Arcana Heart for less than thirty bucks

By Spencer . January 29, 2008 . 12:22pm

This barely falls under news, but Play-Asia slashed the price on the PS2 version of Arcana Heart from nearly $60 to $29.90. That’s less than the game costs in Japan! I played a tiny bit of Arcana Heart in the arcades, but not enough to get a solid feel for an extended write up. The main twist in Arcana Hearts is after you pick a character from an all female cast you select an arcana, a magic power that allows instant character customization. If I remember correctly there are a series of elemental arcana (fire, earth, water) and an arcana that lets players teleport around the screen. The system essentially allows more variation over the seemingly small cast than other 2D fighting games. Speaking of the cast, Examu has a rather creative one including a girl incased in a gigantic water drop who briefly appears in the PlayStation 2 intro video below.

 

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=nlXf3o7Ry_w[/youtube] 


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  • http://www.ps3fanboy.com Nick Doerr

    My friend has a “totally legal” copy of the game we played. It’s… an interesting fighter. When we played, the pacing was very slow and we often simply ran out of time for each round.

    After about twenty minutes of screwing around (and some handy research online) we figured out some moves and how combos worked… and the game moved much faster. It’s definitely something to try to get better at because initial plays were fairly junky, but now we have a hell of a time with it.

  • http://www.ps3fanboy.com Nick Doerr

    My friend has a “totally legal” copy of the game we played. It’s… an interesting fighter. When we played, the pacing was very slow and we often simply ran out of time for each round.

    After about twenty minutes of screwing around (and some handy research online) we figured out some moves and how combos worked… and the game moved much faster. It’s definitely something to try to get better at because initial plays were fairly junky, but now we have a hell of a time with it.

  • Kurt

    My friends and I never got past that initial pacing hurdle, so after playing it for an hour, we ditched it for the usual KoF XI. $30 is a good price to anyone interested though, as long as you can stomach the character designs.

  • http://resetbutton.net/ alice

    Man, this just reminds me once again how I need a better solution to playing JP PS2 games.

  • Kurt

    My friends and I never got past that initial pacing hurdle, so after playing it for an hour, we ditched it for the usual KoF XI. $30 is a good price to anyone interested though, as long as you can stomach the character designs.

  • http://resetbutton.net/ alice

    Man, this just reminds me once again how I need a better solution to playing JP PS2 games.

  • http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty

    I heard there are 3 Arcana Heart arcade cabinets in the U.S.
    One is in China Town, NY, iirc.

  • matty

    I heard there are 3 Arcana Heart arcade cabinets in the U.S.
    One is in China Town, NY, iirc.

  • http://www.crookedjester.com Jaxel

    I’ve tried out Arcana Hearts and I just cant get into it… its all about Melty Blood Act Cadenza VerB for me.

  • http://www.crookedjester.com Jaxel

    I’ve tried out Arcana Hearts and I just cant get into it… its all about Melty Blood Act Cadenza VerB for me.

  • NightLurker

    Amazon kinda drecked me. Promised they would have it here by the 10th than they said it could not get to me until May. Normally Amazon does me good. Guess there were alot of pre-order Jills and Jimmies that ate up every copy.

    The game play does seem a bit slow. If say you get used to KOF XI and SF Alpha 3 you’re more accustomed to speed. However it’s neat you can fly around temporarilly and knock enemies around until they are off screen. The Arcana customization keeps things fresh too.

    The only thing I’m worried about is it looks alot like Guilty Gear XX. A great game to be sure but it’s fighting mechanics and steep difficulty frusterated the crap out of me. If this is just a repeat of Guilty Gear XX with all girls I might have to grind awhile before I can get into it.

  • NightLurker

    Amazon kinda drecked me. Promised they would have it here by the 10th than they said it could not get to me until May. Normally Amazon does me good. Guess there were alot of pre-order Jills and Jimmies that ate up every copy.

    The game play does seem a bit slow. If say you get used to KOF XI and SF Alpha 3 you’re more accustomed to speed. However it’s neat you can fly around temporarilly and knock enemies around until they are off screen. The Arcana customization keeps things fresh too.

    The only thing I’m worried about is it looks alot like Guilty Gear XX. A great game to be sure but it’s fighting mechanics and steep difficulty frusterated the crap out of me. If this is just a repeat of Guilty Gear XX with all girls I might have to grind awhile before I can get into it.

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