The Sandbox Fighting game returns! After a successful crowdfunding campaign by EXAMU the Arcade only Arcana Heart 3 Love Max Six Stars game has now been ported to Steam and with new content as well! At launch Six Stars character Minori and her Ichor Arcana of Blood from the Arcade original are available. In the upcoming months the crowdfunded additions of Shark Girl and Dark Heart alongside of Paracelsia who is now returning as The Arcana of Life will be added alongside of balance changes that change things for the entire cast!
***NOTE: Since this is a new game much of this guide's specific links to movesets may be outdated since it links back to Wiki Mizuumi guides on characters and combos from previous iterations of the game as far back as the original AH3. However, even if the combos and frame data have changed I am leaving these links in place until new guides for this version are made since they serve as amazing jumping off points to guide you in the usage of the cast. New combos will be possible thanks to the balance changes and new Arcana being added. That said do check out the links because the details they provide on the very diverse and unique toolsets spread across the cast and arcana are very very useful even if some frames and combos have changed with this expansion***
DISCORD GROUP LINK FOR ARCANA PLAYERS! Lots of great players with tons of knowledge here. Great place to go for matches and info.
Now available on STEAM
Genre: 2D Fighting
Publisher: Aksys Games
Developer: EXAMU Inc. / ARC SYSTEM WORKS CO.,LTD.
If you are a fan of the fighting game genre then odds on you'd be surprised to find out just what sort of elaborate goodies are scattered behind this particular game's "Waifu" aesthetic. Some of the things it contains are.
- Homing dashes, air dashes, dash cancels, super jumps and jump cancels which pretty well gives the whole roster potential for creating elaborate combos
- The ability to equip nearly an entire character's worth of passive abilities, specials, supers and ultras onto any moveset by equipping "Arcanas"
- MVC3 like X factor tool that has a different bonus depending on which Arcana you equipped that can be used multiple times in a match yielding such things as Colossus style Hyper Armor, Iceman's Immunity to chip damage, or even the ability to poison your opponent with normal attacks.
- Movesets that have unique tools and features specific to them reminescent to things like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure style stands, Hurricane Polymar style symbol stocks usable for cancels, and even more Unique things for example.
Simple...the game itself and past OT's haven't really focused on the game's deep toolset so much as its aesthetic. Even in game its not readily apparent what the equippable "Arcana" do entirely nor just what sort of systems exist in the game that allow you to perform such ridiculously sandbox style custom combos and mixups on every character ...which is why I'm doing this OT.
This OT will break down just what systems are in place in this game, how to use them, and utilize the community written wiki on the game and other various resources to give players a quick one stop way to go into this game with the knowledge of how to fully utilize its roster, arcana and various tools.
NOTATION
A - Weak attack
B - Medium attack
C - Strong attack
D- HOMING
E - Arcana attack
(in General combos go ABCE like a magic series in this game and launcher followups or cancels extend this greatly. Simply do homing after a launcher and homing cancel to followup for a launcher combo)
OTHER INPUTS
AD=throw. There are air throws as well.
ABC= EXTEND FORCE (basically xfactor. Increases Atk/Speed only and then additional effects depend on your arcana. Works as a cancel)
C+E= ARCANA BURST! Costs 100% force gauge
+ABC= ARCANA BLAZE! Only doable during Extend Force. Uses your equipped Arcana's stronges move
Neutral E= Typically this is an attack that sends opponents into the wall
Step = or
Air Dash= or (in air)
High Jump= or or - Then - or or
Double Jump=? then either or or in air
HOMING
Your D button is for Homing. Homing allows you to fly towards your opponent at high speeds.This is what makes Arcana Heart so unique to itself.
If you press D once you will automatically fly towards your opponent at a set speed. Pressing D again while moving towards you opponent will increase the speed that you move towards them, and allows you to change your trajectory if used with the control stick. If you do this from super jump height you can move left and right repeatedly towards a grounded opponent to setup a super ambiguous crossup attempt!
In fact, here is a fantastic video guide on how to utilize the homing ability for both offensive and defensive uses by youtuber Bill307fighting.
