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[kayos90]

I went back recently and played this small over looked gem of this generation called Arc Rise Fantasia. Crappy dub and a few clunky issues aside, I really really really enjoyed this game. It takes typical turn-based ideas and fuses it into something somewhat unique and the difficulty of the bosses make it an enjoyable experience from the beginning. I don't think I've played something quite like Arc Rise Fantasia. The battles are extremely fluid when using moves and it's really cool to see characters use special moves. There's not a lot of mechanics that go into battle but there's a lot of resource management and awareness of surroundings that normal games don't really implement such as crystal usage and the action points.

I also have to give a shoutout to the awesome plot. It's one of the few JRPG plots that adhered to tropes of the genre but still managed to feel unique and give twists and turns that were genuinely interesting. Characters come and go and much of your actions feel like they have consequences despite no choice system being invovled. It's an extremely cohesive narrative with a lot of worldbuilding that makes for a compelling and dynamic experience. Also, dat ending song.

 

[Jarmel]

Is there a sub only version of the game?

I heard some of the dubs and it made me want to take a knife to my eardrums.

 

[necrolysis]

Is there a sub only version of the game?

I heard some of the dubs and it made me want to take a knife to my eardrums.

This. I wanted to like it. But I hated the voice work. This and Enchanted Arms waaaaay back when are the only games where the VA has turned me off completely.

 

[kayos90]

Is there a sub only version of the game?

I heard some of the dubs and it made me want to take a knife to my eardrums.

Some of the voices you get used to. It's terrible but at a point you just roll with it.

This. I wanted to like it. But I hated the voice work. This and Enchanted Arms waaaaay back when are the only games where the VA has turned me off completely.

Encharted Arms wasn't a great JRPG imo. It was unique but there just wasn't a lot of cohesion making the systems and battle mechanics fit imo. It felt like I was playing a crappy grid-based SMT.

 

[Gintoki313]

When I used to play the Wii back then and was looking for games to get for it, i always passed by this game and checked it out but never bought it. I don't know why but everytime I thought about buying it some review i watch would make me not want to get it. Firstly I learned my lesson not to listen to reviews for if a game is good or not, and secondly I'm glad to hear someone enjoyed it.

The game probably doesn't cost much nowadays so i might pick it up when I go to GS again.

 

[kayos90]

When I used to play the Wii back then and was looking for games to get for it, i always passed by this game and checked it out but never bought it. I don't know why but everytime I thought about buying it some review i watch would make me not want to get it. Firstly I learned my lesson not to listen to reviews for if a game is good or not, and secondly I'm glad to hear someone enjoyed it.

The game probably doesn't cost much nowadays so i might pick it up when I go to GS again.

It's definitely worth playing through. it's super fun and interesting. It has a rough start cuz it can be punishing and such but once you get past that and learn what the battle mechanics and system are it's super intuitive.

 

[SatoAilDarko]

One of the many games in my backlog... sigh. I liked the art style a lot considering I enjoyed the Eureka 7 anime.

 

[kayos90]

One of the many games in my backlog... sigh. I liked the art style a lot considering I enjoyed the Eureka 7 anime.

Everyone should really try this game. It's one of the greatest gems on the Wii and honestly I prefer it to Xenoblade despite the crappy dub.

 

[Bladenic]

L'Arc Bright Lagoon.

Welp, Edge Maverick tried.

 

[SlasherJPC]

I've tried to find a copy but everyone wants too damn much for it.

 

[squall23]

Is there a sub only version of the game?

I heard some of the dubs and it made me want to take a knife to my eardrums.

There is if your Wii is modded or if you want to play on Dolphin.

I loved this game. The cast was great, I just can't think of a character that I truly hated. My favourite was Oigan/Rastan since the devs didn't turn him into the cliche adult mentor that sacrifices his life but instead keeps him awesome throughout the entire game. I also love how big some of the cities in this game are despite the GOD DAMN LOADING TIMES. Those were bad.

 

[kayos90]

L'Arc Bright Lagoon.

Welp, Edge Maverick tried.

LOL. L'Arc is a generic protag but the people he's surrounded by are really cool as the story goes on. I'd say it's analogous to Xillia in terms of character depth in ways.

 

[Soriku]

When I used to play the Wii back then and was looking for games to get for it, i always passed by this game and checked it out but never bought it. I don't know why but everytime I thought about buying it some review i watch would make me not want to get it. Firstly I learned my lesson not to listen to reviews for if a game is good or not, and secondly I'm glad to hear someone enjoyed it.

