How to Play Arcana Heart 3 series
- Part 1 – Choosing a Character & Arcana
- Part 2 – Basic Movement
- Part 3 – Advanced Movement
- Part 4 – Basic Attacks
- Part 5 – Advanced Attacking – Combos
- Part 6: Spacing and Spacing Mind Games
To switch gears for a moment while we wait for PSN to return, let’s talk a little bit about choosing the right Arcana to start with for each character in Arcana Heart 3. Having 23 choices is definitely a lot to take in at first and there may be characters and matchups that require you to switch your Arcana, so having one choice to rely on when starting out is definitely nice.
Good for Everyone – The Love Arcana is one that can complement just about any character and is a good starting point for anyone who is not quite comfortable with choosing an Arcana. The Love Arcana gives any character access to solid long range tools and good stat modifiers, which are all good complementary abilities for most characters. With this in mind, I will rarely mention Love as a choice for any of the following characters, because Love is a good choice for just about all of them!
Weiss
Weiss is a powerful close range fighter who can benefit from an Arcana’s ability to increase offense, defense, or versatility. Time is one of the best choices for Weiss, as it will not only improve her attack power, but it also offers improved defensive options and a way for Weiss to Equip her sword extension without losing momentum. Lightning is also a good choice for Weiss, as the Lightning Arcana complements her ability to fight up close with its passive abilities and Special Attacks.
Eko
Eko is a character with extremely strange attacks, but for the most part plays like a melee character with few, though strong, close range options. Because of this, many of the best Arcana choices revolve around their ability to stabilize Eko’s offensive abilities. The Fire Arcana is a great choice because it allows Eko to increase the damage from her random attacks as well as help her control space. The Nature Arcana is another viable choice; it doesn’t provide nearly as much space control as Fire, but it greatly improves her ground offensive power.
Scharlachrot
Scharlachrot is one of the most powerful mid-to-long range fighters in the entire game but suffers from having one of the weakest defenses as well. Thus, her Arcana choices generally focus on improving her defense and mobility or just improving her offensive ability to an extreme level. The Nature Arcana will greatly complement Scharlachrot’s ranged attacks and grants her a significant amount of offensive freedom; many characters have an extreme amount of trouble when they get caught by Scharlachrot when she is equipped with a Nature Arcana. On the other side of the coin is the Wind Arcana, which grants Scharlachrot a number of additional movement options and greatly improves her defensive abilities with the Wind Arcana’s special Guard Cancel.
Heart
Heart is a character that is extremely strong at close range and can be made more versatile or specialized depending on what Arcana is chosen. To increase her versatility, the Light Arcana is among the best choices for her as it provides her with very powerful long range attacks and can help her control space on the screen very effectively. To make her even more powerful up close, Lightning is a good choice as it will allow her to utilize the Lightning Arcana’s passive and active abilities to play much more aggressively up close.
Saki
Similar to Heart, Saki is another character that is extremely strong at close range and can be made more versatile or specialized depending on what Arcana is chosen. For Saki, the Lightning Arcana can complement her ability to play aggressively but also offers her a set of difficult to block Mix-Up options. Saki can also use the Arcana of Blossoms to aid her defensive ability, giving her better stat modifiers for defense and access to additional Arcana Bursts.
Kamui
Kamui is a character who excels at mid range with her sword attacks, but does not have many Mix-Up options and is somewhat stiff when dealing with an opponent who is further away. With this in mind, many of her Arcana choices focus on improving her long range ability or completing her ability to Mix-Up the opponent. Nature is a good choice because it increases Kamui’s offensive ability at her most effective range and also helps her control space on the ground. Darkness will not directly increase her offensive ability, but instead grants her additional momentum via Mix-Ups that she can perform at the end of virtually any of her combos.
Konoha
Konoha is a character with a ridiculous number of different tools for attacking an opponent, with her only real weakness being a lack of reach on some of her attacks. For this reason, Konoha benefits greatly from the Nature Arcana, which provides additional ranged attacks and creates strong Mix-Up options for her. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Water Arcana offers a way for Konoha to set up a defensive stance and also offers Konoha a good Command Throw Mix-Up, making it another good choice for Konoha.
Maori
Maori is one of the strongest characters at full screen due to her ability to control space with her Special Attacks. She is quite weak at mid and close range due to the way her Normal Attacks function and her Arcana choice can help her by complementing her long range prowess or improving her options for up close. The Arcana of Blossoms is a great choice for Maori in that it gives her the best of both worlds; she can use her Arcana Super attacks to fight up close and to create flowers to build meter. Another great choice is to use is the Lightning Arcana, as it will allow her to better defend herself up close with the Lightning Arcana’s abilities.
That’s all we have time for today. Tune in next time, for when we’ll cover another 3rd of the cast!
Published: Apr 29, 2011 12:21 pm