Arcana Heart

Everyone loves a catfight. Sure, they’re ruthless and usually end in someone losing a few locks of hair. But if you’re among those watching from the sidelines, stuffing your face with peanuts, popcorn, and one too many hotdogs, the battle is quite a show. And if you’re one of the combatants, well…keep your hair out of attack range.

Arcana Heart, a new fighting game from Atlus, plays on our love of catfights with 11 of the fairer sex fighting to prove who’s the fairest of them all. On its surface, the game appears to be another clone of Street Fighter or The King of Fighters. But underneath the common exterior is a fighter whose characters are exquisite, whose attacks are diverse, and whose combat is rich and engrossing. The only thing missing is Mortal Kombat’s speed and smelly arcade junkies, but we can live without the latter.

Streets of Raging

Arcana Heart is more lighthearted than most fighting games. But don’t think for one second that it’s a pushover – these gals are not about to let you win without a serious fight.

Unquestionably, the fighter lineup is the game’s greatest asset. There aren’t many to choose from, but each one brings a unique set of moves and attack styles to the fighting arena.

Lieselotte Achenbach is one of the strangest characters you’ll ever see. She can fight but often lets the doll in her suitcase do all the work. It’s a small, wooden doll that, when tossed out of the case, can repeatedly attack Lieselotte’s opponent from its location. Lieselotte can plant small markers anywhere in the stage to guide the doll; it will come to the marker and immediately start attacking if her opponent is in the spot of the marker. If the doll isn’t enough to win the battle (it never is), Lieselotte will have to fight back with – what else? – her suitcase. She’ll bash enemies in the head with it, swinging it viciously like a powerful weapon. It’s not, but the bruises are just as colorful.

Kira Daidohji is a character that’ll make you say, “I thought Lieselotte was the strangest!?” Like the cast of DoA Volleyball, Kira wears a bathing suit. That’s not the weird part. She also has a giant water bubble attached to the lower half of her body, which her legs move around in as if she was swimming. But wait, it gets stranger. She doesn’t attack with her body. Instead, the bubble forms itself into hard, enemy-crushing shapes (fists, boots, etc.). To block, the bubble hardens up like an igloo.

Fiona Mayfield looks like a normal young woman carrying an oversized sword. Trouble is, she’s also wearing a heavy pair of metal boots. At the same time, her hands are restricted with metal gloves. These weights slow Fiona’s movement but make her attacks painfully harsh. Her jump strikes look and feel more damaging because of the extra weight. When picking up momentum for a sword combo, she really hits hard.

Street Lighter

These three characters are a blast to control because of the depth and weird variety that went into them. But they’re not the only ones that are strange, nor are they the only ones you’ll wish to master.

Lilica Felchenerow is sort of the opposite of Fiona, using rollerblades to give her a massive speed boost. Many of her attacks are based on movement and can only be performed after a catalyst move (where she skates forward) has been executed. Yorioko Yasuzumi is a witch whose broom comes with a living devil face that’s stretchy and retractable. Maori Kasuga is like four girls in one. Correction – that’s exactly what she is. She uses two small clones (or are they her sisters?) to strike while a fourth woman pops in for extra boot.

The Girls Outside the Clique

Arcana Heart’s strength lies in its weirdness, but there are some characters that are actually normal. Not normal in the real world, but normal for a game with giant water bubbles that come to life.

Konoha is a small girl with a superhero cape. When falling from a jump (or after being uppercut into the air), it fills with air like a parachute. She attacks with an array of fists and footwork, throws ninja stars horizontally and diagonally, and has the power to teleport. Kamui Tokinomiya is an expert swordsman – that’s not out of the ordinary, but her moves are fun to execute. Saki Tsuzura’s hold-back-and-push-forward moves are similar to Guile from Street Fighter. Heart Aino is a fantasy kick-boxer, and Mei Fang fights like a Terminator (she’s a cyborg).

Speed In Question

The wonderful characters and combat system is further improved with Arcana, a special power system divided into 11 sections. Any type of Arcana may be selected by any character, allowing fighters to utilize some of the same moves.

Altogether, these elements create a super-solid fighting experience. The speed level, however, is depressing. Arcana Heart isn’t too slow but needs to run about 30% faster to achieve an optimal level. This isn’t sour enough to turn off fighting fans that give the game a fair chance. But if you play a demo, are at a kiosk, or at a friend’s house, a 10-minute test drive won’t yield a memorable dose of thrills. Arcana Heart needs more time to win over the masses.