The game probably doesn't cost much nowadays so i might pick it up when I go to GS again.

It's a good game. Fun combat, decent story, solid soundtrack, and a good amount of content. I honestly doubt many reviewers got very far and got turned off by the voices, hence the low scores. Just ignore them. This isn't a 60 average game like Metacritic would have you believe. I'd give it an 8.5 myself.

The localization isn't so good but you get used to the voices and some actually sound decent or get better as you go along.

Also a lot of people like to crap on imageepoch, but they've made at least one good game.

I've tried to find a copy but everyone wants too damn much for it.

How much is too much? Amazon has it for like $25 or so.

 

[kayos90]

It's a good game. Fun combat, decent story, solid soundtrack, and a good amount of content. I honestly doubt many reviewers got very far and got turned off by the voices, hence the low scores. Just ignore them. This isn't a 60 average game like Metacritic would have you believe. I'd give it an 8.5 myself.

The localization isn't so good but you get used to the voices and some actually sound decent or get better and you go along.

Also a lot of people like to crap on imageepoch, but they've made at least one good game.

Objectively speaking it's inferior to Xenoblade but I think it's the best JRPG on the Wii hands down for me. It's really fun and addicting. Story is engaging and better than your average JRPG stuff, soundtrack is great, and tons of stuff to do. A really overlooked game.

 

[Sammy Samusu]

Awesome story (!) and battle system. I think it's a great 8/10 JRPG. It's just fun to play.

I like to make fun of imageepoch, but they are a hit-miss company.

I loved Luminous Arc 1 and 2.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

I really enjoyed this game, although I never got around to finishing it.

The dub is god awful, but I thought that was more a shame because I found the story and characters genuinely interesting even with the voice acting being so terrible. And the combat was a lot of fun.

It's definitely an underrated title.

 

[kayos90]

Awesome story (!) and battle system. I think it's a great 8/10 JRPG. It's just fun to play.

I like to make fun of imageepoch, but they are a hit-miss company.

I loved Luminous Arc 1 and 2.

Luminous Arc 1 was a solid game with quite a few flaws. LA2 was better but they made it more.... pandering. It was a total waifu game lol.

I think I would've given the game around a 7 at the time of release. It has definite problems such as clunky movement placement in battle and the bosses can be... sort of dumb sometimes but man... it's sooooo good.

 

[Black Door]

Playing an undub, about 25 minutes in or so. (I had completely ignored this when it originally came out because of the sorry english voice acting.) It's basically Tales (cliches and all) without the action combat, but with some neat ideas like combo attacks. Ryfia is cute.

 

[kayos90]

Playing an undub, about 25 minutes in or so. (I had completely ignored this when it originally came out because of the sorry english voice acting.) It's basically Tales (cliches and all) without the action combat, but with some neat ideas like combo attacks. Ryfia is cute.

The beginning is totally generic but it doesn't stay that way for long.

 

[Dark Schala]

Kayos you forgot to cite this post of mine.

I should also add that this was one of my favourite RPGs of 2010. Customization felt very good, and positioning actually mattered!

 

[MoogPaul]

I actually enjoyed it myself. Felt like a turn-based tales of game. Localization blew of course.

 

[kayos90]

Kayos you forgot to cite this post of mine.

I should also add that this was one of my favourite RPGs of 2010. Customization felt very good, and positioning actually mattered!

Oh shit. Totally forgot. =D I remember reading this. I've beaten ARF 4 times now. Fantastic game.

 

[SuperChoco]

The dub is terrible but most of the characters are okay. The only ones that are truly terrible are Niko and Cecille. I also remember the game having a ridiculous difficulty curve near the end (I presume, I haven't beaten it yet. I got stuck where you battle

Spoiler

General Clyde

). I do like the way they handled weapons in this game though, as it makes none of the weapons useless.

If you haven't played this game and like jrpg's in general, you really can't go wrong with this game. There are some spots where you need to grind, but there are quests that can make that less painful. Plus there are quite a few extra side quest stuff and the story doesn't move in a linear fashion at some parts.

 

[kayos90]

The dub is terrible but most of the characters are okay. The only ones that are truly terrible are Niko and Cecille. I also remember the game having a ridiculous difficulty curve near the end (I presume, I haven't beaten it yet. I got stuck where you

Spoiler

Battle General Clyde

). I do like the way they handled weapons in this game though, as it makes none of the weapons useless.

