Arc the Lad Collection
- April 22, 2002 16:16 PM PST
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Four games, six discs, and something like 150 hours of straight gameplay. Hopefully you don?t have any major plans for the next six months.
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Arc, Elc, and Alec
The three main games in the collection all run across the same story timeline. The main hero is Arc of Touvil, who battles an evil minister in the first game and turns into a world-renowned criminal by the time Arc II rolls around. The second game stars Elc, a young hunter trying to get his revenge from Arc for allegedly destroying his village. Arc III, made long after the first two, feature country boys Alec and Lutz as they move to the big city and join the Hunters Guild.
Arc I is little more than prologue (it?s over in 10 hours), but its sequels feature gigantic stories coupled with tons of neat little extras. You can take quests from the Hunters Guilds in certain towns to earn extra money and items. Monsters can be captured in Arc II to fight for you in battles and in Arc Arena; in III, they can be transformed into card summon attacks. Most importantly, when you complete Arc I or II, you can transfer the save file to the next game in the series, which gives you better starting stats and the occasional extra bit of story.
And then there's Arc Arena, a sort of expansion disc for Arc II. Using the monsters your characters capture in Arc II, you can form teams and fight against creatures sent by the computer or a friend's memory card. Victory nets you items and experience that's used to power-up your monster squad. Unfortunately, you can't control what your monsters do during Arc Arena battles, unlike in Arc II, so the outcome is easily predictable before you even enter the arena. Although there are some extra shops and neat toys for Arc II fans to play with, most players will likely ignore this disc completely
Questionable Graphics, Thoughtful Battles
All three titles use a flat overhead view in game. Arc I and II sport 2D backgrounds and pudgy sprites, making them look like SNES games. The third game uses 2D characters on top of full 3D environments, which are mostly drab and make the game noticeably slower-paced than the previous two. Although the music is catchy and impressive throughout, the games are showing their age badly. Even if you think the shift from 2D to 3D was the worst thing to happen to video games, you may have trouble getting used to the stocky, super-deformed character graphics in Arc I and II.
The real fun here lies in the fast-paced battle system. Party members and enemies are placed on a field with each combatant allowed to walk a certain distance per turn before attacking. Your party does more damage when attacking enemies from behind, but the opposition is free to use the same rule themselves. It may seem complicated, but this system is both more fun than standard RPG battles and surprisingly simple to master. Every battle has a strong strategic element, but never gets as complicated as your typical Final Fantasy Tactics or Hoshigami mission. The best part of it all is how kind the game is to you?giving you experience simply for attacking or casting magic successfully, or letting you heal multiple allies at once by casting a Cure spell on the entire group. It's still challenging, but if you die, you can't blame anything but your own lack of ability.
The story is also meticulously well written. Working Designs enjoys spicing up the scripts to the RPGs, and Arc is no exception, with its occasional piece of random bathroom humor. Fortunately, WD has wisely decided to lay off the heavy editing with Arc; the stories are already compelling enough. The Hunters Guild quests are almost addictive; you'll likely spend more time in Arc II and III completing all the optional guild quests you can find instead of progressing with the main story.
Got A Spare Month or Two?
Without a doubt, Arc II is the best game in the collection. It manages to be epic in scale and accessible to gamers of all levels at the same time, a balancing act the other two games can?t quite pull off (though Arc III comes close). The package will take a major chunk of your life to finish, but the impressive battle system and story makes the time seem to zoom by. Even without the trinkets and extras, the three RPGs should be worth the high retail price to hardcore fans.
