Rating of
4.5/5
They Don’t Make ‘Em Like This Anymore.
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/17/11
It is no secret that this hardware generation has been disastrous for RPGs. The flow of excellent RPGs that started on the SNES, then increased to a flood on the PS1 and PS2, has been shut off nearly completely. With once-great, now-fallen RPG Overlord Square-Enix declaring that ‘it is too expensive to make RPGs in HD,’ the slack in the market has barely been picked up, and then by companies like Gust and Nippon Ichi that cater to extremely niche fanbases. Gone are the days of good RPGs that don’t have Roman numerals in their titles… or so I thought.
“Arc Rise Fantasia” (“ARF”) is not a sequel and it comes from Image Epoch, a developer that has only been around since 2007 and whose previous claim to fame consists mostly of a trilogy of TRPGs on the DS that seem suspiciously like every other Otaku-targeting niche RPG. However, previews revealed “ARF” to be completely unlike its older siblings. Was this but an illusion, or was the Wii about to receive the first great traditional RPG of the 7th Generation?
Presentation
“ARF” is a decent-looking game. Unfortunately, on any platform other than the standard-definition Wii, it could have been a great-looking game. Everything in the game is modeled in polygons and feature very nice textures. Unfortunately, the textures don’t really get to shine the way they should because of the overwhelming number of jaggies. The game does have a ‘smoothness’ slider in its options that controls the visibility of old-timey scanlines that help to tone-down the jaggies a bit, but it doesn’t really do much overall.
Fortunately, the jaggies mostly disappear when the game switches to cinematic story sequences or battles. These up-close views allow the excellent character and environmental designs to take center stage. Unfortunately, instead of utilizing the character models for conversations, the game uses the tired, modern technique of popping up a static character portrait that might change between three different ‘emotions’ during any given cutscene. The few times that the character models are actually animated during conversations look really nice and add extra personality to the cast by giving them unique movements. It would have been nice if this animation was used more and the static portraits were used less.
The audio in “ARF” is evenly divided between amazing and abominable. The musical soundtrack is some of the best RPG music I’ve heard in years. Of course, there is a simple reason for this quality: It’s composed by the great Yasunori Mitsuda, who burst onto the RPG soundtrack scene with his compositions for “Xenogears” and “Chrono Cross.” The music has his unique touch all over it, and I was able to tell it was his work even before I saw his name in the credits. Fans of RPG soundtracks should look into picking this one up.
Unfortunately, the voiceacting is some of the worst I’ve heard in years. I was reminded of the terrible English dubbing done in the two “Baten Kaitos” games for GameCube. Upon being subjected to the horrible acting in the intro movie of “ARF,” I immediately turned it off in the game’s options, as I couldn’t bear listening to the flat, amateur performances. It really bothers me when Japanese games have their localizations delayed in order to redub the audio, but the dub ends up being so horrible that nobody can stand to listen to it. It would have been better if the Japanese voices were left intact (or were at least made an option) or even for the voiceacting to have been removed entirely. I played the entire game with no voices, and it didn’t detract from the experience at all. After all, the best RPGs in the history of gaming were made before voiceacting was technologically feasible: it’s not needed.
Story
“ARF” continually evokes scenes from great RPGs of the past, yet manages to avoid feeling like a rehash. From the opening scene aboard an airship in which the hero, L’Arc, faces off against a Feldragon, much like Cecil’s introduction in “Final Fantasy 4,” the entire game is riddled with such moments, including themes of betrayal and ruthless nobility such as that seen in “Suikoden 2,” absurd moments with fairy-like creatures such as those in “Breath of Fire 3,” class warfare such as that seen in “Wild ARMs 5,” and religio-political conspiracies such as those that drove the plot of “Xenogears.” “ARF” manages to hit perfectly on the balance of well-known story motifs and new material that it ends up being a much better ‘homage’ than other games that have specifically set out to be such (like “3D Dot Game Heroes”).