If you haven't played this game and like jrpg's in general, you really can't go wrong with this game. There are some spots where you need to grind, but there are quests that can make that less painful. Plus there are quite a few extra side quest stuff and the story doesn't move in a linear fashion at some parts.

Not near the end and that boss in particular was just challenging if you weren't prepared.

 

[squall23]

Oigen deserves a medal for being able to

Spoiler

fend off Weiss 1 on 1 and still live

.

 

[kayos90]

Oigen deserves a medal for being able to

Spoiler

fend off Weiss 1 on 1 and still live

.

Man.

Spoiler

Weiss

was legit cool in a bad sort of way.

 

[SuperChoco]

Not near the end and that boss in particular was just challenging if you weren't prepared.

Ah okay, but there does seem to be a bit of a jump. Enemies in encounters, from

Spoiler

Weiss's Ship

onward to be able to 2-3 shot characters easily. It makes it difficult to grind unless I spam wind spells (for the large AoE).

Edit: I also found it funny that the soldier enemies from

Spoiler

Weiss's Ship

onward use the the original japanese voice work.

 

[Toth]

A very good copy of Tales with a very enjoyable battle system (especially after you learn the joys of using Fire spells to double your HP).

Dub wise....well Arc and a few other characters are okay but yeah....it was quite poor. A shame since the text itself was very clean.

 

[Dark Schala]

Not near the end and that boss in particular was just challenging if you weren't prepared.

I dunno. I found most of the story bosses to be much easier than some of the side-content bosses.

Like Coccinella? I didn't realize how to trigger it until I read around for a bit, and then the boss was kinda difficult until I realized that going with a party of L'Arc, Leslie, and whatshisface Serge would be much faster than a party of L'Arc/Rastan/Ryfia or L'Arc/Cecille/Rastan. Then you slowly start to realize its pattern is Mag/Phys/Mag and it's easy to read its attacks. And some of the postgame bosses were a decent challenge, as was (sidequest/late-game spoilers)

Spoiler

Allul

just because that boss can be a little random.

I'd also like to say that it's a shame that the costumes just don't show up in battle because some of them were cute.

I feel good that I dumped 100+ hours into this game. I can owe both it and Tales of Graces f for getting me to play RPGs again after being kinda soured on the whole experience. I just like how cohesive the systems are in both of these games. It's plain fun.

Dub wise....well Arc and a few other characters are okay but yeah....it was quite poor. A shame since the text itself was very clean.

Hm, I found the script to be rather vanilla, but that's a bit of a signifier of Ignition's localizations up until the time of El Shaddai.

 

[kayos90]

I dunno. I found most of the story bosses to be much easier than some of the side-content bosses.

Like Coccinella? I didn't realize how to trigger it until I read around for a bit, and then the boss was kinda difficult until I realized that going with a party of L'Arc, Leslie, and whatshisface Serge would be much faster than a party of L'Arc/Rastan/Refia or L'Arc/Cecille/Rastan. Then you slowly start to realize its pattern is Mag/Phys/Mag and it's easy to read its attacks. And some of the postgame bosses were a decent challenge, as was (sidequest/late-game spoilers)

Spoiler

Allul

just because that boss can be a little random.

I'd also like to say that it's a shame that the costumes just don't show up in battle because some of them were cute.

See, I found

Spoiler

Allul

really easy but when I went up against that one

Spoiler

butler boss I forget his name

I had a bit of trouble. A lot of the game is preparation and how to quickly set yourself up for the mid-game in the boss fight. The start of the boss fight can be rough depending on the situation. I always enjoyed that you had to adapt and try to figure out what to do with the limited resources you have. Of course this changes as the game goes on.

 

[Sammy Samusu]

By the way, they should announce their next game soon.

Vita? 3DS?

Spoiler

PSP? lol the struggle

Hopefully it's a good one, Sands of Destruction sucked hard.

 

[Aeana]

It's a pretty solid game that I appreciated when I played it in Japanese. The English version is just so awful. And it's not just the voices - the text translation isn't very good either.

 

[kayos90]

I mentioned this in a tweet but I'll do it on here. Just like how I think Graces has one of the best action-based combat system in the genre, ARF to me is the best turn-based. It's the tun-based Graces for me. It's just so good in how various customizable and in-battle mechanics come together to deliver an enjoyable and mindful game. You can tell it's all deliberate too just because how they mesh so well. Boss fights in particular were super awesome as a result.

