Arcana Heart Review: Fatal Fists Of Female Fury

All-female 2D fighters are nothing new. Back in the days of the original PlayStation and the Sega Saturn, games like Asuka 120% and the Variable Geo series were a common sight in Japanese game stores, offering up hot girl-on-girl fighting action, but generally just that. The games lacked depth, relying on the gimmick of their fully female roster rather than crafting compelling gameplay. Now Atlus brings Examu's PlayStation 2 girl fighter Arcana Heart to North America, featuring 11 classic moe girl archetypes fighting to save the world from a power-hungry nun seeking to merge our realm with that of the elemental Arcana that fight by their side. The game is full of promising elements, but it all comes down to one thing—is Arcana Heart a mediocre game trying to get by on sex appeal alone, or a solid fighting game whose characters just happen to lack Y chromosomes? More »