Arcana Heart 3: Love Max!!!!!

Arcana Heart 3: Love Max!!!, released on PC, PS3 and PSV, is the next installment of a 2D series of fighting games popular in Japanese arcade salons. Since the beginning of its existence, the series has been supervised by Examu studio. The title is an extended and improved version of Arcana Heart 3, which was released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2011. The developers have introduced improvements to the combat system, based on the opinions of players of arcade centers. In addition, Arcana Heart 3: Love Max!!! has few new gameplay modes and a new storyline in which the heroines go to the resort located by the hot springs.

Mechanics

When starting the game, we choose one of the 23 available female characters. Warriors can be divided into four categories, according to their attack strength and defense effectiveness: defensive, balanced, offensive and unique. Characters from the last category so many unusual attacks and strategies that they don't fit into the other categories. When we decide on a particular heroine, we have to choose one of the 23 arcanas for her. Each of them is assigned to one of the tarot cards and offers its user extraordinary powers, which can increase the strength of attack and defense and grant special attacks. Choosing the right combination of arcana and character for our playstyle is one of the keys to victory in combat.

The combat system and controls should be familiar to those familiar with 2D fighting games. One of the characteristic features of the game is the height of the arenas. Their construction allows the characters to perform exceptionally high jumps and fight in the air. If it is too difficult for us to control and perform combos, we can turn on a simplified fighting model, thanks to which we can perform even the most complicated combos.

Game modes

Arcana Heart 3: Love Max!!! offers several game modes. The first one is a campaign in which, thanks to fully voiced cut-scenes between fights, we can follow the game's plot which is a direct continuation of the story of the previous parts. The action of the already mentioned bonus scenario takes place after the events from the original version of Arcana Heart 3. In addition, the game also offers modes typical for this genre: training mode, Versus and Score Attack. Love Max!! introduces Survival Score Attack, in which we gain some health by defeating other opponents, as well as a time trial mode and the opportunity to take part in a number of scoring challenges. The title also supports an extensive multiplayer mode, thanks to which we can fight against players from all over the world.

Technical aspects

The graphics in Arcana Heart 3: Love Max!!! should appeal to all fans of Japanese animations. Colorful and original characters fight in a variety of 2D arenas, and all this is made more attractive by various graphic effects accompanying the attacks. The big downside, however, is the fact that the 2D character models are still in low resolution.

Last updated on 24 March 2014