Arc Rise Fantasia is a rpg that has few gimmicks and relies more on a old school combat system and great characters.
- The combat system is simple(but not to simple) and unencumbered with needless gimmicks.
- Characters are interesting, fun and have some depth.
- The story is simple and well done.
- The world that the game is set in is large and interesting.
- Weapons are upgradeable and once you learn a skill from one weapon you can transfer that skill to other weapons of the same type.
Cons:
- To much grinding makes boss battles a choir instead of a thrill. It also disrupted the story flow by spending pointless hours grinding in between events.
- After spending lots of time playing the game the ending feels rushed and incomplete.
- Story is good but confusing jargon made understanding certain parts of the story difficult and diminished the fun a little. After awhile I did begin to understand but the jargon is unnecessary.
- The game has no new game + feature. Retaining my level from the first play through would have made a second play through fun because of the lack of grinding.
Game play is basic turn based RPG in style, you gain experience in battle and after gaining a certain amount you go up in level. Going up in level makes your characters stronger. Upgrading weapons is fun and its not tedious to manage the transfer and equipping of the skills that you gain from upgrading. Magic is also simple and takes little time to customize who gets what spells. Equipping orbs to your characters gives them spells, the color and level of the gems that are mounted to the orb determine what spells are accessible. Your orbs can also be upgraded to hold more gems, cast more spells before needing to be recharged and making spells more powerful. The characters can also do special attacks called excel acts. You can only do one of these attacks if you have enough special points, these points are gained through actions taken in combat. Combo attacks are also possible, there called tandem attacks.
The graphics are very good but with this game being played on a Wii I do get a PS2 feel. For me this is not a bad thing, I liked the graphics and have nothing bad to say about them. Running around and exploring was also visually rewarding, the whole world with cities and dungeons was done well.
The story is well done but some of the jargon used to explainable the overall story arc can be confusing at first. L'Arc a young male mercenary meets a young female priestess called Ryfia in the woods. Ryfia is the only survivor of a traveling religious group and L'Arc is escorting her to the imperial city when he is bonded to a powerful creature called a Rogress by Ryfia. This sets off a huge quest that involves gods and war.
As far as value goes this game is worth playing once but after that there is no real good reason to play it a second time. It took me about 68 hours to complete the game so the $50 I spent was worth it. The biggest problem I had with this game was the tedious amount of grinding that is needed to level up your characters so you can beat the currant boss. I probably could of completed the game in 45 hours if it wasn't for the excessive combat.
Overall this is a great game, I really enjoyed playing it and the characters are very easy to like. If you get a chance to play it, do it.
GAME-PLAY: 8/10
GRAPHICS: 9/10
STORY: 9/10
VALUE: 8/10
OVERALL: 8.5/10