History YMMV / ArcanaHeart

** Poor, poor Yoriko. Her backstory is that she [[{{chuunibyou}} has an interest in the occult]], and one day she and Lilica tried to summon a demon servant for her. But things went wrong, as Lilica decided to pull a prank, and redrew the summoning circle they made, unintentionally summoning a {{Demon Lord|s and Archdevils}} named "Michelangelo". Ever since then, Mike has been constantly dragging her to hell and back for extremely frivolous reasons, leaving her sleep-deprived for days on end (not to mention wasting her money on an exorbitant amount of pastries without her consent). To make things even worse, the aforementioned summoning also caused her to be in a seemingly inescapable contract with Mike, so now she can't get rid of him. While Mike does most if not all of the heavy work in her attacks, Yoriko meanwhile is shown being constantly frightened in her sprites and never smiling, implying that Mike is using her as a MeatPuppet as she's powerless to fight back. Knowing this, playing as or even fighting against her is extremely hard to sit through, because she's suffering either way.

** Poor, poor Yoriko. Her backstory is that she [[{{chuunibyou}} has an interest in the occult]], and one day she and Lilica tried to summon a demon servant for her. But things went wrong, as Lilica decided to pull a prank, and redrew the summoning circle they made, unintentionally summoning a {{Demon Lord|s and Archdevils}} named "Michelangelo". Ever since then, Mike has been constantly dragging her to hell and back for extremely frivolous reasons, leaving her sleep-deprived for days on end (not to mention wasting her money on an exorbitant amount of pastries without her consent). To make things even worse, the aforementioned summoning also caused her to be in a seemingly inescapable contract with Mike, so now she can't get rid of him. While Mike does most if not all of the heavy work in her attacks, Yoriko meanwhile is shown being constantly frightened in her sprites and never smiling, implying that Mike is using her as a MeatPuppet as she powerless to fight back. Knowing this, playing as or even fighting against her is extremely hard to sit through, because she's suffering either way.

** Poor, poor Yoriko. Her backstory is that she [[{{chuunibyou}} has an interest in the occult]], and one day she and Lilica tried to summon a demon servant for her. But things went wrong, as Lilica decided to pull a prank, and redrew the summoning circle they made, unintentionally summoning a {{Demon Lord|s and Archdevils}} named "Michelangelo". Ever since then, Mike has been dragging her to hell and back constantly for extremely frivolous reasons, leaving her sleep-deprived for days on end (not to mention wasting her money on an exorbitant amount of pastries without her consent). To make things even worse, the aforementioned summoning also caused her to be in a seemingly inescapable contract with Mike, so now she can't get rid of him. While Mike does most if not all of the heavy work in her attacks, Yoriko meanwhile is shown being constantly frightened in her sprites and never smiling, implying that Mike is using her as a MeatPuppet as she powerless to fight back. Knowing this, playing as or even fighting against her is extremely hard to sit through, because she's suffering either way.

* TheWoobie: Every time Fiona loses, she ends up crying and pleading for the opponent to stay away from Mildred.

%%* IKnewIt: Zenia Valov is [[spoiler:Lieselotte Achenbach's older sister.]]

* PortingDisaster: The UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 version of ''Suggoi! Arcana Heart 2'' suffers from slowdown, frame rate drop, and downgraded graphics and sprites.

* ThatOneAttack: For the boss fight against Scharlachrot in 3, Giant Cannon - Dingfelder. It's a near-instantaneous, projectile attack that travels almost the full length of the screen and can shave a third of your life bar off if not blocked, and is almost guaranteed to send you to the corner. Worse still, blocking it triggers a guard crush, meaning no matter what happens, you have to avoid it unless you want to let Scharlachrot start comboing you. You can avoid it by jumping (but only if you're close enough. The projectile will eventually explode, giving it the ability to hit you in the air), but it doesn't help much when boss Scharlachrot goes into permanent Extend Force mode in the second round, meaning she can bait you into avoiding and set you up for her Anti-Air Arcana Blaze. Oh, and it's possible for Scharlachrot to combo Dingfelder into both her Arcana Blaze and even itself, which leads to some absolutely massive damage.

* ClicheStorm: The entire series could be considered this, with a ninja girl with dog ears, a water-powered catgirl, a [[RollerbladeGood roller skating demon girl]], [[AnimeChineseGirl a female Chinese android]] with BoobsOfSteel, mikos with large breasts, you name it.

* BadassDecay: Lieselotte Achenbach. In the original ''Arcana Heart'', she's a bonafide EnfantTerrible assassin. Afterwards, she began to mellow out as a JerkassWoobie.

* GeniusBonus: Akane Inuwaka's Arcana is named after the fennec, a type of fox with prominently large ears. Knowing that, check out her ears under that do-rag.
* HilariousInHindsight: The April Fools' crossover involving ''Franchise/BlazBlue'' is all the more amusing because [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sE3m_GpVLA Heart Aino was announced]] for ''VideoGame/BlazBlueCrossTagBattle''.

** Particularly notable with Clarice di Lanza, in that there is no such thing as subtext regarding her fixation with Elsa la Conti.

* MemeticBadass: [[SNKBoss Parace L'Sia]] is widely hailed as [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard one of the most brutal and difficult fighting game bosses ever]].

* ViewerGenderConfusion: Raise your hand if you think that had it not been her name and the fact that this is an all-girls fighting game series, you might pass up Dorothy Albright as a cute little boy.

