Arcana Heart

"Whaddaya mean 'only 100 hits'?!"

Well, it doesn't take much for me anymore to play a game that has ATLUS branded on it. I think this is the fourth straight I've bought now recently from them no questions asked and seldom is it that they let me down.

This fighter poses no exception...but it's been quite a while since I've put myself through major hell attempting to beat the pants off a boss at the end of a fighter that suffers heavily from SNK boss syndrome (that is, at the end of story mode). I'd still think there's a little balance work to be done on some of the fighters in this game, that said, but this is also coming from an almost two month look at the game in general and my overall view on it. If you put aside the painful intro that most average people will go through when they look at this game, it's really a great game.

+ Graphics - 9/10

At its core, the gameplay is actually pretty fluid for a 2D fighter and the graphics aren't half-bad at all in terms of representing it...well, if you're in the mood to play an all-girl line-up of a fighter with no blood, and a love-freak for a main character over your typical Ryu but hey every fighter has to have their staple. There's even a little bit of fan-service if you look.

In all honesty, some of the graphical backgrounds, the Arcana art in general and the fighting styles of all the characters put into harmony are VERY well done. This game truly shows how you can do a 2D fighter if you allow it and taking up multiple levels of air on a single place and catching it all with great camera angling doesn't hurt either. Everything for storyline is shown off without much of a problem in its translation either and everything looks neat and ordered...well, that's the best I can say for it really.

On the downside, some of the character spriting isn't completely thorough but that's really just going intro to normal stance most of the time and most 2D fighters get that problem it seems. Some better than others. Most of the motions are fluid, however, so this is able to be overlooked but I can cite a better reason that a lot of the one point that won't come to this area, though - the fact that, taking in a bit of bias of fighters vs. males, you probably won't see a lot of hormone-toting guys going for the graphics completely for this because of the girlish manner it takes. Yea, I know, you got to be a guy so let's go ahead and laugh at it every so often and why are you playing this again?

Oh right. Sure.

+ Sound - 9/10

I need to get this composer. M. something. I'll find out.

Anyways, for the shortish loops that this game has, it does a good job for its musical composition. Really dug Save the Day. Also, the character voices are done rather well too, as the voice acting is no slouch given that the voices weren't made in the US (thankfully) but rather kept their native Japanese ones on the port over.

Not a lot else to comment on in this area. You definitely get your money's worth for your ears but it isn't anything too overly noteworthy. Just really good.

+ Gameplay - 8/10

Tricky, tricky.

At the start of this game, the average joe is probably not going to want to go against someone that is experienced in this game. They will wonder where there head is at 15 seconds into a match after it get blowed clean off. That said, the learning curve can be pretty steep. It's best to watch a few demos and people that have played it, true, but practicing can come fairly natural once you get the system down. Even I only took about two weeks to get the natural basics of air-comboing down...and it's a lot easier than a few fighters I've had the pleasure of playing over the decades on the whole.

Your game starts with choosing one of eleven girls as fighters. Yes, they're anywhere from 10 to 17, give or take, for age but I promise you that they can mostly hold their own for anything that comes at them. Heck, the little Kira fights like Zangief (no joke) so I wouldn't worry about that.

Anyways, after selecting a fighter, you're offered the choice of the Arcana you can fight with for even more moves, tactics, and ways your character will react in battle. Now, most of the time, you'll fight with a default Arcana that is preferred by a certain fighter, but once you get into the habit of playing you may find a pairing more to your liking. It's basically like taking Gundam pilots and picking the Gundam you best like with them...well, if you want to be robotic about it. On to the fighting...

Try a fight.

You get beat and don't know what the heck happened?

Basically, the system you're dealing with is extremely cancel-able and extremely simply all at the same time. Most combos generally go in an A-B-C flow format with the S button to follow and continue comboing in a HOMING CANCEL which allows you to travel on the ground or through the air to meet an opponent that gets knocked back by a hit or chain to deal even more damage to it. Though, you only have 3 gauges to work with and for each one you take out you have to wait a little longer for each of them to fill completely back again so that you have full stock. Thankfully, this doesn't take a long time as long as you aren't doing a lot of attacking at opponents.

