Arcana Heart (series)

Arcana Heart (アルカナハート, Arukana Hāto) is a fighting game series made by Team Arcana, originally co-developed with its now defuncted former owner (as of February 2020), Examu (formerly known as Yuki Enterprise). The series is available in Arcades, home consoles and Microsoft Windows computers via Steam - however, only the first and third game have been released in most territories. The series debuted in 2005.

The series is known for it's use of an all female cast as they partner with various Arcana to battle with.

Plot Overview

A long time ago, the world of humans and Arcana lived in harmony until a Dimensional Barrier separated them.

Whenever a crisis arises and someone attempts to break the barriers between the two worlds, a handful of maidens have been given the power to communicate and fight alongside powerful elemental guardian spirits to prevent the disastrous results.

Games

Arcana Heart

The first game in the series, released exclusively to arcades in Japan in 2005. The first console variant was first given mention during July 4th, 2006, before being released for the PlayStation 2 on October 12th, 2006 in Japan, and April 11th, 2007 in North America.

Arcana Heart 2

Featuring six brand new characters, the sequel was released to arcades in Japan on December 21st, 2007.

On October 30th, 2008, an updated release known as Suggoi! Arcana Heart 2 came out, including three additional characters. This version was the one to receive a PS2 port, which occurred on April 9th, 2009.

This is the only game in the series to not have a release outside Japan.

Arcana Heart 3

The current entry, Arcana Heart 3 was released for Arcades on September 20th, 2011.

Two years later, on January 10th, 2013, the game had been released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in Japan, then August 16th in Europe.

The game would be released in North America on April 16th, but only digitally on PS3 via the PlayStation Store.

The first update for this game, Arcana Heart 3: Love Max!!!!! came out in Japan on May 8th, 2013. The console version was released worldwide for PS3 and Vita in 2014, and for Steam in 2015.

The second update, Arcana Heart 3 Love Max: Six Stars!!!!!!, originally released as an update for Love Max on December 4th, 2014. It adds one new character. It was then ported to Steam worldwide on December 12th, 2017, thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign.

The third update, Arcana Heart 3 Love Max Six Stars XTEND, was announced on April 24th, 2019. As of February 10th, 2020, due to Examu's closure by the end of the month, XTEND became solely under development by Team Arcana. An early test version was released for backers on February 14th. XTEND was released worldwide on April 30th, 2021 as a free update for those who owned Six Stars on Steam, with new characters, Pistrix and Dark Heart, as paid DLC. With the announcement of Arcade version for exA-Arcadia port in 2023, previous contents which did not reach Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign's initial release date plan for its first release on PC, like Dark Heart's missing Arcana and the boss fighter Omega will be introduced in this version.

Spin-offs/Crossovers

• Manga - a two-part manga series based on the first game.
• Card of Glory - a spin-off for mobile devices in Japan.
• Nitroplus Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel - a fighting game featuring characters from visual novel games made by Nitroplus. Heart Aino from Arcana Heart (due to Team Arcana and Examu being the developer) and Homura from Senran Kagura (due to its owner, Marvelous being the console publisher) appears as bonus playable fighters in home versions.
• BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle - a 2v2 tag team fighting game spin-off, featuring not only from Team Arcana's Arcana Heart, also initially from Arc System Works' BlazBlue (namesake), Atlus/Sega's Persona (particularly Persona 4 Arena and its sequel, Ultimax), French-Bread's Under Night In-Birth and Rooster-Teeth’s RWBY, followed by Marvelous' Senran Kagura and Subtle-Style's Akatsuki EN-Eins.

Trivia

• In the continue screen, they give the player tips on how to beat their opponent. However, it was removed since Arcana Heart 3.

Gallery