Arcana Heart 3 Review
When one thinks of fighting games on arcade machines and consoles, most think of games such as Marvel vs. Capcom, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Aksys Games, the publisher most known for releasing titles such as BlazBlue and Guilty Gear in North America, have brought over the latest entry in the Arcana Heart franchise: Arcana Heart 3. Arcana Heart isn't as well-known outside of Japan and Asia due to the first Arcana Heart release on the PS2 a few years back which was rather rough around the edges, causing its sequel, Arcana Heart 2, to be passed up for localization. With re-tooled gameplay mechanics and netcode taken from Arc System Works's BlazBlue franchise, one question remains: Can Arcana Heart 3 revitalize the series in western player's eyes?
For those who are not familiar with the Arcana Heart series, you take your pick one character from an all-female cast, ranging from a variety of different gameplay styles such as zoners and close-combat attackers. What makes Arcana Heart unique is the ability to associate one of several Arcana to each character. While each character has a specific Arcana pre-assigned to them that compliments their innate attributes, players can choose whichever Arcana they wish before a match. To give an idea of how many variations can be had in the game, Arcana Heart 3 features 23 characters and 23 Arcana, giving players a choice of 529 possible combinations.
Each Arcana has their own advantages and disadvantages that they bring to the match. The Time Arcana sacrifices one's attack and defense strength for the ability to create doubles to help out with combos. The Plant Arcana sacrifices one's attack in exchange for an improved defense. You get the idea. Selecting an Arcana also gives players access to special moves unique to each Arcana, no matter which character is chosen. Overall, this system keeps things rather fresh since each Arcana plays differently from the next.
The story mode is pretty bare bones, even though it's much more involved than say Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Following the events of the story in Arcana Heart 2, there have been a number of dimensional distortions as well as the appearance of several "Maidens" who wield incredible powers and a set of "celestial" stones. Players have to travel around Japan to collect these stones before Japan is destroyed in six days. All of the cutscenes between battles are voiced, although with only the original Japanese vocal track with subbed dialogue. There are no English voice overs. As with many fighting game stories, the majority of the opponents are pretty easy to beat but the mode's final boss is incredibly cheap and will test even the most experienced fighting game fans, especially on the game's higher difficulty levels.
As for the game's graphics, much like BlazBlue and Guilty Gear, Arcana Heart 3 features sprite-based character animations. As expected for that animation medium, Arcana Heart 3's characters are vividly animated and react in a multitude of different ways depending on what action they are carrying out on screen. Each character, as well as their Arcana, have their own unique battle animation that appears when their respective super move is carried out, this takes up almost the entire screen for the few seconds that it appears. Unique to Arcana Heart 3 is side panels that feature different animations depending on the player's actions on-screen. While it's a neat touch, unfortunately in practice this becomes annoying and most advanced players will likely disable the feature --- thankfully developer Examu makes this easy with a quick option available in the game's option menu.
