June 1st was a good day. After waiting for over a month, the Playstation Store came back online, and I could finally obtain a copy of Arcana Heart 3. The game was originally released on April 19th, with the PSN outage coming soon thereafter. I’m happy to say that it was well worth the wait. Arcana Heart 3 is a hectic fighter, filled to the brim with fighting goodness for fans of the genre. Read more after the jump.


As a quick warning, if you couldn’t tell by the name or pictures, you’ll need high tolerance for anime. Every character in this game embodies some anime archetype for women. No audio translation work was done, only the menus and out-of-gameplay banter has been translated. Don’t let the designs dissuade you however, this game has deep addictive gameplay at the core.

At first glance, the game is rather intimidating. There are 23 characters to choose from, all of which are female. You’ve got your fighters with recognizable styles, such as Heart Aino paralleling Terry Bogard and Saki Tsuzura doing her best Guile impression. The characters range from serious (Zenia Valov) to the absolutely ridiculous (Catherine and Kira). All 23 characters have a different style of combat, there are no paletteswapped characters in this game.

As far as modes go, you’ve got Story, Versus, Online, Gallery and Training modes. It’s a bit sparse compared to many fighters put onto market of late, but there’s a multitude of routes in the Story mode to make up for it. As is fighting game tradition, the game is rather easy until the last couple of fights, with the sub-boss Etna-look-alike being rather horrific. I won’t spoil the boss, just to be nice, but I will note that it is incredibly frustrating to fight, and does not function like a standard fighting game boss.

There are 3 dedicated attack buttons, your standard Light, Medium and Heavy attacks. Also included is the Arcana button and the Homing button. Too far away from your opponent to attack? Press the Homing button, and your girl will go flying headfirst at them ready to renew the attack. What really sets this game apart is the Arcana system. Alongside your character, an Arcana, (spirits representing ideas/tarots/heroes etc.), must be selected. The Arcana provide passive buffs to the character, alongside special attacks, all of which are done with a single button. This adds a great deal of depth to the gameplay, players will have to consider their options carefully in each matchup. The game encourages experimentation with this, I’ve already clocked quite a few hours in Training mode just trying out different combinations, trying to find what’s right for me.

Arcana Heart 3 is a fun fighting game that unfortunately will not cater to many fighting game players simply because of its design aesthetic. While I cannot

blame people for such a choice, they’ll be missing out on what is probably one of the deepest, most enjoyable fighters on the market currently.

Rating: A-

Arcana Heart 3 - $30.00 on PSN

Arcana Heart 3 Wiki