Arc the "Lad"?

lolwut

tl;dr

Just joking. =) i honestly didn't think anyone would respond, was just having some fun. =)

I actually own the collection of the first three games on the PS, localized by none other than Working Designs. They have some trademark humor, as you probably already know. Like there's an NPC who says, "You little superdeformed sprite!" or something to that extent. I literally laughed out loud. XD

I really miss those guys. =(

Anyway, I played Twilight of the Spirits for a hot minute, really wanted to keep playing it but I didn't have a PS2 during the time, it was my brother's.

But yeah, you cleared it all up for me. At first I was like "Huh? The Lad?" But then I realized, it's kinda snazzy, and at least makes the game stand out more. It could have been named "Arc the Warrior" or something.

But yeah, he's definitely one hell of a lad in the one I'm playing, the first one that is. I really like Arc, even as a lad he's so badass. I'm up to the part where the super buff monk joins you. Right after the tournament actually. It's been a few months, I'll have to go back and be sure.

Great game, none the less. I love the setting, the "dark" mood, and the characters are all awesome.

Oh, and how could I forget? The music freakin' rocks! I like how Chongara seems to be dancing to the music, especially this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz0kjLnltnA&feature=related

XD

That's one thing i really like about the first one (haven't played the other two in the collection). Everyone has their own skills, their own roles. Arc himself is flexible, which is cool. I like that. But then you have a healer, a buffer, a mage, a summoner, a few tanks.. that's what makes the game strategic.

I'm not too fond of these recent RPGs where everyone can "multiclass", so it hardly matters who you use in the end. If there's multiclassing, it should come at some cost in effectiveness. Like, if you want someone to be a fighter/mage, you'll have to deal with the fact that he'll be a weaker fighter and a weaker mage in the end. Which might be what you need, but again, the cost is there, you can't simply make him a jack of all trades and have him mow everything down.

Anyway, I haven't seen any of WD's work recently. Can you hook me up with some examples?

Go ahead, ramble all you want. It's nice to find someone who actually thinks the same way I do about these things. =)

Of the games you've mentioned, I actually own or used to own all of them. I beat Lunar SSS, but never got around to beating Alundra or either of the Growlanser games in the collection. I think I got pretty far in both games, but I have been away from my PS2 for a long time now, which sucks. I really like those games.

The second one was more "RPG" than the first, while the first had a ton of characters you could use. I think they both had a "class" system of sorts, but also made room for customization, which made them excellent games in my opinion.

As far as I remember, Lunar didn't have that feature, but at least the characters were different, so you actually had to use tactics to beat bosses. The healer, if I recall correctly, was also a decent melee fighter, which was a nice change of pace. She was also awesome throughout the story. =)

Have you ever played Vay? I think that was the first WD game I've played. I played it so long ago, when I was a lad (lol), and I actually thought WD made the game, since their name is embellished right on the front box art:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9c/Vay_BoxArt.JPG

Oh, and BTW, I'm playing these Arc games on the pSX emulator, hehehe.

Hehe, when you "get it" I'm assuming you're going to use Fusion. That's the one I use, anyway. =)

Some other Sega Genesis/Megadrive games you might enjoy, some RPGs others not. Also note that my tastes are pretty eclectic for the most part:

Phantasy Star IV (this is my favorite 16 bit rpg, bar none)
Elemental Master
Jewel Master
Master of Monsters
Mutant League Football
D&D Warriors of the Eternal Sun
Contra Hard Corps

And of course all of the Sonic games, the Shining Force games... I'm sure you've heard of these. =) Oh, and there's Columns 3, which is a great puzzle game if you're into those. But the ones I listed are some of my personal (Sega exclusive) favorites.

For Sega CD maybe you'll like a game called Dark Wizard. If there's any reason to even own a Sega CD, I'd say this would be it. It's pretty much Master of Monsters but with more of an RPG feel. Mostly because there is no permanent death, at least so far as I've experienced. There's also a plot, which as far as I know Master of Monsters doesn't have.

On the Playstation 1, my favorite turn-based strategy game would definitely be Brigandine. There are so many good things I could say about that game, I don't even know where to begin.

Sorry, I could go on and on about old school games. I think that's because I'm still stuck in that period. I don't have any of the newer systems, most likely because I've never been in any one place for a long time since I graduated college damn near five years or so ago. Plus, there's just something about these old games that draws me to them. Can't really say why.

Haha! Man, I feel like we're in the same boat, after reading what you wrote.

I'm like you. I don't bash the new games, but since everyone and their momma can make a game these days, the industry is "swarmed" by mediocrity, from people who can't even code.

I'm not a fan of these sweeping epic games, the ones that have "omgwtf amazing graphics", since those games tend to be chock full of bugs and broken mechanics.

The DLC thing is a joke. Most of those games are so damn old, you might as well... you know... in like 5 seconds and play them on an emulator. A lot of them you can't even buy on Ebay, let alone from the company itself. Hell, some of the companies that made those games aren't even around anymore. So they're just trying to make money, basically.

If I were to make a game, after it's been out for like 10 years and only 10 people play it (like Arc or something) I would just make it public domain. I mean it's not like I'm even making new copies. Nor am I making any more money. I understand why they'd want to keep their copyright, but hell, who cares in the end. I just want people to enjoy my games. I'd even open source them so computer savvy people can mod them.

Just my opinions though.

So far as Arc goes, I haven't had a ton of time recently to play, but it's definitely up there on my list. The problem is that I'm taking a medical leave from grad school (computer science... majored in philosophy in undergrad, so I'm totally stressed out lol). The biggest problems for me right now are 1) Finding somewhere to live, and 2) Getting a few jobs to support myself until I can land something full time.

But hell, without assignments and other nonsense to stress me out, I'll have plenty of time for some Arc pretty soon.

A few other things about Arc.

Well first, for some reason I deleted the memory card that had my Arc saves, so I'm going to start over. Which is fine by me.

I'd say Arc is better than the Final Fantasy Tactics games by a long shot. I think it's because the battles in Arc are more tactical. You have to work with what you're given, just like chess. You have different guys for different purposes. Same goes for the Growlanser games.

That isn't to say the Final Fantasy Tactics games are bad. But they don't feel as well thought out as Arc. They just give you a bunch of classes and say "Have a blast." In Arc, that's simply not the case. You have to be more resourceful. Every turn is like a turn in chess. You have to think for a while before you make a move. Sometimes it takes me 5 minutes or more to make a single move in the tougher battles.

And that's another thing. Arc is damn hard. At least for me, and I'd say I'm pretty good at these kinds of games. I might have to at least gain a few extra levels here and there, but in the end I have to improve my tactics to survive.