What is Million Arthur?
So what is Million Arthur?
I'm taking a short break from the very niche fighters, to talk about just a regular old niche fighter, the Team Arcana and Square Enix (yes that Square Enix) fighting game Million Arthur: Arcana Blood. It is based on the Million Arthur franchise. To say I know nothing about the franchise is an understatement, beyond the fighting game I have never seen or interacted with any Million Arthur media. I hope fans of the series give me a bit of leeway, as much like Fuuka Taisen it is a franchise I just never bothered to experience outside of the fighting game spinoff.
Welcome to the World of Britain
Million Arthur is for the most part a fairly standard 3 and a half button fighter a la Blazblue. You have your light, medium, heavy buttons, and then your elemental attack button, which correlates to your character's element. I'll circle back on the elemental mechanics later, as it is one of the game's main gimmicks, but it doesn't directly effect gameplans very often. What does however, is Million Arthur's other big gameplay mechanic, the assists. There is a collection of 31 assists in the game, each with a unique ability and elemental affinity. They each can cost 1-3 "mana", which appear as little blue jewels underneath the assist cards on the HUD. The stronger assists generally cost more, and therefore lock you out of assist actions for longer. Assists are used for pretty much everything in the game, but each character demands a different set of assists depending on their gameplay style and elemental affinity. Building your "deck" of 3 assists in a way that allows you to play how you want is incredibly important to the game and as a side effect, one of the most unique mechanics I've seen in a fighting game such as this. The closest I can think of to this mechanic is Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax's assists, but even there, you only get one real assist to play with. I have genuinely sat for a half hour going through assists and figuring out which ones will benefit my gameplan and combo structures the best, and that is easily one of the coolest parts of the game.
An image of Million Arthur from Square Enix.
Burn, Freeze, and, uhh... Windy..?
One of the other main mechanics of Million Arthur is the elemental mechanics. Each character and attack has a different elemental affinity, between Fire, Ice, and Wind. All of those attack obviously have the visual differences you'd expect form the different elements, but they also apply that element with the attack itself. Fire attacks do damage over time, Ice adds hitstun, and Wind gives health regeneration. In addition to this, each element has a counter element, with a basic weakness triangle. What this means is if, for example, you land a Fire attack and then follow up with an Ice attack, it will always cause a counter hit trigger, even in the middle of a combo. In addition to this mechanic, landing multiple attacks of the same affinity deal bonus damage depending on how many attacks of the same element have landed, and resets when a different element is used. These mechanics mainly come into play in combo routing, as a lot of optimizations revolve around using counter elements for extensions, and then stacking elemental attacks for the damage boost it gives. There are more mechanics involved, such as the Enchant Boost install state, but that's something I think is best explored by playing than me just talking about it. Elements are something completely unique to the way Million Arthur functions, and is worth the price of admission alone.
A Koume combo done by yours truly.Anime Fighter Goodness
Million Arthur: Arcana Blood is very much an anime fighter through and through. While it can feel a bit slower than other anime fighters, it feels in the vein of stuff like Dengeki Bunko, Blazblue, and other Team Arcana entries. If you're a fan of anime fighters, this game will probably make sense to you control wise almost immediately. The one thing I had to get used to was the universal motion input of quarter circle back. Quarter circle back and A, B, or C gives you the respective assist's move, and while a lot of moves look like they should use quarter circle back, you have to get used to the fact that that input is forever dedicated to the assists. Other than that, the game has a fair amount of weird links and dash cancels, black beat mechanics, and weird routing with assists, and it all feels like anime fighter heaven. If you're worried about game feel, worry no longer, this is an anime fighter in every way.
...Wait, is that Iori?
Million Arthur has quite a few guest characters, between the assists and playable characters, but probably the most notable one is Iori Yagami, from the KOF series. For the 5 people out there that have wondered "what would Iori be like in an anime fighter..?" first off why, but second off your thoughts have been answered. Not only is he in this game, but he's a relatively easy to pick up character, and a strong beginner-killer too. He is clearly given a lot of love by the developers, and as such still feels very Iori, while also fitting into the anime fighter format perfectly.
A frame from Iori's gorgeous super.
The Power of Lesbians
So just like the previous game I talked about, this game too has a notable super. Wildcat Arthur has potentially the most lesbian super I've ever seen in a fighting game, and while I really don't have anything else to say about it, I thought it important to at least include it here, as it has become something notable to the game.
Unleashing lesbian power upon the opponent. I'm trying to keep videos to a relative minimum so go look it up if you wanna see it in full (or just play the game!)
So what’s the verdict?
Million Arthur has a lot of sentimental bias to me, as it was one of the game I played with my friends back in high school. Putting my own nostalgia aside for a moment, while the game does have a few issues (the PC port has the tendency to crash for no reason every once in a while, and the infamous Nice ChinChin censorship which you will have to look up on your own), I think the core of the game is one of the most unique and interesting anime fighters ever made. If you have the opportunity and you haven't played it yet, it is in my opinion a must play game. Do not sleep on this one folks, the world of Britain awaits your arrival... And also Iori is there.
If you made it this far in the review, lemme know what you thought of it on Bluesky! I appreciate feedback, and I’d also like to know if anyone ends up actually trying out the game because of this. I'm gonna try to be semi-weekly with these "reviews" (me gushing about games I like), so if you have any suggestions of games you wanna see talked about, lemme know I guess. Stay tuned for now, I’ll hopefully post some new content soon!
-Syrkle