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Arcana Heart- Atlus brings us Guilty Gear with a lot more estrogen. IGN- 8.3 (NSF56k) :
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 04-02-2008, 02:39 PM
 | Update: Game's out!
Preface: Uh. Hi. I wrote this last night while I was half asleep. I believe it shows. It's a weird post, but I don't feel like writing a new one, so I hope you can deal with it. I don't think any of it is outright wrong, but it may be written a bit confusing. If you guys think so, please let me know that I need to fix it. Also, the screenshots I got were all from IGN, and they're pretty bad quality, which makes the game look a lot worse. Please keep this mind.
Episode 1: Oh snap! An original fighting game!? The Legend Begins!
Developer: Examu
Publisher: Atlus
Website: http://www.atlus.com/arcanaheart/
System: PS2
Release Date: April 8, 2008
Price: $29.99
'Sup. I'm having a bit of a writer's block here. I've been planning on making this thread for a while, but I couldn't come up with how I wanted to write it. You know, when I made that Another Century's Episode thread a while back, I already had an idea of what I was going to say. But I don't have that for this game right now, and I'm not sure why. I think it's because there's a lot I want to say or do, and also a lot of wacky stuff that I want to pull that I don't think would go over too well. So in the end, I'm just left sort of sitting here, typing the first things that come to mind.
I'm just having one of those days, you know? Weeks, really. Feeling really lethargic, don't want to do anything even though you have a lot of stuff to do. The fact that I've had this horrible stuffy nose for the past three weeks hasn't help at all either. It was, like, a week after spring break when I started getting this bad stuffy nose and constant sneezing problem. I've taken both flu and allergy medicines, but neither has helped at all (the flu one just makes things even worse). And the aforementioned lethargy has made me too lazy to even go to the doctor, which I think I probably should. Well, I've been feeling better these past couple of days, so maybe it's going away now. I'm still feeling lethargic, though, and the constantly changing weather isn't helping.
The weather can't seem to make up it's mind weather (olol I'm so hilarious) it's hot or cold. It was raining today too, and it's also sort of warm. Oh, now my writer's block is kicking in again, and I don't know what I should write about again.
Oh.
Right.
Arcana Heart.
Developer: Examu
Publisher: Atlus
Website: http://www.atlus.com/arcanaheart/
System: PS2
Release Date: April 8, 2008
Price: $29.99
 Terry Bogard says: “I give this game two thumbs up! (They just forgot to draw my other thumb.)”
 
 
So this is something I've been anticipating for a while. It's been a while since we've gotten a completely original fighting game, and it's a 2D one to boot. Arcana Heart first came out in Japanese arcades two years ago, and got a PS2 port in Japan about a year afterwards. We're not getting it until now, with Arcana Heart 2 actually being released in Japanese arcades a couple of weeks ago. But you take what you can get, right? That said, Atlus is pretty awesome for deciding to bring this over the ocean, and at a price of $30, too.
Onto the actual game itself, Arcana Heart is, well, a 2D fighter featuring some rather crisp and colorful high-quality graphics and some really nice gameplay a bit akin to Guilty Gear, what with the focus on large aerial combos. The stages are also really, really tall, so aerial combat and maneuvering is more important and usual. It features two original features unique to the game: the homing button and the Arcana system (I'll be cross-checking my info with stuff from the Shoryuken forums topic for the game, which has a lot of good info on the game. Guardcrush.net is also a good Arcana Heart site with lots of specific information and character strategies.).
Some quick control conventions: You've got 4 button: Light attack, Medium Attack, Strong attack, and Homing.
The Homing Button
The homing button is a multipurpose button used for many advanced techniques in the game.
1.The homing button can be used as a special type of movement that, uh, homes in on your opponent. No matter where your opponent is, your character will dash towards him or, if the opponent in in the air, fly towards him. So this is obviously a very powerful and important movement technique. Depending on what direction you press when you press the Homing button, your trajectory will be slightly altered. Such as, pressing no direction + homing will make your character float in place briefly and then fly towards you opponent, back + homing will make your character jump backwards and then fly towards you opponent (useful for dodging attacks) and forward + homing will make your character instantly dash forward, albeit you're character will stay on the ground with this one (I think).
2.Homing cancels are done by pressing the homing button when you're in the middle of doing an attack. It functions mostly identically to Guilty Gear's Roman Cancel, allowing you to cut an attack animation short so you can follow up with another attack before your opponent recovers or their body gets too far away and your attacks cannot reach him. It can also allow to stop a long move if you miss it so you can defend before your opponent pummels you. I think homing cancels also borrow the same effects as the aforementioned regular homing, so holding the button down will allow you to Homing Cancel and homing dashing towards your opponent. I believe most, if not all, moves can be homing canceled, including super moves. This allows technique is obviously crucial for effective comboing.
