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Round 1: Josh Miller on behalf of Chie Satonaka from Persona 4

When people recommend PlayStation Vita games, there is one title that repeatedly gets brought up: Persona 4 Golden. It would be a disservice to a new PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale roster to not include a character from the game that was so beloved that it practically reinvigorated that series and set up Persona 5 to succeed.

The question is….who do you include? Chair wielding Kanji could be cool, but so would the gun toting detective Naoto. Instead I’ll choose the arguably more popular character known for her kung-fu skills – Chie Satonaka.

I am all for strong female representation, as shown in my last week suggestion of Aya Brea, and Chie is another perfect example of that. Her kung-fu background gives her a perfect move list to draw from the Persona 4 game, but let’s not forget that Persona 4 Arena was a thing too. So in regards to how easy she would translate into a game like PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale…pretty easy. Even moreso now that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is receiving Joker from Persona 5.

Speaking of her moves, Chie would for sure be an up-close melee fighter utilizing punches and kicks. However, due to her Persona prowess, she has a couple of ice attacks at her disposal such as Bufula and Bufudyne along with a special physical attack in Mind Slice that could, depending on its implementation, confuse opponents. Maybe this could act as one of those video game things where button mapping is screwed up for a set amount of time. Either way, these could spice up the typical Chie combat.

Speaking of her Persona Haraedo-no-Okami, that would surely be where the special attacks come in. There are a number of attacks to choose from here whether it something Skewer or Heat Wave while the ultimate could be God’s Hand or Agneyastra. One wrinkle we could play into this is the Persona 4 stipulation of these attacks costing some health to pull off. It could be seen as a more expert driven character with attacks that create a risk/reward system. Could prove to be an interesting task for a developer.

It is for these reasons that I feel Chie would make a great addition to a PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale roster. She has the moves, she has the look, and she has representation as both a formidable female fighter and role playing game character that is sorely lacking from the previous title. Including her in a sequel would be a brilliant move.

Round 2: Emmett Watkins Jr. on behalf of Claptrap from Borderlands

Despite being dormant for nearly five years, Borderlands is still a beloved franchise. It’s combination of satisfying gunplay, Diablo style loot systems, and insanely, over-the-top humor has helped put it’d developer, Gearbox Software, on the map. But despite Gearbox turning to work on other IPs, like Battleborn, and publishing others, like Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, the franchise has been kept alive.

Thanks to the numerous ports of Borderlands 2 after it’s original 2012 launch, and an amazing spin off series by Telltale Games in Tales from the Borderlands, the series has remained somewhat relevant. In fact, it’s those ports that I feel attach the franchise to PlayStation in a way that makes the series worth representing in PlayStation All-Stars. The recent PlayStation VR port of Borderlands 2 is, at least for now, a PSVR exclusive, which is a big deal seeing as PC based VR is slowly beginning to match the price and accessibility of PSVR.

But even before PSVR existed, Gearbox was already serving niche PlayStation fanbase with the port of Borderlands 2 to the PlayStation Vita. Sure, that port ended up not running particularly well, but the fact that it was the result of a successful online fan campaign, attached to Greg Miller, a prominent PlayStation fan, makes its existence more remarkable.

So, sure, Borderlands has deep ties with PlayStation, but when choosing a character, why go for Claptrap? Well, not only is he the most iconic character in the series, and I personally find him incredibly endearing, but his move set has potential to be the most entertaining. With his action skills from the Pre-Sequel, he can have a wide variety of moves.

He could throw down a temporary disco ball to open characters up for an attack as they are stuck dancing. He could mimic the action skill of other characters to maybe dual wield weapons or throw down a turret. And his supers could be amazing as well, as he could call on other characters from the series to do some damage. Just imagine he and Tiny Tina setting off a massive explosion, or he and Scooter running over opponents in a vehicle. Or my personal dream, he and the rest of the Tales from the Borderlands main cast piloting Mecha Gortys and decimating all the other opponents in the match.

So, that’s my pitch for Claptrap. Sure, to many he might be annoying as a character in some of the main game, but he belongs to a franchise that is so important that it needs to be represented. Plus, with this being a characters fighter anyway, the Borderlands style of humor wouldn’t be utilized as heavily for those who might find it grating. And considering there’s no other character in the series that is as well known, with exception of maybe Handsome Jack, Claptrap is simply the perfect character to represent Borderlands.

Round 3: Fight!

So, who do you think deserves the slot more, Chie or Claptrap? Vote in the Twitter poll embedded below, and follow @LosHarrowGames for the next match up!

Match 3:

Chie from Persona 4 vs. Claptrap from Borderlands

For arguments for each character, check out the site! https://t.co/hUfGcWoEBe

— VideoGameUtopia (VGU.TV) (@VGU_TV) February 15, 2019