The story actually begins with a discouraging scene where L’Arc, after falling off the airship while fighting the Feldragon, finds himself in a forest with a clueless young woman named Ryfia. At first I thought the story was going to devolve into the heavily-overused trope of ‘plucky youth meets amnesiac girl.’ Fortunately, “ARF” surprised me by giving Ryfia a fully-developed background. Instead of being an amnesiac, she’s just very sheltered, knowing nothing about the world outside of her home in the Republic, a country which holds an uneasy peace with L’Arc’s own homeland of the Empire. L’Arc himself isn’t the typical RPG hero either, as he is neither excessively optimistic to the point of stupidity nor excessively sullen to the point of hating him. He’s a relatively middle-of-the-road type of protagonist that allows players to project themselves onto him, while at the same time being more developed than a silent protagonist. Indeed, the only angst in the game comes from the antagonists… and they have it in spades!
Following this slightly awkward introduction scene, “ARF” takes off into a twisty tale driven mostly by L’Arc’s career as a mercenary with the Imperial military and his close personal ties to the royal family. Almost every plot point comes as a surprise through the course of the narrative, which just goes to show that Japanese RPG developers are actually still capable of writing engaging material (and American localization teams are capable of interpreting this material) if they can stop pandering to their hardline Otaku/Hikkikomori fanbase and their continual demands for moe and pop-idols.
The intriguing narrative is populated by a relatively large cast of characters. Many join-up and part with L’Arc on a frequent basis, ultimately leaving the player with a team of 6 characters to work with in the end. Of these characters, only two fall into the common traps of annoying anime stereotypes, one being a 12-year-old girl and the other being a buxom flirt with pink hair sporting a pink-camouflage sports bra and pants with different length legs. Yet, somehow, these characters are endearing and defy the stereotypes one would expect based on their looks. I actually ended up using those two as my second and third active combatants because they were so awesome.
By putting a unique spin on familiar concepts, keeping me guessing, and letting me travel through the game world in the company of likeable characters, “ARF” kept me engaged for the ~70 hours it took for me to complete the game (during which I completed all of the pre-ending bonuses).
Gameplay
Like the story, “ARF’s” gameplay hearkens back to a variety of incredible RPGs from the past. The battle system is entirely turn-based, yet relies on placement on the battlefield to avoid area-of-effect attacks and to stay within range of targets. Instead of each character taking one action per turn, the party shares a pool of Action Points (AP), with each move costing a certain amount of AP and each character being allowed to perform any number of moves per turn. Thus it’s entirely possible for one character to use all of the AP performing healing actions after a crushing enemy attack while the other characters stand-by. And there WILL be crushing enemy attacks: “ARF” is a turn-based game that isn’t afraid to make the player do more work than mash the ‘confirm’ button over and over, but doesn’t become unfairly difficult until the post-game bonus content (some of which is completely over-the-top). Throughout the game, normal enemy encounters are mostly harmless, occasionally requiring a couple potions afterwards. The bosses, on the other hand, are incredibly tough, requiring sound strategy and a lot of endurance to whittle-down their massive gobs of hit points.
Because “ARF” utilizes a magic system similar to the “Suikoden” series or Dungeons & Dragons, in which characters get a small number of spell slots of 4 levels (which, in a twist, are fully customizable by the player), magic is fairly marginalized until the late game. In this void of healing spells, “ARF” injects a liberal amount of healing potions, which are cheap to buy, efficient to use, and essential for survival. I haven’t used this many healing potions since “Final Fantasy 4!” In the end, though, magic is best saved for massive offensive onslaughts. When multiple characters cast the same spell on the same target at the same time, the spells combine, giving a significant (between 200% and 400%) damage boost, which is very important against numerous bosses.
On top of the magic system, “ARF” features a series of special attacks called ‘Excel Acts,’ due to the fact that they occur faster in the turn queue than normal attacks would. Excel Acts rely on an SP Gauge, which fills as the character deals and receives damage. In this way, Excel Acts are a bit like the Limit Breaks from “Final Fantasy 7” or the Trance State from “Final Fantasy 9,” only infinitely more useful due to the fact that Excel Acts can be used when the player wants to use them and don’t completely empty the gauge (except for the most powerful ones). Like the magic system in “ARF,” the Excel Act system allows characters to link these special attacks together (typically providing a 125% damage bonus). But when all three active party members link Excel Acts, they trigger an extra attack called an Excel Trinity, which heaps even more damage upon the target.
