Touhou Sky Arena Comparative Review

Touhou Sky Arena: Comparative Review

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vs.

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Point 1: Battle System



Of course, being the third=person, free-roam hack-and-slash game that these two games are, the battle system is an obvious first choice for comparison.

Magical Battle Arena employed a simple projectile-metered, range-dependent mechanic with much stress over each of the characters' specialties. Projectiles are limited by a single guage which can be charged, leaving you vulnerable. Each character is either a melee-oriented character, a ranged-oriented character, or a balance-oriented character. Whichever kind of character the player chooses will influence the whole experience of playing, such as playing as a melee-oriented character will let you experience a lot of projectile-dodging, rushing, faking, and using specials that make you dash at the enemy (usually involving a stunlock) and the like, while playing as a ranged-oriented character will let you feel what it's like to be constantly running away from the melee attackers, exchanging projectiles, ganking and charging up powerful attacks. There is also the special attacks, burst mode and ultimate attacks, each having properties and effects unique to each character depending on their source material.

Touhou Sky Arena on the other hand employs multiple guages for different types of skills, and a monotonous danmaku-focused battle system. As with Magical Battle Arena, projectiles fired drain a guage, however this time there is no charging mechanic. You need to wait for your bars to replenish by themselves, which really only happens once you use up the whole bar. Basically it's always a dry reload. And then, being Touhou, a danmaku-focused system was created. This means every character is basically just a flying danmaku machine, although their projectiles are all unique, depending on the circumstance. Because of this, even melee attacks have a cooldown bar, just like danmaku. In addition, there are EX, Hi-Tension, and Climax spellcards, with the Hi-Tension and Climax spellcards only being available when a pre-selected song is at certain parts; another new system for the game.

Point goes to: Magical Battle Arena
Anybody is bound to get bored with the same thing happening over and over and over again with the monotonous battle system Touhou Sky Arena uses. Even with the variety of danmaku, one can't forget that projectiles by Magical Battle Arena is just as varied. However, with Magical Battle Arena, there is always variety, especially with gameplay experience as you pair different partners together, or play free-for-alls against different opponents, each combination of opponents giving you different modes of tactics, making each new game, a new experience.

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Point 2: Characters



Being typically a fighting game, going over the characters each feature is, of course, an important thing to do.

Magical Battle Arena has over 10 playable characters from many different series, including from the developer's own visual novel. Each character is either of the three: balanced, melee, or ranged, and whichever they are influences their mode of play. Here is some of the characters and what they do:

Nanoha Takamachi
Long-Range Bombardier
Charged Projectile: Shieldbreak and stun
Melee Special: 6/12 shots of Axel Shooter; homing
Ranged Special: Divine Buster; can be charged partially; laser; can be adjusted while being fired.
Defense Special: Nanoha's Protection; melee counter and projectile reflect. Charged: Reaction Purge against melee attacks, damaging the opponent and stunning them
Ultimate: Starlight Breaker; Fires a laser that explodes upon impact or after traveling a certain range; Massive area-of-effect; stronger the closer the opponent is at the center of explosion
Crisis ultimate: Excelion Buster; Single-target skill for massive damage.

Fate Testarossa
Mid-Ranger/Close-Range Combat Tanker (in Sonic Form)
Charged Projectile: Nothing
Melee Special: 8/16 shots of Plasma Lancer; non-homing; can be pressed again to redirect it towards your target Ranged Special: Haken Saber; homing; knockdown
Defense Special: Sonic Form; Fate becomes a Close-Range Combat Tanker; activating again returns her to normal
Ultimate: Plasma Zanber Breaker; same as Starlight Breaker
Crisis Ultimate: Jet Zanber; Single-target skill for massive damage

Hayate Yagami
Wide-Area Range Bombardier
Charged Projectile: Shoots small red projectiles that ricochet to the enemy once; knockdown
Melee Special: Atem des Eises; must be charged; releases four ice cubes that travel for a specific amount of time and explodes for a wide area of effect; hit enemies are frozen solid for a duration of time; all projectiles that come into contact with this are destroyed
Ranged Special: Hræsvelgr; must be charged; ridiculously long to charge; shoots five beams for massive area-of-effect damage
Defense Special: Misteltein; must be charged; shoots arrows of light from an orb above the enemy; deals fair damage; petrifies for a duration of time
Ultimate: Diabolic Emission; extremely fast to charge up; very rapid startup; explodes for a massive area of effect around her; deals moderate damage; barrier for this skill is weak so use with caution
Crisis Ultimate: Triple Breaker (Starlight Breaker + Plasma Zanber Breaker + Ragnarok Breaker); Ridiculous damage; single-target skill but nearby enemies can be hit with the resulting explosion

