Flawed? Sure. Is Arc Rise Fantasia the best RPG I've played? Far from it. However, Arc Rise Fantasia captures the heart and soul of the JRPG so wonderfully that it will be easy enough to overlook the flaws.
Minor technical issues, wasted opportunities and dreadful voice acting bring Arc Rise Fantasia down, but there's still plenty of enjoyment to be found as long as you know what to expect.
The game is one of the best rpgs on the wii, top 3 if I may say. Has a great story, has great art style, drawn by the guy who drew Eureka 7 anime, has a great voice cast (if you play the undub version, otherwise do not bother turning the volume of voices), and an amazing soundtrack. Though the plot has to be its main selling point. It's such a shame the company went bankrupt, because this game really deserves a remaster on newer platforms, to get played by more people.
One of my favorite RPGs, the story was great and full of twists, the soundtrack is one of my favorites, the gameplay is fun and interesting, and the magic and weapon system are fun to set up. The bosses can be a bit **** but I have a habit of grinding anyway. I just with the localization was handled better, their work was just horrible for such a great game.
Arc Rise Fantasia is the perfect RPG to play "between" RPGs. Something to pick up before the next big AAA experience hits and scratch an itch that one gets during the genre's common dry periods.
Although there is a decent amount of story material to cover as well as some potential for grinding/leveling up, nothing here warrants a second play through.
It's also not like there are many JPRG options on Wii right now, so if you're really eager to play a traditional, if uninspired, RPG on Wii, Arc Rise definitely offers a respectable 40-ish hour experience – just don't expect it to throw you any curve balls.
The most disappointing aspect of all for Arc Rise is the fact that this was supposed to be THE RPG to get the Wii out of its RPG-slump. If this is all developers have to offer the Wii, RPG-fans are better off sticking with the other two consoles to get their fixes until the next potential RPG-savior for the Wii comes along.
My biggest concern playing this game were the voice actors. They just.. didn't sound authentic or good to me. It felt like they were just basically reading the script for the first time and going along that way for the entire game. I may be the only person who feels this way, their words just never tied in uniformly to whatever emotions they were supposed to be portraying. Nonetheless, I pushed through. The rest of the game was overall enjoyable. The storyline was better than I imagined it to be, and the battle system was really quite good once I got the hang of it. It was definitely different than other battle systems I was used to playing within the JRPG universe. Though what really made me stay was the music. It was well done and beautiful, it even brought a tear or two to my eyes during my 75 hours playing this. I never felt like it was repetitive or annoying, it was enjoyable and even sometimes relaxing. Sometimes I'd stay in a specific place just to hear a certain piece over and over again. I felt like they really pushed the boundaries with this game and did pretty well!
it was a solid game for it's time, I'd give this a 8.5/10, would definitely play it again!
This game is one of my favorites of the Wii, and definitely a lost gem in my opinion. Although the characters and plot may be a little clichéd if you play a lot of JRPG, but there's a lot of charm to it. The gameplay though is my favorite part. I greatly miss it and wish more games would have this strategic take on JRPGs.
So I bought this game hoping for some cool RPG gameplay. I found it, except the voice acting..... If it wasn't for the horrible voice acting and the inaccurate animation on people's mouths. This game would have gotten a 9/10 instead. It just isn't appealing to the eye or the ear.
The skilled artwork, great presentation, charming characters and interesting combat really rose my hopes up for this game. Unfortunately, the sometimes awkward voice acting, the unforgivably unpolished cutscenes and the blandness of the setting have quickly crushed most expectations. Granted, it is not hard to play through this RPG and get away some entertainment from it, Arc Rise Fantasia will hardly provide starved RPG fans with the depth and memorable moments they are looking for.
When I first bought this game, I was really hoping for a great RPG experience like the one I got from Tales of Symphonia. Sadly, that's not what happened. Granted, I had a little fun with strategic combat that the game provided and the graphics are quite nice (for the Wii, anyway), but as I played the game longer, the faults began to surface. While I did enjoy the combat system, it seems that console-based RPGs are more suited to real-time. Second is that while standard enemies are no problem, the bosses are unforgivable and force you to grind levels to even stand a chance agianst them. The last two things, however, are what really killed it for me. The story (for the most part) is very shallow and too similar to Tales of Symphonia to be bragged about, and I couldn't find one character in this game who wasn't either irrelevant to what was going on or just cliche as all hell, especially Adele and Ryfia. And of course there's what everybody else has touched on: the English voice acting is absolutely horrendous (not helped by the fact you can't change it to Japanese). The bottom line is that if you're looking for a good RPG on the Wii, Arc Rise Fantasia isn't the last game to look for, but it's certainly not the first.
SummaryArc Rise Fantasia is set in the Meridian Empire. Creatures called "Contaminant Dragons" are causing trouble as they pass the Meridian in flocks. If one is killed, the resulting explosion poisons the local area. When the empire receives word that a massive horde has its sights on the capital of Diamant, it immediately sends out an army to...