Early on in the game’s story, L’Arc gains the ability to bond with and summon special dragons known as ‘Rogress.’ This summon system is unfortunately quite limited, as the Rogress Meter fills much more slowly than the SP Meter and because L’Arc is the only party character with this ability. Therefore it is impossible for the player to pull-off a summon more than once in any given battle and requires the player to grind a bit against random enemies to refill the meter.
This robust combat system is supported by an equally robust equipment system. Reminiscent of “Final Fantasy 9,” each weapon has a specific skill attached to it. In a unique twist on that classic system, however, instead of earning points to allow the characters to master the skills attached to their weapons, fighting battles earns points toward unlocking the skills (called Arm Forces) from their originating weapons, allowing them to be placed in combinations on any weapon. Each weapon, in and of itself, doesn’t have an attack value (aside from a few weapons with permanently attached attack-increasing Arm Forces), thus their permanent Arm Forces and Weapon Secrets are the deciding factors in which weapons the player will want to use. Each weapon has an Arm Force grid which can be filled with Arm Force pieces in a “Tetris”-like manner. Once the grid is completely filled, the weapon’s Secret activates, adding what is essentially a slot-free Arm Force on top of the others chosen by the player. This is an incredibly cool weapon system that allows for numerous strategic decisions. Unfortunately, it does require a bit of grinding for Weapon Points, since going into a boss battle equipped with anything but a fully-unlocked weapon loaded with potent Arm Forces is suicide.
Aside from weapons, each character can wear equipment in armor, shoe, and accessory slots. While there are a large number of useful and interesting accessories that allow for strategic character setups, the fact that character hit points remain relatively low throughout the entire game (around 3000 at level 60) means that it’s almost mandatory for characters to wear a hit point boosting ring in that slot. In a game that emulates other titles in so many ways, I would have really liked to see a second accessory slot and maybe a hat slot such as those seen in “Final Fantasy 6.”
Outside of battle, “ARF” features a full-fledged overworld, which have become quite rare in RPGs nowadays. There is quite a bit of exploration to do, but unfortunately the game tends to herd the player toward the next story destination by preventing the characters from entering areas that haven’t been pointed out on the map yet. The map itself is a very nice overlay that can be zoomed-in or turned off to suit player preference. Enemies are fully visible on the overworld and in dungeons, allowing the player to avoid battles when they wish or to aggressively engage in fights for experience, money, and Weapon Points. As the characters become more powerful, enemies begin to ignore them instead of giving chase. The game’s numerous towns are nicely laid-out and feature all the staples of RPG towns: chatty non-player characters, shops, inns, and hidden goodies stashed in barrels.
While a variety of side-quests and optional bosses can be found in the world at large, most of the game’s side quests come in the form of arena battles or guild missions. While I typically hate it when RPGs utilize a store that ‘sells’ side-quests, the guild in “ARF” is incredibly scaled-back, entirely optional, and barely used. There aren’t very many quests available from the guild, and they appear periodically based on L’Arc’s level. While they do mostly fall into the tired categories of ‘kill X copies of monster Y’ or ‘collect X copies of random loot Z,’ they never become tedious because random loot is plentiful and missions are scarce.
Overall
“Arc Rise Fantasia” is a lovingly-crafted game that defiantly displays the proper way to make a modern RPG. If the localization team hadn’t been compelled to add a horrendous voice-dub and if the game’s bosses each had a few thousand less hit points, “ARF” could possibly stand among the RPG titans of the past. Instead, it’s an incredible game that falls just short of glory. In a way, that in itself in an homage… to “Lufia 2.” I recommend “Arc Rise Fantasia” to all RPG fans who have been unsatisfied by the genre this generation. This game proves that Japanese developers can still bring their ‘A’ game if they really want to. Hopefully it’s just the start of things to come as this hardware generation ebbs away.
Presentation: 3.5/5
Story: 4.5/5
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Overall (not an average): 4.5/5