3.Guard cancels are when you press the homing button while you're guarding an attack. There are two versions of the guard cancel. Forward + homing will make your character dash forward to your opponent, guarded by a special shield that blocks attacks for a second or two. Your opponent is unaffected, however, and can keep on attacking in hopes of hitting you after the shield disappears. Back + homing makes you character jump backwards, and holding the button down will make you dash forward afterwards if you so desire. An important defensive maneuver.
4. When slammed against a wall or the knocked to the ground from the air, pressing the homing button at the right time will make your character recover quicker.
4.The homing button is also used to do attacks from your Arcana, which I will talk about after this section.
The homing button is given it's own meter, 3 crystals at the bottom of the screen, placed above your super bar. The crystals represent how many times you can use the homing button. Every time you use the homing button for the homing movement, one crystal become empty and if all crystals empty, you cannot use the homing button for anything other than Arcana based special attacks. They automatically refill in a short amount of time, but this makes it so you cannot spam the homing button techniques. Furthermore, if you use a homing cancel (and maybe a guard cancel?), a crystal will not only empty, but will also gain a red X over, which means that crystal will take longer to refill than usual. This means you cannot use endless homing cancels to make an incredibly long combo.
Terry Bogard says: “That's almost as cool as jumping between planes!”
Arcana
The other unique feature of Arcana Heart is the titular Arcana system. After choosing your character, you then proceed to choose from a variety of Arcana. The Arcana some spirits of some sort; I don't actually know the game's story. But each Arcana has some sort of theme, such as Fire, Water, Steel, Darkness, etc. and each grants a special set of moves and abilities independent from your character. The Arcana's special moves vary greatly, but are all done using regular special move motions with the Homing button. The fire arcana has some fire ball moves, the steel arcana can make a stationary shield that can take a hit, and the dark arcana has a familiar that follows you and can do certain attacks (sort of like Eddie in Guilty Gear, I guess). Arcana also have their own super moves as well.
Along with these special moves, the Arcana can also provide some passive effect on characters. Such as the Love Arcana, which can allow you to float slowly to the ground after jumping, rather than falling at the regular speed.
Another special ability granted by the Arcana is a special Arcana summon that can be activated once per round. Activating the summon can be used as a combo breaker, as it frees you of any combo being done on you, aside from super moves. It also instantly refills all of your homing bar. While the Arcana summon is activated, you gain some more special effects based on your Arcana, such as not flinching from attacks or increased strength, and you also have the ability to do a super-duper Arcana summon super attack, which will physically summon your Arcana beast for some super strong attack. However, while this mode is activated, your super bar constantly drains, and the mode deactivates once your super bar is depleted. If you summon your Arcana beast for a super attack, your super bar instantly hits zero and the summon mode ends after the attack. So either way, you're losing all of your super bars, no matter how many you had. Use the mode wisely.
The game features 11 characters and 11 Arcana, meaning there are 121 possible character combinations zomg. This allows for a lot of variety, the characters and arcana can compliment each other in completely different ways, and can allow for different strategies.
Terry Bogard says: “An Arcana doesn't sound so tough! I defeated Mars, the God o- wait, there are eleven them?”
The Plot
There are a bunch of people fighting each other. I think it's how they get their driver's license in Japan. I don't remember the actual story and I'm too lazy to look it up right now. Something about two world colliding, causing big problems for both. I'll look it up later.
The Cast
So yes, there are 11 characters. One of the games more noticeable aspects (and for many, the first hurdle) is the all-female cast of 11 combatants. Their designs are rather typical anime stereotypes and were probably designed to draw in the anime crowd with it's visuals. The gameplay was supposed to attract everyone else, but many were actually pushed away by the visuals, causing somewhat of a backlash against the game. The designs are indeed somewhat bland, but I found them to have grown on me, and Kira is actually really, really awesome. Kira is a little girl in a swim-suit who is half-submerged in a giant Dragon Quest slime that grows arms and performs pile-drivers on you. Each character is also associated with an Arcana in the story; however, you are free to choose whichever Arcana you desire when you play the game.
Note: Sabin over at the official Atlus Arcana Heart forum has posted a bunch of match videos for each character. He is very knowledgeable about the game, so I trust the videos he has posted are good quality stuff. I will post links to the videos under each character. Sabin notes in the post: “Reposted from 'Aion' of neo-empire.com, a European based fighting game community. Much props to him for doing the grunt work and getting these links. If anyone is curious as to how the game is played at high level, then check no further than this thread.” Much props to Sabin for doing the grunt work and getting these links from Aion who gets props for doing the grunt work and getting these links in the first place.
