Arc the Lad is a very small game, lacking depth in all areas. However, it's a wonderful experience.
Platform - PlayStation
Publisher - Sony Computer Entertainment, Working Designs
Developer - ARC Entertainment, G-Craft
Release Date - June 30, 1995
Genre - Role Playing Game/Turn Based Strategy
ESRB -T (Teen)
Note ~ This is a review of Arc the Lad bundled into Arc the Lad Collection on the PlayStation.
Working Designs is an amazing company. Actually, was an amazing company (RIP Working Designs). They pretty much started the localization process of bringing obscure Japanese games to the west, bundled with some nice extras such as soundtracks, art books, behind the scenes features, Ghaleon puppets, etc. If it wasn't for them, I doubt Atlus and NIS would be doing that today. I was able to play the Arc the Lad series through the collection that Working Designs released. Each game in this collection is basically a translated and improved port of the original and I couldn't be happier with the localization. Arc the Lad was actually one very large game at first, but because of some problems with releasing it, they split the game in two. Not two even parts though, as the first game is about 10 hours long, and the second about 50 hours long. Despite being so small, Arc the Lad proves that length does not measure quality.
The story is sort of an introduction to Arc the Lad II, but it's not that bad alone. It revolves around the general theme of destiny and starts off with a young man named Arc, who is doing anything he can to find his father. However, by the end of the game you're still asking questions. The ending is very sloppy and this is probably due to the fact that they had to split the game in two and make the story into two intertwined quests, instead of the one story they had planned out. But when not analyzing the ending, I feel the story is quite good. The cast of characters is great and the chemistry between them will definitely have you laughing out loud. The only thing that really brings it down is the length of the game itself. Arc the Lad will take about 10-15 hours to do everything that it has to offer (that includes sidequests), so that feeling of accomplishment isn't really there. You're not going to feel like you just went on a long and epic journey, even though you virtually did. While it takes hours to meet new characters in other RPGs, you'll see them within minutes of Arc the Lad. It's just a very fast paced RPG that will probably catch you off guard if you weren't expecting it (I watched the "making of feature" beforehand so I knew how long it would take).
I was surprised to see how fluent the battle system is compared to other turn based strategy games. The mechanics are the same as the others, however the control is much better. Instead of having to open up a menu and selecting "attack", all you have to do is face who you want to attack and press the "x" button. Also, to perform a skill, all you have to do it press the "o" button and a ring pops out, surrounding the character and showing what skills can be used. It's instant and so efficient, it shocks me that other games have not utilized this system. The control is excellent, however, the strategy is not. My biggest concern is that levels are everything. For a character to be strong, they just need to be at a high level. This is similar to other games of course, but there just isn't a lot of depth here. Gaining levels is not that easy either. I think it's cool that you get experience for practically everything (seriously, everything except moving gives you experience), but some characters will rapidly grow levels while other characters are left in the dust. These are just minor problems with Arc the Lad's well rounded experience though. It's a very small game, and there isn't a lot to it, but Arc the Lad is good. Not mind-blowing, or the next masterpiece, but just plain "good".
What I liked:
+wonderful cast of characters
+witty dialogue
+efficient controls
+easy to pick up battle system
+old-school look
+most of the tunes in the memorable soundtrack
+short but sweet experience
I disliked:
-sloppy ending
-"levels are everything" idea
-having to grind because Arc was 20 levels higher than everybody else
-travelling to each world just to find a specific area
-lack of depth
Random Comments
~So is this where Blizzard got the idea to have level 60 be the max in World of Warcraft?
~Tosh reminds me of Auron from FFX if he was in the anime Bleach
Obligatory (?) Score - 7.5/10
Basically, Arc the Lad is a prologue to its more recognized sequel, Arc the Lad II. I really enjoyed it, but the game never made a large push and played it safe, which is fine, but if has me recommend this to people only if they plan on playing the second one.
If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message.
Thank you for reading,
~Vari
[Fun fact: Arc the Lad was one of the first games to use CGI cutscenes, and also one of the first to have a real orchestra play the music. Both were an experimentation to see how it would turn out.]