Indeed. I have AH2 for the PS2 myself, and I can confirm that it is a complete shambles of a port.
The port suffered from slowdown; each character had specific sprites which turn horribly ‘pixelated’; and during the slowdowns the game sometimes loses the high-resolution rendering temporarily. It’s pretty much a mess. I haven’t played the arcade version before but I wouldn’t be surprised if the PS2 port had animation frames cut from some characters as well.
For MUGEN fans, that’s why you got ‘pixelated’ sprites of AH2 characters, because most of them are ripped directly from the PS2 port of the game.
It’s a shame because AH1 was ported excellently onto the PS2, due to the arcade hardware being similar to the PS2 hardware (cannot remember the board).
However, Examu (the producers) switched to the eX-BOARD arcade hardware for AH2, which was more powerful than the PS2. The result was a poor conversion - due to either the PS2 being unable to handle the game well OR quite simply a dead lazily rushed port. Could be both factors too…
imho, I don’t have the same fun playing with the P4A characters that I have when playing the AP ones, I like the move sets in the latter more (in terms of variety of playstyles), like the lesser emphasis on blockstrings due to the lack of roman cancels/jump cancels/reverse beats (so that the game isn’t much about resetting pressure but being more consistent at generating damage through spacing – ambiguous jump-ins, crossups, throws, punishes, overheads, using the partner to help you move in or defend yourself or setting okizeme --, rather than blockstrings – though you can use certain assists to make unsafe moves safe, and/or use either Yuki or Rina if you can deal with their 28s cooldown time), like how instant blocking things reward me in a way that (I think) fits my playstyle better (avoiding guard crushes rather than helping me escape a blockstring), and when I get a counterhit or a high emotion combo, I feel like I’m actually doing damage (plus my memory for bnbs and learning speed isn’t good, preferring to focus on decision making instead and relying more on it, to cover for my weakness in learning and executing long and strict combos)
While Ah3 netplay is good the activity is pretty low. besides few prime time, its best to communicate with player #examu on Irc to schedule play dates.
Sorta important to note what server that’s on. If you want games it’s best to hit up #examu on Mizuumi (irc.mizuumi.net). Most of us still play, but we don’t sit on the game anymore.
Still wish I had more to post, everything’s been incredibly quiet from Examu. Winter Brawl is this weekend though, and we will be hosting a tournament and stream for AH3 over on twitch (www.twitch.tv/teamtigre) sometime Saturday. I’ll post again when we go live I guess…
This isn’t exactly true. Love is not always the “go to pick” by any means. Love is an Arcana that has good stat buffs but if you’re going to ask me what Arcana a brand new player should be picking to help mask their mistakes it would be Flower (Blossoms) for the fast recovery of burst, but even that is somewhat limited. 236e/236236e are both very good moves for controlling a lot of screen space. Thunder is another good base arcana to pick with amazing neutral benefits.
I don’t think there’s an Arcana that is a “scrub” Arcana, that’s a really unfair statement. There are some Arcana that have better neutral benefits than others, but you need to pick one that fits with how you’re playing and what works with your character. Before I can tell you which Arcana to look at, what character are you playing?
<edit> Love Balls as oki? Yes. (In the right circumstances) Love Balls to get in? Situational. You’ll have balls all up in your face if the character has a good projectile reflect move and you don’t space that shit immaculately. Love Beam > Homing Cancel > Speed Homing is a better way to get in if you have the meter available.
I don’t really agree with the term “scrub Arcana” since there is nothing really scrubby or cheap about Love. It is, however, an excellent beginner Arcana and a great Arcana all-around since it has recognizable and easy to understand tools, quick burst regen, and good Extend Force duration. Other Arcanas that are easy to use/understand are Flower, Plant and Wind.
Also, Love Balls can be used to get in since not every character has a reflect normal/special, but you have to be aware of the characters that do (e.g. Heart, Clarice, Yoriko, ect.). It’s a MU thing.
Also, yeah, we’re running a (probably small) Arcana tournament at Winter Brawl this weekend! We’ll post the stream here again when we get started but please check out the stream if you’re interested in the game!!!
In no particular order, Thunder, Plant, Love Flower. Thunder is probably the most popular in Japan (and what I play as well).
Heart is a fundamentally sound character, so she doesn’t particularly need a specific arcana to get anything started or a specific arcana to extend damage (As funny as Love Beam loop is it’s a waste of two meter).
With Thunder you’d get a very healthy boost to her already super solid clash game (Which, unlike say ASW games actually plays a very large part in the game. If you want to learn more about Clash watch nadakais video that was linked on srk front page!) and situational okizeme.
Love will get you solid stat buffs as well as Love Balls (limited oki, screen coverage but be careful because like we mentioned before some characters can bop you for it) Love Laser which is great for getting in if you get them to block (laser > homing cancel > speed homing)
Plant gets you some very nice long reaching confirms (that don’t work on crouchers) as well as interesting mixup because of 5Cs force stand.
Flower gets you great burst recovery, good screen coverage with the flower specials, like I mentioned before.
There really is no “wrong” answer for arcana with Heart.
Dudes getting really defensive over the verbage and not the idea. I didn’t say Love was cheap or scrubby, I said it was a solid pick for new players. I generally tell new players to try Love first because it is not only a really solid Arcana choice, but it’s also one of the easiest to understand. You really don’t need to pay attention to the passive stats and you don’t have to worry about traps or anything, you basically have a light sonic boom that tracks and a beam. It’s simple and effective. There are absolutely other good choices, but I feel like I always have to explain more with other choices, and the more you bog down a new player with info the more they struggle to learn because they’re taking in too much shit at once.
Do you have Alzheimer’s or is this part of your comedy act?
We’re not “getting defensive”, we’re helping to point a player who asked a question in the right direction. If you didn’t mean to call it a scrub arcana maybe you shouldn’t have literally picked the word “scrub”.