Arcana Heart 3 breaking onto PS3

Three years ago, North American gamers got their first taste of Examu's Arcana Heart series, as Atlus imported the first installment of the 2D fighter for the PlayStation 2. Soon, Aksys Games will be providing them a second helping of the female-focused fighting franchise, as the publisher confirmed it will be releasing Arcana Heart 3 as a downloadable PlayStation 3 game this spring.

This installment in the series will be a bit more full-featured than the last one to make the jump to the West. Arcana Heart 3 features 23 playable fighters--more than double the total of the original game--and 23 different Arcana spirits to mix and match with them.

The game will include training, story, and score attack modes for players going solo, as well as online multiplayer action courtesy of Arc System Works, developer of the BlazBlue and Guilty Gear series. To help ease fighting game neophytes into the proceedings, Examu is also including a simple control mode that lets players bust out technical combos and special moves with ease.