"Starts strong but gets repetitive"

I almost reviewed this game when I first got it. If I had the score would have been a lot higher, but having played it more, it only gets a 6. Don't get me wrong, I do like Arc the Lad, and I'm sure I'll finish it eventually (about halfway through now) but it could have been so much more then what it is. A warning there are some spoilers in this review.

Let's start with the good though:

The Good

The Graphics are lovely, as to be expected anymore on the PS2 but I was really impressed with the towns and the backgrounds. My jaw dropped when I first started playing this game.

The Interactions between characters are also done well. There are so many powerful and funny interactions, mostly with Darc's side of the story. From the end of his first chapter when he tells Delma, ''I did it. What does it matter?'' I got literal chills. And in Darc's third chapter, when Volk tongue in cheekly remarks ''Oh Delma wants traitors not to be forgiven now.'' I grinned rather broadly at that.

The Story is also good, seeing both sides of the same coin is creative, especially when the two sides almost intersect, or go to places the other side had just left. The way the different sides treat each other is also interesting to watch.

Some of the Special Skills are creative, or funny to watch, especially Maru's, his stories and hunting skills cracked me up the first time I saw them.

Combat is good with being able to freely move within a certain range and having weapons have a certain effect radius, some weapons like Maru's bow can hit several enemies at one time, others like Ganz's axe, cannot. Also random fights are pretty few, unless you initiate them, always a plus for me.

Now onto the bad.

The Bad
The Graphics, while lovely, are repetitive, in that random battles take place in a small number of locations that change very little from fight to fight. (The interactable objects may change, but that's it.) Since it takes a good number of random battles to earn the cash to max out your equipment, you're going to see the same locales a lot.

In a similar vein, the encounters and AI are not good. I was levelling up at one location in the Third Chapter and counted exactly 3 different fights. That's all. Three different enemy groupings, three different interactable objects arrangements, that got rotated through. Needless to say that got boring. The AI is bad. Mobs will allow you to run around them and stab them in the back and they only respond with turning around and hitting you in the face, which is far less effective. Also, mobs have a pattern to which they move, which if you can figure it out (Not all that hard since random fights are so limited in variety) you can use it to your advantage.

While there are good interactions between the characters, there just aren't enough of them, especially in Kharg's story. It's funny as the story has progressed the characters act like they know each other well, but I don't see how since they don't interact much.

The Skills have issues as well. One, they're repetitive. All of Paulette's offensive area skills have the same animation, just the more powerful ones have a greater area of effect. All of her offensive single effect ones, also have the same initial animation. Plus some skills are the exact same, they just work better? I mean could the designers not come up with any skill ideas at all? Plus the characters all have a lot of the same skills, they just get them at different times. They all get a basic heal, and a status effect curer, and some status raising abilities (Attack up, Defensive Up) etc. which usually have the exact same frickin name for all of them! I mean come on, at least calling them something different and maybe tweaking how they work a tiny bit would at least be something. Plus the Dual Attack moves just seem thrown in. I mean A bland animation, a random and usually nonsensical thing said by both characters and a lot of damage equals a yawn. Most of the time I don't even bother with them. Plus the descriptions for some the skills are very bad. Healing Rain and Vital Energy affect all Allies if you do it outside of combat, and are area effects, but the description sounds like it only works on one person. Big difference. Maru's hunting skills sound like you're supposed to use them on flying enemies (which there are very few of so far) But actually what happens is he shoots down something flying and it lands on the enemies hurting them, so it can be used on anyone.

The Story has some cliched elements, the big corporation taking over the world has been done before, plus complete with mysterious people coming out of the woodwork has also been done. The idea of two halves that dislike each other that have to come together to fight a greater evil has also been done. But those are minor gripes really, the story so far has been pretty good.

Overall

Arc the Lad has some neat and creative elements, it also has a lot of boring and repetitive ones. It seems the boring and repetitive outweigh the creative and thus I gave it a 6. I'm not unhappy with the game, though I'd recommend rental over buying it, if it wasn't so long. 20 hours in I'm a shade under halfway through. I'd love to see a sequel with more time put into it and applying the creativity that I see glimpses of and love, to more of the game. Let's hope for another Arc the Lad, one that capitalizes on the potential shown in this one.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/17/03, Updated 07/17/03