It’s been more than a year since Blade Arcus from Shining hit Japanese arcades. With this new year we have the arrival of an expansion of this fighting game and it will be titled: Blade Arcus from Shining Version 2.0. The updated game is coming to Japanese arcades during this summer.

This is the poster art from the game, found at this sega-mag article. The article also contains a handful of new screenshots to promote the game’s release, so be sure to check it out.

As is customary to expanded releases of fighting games, Blade Arcus is receiving a variety of touches. The character select screen received a visual makeover, and got a little busier with the arrival of four characters from Shining Hearts: Rick Elwood, Rouna Murasame, Urayukihime Hayane, and Dylan Rowen (in the order that they’re introduced in the trailer.) Besides this, the UI during fights received some minor aesthetic changes as well.

Sega also plans other new content for the game, including new stages, balance adjustments to existing characters. New gameplay mechanics named “Rejection Card” and “Reversal Strike” were also announced, but they haven’t been explained as of yet. Seeing as we’re about to head into the summer, it remains to be seen if any other major additions (like more new characters) will be added, but if so, we shouldn’t expect too much considering the existing roster size. Given the size of the current character select screen, assuming most of the elements remain relatively untouched I might guess two to four new characters at most, if the development team is inclined.

In the first version of Blade Arcus’s lifetime, the game never saw a console or Vita release. It’s not entirely clear if such a thing will ever happen; I suppose it’s a possible consideration once the final version of the game comes out.

Continue reading to check out the trailer, recently uploaded to Sega’s YouTube account! It mostly focuses on the newer characters, but it also offers a look into game menus as well.

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