Home Games Arcana Heart

Arcana Heart

Fighting
Releases: 04.10.08
Ecole
Atlus USA
ESRB: Teen

Arcana Heart

An all-girl fighting game not for the faint of heart

by Sarah Schutz

Arcana Heart, while packaged in a girly anime exterior, is not for the faint of heart. Gamers who are not familiar with the more traditional, complex fighters will find themselves quite lost from the get-go. I will preface this "review" with a disclaimer: I am not one of the fighting game elite. Lengthy complicated combos have always eluded me in favor of random button mashing so I never get very far. And while I appreciate the complexity and detail of Arcana Heart, I do not have the time, skill or patience to explore the game as it so deeply deserves. Instead I will encourage those nieche traditional fighting gamers to pick up a game that executes a traditional genre with its own wacky unique approach that even I, a more casual fighter, can appreciate.

The 2D fighter offers several different game modes with 11 playable fighters including one adorable, if not too creepy, little girl in a swimming suit who fights with the power of the waves around her . . . odd, but I can dig it. The depth of the game is surprising given its simplistic look. Extensive combos including an array of aerial combos offers varied gameplay. Each fighter chooses an Arcana spirit which equips the fighter with special moves and customizes gameplay for each character. The game offers extensive replayability with several modes: Arcade, Story, Versus and Training. I headed straight to training considering my fighting handicap, but found that I remained pretty damn clueless, but it's a fun space to test our your combos. The "story" mode is really a joke since any kind of plot seems peripheral and unnecessary - it's a fighter after all, but it remains an obligatory mode in most games. Arcade and Versus are self-explanatory and will most likely provide you with the most satisfying gameplay.

Arcana Heart proves that 2D gaming and gaming for the Playstation 2 is anything but dead. While visually the game is more simplistic than most current generation games, the simple anime graphics hide within an extensively detailed fighting game. If you're looking for a good storyline or a quick pick-up-and-play fighting game, Arcana Heart is most definitely not for you. But if you are a member of the fighting elite or have the time to dedicate to learning, picking up the game at a $29.99 pricepoint is a no brainer. But if you're like me and ill-equipped for old-school fighters, spend your gaming time and money elsewhere.

Unique spin on a classic genre

High difficulty level if you're not a hardcore fighter

Name

E-mail (Will not appear online)

Homepage

Title

Comment

To prevent automated Bots form spamming, please enter the text you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.

Powered by Comment Script