#872 Arcana Heart 3 (PC/STEAM) Unused Characters (2/2): Mildred gameplay.

Channel:

AdmiralMcFish - Bosses and Hidden Characters

Subscribers:

9,630

Published on April 12, 2018 6:06:51 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aez9v1reeEg

Game:

Arcana Heart 3 (2009)

Duration: 1:33

655 views

0

Gameplay (if you can even call it that) of the Arcana Heart 1 boss Mildred in the PC/Steam port of Examu’s Arcana Heart 3.

It says something when a game contains both the most interesting and most boring video of this entire series.

Discovering Mildred here was what caused me to go back to Arcana Heart 2 and check for her there. I began to theorise that she was still in that game as I was writing the description for this video; you can read my work below:

---------

“It appears Mildred was, at some point, supposed to be implemented into the console version of AH3, presumably as a boss for one of the modes. Given that they reintroduced both Parace L’Sia, and attempted to reintroduce AH2 Angelia, this is entirely probable. Why this is here though is just…baffling.

Or, it was, until I decided to read up on another game series. Some of you watching are probably fans of the WWE Smackdown vs. Raw video game series. Those games are infamous to hackers for one particular reason; they didn’t remove or replace character values. Indeed, the earlier games in the series would simply remove the data from the character value, but the character value and its name association would remain and simply be left void of data.

Here’s a thing I didn’t notice before, however. The Arcana Heart series has a weird thing with values. They’re really consistent. As in, they’re the same across every game. It’s only usually 3D games which do this, but Arcana Heart does it as well. Why is this interesting? Well, Parace was value 22 in AH2, and she’s value 22 here as well. Mildred was value 11 in AH1, and she’s value 11 here as well. Boss Angelia was value 19 in AH2; she’s the same here as well.

It appears that all the Arcana Heart games have simply been built on top of one another, which I suppose makes sense considering this is a sprite-based series. Here’s the thing though; they don’t actually appear to be new games so much as simply modified versions of one entity. Sure, some games are built on the same engine, but Arcana Heart literally seems to have been built up on one project, which has been altered over time. It’s understandable as to why they wouldn’t scrap everything and restart from scratch each time, but for a hacker like myself it makes for an incredibly bizarre experience. When I first found out that Mildred was value 11 I was incredibly intrigued, and felt like they’d simply not been able to implement her in time. However, now I realise it’s all simply leftover placeholders from Arcana Heart 1. It’s rather disappointing, I have to say, but it does explain why AH2 Angelia has had her sprites removed but everything remains in place. The last time I saw that was back in Vampire Hunter 2, which was a fair while back to say the least.

It’s entirely possible I’m wrong and that Examu did mean to implement both characters at some point, but all the evidence simply points to it being that they’ve used a modified engine going back to AH1. Which, again, does make sense, but boy is it weird that a game this good is based on that horrendous engine.”

----------

Indeed, it was this which led to my discovery that Mildred was still in AH2, despite the fact that her AH1 model and moves are never otherwise used in the game. Indeed, they’re simply leftover assets, with Mildred still retaining her character slot and name despite not having been a regular character for the past two games. Realising that Mildred was character value 11 in both this game and AH1, I went back to check it out in AH2 and…well, lo and behold, there she was. I very rarely get to make a discovery, but goddamn if this isn’t one of the better ones to make. This really is a series that keeps on giving.
Of course, Mildred has no model, no moves, no anything. She’s simply a leftover element in the system. A damn shame too, as it would have been nice if they’d properly brought her back, but c’est la vie I guess. It was nice to be able to look into such an interesting programming mystery. As with Sonic The Fighters, I love those fighting games with a shit ton of content beneath the game itself, which you’d never even find out about unless you looked in-depth into it. That sense of mystery is one of the biggest joys of making this series, and Arcana Heart was a truly special one to do as a result of it.

That more or less finishes it for AH3. That said, I think one last, bonus video is in order.

Other Statistics