Arc
the Lad Collection contains Arc the Lad I-III and Arc the Lad: Arc Arena.
Released way back when Beyond the Beyond was considered good, the games
take place in a pseudo world of science and fantasy. There are airships,
guns, and television, yet, there is also swords, magic, and kings. Arc the
Lad follows the story of Arc the Lad (sorry gamers, there just isn't any
other way to phrase it) as he runs into a mysterious priestess named Kukuru.
Needless to say, they hit it off and there is some on-sprite smooching going
on. Arc the Lad II, is about a bounty hunter named Elk, who deals with his
clouded past after he runs into a girl with the ability to speak to animals,
named Eliza. Finally, Arc III follows the exploits of Alec as he embarks
on a quest to become a bounty hunter.
Gameplay
'The battles in Arc the Lad are your typical strategy-based RPG fare. Nothing
revolutionary to be found here. Arc the Lad I suffers from severely unbalanced
gameplay. Arc himself is unstoppable towards the end of the game while the
rest of the cast is utterly useless, I even questioned why they bothered
having them there. Leveling up is a chore and equipment has little affect,
if any, on your party members. There are a few secrets here and there, but
quite frankly, I'm not up to wasting 2 hours or more of my life just to
get another useless monster for some bearded sideshow. The game is also
disgustingly short, clocking in at 7 hours.
Arc the Lad II is
leagues better than its predecessor. Although the game allows less party
members in battle, the battles themselves are much more interesting and
balanced. Using your save file from Arc I, players can access their characters
from the first Arc, just like in Suikoden, retaining all their levels
and items. I'll be blunt, Arc the Lad II is the best game in the entire
collection. The whole side quest of being able to take jobs gives the
game so much life. I can't count the number of hours I spent trying to
hunt down more jobs and looking for wanted monsters. Gamers will be pleased
to find that there is so much more to upgrade in Arc II as well. Items,
magic, special moves, weapons, etc become more potent the more they are
used, giving players incentive to aimlessly walk into battles.
Arc the Lad III is
a disgrace to the name. To be honest, I'm not even sure why the game is
called "Arc the Lad" anymore. As stated earlier, Arc III focuses
mainly on Alec and his quest to become a bounty hunter. The game is basically
Arc II, leaving out Arc's story and concentrating more on taking jobs.
I got bored of the game really quickly. The music and enemies are rehashed
from previous versions, the party size is reduced to 4, and enemies can
no longer be captured like they can be in Arc II. Instead monsters are
now changed into cards which can be used as summon spells. This game was
developed internally at Sony which may explain the totally different turn
in direction of this game. Truly a sad way to end the Arc series on the
PSone.
Graphics
Arc the Lad I-II uses sprites for the entire game. Characters have only
a few frames of animation, which is a real disappointment considering that
other strategy RPGs *cough* Final Fantasy Tactics *cough* featured such
outstanding graphics. Arc III was released way after FFT and while the game
takes the series and gives it a 3D facelift, the facelift was a botched
job. Although I liked the FMVs in all of the games, it's too bad that Working
Designs couldn't use scenes from the Arc the Lad Anime. The anime gives
the characters...well...character and move the story along a lot better
than the games themselves.
Sound & Music
Yay! Gamers can now rejoice knowing that Working Designs left the original
Japanese voices in the collection. Well...I mean if you like hearing cool
sounding Japanese voices and not understand a thing they're saying. The
music itself is headache inducing. The only real piece I like is the main
theme and even then, I only like the updated version found in the Arc the
Lad anime, not the games. Each sequel uses pieces of music from the last
game and this is a sin so bad that...well...the only punishment horrible
enough is to make the composer play through Beyond the Beyond. I can't remember
another game that relies so heavily on its predecessor for music. Come on!
There are already 10...er...11 Final Fantasy games out there, do you hear
any repetition?
Now comes the hard part of the job. I really commend Working Designs for
bringing over this collection from Japan. The entire collection itself is
marketed heaviliy towards the hardcore collector (A dream for any fan as
this is the most impressive amount of 'goodies' that has ever hit the North
American market). The packaging and translation job done by Working Designs
is superb and you'll certainly get your money's worth in gameplay hours.
Buy it if you're a collector, love the anime, or want to get one of the
last RPGs on the PSone.
The Final Verdict 7.6
of 10
(Watch the Arc the Lad Anime!)
Dark Wizard
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Some
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