Forum > Gaming Discussion > Arc Rise Fantasia [OT] of fine, nostalgic, JRPG goodness
Arc Rise Fantasia [OT] of fine, nostalgic, JRPG goodness
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Wed, 21 Apr 2010 01:58:05
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Thread Update:

Impressions:

After spending some time with this game, I'm quite surprised at how much I'm enjoying this game.

All I can say is that the game brings me back to the good memories of playing JRPGs on the PS1 and the PS2. It isn't very original nor does it do anything new (the developers were ex-Tales of Symphonia guys), but for some reason the game feels so refreshing to play.

I don't know why. Maybe because the Wii has a serious drought of JRPGs. And not just the Wii, but among all consoles. And so playing ARF feels like a nice little throwback that tickles my nostalgia in a good way.

Here are some other pros and cons:

Pros:
  • Wonderful graphics! Really nice! The character models are good, the backgrounds are well-designed, and very colorful!
  • Awesome music! The score is done by none other than the master himself, Yosunori Mitsuda!
  • Really cool battle system. It's turn-based but it's really fast-paced, kind of innovative, and very strategic.
  • No long loading times! From the battles or going to different areas, the loading is fast and quick, makes for a more enjoyable experience.
  • Charming characters. It's your basic JRPG fare, but it's not terrible either. It's good for what it is.
  • Story is pretty good. It is your typical anime stuff, but I'll be honest, the story in ARF is more interesting and better than Tales of Vesperia or Dawn of the New World. I really meant that!
Cons:
  • Horrible, terrible, atrocious voice-acting! It gets better, but it's pretty bad.
  • Localization is pretty bad. Blame Ignition. I think they screwed up what could've been a RPG gem on the Wii for western fans.

I will say this though. I like this game more than Tales of Vesperia and definitely more than Dawn of the New World. Dawn of the New World felt uninspired and was horribly disappointing. As for Vesperia, I really do like it but when I thought about it, if I took away all the beautiful graphics, it really is just another mediocre Tales game.

Like I said, I like ARF's story and characters more than Vesperia. Vesperia is all about some stupid orb called a blastia and I think I played about 20 hours on it and it was nothing but blastia, blastia, blastia. It gets tiresome and uninteresting after awhile. But the story in ARF isn't bad. It's at least keeping me interested. I think it's because they focused more on the character personalities than the story itself.

Overall, I'm happy with the game. I was on the fence before and really didn't know if I wanted the game or not. But with the cheap retail price and since the Wii doesn't have too many JRPGs, I decided to get it...and I'm glad I did! I wasted a lot of money on really crappy DS JRPGs for $34.95 like Glory of Heracles, Sands of Destruction, Nostalgia, and Avalon Code, so buying Arc Rise Fantasia at the same $34.95 price was totally worth it!

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The Wii needs more JRPGs. There are some good ones in the works but who knows if they're coming over here.

So anything that does come is worth checking out.

Arc Rise Fantasia looks pretty good! Kind of like a Tales' series lost lost step-brother.

IGN Preview








Arc Rise Fantasia Screenshot

Arc Rise Fantasia Picture
and few more new ones
http://wii.ign.com/dor/objects/82719...032500154.html
Edited: Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:44:59

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Wed, 21 Apr 2010 01:59:49
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Still annoyed Tales of Graces hasn't gotten localized.

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Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:04:52
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Yodariquo said:
Still annoyed Tales of Graces hasn't gotten localized.

Yeah. Hopefully it does.

But Arc Rise Fantasia should help alleviate the pain a little...IF the game is good. Hopefully it is and doesn't come across as another mediocre or by-the-books JRPG. I hope it's at least solid and worth playing.

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Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:06:29
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I was, until I read how bad a job Ignition is doing with the localisation over at GAF.
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Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:09:20
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Sorry for ignoring the point here but... what a stupid name for a game.  Arc. Rise. Fantasia.  What the hell is wrong with these people.  If you are going to have a meaningless name, or a weird name, stick to single word title's at least.  Like Cubivore.

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Wed, 21 Apr 2010 02:13:51
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aspro said:
Sorry for ignoring the point here but... what a stupid name for a game.  Arc. Rise. Fantasia.  What the hell is wrong with these people.  If you are going to have a meaningless name, or a weird name, stick to single word title's at least.  Like Cubivore.

Yeah. Sounds weird, but it sounds  like every other Japanese RPG game not named Final Fantasy. So I'm use to weird names by now.

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Wed, 21 Apr 2010 05:46:58
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it looks kind of generic to me.  the art/look doesn't do anything to stand out (and that is usually what a game needs first to make me take notice) and by the sounds of it nor does the gameplay.  i don't mean to be overly critical of a game i haven't played and know little about, just saying that what i've seen/heard of the game so far doesn't make it stand out.

as ASK said i think it's one for the people who just need an RPG to play on the wii even if it's nothing special 

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Wed, 21 Apr 2010 06:32:44
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It got 32/40 on Famitsu (8/8/8/8 and it's not like Marvelous Entertainment had money to spare and spend on buying out good scores from such outlets) and has pretty positive import impressions. What special thing did this gen's high caliber JRPGs like FFXIII do outside graphics anyway? This one is just charming and light hearted with a robust combat system, that's all it takes to entice people sometimes, after the pretentious attempts of the high profile releases from bigger companies. Kinda like Skies of Arcadia did early in the last generation for example, though I guess it had the skies and ships hook which this game doesn't as it's more conventional in design.