Nanoha StS
Long-Range Bombardier
Charged Projectile: Charged Divine Shooter; shieldbreak; stun; longer homing distance than Nanoha Takamachi's
Melee Special: Weaker version of ACS Driver Strike Flame; instantaneous skill; extremely fast
Ranged Special: Divine Buster; cannot be charged; slow startup time; aim can be adjusted while firing
Defense Special: Blaster System; Increases Divine Buster output per level of Blaster released; drains HP per second; can be used up to three times; cannot kill herself this way; at the third level of Blaster, Divine Buster will pass through walls and have infinite range, and it will increase Divine Shooter's power significantly; decreases startup time for her Ultimate
Ultimate: Starlight Breaker x5; releases five starlight Breakers at the target; moderate startup time; Ridiculous damage, especially if you're hit dead center; Area-of-effect damage is just as devastating; Huge resulting explosion.
Crisis Ultimate: "Sukoshi, atama hiyasou ka?" (Re-enaction. Basically Crossfire Shoot); Single-target skill for massive damage; can hit others if they are caught in the relatively small resulting explosion.

Fate StS
Mid-Ranger
Charged Projectile: Nothing
Melee Special: Plasma Barret; one activation orb; works much like Fate Testarossa's melee special, only faster and stronger
Ranged Special: Trident Smasher; fires three lasers that spread vertically, then converge on the enemy's position for big damage; charging makes it more powerful and increases the effective range; extremely fast startup
Defense Special: A fake; Fate stands still, looking vulnerable; when hit by anything, Fate flash-moves behind the enemy and attacks her.
Ultimate: Riot Calamity; dashes towards her opponent; joins her two Riot Zambers into Riot Calamity; slashes around her for a 330-degree area of effect; extremely wide; large damage
Crisis Ultimate: (Re-enaction); Single-target skill for massive damage

Sakura Kinomoto
Close-Range Combat Tanker
Charged Projectile: Nothing
Melee Special: The Fight; Melee proc; Stunlock; Knockdown afterwards
Ranged Special: The Firey; must be charged; Shieldbreak; Large damage; homing
Defense Special: The Mirror; turns into her target for a short amount of time; copies everything
Ultimate: The Create; It rains penguins for massive AoE damage e____e; always follows the target
Crisis Ultimate: The Windey; Single-target skill for massive damage; has an additional effect of "Capturing" the enemy if killed this way.

Kirara Hoshizora
Close-Range Combat Tanker
Charged Projectile: Nothing
Melee Special: Meteor Orbit; Melee proc; Stunlock, Knockdown afterwards; Instantaneous and extremely fast; Kirara is invulnerable for the duration of this skill
Ranged Special: Nova Impact; Knockdown; Releases two when charged; penetrates most other projectiles
Defense Special: Rentsukouhan Kanshou (Anti-Nova Buffer); Counters melee attacks with a Nova Impact; Covers her entire body when charged; Kirara is invulnerable when if it procs
Ultimate: Meteor Impact; Obliterates everything in front of her with a star-shaped insignia that grows larger the farther it travels; moderate damage; infinite range
Crisis Ultimate: Luna Flare + Nova Impact; single-target skill for massive damage; can hit other characters if they come into contact with Luna Flare

Sarara Hoshizora
Long Range Bombardier
Charged Projectile: Improved Energy Dart; longer homing distance; more power
Melee Special: Puron Tenkai (Puron Expansion); Releases 12 modules (Purons); Can be sent out to attack the target one at a time or all at once; omnidirectional firepower decided at random
Ranged Special: Luna Blaster; extreme long-range laser cannon; can be made longer in terms of duration and range if charged; no effect on enemies at melee range
Defense Special: Hoshi no Ibuki (Breath of the Stars); must be charged; raises a shield that, if attacks make contact with it, Sarara will gain health instead
Ultimate: Luna Flare; two-part attack; first part fires 13 lasers at the enemy; aim can be adjusted while firing; second part creates 12 homing darts that rush to the target
Crisis Ultimate: Nova Impact + Luna Flare; single-target skill for massive damagel can hit other characters if they come into contact with Nova Impact

