Magical Battle Arena

Magical Battle Arena
Title logo of Magical Battle Arena.
Developer(s)	Fly-System, AreaZERO
Publisher(s)	Fly-System, AreaZERO
Version	JP 1.62c+
Platform(s)	Windows (XP/Vista/7)
Release date(s)	JP August 17, 2008
Genre(s)	Third-Person Shooter Fighting
Mode(s)	Single Player, Versus 1-4 Players
System requirements 1.3 GHZ Pentium CPU, 512 MB RAM, 700 MB hard disk space (depends on version), and Direct3D support

Magical Battle Arena (マジカルバトルアリーナ/MBA) is a 3D Aerial Platform Fighting Game consisting of many characters from different anime created by Fly-System. It introduces the fighting as the way of Gundam games, except the fact that the characters come from the anime Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Card Captor Sakura, Slayers, Magic Circle Guru Guru, the eroge Visual Novel Magical Girl Kirara and Sarara, and the original characters, Lulu Gelad and Nowel Diastasis who are created in Magical Battle Arena. This is the first official game created by Fly-System, and has a total of 16 characters available for gameplay. The new characters released in the Lyrical Pack (Update to 1.50 from 1.05): Vita, Yagami Hayate, Takamachi Nanoha StS, Lord of Nightmares, and Kita Kita Oyaji (Lord of Nightmares and Kita Kita Oyaji available after Ver 1.53+) are not available in story mode, however they are available in Survival. Magical Battle Arena offers not only Story Mode, Survival, and the Network Play up to 4 people, it also has Mission Mode, where specific requirements are needed in order to succeed in the mission, given the grade S, A, B, and C of how well you did. Anything lower than a C is a failure of the mission. Demo was released in Comiket 73. This game began to sell in Japan-only, Comiket 74. Its expansion, Lyrical Pack, was released in Comiket 75. A stand-alone version of the base game and previous expansions was released as "Magical Battle Arena: Complete Form" and was published by Area-Zero.

Plot

The Plot of Story mode, like many fighter games, is mainly a framing device. It serves mostly to explain how such a diverse amount of characters would all be brought together. The basic, plot follows, though the specifics differ depending on which character you choose to play through, though all tell essentially the same story, if from different points of view. Every millennia, in order to maintain the cosmic balance of magic amongst the multiverse a tournament is held in order to find the greatest, most powerful mage. The participants in this tournament are all kidnapped from their world of origin and transported to a separate dimension. All are told they must fight and win in order to return home. Along the way one competitor the character comes across is their friend (and/or companion). They first must fight, and when the character succeeds in defeating them, they join forces. Once the character and their companion have faced and defeated all the other competitors, they face the apparent host of this tournament, and are told the truth of the fighting. In order to maintain the cosmic balance of magic among the multiverse, the strongest and most powerful mage must be made a teosu - sacrificed to run the "magical tuning system Kyrios". The last duty of a teosu is to select the next one, and the tournament was the most effective way of finding who would become the next. After these characters fight, it is decided that they will all work together to find an alternate solution to maintain the balance, though the plan is never clarified.

Interface

MBA Main Menu

• ストーリー : Story Mode
• 対戦 : Vs Mode
• トレーニング : Practice
• ネットワーク : Network Play
• サバイバル : Survival
• ミッション : Missions
• オプション : Options
• 終了 : Exit Game

Gameplay

MBA Gameplay in Vs Mode. Characters in Vs Mode. Lina Inverse, Sakura Kinomoto, Hayate Yagami, and Fate Testarossa StS

Magical Battle Arena is primarily an arcade-like fighter game. Choose a character, and try and defeat everyone else. To this end, each and every one has basic attacks (both ranged and melee), a defense power, and a sprint. In addition to each of these basic skills each character has their own special attacks, the effects of which differ greatly between characters. The battlefield where this takes place is in the airspace above a given map. Some places are naught but open area, whereas others may provide cover and obstructions, usually in the form of tall buildings or geological formations.

