Arc the Lad (1995)

Preliminary: These cutscenes are quite monotonous but I am liking this better than Shining Force so far (I know, I know, blasphemous). I like how it feels a bit more like Live a Live, and I like that it's one player against the Slimes at the start, and I leveled up etc. It feels closer to an RPG like I prefer. I am not a big tactical/strategy RPG fan, so we will see if this earns a 3 or higher, but so far it is clicking almost at the Fire Emblem level. Good music sometimes too. Just sick of this bridge dialog spot.

Ooo a beautiful new screen for dialog! :-p

Day 1

It's nice approaching tihs without a guide, just playing it how it's meant to be played. I think it helps that I'm not committed to finishing it, just a couple areas would put it at the Fire Emblem level and earn it a 3 or 4. And a standout among early Tactical RPGs.

Something I forgot to mention in Preliminary is, I like that Japanese vocalizations for soudn effects :-p Also feeling very modern with actually nicely placed save opportunities and a memory card to save on etc.

I'm surprised how much I enjoy this. It's too slow-paced for me to stick to the whole thing, as tactical turn-based often feel, and my party is growing which is a negative, but it was manageable and the mage guy was actually really strong physically too (? I did use the attack increase spell for both members, but yea). And I cleared out another screen. Here comes more dialog tho. The slow pace is expected, but will likely be what keeps it from a 4 star, despite the good Look (for its time) and Sound and pleasant surprise of the gameplay.

The slow walks over to an enemy are funny lol. Ending turn repeatedly just to get to them. And dang this girl is also OP compared to my main char. Maybe I should return to an old area and grind? I suppose I see why all characters have decent physical attack ability: you seem to only level up from killing an enemy? I was excited for the dynamic of an Ability-focused support character hm.

Unlike many of its predecessors/contemporaries, this has an approachable progression. Instead of characters basically being doomed to die the first couple areas like in Fire Emblem.

Hmmm the game is basically telling me to grind in this continent before boarding the airship. This is my true test to see if I will stick with this game. And as much as it's impressing me, I think I will jsut go to the next continent and see if I can manage ha.

I like that the plotline deals with occupation and uh was that "White House" that I read? lol.

I made it through Nicarus Forest! It was rough and I had to use a Revival Tonic but uh, maybe one more? Well okay that next area is clearly too tough. I tried returning to Nicarus Forest but meh. Here's where the slow pacing comes in. I could just abuse Fast Forward but I'm trying to expect more as we approach 96 and my childhood gaming era.

Dang yea even after redoing Nicarus Forest that next area was too tough. Maybe I was supposed to go to the third option first? Either way, time to move on. Still, pleasantly surprised and imrpessed by this game. Espceially considering how much I read it was a pale imitation of Shining Force etc

Look: 8/10 Love it. Part of me wants to give it higher for the great early PS1 yet still SNES looking, well, Look, and for the good world map, but many of the screens didn't grab me.

Sound: 8/10

Play: 8/10 Highlight of the early TRPGs imo

Feel: 8/10 Exciting to see the start of a series I hadn't heard much about, if anything, and for me to enjoy it more than the serires of this genre I had heard so much about.

Attachment: 8/10 Part of me wants to just keep grinding at Nicarus Forest and get strong enogh for that next area, or try that third option. If I finally feel up to committing to finishing a TRPG before Final Fantasy Tactics (which I sure hope I like considering how much I've heard about it), this would be my pick. Tho I likely would use Fast Forward in that case.

Overall: 8/10

Completion: Nicarus Forest twice

Playtime: ~3 hours

Edit: On further reflection, it really was special that I wanted to try to learn and strategize myself, so I'm happy with the 4 rating and may return to it for a higher rating.

Beat. This game was much shorter than its sequel and proceeded at a brisk pace. It was only story scenes and battles without any exploring, towns or dungeons. In some ways I liked this game more. The inventory was not ridiculously constrained, and by the end I had almost every accessory and 100s of consumable items. The battles were more engaging with all characters participating, often spread out on a large map against many enemies. There was a lot of variety in story battles and enemies often front loaded their special abilities. The optional grinding battles were repetitive though. I liked how hp and mp were restored after each battle (except in the 50 floor dungeon), which encouraged going all out. On the negative side, the weaker characters (healers) struggled to gain xp, leaving them at significantly lower level than the warriors. This was made even worse by how high agility gave extra turns; by the end my level 60 Tosh with hyper boots was getting 3 turns for everyone else's 1.

