Parace L'Sia (Arcana Heart 2 and 3)
Parace L'Sia, also known as The Millenium Keeper, is the main antagonist and secret true final boss of Suggoi! Arcana Heart 2 and the Score Attack mode's last boss in Arcana Heart 3. Just what you'd expect of an anime fighting game, she has a bestial case of SNK Boss Syndrome, meaning she's majestically unfair and often regarded as one of the single cheapest and very arduous bosses in fighting games, a badge of honor considering what the genre is capable of.
Why She Sucks
- Godlike AI. Leave the player character exposed for just a frame and she will disembowel the player character like she has a minute left to live and blocks everything they throw at her. What's worse is that her movelist has a truly steep learning curve that the CPU can do on a whim, proof that she outright cheats.
- Laughable appearance. It's just an elf wearing faux-lingerie and a cape, no doubt to make losing all the more humiliating. Mind you, this is her true form.
- Towering amounts of damage and can easily K.O. the player in just a few hits, as in a handful of seconds flat if she ever feels so inclined. And she will.
- Those orbs around her? Those are both her Arcana and means of attack, juggling you with them like it's her job and also deal status ailments like poison, slowing you down or REVERSING YOUR CONTROLS.
- Passively regenerates health during the fight, even when comboing you to oblivion.
- Those. Freaking. Supers. She will either deal you colossal amounts of damage or seal herself in an amber crystal (which takes some time to break, by the way) while REGENERATING EVEN MORE HEALTH! One of them even insta-KOs you in Suggoi!
- In 3, she trades her limited mobility and eye-gouging supers for AI programming beyond comprehension. Facing her is basically like facing one of the those broken-as-a-war-veteran characters in MUGEN.
- Maniacally teleports around like her life is on the line.
- In 3, her Arcana Gauge/Special Meter fills up in the blink of an eye while yours does at a snail's pace. In 2, she can have upwards to NINE BARS as opposed to the usual three and fills up her meter much quicker than yours. As such, she can chain special after special after special at the snap of a finger like a Kyokugenryu Sensei.
- The games have to be hacked to play as her, and isn't that much fun by said complex moveset that falters her trigger-happiness under human hands. When you do get the hang of it, however, you feel too strong, like power that shouldn't be tampered with in the first place.
- Not even reducing her starting health with every continue in both games ease the fight at all.
- To even reach her in Suggoi! Arcana Heart 2, you must not lose a single round, fake final boss Angelia included, herself a trigger-happy controller thrower by her small size, speedy mobility, painful combos and her Arcana (and sister) Mildred using various nasty moves she herself had as the original's final boss, including a giant skyward beam, for one. And then there's the nearly-just-as-bad regular AI...
- While vanilla Arcana Heart 3 allows you to continue against her, you only have a single shot in the updates. As part of a chain of trials, losing means you must do the E-N-T-I-R-E mode all over again.
- Due to Suggoi!'s stupid long loading times and slowdown-prone frame rate, she can be an absolute slog to face on top of being fumingly laborious.
Redeeming Qualities
- While the battle IS frustrating, at least the music is awesome.
- The stage she's fought in, on top of Mount Fuji, is very fitting. And even great!
- Were it not for her, the Arcana Heart franchise wouldn't be the cult classic it is today!
- Her human scientist form has a nice design.
- Granted, she can be broken fun to play as since the AI does have its moments.
- The player characters only need to win a single round in 2.