On the ground, if you hold +D, you will get a ground dash, you cannot speed this up. On the ground or in the air, you can use +D to move back a bit before moving towards the opponent, the "back dash" portion has a little bit of invincibility. On the ground you will move back a bit then dash on the ground like +D. If you touch the opponent after homing, there will be a brief period of time before you can do anything, so be careful. You can guard though and use these inputs for guard dashing.
Homing Cancel
By using your homing button, D, you can cancel most Normals, Arcana Moves, Specials and some Supers/Arcana Supers into homing. This will consume 1 bar from the Arcana Gauge.
Whenever you homing cancel in a combo, the untech prorate will decrease, giving less time to make valid combos and more time for the opponent to tech out.
***IMPORTANT : This game has many air unblockable moves. You can't go to the well too often with homing. You have to be smart. Additionally there
CLASHES
In Arcana Heart there are moves that clash. Basically when two attacks hit at the same time or a move specifically designated as having "Clash properties" hit at the same time the moves clash and you can immediately cancel into any attack or directional movement.
Clashes are VERY important in this game and there are a lot of moves with clash properties so quite often the best way to deal with offense is to use offense vs it.
A typical AA is to use a clash property move on the ground then mash A.
ALSO after clashing with an opponent, you can choose to not "clash battle" with the opponent and guard. If you quickly guard you will not receive a hit from your opponent should they immediately cancel into another physical attack. You can also cancel into highjump after a clash for a highjump guard. This is like a high-chickenblock.
IMPORTANT: Some moves are completely UNCLASHABLE. This means you can't always mash attacks and hope to land yourself into a favorable scenario...you might get bopped.
CANCELS
In this game there are multiple ways to cancel out of one action into another to press your offense. You can:
- Extend Force Cancel with A+B+C,
- some moves can be jump canceled or step canceled
- Homing Cancel (costs 1 arcana bar done by pressing D after almost any attack)
- GUARD Cancel (costs 1 arcana bar done by pressing a direction+D after blocking)
- Press A/B/C in the air to air-tech
- Hold D as you hit a wall to wall-tech
- Hold D as you hit the ground to ground-tech
IMPORTANT: Sometimes you DONT want to tech in this game. Basically you face a game with air throws, and some moves that are completely AIR UNBLOCKABLE. Sometimes its best not to walk into a reset and just refuse to tech and let the combo run its course. Teching everything can lead to folks baiting you to tech just so they can air throw or air unblockable you into a nice reset and bigger damage.
In Arcana Heart you get a sandbox sort of thing in the form of Arcanas. They work like this.
- Take any character and equip an arcana to them at the start of the match
- Suddenly have additional passive abilities, specials, supers, a different extend force and a new Arcana Blaze attack
This is balanced by power and defense modifiers represented by 1 to 5 stars that do this.- Defense will only change your health positively (+).
- Power will only change your opponents health negatively (-).
The exact amounts of these modifiers can be found Here
***NOTE: Sin may give you a bonus or penalty on damage in extend force. This game has a "Guts Modifier" that varies per character. Essentially at a certain percent of health you start taking less and less damage. However, the max amount of guts and starting guts modifiers vary and some start negative. You can find the breakdown of GUTS MODIFIERS HERE to calculate who should use SIN ARCANA. ******
Akane Inuwaka
Angelia Avallone
Catherine_Kyohbashi
Clarice_Di_Lanza
Dorothy_Albright
Eko
Elsa_La_Conti
Fiona_Mayfield
Heart_Aino
Kamui_Tokinomiya
Kira_Daidohji
Konoha
Lieselotte_Achenbach
Lilica_Felchenerow
Maori_Kasuga
Mei-Fang
Nazuna_Inuwaka
Petra_Johanna_Lagerkvist
Saki_Tsuzura
Scharlachrot
Weiss
Yoriko_Yasuzumi
Zenia_Valov
Enjoy this sandbox customizable, cancel filled fiesta of a fighting game folks. Heres a few preview images of things found in this series to give you a taste of what zoning, fantastic oki (them kunai can be shot into the air at will), and pressure look like.
And here is a fun little teaser posted about some things now only possible in this Six Stars version thanks to the character balance changes being made by EXAMU!
Last edited: