{"id":12596,"date":"2014-10-22T00:01:42","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T00:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=12596"},"modified":"2014-10-13T09:44:49","modified_gmt":"2014-10-13T09:44:49","slug":"arcana-heart-3-love-max-ps3-vita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/22\/arcana-heart-3-love-max-ps3-vita\/","title":{"rendered":"Arcana Heart 3: LOVE MAX!!!!! (PS3, Vita)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ARCANA_BOX\"<\/a>Arcana Heart is a series of one-on-one; 2-D fighting games featuring an all-girl anime-styled cast. Each femme fatale is trying to get their hands on a collection of magical stones for various reasons, and each character has a powerful Arcana creature to help them.\u00a0 The \u201cLOVE MAX!!!!!\u201d version of this game adds a few new modes and features from Arcana Heart 3, released a couple of years ago.\u00a0 If you enjoy fast and accessible cartoony 2-D fighters like Marvel vs. Capcom 3, you may want to check this one out.\u00a0 It\u2019s available for PS3 and Vita, but reviewed on PS3 here.<\/p>\n

Arcana Heart 3 plays like any 2-D fighter out there, meaning you press combinations of buttons and joystick movements to perform flashy and powerful fighting moves to beat your opponent. In each mode, you can choose Normal or Simple controls.\u00a0 Simple controls let you perform some of the more powerful moves with just button presses, which is great for novices or people like me who just mash buttons and hope for the best.<\/p>\n

Arcana Heart 3: LOVE MAX!!!!! (Yes, the five exclamation points are part of the title), has several different gameplay modes. You have the story mode, which plays more like an arcade mode than anything.\u00a0 Each character has a background story, but the focus is more on fighting action than anything.\u00a0 There is also an After Story mode, which is similar to the story modes in BlazBlue fighters.\u00a0 Meaning, you read a lot of text and maybe have a fight in a character\u2019s story, if you\u2019re lucky.\u00a0 But if you\u2019re interested in knowing more of the fighters\u2019 backstories, this is the mode for you.<\/p>\n

There is also a Versus mode where you can challenge the CPU or your friends locally. In Survival Score Attack, see how far you can make it battling a series of fighters without replenishing your health after every round.\u00a0 Trial mode has various challenges for you to master with each character.\u00a0 In Time Attack, finish battles as quickly as possible, and you can also practice moves in Training mode.\u00a0 And of course, you can challenge players around the world online via PSN.\u00a0 Not to mention record and watch replays and unlock all sorts of goodies in the Gallery, like artwork and animations.<\/p>\n

Even though this game stars a cast of female-only anime girl stereotypes, there are still some interesting and varied characters you can play as. The fighting action is fast and accessible, and even I could get the hang of it (which is saying a lot since I\u2019m not very good at fighting games).\u00a0 If you enjoy 2-D fighters, you may want to check this one out.<\/p>\n

\"ARCANA_SCREEN\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arcana Heart 3: LOVE MAX!!!!! is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Alcohol Reference, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, and Violence. It\u2019s a fighting game, so you do battle with punches, kicks, and flashy special moves.\u00a0 But it\u2019s also all super cartoony.\u00a0 The alcohol references and language are in the text only, and I personally didn\u2019t see either when I played.\u00a0 Since the cast of fighters are all anime females, there are some skimpy outfits and sexual innuendos.\u00a0 But it\u2019s also presented in a campy way.\u00a0 Even so, because of that, this game is probably best suited for teens and older players, or at least gamers accustomed to those kinds of anime stereotypes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arcana Heart is a series of one-on-one; 2-D fighting games featuring an all-girl anime-styled cast. Each femme fatale is trying to get their hands on a collection of magical stones for various reasons, and each character has a powerful Arcana creature to help them.\u00a0 The \u201cLOVE MAX!!!!!\u201d version of this game adds a few new […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12596"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12599,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12596\/revisions\/12599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}