Nowel Diastasis
Long-Range Bombardier
Charged Projectile: Nothing
Melee Special: Gravity Mines; Releases 6/12 mines; Can be released one by one or all at once; unlike Sarara's Puron Tenkai, the mines damage directly
Ranged Special: Dimension Surge; Basic laser; can be charged for more range and damage
Defense Special: Bind; Disables enemy actions if caught
Ultimate: Dimension Breaker; extremely long startup time; extremely strong incantation barrier; fires four lasers downwards, which explodes upon impact or after a certain amount of time; MASSIVE area-of-effect with accompanying massive damage; It's possible to get hit by all four explosions
Crisis Ultimate: Dimension Mirage; simple single-target skill for massive damage

Hikaru Shidou/Umi Ryuuzaki/Fuu Hououji (All played as one character)
Mid-Ranger
Charged Projectile: Nothing
Melee Special: Akai Inazuma; Supercondensed fireball; the longer it's charged, the stronger it becomes
Ranged Special: Transform to Umi Ryuuzaki/Use Aio Tatsumaki; Creates a whirlwind; the longer it's charged, the more powerful it becomes; Full charge creates two whirlwinds
Defense Special: Transform to Fuu Hououji/Use Imashime no Kaze to bind the opponent
Ultimate: Hikari no Rasen; long startup time; large damage; Summons Rayearth
Crisis Ultimate: Imashime no Kaze + Rayearth; single-target skill for massive damage; more of eye-candy than anything

Touhou Sky Arena, on the other hand, have 10 playable characters, all of which come from, of course, Touhou. They are all danmaku-oriented, reducing the reliability of should-be melee-oriented characters such as Youmu. In fact, you'd find that, even as Youmu, you'd still spend the majority of your time dashing around while firing danmaku at each other. While this is so, characters of Touhou Sky Arena does have some variety by having two different shot types,

From TouhouWiki

Reimu:
Ex-Spell Card: Dream Sign "Fantasy Dimensional Rift"
Hi-Tension Spell Card: Dream Sign "Wild Exorcism Dance"
Climax Spell Card: Divine Arts "Omnidirectional Demon Binding Circle"

Shot A
Type: Pursuit
Normal Shot: Hakurei Sign
Charged Normal Shot: Homing Amulet
Spell Card: Spirit Sign "Fantasy Seal"
Charged Spell Card: Spirit Sign "Fantasy Seal" (Concentrated)

Shot B
Type: Rapid Fire
Normal Shot: Sealing Needle
Charged Normal Shot: Persuasion Needle
Spell Card: Dream Sign "Evil Sealing Circle"
Charged Spell Card: Spirit Sign "Fantasy Seal" (Spread)

Marisa Kirisame
Ex-Spell Card: Ritual Sign "Orreries Sun"
Hi-Tension Spell Card: Magic Sign "Ultimate Shortwave"
Climax Spell Card: Magicannon "Final Spark"

Shot A
Type: Stardust Magic
Normal Shot: Magic Missile
Charged Normal Shot: Stardust Missile
Spell Card: Magic Sign "Stardust" Reverie
Charged Spell Card: Black Magic "Event Horizon"

Shot B
Type: Light Magic
Normal Shot: Illusion Laser
Charged Normal Shot: Earthlight Ray
Spell Card: Love Sign "Master Spark"
Charged Spell Card: Love Sign "Non-directional Laser"

Cirno
Ex-Spell Card: Hail Sign "Hailstorm"
Hi-Tension Spell Card: Freeze Sign "Perfect Freeze"
Climax Spell Card: Snow Sign "Diamond Blizzard"

Shot A
Type: Ice Arrow
Normal Shot: Ice Needle
Charged Normal Shot: Icicle Attack
Spell Card: Ice Sign "Icicle Fall"
Charged Spell Card: Frost Sign "Frost Columns"

