![]() With better efforts made for the Western market, this could have been a truly great RPG, but the voice actors somehow manage to make the story seem more boring and absurd than it actually is. It’s just a shame that the localization was so badly done. Arc Rise Fantasia doesn’t apologize for being a straight laced JRPG simply concentrates on giving fans of the genre what they like. From its anime look to its conventional combat system, Arc Rise Fantasia is a game that most certainly wouldn’t look out of place in the PlayStation 2’s library, and I don’t mean that as an insult. ![]() When the game isn’t employing cheap “get hard quick” schemes, however, what we have is a very competently presented, well crafted roleplaying game that never tries to starts a revolution, but never sets it back. ![]() Nothing Arc Rise does is revolutionary, but the blending of traditional turn-based combat and light strategic elements at least makes every battle just that bit more interesting. When conditions are right, characters can also sneak in additional attacks, allowing players who are spatially aware to make quick work of common enemies. After a few hours, the party earns the ability to chain attacks together to create more damaging blows, making for extra strategic uses of AP. For instance, you can have one character use all the points to attack solo, or share the AP equally. For one, all characters in a battle share a pool of Action Points rather than take individual turns, which allows for a level of strategy. That’s not to say there aren’t a few little twists. It’s unpretentious and familiar RPG fun, and that’s just fine. There are no convoluted gimmicks or needlessly complicated leveling system. In many ways, Arc Rise’s total lack of ambition is its saving grace. Everything that has come to define the genre is found in Arc Rise Fantasia - turn-based combat, grinding, optional quests, a world map, towns with new weapons, it’s all preserved like a time capsule in ARF, and I actually approve. With the story undermined, it all hinges on the gameplay, and Arc Rise plays it safe with a game that never veers from the beaten RPG path. To its credit, you can mute the voices, but silencing the game completely isn’t an answer as far as I am concerned, and the localizers ought to feel ashamed of setting the whole game back. It’s frustrating to finally reach a climactic moment and fail to enjoy it because the actors ruin the mood with their apathetic delivery and inability to convey more than one emotion. Lines are delivered by people who make it abundantly clear that they don’t care, making dramatic scenes instantly feel flat and dull. Whoever they got to provide the voices in Arc Rise, I can tell you right now that they weren’t actors. At one’s most negative, you could say that Arc Rise Fantasia’s plot is no worse than any other RPG’s and sometimes it almost becomes a bit better than the norm.Īny good the story does, however, is quickly undone by one major flaw - the absolutely atrocious localization. There are the obligatory plot twists and a number of characters even risk being rather interesting. While it lacks any real emotional impact, the story is a pretty decent yarn, especially as the game rises in tempo roughly ten or so hours into the experience. Surprisingly, it’s actually not terrible either.
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