Atlus announces Arcana Heart, all-female 2D fighter for PS2

[Eusis]

The official site.

Not interesting to me, but I'm sure some of you would be all over it.

[Losfer]

this is relevant to my interests

[Ramza]

I'm surprised and happy that Atlus decided to localize this one. the only thing I know of it is its soundtrack, which is excellent. The sequel is nearly out in Japan, and so is its soundtrack. :)

Ramza

[TurnBasedDude]

If it is an actual solid fighter and not something meh like rumble roses, this could be a guilty pleasure. :p

[Jimmy]

I haven't heard of it before, but just looking at the artwork I can at least say that I'm glad there aren't overly massive boobs flying all over the place. Do I think those massive boobs in DoA are hot? Totally. Can I take the game seriously because of them? Not at all.

If the fighting is actually good, I might just check it out. I haven't really played a good fighting game since Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and I could stand having another good one for the PS2.

[Dice]

I'm increasingly worried the otaku bug in Japan is infecting North American shores.  Dating sims are next fo sho.

[Lard]

I thought there had already been some released.

[Dincrest]

Lard- Japanese dating sims a'la Tokimeki Memorial haven't been released in the US.  Dating sims are highly stat oriented and are almost like RPGs in that regard.  For example, if you want to hook up with the girl on the track team, you need to "level grind" your athletics stat by doing lots of athletic stuff.    

On the other hand, love adventures, which are the choose your own adventure style visual novels, have seen a few releases in the US via the now defunct Hirameki.  Some of these include Ai Yori Aoshi, Tea Society of a Witch, and Hourglass of Summer (Natsuiro no Sunadokei).  Hourglass of Summer is, in my opinion, the epitome of the genre, and I've played my fair share of love adventures.  One need only look at my body of writing for RPGfan to see that I'm a big fan of KID's work (save for Ai Yori Aoshi, which was a lousy game.)  

Closest thing to a dating sim that the US has seen is the Thousand Arms RPG and that travesty of a game Sprung (which wasn't Japanese.)  

As for my opinion on Arcana Heart, same as Jimmy.  So long as the fighting engine is solid and not clunky like Rumble Roses, then why the heck not?  Sure Dead or Alive was a goofy fighter, but the engine was really good.

My favorite 2D fighter is still Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for Dreamcast.  Say what you will about that system, but it was the best I can think of for fighting games.

[Losfer]

The engine in DOA is pretty solid.  We had a good two player match just the other night actually.

[Gorgon]

Wel, If it's Atlus I'm interested, though this one seems a bit meh... but it still has tits (+2 points)

[Akanbe-]

My favorite 2D fighter is still Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for Dreamcast.  Say what you will about that system, but it was the best I can think of for fighting games.

Can't argue with you there.  It's a really solid game with lots of fun characters.  MvC2 and Capcom vs SNK 2 are easily my two favorite fighting games of all time with Street Fighter Alpha 3 trailing a close third.

Anyways, this game seems interesting.  Looking through the gameplay stuff on the site, it looks similar to the Guilty Gear series in some ways to me.  I could see myself picking this up.

The game's effects sure do look pretty.

edit:  More digging has revealed that this game is pretty sweet and has some depth.  Looks to be even more similar to Guilty Gear or Melty Blood than I originally thought.  This looks even more so to be a worthwhile purchase.  

Also, in Japan apparently there are two versions of this.  Arcana Heart and Arcana Heart FULL (some sort of patch) that nerfed overly strong characters and buffed some of the weaker characters.  Apparently the American version will feature both versions and you can play whichever one you want.  Cool.

[Takezo]

Closer to Melty Blood than anything. Gameplay is loads slower than Accent Core+ Loads of tournament players have stopped playing the game seriously. It's very well balanced but not really competitive enough to stick around outside the lol/japan/doujiin fighters scene. Kamui is so ridiculous, you can master the game in about a week. Jwong stopped playing entirely, most of Shoryuken is yawning. So long to Hokuto No Ken as well (rage, my broken glory).

GuiltyGear AC+ and Third Strike, long live. KOF XI too.

[Chimpbot]

Closer to Melty Blood than anything. Gameplay is loads slower than Accent Core+ Loads of tournament players have stopped playing the game seriously. It's very well balanced but not really competitive enough to stick around outside the lol/japan/doujiin fighters scene. Kamui is so ridiculous, you can master the game in about a week. Jwong stopped playing entirely, most of Shoryuken is yawning. So long to Hokuto No Ken as well (rage, my broken glory).

GuiltyGear AC+ and Third Strike, long live. KOF XI too.

Perhaps it's just me. Maybe my higher brain functions stopped operationg correctly. I'm not sure.

Regardless, I didn't understand a single thing you just said.

[Extwin]

There was a hokuto no ken 2d fighter? I would like to try that. This also looks interesting. Im an Atlus whore though, so that tends to sway me. That and the fact that with most atlus releases if you dont preorder you dont get It so that pushes me into grabbing games I even think I might like

[newgameplus]

I love 2-D fighters. A lot. But this game... this is disastrously offensive.

I can see a lot of creepy pedo-doll collecting weirdos drawing all sorts of "not so cool" fan art to this...