Lately I've been watching a lot of Arcana Heart Full match vids. I've played it only once and it's quite fun .
Basically, you know how CvS2 has different Grooves? Well, in AHF, you get to choose an "Arcana" to use with your character. Each Arcana gives you some additional special moves, super moves, and you can activate it to get a bonus effect (but generally people use Arcana activation as a combo breaker). A few give your character extra effects that are always active.
Some of the cooler Arcanas are:
o Time Arcana: - Makes your "homing" dash more like a full-screen teleport that you can stop at any time. You can do insane ground crossups with this dash. - Lets you hold a silhouette of certain moves, that you can release at a later time. You hold it by holding down the 'C' button, though, so you can't use that button again until you release the attack. Also, if you get hit, I believe you lose the silhouette.
o Poison Arcana: - Aside from the obvious ability (poison), it gives you a cool super where you trade places with your opponent. You can even use this in the middle of a combo, and your opponent will keep their momentum from whatever you last hit them with.
o Steel Arcana: - This is like, S-Groove + RPG. You don't gain meter from attacking your opponent: instead, you have to charge it up, like S-Groove in CvS2. - You can summon swords and shields. You can use a "level-up" super to make these attacks stronger (bronze -> silver -> gold). - You also get supers to power up your attack or defense temporarily.
Another main system mechanic is the "homing" gauge, 3 bars just above your super meter. Their main uses are "homing cancels", where you cancel out of any move (even a super) and fly towards your opponent, and "guard cancels", where you fly out of guard stun and get temporary invincibility (until you attack). Guard cancels are vital to the game, like how parries are vital to 3s. The homing bars replenish themselves after a while.
Lastly, a couple more notes: - When two attacks collide, they "clash" and both players are reset, like in SSBM. - You cannot kill someone with block damage.
And now, for some cool match videos . Note that whenever you see a character dash forward with a red shield, that's a forward guard cancel.
Kamui w/ Time vs Heart w/ Poison Kamui = girl with sword, looks like Hibiki, using the awesome Time Arcana . Heart = looks like Sakura, using Poison This is a pretty action-packed game. Enjoy .
Kamui w/ "Gier" vs Kira w/ Steel Kira = girl swiming in bubblegum, has Hugo's strength and throws plus Makoto's mobility and mix-up games. Using Steel Arcana (S-Groove + level-ups). "Gier" is a really annoying Arcana. It has a shark attack and a shark super, and you can hold both of them (until you get hit). Very close matches .
Kira w/ Steel vs Saki w/ Earth Saki = generic charge character, has moves like Guile. Earth Arcana is mainly used to fist her opponents. Note that Kira's super throw = Gigas Breaker xD. I love the throw mixups the Steel Kira player uses (reminds me of Makoto ). E.g. when his opponent is knocked down, he'll create a shield so the opponent can't hit him on wake-up, then mix up between "Kira Sama Driver" and a launcher attack into a combo. He also knows where the gaps in his combos are, where people can air-tech out of them, and sometimes he'll anticipate it and do a throw instead of continuing the combo :D.
Liselotte w/ Gier vs Maori w/ Lightning Liselotte = girl with puppet. She's the only top-tier character, but she's like Yun: highest damage potential, but very hard to use well. By the way, all but 3 characters in Arcana Heart Full are mid-tier. The two low-tier characters are Fiona (big sword) and Yariko (witch). Also, the tiers are nowhere near as extreme as they are in 3s: the game is very well-balanced and you can generally win with anyone vs anyone. Maori = girl with team of sisters, who fight like a game of MvC2 with assists everywhere . This match is pretty good. Mainly I'm showing some other game chars.
Kamui w/ Time vs Kira w/ Steel I love watching these two guys play. And here's a vid with both of them!
Edit: lol, my HTML embedding no longer works because I'm no longer a blue letter staff member . (wonders how many other vids are now broken o.Oa)
Man, I just played an exhausting 60-minute 2v2 with Jimmy, Rek, and Mani. This is definitely one reason why fighting games, though superior to SC in some respects IMO, will never totally replace StarCraft/RTS in my life: when you work for an hour-long win (or even a close loss) it's like, a completely different feeling from anything you can experience in fighting games =].
Glad you liked the videos, IntoTheWow . I'll probably post more in the future.
That Makoto was beastly! He was particularly good at spacing. Furthermore, that Alex was even beastlier, getting an OCV! :O
Watched it last night before I went to sleep, 99% sure that the makoto was Boss btw (his ID said "Bossy", which I've seen many times before). I recognized "Ike" and Boss in addition to the guys you mentioned, Tokido was on the winning team but didnt play, I'm not entirely certain but I do feel I've seen "shousuke" before...
What the hell is that big pink blob?! lol For part of that last video it almost seemed like the pink blob player wasn't doing anything, he got crushed pretty bad those first 2 rounds
On November 18 2007 14:46 Bill307 wrote: Lately I've been watching a lot of Arcana Heart Full match vids. I've played it only once and it's quite fun .
On November 18 2007 14:46 Bill307 wrote: Lately I've been watching a lot of Arcana Heart Full match vids. I've played it only once and it's quite fun .
dude, go make your own thread.
Personally, I think this should be the Third Strike And Other Awesome Fighting Games topic, since there aren't enough people here interested in fighting games to keep more than one topic active, as far as I can tell. Maybe if it gets too all-over-the-place then we can make a new topic for non-3s.
Besides, I like watching great matches from any fighting game. Except for 3s, where I like watching almost all top-level matches .
Just, if you're going to post a bunch of matches from another game up, then please take some time to explain how the game works. E.g. I really don't know anything about Guilty Gear so it's hard to understand what's going on in that game.
I don't think the Makoto (Bosui) is Boss. I thought Boss always used jab Makoto? Also the Makoto was raping, but it wasn't Boss-level team demolishing . Bosui has appeared in some other matches before:
Tokido was on the team w/ Ochibi and Bosui? That's a really broken team compared to all of the other teams in this tournament, no wonder they won lol.
The Ty vs Gootecks matches were also great. Ed coming back in a round with no life left vs Pyro. ("leap attacks are invincible" ) Ed almost parrying out of an aegis unblockable. Gootecks beasting Ed 2-0 (didn't see that coming :O ). Gootecks taking a game from Pyro, 2-0.
On November 18 2007 14:46 Bill307 wrote: Lately I've been watching a lot of Arcana Heart Full match vids. I've played it only once and it's quite fun .
dude, go make your own thread.
Personally, I think this should be the Third Strike And Other Awesome Fighting Games topic, since there aren't enough people here interested in fighting games to keep more than one topic active, as far as I can tell. Maybe if it gets too all-over-the-place then we can make a new topic for non-3s.
Besides, I like watching great matches from any fighting game. Except for 3s, where I like watching almost all top-level matches .
If that's the case, I'm intrested to know if anyone here plays MvC2 at a high-level, I'm better at that than I'll ever be at 3s or SC =p
omg lol this commentary is so good. Final Justice! A flock of doves just flew out from behind Ty and an American flag just unfurled. CAPTAIN FUCKING AMERICA! FUCK YEA.