There are other cancels with the S button, such as GUARD CANCEL, that will allow you to create an advancing guard at an opponent if you get crouched in a corner by someone that doesn't know the meaning of stop pushing the weak attack button over and over it ain't workin' and want to counter directly back...but perhaps you get knocked for a loop and you can't get out of a combo?

Well, at the worst case to save your hide, summon your Arcana (once per battle) to initiate an Arcana Blaze. This usually boosts your strength, breaks you out of a chain stopping you right there when timed, and leaves you invincible for a short moment while you and your opponent re-get your bearings. During this time, your super gauge, which unlike games like Street Fighter's 3 - goes up to 9 bars here, starts to deplete rapidly. You can use supers, as you always can, for one gauge or initiate the Blaze attack. It's a one-time, heavy hitter and usually takes a lot or a chain to get it to work on the opponent...so its use is fairly limited, unfortunately, unless you know how to use it. It's different attacks for different Arcanas and supers, homing gauges, ways you'll attack, defend and run are all made by them...so take the time to get to know your girls well; you'll need it.

To say the curve is steep is being nice, but the CPU fails at having the whole 'whatever difficulty you pick matters not' problem with it. Whether it's 1, 4, or 8...there's really not much difference in difficulty I've noticed...at least with the end boss in Story Mode - Mildred. Keep it at 4. The game's really determined by if you feel the need of taking on a CPU that hits very hard at the end and, honestly, rather cheaply at that. Depending on the character you choose, this can get very messy if you don't know how to handle them at their best before trying to take her on. If you don't, I can only say that I warned you before your ego experienced a world of hurt. I've been at points where I've almost chucked my wireless controller through walls because of it but I held on because I was a few marks of life left on her and eventually beat it when it came time. Now I know exactly what I'm doing but it does leave a bit of a harsh first impression when you get that far the first few times around...almost enough to make you want to put it down for a good long time.

That almost happened here but I hate to lose.

Anyways, it basically came down to a matter of hanging in there and practicing...40 or 50 won fights of CPU battles and plenty of Training Mode will be enough to get your ego back up once you learn the ropes. Obviously, this is only going out to the aspiring hardcore fighters. If you're not looking to get your butt kicked over and over again, then maybe this fighter's a bit out of your league...however, this might be for you if you can look past the first-timer's ego crush...or six.

+ Control - 8/10

I hate the S button for what it's there for a lot of times between Arcana and homing. I hate the A, AB, ABC problems when you're in the midst of a nice combo problem and I hate how you can get a lot of issues out of a PS2 controller for fluidity when it comes down to some of things you try at the start.

Aside from that, however, it runs fairly well. Once you learn that you need to hit buttons a little before you end one part of a chain, the rest pretty much falls into place. You have to make sure that you're willing to be patient that long, however, so be ready to bring out Training Mode quite a bit and practicing on other buds and CPUs to make sure you know what you're doing. Control is absolutely necessary about what this game tries to bring to the table and this does the job decently.

+ Replay - 10/10

If you can't beat Mildred, you'll replay it.

If you do insane combos, you'll replay it.

That's basically all I need to say.

+ Overall - 9/10

Surprising game, I can say. I hadn't heard anything about it before I saw it light up in GameStop's COMING SOON piece on their site. Seeing as it was a fighter and that it was by ATLUS, probably developed by a very good sub-group, I had the feeling that I might expect another case of overly hard Power Instinct 2 when I finally got my hands on a copy of it. Thankfully, it wasn't that bad, but it does pose a nice challenge and it does pose for hours upon hours of gaming...much more so if you can find another person with a copy that likes it as much as you do.

However, the problem lies in that this is not mainstream. Even though 2 is already out in the arcades in Japan, it's not like stateside is welcoming this game too cleanly, I've seen. It does get a lot of positive nods, but most people would rather play something more like SSBB or any other popular fighter as of late than take the time to delve away from the norm. More fun for you an I, at least.

If you're really in the mood for a fighter that is something different, sports a great system, challenge and a fresh method of kicking butt...on top of the fact of an all-girl lineup...then I think you found your game here.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/08

Game Release: Arcana Heart (US, 04/10/08)