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Arc the
Lad Collection (PS1) |
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Review by: Schimmel Orrison
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Reviewers Score:
8 / 10
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Posted: April 11, 2006
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This'll be huge, as there's 3 in the
series plus a battle arena disc:
These are a series of games that come as one big collection, three in
total plus a Battle Arena disc where you can fight with the characters
and monsters recruited from Arc the Lad 2. They are all a TBT
(Turn-based tactical) style battle system with a few differences which
I'll mention.
Arc the Lad:
Gameplay (6/10):
Definitely not as good as the other two. You progress through the game
by viewing the map and choosing a place to go to, instead of being able
to walk around freely. When you choose a place to go, you'll either
progress through the story in a battle, or simply fight random monsters
for training. Another flaw is that there are no weapons and armor to buy
in shops... in fact, there's no money at all in the game to buy
anything. Items are all chests or monster drops.
Battle System (6/10):
Also not even close to the other two. It's very basic TBT style game
play. Move your characters around and select either attack, magic or
item. Some characters are also very hard to train and gain their levels
due to them being sorta weak, which makes them even weaker later on if
you don't take the time and effort dedicated to them. The magic also has
levels, when you level up and get a spell to level up, it'll cost more
MP, but also have bigger range and become more powerful. The flaw in
this though, is that once it levels up, it'll permanently cost more MP,
making you use alot of MP when you cast instead of having the choice of
weak spell with low MP cost or strong spell with high MP cost.
Storyline (8/10):
The storyline is pretty simple. Though in this case it's actually a bit
better on the rating than Battle System or Gameplay since it ends with a
cliffhanger into the second game. The storyline in this also sets up
alot of the storyline for Arc the Lad 2, so I can't say this is a bad
storyline.
Replayability (2/10):
Practically nothing. Really all you would play it for is the storyline
of it so you can play Arc the Lad 2 and 3 without being confused. Also,
you can carry your characters stats and items over into the second game,
so it's worth playing just for that.
Arc the Lad 2:
Gameplay (8/10):
Much better than Arc the Lad 1. This game actually allows free movement
around towns and dungeons while still incorporating the same TBT battle
system. When you get into a battle, you stay in the same area you were
walking in, which becomes the battlefield. There are many more items and
you can actually get money to buy new equipment and items.
Battle System (9/10):
A huge improvement here too. Now you can have weapon levels which
increase the rate of doing better attacks when you choose to attack
resulting in more damage. The magic level system is much better. Now you
can choose what level you cast the spell at so you have the choice of a
weak spell with low MP cost or a strong spell with high MP cost. There
are also a huge cast of new characters to use instead of the same old 7
all the time. You can even recruit monsters that you fight by taming
them with Lieza.
Storyline (8/10):
An added feature here is that now you can take on optional
"Hunter" missions like doing missions and hunting rare
monsters. The storyline at the beginning starts off with nothing to do
with Arc the Lad 1, but eventually works it's way into the sequel of it.
The only complaint I have is that it's so insanely long... I didn't
finish this one although I came very close to the end.
Replayability (2/10)
There isn't much replayability in this one either, seeing as how it's
very long and doesn't make you feel like going through it all again.
You'll probably want to stay with your strong characters at the end of
the game anyway, seeing as how you can play the Arc Arena with them.
Arc the Lad 3
Gameplay (10/10)
There are only a few differences between this game and Arc the Lad 2.
There are now synthesis shops where you can create items from blueprint
designs with the required items, or use your own items to experiment and
create something new. (I even discovered a secret one myself ) So that
feature brings it up from 8 to 10. Only because I can't think of
anything else that would make it better though. It's great as it is, a
huge improvement on Arc the Lad 1 and 2.
Battle System (8/10)
The great thing about this game is that when your magic levels up and
becomes stronger, you can't choose between levels... but the MP cost
doesn't increase! So it's stronger for the same MP cost. The weapon
levels have been taken out for some reason and it's reverted to being
like Arc the Lad 1 where you always have the same characters. Except
this time its 6 instead of 7. In this one it doesn't really bother me
though because the characters you get cover every possible field of
fighting there is, and the characters are all cool anyway.
Storyline (8/10):
This one is quite different from the others. The saga that continued
through all of Arc the Lad 1 and 2 is over now and a new saga has begun.
This one is based around the Hunter missions instead of them just being
sidequests. You become a Hunter and go through missions. Some missions
are "storyline missions" too, which advance you through the
storyline, which is also a decent storyline.
Replayability (6/10)
This one has much higher replayability than the other two, considering
you're at the end of the series and probably have carried over your save
data right from Arc the Lad 1 which unlocks some extras if you did,
though I didn't beat Arc the Lad 2 to find out what they were. This one definitely
isn't as long and has way cooler magic in it than the other two, so I
didn't mind playing through this a second time even though I hadn't
carried over my data, I just found this one the most fun.
Overall scores:
Arc the Lad 1: 6
Arc the Lad 2: 8
Arc the Lad 3: 9
I won't review Arc Arena since there's nothing to it. It's just an extra
disc where you can fight special challenges with your Arc the Lad 2
data.
This game would be hard to find by now since it's a PSX game. Try to
find an ISO of it though and play it if you haven't. It's a fun series
once you get past Arc the Lad 1
Of course you have to like TBT games first. |
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