Arc Rise Fantasia is a game that never got the appreciation it deserved when it was out. A JRPG for the Wii that was notorious for its limited selection in the genre, ARF took some ideas from the Tales series with regards to its story and tried a different kind of turn-based battle system, and all in all I believe it delivered on almost everything.
The story of ARF emphasizes the religions in the game and how conflicts arise from the differing Law’s of the two major gods. Later in the game, it also shows the history of the world, which is fantastic since more world-building is always something I can appreciate. I won’t go more into the story, but all I will say is that it’s not a groundbreaking story, but it’s an interesting one. One negative I will say is that the game has a lot of back-and-forth between different locations that gets annoying after a while. For a 50+ hour game, it has a limited location pool. Now for the characters
The main characters L’Arc and Ryfia are cliches of the genre. Most of the cast have cliches or tropes to them (Serge being a womanizer, Cecille wanting to be the courageous hero, Leslie being a femme-fatale and so on), though they all have grown throughout the game. They don’t stay static, the cast develops and shows more of them, especially in the Skits that the game offers. I don’t think it will be a stretch to say that the skits give a lot more for the characters than the actual story scenes.
The battle system is fantastic. It’s turn-based, putting a big emphasis on strategizing your turn to be as effective as possible. The game is challenging as well, most of all the boss battles, which with one or two wrong decisions, can spell a game over for you quickly. Level grinding can help you have an easier time with the boss battles, but you won’t run them over with a couple of extra levels. Strategizing is the key to winning. I had trouble with just one of the boss battles, which you are not expected to win, so if you like a challenge this game gets a recommendation just from the battles alone.
And lastly for the music. For me, it's probably tied with the battle system for the best part of the game. A fantastic OST and a joy to listen to, particularly the boss fight themes. Unexpected Fight and Before the Mighty One are the two biggest highlights of the OST.
I will touch on this in the end, but the most infamous part of this game is the atrocious English voice acting. Yes, it's shit, yes I played the undub version with the Japanese VAs, and no it does not ruin the game. If you can only play with the English voice acting, you can turn off the voices in the settings, my only suggestion is to turn it back on for boss battles (the characters give you hits when the boss is going to hit like a truck) and if you can play with the Japanese VAs do it.
In conclusion, Arc Rise Fantasia is a hidden gem that should be experienced by a lot more people.
The story of ARF emphasizes the religions in the game and how conflicts arise from the differing Law’s of the two major gods. Later in the game, it also shows the history of the world, which is fantastic since more world-building is always something I can appreciate. I won’t go more into the story, but all I will say is that it’s not a groundbreaking story, but it’s an interesting one. One negative I will say is that the game has a lot of back-and-forth between different locations that gets annoying after a while. For a 50+ hour game, it has a limited location pool. Now for the characters
The main characters L’Arc and Ryfia are cliches of the genre. Most of the cast have cliches or tropes to them (Serge being a womanizer, Cecille wanting to be the courageous hero, Leslie being a femme-fatale and so on), though they all have grown throughout the game. They don’t stay static, the cast develops and shows more of them, especially in the Skits that the game offers. I don’t think it will be a stretch to say that the skits give a lot more for the characters than the actual story scenes.
The battle system is fantastic. It’s turn-based, putting a big emphasis on strategizing your turn to be as effective as possible. The game is challenging as well, most of all the boss battles, which with one or two wrong decisions, can spell a game over for you quickly. Level grinding can help you have an easier time with the boss battles, but you won’t run them over with a couple of extra levels. Strategizing is the key to winning. I had trouble with just one of the boss battles, which you are not expected to win, so if you like a challenge this game gets a recommendation just from the battles alone.
And lastly for the music. For me, it's probably tied with the battle system for the best part of the game. A fantastic OST and a joy to listen to, particularly the boss fight themes. Unexpected Fight and Before the Mighty One are the two biggest highlights of the OST.
I will touch on this in the end, but the most infamous part of this game is the atrocious English voice acting. Yes, it's shit, yes I played the undub version with the Japanese VAs, and no it does not ruin the game. If you can only play with the English voice acting, you can turn off the voices in the settings, my only suggestion is to turn it back on for boss battles (the characters give you hits when the boss is going to hit like a truck) and if you can play with the Japanese VAs do it.
In conclusion, Arc Rise Fantasia is a hidden gem that should be experienced by a lot more people.