Advance Guardian Heroes is a side-scrolling beat 'em up in
which the playable characters can perform physical and magic attacks.
Physical moves include countering and mid-air dashes. Magic attacks,
which drain the MP meter, include element spells and protective
barriers. It's also possible to go into "Hyper Mode", a faster, more
powerful version of the playable character.
The game is separated in various stages and sub-stages with their own
boss-fights, enemies, and puzzles. Gameplay modes include "Story" for
up to two players, "Versus" and "Training".
Unlike its predecessor, Advance Guardian Heroes allows players to
move smoothly towards and away from the screen, as opposed to switching
between 3 planes. Some platforming elements have been added to break up
the combat, and two new jumping manoeuvres, the air-dash and the homing
jump, have been implemented. Some sequences in which these moves are
used seem to be references to various 8-bit and arcade games, and some
wire-fu films.
A large part of the game relies on a revised "barrier spell." All
playable characters (and enemies on higher difficulty settings) have the
barrier spell available, and at the cost of magic-over-time, it renders
a character invincible. Properly timed use of the barrier spell allows a
player to reflect projectiles and magic (in a visual effect reminiscent
of Mischief Makers' Marina Liteyears throwing a laser or lightning bolt
back at its source), or stun enemies who attack in melee.
An green gauge is used to represent the character's (and
speculatively, the player's) anger. At any point that the player's
character is rendered immobile or out of the player's control, the
player can rapidly press buttons to increase the anger gauge. Points
allocated to the character's MOB[ility] grant bonuses to how quickly
this gauge increases. When it flashes, the character can press A+B
simultaneously to activate "Hyper Mode" or "Anger Mode," starting a
timer in which the anger gauge decreases, the magic gauge increases, the
character is given a burst of speed, and the player is returned control
of his character.
If the player's character dies during the course of the game, a
sinister figure appears and offers to give the character invincibility
in exchange for his soul. If the player refuses, the princess appears
and reassures the player that there will be another chance, before the
game transitions to a game over screen. If the player agrees to the
sinister figure's conditions, then the character is brought back to life
in a state referred to as, "Devil Mode" that is unable to take damage
(although still able to be knocked down and flung around) for the next 6
minutes, before the sinister figure reappears and destroys him,
resulting in a game over screen. Regardless of the player's choice, he
is able to continue the game from the last checkpoint reached before
going into "Devil Mode."
Also, unlike the first game, the player is allowed to use most every
character that he unlocks, in the main story as well as in the other
modes.
Throughout the game, defeated enemies will drop crystals of varying
sizes and colour, that act as the experience points. Between stages,
players can allocate these crystals towards one or more of their
character's attributes: Vitality, Mind, Attack, Defence, Magical Attack,
Magical Defence, and Mobility. At certain points, you will have to
fight the heroes of the previous game, and upon defeating them, they
will give you their souls, which will increase one of your attributes by
10. Increasing an attribute with soul crystals will raise the
character's level, no matter how high that attribute was to begin with.
The higher the character's level, the more soul crystals will be needed
to reach the next level, so players have to allocate their points
carefully. Anything left over after allocation, can be donated towards
unlocking further playable characters.
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