* BrokenBase: There are some FightingGame [[StopHavingFunGuys veterans]] that have a cold reception to the series just because it has an all-girls cast filled with GagBoobs, {{Fanservice}}, and {{Stripperific}} characters. Being an animesque series too hasn't help matters in this regard. Others, however, consider this criticism to be hypocritical due to other fighting games having similar characters.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForLittleGirls: The series features an all-female cast, and some of the cover and promo art would not be out of place for a cheerleading or DatingSim. In actuality, it's a fighting game franchise that rivals ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' and ''[=BlazBlue=]'' in complexity and Creator/{{SNK}} in difficulty.
* WidgetSeries: [[ImprobablyFemaleCast All. Moe]]. [[FightingGame Fighting. Game.]] The fact that it actually stands on its own merits is notable.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForLittleGirls: The game features an all-female cast, and some of the cover and promo art would not be out of place for a cheerleading or DatingSim. In actuality, it's a FightingGame franchise that rivals ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' and ''[=BlazBlue=]'' in complexity and Creator/{{SNK}} in difficulty.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForLittleGirls: The game features an all-female cast, and some of the cover and promo art would not be out of place for a cheerleading or dating sim. It's actually a FightingGame franchise that rivals ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' and ''[=BlazBlue=]'' in complexity and Creator/{{SNK}} in difficulty.

%%{{SNK Boss}}es can't be ThatOneBoss, as both of their main pages suggest. Also, both Mildred and Parace L'Sia are {{SNK Boss}}es.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForLittleGirls: The game features an all-female cast, and some of the cover and promo art would not be out of place for a cheerleading sim. It's actually a FightingGame franchise that rivals Guilty Gear and [=BlazBlue=] in complexity and SNK in difficulty.

** Konoha primary goal life seems to be gain attention from Kamui. At times their relationship resembles a pet and owner, given Konoha's desire to being petted like a dog and have her belly rubbed. However, since Konoha is only interested in those things if it's from Kamui, coupled with her ending ''3'', it appears closer to romantic feelings on her part.

* LesYay: Most of the girls have something for another:

* MemeticBadass: [[SNKBoss Parace L'Sia]] is widely hailed as one of the most brutal and difficult fighting game bosses ever.

* BrokenBase: There are some FightingGame [[StopHavingFunGuys veterans]] that have a cold reception to the series just because it has an all-girls cast filled with BoobsOfSteel, GagBoobs, {{Fanservice}}, and {{Stripperific}} characters. Being an animesque series as well hasn't help matters in this regard. Others, however, consider this criticism to be hypocritical due to other fighting games having similar characters.
* ClicheStorm: The entire series could be considered this, with a ninja girl with dog ears, a water-powered catgirl, a [[RollerbladeGood roller skating demon girl]], [[AnimeChineseGirl a female Chinese android]] with BoobsOfSteel, mikos with BoobsOfSteel, you name it.

* HoYay: Most of the girls have something for another:

** Mildred and Fiona. One of the mid game scenes in the original game has Mildred holding Fiona in a rather, intimate looking way with her hand on Fiona's cheek and her face right next to Mildred's breasts. In Fiona's bad ending, Mildred is truly hurt by Fiona's betrayal.

* MemeticBadass: [[SNKBoss Parace]] [[ThatOneBoss L']][[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard Sia]] is widely hailed as one of the most brutal and difficult fighting game bosses ever.

* ThatOneBoss:
** Mildred in the first game. During the first phase of the battle, she's in a cocoon like object while she transforms into her archangel form. She's protected by two orbiting {{Attack Drone}}s that fire projectiles that cover the length of the stage and only reliable way to attack her without getting defeated is if the player has a character or Arcana with good projectiles. She's fought in her archangel form regardless of whether the player wins or loses. However, if the player doesn't defeat her during the first phase, she starts the match off with a maximum super meter. Furthermore, she has a collection of all the best moves in the game, and she can dish out more damage with a special move than the player can with a super move. Finally, Mildred has a screen filling super that will take half of the player's health if she catches them off guard.
** In ''Suggoi! Arcana Heart 2'', Parace L'Sia, like Mildred, has a collection of the game's best moves. However, she has less health. That doesn't matter because she recovers her health gradually, and her regular attacks have range akin to projectiles that comes out too fast to dodge. Parace also has a OneHitKO super move that cannot be dodged, another super move that allows her to rapidly heal herself ''and'' refill her super meter, and she teleports like crazy. In ''3'''s Score Attack, she's somehow even worse, which quite possibly makes her the single hardest fighting game boss ''ever''. While her above mentioned super move is no longer a one hit KO, she is able to reads your inputs and is far more aggressive. She can easily pull off combos that will deplete your lifebar if she manages to hit you even once. She teleports a lot more as well, making even hitting her a chore. Pretty much the only reliable way to beat Parace is to try again and again, because the more times you lose to her the less health she starts the fight with. As of ''[[UpdatedRerelease LOVE MAX!!!!!]]'', however, the final part doesn't happen anymore as she's a fought as a challenge separate from Score Attack. Good Luck.

* GeniusBonus: Akane Inuwaka's Arcana is named after a type of fox with prominently large ears. Knowing that, check out her ears under that do-rag.

* GameBreaker: Elsa. Depending on Arcana selection, she has several infinite combos in ''Arcana Heart 3''.

* GameBreaker:
** Averted. Konoha's short physique helps her avoid many attacks, but she has a pretty short range.
** Played straight with Elsa. Depending on Arcana selection, she has several infinite combos in ''Arcana Heart 3''.

* TheWoobie: Every time Fiona loses, she ends up crying and pleading for the opponent to stay away from Mildred.