Controls

The characters of Magical Battle Arena all share a common control scheme. MBA also makes frequent use of 'charging' attacks. To charge an attack, hold down the key (or finished sequence of keys) for an amount of time before releasing. There will usually be indications when the charge is finished.

• The Arrow Keys: Menu and Character navigation.
  • The navigation in MBA battles is target relativistic. Rather than moving about in a defined direction (i.e. up, down, left, right) the arrow keys will move the character in a direction relative to the current target.
  • Up: Moves directly towards the target.
  • Down: Moves directly away from the target.
  • Left: Circles the target at the current distance, moving to the left.
  • Right: Circles the target at the current distance, moving to the right.

• A: Basic Meele Attack. Can be charged on some characters for Stun.
• Z: Basic Ranged Attack. Can be charged on some characters for Stun.
  • Also used for menu item selection.
• X: Basic Defensive Power.
• C: Hold down while moving to sprint, increasing your movement speed.
• S: Special function key.
  • Hold down S while remaining still, and making no attacks, to rapidly recharge stamina.
  • Holding down S and then one of A,Z or X will activate your characters special attacks. See individual Character pages for their effects.
  • Pressing S and then C when your Burst meter is full will activate Burst Mode for your character.
• While in burst mode pressing S, C, and A or Z (in that order)will activate your characters ultimate attacks. Once you use an Ultimate Attack, Burst Mode will end. If you do not use an ultimate attack, Burst Mode will end after a short interval.
  • In addition to Burst Mode, the second ultimate attack (SCZ) can only be used when your character has one bar of Health left.

Characters

These are characters in the MBA that are playable.

• Takamachi Nanoha
• Fate Testarossa
• Kinomoto Sakura
• Hoshizora Kirara
• Hoshizora Sarara
• Lina Inverse
• Naga the Serpent
• Kukuri
• Lulu Gelad
• Nowel Diastasis
• Yagami Hayate
• Vita
• Takamachi Nanoha StS
• Fate Testarossa StS
• Gadget Drone
• Hikaru Shidou , Umi Ryuuzaki , Fuu Hououji (one character)

MBA Updates

• June 16, 2011: Ver 1.70+ released, along with Hikari, Umi, Fuu (Magic Knight Rayearth like one character) Adjustment of the server operating.
• June 9, 2010: Ver 1.62c+ released. Adjustment of the server operating.
• April 16, 2010: Ver 1.62b+ released. Adjustment of the server operating.
• April 2, 2010: Ver 1.62a+ released. Minor error caused: Some players unable to play LAN.
• March 5, 2010: Ver 1.62+ released as an .exe, Fly System Network changes; additional character balance adjustment and bug fixes.
• January 10, 2010: Ver 1.61+ released, character adjustment patch for Fate StS along with minor bug fixes.
• December 30, 2009: Ver 1.60+ released, fixing lack of Lina Inverse, Kukuri, and Naga the Serpant.
• December 30, 2009: Ver 1.60 released by a AreaZERO, Fate Testarossa StS released, along with Fly Network System.
• September 12, 2009: Ver 1.54+ released.
• April 1, 2009: Ver 1.53+ released, along with Lord of Nightmares Lina and the Old Man that Kukuri summons.
• January 20, 2009: Ver 1.52+ released, spark limit bar added.
• December 30, 2008: Lyrical Pack released, along with patch 1.51+.
• October 26, 2008: Ver 1.05+ released.
• September 8, 2008: Ver 1.04+ released.
• August 23, 2008: Ver 1.03+ released.
• August 22, 2008: Ver 1.02+ released.
• August 18, 2008: Ver 1.01+ released: Kukuri, Lina Inverse (Re-added), and Naga the Serpant added.
• August 17, 2008: Official release of Magical Battle Arena.
• December 29, 2007: Magical Battle Arena Demo (v0.11) released.

See also

References

External links

• Main Website of MBA (Japanese)