Shot B
Normal Shot: Rock Frost
Charged Normal Shot: Ice Meteor
Spell Card: Freeze Sign "Cold Divinity"
Charged Spell Card: Freeze Sign "Minus K"

Sakuya Izayoi
Ex-Spell Card: Illusion Image "Luna Clock"
Hi-Tension Spell Card: Illusion Sign "Killing Doll"
Climax Spell Card: Buriallusion "Phantomic Killer in Night Mist"

Shot A
Type: Wide Range
Normal Shot: Jack the Ripper
Charged Normal Shot: Another Murder
Spell Card: Conjuring "Eternal Meek"
Charged Spell Card: Phantom Sign "Indiscriminate"

Shot B
Type: Special
Normal Shot: Power Direction
Charged Normal Shot: Misdirection
Spell Card: Time Sign "Private Vision"
Charged Spell Card: Time Sign "Private Square"

Youmu Konpaku
Ex-Spell Card: Hakurouken, the Sword that Cuts through Delusions
Hi-Tension Spell Card: Obsession Sword
Climax Spell Card: Slash of the Reflection of Stars in the Night

Shot A
Type: Flashing Cut
Normal Shot: Spirit Wave
Charged Normal Shot: Spirit Blast
Spell Card: Human Sign "Slash of Present"
Charged Spell Card: Half Ghost "Slash of the Eternal Future"

Shot B
Type: Six Realms Sword
Normal Shot: Wonderful Six Realms
Charged Normal Shot: Life Ending Sword
Spell Card: Gaki Sword "Storybook of the Gaki Realm"
Charged Spell Card: Asura Sword "Obsession with the Present World"

Alice Margatroid
Ex-Spell Card: Demonic Control "Return Inanimateness"
Hi-Tension Spell Card: Curse "Eerily Luminous Shanghai Dolls"
Climax Spell Card: "The Phantom of the Grand Guignol"

Shot A
Type: Puppet
Normal Shot: Rainbow Wire
Charged Normal Shot: Specter Mystery
Spell Card: Magic Sign "Artful Sacrifice"
Charged Spell Card: Blue Sign "Benevolent French Dolls"

Shot B
Type: Remote Manipulation
Normal Shot: Gatling Dolls
Charged Normal Shot: Remote Sacrifice
Spell Card: Curse Sign "Straw Dolls Kamikaze"
Charged Spell Card: Puppeteer Sign "Maiden's Bunraku"

Suwako Moriya
Ex-Spell Card: Native God "Froggy Braves the Elements"
Hi-Tension Spell Card: Divine Sakura "Full Sakura Blizzard"
Climax Spell Card: "Suwa War - Native Myth vs Central Myth"

Shot A
Type: Variety
Normal Shot: Suwa's Spring Water
Charged Normal Shot: Aqua Bullet
Spell Card: Iron Ring "Mythical Ring"
Charged Spell Card: Scourge Sign "Mishaguji-sama"

Shot B
Type: Colorful
Normal Shot: Suwa's Seven Stones
Charged Normal Shot: Suwa's Seven Trees
Spell Card: Hime River "Princess Jade Green"
Charged Spell Card: Native God "Master Longlimbs"

Utsuho Reiuji
Ex-Spell Card: Blazing Star "Fixed Star"
Hi-Tension Spell Card: "Subterranean Sun"
Climax Spell Card: Seven Stars "Septentrion"

Shot A
Type:
Normal Shot:
Charged Normal Shot: Homing Flare
Spell Card: Atomic Fire "Nuclear Fusion"
Charged Spell Card: Explosion Sign "Mega Flare"

Shot B
Type:
Normal Shot: Claw Wing
Charged Normal Shot: Wing Shot
Spell Card: Melt "Melting White"
Charged Spell Card: "Hell's Tokamak"

Point goes to: It's a tie

Really, even with Touhou Sky Arena's variety by shot types, once can't ignore the monotonous effects of the spellcards, whereas in Magical Battle Arena, every skill is unique. However, you are limited to one moveset in Magical Battle Arena (except some characters), whilst you can choose yours in Touhou Sky Arena

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Point 3: Maps

Magical Battle Arena utilizes real-world scenes for battle (except the floating temple one), and as such, includes terrain obstructions such as buildings, the sea, the landscape, mountains, etc., with varying sizes. These doodads, in turn, can be utilized to the best of a character's abilities. For example, Noel Diastasis, and Hayate Yagami will suffer from the School map because of the small size, but their Ultimates will be a grave threat because of the limited space. Another example would be the Galaxy's expanse being a threat to melee rushers like Kirara and Lulu because ranged enemies would abuse their flash moves. Yet another example would be Nanoha StS's abuse of buildings to fire her Divine Buster from behind cover.

