When it comes to fighting games, I tend to usually enjoy my time with them despite not being too good at them. I play them and I have fun, that’s that. I am also someone who likes to play niche games that no one has really touched. Arcana Heart 3 Love Max Sisters EXTND (Arcana Heart 3), is one of those games that has not gotten too much attention out there and I sure enough decided to go check it out.
I should note that I understand I do not have a whole lot of time and I have a good reason for this. However, I should note that mechanically, Acana Heart 3, is pretty good in that regard and I think the game plays very well. It’s just how the game presents itself in how to teach the player to do things, which is what holds the game back. I should also add that I have not played any of the previous Arcane Heart games, so I have no idea how the others played.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Wonderful cast of playable characters
Gameplay is incredibly fun
Beautiful pixel art style that is genuinely nice to look at
Cons
Does a very poor job of giving tools to help teach the player mechanics
The Arcane System isn't explained
They removed trails mode and arcade mode from the game
Online is dead for the most part
Story
The game takes place in a fictional futuristic Japan, where a dimensional distortion occurred in the Kanto region of the country. This was caused by a being known as Angelia Avallonem this event is known as The Great Kanto Incident. The group known as The International Holy Spirit Institutions suffered greatly after this, although it’s been healed in the last two months.
The story for this game is decent, I don’t know much about its lore because I haven't played the previous games. I think there may be a hidden story that is interesting in this series somewhere, but this game does not really provide an interesting story for me to be invested into it.
Gameplay
Arcane Heart plays like a typical fighting game, although the game does in fact have two unique mechanics tied to it that that I will explain. This game is an airborne-based fighting game, you have a homing mechanic that will allow you to home in on the opponent, it will automatically track them with a single button press and there are certain actions that are performed by using this feature.
There is also a wonderful cast of characters for you to play as well and two new characters were added into the game recently. The gameplay overall is very fun and I actually do think this game is a solid fighter, however, there are a few issues that hold this game back. I should state this again, this game is good mechanically but how the game goes about it, is where the issues lie.
I am going to put you in this scenario, you start the game and pick a character, ok we are starting out simple. Then, as soon as you are done picking your character, the game then shows you this.
You are now asking yourself, what is this, what are these things and why do I have to pick one of them? These things you see on this screenshot, are called Arcana Spirites these give you passive-based abilities and can also determine your special move. Certain characters are tied to certain Arcana Spirites but the game never tells you which one goes to whom, although this is fine as you can find certain combos to go with others.
Although the game never explains to you what each of these Arcana Spirites do or what special moves it grants to the player. The only way for you to know any of this is to go on the internet, which is not really something I would think to ever do for a game like this. Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code has three Moon Styles. That being Full, Half, and Crescent Moon Style, did the game tell you which Moon Style fit for which character? No the game did not but that was fine, as there are only three of them. Also, characters could use a different moon style to change how they functioned. They probably weren’t recommended but it was something you can do and the game actually explained to you what each style did.
Arcana Heart 3 has 25 Arcana Spirites for you to choose from, You don’t need to match the one the character is associated with, as you can choose a different one that may work better for that character. However, with the lack of how the game tells you this, makes this game a little complicated. I am not saying that having 25 Arcana Spirites is a bad thing, in fact I welcome it for giving players more options to play the game. But the lack of explanation that the game gives you on these things, is what makes me not like how the developers did it.
Although that’s not the only thing either as there are missing features that were taken out as well. There is no arcade mode and trails mode has been removed as well, trails mode taught you how to play the game. I am baffled on why this feature which teaches you how to play the game, was removed.
Online is also completely dead, so if you are looking for some matches, you may have to get someone who is willingly able to play the game. I also heard that the net code is bad, but I can’t attest to this due to my not finding any matches.
Graphics and Performance
The pixel art style that the game has is genuinely nice and well done with an arcade-like feel. The animations are also well done. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50, 16 GB of RAM, I experienced no issues while I was playing, and the game ran fine.
Final Verdict
Recommending Arcana Heart 3 Love Max Sisters EXTND is a bit difficult for me. On one hand, it plays fine and the game is fun but with how the game goes about handling the mechanics and the removal of game modes, this prevents me from fully recommending this game to others. Arcana Heart is a niche fighting games series, with its first two games selling poorly, so seeing this one get treated like it is, is honestly quite sad. If you are still curious on what this game has to offer, then I recommend picking this one up on a sale, other than that, I would skip this one.