Aino Heart
Uh, this girl is sort of the main character, I guess. As far as I can tell, she's just a regular schoolgirl with AMAZING powers or something. She's not a whole like like Ryu, though, like a lot of fighting games do. She's got a shoryuken, but her quarter-circle backwards is this sort of flying backhand fist thing. With a heart effect. Or something. Her quarter-circle forward isn't even a projectile; I don't think she has any projectiles. The quarter-circle forward is actually more of a
”BURN KNUCKLE!”
(featuring Liesolette)
(featuring Kamui)
(featuring Lilica)
(featuring Liesolette)
(featuring Saki)
(mirror match)
(featuring Lilica(x2) & Kamui)
Partinias- The Arcana of Love
Back in the old days, there was some woman who criticized violence. As a result, she was burned for a being a witch. Now her spirit is an Arcana, and she assists Heart because Heart has a good capacity for
 ”Wuv, twoo wuv...”
Partinias' special moves have distance. She lets you create little balls that with float to your opponent in a wobbly trajectory, and a super version that makes three balls at once. You also get laser beam that shoots straight across the screen. But they are made of TWOO WUV, so it's okay. It hurts so good. Partinias also lets you float to the ground if you press up when you're descending to the ground after a jump. When you activate her Arcana summon, you are able to use the little ball special that creates 3 balls as many times as you want, and her Arcana attack has Partinias throwing down a Spirit Bomb at your opponent. A Spirit Bomb of love.
Saki Tsuzura
This is Heart's best friend, so I guess she's like Ken. But not really at all, because she has charge moves like Guile. She's got a flash kick, but her charge back – forward is like a kick version of a
”BURN KNUCKLE!”
She's supposed to be pretty easy use. I guess she's also a school girl. With AMAZING powers.
(featuring Kamui)
(featuring Maori)
(featuring Lilica)
(featuring Fiona, Konoha & Lilica)
Bhanri- The Arcana of Lightning
A long time ago, there was this country, and it had a queen, and then she died. But the people kept liking her because she was awesome for protecting them a whole lot, so her spirit eventually became an Arcana. She lets you summon lightning strikes on your opponent or you can surround yourself with lightning strikes. She passively adds clashing aspects to your dash and a lot of your attacks, which is useful. When you do an Arcana summon, you get even more things with clashing abilities. For her Arcana attack, I'll quote Guardcrush.net: “Bhanri appears on the screen and flies up as though she's about to shoot a ton of lightning down or something cool, but instead trips on her way up or something and falls headfirst on the opponent.”
Sounds pretty sweet.
Kamui Tokinomiya
I thought she was a schoolgirl, but I think she's also some sort of super magical super hero (school)girl. Her Arcana of Time, Anutpuda, wakes her up to solve big problems and then puts her to sleep afterwards so she'll be alive by the time the next problem occurs. Sounds like a jerk. She's got a nice sword and has good range. She's got this one dash attack that all sword people have, where she dashes past you and you get sliced, which I guess is sort of like a
”BURN KNUCKLE!”
except you get behind your opponent.
(featuring Heart)
(featuring Fiona)
(featuring Liesolette, Saki & Mei-Fang)
(featuring Liesolette & Lilica)
(featuring Saki)
(featuring Kira)
(featuring Lilica)
(featuring Mei-Fang)
Anutpuda- The Arcana of Time
Apparently, some mechanical piece from some ancient civilization developed consciousness and free will. Somehow. I guess since that's a rather incredible feet, it became an Arcana in the way those previous people became Arcana. Anutpuda lets you make little yellow balls float in mid air. I guess they are balls of concentrated time? That's the minor ability. You can also freeze your opponent in place, leaving them open for attack. His passive abilities seem to create after-images of yourself that can take hits or attack your opponent. That's pretty cool. When you do an Arcana summon, the round clock stops counting down, and Anutpuda's Arcana attack can freeze your opponent in place for different lengths of time depending on your super bar. I guess this lasts longer than the regular special move that freezes your opponent.
Lilica Felchenerow
So she's got demon wings, so she's a demon girl. Half demon, I think. Half-breeds are popular, I guess. She's also a schoolgirl, though. I guess no one minds the wings. She's also got these roller blades with motors in them. Magical motors. She's a fast and acrobatic character. Her attacks have her jumping around the screen a lot. People like to say she looks like Etna from Disgaea.