Touhou Sky Arena uses locations from a fantasy world named Gensokyo as their settings. Usually these maps are indeed detailed, but for everything they're worth, not much of them can be used for tactical advantages... That's pretty much it, really. Other than the aesthetics, the maps are mostly just for the setting.

Point goes to: Magical Battle Arena
... Not really much of a point to talk about here. Everything is stated above

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Point 4: Voicing and Sounds

Magical Battle Arena's voicing was done beautifully. You can feel the emotions in the way each character chants or announces their moves. Their egos are also apparent in the way their accents are done - to the dot. The sounds, also, are an excellent compliment to the battles, either making the game feel like a party game or a serious business. However voicing can sound a bit rusty at times especially when a move with voicing is cancelled to do another one, allowing for overlaid voices.

Touhou Sky Arena also has excellent voicing with the same achievements as Magical Battle Arena. But when it comes to music, it takes it one step further. In fact, one of the mechanics Touhou Sky Arena has employed is the Hi-Tension/Climax system based on a prechosen musical piece. Touhou truly is nothing short of amazing when it comes to their pieces. With Touhou Sky Arena, music isn't just a method of entertainment - it's a matter of life and death!

Point goes to: Touhou Sky Arena
Not only is music of high regards in TSA, it's also built into the game as a mechanic. Voicing and others, as always from Area-Zero's games, are excellent in quality. However, Magical Battle Arena's voice overlay ruins it a bit for them...

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Point 5: Features



Magical Battle Arena features a Story mode, where you can play the game's storyline based on a chosen character (to unluck more characters, usually)(there IS a plot; a rather bad one too), VS Mode where you can play against AIs in a free-to-choose mode of gameplay and probably someone with you provided you have gamepads, Practice mode so you can play against a non-moving/AI-controlled/player-controlled character for sparring and skill practices, Network Play to play with your friends over the internet, Survival mode where you are pit against one character after another until you die with the difficulty increasing as you proceed, and Missions where you can play against the AI with certain conditions to fulfill, and usually these are ridiculous conditions.

Touhou Sky Arena features an Arcade mode, which is pretty much like a Story mode in itself (the plot is equally horrible in my opinion), VS mode where you can play against AIs in a free-to-choose mode of gameplay and probably someone with you provided you have gamepads, Network where you can play over the internet with your friends (if you have some), Survival, which for all intents and purposes, the same as with Magical Battle Arena, Tutorial mode, which is pretty much a separate mode to what Magical Battle Arena does in Practice Mode, and Training mode, which is also like Magical Battle Arena's Practice Mode, only without the tutorials. The game also has Play Recording, which is basically your statistics, and Replays where you can view your saved replays.

Point goes to: Magical Battle Arena
The two games have basically the same features, but Magical Battle Arena offers more gameplay experience than Touhou Sky Arena, but the latter offers more functionality than the former. Although it would be nice to keep statistics of your games, it's not really all that useful. The same goes with replays unless you're a Youtuber. Magical Battle Arena, however, as it offers an additional mission mode, gives it more oomph - a possibility for more gameplay and challenges, and it is further appreciable because of the fact that it has that many characters in it to play the modes with.

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Overall Impression

Magical Battle Arena is overall a better game than Touhou Sky Arena. It would have been better if Area-ZERO included Touhou characters into the growing roster of Magical Battle Arena characters. I mean who wouldn't want to see a scale version of Subterrainean Sun or a scale Master Spark? In my opinion Touhou Sky Arena died quickly because of the lack of variety and ulterior features it contains, unlike Magical Battle Arena who was (and still is in some forums) the talk of doujin gaming for a long time.