out, there are unique death animations for every enemy, I almost missed out on that detail entirely.
The limited ammo isn't really an issue either, as the game will throw out ammo pickups when you're out. Money is also a non issue on hard as you get increased coin pickups, making upgrades easy to get.
Switching to Toko right before an attack hits feels really good! Because she's invincible, she can tank some of the more annoying attacks on a whim. Collectibles are not that exciting, but harmless at worst.

One more bit about the arcade machines. They are so jank. There will be times where you have to kill all the enemies in one go. I'll shoot a dance bullet at a siren kuma that's in the path of a car. I wait for all kumas to gather. I shoot a move bullet at the car. It misses 1 monokuma. Wellllp. Did the intended solution and it just didn't work. Stealth missions are also complete hogwash with there being no clear view cones on enemies. At least you're allowed to move on without clearing the goal, but it does hurt the completionist/ranking angle.

Chapter 3 is so insane and probably why the game has a pretty terrible review average. It's uncomfortable. It's gross. But it's memorable? That was their intent and it worked. It'll stick with ya. Better or for worse.
Now, the final chapter? Amazing. My favorite Danganronpa chapter ever. I initially kept picking what I thought was the "bad" ending, only for the game to keep stringing me along with more pleas to pick the other option. It was so ridiculous. Loved every bit of it. The final boss was also a great use of most of my tools, with spectacle to boot. Fun stuff!

Can't even be a contrarian if I wanted to. Even if you see clips everywhere, it doesn't dampen the fun with friends.
In-game voice chat is used really well and brings a special charm to the "hang out" experience.

Game is all about risk. Some better players will use every trick in the book to fight back the monsters and maximize loot. The less skilled can still help by carrying items and managing the teleporter/monitor at the ship. Sometimes just getting out ALIVE is enough to keep a run going.
Survival is an easy enough concept to grasp, allowing the player to spend less time on learning game rules and more time on unraveling the bizarre world and its rules.

I wish the game allowed for larger player lobbies than just 4 and incorporated a few of the quality-of-life mods out there but I understand it's an early access release. Congrats on the big success and I hope the developers keep the updates coming.

I tried so hard with this game but in the end it just pisses me off more than anything. Huniepop 1 was a cute game and was over before I had a chance to get bored of the gameplay, so I was looking forward to this game!

Man oh man...The gameplay in this feels so RNG based at times that it feels like I'm just hitting a slot machine! Huniepop 1 was like this at times but never so offensively, it feels like you're always getting fucked over in some way by this game. It's not horrible or anything but it's super mediocre. Baggage, while cute in concept, can be really fucking annoying more often than not, and hinders my experience rather than helps it. This is Huniepop man I'm not here to tryhard I'm here to chill out, match 3, and see some boobs.

The characters though...I hate like 90% of the cast, most of them are really fucking annoying or weird and are just insufferable to talk to. One thing I do like is the double date system allows for some interactions between characters, which Huniepop 1 had very few of, so that was kinda cute I guess. But when the characters are THIS annoying I don't really care to see them interact at all! Shoutout to Lailani for being the only new character I actually liked, she's super cute.

Not even the porn is good. The artstyle is way worse than the first game.

So I'm sitting here 70% of the way done with the game and it hits me, I hate the gameplay, I hate the characters, I even hate the porn, why am I playing this?

And so, I'm not.