Arcana Heart | |
---|---|
Genres | Fighting game |
Developers | Examu Inc. |
Publishers | Examu Inc., AQ Interactive, Atlus, Arc System Works, Aksys Games, Zen United, NIS America |
Platforms | Arcade, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows |
First release |
Arcana Heart December 22, 2006 |
Latest release |
Arcana Heart 3: LOVE MAX!!!!! May 8, 2013 |
Arcana Heart | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Examu Arcade Yuki Enterprise Atrativa Japan (FULL!) PlayStation 2 Ecole Software |
Publisher(s) |
Arcade
|
Designer(s) | Sakuraitooru |
Series | Arcana Heart |
Platform(s) | Arcade, PlayStation 2 |
Release |
Arcade
PlayStation 2
|
Genre(s) | Fighting game |
Mode(s) | Up to 2 players simultaneously |
Cabinet | Upright |
Arcade system | Original |
Arcana Heart 2 | |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Examu, Inc. |
Publisher(s) | Examu, Inc. |
Designer(s) | Sakuraitooru |
Series | Arcana Heart |
Platform(s) | Arcade |
Release |
|
Genre(s) | Fighting game |
Mode(s) | Up to 2 players simultaneously |
Cabinet | Upright |
Arcade system | eX-BOARD |
Suggoi! Arcana Heart 2 | |
---|---|
Developer(s) |
Arcade Examu, Inc. PlayStation 2 Ecole Software |
Publisher(s) |
Arcade PlayStation 2 |
Designer(s) | Sakuraitooru |
Series | Arcana Heart |
Platform(s) | Arcade, PlayStation 2 |
Release |
Arcade
|
Genre(s) | Fighting game |
Mode(s) | Up to 2 players simultaneously |
Cabinet | Upright |
Arcade system | eX-BOARD |
Arcana Heart (アルカナハート Arukana Hāto?) is a 2D arcade fighting game series developed by Examu Inc. (formerly ). The first edition was released to arcades (mostly in Japan, but a few in other countries) in late 2006. The games feature an original all-female cast, and after choosing a character, the player chooses an "elemental alignment," or Arcana, which determines the character's special moves.
Arcade
PlayStation 2
In mid-April 2007, a patch was released for Arcana Heart called "Arcana Heart FULL!". The patch fixed a variety of issues, toning down overly-powerful characters and "buffing up" weaker characters. However, a controversy arose when Examu priced the patch, which was physically housed on a single custom chip, at ¥78,000 each, whereas similar patches for similar games have been released for free (such as the patch for Melty Blood: Act Cadenza).
On July 4, 2007, it was announced that a console version of the game would be slated for release on PlayStation 2 in Japan on October 11, 2007.
The home version allows the option of playing individual characters in "Original" or "Full," reflecting the original and patched versions of characters from the arcade version. Voice acting was also added to all story segments.
On April 11, 2008, the game was released in North America. A notable difference between Arcana Heart and most other US PlayStation 2 titles is that the game has only Japanese voiceovers and no English voiceovers. Atlus removed the voices present in the Japanese console version's story mode as well as pre-battle and victory screens, but kept the voices used in battle.
Arcana Heart 2 is the sequel to Arcana Heart. It was the first game in the series to be developed and published by Examu after the rights of the franchise had been transferred to the company from Yuki Enterprise. It was also the first game for Examu's proprietary eX-BOARD, an arcade board based on Windows XP Embedded that would become the standard platform for the rest of the series and other arcade games published by Examu. The game was unveiled at the AOU2008 Amusement Expo.