I did each optional battle once but did not go out of my way to grind, other than letting the healers get some easy kills and use up their mp. The only time I lost was against the illusion lord boss, who started off on turn 1 nuking everyone and killing Kukuru and Poco in 1 hit. Arc ran out of mp healing himself before he could solo the boss. I got around that by reviving the healers. Some other battles were tough and even killed off Tosh and Iga before they got some level ups, but Arc carried every fight. He ended up so much higher level than everyone else that he could pretty much solo the game. I had to let him sit out so the others had a chance to get xp. I focused on the main story and only did side stuff at the end. I did the Amidar temple challenge fights and 1 quiz (I guess I missed the 1st quiz?). I did the 50 floor dungeon, which was trivial until the bottom few floors. Arc, Tosh and Iga did most of the fighting while everyone else sat back. Kukuru and Poco died before the end but were both out of mp anyway. Chongara died on the way back up, but fewer characters meant less skipping turns while Tosh went for the stairs. Choko was the most difficult battle in the game and she actually killed Tosh. Her damage on Arc was pathetic though and he could have soloed her. I missed some items during the story, mainly 2 romancing stones, so I would have to start over to make a perfect game. I hate when RPGs do that. I should be able to go back and get any missed items and content without having to start over. I skipped the forest guardian rewards, water guardian side quest, and arena. They were just grindy battles and the items were not needed at all. I am doubtful that the 1000 arena battles rewards would even be worth it to transfer over to Arc 2, but probably might as well xp grind there. If I ever replay this game I will get all the missables and incorporate the side quests at appropriate times to help the weaker characters level up. Then import the save to Arc 2. The final battle was easy. Tosh killed 3 of the doppelgangers before any of them got a turn.

End stats:

Arc: lvl 60 with diety fist, phantom shield, phantom gauntlet, hero Crest.

Only the best gear for him as he was the tank. Did ok magic damage and infinite mp regen was great. His heal was good too. I was disappointed that he gained his spells at certain levels rather than being tied to meeting each guardian.

Chongara: lvl 32 with short sword, kings image, power gauntlet, sun hat.

He had mediocre stats and was better off hanging back to use summons. The only reason his level was decent was how the king accessory gave him xp for actions performed by summons. And summons could be recast when they died. Apparently the summons could level up themselves when he does not have that accessory equipped, which explains why my summons sucked. The genies did half decently but died quick as enemies became more powerful. Kelack was the most useful summon for its healing.

Iga: lvl 48 with power wrist, warrior charm, elder charm, senior bandana.

Lack of hyper boots caused him to lag behind but I am sure he would be 60 if I gave them to him. He was a solid warrior. I mostly used his mp for his straight line ranged move. The area tornado attack was good when the angles were off for any other attack.

Gogen: lvl 44 with phantom ring, armor stone, hawk statue, great cane.

He got a lot of kills with his powerful area nukes so had no trouble keeping up with xp. No mp drain ability like in Arc 1 though, so he would be my choice for the 0 mp cost romancing stone.

Poco: lvl 18 with music book, hawk statue, magic ring, fire charm.

He had more spells here than in Arc 2, and still used dumb cymbals. It didn't help that his spells could not be targeted at first, so he had to be right next to allies to affect them (also applied to Kukuru). Healing, attack buff, speed buff and nukes. Versatile but seriously struggled to gain xp so was mostly kept as a heal and buff bot. Too bad most xp was gained from kills.

Tosh: lvl 60 with power wrist, hyper boots, fiend statue, violet necklace.

When I first got him he died from nukes from enemy mages and had him wear the tragedy glasses to help. He was not as tanky as Arc and would get a defense accessory if I had more. Despite Arc having the best offense accessory Tosh still did the most damage. His specials were useful; paralysis for crowd control, the 2 range slash (he needed that to survive Choko) and the powerful attack that was good for avoiding counters.

Kukuru: lvl 24 with magic ring, raila hairpin, book of cravis, tragedy glasses.

She died even more than Poco but her high agility and movement range helped her get some xp. I think her and Tosh were tied for the best movement range. She was the cleric with healing, status recovery, resurrection, and a light element nuke.

Fun game with writing and characters just as good as the sequel. It had a lot less content though and was really just a prologue for Arc 2. I wish Arc 2 had the better features found here. It is a little tough to rate it as a stand alone game but I'm giving it the same as Arc 2.

7.8/10