And yes, (ex-)Tales team members were involved (including the script director and level designer from Tales of Symphonia) and it has similar skits, though the combat is completely different and instead uses an action point based system to perform moves, letting you choose to spend the whole pool with just one character, divide them equally for all to do something that turn, or whatever else. The character designer is from Eureka Seven anime.

It has also been re-released in Japan under the recent Nintendo "Player's Choice" budget range alongside other highly (user) rated fan favorites like Muramasa. So, yeah, it has more going for it than meets the eye initially.

It's just sad Ignition is localising it and makes another sub par effort with shitty voice acting and sloppy translation and subtitles and not even voicing the skits at all, cutting corners and going half assed everywhere they can.

You can check out import impressions from a precious few people in this GAF thread. Lots of screens. I thought the art book was pretty cool looking personally, even if you think the art is generic.

And this is the official Japanese site for official trailers or whatever, check the various pages as they often are littered with short videos meant to describe certain elements (but obviously incomprehensible for us). Click the red button under where it shows the box art of the budget release to go in the proper website.

And of course it's from imageepoch who also made 7th Dragon on the DS (Famitsu awarded that a 33 - 9/8/8/8 ) and the Luminous Arc series (which has mixed but overall decent reviews in the West, 70%-73% average). Their next game is Last Ranker on the PSP for CAPCOM, it looks good though we've seen little of it. Also, I didn't know half of this stuff when I started writing this post, it's not hard to find out more about a game before judging it folks.
Edited: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 07:35:06
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Wed, 21 Apr 2010 08:15:17
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that's good and useful info.

it's just that unless something about a game strikes me, then i won't really take notice nor will i show an interest in reading up and finding out more about it.

sadly i think it has some to do with being spoilt for choice these days.  it's good that it was at least well received and appreciated in japan.  also i've seen people talk about it with anticipation and get excited in forums so i'm sure it has an audience in the west as well.

shame about the shitty localisation but i guess sometimes you just have to take the bad with the good

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Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:45:40


Not really interested, although it did get a solid Famitsu review.

Xenoblade has my attention.

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Sun, 25 Apr 2010 20:34:22

LOL It does look like a Tales game. 

Hmm, I need to get back to Vesperia, now that I think of it. 

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Mon, 26 Apr 2010 03:36:14

SteelAttack said:

LOL It does look like a Tales game.

Hmm, I need to get back to Vesperia, now that I think of it.

Did you ever finish Valkyria Chronicles? Sad

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Mon, 26 Apr 2010 05:57:01

Foolz said:

Did you ever finish Valkyria Chronicles? Sad

 No. It's a shame, really, that I managed to finish an RPG with less redeeming qualities such as Eternal Sonata and I still have on my shelf two of the best JRPGs of this generation, Valkyria Chronicles and Tales of Vesperia. 

Problem is, I can't go back to either of them right now since that would mean halting FFXIII, which has just started to show the mindbending quality of its unparalleled battle system. I only needed to level up my lancers a bit in VC to get past through the first Batomys encounter. Who knows exactly where I left Vesperia. LOL 

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Tue, 11 May 2010 12:26:46

New trailer

http://kotaku.com/5535509/a-heartwarming-look-at-arc-rise-fantasia

ASK, you know you have 2 arc rise threads?

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Fri, 14 May 2010 12:08:32
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Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:43:25
Updated first post with new impressions!

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Wed, 28 Jul 2010 06:54:47
I still play plenty of old JRPG on the handhelds -- so I've not been far enough away from that style that I can be nostalgic about it -- it's just my every day gaming reality.

Bummer to hear about Avalon Code and Nostalgia -- I have not cracked the seal on those yet.

Thanks for the more detailed impressions though, these kind of posts are a good resource for when I finally get to the game.


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Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:00:09

aspro said:
I still play plenty of old JRPG on the handhelds -- so I've not been far enough away from that style that I can be nostalgic about it -- it's just my every day gaming reality.

Bummer to hear about Avalon Code and Nostalgia -- I have not cracked the seal on those yet.

Thanks for the more detailed impressions though, these kind of posts are a good resource for when I finally get to the game.


Sorry Aspro, I didn't know you had Avalon Code and Nostalgia!

I didn't mean it in a bad way. Those aren't bad games and I'm sure you'll still enjoy them. But compared to the other JRPGs I've played and my expectations for them, they were a little disappointing, which is all I was trying to say.

With that said, Arc Rise Fantasia is surprisingly refreshing to me. I guess I really missed playing these JRPGs. In one of the Nintendo Powers I have, the developers said they really wanted to make a traditionally classic JRPG for modern consoles. There's a huge world map, big cities, towns, everything you can remember from past JRPGs.

It's also probably because I didn't have high expectations for it. Since it exceeded it, I think I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would.


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Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:15:21

Yodariquo said:
Still annoyed Tales of Graces hasn't gotten localized.

Hell, I'm sitll annoyed about Tales of Vesperia's PS3 version. Sad

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Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:05:42
i love jrpgs and this game looks great its a shame that N/A players are losing there love for jrpg games and liking the bad wrpg games its also a shame that xseed was forced to give the game to Ignition  to publish i hate Ignition lucky for them that there partnership with marvelous is saving them from going bankrupt
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