 

[The Spoony Hou]

I've avoided it like the plague because of the dub.

 

[Aeana]

I mentioned this in a tweet but I'll do it on here. Just like how I think Graces has one of the best action-based combat system in the genre, ARF to me is the best turn-based. It's the tun-based Graces for me. It's just so good in how various customizable and in-battle mechanics come together to deliver an enjoyable and mindful game. You can tell it's all deliberate too just because how they mesh so well. Boss fights in particular were super awesome as a result.

Really? I mean, the combat is okay, but can you go into more detail? I really don't see how it's particularly exceptional.

 

[Black Door]

It's a pretty solid game that I appreciated when I played it in Japanese. The English version is just so awful. And it's not just the voices - the text translation isn't very good either.

You can tell they either did it on a shoestring budget or had the original devs localize it in-house. "The devil is beating his wife?" Da fuck?

 

[Aeana]

You can tell they either did it on a shoestring budget or had the original devs localize it in-house. "The devil is beating his wife?" Da fuck?

This actually came as a surprise to me, but that is something some people in the US say to refer to sunshowers.

 

[kayos90]

Really? I mean, the combat is okay, but can you go into more detail? I really don't see how it's particularly exceptional.

Positioning matters a lot. Where you place your people on the field can avert large AoE damage entirely. Additionally the way the raystones are placed makes you mindful of which part of the area to avoid entirely if you want to make use of it. Moving however costs a bit of action points so you have to take into consideration if it's worth it to simply move across the arena.

The way magic is implemented is also cool because of how you can use raystones. You can use it but so can the enemy so you have to keep that in mind. Do you need waste a turn destroying it or should you just take a risk and hope the enemy doesn't use it. You can also combine magic for a more devastating effect, which I find to be super cool as well. Sometimes I don't combine magic because I know I need to put buffs on everyone rather than putting stronger buffs on certain people. There's a lot of choice involved in how you use your magic and how you dictate your moves regarding magic.

Customization of magic is interesting as well to since you can focus on upgrading slots and combine gems to create new spells or just simply use stronger orbs. Weapon customization is also cool since you never feel like one weapon is completely useless. It might give better stats but the skills you can attach to it might be crap. There's a trade off for how to use your weapons. This customizing can also help you prepare for certain boss fights or enemy fights so you don't die terribly. There's a lot of prepwork that you can do because of these two customization features.

The game also gives you an extra resource to manage beyond magic with SP which is more readily usable than MP.

I can go on and on. I think Schala laid out how the mechanics work in an earlier post really well. It doesn't explicitly state all the time why the game is good but I think her explanations really imply that there's great depth in the game.

 

[Dark Schala]

See, I found

Spoiler

Allul

really easy but when I went up against that one

Spoiler

butler boss I forget his name

I had a bit of trouble. A lot of the game is preparation and how to quickly set yourself up for the mid-game in the boss fight. The start of the boss fight can be rough depending on the situation. I always enjoyed that you had to adapt and try to figure out what to do with the limited resources you have. Of course this changes as the game goes on.

I ended up trying to fight

Spoiler

Allul

the earliest possible time to fight that boss, and it wasn't easy, lol. But again, I didn't have the appropriate arm forces, nor did I have the appropriate weapons/spells. Once I hit postgame, it was easy enough.

Boss fights just show you how critical it is to get rid of Raystones and spread yourselves out to avoid AoE attacks / line attacks / column attacks, etc. In that case, it isn't absolutely necessary to be at a certain level to take a boss down. It's more essential to have correct Arm Forces equipped, keep an eye on the turn order in order to sync magic / Excel Acts well, get rid of anything like Raystones to put the boss at a disadvantage (or keep certain Raystones around to make you deal more damage), and customizing your weapon or using the more appropriate weapon to maximize your damage output. And even equipping the right Rogress to maximize damage output or minimize damage to you mattered.

That's the sort of thing I really liked about it. The game didn't bs you around. It was up to you as to whether or not you wanted to customize your characters and micro/macromanage in order to have an easier time with a boss or not. I also liked that the game gave you small choices as to which Rogresses you wanted to pursue or not, or winning/losing a boss battle to let you have a chance of gaining skills or not. Yet again, it doesn't force the player to grind. If you wanted to grind for an easier time, great. But if you didn't want to, you had many customization tools at hand in order to make your experience easier, whether that's via weapons (ie: with the tetris blocks, and the hidden skills that the weapons hold), magic, or equipment. Or using Raystones and character placement to your advantage.