(featuring Yoriko)
(featuring Saki)
(featuring Konoha)
(featuring Saki)
(featuring Kira)
(featuring Mei-Fang & Liesolette)
(featuring Kira)
(featuring Kira)
(featuring Kamui)
(featuring Fiona)
(Mirror match)
Tempestas- The Arcana of Wind
I don't remember this guys' back-story. He looks like a bird though, so maybe he was a bird. When you choose Tempestas, your character gets 3 jumps and 2 air dashes, which sounds awesome. You can also push your enemy away when you do a forward guard cancel, and you and instantly drop to the ground if you're in the air. Special moves wise, you can create little whirlwinds that will stay in place like a mine and send you opponent flying into the sky if they hit it. You can also send out this little wind boomerang thing that shoots forward and will follow you until it returns back to you. So you can run away and have it follow you, which makes approaching by your opponent a bit more difficult. When you do an Arcana summon, you get 4 jumps and 3 air-dashes. Tempestas' Arcana attack has him shoot out across screen almost instantaneously, so it's good for combos. When you get hit, you fly to the top of the screen, open for combos. However, if your opponent blocks it, you are very open for combos.
Maori Kasuga
This girls a shrine priestess, and on the character select screen, she is actually 4 people as one.
She can summon her sisters for special attacks. Like, her two little sisters can come and fly into you on flying paper cranes, or her older sister can appear out of nowhere and punch you in the face. She's also got this top she throws around with this magical glowing wire. I don't know the story behind that. So I guess she's a bit of a distance character. Maybe. I assume she's a schoolgirl. Or she spends all her time at her shrine.
(featuring Lilica)
(featuring Fiona)
(featuring Kamui)
(featuring Saki)
(featuring Yoriko & Lilica)
(featuring Kamui, Fiona & Lilica)
Ohtsuchi- The Arcana of Earth
Ohstuchi was a clay model that Maori's shrine prayed too. I guess he was alive too, and he helps Maori's family with his incredible strength. I am sure he is good for smashing things and gardening. Ohtsuchi focuses on strength. His passive effects grant you super armor while you dash or do certain attacks, meaning you won't flinch from their attack from the first hit or two. This lets you continue what you were doing uninterrupted. His special moves lets you make rocks materialize in thin air and drop on your opponent, or his fist can fly out of thin air and smash your opponent against the wall. His supers give you a super version of his fist, and you can also summon his foot to step on your opponent. When you do an Arcana summon, you're granted super armor for the entire duration of the summon, but you cannot guard (though you don't need to). His Arcana attack has Ohtsuchi appear on the side of the screen and he slowly moves forward and sink into the ground like
Shortly afterward, his fist will erupt out of the ground, smashing your opponent in his weak spot and causing massive damage, sending him flying skywards. It hurts a lot.
Mei-Fang
She's a robot programmed with thousands of years of food recipes, and some martial arts as an afterthought, I guess. She has this one special move that you can do repeatedly for up to three hits, so I guess she's really combo heavy. She's got little rocket boosters on her feet that don't seem to help all that much, but one of her special moves has her summoning a giant exo-suit to ram your opponent. That's cool. I guess that means she's not a school girl though.
l_g wrote:
”BURN KNUCKLE!”
(featuring Lilica)
(featuring Saki)
(featuring Kamui)
(featuring Kira)
(featuring Fiona)
(featuring Lilica)
Lang-gong- The Arcana of Fire
Lang-gong was a fox on a mountain who learned to talk with people. After he died, his spirit became immortal, and he became an Arcana. He teams up with Mei-Fang because he sees her as the next step in human evolution. He sees a robot as the next step in human evolution. Seriously. Fuck Skynet.
He lets you use Yoga Fire and Yoga Flame. A couple of your moves also become unblockable, apparently. When you Arcana summon, you get a fire shield when you use a homing dash in the air that can hurt your opponent. His Arcana attack has Lang-gong run across the ground at your opponent. It looks pretty cool, and it does good damage if it hits, and amazing guard damage if you guard. Your best bet is to jump over him.
Konoha
Konoha's a ninja girl, who is also a dog-girl (as opposed to a cat-girl). So she's got these big ears on her head and has a tail. Being a ninja, she does many ninja-like things, like throwing shurikens, hiding underground, performing inazuma drops, floating in the sky with her cape, and this one sort of high-speed distance punch that's sort of like a
”BURN KNUCKLE!”
Apparently every time Kamui awakens, someone from Konoha's ninja village is sent to assist Kamui, and this time Konoha was chosen. But she's having too much fun being a schoolgirl with Kamui and forgot about saving the earth. She runs around in her gym outfit.
