A 2D anime fighter with a big roster
Arcana Heart 3 LOVEMAX SIXSTARS!!!!!! XTEND is a 2D fighting game from Team Arcana. You pick a fighter and pair her with an Arcana, which changes how she plays. The cast is made up of female characters, and the story runs through the Drexler Institute, artificial Valkyries, and the Angels fighting for world peace. Minori Amanohara is a "Hybride" Valkyrie who can use both Arcana and Geist power; she escaped the Institute with Petra's help and now fights in secret under the self-given hero name "Annihilation Angel Subaru." The Arcana of Blood, Ichor, symbolizes the essence of life through the Mobius strip and pushes a fighter's potential to its maximum.
Playing together
The Steam features list Online PvP and Remote Play Together, so you can fight friends over the network or share a session locally. The store text also lists Local Multiplayer and a Versus mode. Beyond that there is a full set of modes: Story, After-Story, Survival Score Attack, Trial, Time Attack, Versus, Training, and Replay Theatre, plus Online Network Play. Training is the place to learn a character and her Arcana before taking the fight online.
Before you start
The roster keeps growing. Minori Amanohara and the Ichor Arcana are already in, and the crowdfunding stretch goals added Shark Girl (a homunculus created by Parace L'Sia) and the Paracelsia Arcana, along with Dark Heart, the 26th character, who holds a deep grudge against Heart Aino. The store text notes that these new characters arrive as paid DLC in later patches, so check what is included before you commit to a main. The game carries eSports and Controller tags, so a controller is the natural way to play.