It's just the sort of game I like. Sure it had some fluff here and there, but overall, I really liked how some of the systems worked well with each other.

 

[cosmicblizzard]

The game would be fantastic if it didn't have some massive balancing issues. Everything else other than the unfortunate localization has the makings of a cult classic. Godly soundtrack too.

 

[Aeana]

Positioning matters a lot. Where you place your people on the field can avert large AoE damage entirely. Additionally the way the raystones are placed makes you mindful of which part of the area to avoid entirely if you want to make use of it. Moving however costs a bit of action points so you have to take into consideration if it's worth it to simply move across the arena.

The way magic is implemented is also cool because of how you can use raystones. You can use it but so can the enemy so you have to keep that in mind. Do you need waste a turn destroying it or should you just take a risk and hope the enemy doesn't use it. You can also combine magic for a more devastating effect, which I find to be super cool as well. Sometimes I don't combine magic because I know I need to put buffs on everyone rather than putting stronger buffs on certain people. There's a lot of choice involved in how you use your magic and how you dictate your moves regarding magic.

Customization of magic is interesting as well to since you can focus on upgrading slots and combine gems to create new spells or just simply use stronger orbs. Weapon customization is also cool since you never feel like one weapon is completely useless. It might give better stats but the skills you can attach to it might be crap. There's a trade off for how to use your weapons. This customizing can also help you prepare for certain boss fights or enemy fights so you don't die terribly. There's a lot of prepwork that you can do because of these two customization features.

The game also gives you an extra resource to manage beyond magic with SP which is more readily usable than MP.

I can go on and on. I think Schala laid out how the mechanics work in an earlier post really well. It doesn't explicitly state all the time why the game is good but I think her explanations really imply that there's great depth in the game.

Well, I know how the game works. I just don't see it as anything particularly special in a world where we have games like Grandia (3 especially), FF10-2, Blue Dragon, Shadow Hearts, and the press turn system from some Megaten titles. Granted, it's always nice to find turn-based systems that deviate from the Dragon Quest system, and ARF's is certainly more flexible than most.

 

[kayos90]

The game would be fantastic if it didn't have some massive balancing issues. Everything else other than the unfortunate localization has the makings of a cult classic. Godly soundtrack too.

I've heard a lot of complaints about the difficulty but there were only a few bosses that caught me off guard. Most of the time, if you prepared and engaged the boss properly they weren't that difficult. I wouldn't say it has balancing issues, moreso that the game emphasized heavily on player awareness.

Well, I know how the game works. I just don't see it as anything particularly special in a world where we have games like Grandia (3 especially), FF10-2, Blue Dragon, Shadow Hearts, and the press turn system from some Megaten titles. Granted, it's always nice to find turn-based systems that deviate from the Dragon Quest system, and ARF's is certainly more flexible than most.

The thing that makes it stand out for me is how all of those elements come together in battle and outside of battle to deliver a really cohesive experience. All of those mechanics and systems make you consider what equipment you should be using, how you should be rearranging your magic orbs outside of battle, what moves you should do with your limited actions points, etc etc. There's a lot of resource managing and the game gives a lot of choices that you can make that has consequences depending on your approach, some of which can be fatal. It forces players to adapt and manage every facet of combat and the mechanics that build around it.

 

[chaosblade]

One of the underrated RPGs this generation, I think a lot of people wrote it off due to the bad voice acting unfortunately. I just turned it off.

I definitely enjoyed it more than Last Story, as far as Wii RPGs go. Game mechanics were fun and I liked that it was more challenging than a lot of other JRPGs I've played. Story was passable, characters not so much, but I consider those elements "fluff" and care more about gameplay.

 

[kunonabi]

It's not my favorite rpg on the wii(that goes to the last story) but I really enjoyed it once I turned the voices off. I love the weapon and magic system and spent hours just tweaking stuff.

 

[OceanBlue]

I'm sure most people here are familiar with ARF's dub, but for those who aren't...

 

[foxuzamaki]

been meaning to pick this up for a while now, i should be able to get it with my next paycheck

 

[JustAnotherOtaku]

I had a decent enough time with it. Definitely not an A-grade RPG, but was fun enough and loved some of the character designs.

 

[Soriku]

I'm sure most people here are familiar with ARF's dub, but for those who aren't...

lol. It really does get better though.