I tried Arcana Heart in the arcades while I was in Japan, but nearly every time I sat down I got badly beaten before I could sink my teeth into the game. Economically speaking, learning the basics on the PlayStation 2 is a more pragmatic option. The main twist in Arcana Heart is players pick a character from an all-female cast and a card that acts as a modifier. Instead of trying to master a specific character I spent my time shuffling through the Arcana sticking with Heart Aino.
Why Heart? Her movements and commands are the most familiar for a newcomer. Remember this is the same fighting game with a girl who rides a giant water droplet! I got the hang of Heart’s has a dashing punch attack, a lunging ribbon attack and a shoryuken-like anti-air attack pretty quickly. Now it was time to see how the Shadow Arcana complimented Heart. Most of the moves related to the Arcana are automatically mapped to the S button or X on the PS2 pad. Heart doesn’t have any projectiles, but adding the shadow Arcana gave her a long range attack with the quarter circle forward (QCF) motion plus X. The attack makes the shadow momentarily leap from the ground in a small arc. This attack can be done in mid-air too, but the shadow won’t jump any higher or miraculously appear out of Heart’s hands. The downside with this attack is the range isn’t far and it’s slow. It is better than nothing though!
The lightning Arcana gives Heart an entirely different kind of projectile, a vertical bolt of electricity that originates from the top of the screen. The blast locks on to the other player’s position, but the short delay gives an opponent an opportunity to step out of the way. This is probably best used at a distance, but if you can successfully hit the other player with an up close lightning bolt you can move into juggling. I seriously doubt a good player would let me do this, but this was done as an experiment in the training mode.
The fire Arcana is more versatile, it provides Heart with two kinds of projectiles. The meteor attack shoots a 45 degree anti-air fireball if Heart is on the ground. If she jumps in the air and uses the fireball propels towards the ground at a 45 degree angle. On the upside both of these ranged attacks are fast, but Heart naturally has a 45 degree angle, anti-air attack. I suppose, the overlap means the fire Arcana probably isn’t the best choice for her projectile.
Notice how Heart went from zero projectiles to two? Arcana Heart has a pretty flexible system.