(Mirror match)
(featuring Heart)
(featuring Yoriko)
(featuring Saki)
(featuring Fiona(x2) & Kamui)
(featuring Yoriko)
(featuring Mei-Fang)
(featuring Lilica)
Moriomoto- The Arcana of Nature
Moriomoto is the king of all plants, and he helps out Konoha's ninja clan a lot. He lets you shoot plant seeds on the ground that sprout and attack your opponent if he steps on them. He also lets you shoot a vine out that pulls your opponent towards you. When you activate an Arcana summon, you regenerate your health. His Arcana attack has Moriomoto grab your opponent from the ground. He then bounces your opponent around on his many leaves and vines, climaxing with a small flower growing on your opponent's head. I guess that's cool. I'm sure hit hurts.
Kira Daidohji
Oh yeah, this is the girl. Best character in the game. So she's got this giant blob that she rides around in and beats everyone up. He grows arms and legs whenever it wants to smack someone. Otherwise, it just sort of blobs around. She's sort of swimming in it at all times, I guess. So she's a slow heavy hitter character. She can grab you out of the air like Potemkin and throw you against the wall, making you bounce back and open to combos. She's also got the signature 360 motion + attack piledriver.
You only see the slime's face when Kira is not inside the blob. Kira is actually a genius scientist who got her doctorate from an American university at age 10. But upon return to Japan, she was forced to go to elementary school because she was young. Thus, she has become angry and wants to take over the world. Sounds reasonable to me.
(featuring Mei-Fang)
(featuring Kamui)
(featuring Maori)
(featuring Lilica & Liesolette)
(featuring Heart)
(featuring Heart & Konoha)
(featuring Lilica)
(featuring Lilica & Heart)
(Mirror match)
(featuring Kamui)
(featuring Saki)
(featuring Maori & Lilica)
(featuring Konoha)
(featuring Maori)
(featuring Fiona & Konoha)
(featuring Maori)
Niptra- The Arcana of Water
Niptra was a fish that kept getting reincarnated until he hit Arcana-dom. He was pretty bored though, so when he saw Kira wanted to take over the world, he decided to help her. Sounds like a jerk. His passive effects causes some of your attacks to make your opponent float slowly in a direction as if they were in water, as opposed to flying fast and slamming into the wall like they usually would. This makes it easier to follow up with more attacks. You can also make little bubbles that can take hits for you. You can also make giant pillars of water, I guess like that one girl in Marvel vs Capcom 2? When you do an Arcana summon, you stop taking guard damage, and his Arcana attack has Niptra eat your opponent, causing your opponent move extremely slowly and all of their actions are slower as well.
Yoriko Yasuzumi
Yoriko is the quiet (school)girl who's always reading books. But her books are about the occult. And one day, she summoned a demon, and it ended up being Mike, the self proclaimed King of Demons. He's the staff with the head. He sort of pulls her along with him as he fights crime every night. Yoriko doesn't seem like doing anything Spike does, so her attack animations are usually Spike attacking while Yoriko tries to pull him back. That's cool, I guess. I don't know a lot about her, combat wise. I know she's got this one super move where you draw a pentagram with your joystick/d-pad and you get powered up. She can also ride on Spike as he rams into you, which is sort of like a flying
”BURN KNUCKLE!”
Spike can also grow a 50 foot tall body and shoot lasers out of his eyes.
(featuring Maori)
(featuring Lilica)
(featuring Saki)
Dieu Mort- The Arcana of Death
This guy was an executioner who loved chopping off people's heads so much, he decided to see what it was like and chopped his own head off. He somehow became an Arcana and now serves Mike. Dieu Mort lets you poison your opponent with this seal traps, as well as allowing you to teleport around. He passively allows you to teleport after a hit, rather than teching and regaining your balance wherever you may be. One of his super moves lets you and your opponent trade places! Amazing! I didn't really see how awesome this was until I saw someone use it in a video. So they launched the opponent in the air high in the sky, did a super long combo and then slammed the opponent towards the ground. The guy then used the super switcheroo, causing the two to switch places. The player appeared near the ground and the opponent appear in the sky, but was still hurtling downward from the attack. The player then intercepted the body before it hit the ground and started a new combo. It was pretty awesome. I need to learn to do that.
When you do an Arcana summon, any of your attacks will poison your opponent, and you also take 30% less damage. His Arcana attack has Dieu Mort's hand appears and grab your opponent, followed by a swipe from his giant scythe. It hurts a lot.
I apparently wrote too much, so I have to paste the rest into a second post. |
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Last edited by Drem; 04-11-2008 at 06:28 PM.
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