"Gorgeous magical girls, four combos, and eight years unfinished"
About
Mahou Arms is an anime hack-and-slash from Dischan Media, built around a paramilitary squad of magical girls pushing back an unnamed invasion of Earth. You control one of two characters at a time, chaining short combos and dodges through arenas of enemies, with a combo rating that grades your fights in the manner of Devil May Cry. Between the action, comic-panel cutscenes carry a story that jumps straight into the conflict. An adult R-18 patch exists outside the base build. The game has been in Early Access for over eight years and currently runs to six short chapters with three enemy types.
Verdict
Mahou Arms has an artist's eye and a combat feel that flickers to life in short bursts, and its fans aren't wrong about either. The problem is everything holding those moments together. Four combos per character, three enemy types, and six thin chapters make for an afternoon, not the game a 37 euro tag implies, and the frame-rate freeze, the missing manual save, and the forced cutscene rewatches on death are the kind of faults that eight years should have buried. There's a good hack-and-slash sketched here. It has yet to be built.
You'll like it if …
- +You collect anime action games for their character design and will forgive rough edges to see it move
- +A tight two-hour combo playground is enough for you if the swing feels right
- +You're happy to buy into a work-in-progress and follow its updates
You'll dislike it if …
- −You want depth of movesets and enemy variety to justify a full price
- −Rewatching cutscenes after every death and losing progress without a manual save will wear you down
- −You expect a game this far into development to be finished
Breakdown
- +Base movement and the swing of the combos feel quick and legible when a fight is flowing
- +The combo rating system gives skilled play something to aim at
- −Only four combos per character, so encounters run dry fast
- −No dodge canceling, and long attack animations lock you in place while tanky enemies soak hits
- −Switching between the two characters carries almost no tactical reason
- −Encounter design leans on enemy durability rather than variety, and pacing sags
- +Two characters with distinct movesets give a little contrast in feel
- −Six short chapters, three enemy types, and roughly two to eight hours to see everything
- −No outfit system, no meaningful progression, little reason to replay
- −The content on offer is hard to square with a 37 euro price after eight years in development
- +The comic-book panel cutscenes are a genuine visual highlight
- −The story opens mid-conflict and never pauses to explain who you are or what you're fighting
- −Chapter structure is fragmented, and Chapter 2 is reported as unplayable
- +Character designs and animation are the clear strength, striking and well drawn
- +Fights look good in motion when the camera cooperates
- −Uncapping the frame rate freezes character movement, a bug that has lingered for years
- −The camera can bury the protagonist at the bottom of the screen or clip models off-frame
- −3D character models sit awkwardly against the 2D art
- +The core action runs, and committed players do find a workable game inside it
- −Dying forces you to rewatch full unskippable cutscenes before a retry
- −No manual save, only auto-save on chapter completion
- −No proper tutorial or moves list, so mechanics go unexplained
- −Steam Controller and Joy-Con support fail, and some sections lack a pause
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